2023-09-01 17:23:16
The City Council of Barcelona reestablishes relations with the city of Tel Aviv (Israel). The monochromatic government of Jaume Collboni (PSC) has officially rectified the decision taken by There is Colau as mayoress at the end of the last mandate, when the Commons decided to suspend the twinning between the two cities in protest of the occupation of Palestine. This Friday afternoon, the Commissioner for International Relations and Promotion of the City, Pau Solanilla, announced the coup to the media.
A very controversial breakup
The break came in February: the council released a personal letter from Ada Colau to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to warn him that the Catalan capital was provisionally canceling all ties with the Mediterranean country. It thus left without effect a municipal twinning that dates back to 1998 and that also includes Gaza (Palestine), as part of a triangular cooperation pact. The measure was a response to the ‘Barcelona with apartheid, no’ campaign, which had the support of 4,135 signatures and promoted by 112 pro-Palestinian entities, which called on the institutions to break diplomatic ties with Israel. However, as EL PERIÓDICO explained, for practical purposes the absence of Tel Aviv in the agreement harms Barcelona’s cooperation with Palestine because it makes it difficult to cross Israeli customs and filters.
Related news
The PSC, then a partner in the minority government in Barcelona, already expressed its displeasure at Colau’s “unilateral decision”, which it called a “very serious mistake”. That same month, the Commons were left alone twice defending the decision: so much in commission of Presidency com in the municipal meeting were approved by a large majority (Junts, PP, Valents, Cs and PSC) disapproval of the breakup.
During the election campaign Collboni made his position clear with a visit to a synagogue of the city and barely released the mandate was Tel Aviv who challenged him as the new mayor to resume relations. The mayor of Israel’s second most populous city, Ron Huldaiasked his counterpart for help in a letter in which he congratulated him on his appointment: “Under his leadership, I hope to restore the Memorandum of Understanding between Barcelona and Tel Aviv-Yafoand deepen and tighten our ties in all spheres».
#Barcelona #reestablishes #relations #Tel #Aviv