On Monday, April 24, the Belgian city of Liege became the latest city in Europe to join the boycott of Israel. The city council of Liege decided to suspend its relations with the Israeli authorities, accusing them of running a regime of “apartheid, colonization and military occupation.”
The majority of the city council voted for the resolution, which called for the suspension of ties with Israel until its “apartheid regime” puts an “end to the system of violations of the rights of the Palestinian people and fully respects the obligations imposed by international law and various United Nations resolutions.”
Acknowledging the facts of Nakba (mass displacement of Palestinians) and Palestinians’ right to return, the resolution lists all major violations of international laws committed by Israel and calls for implementing a national boycott of all Israeli goods and services produced in the occupied territories.
The resolution was introduced by the Workers Party of Belgium (PTB) and supported by the Socialist Party and the Green Party in the Liege city council. A large number of civil society members kept a vigil outside the council building while the resolution was being voted on.
Liege is the third largest city in Belgium after the capital Brussels and Antwerp.
Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement welcomed the decision in a statement on Tuesday, saying that it “salutes the Belgian city of Liege for its decision to end all ties with Israel due to its regime of “apartheid, colonization and military occupation” the statement reads. BDS also congratulated the Belgian civil society’s “tireless work” that “has made this decision possible and called on “cities worldwide to follow the examples of Barcelona, Oslo and Liege by severing ties with apartheid Israel in support of Palestinian struggle to #DismantleApartheid.”
The Spanish city of Barcelona suspended all its existing agreements with Israeli state authorities in February for its policies of apartheid and occupation of Palestinians.
The Norwegian capital city of Oslo also recently decided to boycott buying all goods and services produced in the occupied Palestinian territories.
