About 6,600 Icelanders signed a petition calling for their government to end diplomatic ties with Israel in response to the attacks on Gaza.
Vísir reports that journalist Illugi Jökulsson, who initiated the campaign, met with Foreign Affairs Committee chair Birgir Ármannsson on Friday to give him the signatures.
While the petition drive began only the previous Monday, by the end of the work week some 6,600 signatures had been gathered. The petitions calls upon the Icelandic government to break political and diplomatic ties with the Israeli government as a response to the attacks on Gaza, adding that diplomatic methods have failed to have any impact on Israel’s actions whatsoever.
As reported, the Icelandic government is taking a more active interest in the situation in Gaza. The Foreign Affairs Committee was recently convened for an emergency meeting over the situation and, while no definitive course of action has yet been decided, even Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson had some choice words for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the matter.
“[T]he use of force by Israeli armed forces must come to an end,” Sigmundur wrote in part in a letter to Netanyahu. “The high number of civilian casualties is deeply disturbing and the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate. Here, Israel’s responsibility with its use of overwhelming military power is particularly alarming and raises grave concerns about respect for the principle of distinction, proportionality and precaution in attacks under international humanitarian law.”
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