ACOM, a pro-Israel group active in fighting the BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment,Sanctions) in Spain, has succeeded in stopping a boycott decision passed by the city council of Vélez-Málaga in the Costa del Sol region.

A court in Malaga issued a preliminary restraining order stopping the boycott decision.

The region has one the largest Jewish communities in Spain, with communities in the cities of Malaga, Marbella and Torremolinos.

Following the court’s decision on the claim submitted by ACOM, the city council announced its intention to cancel the boycott against Israel and companies doing business with the country.

To date, following ACOM’s court proceedings, Spanish courts have declared six city council boycott decisions null and void, and seven more have been effectively halted by preliminary restraining orders.

ACOM lawyer Ignacio Wenley Palacios, who is leading the anti-boycott effort in Spain, said the BDS movement is “thinly disguised under a veil of a deceiving human rights narrative.”

“The boycott campaign is nothing but plain discrimination on basis of national origin, affinities, and personal beliefs,” he said. “This anti-Semitic initiative is an attack to our constitutional rights and freedoms.”

Some 50 Spanish municipalities had passed resolutions in recent years endorsing BDS — more than in any other European country. But, echoing belatedly the judicial policy of courts in neighboring France, the Spanish judiciary has cracked down on BDS in recent years, as part of an effort to make judges more independent and amid growing resentment toward BDS promoters whose actions are perceived as counterproductive to efforts aimed at rehabilitating Spain’s ailing economy.

The Spanish government has expressed its opposition to BDS, which is illegal in neighboring France because it is deemed discriminatory.