By EJC Staff
European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor has reacted with outrage to reports of the banning of Israeli books and distinctively marking Israeli products in several districts in Scotland, near Glasgow. Israeli books translated into English were recently added to the list of prohibited books.
“It is inconceivable that products from the Jewish State are banned or distinctively marked in Scotland,” Kantor said. “These acts are eerily reminiscent of darker times and perhaps there is a level of hatred that connects them.”
According to reports, two and a half years ago, shortly after Operation Cast Lead, the West Dunbartonshire Regional Council, located west of Glasgow, approved a bill that called to boycott goods produced in Israel. West Dunbartonshire was joined by the large Scottish city Dundee, which decided to issue a recommendation to boycott all goods produced in Israel.
Legal advisers instructed Dundee’s mayor to refrain from legally enforcing the boycott in order to avoid future lawsuits. Instead, the municipality plans to distribute posters throughout the city, calling on some 150,000 residents to refrain from buying Israeli goods, and will also apply a special mark on Israeli products, in order to make them easily identifiable.
“While those behind the boycott will claim that this is not anti-Semitic, targeting the only Jewish state, a democracy, while ignoring serial human-rights abusing nations tells us that this is indeed anti-Semitic in intent and in effect,” Kantor continued. “This demonstrates how far ‘respectable anti-Semitism’ has come.
“We call on Scottish and British officials to immediately pronounce this boycott illegal.“
The EJC is the democratically elected representative umbrella organization of European Jewry.
Copyright © 2011 Acts News Network.