Boycott resolution nullified by Spanish Court in Galicia

On March 2016, the City Council of Teo (a town of 18.510 inhabitants, north-west of Spain) passed a decision committing the Council to sign neither any political, commercial, agricultural, educational, cultural, sporting or security agreement or contract with Israeli institutions, companies and organizations, nor with bodies, companies and organizations that are involved, collaborate or in any way with Israel.

As a matter of form, the City Council was granted the BDS-approved seal that distinguished the city as a “Free Space of Israeli Apartheid”, under the condition of it being displayed in the city’s website and in its publications, and the commitment to disseminate the boycott campaign among residents and local businesses. The motion was passed by BNG and Teo Anova, both galician nationalist parties.

Finally, the City Council agreed to engage and promote cooperation with the BDS movement in order to ensure the proper implementation of the boycott decision.

On July 6, 2017, the Court number 12 of Santiago de Compostela published its decision, annulling the boycott. Not only the City Council lacked powers to pass any resolution that interferes with the conduction of foreign affairs by the Government, the Court deemed every working section of the decision as discriminatory and without any substance in the field of International Law, explicitly stating that resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations did not provide any legal foundation to boycott Israeli institutions, companies or organizations.

Thanks to ACOM’s legal initiatives, 12 courts have annulled such motions (among these judgments, 2 of a High Court of Justice), 6 other institutions have voluntarily revoked the agreements, and 1 more have been suspended judicially until definitive ruling.