A Norwegian county parliament voted last week to boycott products from Israel, because of the country’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories. This new law has outraged local Jewish groups.

The county of Soer-Trondelag voted on 16 December to boycott Israeli goods, making it the first Norwegian region to cut economic relations with the Jewish state.

Torill Skaerseth, a board representative from the far-left Red Electoral Alliance, said she hopes the boycott will be taken over by other Norwegian provinces.

"We see Israel as an occupying force that could be compared with the apartheid regime in South Africa," she told the regional newspaper “Adresseavisen”. "We also want to campaign for the people of Soer Trondelag to also boycott."

Although the economic impact would be insignificant, the political signal angered Jewish groups.

In a statement issued in New York on Tuesday, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned the decision.

"It is shocking and ironic that this one-sided boycott effort comes at a time when Israel is making a series of dramatic steps toward peace, including the recent withdrawal from Gaza," the league’s national director Abraham H. Foxman said in a statement.

"Boycotts against Israel are predicated on odious comparisons to apartheid-era South Africa," Foxman wrote in a letter to Norwegian Ambassador to the US, Knut Vollebaek. "It is our sincere hope that the Norwegian government will condemn this unjust decision and take necessary measures to secure its reversal.”

The Norwegian national government has not imposed or called for any boycott.

New phenomenon

"In my opinion, this affair expresses that there is a growing critical feeling inside the Norwegian public opinion toward Israel because of its politics toward Palestinians," Kgell Arild Nilsin, a journalist at the foreign desk of NTB, the Norwegian news agency, told EJP.

"This is something new in Norway because the sympathy toward Israel was very prevalent in our country since 1948," he added.
"You can explain this new shift because the Palestinian case got more coverage in the last decade, especially because of Norway’s involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the early 1990s."

"But that is not all. The lack of reporting of the Israeli point of view also explains this shift in the Norwegian society."

"However, there is no way that such a decision can be taken at the national parliament. The government would oppose such a stand and there is no way such a stand can gather enough representatives. A lot of representatives of the Socialist party will also oppose such a vote," he added.

"[T]his affair […] is symptomatic of a new phenomenon, a shift in Norway’s public opinion on Israel," the Norwegian journalist concluded.

Local Jews “regret” decision

"The Jewish community of Trondheim, the capital of Soer-Trondelag county, has sent a letter to the local parliament in which we strongly regret that they have reached this conclusion," Rita Abrahamsen, chairperson of the Trondheim Jewish community said.

"We are one of the smallest Jewish communities in Europe and therefore need all the support we can get," she added.

"This is more of a local issue and at this level we usually leave it up to the local Jewish community to deal with it. If this matter goes on a European level, like in front of the European Justice Court, we would get involved," Ilan Moss of the European Jewish Congress told EJP.

"If the ADL decided to get involved in this affair, it is their choice but at this level we do not want to react," Moss added.