The division generated by the rupture of the twinning with Tel Aviv has been staged again this morning at Barcelona City Hall. BComú has been left alone in the defense of this citizen proposal approved via mayoral decree but which, paradoxically, has been rejected this morning by a large majority. All the parties, except ERC, which has abstained, have voted against it. The position of the PSC, which this morning also defends a proposal to censure Ada Colau’s unilateral decision, has been one of the most forceful.
“Now it is up to us to work to lift the suspension of the mayoress as soon as possible,” said Laia Bonet, as spokesperson for the party and also as councilor for International Relations. Bonet reiterated that “approving the rupture via mayoral decree is extremely serious” and added that “we have to disapprove of this unilateral decision that seeks to avoid the absolute minority in which the position of the mayoress is found in this matter”.
Bonet has reiterated that “as Councilor for International Relations of the City Council, we will continue working to remake the image of Barcelona through the city’s diplomacy”.
Junts, PSC, Ciutadans, Valents and the non-attached councilor have forcefully opposed the citizen proposal defended by two spokespersons of the hundred entities that support the initiative. The issue will also reach the plenary because the opposition, except for ERC, have requested this week that an extraordinary plenary session be convened to reestablish relations with the State of Israel and twinning with its capital.
The ERC spokesman in the presidency commission, Jordi Coronas, has recognized that “we agree with the diagnosis of the entities promoting the initiative; the apartheid situation of the Palestinian people is unacceptable and intolerable but we do not agree on the solution provided to break the twinning, which has a media impact, but which leaves us without an instrument of diplomacy that we have between cities”.
Coronas has reiterated that “the twinnings are between cities and not between governments, fortunately” and has also referred to the rupture of the twinning of Barcelona with St. Petersburg: “That it was an initiative of the PP and that it was signed as a mayoral decree the same day than the one in Tel Aviv, to disguise a unilateral decision”.
Jordi Martí (Junts) spoke on behalf of the Jewish communities of Barcelona “who have not been asked or challenged about their position” and regretted that the committee’s debate “is a flawed debate because the mayoress has already made the decision unilaterally. According to Martí, “we must not only maintain, but also strengthen bridges and dialogues with Tel Aviv and with the rest of the cities with which we are twinned… We see anti-Semitism in this decision,” he said, which has raised complaints in the hall.