Paris Suburb Plans Boycott of Israeli Settlement Goods
PARIS — A municipality near the French capital passed a motion declaring a boycott of Israeli settlement goods and vowing further research and labeling on other products from the Jewish state.
The council of Bondy, located north of Paris, whose mayor, Sylvine Thomassin, belongs to French President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party, passed the resolution with only five objections last week on June 23, the news website Rezo Citoyen reported on Saturday.
“The Municipal Council of Bondy decided to no longer buy products from Israeli settlements,” read the motion, which had only five objections. It also called for the application of European Commission regulations introduced in November, that require separate labeling for all settlement goods entering the European Union. The regulations so far are only enforced in Belgium, Britain and Denmark.
As long as the regulations are not applied in France, Bondy’s municipal council will “research prior to purchase the origin of products not clearly indicated.”
The motion follows a string of convictions against promoters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel in France, where their actions violate anti-discrimination laws prohibiting the singling out of nations, national groups or their products. Other recent court rulings in France have nullified pro-Palestinian motions and gestures by French municipalities, declaring their involvement in international issues beyond their legal purview.
The motion expresses opposition to these rulings. “It is a legitimate civil right to be able to accept or refuse to buy merchandise according to its origin,” the motion states. “And it is a local collective entity’s duty to verify the traceability of services and products it offers its population.”
Bondy is unusual among French municipalities engaged in pro-Palestinian lobbying because it has a Socialist mayor. Elsewhere, such actions are led by Communist-controlled municipalities.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
