Norwegian YMCA Embraces Boycott Israel Policy

[Novaheart]

http://forward.com/articles/193660/norwegian-ymca-embraces-boycott-israel-policy/

The Norwegian YMCA-YWCA “encourages broad economic boycott of goods and services from Israel and Israeli settlements to pressure the Israeli government to follow up on U.N. resolutions and end the illegal occupation of Palestine,” the organization wrote in a statement published on its Norwegian-language website last week.
With 30,000 members in over 500 different chapters and affiliated Scouts groups, the Norwegian YMCA-YWCA — or KFUK-KFUM in its Norwegian acronym — is among the country’s largest and oldest youth groups.


Read more: http://forward.com/articles/193660/n...#ixzz32K3BMKqS

[Bob Loblaw 3.0]

A). Why are they even getting involved in this?

B). They should consider dropping the "C" from their name.

[Gingersnap]

Norwegians have no love for Jews. They can boycott Israel while supporting despotic Muslim countries that kill and rape girls and women because the move is based on politics, not principles. Despite all the rhetoric, most Scandinavian "moral" positions are weak versions of their former Christian values. Now that they are essentially 100 years away from that source, their decisions are based more on looking superior to the EU rather than any reasoned moral framework.

[phillygirl]

Why do Norwegians have such a history of disliking Israel and/or Jews?

[Gingersnap]

Why do Norwegians have such a history of disliking Israel and/or Jews?

It's not just one thing. There was never any huge, influential Jewish population in Nordic areas. Partly this was just economics (low wealth, few urban areas) and partly weather (no history of Jewish farming communities). Jews remained outlanders - exotic, somewhat suspicious foreign people.

Partly it was Lutheranism. The Nordic version of Protestantism was pretty insular and that complicated the outlander problem.

Mostly now it is the legacy of Socialism. In classic, old school socialism the Jewish religion/cultural identity is parasitic. Jews live off the profits of the workers, blah, blah, blah...... That school is no longer taught in Nordic countries but it tied in with everything else and it still has an impact on the popular imagination.

The only counter-balance to this legacy is the fairly dry, highly formalized "play nice, don't judge" position of the State Church which is not particularly influential in moral/ethical matters.