Ada Colau maintains her decision to suspend relations with Israel and the twinning agreement between Barcelona and the city of Tel Aviv despite the strong criticism received and the fact that all the municipal opposition groups and their government partners, the PSC, reject the determination adopted by the mayoress through the decree. Today, the mayoress has tried to justify herself by stating that her decision does not imply suspending relations with "the people of Israel."
Colau has celebrated that the PSC wants to bring a proposal to the plenary session in February to reestablish relations. "The democratic debate is always welcome," he said despite the fact that the argument of the little more than 4,000 signatures collected by the pro-Palestinian entities was enough to justify his position and break relations with Tel Aviv without going through the approval of the plenary session.
"I have full powers to do, and I have done so, in accordance with the United Nations resolution and International Law, from the mayor's office, the temporary suspension of all institutional relations with the Government of Israel," he stated. In fact, the agreement signed in 1998 by the then mayor, the socialist Joan Clos, and his counterparts from Tel Aviv and Gaza did not need the approval of the municipal plenary session either.
Ada Colau has insisted that she does not suspend the relationship with the Israeli people and that the City Council will continue to work with "the Israeli and Palestinian entities that work for human rights and peace".
The rest of the municipal groups are leaving the commoners alone on this issue. The PP, through its candidate for mayor of Barcelona, Daniel Sirera, has also announced that it will present a proposal to the Presidency commission "to redirect the erroneous and unilateral decision" of Mayor Ada Colau to temporarily suspend relations with Tel Aviv .
ERC has added to the criticism of Colau's unilateral decision. Its municipal spokesman, Jordi Coronas, has tweeted that "between the politics of gestures and diplomacy I always choose diplomacy and today Barcelona renounces diplomacy".
"City decisions cannot be made by the mayoress for no reason", added Coronas, who nevertheless recalled that the agreement with Tel Aviv and Gaza has hardly been used during the nearly 25 years it has been in force.
