BDS victory: Iceland capital boycotts Israeli products

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has witnessed yet another victory as Iceland announces its capital will no longer trade with Israel.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

03 July, 2016

Iceland described the vote as symbolic against Israel's policy of apartheid [AFP]

Iceland's capital city has voted to boycott all Israeli products, in another victory for the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the occupying country.

Council members from the Reykjavik municipality approved the boycott of Israeli goods “as long as the occupation of Palestinian territories continues,” local media reported.

Israel condemned the move stating “a volcano of hatred spews forth from the Reykjavik city council building."

“For no reason or justification, except hatred for its own sake, calls of boycotting the state of Israel are heard,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “We hope someone in Iceland will come to their senses and end the one-sided blindness fielded against Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.”

The development comes as over 40 academics and activists from across the globe prepare to gather in Tunisia this summer to discuss how to further the growing movement to boycott Israel.

Under the title "Boycott as a Strategy to Counter Israel's Occupation and Apartheid: Present-day Realities and Aspirations", the conference will be organised by the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) in the capital city of Tunis from 4 to 6 August 2016.

It will discuss the re-emergence of boycotting as an expression of solidarity with Palestinians by the world community, allowing participants to share their experience and analysis concerning the global campaign to boycott Israel – known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) – as a means to combat the occupation, which is gaining more momentum.

"This growing movement allows the Palestinians to take the reins of their national struggle, and to rebuild alliances with progressive forces around the world," read the upcoming event's background paper.

Initiated by Palestinian civil society in 2005, BDS describes itself as a global movement of citizens that carries out and advocates for non-violent campaigns of boycotts, divestment and sanctions as a means to overcome the Israeli regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid, as well as to achieve freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people.

The movement called on civil society around the world to launch broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives, and to demand sanctions against Israel, until Palestinian rights are recognised in full compliance with international law.