Joe Duggan (Reporter)
SPAIN’S Supreme Court has issued a landmark ruling in favour of an Israeli university that was banned from a sustainable energy design competition.
The court awarded Ariel University €70,000 after finding Spain’s Housing Ministry had acted illegally by excluding the Israeli institution from Solar Decathlon Europe in 2009.
The compensation is added to a previous €30,000 award in what is a major blow to Spain’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement.
“We are successfully combating both anti-Semitism and BDS in Spain,” said Angel Mas, President of ACOM, a pro-Israel organisation in Spain.
In 2008, Ariel University was one of 21 finalists selected for the competition.
But in 2009 the Spanish announced that ‘[As] your institution is located in the occupied territories… it will not be possible for your centre to continue in this competition.’
Seems a reasonable cause to ban an Israeli institution that is utilising an illegal occupation to further it’s standing in the world. Nothing to do with anti-semitism but everything to do with injustice and taking a stand against it. A very smelly Supreme Court decision this one.