More than six hundred professionals from various fields related to the Arab world have signed a letter so far asking the Madrid City Council to “carefully consider the mistake” that the eviction of Casa Árabe from the Aguirre Schools building represents and to revoke its decision, announced this week by Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida.
The signatories —representatives from academia, journalism, business, art, diplomacy, literature, and education— declare that they “were astonished by the news of the eviction of Casa Árabe from the Aguirre Schools premises that the Madrid City Council committed to temporarily and free of charge, for a period of 30 years, when the consortium agreement was signed 20 years ago.”
The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, announced on June 29 that Casa Árabe has until September 1 to vacate the Aguirre Schools building, which has been its headquarters for the last 20 years.
“The city of Madrid has hosted for two decades the main headquarters of Casa Árabe,” they continue, “in which consortium collaborate ministerial, regional, and municipal bodies.” The letter highlights that “this has allowed this institution to carry out its work as a platform and tool of Spanish public diplomacy with the Arab World with dignity and courage.”
The signatories add that Casa Árabe is “a meeting point where various actors and institutions, both private and public, from the fields of business, education, academia, politics, and culture, dialogue, interact, establish lines of cooperation, and undertake joint projects.”
Among the signatories, headed by the honorary professor of Arabic Studies Bernabé López, are the Spanish ambassador Jorge Dezcallar; the former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell; the journalist Ángeles Espinosa; the director of CIDOB, Pol Morillas; and the writer Santiago Alba Rico, in a list whose number continues to grow.
Emphasizing that Spain’s relations with the Arab world have been a “structural and strategic” element of our foreign policy “beyond political colors,” the signatories consider that “abruptly interrupting the cultural work and public diplomacy of Casa Árabe in Madrid represents a severe blow.” “It is a decision contrary to the interests of our country,” they add.
For the signatories of the letter, “this attack on Casa Árabe means decapitating the public diplomacy policy articulated through the Network of Houses (Casa de América, Casa Asia, Casa África, Casa Mediterráneo, and Centro Sefarad-Israel)” and “does not hide a discriminatory motivation that seeks to punish the humanitarian positioning of the institution in its programming in recent years.”