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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: January 5, 2006 |
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Leftist Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen caused a stir Thursday by publicly backing a consumer boycott of Israel in solidarity with Palestinians.
Halvorsen, who is also leader of the Socialist Left Party, was quoted as telling the major Oslo tabloid Dagbladet that she had stopped buying Israeli products long ago, and that she supports her party's boycott campaign.
"My and the Socialist Left's goal is for Norwegian consumers to decide to drop products and services from Israel, and make other choices in the shops," she was quoted as saying. The interview was given before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke on Wednesday.
Halvorsen's party became a minority partner in a three-party coalition that also includes Labor, Norway's largest party, and the Center Party in October. She stressed that she was expressing her party's view and not government policy.
Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, of Labor, immediately responded that a government-backed boycott of Israel "would be unthinkable."
"It is not in the government platform," he said. "It is not Labor's policy. It is not the Center Party's policy. It will not become the government's policy."
Last month, Norway's Soer-Trondelag county board also caused a stir by becoming the first Norwegian province to formally boycott Israel. That drew protests, including demonstrations against Norwegian embassies in Tel Aviv, Washington and Ottawa.
According to Dagbladet, the Socialist Left plans to begin a campaign this month to increase sympathy for the Palestinian cause, gain support for sanctions against Israel and encourage a boycott of products from the Jewish state.
Asked about her comments a few hours after the morning newspaper appeared, Halvorsen said the campaign was being organized by local Socialist Left chapters.
"I'm not going to be the front figure for that," she said at an unrelated news conference. "That would lead to confusion about what is the government policy, and what is the Socialist Left policy."
In the newspaper interview, she said the coalition has to allow room for conflicting opinions over Norway's relationship with Israel.
Norway has been an active mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, most notably by secretly negotiating the now-tattered Oslo peace agreement in 1993. It also sought to nurture the process by awarding the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize to Israeli leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Christian Democrat Ingebrigt Soerfon, an opposition politician who leads the Norwegian Parliament's Friends of Israel group, sharply criticized Halvorsen.
"Moves like this do not serve any peace process. Nor does it serve Norway's role," he said on the state radio network NRK. "This is disappointing." |
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