[Peace-discuss] Israel Attacks Reykjavík Boycott

[David Johnson]

Israel Attacks Reykjavík Boycott

 

 

 

The city council in Iceland's capital voted to boycott Israeli goods as long
as the nation continues its illegal occupation of Palestine.

 

The Israeli government said that it was the subject of a “volcano of hatred”
after the capital of Iceland decided to boycott Israeli products due to the
Israeli occupation of Palestine and the nation's continuing atrocities
against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, local media
reported early Thursday.

 

Responding, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon told the
Jerusalem Post that “a volcano of hate exploded in the building of the
Reykjavik municipality.”

 

“Without any reason or justification, except for pure hatred, calls were
heard to boycott the state of Israel. We hope that someone in Iceland will
wake up and put an end to this blindness and one-sidedness that is
demonstrated toward Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.” The city
council in Iceland’s capital Reykjavík voted Tuesday by a 9-5 majority to
bar Israeli products from official purchases as long as Israel’s occupation
of Palestinian regions continues.

 

RELATED: Boycott Israel: teleSUR Looks at BDS  

 

“The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement all over the world is
becoming stronger because we know how boycotting goods has influenced other
states like South Africa,” Björk Vilhelmsdóttir, a member of the
left-leaning Social Democratic Alliance party in Iceland who sponsored the
motion told The Electronic Intifada.

 

While Israel, as expected, hinted that the move was antisemitism and hatred,
Palestinian activists hailed the move as pure support and extended a
“salute” to the Icelandic city and its officials.

 

According to The Electronic Intifada, Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian human
rights campaigner and co-founder of the BDS – boycott, divestment and
sanctions – movement, sent a “warm salute to all Palestine solidarity and
BDS movement partners in Iceland who contributed to writing this piece of
the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.”

 

He also predicated that “Israel, with its powerful tools in Washington and
Brussels, will certainly pull out its entire bullying arsenal to try to
reverse this precedent-setting, historic victory for the boycott movement
against its regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.” 

 

 

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