The Diplomat
The centenary Jewish community of Barcelona (CIB.CAT) and the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) have applauded the decision of the mayor of Barcelona, the socialist Jaume Collboni, to resume its twinning with Tel-Aviv, leaving without effect the rupture of relations, “decided unilaterally and during the election period” by the previous mayor, Ada Colau.
Collboni signed last Friday the decree that leaves without effect the “temporary suspension” of relations between the Catalan capital and relations with the State of Israel and all its institutions, including the twinning with the city of Tel Aviv”. The Barcelona City Council twinned with Tel-Aviv and Gaza in 1998, a few years after the signing of the Oslo Accords (1994), which were to bring peace to the region.
The Barcelona City Council suspended, last February 8, institutional relations with the State of Israel and all official institutions of the country, including the twinning with the city of Tel Aviv, after Ada Colau met with the organizations behind the citizens’ initiative Barcelona con el Apartheid no, Barcelona con los derechos humanos sí (Barcelona with Apartheid no, Barcelona with human rights yes), in support of the Palestinian people.
In a subsequent press release, the FCJE rejected the decision of the Barcelona City Council Government Commission, adopted “with the sole support of 4,000 signatures, by decree and without debate”, considering that “it does not represent in form or substance what Barcelona and its citizens are” and that “it has nothing to do with politics, human rights or peace”. “This has a name and it is called ‘Sophisticated Anti-Semitism’,” he added.
Barely two weeks later, the City Council plenary rejected by a large majority Ada Colau’s decision and requested that, “urgently and immediately, the municipal government reestablish relations with the State of Israel and the twinning of Barcelona with the cities of Tel-Aviv and Gaza.” The text was approved with the votes in favor of Junts per Catalunya, PSC, Ciudadanos, PP, Valents and a non-attached councilor, and with the abstention of ERC and the vote against BComú, Colau’s formation.
For this reason, CIB.CAT and FCJE demanded this past Monday that the Barcelona City Council, chaired since last June by Jaume Collboni after the municipal elections of May 28, undo “the steps in the wrong direction” and return to “the path that has always defined Barcelona: a society of progress and vanguard, dialogue and tolerance, which does not tolerate or promote any form of anti-Semitism or discrimination against minorities”.
“The twinning between Tel Aviv, Gaza and Barcelona is a tool for dialogue and a door to start talking, and not to destroy”, and, therefore, “the CIB, as a centenary Jewish community of Barcelona, regrets that the former mayor never approached this institution, although since the breaking of the twinning three letters were sent to her, which she did not answer”, concluded the press release.
