Two prominent U.S. Jewish groups on Friday slammed officials in Iceland's capital for voting to boycott Israeli products over the occupation of Palestinian territory, with the Simon Wiesenthal Center urging Jews not to travel to the city.
"Iceland is a major tourist destination, including for many Jews and Israeli tour groups," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center's associate dean. "However, when the elected leaders of its main city pass an extreme anti-Israel and anti-Semitic law, we would caution any member of a Jewish community about traveling there."
He also attacked the "racist vote" by the Reykjavik City Council on Tuesday, saying that it could "create an environment hostile to Israelis and other Jews" traveling to the city.
Cooper, whose human-rights group is based in Los Angeles, further slammed Reykjavik officials for only targeting Israel.
"The Jewish state alone — not Syria, not Iran, not North Korea, or the Sudan — is being subjected to a dangerous double standard that needs to be denounced by all fair-minded people," Cooper said.
In New York, the World Jewish Congress urged Iceland's federal government to act against the boycott, which it said "only strengthens extremists on both sides."
Reykjavik's decision would stop city's purchase of Israeli products until the occupation ends. It became the latest in Europe to join a global boycott and divestment campaign.
But Iceland’s Foreign Ministry distanced itself from the vote, telling
The Times of Israel on Thursday that the boycott was "not in line" with the country’s foreign policy.
"The Ministry for Foreign Affairs wishes to underline that the City Council’s decision is not in line with Iceland’s foreign policy nor does it reflect on Iceland’s relations with the state of Israel," a spokesperson said via email.
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are seen as illegal under international law and as a threat to the Middle East peace process by eroding the basis for a future Palestinian state.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry blasted the vote, saying that "a volcano of hatred spews forth from the Reykjavik city council building," the Times reports.
"For no reason or justification, except hatred for its own sake, calls of boycotting the state of Israel are heard," the ministry said. "We hope someone in Iceland will come to their senses and end the one-sided blindness fielded against Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East."
Newsmax wires contributed to this report.
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