Barcelona ends “friendship agreement” with Tel Aviv over Gaza aggression

Barcelona City Council voted Friday to sever institutional ties with the “Israeli” government and suspend its friendship agreement with Tel Aviv, citing violations of international law and the need to uphold the basic rights of the Palestinian people.

The motion, which includes nearly 20 provisions, was backed by the ruling Socialist party in the city as well as various leftist and pro-independence parties.

It calls for ending institutional relations with “the current Israeli government” and suspending the friendship pact signed on Sept. 24, 1998, between the Catalan capital and Tel Aviv.

Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni said the "level of suffering and death witnessed in Gaza over the past year and a half, along with the repeated attacks carried out by the Israeli government in recent weeks... make any relationship between the two cities unsustainable."

Among other measures in the resolution — some of which fall outside the council’s direct authority — the City Council urged the board of the Barcelona Trade Fair not to host “Israeli” government pavilions or “arms companies or any other sector that profits from genocide, occupation, apartheid, and colonialism against the Palestinian people.”

A similar recommendation is also under consideration for the Port of Barcelona, which could involve denying entry to ships linked to weapons transfers to “Israel”.

This is not the first time Barcelona has cut ties with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

In February 2023, then-Mayor Ada Colau announced the suspension of relations with “Israel” and paused the city’s twinning agreements with Tel Aviv.

That decision was later reversed after Jaume Collboni won the municipal elections.

Spain’s Socialist-led government, under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, officially recognized the State of Palestine on May 28, 2024, along with Ireland and Norway.

In recent months, Sánchez has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Netanyahu’s government within the European Union.