Public Security Minsiter Gilad Erdan called on Israelis on Sunday to cooperate with the state in ridding the country of foreigners who support a boycott of Israel.
Advertisement
Minister Erdan said that stopping boycott supporters from entering Israel is an obvious step “considering the malicious intentions of those delegitimization activists who act to disseminate lies and distort reality in our region”.
Earlier on Sunday, the director-general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry praised the government’s campaigns against the BDS movement, as Sima Vaknin-Gil spoke of worldwide delegitimization of Israel as a threat to the state.
Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post reported Interior Minister Aryeh Deri saying: “We have the responsibility to do all we can to crush the boycott and say clearly that we will not allow the State of Israel to be harmed”. “Deporting BDS activists in order to silence them and undermine their principled support for Palestinian human rights is not only anti-democratic; it is yet another incident of Israel shooting itself in the foot”, he said.
This led to a significant, but temporary, fallout with the European Union previous year when it passed guidelines stipulating any goods from Israeli settlements in occupied territories must be labeled as such – a move seen by Israel as facilitating the boycott.
Erdan says a committee has also been formed to explore legal options against the activists.
Palestine-born movement Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) has grown into a global movement advocating for an economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel until it withdraws from territories occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. “Our goal is that by 2025 no one will question whether the State of Israel has the right to exist”.
A senior Israeli official, who attended the meeting and spoke to Haaretz on the condition of anonymity, said that police representatives at a meeting on the task forced agreed that BDS activists are provoking Palestinians in the West Bank to confront Israeli forces and disrupt their operations.
BDS chief Omar Barghouti did not have his travel documents renewed in April and Deri was considering revoking his permanent residency altogether.
Advertisement
BDS has grown into an effective worldwide effort as many companies and celebrities are joining efforts to hold Israel accountable for illegal actions against Palestinians, such as settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
