Norwegian city resolves to boycott Israeli goods from ‘occupied territories’
The resolution stated that "the Tromso municipality will therefore refrain from buying Israeli goods and services produced in occupied Palestinian territory."
By JTAUpdated: DECEMBER 15, 2016 14:47BDS activists in Berlin(photo credit: REUTERS)
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 by a majority of 25 council members who supported it, 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 city council asks the chief executive to ensure that Tromso Municipality requires documentation on goods to make sure they are not from occupied areas, such as occupied territories in Palestine, Western Sahara, and the like, in cases where this is a relevant issue,” the text reads.The draft resolution was filed by Mads Gilbert and Jens Ingvald Olsen of the Red Party, who titled it “halt in purchases of Israeli goods and services produced in the occupied Palestinian territory.”Gilbert published a book in 2009 in which he accused the Israeli army of deliberately targeting women and children in order to kill them.“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.
“The attack on New York did not come as a surprise after the policy that the West has led during the last decades,” Gilbert told the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet on Sept. 30, 2001. “The oppressed also have a moral right to attack the USA with any weapon they can come up with.”When asked if he supported a terror attack on the US, Gilbert said, “Terror is a bad weapon but the answer is yes within the context which I have mentioned.”