BDS slams Palestinian and Arab leaders’ participation in Israel’s Herzliya Conference

The Palestinian BDS National Committee has strongly condemned the participation of Palestinian and Arab speakers in the Israeli Herzliya conference, saying it constitutes a conscious complicity with Israel’s plan to consolidate the occupation, settlement and apartheid regime.

The Committee said in a statement on Thursday that a number of Arab and Palestinian figures, including member of the PLO Executive Committee Ahmed Al-Majdalani and Vice-Chairman of the PLO Committee for Interaction with the Israeli Society Elias Zananiri, have participated in the Herzliya Conference.

The ambassadors of Egypt and Jordan and members of the Arab Joint List in the Israeli Knesset, alongside mayors of Arab municipalities in Israel, also attended.

The statement said their participation harms Palestinian popular resistance and international solidarity movements with the Palestinian struggle.

“Participating in a conference that is dedicated to strengthening Israel as a Jewish state and to promote its security and colonial strategy … weakens the struggle of Palestinians everywhere and specifically inside Israel,” it added.

The committee has called to stop security coordination with Israel and to hold Majdalani and Zananiri accountable for their attendance, as well as to dissolve Zananiri’s committee.