Legal blow of the Higher Court of Justice of Andalusia (SPAIN) against BDS

The Higher Court of Justice rejects the appeal of the City Council of Cádiz against the sentence that annulled their boycott against Israel.

On 12 August 2016 the City Council of Cadiz approved the adherence of their town to the discriminatory network “Town free of Israeli Apartheid” against the Jewish state. As part of the extreme left discriminatory agenda, in this case led by the mayor Jose Maria “Kichi” González (“Podemos”, hard left), the town suffered in September 2017 an unequivocal anti-Semite political manifestation: the unilateral cancellation of the Cycle of Israeli Films, which was planned for September 2016.

ACOM denounced in court this discriminatory and arbitrary decision, which was annulled in 2019 by the Court number 1 of Cadiz. In said sentence the Court specifically pointed out that “freedom of speech and academic freedom have been infringed upon and the right to not be discriminated for one’s opinions”, in violation of the Spanish Constitution.

The original motion of adherence to BDS-ELAI (“Boycott, divestment, and sanctions” – “Space free of Israeli Apartheid”), which the City Council itself approved months earlier and that established the formal and institutionalised path for the discriminatory practice, had already been annulled by the Courts thanks to the legal process initiated by the association «Comite Legal contra la discriminacion» (“Legal Committee Against Discrimination”).

Now, the highest legal instance in Andalusia, in a strict legal sentence (sentence number 2274/2020, appeal number 1790/2019) rejects the appeal of the City Council of Cadiz against the sentence that declared illegal the boycott against Israel. Not only does it confirm that the sentence in first instance abides by law, but also it insists literally that it is “a position that far from abiding by the Law is in open contradiction with the Constitution”, and “a Public Administration cannot manifest itself in a matter of the transcendence such as the one dealt with in the appealed agreement assuming a position and identifying with it the Corporation itself the agreement here cancelled is outside the municipal competences”. The Higher Court of Justice of Andalusia also condemns the City Council of Cadiz to pay the costs of this second instance, costs that will have to be paid by the citizens of Cádiz.

This is the eighth sentence of a Spanish Higher Court against the anti-Semitic movement BDS-ELAI. Thanks to the legal initiative of ACOM, the main denouncer of the discourse of hatred and/or discrimination for ethnic and national reasons that this movement promotes, we have achieved to date 75 sentences condemning BDS-ELAI and voluntary retractions. All of them have insisted on the unconstitutional nature and illegality of excluding measures that violate our framework of coexistence.