The Belgian city of Verviers has become the latest city in Europe to cut its ties with the Israeli “apartheid regime” to “strengthen its support for the Palestinian people,” the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

In its meeting, Verviers Municipal Council discussed a motion introduced by members of the Socialist Party (PS), the Labor Party (PTB), and the Ecologist Confederation (ECOLO) that says that the City of Verviers wants to strengthen its support for the Palestinian people by cutting its ties with the Israeli apartheid regime.

The draft proposal said that the municipal council of Verviers undertakes not to open relations with the state of Israel and its institutions as long as the apartheid system persists and the violation of international law by the Israeli authorities.

Verviers follows the Belgian city of Liége, whose city council last month decided to end ties with Israel citing its regime of “apartheid, colonization, and military occupation.”

Also in April, Oslo (Norway) decided to exclude companies that directly or indirectly contribute to Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, and in February the mayor of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spanish state) decided to suspend institutional ties with apartheid Israel. Elsewhere, the mayor of Belém (Brazil) has recently declared the city an Apartheid Free Zone.

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The Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian society saluted the Verviers decision and applauded what it described as “the tireless work of Belgian civil society that has made this possible.”

(WAFA, PC)