A regional Spanish High Court upheld a ruling last week declaring that a municipal boycott of Israel was illegal and discriminatory, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.

The High Court of Spain’s northwestern Asturias region found that the Langreo City Council lacked the “competencies to decree an international boycott and to alter the European Directive and the national law on public procurement” when it agreed to boycott Israel, according to ACOM, a group that opposes the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in Spain. “In addition the High Court expands on the blatant unconstitutional discrimination and lack of neutrality that such a boycott would represent.”

The ruling was the result of a case brought forth by ACOM, which originally sued the Langreo City Council at Court Number 4 of Oviedo, which ruled the boycott illegal. The city council then appealed to the region’s High Court.

The case marked the first time that a Spanish High Court has ruled on the BDS campaign. ACOM President Angel Mas said nearly 60 Spanish municipalities have declared boycotts of Israel during the past year, representing a “growing trend in Spain among local municipalities.” In some cases, the local governments enact the boycotts intentionally, while in others they are deceived into adopting the measures by anti-Israel activists.

“We have to create the opposite deterrence, letting them know that there are consequences for their actions,” Mas explained. “Otherwise they [BDS] will win.”

According to ACOM, the regional High Court ruling will boost its efforts to expose the BDS campaign’s discriminatory nature through the judicial system. The ruling sets a precedent, expanding a previous constitutional doctrine to allow any Jew to sue for the defamation against a coreligionist or the Jewish community, and groups like ACOM to act against slander or discrimination against Israelis.

In August, ACOM successfully brought a suit reversing Vélez-Málaga City Council’s decision to boycott Israel. In January, Spain’s Supreme Court awarded $100,000 in damages to Israel’s Ariel University for being excluded from a European competition based on lawsuit filed by ACOM.

Despite the efforts of anti-Israel campaigners at the local level, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in August that pro-Israel activists won 24 legal rulings against BDS, which along with being labeled discriminatory in courts, has generated growing resentment for hurting business opportunities while the Spanish economy is performing poorly. Ramon Pérez-Maura, a journalist with the major Spanish newspaper ABC, said at the time that BDS supporters were no longer able to pressure the Spanish judiciary unchallenged. “The problem was pressure and intimidation of judges by lobby groups with anarchist traditions and violent tactics,” he told JTA. “There has been a crackdown on this sort of thuggery and this has empowered the judiciary, not only on Israel.”

The ruling by the regional Spanish High Court comes a year after France’s highest civil court determined that BDS is a form of hate speech. Dozens of BDS campaigners have been convicted in France of “inciting hate or discrimination,” and some have been charged under an anti-racism law that bans “the targeting of specific nations for discriminatory treatment.”

The BDS campaign attempts to delegitimize Israel in an effort to advance Palestinian interests, and many of its leaders have publicly affirmed that they seek Israel’s destruction. BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti, an opponent of the two-state solution, said in 2014 that Palestinians have a right to “resistance by any means, including armed resistance,” while leading activist As’ad Abu Khalil acknowledged in 2012 that “the real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel.”

[Photo: Astur1 / WikiCommons ]