Barcelona ends 'friendship agreement' with Tel Aviv over Gaza war

Barcelona's city council voted Friday to cut institutional ties with the Israeli government and suspend its friendship agreement with the city of Tel Aviv, citing violations of international law and the rights of Palestinians.

The motion, supported by the governing Socialist party along with far-left and leftist pro-independence groups, calls for an end to all official relations with Israel "until respect for international law" and the "basic rights of the Palestinian people" are restored.

Barcelona will also suspend a 1998 friendship agreement with Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and it urged the trade fair organiser Fira de Barcelona not to host Israeli government pavilions or companies involved in the arms trade or profiting from the conflict in Gaza.

A similar recommendation was made to the Port of Barcelona.

"The suffering and death in Gaza over the past year and a half, and recent attacks by the Israeli government, make any relationship unviable," Barcelona's Mayor Jaume Collboni said during the council session.

It is not the first time Barcelona has moved to suspend ties with Israel. In 2023, then-mayor Ada Colau took similar steps, which were later reversed when Collboni won local elections.

While the move has little practical impact, the decision by Spain's second-largest city -- a top tourist destination and home to one of the world's best-known football clubs -- adds to a growing list of critics of Israel's devastating war in Gaza.

Barcelona's move comes a year after Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognised a Palestinian state in a coordinated decision slammed by Israel.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is one of the most outspoken critics in the European Union of Israel's military operations in Gaza.