The regional parliament of the semi-autonomous government of Catalonia passed a resolution yesterday recognizing that Israel is committing apartheid against the Palestinian people, making it the first European parliament to do so.

The resolution blames Israel for applying a system that is “contrary to international law and is equivalent to the crime of apartheid as defined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

Catalonia’s left-wing En Comu Podem party said in a tweet celebrating the resolution: “Parliament, the first European institution to recognize that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people, as noted in Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.”

The tweet quoted legislator Susana Segovia Sánchez as saying: “This is a historic moment. Today we call by name the violation of human rights in Palestine.”

The resolution calls on the government of the semi-autonomous region and the central Spanish government to hold Israel accountable for apartheid as recommended by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the broadest coalition of Palestinian civil society, warmly welcomed the Parliament of Catalonia for its resolution recognizing and condemning Israel’s crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people.

“With this historical resolution, the Parliament of Catalonia becomes the first parliament in Europe to publicly acknowledge that “the system applied by Israel to the Occupied [Palestinian] Territories is contrary to international law and is equivalent to the crime of apartheid as defined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 7.2 (h),” the BDS movement said in a statement.

Inspired by this Catalan Parliament resolution, Palestinian BDS National Committee said it expects the government of Catalonia and the Spanish state’s government to ban trade with Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise and suspend direct and indirect military and security trade with Israel.

In February 2022 and April 2021, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch joined a number of Palestinian and Israeli rights groups in labelling Israel as an apartheid state.

In its report in February 2022, Amnesty called on the United Nations Security Council to “impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in the crime of apartheid, and a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel”.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)