Spanish court strikes down another city’s anti-Israel resolution

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 UN resolutions against Israel, the pro-Israel group ACOM wrote in a statement published on 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.

Some 50 Spanish municipalities have passed resolutions in recent years endorsing BDS — more than in any other European country.

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