The Israel authorities have denied the entrance to the country to Jaume Collboni, mayor of Barcelona. The mayor had to land this Friday in Tel Aviv on an institutional trip that led him to meet mainly with Palestinian mayors in the West Bank. However, the Israeli Interior Ministry has communicated visa rejection at the last moment.
The Collboni agenda focused mainly on Palestine, visiting municipalities in the West Bank such as Ramala and Belén, invited by the mayors of both municipalities. It also passed through Jordan to learn about cooperation projects in the area.
However, a few hours after leaving Barcelona, the mayor has received the news that they rejected the visa. The highlight of the case is that they have only denied it to him and not to the rest of the delegation, which included municipal technicians and a group of journalists.
“Although the application of the mayor and the rest of the delegation had been initially approved, the Israeli government has denied at the last minute and without any justification for the mayor,” said the City Council in a statement.
The journey of the Barcelona mayor to the Middle East contemplated an agenda especially Palestine, with the meetings with the mayors of Bethlehem and Ramala – in this city it had to inaugurate Barcelona Street – and also with the Prime Minister of Palestine, Mohammed Mustafa. In Jerusalem I was going to meet the Bh tselem and Peace Now entities. In addition, I had in the Visit the Tombs of the leaders Yithzak Rabin and Yaser Arafat.
The Municipal Government of Barcelona has starred in the last months of a distancing from Israeli institutions following the massacre of Gaza. In May, he approved to break relations with Israel until human rights are respected in the territory.
The relationship of the Barcelona town hall with Israel is involved in controversy since before the attacks of October 7, 2023 and the subsequent Israeli military offensive in Gaza that has left more than 60,000 dead. The previous mayor, Ada Colau, suspended the twinning with Tel-Aviv in February of that year. Upon arriving at the Mayor's Office, Collboni restored the ties. But later, at the beginning of the Gaza, the town hall froze them again.
Finally, last May the Plenary approved with the votes of PSC, Comuns and ERC break the institutional relations with Israel. The motion also included that the FIRA of Barcelona cannot host pavilions of that country, that the port does not allow to roast ships with weapons destined for the Israeli government, or that in public hiring, companies that benefit from settlements in Palestine are excluded.
The latter has recently affected the public contest of the Barcelona Metro to acquire 39 trains for 320 million euros. The French Alstom, indicated by the UN for her businesses in the West Bank settlements – a expterm that the company denies – has challenged the tender.