Israel works to limit effects of BDS

Israeli government officials and representatives of the European Union have held meeting over the past few days to prevent the labelling of products made in the settlements, local radio revealed yesterday.

The station quoted anonymous Israeli officials as saying that these meetings come within a campaign launched by Israel to counter and “limit the consequences of the boycott”, including the economic boycott led by the BDS movement.

Since the start of 2014, the European Union officially started to boycott Israeli settlements in all fields, including commercial, academic and investment perspectives, while customs services in the European Union began to mark products from settlements to make them visible to European consumers.

The EU’s decision to boycott settlements at various levels is based on the judgments issued by the International Court in The Hague in 2004, which stressed on the necessity of taking a position towards Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian lands in the West Bank, highlighting that the settlements violate Article 49 of the Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying state from allowing its population to inhabit a territory it has occupied.

Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on both the right and left to unite in the face of the international boycott campaign, which is threatening Israel’s economy.

Mahmoud Nawajaa, the general coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) and a Palestinian from the West Bank, said that the movement is achieving its goals and the number of volunteers affiliated with the movement is increasing around the world, this is “putting more pressure on Israel”.

In an interview with the Anadolu Agency yesterday, he added: “Over the past few days, the movement has achieved great success, especially the movement of the boycott of Israel in Egypt, through putting pressure on the French company Orange to withdraw its communications’ investments from Israel, and we expect additional pressure on Israel by the movement in the coming months.”