After Barcelona boycott: Madrid offers to be Tel Aviv’s twin city

Madrid offered to replace Barcelona as Tel Aviv’s Spanish twin city, after Barcelona announced it would be cutting ties with Israel, JTA reports.

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau stated on Wednesday that she is suspending all of the city’s ties with Israel, citing what she called “the repeated violations of human rights of the Palestinian population and non-compliance with United Nations resolutions.”

She added that Barcelona will maintain relations with “Israeli and Palestinian entities that continue to work for peace and against apartheid.”

A day later, on Thursday, Madrid’s mayor, José Luís Martínez-Almeida, offered to step up as a replacement.

In a letter to Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and during a press conference, Martínez-Almeida said the twinning is a “great opportunity to show Madrid’s commitment to strengthening relations with a democratic and a law-abiding state like Israel.”

Martínez-Almeida criticized the Barcelona city council’s decision to sever ties with Tel Aviv after 25 years as twin cities. Barcelona paired with the Gaza Strip at the same time in 1998.

“We will not promote, encourage or allow behavior such as this, which has a clear antisemitic overtone and has no place,” he said, according to JTA.

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Controversies and criticism
Alleged corruption scandals
Ada Colau was indicted by the Spanish judiciary in 2022 for alleged irregularities in the handing of subsidies to entities linked to her party Barcelona en Comú, including to the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages which she founded in 2009.[22][23][24] Colau faced criticism from public opinion sectors because she refused to resign from her post as mayor, despite the ethical code of conduct of the party stating that party members pledge to resign from their posts should they be indicted for corruption, embezzlement or influence peddling, among other crimes.[25][24][26] A judge later dismissed a case involving some of the charges pressed against her.[27]

In November 2022, the Provincial Court of Barcelona reopened the case against her. The writ stated that there are indications of malfeasance in the repeated handing out of subsidies to organisations linked to Colau.[28][29][30]

Accusations of nepotism
In 2022, the Ethics and Conduct Committee of the Council of Barcelona raised concerns about nepotism in the municipal institutions. The Committee produced a report in which it heavily criticised the decision to hire Alicia Ramos, partner of the Housing councillor, as an advisor to the staff of Ada Colau on grounds of a potential conflict of interest. The report also stated that Alicia Ramos was not hired following a competitive process, and that the authorities failed to provide any reasons as to why Ramos was suitable for the role.[31][32]

Colau has also been criticised for several other controversial hirings, such as that of her husband Adrià Alemany.[33][34][31]

Contrary to expectations, especially for a big capital city, Madrid is quite right-wing. It’s a stronghold of the Partido Popular (PP), which in US terms would be the establishment Republicans.

The Spanish government bureaucracy is also generally right wing, as goes its headquarters, Madrid.

Barcelona is of course socialist.

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