Barcelona Cuts Relations with Apartheid “Israel”

By Staff, Agencies 

Barcelona mayor Ada Colau announced that the Catalan city has decreed the suspension of relations with the apartheid “Israel” and all of Tel Aviv's institutions.

In her letter to the “Israel” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Colau informed him of the suspension of all relations between the Catalan capital and Tel Aviv, including the twinning agreement signed 25 years ago.

The decision, according to media reports, has been adopted “until the ‘Israeli’ authorities put an end to the systematic violation of human rights against the Palestinian population.”

According to Colau, the measure has been adopted unilaterally through a mayoral decree. 

“You have to make a forceful gesture to invite people to work for peace. In this sense, we make this suspension of relations with 'Israel,' which we trust will be temporary,” Colau stressed.

“Israeli” media said that “The mayor has been active against ‘Israel’ for years, and this step comes after a petition that garnered the signatures of 4,000 residents and 100 organizations supporting Palestinians called for the boycott of ‘Israel’.”

The mayor indicated that the decision is “complicated and difficult,” but “it enjoys the support of more than 100 parties and thousands of residents.”

Colau, the leader of En Comú Podem, said the situation of the Palestinians was an “apartheid crime,” denouncing “decades of systematic violations of human rights, the occupation and illegal colonization of Palestinian territories against all the opinions of the United Nations.”

As mayor “I cannot remain impassive in the face of the systematic violation of the basic rights of the Palestinian population,” the letter read.