Spanish judges void 2 municipal BDS motions, calling them racist

Over the past two years, pro-Israel activists have obtained dozens of rulings, legal opinions and injunctions against BDS in Spain.

By JTA
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against Operation Protective edge, in Malaga, Spain, August 8, 2014. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against Operation Protective edge, in Malaga, Spain, August 8, 2014.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Spanish judges scrapped motions favoring a boycott of Israel that were passed last year by two city councils.
The rulings last week by separate tribunals in two of Spain’s autonomous regions bring to 20 the number of municipalities that over the past three years have either reversed their motions of support for an Israel boycott or had them nullified by the judiciary.
In the northern region of Galicia, an administrative court in the capital of Santiago de Compostela reversed a motion passed March 31 by the city council of Teo, a town of 18,000, following a lawsuit filed by ACOM, the pro-Israel group said in a statement Tuesday.
The administrative court in the eastern region of Valencia scrapped a motion passed in March 2016 by the local council of Catarroja, a suburb of the city of Valencia, which is Spain’s third-largest metropolis.
As in previous rulings on petitions filed by ACOM or its affiliates — including rulings by two high courts — the administrative tribunals determined the motions in Teo and Catarroja were unconstitutional because they were discriminatory, and that they represented a breach of jurisdiction by municipalities unqualified to make foreign policy decisions.
Last month, the Superior Tribunal of Justice of Madrid affirmed a lower court ruling from January against a 2016 resolution 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 rejected the council’s argument that its boycott resolution was anchored in previous United Nations resolutions against Israel, ACOM wrote in a statement.
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.
In neighboring France, promoting the BDS movement is illegal under legislation from 2003 that lists efforts to bring about the singling out of nations and their peoples as a form of hate crime. Similar legislation is being prepared in Britain, the government said last year.