The motion approved by the Barcelona City Council condemning the Israeli occupation and colonization policies of the Palestinian territories has angered the Jewish community in the city, which it considers to be anti-Semitism. In addition, the Israeli embassy estimates that the aim is to demonize the country.
The Jewish community is considering giving a response to the municipal initiative, which occurs in a month in which two other situations have occurred that have caused a deep discomfort. The first, to know that in May will be in Barcelona Leila Khaled in Literal festival, in Fabra i Coats, one of whose main sponsors is precisely the Consistory. On August 29, 1969, she was one of two people who hijacked Flight 840 between Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, when she stopped at Rome. The aircraft was diverted to Damascus, and after lowering the 116 people aboard, the aircraft flew.
Born in 1944 and a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), on September 6, 1970, she attempted to hijack another flight between Amsterdam and Tel Aviv, but the Israeli security forces shot down her accomplice and arrested her. The apparatus was diverted to London, where it was stopped. After 28 days, she was released in an exchange of prisoners. The following year, the PFLP abandoned the tactic of the hijacking of airplanes. Khaled continues to militate in the organization.
A Palestinian activist who hijacked two planes will participate in a festival sponsored by the Consistory
In addition, the City Council has notified that it will not participate again in the Holocaust Teaching Seminar, which has been developed for five years and is intended for teachers.
The motion was approved a week ago, in the commission of Presidency, Drets of Ciutadania, Participació i Seguretat and Prevenció, and counted with the favorable votes of Barcelona in Comú, PSC, CUP and ERC. Ciutadans and Partido Popular protested against it, and the PDCat abstained, although its representative said in his turn that the resolution had an anti-Semitic bias.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy deplored, in conversation with La Vanguardia, the motion, saying it had nothing to do with defending or supporting the Palestinians, or seeking a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but These are initiatives that pursue “the demonization of Israel”. The spokeswoman added her discomfort because “a democratic institution has been dragged by a free anti-Israeli obsession” in a city that is the third world destination for Jewish tourists.
The Jewish community is irritated because it considers that it is an act of anti-Semitism, and that there are no similar pronouncements by what happens in Turkey or by the acts of the Islamic State. In reality it is not possible to speak of one community, but of four, that have different orientations. The main one is the Israeli Community of Barcelona, which is the largest and precisely in 2017 is one hundred years. Then there are ATID and Ben Shalom, more progressive, and the Center for Jewish Studies Chabad Lubavitch, Orthodox. Although they have differences between them, they agree to give a joint response to the initiatives of the City Council. Some 6,000 Jews reside in Barcelona.