Activism and BDS Beat 22 December 2016
Dr. Mads Gilbert and a team of Palestinian surgeons prepare emergency treatment at al-Shifa hospital during Israel’s invasion of Gaza in January 2009.
A second major city in Norway has voted to boycott Israeli goods and services produced in Palestinian territory occupied in 1967.
The 25-18 vote by Tromsø city council followed a similar action in Trondheim in November.
Tromsø’s resolution was sponsored by council members Jens Ingvald Olsen and Mads Gilbert, known worldwide for his medical work in the Gaza Strip.
With a population of 75,000 and one of only a handful of world cities north of the Arctic Circle, Tromsø has a long tradition of solidarity with Palestine, Gilbert told The Electronic Intifada.
Tromsø has been twinned with Gaza City for 15 years, which has led to cultural and youth exchanges and a visit to by the mayor of Gaza City.
Given that history of solidarity, said Gilbert, “it should come as absolutely no surprise that Tromsø city council should be the second in Norway to vote in favor of a boycott of Israeli goods produced on occupied territory.”
According to Gilbert, there was little formal coordination with the vote in Trondheim except that officials shared the text of their resolution.
The primary inspiration for Tromsø’s boycott came from the Icelandic capital Reykjavik, which voted in 2015 to boycott all Israeli products until Israel complies with international law and human rights conventions.
After an extreme backlash from Israel and its supporters, however, the Reykjavik initiative was rescinded.
“We already then decided that we would support our Icelandic friends in a very concrete way by taking up the baton and promote similar votes in Norway,” said Gilbert. “It has been on our drafting table for quite some time.”
A moral question
The Tromsø city council has faced pressure both before and after the vote, which was approved by a left-wing alliance of Labor, Socialist Left and Red parties.
As with the Trondheim vote, members of the council’s right-wing opposition criticized the measure as an unjustified incursion by local politicians into foreign policy.
But there were also personal attacks.
Council member Benjamin Notkevich from the Socialist Left party faced particularly fierce criticism for supporting the boycott because of his Jewish heritage – many of his relatives perished in the Holocaust.
His rejection of that criticism was vehement.
“For me it’s a moral question,” Notkevich told The Electronic Intifada. “Should the money of the people of Tromsø go to supporting an occupation economy? We decided that it should not, and therefore we made this resolution.”
Following the vote, he has been harassed with abusive phone calls, emails and social media posts, including comments labeling him anti-Semitic, calling him “garbage with a Jewish name” and comparing him to Vidkun Quisling, the puppet leader of the collaborationist government during the Nazi occupation of Norway.
“To the charge made by several actors that this was motivated by anti-Semitism, let me put it as simple as this: It was not,” said Notkevich. The charge, he said, “is an easy way to run away from talking about the occupation and keep building new settlements.”
One injustice does not justify another
Israel’s ambassador to Norway, Raphael Schutz, was a leading voice suggesting the vote was anti-Semitic. In a letter to members of the Tromsø city council, Schutz asked them to vote against “sinister winds of hate” and made references to Nazi Germany and allegations of anti-Israel bias in the United Nations.
“The radical pro-boycott approach uses almost always false information and lies,” Schutz charged. “Describing Israel as an apartheid state, accusing it of committing ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians, blaming it for intentional killing of innocent people and indiscriminate attacks against civil population are just a few of them.”
The council’s majority leader, Jarle Heitmann of the Labor Party, responded publicly that while both the situation of Palestinians today and the historic tragedies experienced by Jews would be part of the council’s deliberations, “one injustice could never justify another.”
Heitmann called the ambassador’s declarations “counterproductive.”
The Tromsø resolution bans the purchase of goods produced in any occupied territory, but also refers to territory occupied by Morocco in Western Sahara.
In general, the Norwegian government has enforced sanctions against many other countries – mostly based on UN and EU policy – including Russia and Iran.
“Start of a cascade”
Following the vote, Schutz dismissed the Tromsø boycott as “an empty gesture.”
But Gilbert argues that the Israeli government considers the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) to be a serious threat.
“They do whatever they can to combat it,” he said. “There is an increasing number of attempts from the Israeli government to make BDS activities illegal.”
This has included increasing attempts to either deny entry or expel BDS supporters, making visits to Palestine more difficult for solidarity activists.
In November 2014, Israel indefinitely banned Gilbert from entering Gaza.
Gilbert said he is not concerned about how his role in this vote could affect his ability to return to Palestine.
“Our hardship is absolutely miniscule compared to the daily hardship that Palestinians are facing on checkpoints, access to hospitals, the denial of right to travel from Gaza, the repeated brutal military assaults on Gaza and the limitations in access to health care,” he said. “I hope these two city council votes in Norway will be the start of a cascade of similar votes.”
Changing politics
The resolutions are the most recent indicators of changing trends within Norway’s Labor Party, the largest party in parliament, though not currently part of the governing coalition.
In a shift echoing the Democratic Party in the US, Israel’s repeated assaults on Gaza in the last decade have forced a reconsideration of a long history of support for the Zionist project and strong ties with the Israeli labor movement.
During the 2014 assault, Labor Party leaders went on record discouraging trade with Israeli settlements.
“There is no doubt that there is a major shift within the Labor Party and of course this is such a defeat for the Israeli government,” said Gilbert, whose own efforts to save the victims of Israeli military aggression in Gaza in 2008-2009 and 2014 became the basis for two books: Eyes in Gaza and Night in Gaza.
“I’m sure that if there is a left- or center-left majority during the next election, there is a real possibility that goods and services from the illegal Israeli colonies, misleadingly named ‘settlements,’ in the occupied Palestinian territories will be boycotted by the Norwegian parliament.”
Norway’s next national election takes place in September 2017. Recent polls show the Labor Party with a lead.
The party’s platform declares that “there should not be trade of [Israeli] goods and services produced in occupied areas.”
Comments
Well done, Tromsø
Permalink tom hall replied on
The greatest threat to Israel is the simple rejection of apartheid itself. No justice? No trade.
frankness
Permalink Eric replied on
Congratulations to Ambassador Schutz for succinctly listing criticisms of Israel:
* describing Israel as an apartheid state,
* accusing it of committing ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians,
* blaming it for intentional killing of innocent people, and
* indiscriminate attacks against civil population
Ironic excellent intro suction to Israeli crimes
Permalink David Kirshbaum replied on
Yes Ambassador Schultz's list is ironically an excellent intro to Israeli crimes. I guess we have to add the subject of the boycott itself - illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Schultz's mind must be incredibly twisted to be able to name these things and yet avoid what they actually mean.
He is the war criminal who
Permalink delhuss replied on
He is the war criminal who knows what war crimes he has commited and continues to commit!
Not Fair
Permalink Ahmed Salem Amr Khaddad replied on
Western Sahara community is sovereign south Morocco since 1976. WS community deals with the local affairs. WS community is happy to make trade & business with companies from around the world. Anything else is about the usual propaganda by the algeria military regime. Thanks
Ahmed Salem Amr Khaddad
Western Saharawi - Internet Activist
Keep Up the Great Work!
Permalink Rihana replied on
This is great! Simple boycotts such as this demonstrate to the world how we can still take a stand against the occupation, no matter where we are in the world. Though there are those, as mentioned in the article, that “dismissed the Tromsø boycott as ‘an empty gesture,’” and may continue to feel this way about other boycotts, resolutions, etc, it can and does make a difference in the world of activism today. Keep up the good work, and hope to join together in solidarity!
I have written about other boycotts in my blog, check it out! https://palestineroots.wordpre...
BDS
Permalink Leon Clapton replied on
Well done to Tromso & Trondheim,it's a shame that Reykjavik backed down from their proposed boycott. Norwegians should be very proud of the actions taken against the cruel Israeli invaders.