Spanish Court Strikes Another City’s Anti-Israel Boycott Resolution

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — For the second time in less than a year, a high court in Spain scrapped the adoption of a boycott against Israel by a municipality.
The Superior Tribunal of Justice of Madrid in its decision last week affirmed a lower court ruling in January against the resolution last year endorsing the boycott by the city council of the Rivas Vaciamadrid suburb. The high court said the council’s adherence to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel was “discriminatory.”
The court also rejected explicitly the council’s argument that its boycott resolution was anchored in U.N. resolutions against Israel, the pro-Israel group ACOM wrote in a statement published Tuesday about the appeal. ACOM initiated the original case against the municipality.
In October, a Spanish high court in the Asturias region declared a BDS resolution illegal and discriminatory in a suit also filed by ACOM. The group had sued the Langreo City Council over its support for BDS.
Over the past two years, pro-Israel activists have obtained dozens of rulings, legal opinions and injunctions against BDS in Spain.
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
