Catalonia closes trade office in Tel Aviv

The Catalan government will immediately close its ACCIÓ trade office in Tel Aviv after reaching an agreement with the left-wing Comuns.

ACCIÓ is the government-funded trade agency, known in English as Catalonia Trade & Investment, and was opened 10 years ago in the second largest city in Israel.

The announcement will be made official on Wednesday morning in a meeting between the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, and the leader of the Comuns, Jéssica Albiach, just before the start of the plenary session in Parliament.

The closure of the office comes from a commitment from the Socialists and the Comuns as part of the deal to support Salvador Illa's bid for presidency last year. 

The Catalan president, Salvador Illa, defended the move and said that "no one can doubt the government's position with what is going on in Gaza." Illa addressed MPs in Parliament on Wednesday morning. He responded to a message by far-left CUP leader, Laia Estrada, who criticized that the cabinet "was late" in making such a decision.

Albiach appeared before the press on Wednesday morning ahead of the plenary session to speak about the pact.

Albiach said that Israel's genocide has already led to the murders of 53,000 people, 15,000 of whom children, and 120,000 more injured, while about 14,000 babies are on the brink of dying of starvation.

"The question is why not before, and what else was supposed to happen?" she asked. "If not now, when?"

The politician reiterated the need to close the office due to Israel's "indiscriminate" attacks to destroy Gaza, including its bombings of schools and hospitals, and the deprivation of water and food.

Albiach highlighted that Israel's "colonization and ethnic cleansing" and the apartheid state mean that Catalonia could not continue to "look the other way."

Opposition criticize move

Junts per Catalunya, the largest opposition party in Catalonia, believes that the government is a "prisoner" of the Comuns for the closure of the office.

Josep Rius, spokesperson for the party, says that closing the trade office “will not resolve the serious conflict between Israel and Palestine,” and warns instead that the decision “will only weaken Catalonia’s projection abroad and will harm the Catalan economy.”

Meanwhile, the leader of the pro-independence left-wing Esquerra Republicana party, Oriol Junqueras, said that the move is just "an overemphasis on appearance." In an interview with Catalan public radio station Catalunya Ràdio, Junqueras said that "there are more effective" measures, such as financially limiting the army and weapons.

He also rejected discussing "useless debates" that "are close to shameful" in reference to the discussion regarding Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest. Junqueras said that the United States and the Soviet Union did not break diplomatic relations during the Cold War. And that the US has always kept an embassy in the Havana, Cuba, while Cuba has always had an embassy in the US. "It is always good to keep an open dialogue," he added.

On the other hand, the Catalan People's Party (PP) said that the government should "shut down all ACCIÓ offices" as these are only "fake embassies promoting pro-independence propaganda," spokesperson Juan Fernández wrote on X.

And the Catalan far-right, Aliança Catalana, said that the cabinet is completely "irresponsible" for closing down the office in the Middle Eastern country.

The spokesperson Jordi Coma said that the cabinet has "broken all diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel," and criticized that the Socialists just felt for the "threats" from Comuns.

Activists celebrate news

Activists from the Enough Complicity with Israel coalition and the Palestinian Community of Catalonia have celebrated the closure of the office.

In statements to the media, Alys Samson Estapé, a member of the coalition, and Salah Jamal, from the Palestinian community, both positively assessed the closure but said that it comes "late".

"They should never have opened it", Samson said, denouncing that authorities waited until the situation in Palestine was "extreme" before they took action.

Jamal said the announcement is "very little" compared to "the scale of the massacre" in Gaza and the West Bank.

Military embargo

In the Spanish Congress on Tuesday, lawmakers approved the consideration of a bill promoted by Sumar, Podemos, and pro-independence Esquerra Republicana, to apply embargoes on arms and defense deals to countries being investigated for genocide or war crimes.

The proposal, which was passed with 176 votes in favor and 171 votes against from PP and Vox deputies, seeks to close loopholes in the current arms trade regulation.

The bill proposes that authorities will be able to inspect all shipments destined for or originating from a state affected by an embargo and passing through Spanish ports and airports.

This would affect firearms, components, ammunition, police equipment, "dual-use" technologies. and military fuels.