Edited 19.09.2015
Reykjavik City Council (not Iceland as wrongly stated before) has announced that it will boycott all Israeli goods for as long as the country continues to occupy the Palestine territory, this impacts only city council purchases and does not affect Iceland as whole and Icelanders as such. products from Israel will still be sold in stores.
The Reykjavik City Council explained that the move was a symbolic one to show that the North Atlantic island condemns the “Israeli policy of apartheid” in Palestine’s territory, and supports the Palestinians’ right to independence.
Israel revealed in July that it was planning to build homes in the West Bank, leading to violent demonstrations in the territory. The majority of nations view the settlements as illegal, while the US State Department voiced its concern that such an expansion could prove a threat to the “two-state solution”.
The Times of Israel said that the boycott has triggered criticism from the country’s foreign ministry, which said that a “volcano of hatred spews forth from the Reykjavik city council building”. It added that they hoped someone in Iceland would come to their senses so this “one-sided blindness” against the “only democracy in the Middle East” comes to an end.
An Icelandic barrister, who is against the boycott, said it was “as illegal as refusing to do business with red-haired people and it makes no difference whether they justify their decision with references to some alleged actions by the Israelis.”
Content added on the 19.09.2015
This boycott has sparked a healthy debate on the purpose of these types of actions and their impact on peoples daily live. The reverse impact has been that some Icelandic exporters have been told that their products will be boycotted and Israelis have been asked not to travel to Iceland due to this.
A statement from Emanuel Nachson, a Israel’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesman issued about the matter says:
“A volcano of hate is currently exploding in Reykjavik’s city council building. There is no reason or justification for this move, besides hate itself, which is being heard in the form of calls for a boycott against Israel, the Jewish state. We hope that someone in Iceland will wake up and stop this blindness and one sidedness which is aimed against the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel.”