Message #59512

[Mark]

Boycott? 'There are no Israeli products in Iceland'

Israelis living in Iceland are unfazed by the recent boycott of Israeli goods: 'I have lived here for 3 years and never seen an Israeli product.'

"Don’t get wound up about Reykjavik's decision to boycott Israel products, because it is meaningless," said Nimrod Ron, an Israeli musician living in Iceland, regarding the capital's recent decision to boycott Israeli goods. "I have lived in Iceland for three years, and have yet to see even one Israeli product."

According to him, "This decision isn’t based on anti-Semitism or even the Muslim community's influence which, numbering around 1,500 members, is very small. The Icelandic people simply feel that Israel is oppressing the Palestinians."

Ron, who lives in a small town near Reykjavík, plays the tuba in Iceland's symphonic orchestra. The small island, with a population of about 330,000, is home to a tiny Israeli population of about 50-100 people. In addition to the Israelis, Iceland is home to about 150 Jews. Most of the Israelis are students or married to Icelandic spouses.

Ron says he wasn’t surprised by the decision to boycott Israeli products because the issue was debated beforehand in the public media. "Iceland is a country which values humanitarianism above all else, to the point of naivety," he explained.

"Nothing is done out of economic motivations. They condemned the Russian occupation of Ukraine, and the Russians responded with an ultimatum – retract the condemnation or Russia will stop buying Icelandic products. But the Icelandic government didn’t give in, and stopped the large scale export of fish to Russia," he said. "They lost a lot of money as a result, but for them it’s a matter of principles."


rest: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4701735,00.html