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Two more victories were scored against BDS in Spain, with courts ruling that boycott resolutions are discriminatory and illegal.
Spanish courts dealt further legal blows to the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement operating in the country.
In the first case, a court declared support for BDS illegal in the city of Catarroja, whose city council adopted a resolution endorsing BDS in March 2016.
ACOM, a Spanish non-profit that works to combat BDS and which has already succeeded in several court cases against the movement, took legal action against the vote.
It presented an administrative appeal in Valencia, which annulled the resolution.
Similarly, in March 2016, the City Council of Teo, a town of 18,500 in northwestern Spain, passed a decision banning the council from signing any form of agreement or contract with Israeli institutions, companies and organizations, or with bodies that are involved or collaborate in any way with Israel.
The city council was granted the BDS-approval seal that marked the city as a “Space Free of Israeli Apartheid,” under the conditions that the seal be displayed on the city’s website and in its publications, and that the city commit to promote the boycott among its residents and local businesses.
Earlier this month, Court Number 12 of Santiago de Compostela annulled the boycott. In its ruling, the court said that the city council lacked the ability to pass any resolution that interferes with the conduct of foreign affairs by the Spanish government.
Furthermore, the Court deemed every section of the decision as discriminatory and without any substance in the field of international law.
BDS Becoming Isolated and Illegal in Spain
ACOM stated that the rulings consisted of “another hard blow to those who promote anti-Semitic hatred and discrimination.”
ACOM underscored that “the defenders of a boycott against a nation like Israel, who is a friend and a guarantor of the rule of law, are more and more isolated and outside the law.”
Over the past two years, pro-Israel activists have obtained tens of rulings and injunctions against the BDS movement in Spain.
Thanks to ACOM’s legal action, 13 pro-boycott resolutions have been annulled by the courts, including two rulings by High Courts of Justice, while six city councils have revoked similar pro-BDS resolutions after ACOM took legal action.
The BDS movement promotes financial, academic, and cultural boycotts of Israel, against the so-called “Israeli occupation.” Critics say its activities are a modern form of anti-Semitism and that its true objective is to destroy the State of Israel.
By: Max Gelber, United with Israel
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