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| Norwegian minister: boycott Israel
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Norway’s finance minister Kristin Halvorsen
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In an interview with the Norwegian daily Dagbladet, Norway’s finance minister Kristin Halvorsen called for a full boycott of Israeli products.
"My aim and that of the Socialist Left is for Norwegian consumers to decide to drop products and services from Israel, and make other choices in the shops," she said in the interview.
The interview, which made headlines in the Norwegian press, was given before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke on Wednesday.
At the end of the month Halvorsen’s party will start a solidarity campaign for the Palestinian Authority, for which they have the full support of the finance minister.
It is first time that a senior minister in a Western government openly supports an initiative to boycott Israel.
“It is my party’s policy to support the boycott of Israel in order to exert pressure on Israel to stop occupying Palestinian territory,” she said.
"I hope all the counties in Norway will follow the county parliament of Soer Trondelag, which voted last month to boycott Israeli products.”
A finance ministry official said Halvorsen was speaking “in a personal capacity and not in the name of the government”.
Halvorsen is the chairwoman of the extreme Socialist-Left party which joined a coalition party in Norway after the last election in September 2005. The decision to boycott Israeli products is a part of this party political platform.
Strong condemnation
Labour foreign minister Jonas Gahr-Store immediately responded that a government-backed boycott of Israel "would be unthinkable”.
"It is not Labour’s policy. It is not the Centre Party’s policy. It will not become government policy."
He said Norway has a friendly policy towards Israel and underlined that boycotting would only create obstacles for dialogue with Israel.
Norway’s prime minister, Jan Stoltenberg, said on Norwegian television on Wednesday that his government is against any form of boycotting Israel.
He said that he had spoken to the finance minister and told her that boycotting is contrary to the government’s official line. He added that a letter underlining this was sent to the Israeli embassy.
Christian Democrat Ingebrigt Soerfon, an opposition politician who leads the Norwegian Parliament’s Friends of Israel group, sharply criticised Halvorsen.
"Moves like this do not serve any peace process. Nor does it serve Norway’s role," he said on the state radio network NRK. "This is disappointing."
Karl Hagen from the rightist Progress Party said that Halvorsen’s attitude “weakens Norway’s international position”.
The head of the Conservative Party, Inge Lonning, said that if Halvorsen insists on policy of boycotting Israel “she must leave the government”.
Severe violation
Israel protested officially against the statement of finance minister Halvorsen. The Israeli ambassador in Oslo Miryam Shomrat told EJP that Israel regards her statement as a severe violation of the traditional policy of Norway towards Israel.
"We expect an affirmative statement confirming the bilateral relationship between the two countries in order to repair the damage done by the statement of finance minister Halvorsen," said Shomrat.
The Socialist-Left party won 6 per cent in the last election in September and was invited together with the Socialist People’s Party to join the leftist coalition of Jan Stoltenberg’s Labour Party.
It is the first time in Norwegian history that the country has a coalition government, and political observers have predicted tension between Stoltenberg and his extreme left partner.
Last month, the Wiesenthal Centre strongly protested against the Norwegian region’s decision to boycott Israeli goods. The centre stressed that this initiative came with a "racist and anti-Semite" spirit.
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