Towns' Decison to boycott Israel costs them $3.7 million

I'm not laughing. Really, I'm not.

Its more of a chortle.

The Australian town of Marrickville's Green party-controlled city council recently made the decision to boycott goods and services from Israel. It looks like this move will cost local taxpayers at least $3.7 million.

According to a paper written by the council's manager of services, Gary Moore, there are many goods and services the council that would need to be eliminated in order to comply with the BDS directive including Hewlett Packard computers, Holden and Volvo cars, telephones and other equipment from Motorola and concrete from Fulton Hogan.

The report estimates the cost of replacing certain IT assets at $3.5m, and the annual cost of using a different concrete supplier at $250,000. It does not attempt to estimate the cost of replacing vehicles, and says changing waste-disposal service providers may not even be possible. It noted the council might need to spend $5000 to $10,000 in legal fees just to determine whether the original motion on the boycott was lawful under anti-discrimination laws.

Independent councillor Victor Macri declared, " A boycott of Israel will hurt Marrickville ratepayers far more than it will Israel."

Indeed it will, Mr. Macri. but really, isn't it a small price to pay to eliminate the world's only Jewish state?