Norway’s biggest and most influential trade union has approved a boycott of Israel, as global outrage intensifies at the Tel Aviv regime’s oppression of Palestinians.

The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) voted 197 to 117 in favor of an international economic, cultural, and academic boycott of Israel on Friday.

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which campaigns for Palestinian rights, hailed the LO’s move as a necessary means to secure fundamental Palestinian rights.

“By courageously heeding the Palestinian BDS call…, LO joins some of the world’s most important trade union federations… in calling for meaningful BDS pressure on the corporations and institutions that have enabled decades of Israeli occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid,” said the BDS national committee.

It also expressed hope for close cooperation with LO to translate the new policy adopted by the trade union “into effective measures of accountability at the academic, cultural and economic levels to uphold human rights and international law.”

It further urged LO to exert pressure on the Norwegian government to cut its military ties with Israel and to divest funds from all companies complicit in the regime’s occupation and settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

However, Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende criticized the boycott, writing on Twitter that the “government strongly opposes Norw Labour Union's decision: #boycott of #Israel. We need more cooperation and dialogue, not boycott.”

Additionally, Israel’s Ambassador to Oslo Raphael Schutz denounced the boycott as “immoral,” saying he “condemns [the measure] in the strongest terms.”

This file photo shows Palestinians walking past a sign painted on a wall calling to boycott Israeli products, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. (By AFP)

The BDS movement was initiated in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organizations pushing for “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law.”

Thousands of volunteers, trade unions, NGOs, academic and business societies, as well as cultural figures worldwide have joined the boycott campaign to help promote the Palestinian cause.

Back in March, the Israeli parliament passed a piece of legislation barring the entry of BDS supporters to the occupied territories.

Last month, the municipal council of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek in Belgium approved a bill that prohibited all forms of political, economic and cultural dealings with Israeli institutions and companies promoting the regime’s occupation.

Read more:

Over the past few months, Israel has given the go-ahead for the construction of many settler units that are considered illegal by much of the international community.​

The construction activities are in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which regards Israeli settlements in the occupied lands as “a flagrant violation under international law.”