The red-green local government in Swedish Gothenburg wants to stop all municipal purchases from Israel, Morocco and Russia and the chairman of the municipal board Jonas Attenius (S) justifies the proposal by saying that “tax money should not go to financially support occupation forces”.
S, V and MP demand that Gothenburg as soon as possible begins to phase out the purchase of products and services from states that are considered to illegally occupy other states.
– Israel is engaged in an illegal occupation of the West Bank, which has only been exacerbated by the widespread killing of civilians in Gaza. Our tax money should not be used to financially support occupation forces, said Jonas Attenius in a press release.
In practice, the proposal means that purchasing rules will be tightened and that the municipality’s purchasing and procurement administration will be tasked with “phasing out” goods produced in these states as much as possible. Products clearly labeled as coming from Israel, Morocco or Russia should be replaced with other alternatives as soon as possible and as soon as any agreements have expired, it says.
Halting purchases of Russian products has generally been met with cheers from the Swedish political and media establishment, as such boycotts are in line with Western sanctions.
Boycotting Israel, however, is a more sensitive issue – not least because the current centre-right government has repeatedly expressed its support for Israel during the ongoing invasion of Gaza and has relativized the crimes committed by the Israeli military against the civilian population.
