There was a long debate and a narrow vote in the council on the subject.
Helsinki the city council is not proposing a boycott of companies benefiting from the occupation of the Palestinian territories. However, the matter is still pending and has been re-tabled.
The matter was decided at Wednesday’s meeting after a tight vote. In the end, 44 delegates voted in favor of the return, and 39 delegates were in favor of continuing the case immediately. By group of councils, the division largely followed the traditional division into left and right.
One delegate abstained and the other did not vote at all.
Processing was Suldan Said Ahmed (left) initiative, which stated that the city would avoid companies benefiting from the occupation of the Palestinian territories in its procurement.
In November, the initiative was once again returned to the Office in preparation. The basic proposal now before the Council did not set out as clear measures as the original initiative. Instead, it suggested that Helsinki pay special attention to purchases of less than € 60,000 in this regard.
The Coalition Party proposed in the Chamber that the matter be referred back to preparation.
“According to the law, the municipality does not have the opportunity to take a position on conflicts between foreign states and violations of international law,” the mayor Juhana Vartiainen (kok) said. He also considered the proposal impossible to implement for practical reasons.
“This is not about foreign policy, it’s about human rights,” he said Veronika Honkasalo (vas).
Both proponents and opponents of the initiative also listed extensively other states that committed human rights violations.
The original initiative was also considered awkward by many delegates, who eventually voted in favor of the matter being resumed immediately. For example Cloud Thursday (sd) called for greater reflection on the inclusion of human rights in the city’s procurement guidelines.
So since the motion for a return won, the matter will return to politicians later.
Read more: Are the people of Helsinki pulling into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
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