Barcelona suspends relations with Israeli occupation

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Barcelona mayor ​​Ada Colau announced Wednesday that the Catalan city has decreed the suspension of relations with the Israeli occupation and all of "Tel Aviv's" institutions.

The mayor sent a letter to Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him of the temporary suspension of all relations between the Catalan capital and "Tel Aviv", including the twinning agreement signed with "Israel" 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 the State of Israel, which we trust will be temporary," Colau stressed.

"A month after the mayor of Barcelona announced the suspension of the twinning agreement with the municipality of Tel Aviv, which is an agreement that is more than 20 years old, the municipality of Barcelona announced about an hour ago a temporary freeze of relations between this city and Israel," Israeli KAN public broadcaster's foreign affairs correspondent said earlier in the evening.

"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," Israeli media said.

The "diplomatic challenge seeks to organize a protest against the regime of oppression that Palestine suffers from," and to direct harsh criticism to the government headed by Netanyahu, stating that "this apartheid situation is intolerable."

The Barcelona Mayor has just announced that the city has suspended its relations with #Israel including the twinning between #Barcelona and #TelAviv.

In face of Apartheid, we want to stand with the Rights and Values.

Main Unions, Peace and HR associations support it pic.twitter.com/5a9nRszmIJ

— Luca Gervasoni i Vila (@gervasonivila) February 8, 2023

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.