(JTA) — The mayor of Iceland’s capital said he will recommend that its City Council reform its resolution to boycott all Israeli products.
Only goods produced in “occupied areas” of Israel will be boycotted by the City Council, Reykjavik Mayor Dagur Eggertsson told the Icelandic national broadcaster RUV, the English-language Iceland Monitor reported Saturday.
Eggertsson said he will suggest at the City Council meeting on Thursday that the lawmakers retract the resolution in its current form and take steps to reform it, according to RUV.
“I expected a reaction, but not on this scale,” Eggertsson said. “It appears to be a stronger reaction than when Iceland declared support for an independent Palestine” in 2011.
In 2013 through this year, Iceland’s imports from Israel totaled approximately $6 million — mostly machinery and Dead Sea chemicals — according to the Times of Israel.
The Reykjavik City Council passed the resolution on Sept. 15, saying that the municipality would not purchase any Israeli goods “as long as the occupation of Palestinian territories continues,” Iceland Magazine reported.
In an explanatory memo, the council said the City of Reykjavik supports the right of Palestinians to independence and condemns “the Israeli policy of apartheid” in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
Bjork Vilhelmsdottir, a councilwoman with the Social Democratic Alliance, introduced the motion.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the council’s decision.
