Barcelona cuts its institutional ties with Israel and suspends the friendship agreement with Tel Aviv.

The Barcelona City Council voted on Friday, May 30, in favor of a resolution to cut institutional ties with the Israeli government and suspend the friendship agreement with the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, "until international law is respected and the basic rights of the Palestinian people are guaranteed."

The decision, which included about 20 points, was supported by the ruling Socialist party in the city, along with left-wing parties and pro-Catalan independence forces.

The resolution included cutting ties with the "current Israeli government" and suspending the friendship agreement signed between Barcelona and Tel Aviv on September 24, 1998.

Barcelona Mayor, Jaume Collboni, commented: "The level of suffering and death witnessed in Gaza over the past year and a half, in addition to the recent repeated attacks by the Israeli government... make any relationship between the two cities unsustainable," as reported by the French Press Agency.

The resolution called on the Barcelona Exhibition Board not to host pavilions representing the Israeli government or "arms companies or any other sector benefiting from genocide, occupation, racial segregation, and colonization against the Palestinian people." It also urged a similar recommendation to the Port of Barcelona to reject receiving ships involved in transporting weapons to Israel.

This is not the first time Barcelona has taken such a decision. The former mayor, Ada Colau, had previously suspended relations with Israel and the twinning agreement with Tel Aviv in February 2023, before the decision was later revoked when Collboni took office.

This decision comes amid escalating European criticism of Israel's policies, especially after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, recognized the state of Palestine on May 28, 2024. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been among the prominent European critics of Benjamin Netanyahu's government in recent times.