City of Lérida, Spain refuses to boycott Israel

This afternoon, the City Council of Lérida — one of the oldest cities in Spain, and the second largest Catalonian city after Barcelona — rejected a discriminatory boycott motion targeting Israelis and foreign companies that engage in trade with Israel.

The Lawfare Project provided court decisions and legal reasoning, which were discussed during the Council’s debate, demonstrating that the boycott motion was unconstitutional and in breach of anti-discrimination laws. As confirmed by Angeles Ribes, a City Councilor from the Citizens party, “Boycotts by public offices are simply illegal.”

Lérida has recently engaged in recovering the remains of the Old Jewish Quarter, which dates from the 11th century. Also, since 2016, Lérida has been the seat of an exhibition titled “Fugitives Saved”, a memorial to the Jews who between 1929 and 1944 were saved from the Holocaust, and to the locals who helped them.