The Spanish flag. Photo: Wikipedia.

JNS.org – In a blow to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Spain, a Spanish court has invalidated a municipal boycott of Israel on the grounds that the move is discriminatory, anti-Semitic, and incites hate crimes.

The court ruled against a declaration passed in January by the City Council of Langreo — a town in northern Spain dominated by communist and far-left political parties — which resolved to boycott Israel as well as any person or company supporting the Jewish state in an effort to make the city “free of Israeli apartheid.”

“Over the last year and a half there was a tectonic movement in Spain as the far left gained access to public institutions and local government,” said Angel Mas, chairman of ACOM, a pro-Israel organization that combats BDS in Spain and sued the Langreo City Council over the declaration, the Jerusalem Post reported.

“For the first time in a court decision, the court said that the BDS declaration in the city was discriminatory, anti-Semitic, broke human rights, and needed to be cancelled,” Mas said.

In addition, said Mas, ”around 35-36 [other] cases [on boycotts of Israel] have been presented so far and we have won five or six. We think that the tide is changing, but it doesn’t prevent this group from presenting more of these declarations.”