Israel has just been hammered by possibly the largest single act of BDS it has ever been slapped with! This is huge!
Right, so boycott, divestment and sanctions is an ethos many people have chosen to embrace when it comes to Israel, but this latest example of it has global repercussions for Israel and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it, those leading the charge here, the Israel Lobby don’t have much influence with.
We’re back in Norway, a nation that has already seen its Sovereign Wealth Fund enact BDS against at least one Israeli company, more on this is a moment, new developments here too, but has also formally recognised the State of Palestine, so they’re a headache of a nation for the likes of Netanyahu. But now in a show of real people power that is possible in a nation that has a proper and functional democracy, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions has just passed a motion amongst its 1 million members that has passed by 88% to BDS Israel into the floor across all manner of sectors from trade, investment, sports and cultural events. This is possibly the single most damaging example of BDS being enacted against Israel ever seen and there may yet be even more to come.
Right, so bad news for Israel really doesn’t come much bigger than this, especially with their economy going down the tubes, but this motion passing and the consequences that will be felt as a result of it going forwards now will be crushing and if you think a nation like Norway, not exactly known for being a big global player perhaps doesn’t have that clout then you need to watch this and realise they absolutely do. The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, abbreviated to LO, which stands for something Norwegian that’s about a foot long and I’m not even going to attempt to say it, I butcher enough pronunciations on here as it is, but they are Norway’s largest and most influential labour federation, an umbrella organisation for trade unions in Norway and it has voted by a sweeping majority to enforce a total boycott of Israel. The resolution was passed at LO’s national congress just yesterday, marking one of the most comprehensive and far-reaching endorsements of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement ever enacted by a national institution. With this motion, Norway has made clear that genocide, occupation, and systemic apartheid will not be passively tolerated by them and that the people of a democratic nation possess the power to act when their governments fail to and I’ll come back to that point actually in a moment.
This decision did not emerge out of nowhere. It comes in response to what many human rights groups, legal scholars, and international observers have described as Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, the difference is in Norway, people genuinely an make a difference when for so many of the rest of us, our so-called democracies are less than legit, just look at anti genocide protesters getting arrested here in the UK for instance.
