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TRONDHEIM, NORWAY — After weeks of diplomatic controversy and international attention, the much debated political motion of a Norwegian regional parliament to boycott Israeli goods is unlikely to be put into action due to governmental intervention.
The county municipality of Sør-Trøndelag, Norway, entered an international campaign to boycott Israel, deeming the country an apartheid state.
Unexpected
Sør-Trøndelag passed the resolution in December of last year, prohibiting trade connections with Israel in public sector. Only affecting entities under responsibility of the county municipality, most significantly senior high schools and public dental health, the boycott's financial extent would have been near void. However, the resolution's symbolic influence led to political impact exceeding all expectations and shortly triggering widespread debate.
The resolution, initially proposed by revolutionary left-wing party Red Election Alliance (RV) representative Torill Skjærseth, unexpectedly went through the county parliament after Workers' Party (AP) and [officially] pro-Israel Progress Party (FrP) representatives voted against their respective parties' official policy.
«Racist», «fascist» and «anti-semitic»
The response was immediate. Supportive and opposing messages entered the scene from all sides.
In midst of debate, Shimon Samuels of the Paris based Wiesenthal Center labeled the boycott as «an act of anti-semitism» and «a continuation of collaborationist history under its [Norway's] own Nazi leader, Vidkun Quisling» in a letter addressed to Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (AP).
In an interview with Sør-Trøndelag local radio channel Radio-Adressa, Samuels described the political majority of Sør-Trøndelag as «nazis, stalinists and racists» and «fascists with sympathies to Quisling», the infamous Norwegian nazi traitor serving as Hitler's delegate dictating Norway during World War II.
The Sør-Trøndelag Socialist Left Party demanded an unconditional apology for the accusations and called for a serious debate, in a letter to the Wiesenthal Center yet to be answered.
Trilateral diplomatic incident
On the dawn of the new year, a series of statements from regional and national Norwegian politicians nearly led to a serious diplomatic incident. Finance Minister and leader of the Socialist Left Party (SV), Kristin Halvorsen, endorsed the boycott and urged Norwegian consumers to check origin of goods to avoid those from Israel, in an interview with Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet.
Halvorsen also said a boycott will make clear the discontentment with Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people.
Israel had already taken notice of Sør-Trøndelag's boycott. The incident escalated when Halvorsen's statement made its way to the Israeli Department of Foreign Affairs which promptly issued a letter to its Norwegian counterpart.
Mainstream media did not make clear whether Halvorsen's statements, highly unpopular with Israeli and U.S. government officials, were representing her political party or the Cabinet. Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Silvan Shalom, said Israel would «consider how open Israel will be to Norwegian diplomats in the future». U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened Norway with «serious political consequences» and expressed concerns that «diplomatic connections could become rougher».
In Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre's reply regarding the misconception, Støre wrote of Norway as a «friend of Israel enjoying close bilateral relations based on long-standing historical ties» and «Norway actively supporting the the right of Israel to live in peace and security within defendable borders», a term mainly used by the U.S. and Israel in context of the «security wall», Israel's definition of Israeli-Palestinian borders.
Støre's letter became subject of more controversy and was regarded as overly submissive by socialists and right-wing politicians alike. Pointing at the letters, former Foreign Minister Jan Petersen (Conservative Party, H) said he would «be called USA's poodle if he proceeded in the same manner».
Støre eventually admitted the wording of parts of the letters to be unfortunate, although the statements would formally stay unaltered.
Deemed illegal
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs eventually got itself out of the issue by deeming the boycott motion of Sør-Trøndelag illegal, referring to WTO treaties and human rights.
Representatives for the Socialist Left Party in Sør-Trøndelag rhetorically retaliated to the claims by pointing at Norwegian official boycotts of Myanmar (former Burma) and Morocco-occupied West Sahara, fearing the practice of overruling local politics to become prevalent.
The boycott, temporarily postponed until a county municipality meeting in March, is unlikely to be put into action before its cancellation.
