Barcelona mayor renews twinning with Tel Aviv just months after links severed

The mayor of Barcelona has moved to reinstate its twinning with the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, less than seven months after the relationship was severed. 

Mayor Jaume Collboni announced the restoration of ties earlier this week, according to reports, with pro-Israel groups celebrating the reversal.

Former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau cut the city's sister relationship with Tel Aviv in February 2023, saying the decision was in part due to Israel's increasing persecution of Palestinians since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government came to power in December 2022.

Trade unions and community groups had campaigned for breaking ties with the Israeli city. An umbrella organisation called 'Enough Complicity' handed in a petition asking for relations with Tel Aviv to be cut.

Colau was unseated as mayor in June. Collboni had been her deputy at the time of the decision to sever the twinning that had lasted 25 years.

Collboni had said during his run to replace Colau as mayor that he would move to reverse the decision.

A number of European cities have this year taken action meant to protest Israel's ongoing occupation of the West Bank and brutality against Palestinians.

Barcelona is the biggest city in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia, which has a strong history of Palestine solidarity.

The Catalan parliament was the first in Europe to condemn Israel for its "crime of apartheid" against the Palestinian people, doing so in June 2022.