(JTA) — Courts in Spain’s third-largest city voided the resolutions of two municipalities that had declared their adherence to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
The 2nd Administrative Appeals Court of Valencia last week nullified the 2016 resolution by Vinalesa, a nearby town of about 4,000 residents, following a lawsuit by the pro-Israel group ACOM. The resolution stated that Vinalesa was a zone “free of Israeli apartheid” and a partner of the local BDS movement.
The judge ruled that the resolution was “a form of incitement to hatred or discrimination according to ethnicity or nationality” and thus contradicts the Spanish Constitution.
The Vinalesa ruling follows a recent one by the 3rd Administrative Court of Valencia, which voided a 2018 resolution by the municipality of that large port city declaringit a part of the BDS movement. The Valencia ruling also cited discrimination.
ACOM lawsuits have resulted in more than 60 nullifications of BDS resolutions by Spanish municipalities either by injunction or by forcing the municipalities to scrap the resolutions in question.
The German parliament last year passed a resolution declaring BDS a form of anti-Semitism. The movement’s advocates say it is a response to Israel’s alleged violations of international law.
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