Dutch Green party endorses boycott of Israel

The Dutch Green Left Party becomes the Netherlands’ first mainstream political movement to endorse a boycott of Israel.

The endorsement came in a vote on a motion during the February 16 General Congress of the party, which has 14 seats out of 150 in the lower house of the Dutch parliament.

“BDS is a legitimate means to help Palestinians in their fight for justice,” the passed motion says. It states that Green Left “will be alert and resist forcefully attempts in any country to criminalize BDS.”

BDS is the acronym for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

While boycotting Israeli goods or products is legal in all of Europe and in other countries around the world, promoting such boycotts is a violation of anti-discrimination laws in France and Spain, courts in those countries have ruled.

The Dutch Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, a Jewish group committed to fighting anti-Semitism and performing Israel advocacy work, condemned the resolution.

“Green Left conveniently ignored how, in practice, BDS goes hand in hand with expressions of anti-Semitism and is linked to terrorist groups,” CIDI wrote.

The Likoed Nederland pro-Israel group wrote in a statement that Green Left “has declared itself a racist movement,” noting that the party has passed no other motions on boycotting Morocco, China, Turkey or Russia – all of which are internationally considering occupying powers.

— JTA