Barcelona City Council voted Friday to sever institutional ties with the Israeli government and suspend its friendship agreement with Tel Aviv, citing violations of international law and the need to uphold the basic rights of the Palestinian people.
The motion, which includes nearly 20 provisions, was backed by the ruling Socialist party along with far-left and leftist pro-independence groups.
It calls for an end to all official relations with Israel “until respect for international law” and the “basic rights of the Palestinian people” are restored.
Barcelona will also suspend a 1998 friendship agreement with Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
“The suffering and death in Gaza over the past year and a half, and recent attacks by the Israeli government, make any relationship unviable,” Barcelona's Mayor Jaume Collboni said during the council session, according to AFP.
Among other symbolic measures, the City Council urged the trade fair organizer Fira de Barcelona not to host Israeli government pavilions or companies involved in the arms trade or profiting from the conflict in Gaza.
A similar recommendation was made to the Port of Barcelona.
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 Collboni won local elections.
While the move has little practical impact, the decision by Spain's second-largest city -- a top tourist destination and home to one of the world's best-known football clubs -- adds to a growing list of critics of Israel's devastating war in Gaza.
Barcelona's move comes a year after Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognized a Palestinian state in a coordinated decision slammed by Israel.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is one of the most outspoken critics in the European Union of Israel's military operations in Gaza.
