Iceland-Palestine Association (Flagi sland-Palestna): The NGO behind the Reykjavk Municipality boycott of Israel
- Iceland-Palestine Association supports a boycott of all trade between Israel and Iceland. Website targets Israeli products and stores in Iceland that sell Israeli goods.
- Website also has a running feed of stories from Electronic Intifada and Ma’an.
- Organized a rally in the summer of 2014 against Israeli actions in Gaza.
- Speakers at the rally included Reykjavík Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson
- 600 protesters at the rally participated in a “die in,” lying down on the ground to represent Palestinian deaths.
- Funding: Website does not list any donors. Members are required to pay an annual fee of 3,000 crowns ($24); has about 1000 members.
- Since 2000 “over 5 million Icelandic crowns [~$40,000] and around 30 volunteers have been sent from Iceland to Palestine through the Association Iceland-Palestine.”
- Regularly hosts anti-Israel, pro-BDS campaigners, such as Dr. Mads Gilbert, who repeatedly and falsely accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and invented allegations of use of illegal weapons, and Munib Younan, Bishop of the Lutheran Church of Palestine who supports Sabeel and the “Kairos Palestine” document.
- Association Chairman Sveinn Runar Hauksson met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in 2010.
- Hauksson is married to Reykjavik Councilwoman Björk Vilhelmsdóttir who introduced the boycott resolution.
- During the 2014 Gaza conflict, Salmann Tamimi, a founding member of the organization, commented about the funerals of Israeli soldiers, “To hell inshallah. Your friends will follow you.” In a subsequent interview with an Icelandic media outlet, he wished victory to the terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.