FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 2006 Contact: Nancy Hormachea, Co-Chair, NLG Middle East Subcommittee, 510-849-0996 Merrilyn Onisko, Co-Chair, NLG Middle East Subcommittee, 202-319-1541 Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, 212-679-5100, ext. 11 The National Lawyers Guild Urges Support for the Boycott of Israeli Goods by the Norwegian County of Sor-Trondelag On December 15, 2005, the Provincial Government of Sor-Trondelag, which includes Trondheim, Norway's third largest city, voted to boycott Israeli goods and urged its population to do the same. Sor-Trondelag was the first Norwegian county to boycott South Africa. It now condemns Israel's occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights; the establishment of settlements in violation of international law; the construction of the Wall, which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice; and the prohibition on the return of refugees. With this resolution, Sor-Trondelag hopes to spearhead a movement to condemn Israel world-wide. The National Lawyers Guild has been sending delegations to report on Israel's occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1977. In 1978 the NLG issued, "Treatment of Palestinians in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank and Gaza: Report of the National Lawyers Guild 1977 Middle East Delegation." The report was the first comprehensive analysis of Israel's practices published by any non-governmental organization (NGO) concerned with human rights. It documented violations by Israel, as a belligerent occupant of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, of the 1949 Geneva Convention. More recently, in 2001, an NLG Delegation was sent to the occupied Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip and issued a report titled, "The Al-Aqsa Intifada and Israel's Apartheid: The US Military and Economic Role in Violation of Palestinian Human Rights." (copies of that report are available at www.nlg.org). In keeping with the NLG's historic and recent positions on Palestine, particularly its "Resolution to Divest, in Practice and Principle, from Israel," "Resolution to Stop and Dismantle the Wall," and "Resolution Affirming the Individual and Collective Palestinian Right of Return," the NLG strongly supports the County of Sor-Trondelag's boycott Israel resolution and urges other governmental and non-governmental entities to do the same. Founded in 1937 as the first racially integrated national bar association, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States, with more than 200 chapters. Over 5,000 volunteer lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers work together “in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests,” as members of the National Lawyers Guild.