While the anti-Israel boycott movement has been largely unsuccessful, there are a few unfortunate examples of success.
A city council in the Spanish island of Ibiza has reportedly endorsed the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).
The Santa Eulalia City Council, the most populated municipality on the island, has voted to support BDS in its plenary session, according to the lobby group ACOM, which works to combat BDS in Spain.
The council’s endorsement means that the city will “support the BDS campaign, the boycott against Israeli and pro-Israel institutions, companies and organizations, including Spanish nationals associated or sympathetic to the Jewish state,” ACOM said. This also means that the area of Santa Eulalia of the Island – popular with many tourists, including Israelis – will be designated a “space free of Israeli Apartheid.”
According to ACOP, the proposal to boycott Israel was initiated by the far-left municipal group Guanyem. “ACOM urges the city council of Santa Eulalia in Ibiza and its Mayor Vicente Mari Torres to reverse immediately the discriminatory boycott agreement that goes directly against the many Israeli and pro-Israel residents and visitors to Ibiza,” ACOM said in a statement.
“We also demand that the ruling Partido Popular of Prime Minister Rajoy instructs its different local authorities to actively oppose these declarations. The Spanish government should also act proactively through its state attorney against such unconstitutional agreements so that it is not just up to private organizations such as ACOM to fight against blatant anti-Semitism exercised by public authorities in Spain,” ACOM also said.
However, the City Council’s spokesperson Samuel Parra told the Jerusalem Post that the City Council did not actually vote to support a boycott against Israel, but to support an expression of solidarity with UN resolutions against Israel. Nevertheless, ACOM said it plans to “redress this blatant act of discrimination” by the council using legal means.
The BDS movement promotes financial, academic and cultural boycotts against Israel, ostensibly as a nonviolent struggle against the so-called “Israeli occupation.”
Critics say its activities are a modern form of anti-Semitism, and its true objective is to destroy the State of Israel.
By: JNS.org and United with Israel Staff