The anti-boycott bill that the Israeli Knesset passed yesterday will principally affect those Israelis who call for boycotts of Israel or illegal settlements in occupied Palestine. But how will it affect the global Palestine solidarity movement, and those who advocate for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) that target Israel?
Noam Sheizaf at the excellent +972 Magazine has an important “reader’s guide” up where he is taking questions on the anti-boycott bill. I asked him to address the question of whether international BDS activists will be affected by the new law. My question:
International activists have, following the Palestinian call, been leading the BDS movement and calling for boycotts of Israel. While I have not seen any language concerning foreign nationals in the bill, is there any indication that internationals may also be affected by the law?
The recent “air flotilla” exposed Israel’s policy of denying entry to those who openly proclaim their intent to visit occupied Palestine. Can being a BDS activist now land you in trouble at Ben-Gurion or Allenby, in the form of being denied entry?
Can someone claiming economic damage from a boycott call now attempt to sue foreign nationals or foreign organizations?
Sheizaf asked Mairav Zonszein, who is a contributor to +972 and who does media work for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, about this aspect of the law. Here’s the response:
When in Israel, one needs to obey Israeli laws, including ones concerning damages. From what I heard from ACRI (Association of Civil Rights in Israel, which has been in the frontline of the struggle against the law), the anti-boycott law would include foreign nationals as well – as long as they make the boycott call while in Israel. One reservation is that it’s not a criminal law, so you need someone to actually sue you for damages, and the court needs to be able to collect them. My guess is that if this law remains active, rightwing and settlers’ organizations will become serial prosecutors plaintiffs of boycottes in order to silence dissent, and, of coarse, make some money on the way.
The law doesn’t apply to foreign nationals in the West Bank, which is under military rule and not Israeli civilian law. It does apply to Israelis everywhere in the world.
The leadership of the Palestinian-led BDS movement, though, say the movement won’t be deterred by this law. In fact, the other way the law will affect the BDS movement is that it will undoubtedly strengthen calls for boycotts of Israel and its settlement policy.
Alex Kane, a freelance journalist currently based in Amman, Jordan, blogs on Israel/Palestine at alexbkane.wordpress.com, where this post originally appeared. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.
Banning boycotters is like banning short selling in finance.
It does not recognise the severity of the underlying problem and it solves nothing. It does not put off the evil day .
And like short selling, it serves an economic and often a broader function.
That’s right. In politics, at least in a democracy, shorting is called dissent.
Mondo folks, the earth has already shifted. Americans in larger numbers than we had suspected, are surprisingly actually informed enough about Apartheid israel and are voicing their utter repulsion and rejection of zionism and israel.
Just go check out the comments section in this yahoo article on the israeli boycott laws:
link to news.yahoo.com
I would estimate a good 85% of yahoo comments on the I/P conflict are usually pro israel. Well it don’t seem to be the case no more. Americans really are waking up to the zionist occupation of Palestine AND our congress and they ain’t shy or afraid to hate on Apartheid israel in public.
The anger of comments stems from their latest fascist law. It’s only a matter of time before a strong and vocal majority, within the United States, is aware of the oppressive occupation and begins to counter the lies that have been sacrosanct to the lobby. Needless to say, I cant wait for that day.
Even your average Joe and Jane can see the depth of zionist corruption in congress now. No amount of PR spin can fix this from here on.
The next election debates regarding foreign aid should be interesting.
Wow. Never underestimate the ability of the Likudniks of being really, really stupid. A boycott is always dicey and is susceptible to counter-boycotts and loyalty buying. Add to that 95% of Americans don’t even care about this issue. But now I see tons of people calling for pulling the plug on U.S. aid to Israel. That’ll leave a mark.
Alex, this raises an important point. There are well over 600,0oo-700,000 ex-pat Israelis outside Israel (exact number is, of course, unknown). This is the first of several reactionary laws coming out of Israel that may affect them. The majority of those ex-pats are staunch israel supporters but an unknown fraction has gone through a “personal restructuring” (as I call it), and are now firmly in the “pro-palestinian” camp. Many, like me, actively call fro BDS and do their best to practice it. I practice a maximal form of BDS and boycott almost anything that comes from israel – to the best of my abilities. The reason being that Israel- as a country – supports and practices a creeping – and creepy – form of ethnic cleansing and oppression against other humans. If you look at +972, there’s another article detailing a poll that shows most Israelis support this recent anti-free-speech, anti-democratic law. So, the country as a whole is in on what’s being done to the palestinians, not just some far-right fraction. This is something that many people active on behalf of palestinians, much less liberal zionist types, have yet to concede. Netanyahu is there because the voters want him there. And he ain’t the worst, which is yet to come,
That being said, I think it would be the smart thing to do for well-meaning Israelis to take the necessary steps to shed the Israeli nationality. I have been going through this process for a while (as I mentioned here before), and I know it’s a convoluted one (they ask for every piece of paper you ever had, among other things). By way of warning: it’s also an extremely intrusive procedure – they want to copy all the pages of every other passport you have for any country, among other things, records of all marriages and divorces, children birth certificates and what not.
Nonetheless I urge every ex-pat to do what needs to be done, especially if they have left-leaning politics. I expect it’ll be only a question of time before israelis abroad (even if they have resided outside their entire lives) will be sued by the settlers and friends. I also expect this ill-wind to blow in the direction of this country – just give it time.
The time is coming that even a dormant israeli citizenship will be seen as a tremendous liability. Other than some who do business with both countries I see no reason to keep it – especially since it provides no benefit and raises the specter of not only “dual” loyalty, but single loyalty – to israel and not to one’s new country. That is, if one has no intention of going back.
Come to think of it, I wonder what people like the “general’s son” and even someone radical like Gilad are going to do. The writing, I think, is on the wall. I better go and find that one little document that’s still holding things up for me.
Danaa
It does seem that any Israeli expat with assets in Israel would be vulnerable. Solution should be simple in that case. Sell your property in Israel and transfer accounts out of Israeli banks and investment houses. This would have the added benefit of putting sell pressure on Israeli assets thus weakening prices. Financial BDS as it were.
Danaa,
The idea has certainly crossed my mind. Apart from my very severe allergy to bureaucracy (risk of anaphylactic shock), I am really concerned about being denied entry at some point. My wife and I have elderly parents in Israel, as well as siblings, and nieces and nephews as numerous as the stars in the heavens. As Israeli citizens – new law notwithstanding – they can do all sorts of things to us, but they have to let us in. Sometimes, that’s all that matters.
Here is one of your Pro-Palestinian International Activists. Charming, but a good fit at MW
link to palestinechronicle.com
>> Britain’s foreign policy remains perfectly aligned with the demands of Israel and its protector, the United States. Long-time friends and admirers of the Israeli regime, such as William Hague and Alistair Burt, are hand-picked to make sure we do not stray from the pro-Israel path no matter how diabolically criminal that regime’s conduct or how offensive the agenda of these Israeli-firsters to ordinary decent British citizens.
Nothing wrong with that. The priority of a nation’s politicians should be to ensure their nation’s well-being without trampling on the well-being of other nations. British, American, Canadian or other politicians – Zionist or otherwise – have no right to place the well-being of Israel on par with, or above, the well-being of their own nations, ESPECIALLY when Israel is very much a rogue state engaged, among other things, in an ON-GOING, offensive campaign of aggression, oppression, theft, colonization, destruction and murder against Palestinians.
Why haven’t we heard from you on the article highlighting institutionalized torture of children by Israel? This article? Did you miss it?
Right Chaos, the UN, now there is a credible institution. North Korea chairing a disarmament conference? Makes perfect senses. UN Human Rights Council? Wasn’t Libya on that and Syria almost made it?
Yup, fits right in with you.
Poor poor Israel. All longliveisrael can talk about is N. Korea, Syria and Libya. Anything but Israel. Every body look over there, look over there, whatever you do, do not look over here. Don’t you think your pathetic Zionist state is in trouble if all you can do is compare it to those three countries? If that is the comparison you wish, then let me tell you — I agree. Let the world know Israel, N. Korea, Syria and Libya stand as one.
Yea, whenever Israel does something illegal/immoral/etc., Zionists shout ‘look over there!’
Your diversionary tactics are stale, longliveisrael.
Do you represent the average Israeli, by the way, with your blatant contempt for the United Nations and everything it stands for?
interesting read. is he putting *all* the blame, in an intellectually false manner, on zionists/zionism/israel? you bet. does his calls for checking zionism reek of reactionary, and racist ideas, largely unspoken but alluded to? yes. does he generalize “jews” when he really should target “right-wing zionists, of any creed, who support and excuse the current realities”. sadly, he does. hence it is anti-semitic.
the bigger question is not the massive injustice zionism historically and currently represents, or the fact that many other nations and utterly non-zionist players are involved in similarly horrid crimes….
the question is if YOU realize how racist and dangerous the ideology has become as a whole (or honestly, always was). granted, zionism was not monolithic in the early 1900s/early israel, and though it is more uniform now, it still has a spectrum of adherents.
do you see the illiberal, racist, illegal, expansionist trends endemic with zionism, as a whole? do you see the right wing warmongering and the clash of civilizations narrative some zionists relish, and feed into?
basically… do you see the negatives associated with prevailing zionism, and israeli policies? do you fight these negatives, so clearly in your face?
you can still be a zionist, and you must be with the name “longliveisrael”…. i have zionists friends, and some have constructive positions which can salvage their “jewish state”, yet also cling to a modicum of morality under the “realpolitik” shelter. but the bulk of zionists i know are sickly partisan, myopic, and biased to a fault. what is your zionism longliveisrael? do you realize that the zionist right lacks introspection, or respect for basic human rights? the zionist right may, or may not, end in the utter destruction of the jewish state, but it is clearly dragging its already dirty history deeper and deeper into the mud.
do you spend your time attacking people, but no time taking an honest look at israel? ignore israel’s present and trajectory at your peril, as clearly, israel needs to be saved from itself….. i do think israel is not going away (with nukes and the samson policy), but is it sliding into an abyss of expansionism, racism, militarism, and perpetual violence; and it need not, as the world knows a transparent peace deal along 1967 can be inked (and COULD HAVE been inked). moderate zionists content with the armistice lines, and an internationalized or israeli-controlled old city, could save israel’s shreds of decency…. but i do not hear them all that much, and the slide continues. and i think you enjoy the slide…. sitting high with the “military edge”, you miss the immorality so easily apparent.
… the excellent +972 Magazine …. you write. To me they are OK, and jewish only.
You know how I think about those “we jews” congregations. Have not brought peace in a century. Tip: read EI.
their coverage is not jewish only, at all. nor are their writers. maybe you should go over there and click on the bios of some of their authors.
It is becoming abundantly clear that the people who run Israel are not your people, America.
Israeli kindergartners now required to sing Hatikva :
link to haaretz.com
“The new directives are part of a series of initiatives launched by Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar aimed at strengthening pupils’ Jewish and Zionist identity. These have included “adopting” a grave of a fallen soldier, school visits to Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the Israeli Journey program sponsored by the Bereshit association headed by Rabbi Motti Elon, and expanding visits to Jerusalem, with a stress on the City of David.”
ADL condemns boycott law :
link to haaretz.com
if the settlers walk like fascists and talk like fascists…
a stunning article by über settler Israel Harel.
The settlers don’t want democracy if it gets in the way of Erez Israel.
link to haaretz.com
“If Israeli citizens weren’t betraying their country and being convicted of acts of terror, there would be no need for a law revoking their citizenship. And if all citizens met their military service obligations there would be no need for a (“discriminatory” ) law that gives benefits and priority to those who risk their lives for the country.
The existence of a small and specific group that has united against these laws aimed at reinforcing the state’s values and sovereignty obligates the majority to voice its support for the general trend of these laws.
These legislative initiatives, some of which indeed go too far, such as the parliamentary inquiry of leftist organization (that’s what happens when one must deflect attacks from all quarters ), are attempting to restore some order to the insanity”
Israel is going to collapse into a civil war that will involve unspeakable violence against leftist Jews who want to save Israel’s democracy from the settlers who now control government.
The trigger will be international action over the Palestinian state. It could even start in September.
There is simply no way that the settlers can win and they are not prepared to lose. It is going to be awful.
I’d like to know if occupied Palestinians can sue under the law. The english translation didn’t make any distinction that the “economic harm” had to be against Israel, Israelis, or Jews, in the “lands under Israeli control.” Surely what the settlers do on a daily basis is “economic harm” to parties in “lands under its [Israel's] control.”
Maybe the hebrew version is different.