The undersigned Palestinian human rights and civil society organisations welcome the principled and urgently needed resolution passed by the Barcelona City Council on 30 May 2025 to “break all institutional relations” with Israel and suspend the friendship and cooperation agreement with Tel Aviv until “respect for international law and international humanitarian law is restored and the basic rights of the Palestinian people are guaranteed.” 

The resolution, which clearly condemns Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and recognises its regime of settler colonialism and apartheid, commits the city of Barcelona to a series of concrete measures of accountability in line with international law. These include severing institutional ties with the Israeli government, calling on the Port of Barcelona to prevent ships involved in arms transfers with Israel from docking, and urging the Fira de Barcelona not to host pavilions representing the Israeli government, ensuring no municipal relations with companies identified by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as operating in illegal Israeli settlements.

This long-overdue decision comes as relentless Israeli military attacks from air, land, and sea over the past 20 months have killed more than 54,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 17,000 children, and destroyed or severely damaged 92% of all housing units. The true toll of the ongoing genocide likely exceeds 200,000, as tens of thousands more people have died from causes attributable to Israel’s policies of starvation and the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare, water, and sanitation systems.

By grounding its decision in international law, including the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1948 Genocide Convention, and recognising the right of return for Palestinian refugees, this resolution sends a powerful message: municipalities cannot remain silent or complicit while grave violations of human rights and international crimes are carried out with impunity.

We call on other municipalities and autonomous communities across the Spanish state to follow Barcelona’s example and adopt similar measures in defence of international law and human rights. For example, we urge the city of Alicante to immediately cut ties with the city of Herzliya, and Toledo to end ties with the Israeli city of Safed. We also call on the municipality of Murcia to ask for the expulsion of the Israeli company Libereu Entrepreneurship LTD from the European project they are involved in. Castilla y León should end its involvement in the European project with Israeli entities. The Community of Madrid should end its ties with Israel through the Digital Transformation Unit and ICEX, which is part of the Ministry of Economy, Commerce, and Companies, should end their partnership with the Hispanic-Israeli Chamber of Commerce.

The list goes on. But the message is clear: all public institutions in the Spanish state must put an end to their existing ties with Israel, in whatever form or shape they take.

The Barcelona City Council’s decision comes days after the Catalan Government announced the closure of its ACCIÓ office in Tel Aviv. Days earlier, the Spanish Congress approved a draft bill which, if passed, would automatically impose an arms embargo on countries being investigated by the International Court of Justice for crimes against humanity, as is the case with Israel.

Even though these are important decisions in the right direction, they are insufficient and arrive too late. They do not respond to the extreme situation faced by the Palestinian people, specifically in the Gaza Strip. Now institutions and civil society must ensure these measures are implemented and enforced. 

We reiterate that true justice requires the dismantling of Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid, and unlawful occupation, and the fulfilment of the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights to self-determination and return.

While we acknowledge the steps taken amongst institutions in the Spanish state, we emphasise that the time for action beyond symbolic gestures is NOW. The scale of loss in Gaza, Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign, Israel’s illegal annexation policies, and the escalating settler violence in the West Bank demand urgent, concrete, and uncompromising measures. This is the moment for serious, sustained action to confront and end these atrocities. States must uphold their legal and moral obligations, including by working towards the suspension and eventual withdrawal of Israel’s membership at the United Nations until it complies with international law and ends its regime of apartheid and occupation. The very least that governments and states must do is to take immediate measures to ensure that their offices and institutions are not complicit in the international crimes committed against the Palestinian people.

We further call on all institutions in the Spanish state to:

• Impose a comprehensive and mandatory two-way military embargo on Israel, including on all arms, security, surveillance equipment, jet fuel, training, and joint exercises, and stop all export, import, and transfer, including parts and components and other dual-use items, to and from Israel;
• End institutional, economic, and cultural ties with apartheid Israel;
• Impose full sanctions until Israel ends its violations of international law;
• Support international legal accountability through the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice;
• Suspend cooperation agreements with Israel. Continuation of business as usual renders states and actors complicit in the ongoing genocide and dispossession of the Palestinian people; 
• Take concrete steps toward the suspension and eventual termination of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, particularly in light of Israel's consistent breach of Article 2. 

All of these decisions could be made today. There are no legal obstacles; all that is lacking is political will.

Barcelona has taken a clear stand for justice and accountability. We urge others to act without delay. We specifically call on Third States to follow these steps and ensure they fulfil their obligations under the Genocide Convention and international law more broadly.

Ending the genocide, dismantling settler-colonial apartheid, and ending the unlawful occupation are essential to prevent the erasure of the Palestinian people. Stand for humanity, justice, and freedom for all.

Endorsing organisations - coalitions: 

• AlHaq
• Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association
• AlHaq Europe
• Bisan Center for Research and Development 
• Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) 
• Palestinian NonGovernmental Organizations Network (PNGO)
• Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
• Union of Agricultural Work Committees 
• Defence of Children International – Palestine (DCIP)
• Health Work Committees (HWC)
• The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD)