Barcelona cuts twin-city ties with Tel Aviv over Gaza war

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Barcelona’s city council voted to cut institutional ties with the Israeli government and suspend its friendship agreement with the city of Tel Aviv over Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.

“The suffering and death in Gaza over the past year and a half, and recent attacks by the Israeli government, make any relationship unviable,” said Mayor Jaume Collboni during Friday’s council session.

The motion demands the end of all official relations with the Israeli government “until respect for international law and the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people is restored”.

It will also suspend a 1998 friendship agreement with Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and it urged the trade fair organiser Fira de Barcelona not to host Israeli government pavilions or companies involved in the arms trade or profiting from the conflict in Gaza.

It is not the first time Barcelona has moved to suspend ties with Israel. In 2023, then-mayor Ada Colau took similar steps, which were later reversed when Mr Collboni won local elections.

The move by Spain's second-largest city, a top tourist destination and home to one of the world's best-known football clubs, is merely symbolic.

But it adds to a growing list of critics of Israel's war in Gaza.

Last year, Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognised a Palestinian state in a co-ordinated decision that angered Israel.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is one of the most outspoken critics in the European Union of Israel's military operations in Gaza.

While most European countries continue to affirm Israel’s right to self-defence, there is horror at the scale of devastation in Gaza. It is the deadliest conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in decades.

The Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, killed some 1,200 people, with about 240 taken hostage. Israel's military response has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, health authorities in Gaza have said.