"No more Icelandic products"
Nordic Store in central Reykjavik which also has a large online store has received dozens of cancellations from outraged customers. Photo: Nordic Store website
The owner of Nordic Store, which sells thousands of Icelandic products online to Europe and the US, has received dozens of emails from angry customers cancelling their orders due to the boycott of Israeli products by the City of Reykjavik.
The owner, Bjarni Jónsson believes he has already seen a decline in orders although the announcement was only made on Wednesday. Most of the orders made were from the USA where support of the Israeli government is strong.
As we have previously reported here on Iceland Monitor the Reykjavik City Council accepted a proposal by city councellor Björk Vilhelmsdóttir to boycott Israeli products until Israel stops occupying Palestinian land. The proposal was accepted by a majority of votes and was referred to the Mayor's office for official comment, which means that the proposal actually hasn't gone through yet.
What does however seem to be a misunderstanding, at least from the amount of emails received at Iceland Monitor, is that this boycott affects the whole capital city. The boycott only affects the City Council which won't be purchasing Israeli products. Shops, restaurants, retailers in Reykjavik or anyone else in Iceland for that matter, are not affected.
Jónsson does not believe that the emails he has received are part of an organised email campaign but that they all seem to be from different individuals. He adds that he would like the City Council to take back their decision.
