Norway’s Largest Trade Union Votes for Total Boycott of Israel

Rasa - Norway’s biggest trade union approved an international economic, cultural and academic boycott against Israel, as the regime continues oppression of Palestinians and occupying their lands.

News ID: 429641

Date: 14 May 2017 - 20:53

RNA - The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), which represents over 900,000 unionized workers in the country, voted 197 to 117 in favor of the total boycott of Israel, media reports said.

“Since dialogue and resolutions have had little effect, there must henceforth come an effort to achieve an international economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel in order to achieve those objectives,” the resolution read.

In recent years, LO has called to boycott various Israeli institutions, including the Histadrut labor union, and businesses “that profit from the occupation of Palestinian land,” as the organization stated in a 2013 resolution.

Virtually all major players in Israel's industrial and economic sector have dealings with or offices in occupied Palestinian lands, a fact that has contributed to such calls by LO being interpreted as a call for a blanket boycott on the apartheid regime's economy.

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which campaigns for Palestinian rights, hailed the LO’s move as a necessary means to secure fundamental Palestinian rights.

"By courageously heeding the Palestinian BDS call…, LO joins some of the world’s most important trade union federations… in calling for meaningful BDS pressure on the corporations and institutions that have enabled decades of Israeli occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid,” said the BDS national committee.

It also expressed hope for close cooperation with LO to translate the new policy adopted by the trade union “into effective measures of accountability at the academic, cultural and economic levels to uphold human rights and international law".

It further urged LO to exert pressure on the Norwegian government to cut its military ties with Israel and to divest funds from all companies complicit in the regime’s occupation and settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

However, Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende criticized the boycott, writing on Twitter that the “government strongly opposes Norw Labour Union's decision: #boycott of #Israel. We need more cooperation and dialogue, not boycott.”

Additionally, Israel’s Ambassador to Oslo Raphael Schutz denounced the boycott as “immoral,” saying he “condemns [the measure] in the strongest terms.”

The BDS movement was initiated in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organizations pushing for “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law.”

Thousands of volunteers, trade unions, NGOs, academic and business societies, as well as cultural figures worldwide have joined the boycott campaign to help promote the Palestinian cause.

Back in March, the Israeli parliament passed a piece of legislation barring the entry of BDS supporters to the occupied territories.

Last month, the municipal council of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek in Belgium approved a bill that prohibited all forms of political, economic and cultural dealings with Israeli institutions and companies promoting the regime’s occupation.

Israel an occupying power trying to alter al-Quds identity: UNESCO

UNESCO has passed early on may 2017 a resolution that criticized Israel's actions in occupied Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

The resolution, which declared Israel's sovereignty over al-Quds as "null and void", and condemned regime's excavations in Eastern Jerusalem and the Old City.

The resolution called on the "occupying power" to cease "persistent excavations, tunneling, works and projects in East Jerusalem", which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.

The UNESCO statement emphasized "the importance of the Old City of al-Quds and its walls for the three monotheistic religions", while accusing the Israel of taking actions that have "altered, or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City".

The resolution, also criticized the Israeli for its ten-year blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip.

But the UN body's resolution not only did not forced the apartheid regime's officials to change their racist measures but also provoked them to mull expelling the the international body and its affiliated organizations from occupied Palestinian lands.

Israel held a debate on Sunday, vowing to kick out UN and affiliated agencies from its longstanding offices in Jerusalem as proposed by a minister of culture.

Tel Aviv is no stranger to such penalties in response to what it perceives as hostile actions on the part of the UN. Back in March, Israel already employed a similar measure, slashing $2 million from its annual UN contribution, citing “hostile resolutions” by UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Israel has recently announced plans to build 25,000 illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories in defiance of international law.

Israel's Housing Minister Yoav Galant has recently announced that they had a plan to build 25,000 more illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian lands.

"We will build 10,000 units in Jerusalem and some 15,000 within the extended municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. It will happen," Galant said.

847/940