Norway Town Will Boycott West Bank Settlement Products
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
– The city council of Tromso in Norway adopted a resolution calling on its residents to boycott products made in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
The resolution was adopted Wednesday, according to the municipality’s website.
Seventeen members voted against the resolution, which stated that “the municipal council encourages Tromso Municipality’s residents to boycott goods and services produced in the Occupied Territories.”
The resolution, introduced by left-wing local politicians and opposed by centrists who argued foreign policy was beyond the municipality’s expertise, also stated that “Tromso municipality will therefore refrain from buying Israeli goods and services produced in occupied Palestinian territory.”
Whereas the resolution explicitly called for boycotting goods from what the international community regards as land occupied by Israel, it called only for checking the provenance of goods from other disputed territories.
The draft resolution was filed by Mads Gilbert and Jens Ingvald Olsen of the Red Party.
Gilbert in 2009 published a book in which he accused the Israeli army of deliberately targeting women and children in Gaza.
“The Israelis knew well what they were doing. The purpose was to collectively punish the entire Palestinian population of Gaza [with] a merciless slaughter of women and children, old and young, men and women,” the book, “Eyes in Gaza,” read.
Gilbert has defended Hamas’ rule in the Gaza Strip as that of a democratically elected government, according to The Guardian.
He also said he viewed the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001 as having had a “moral right” to strike since he viewed them as oppressed.
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