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Ex-Israel intel officers justify Mossad role against BDS

June 13, 2019 at 11:53 am

Protesters gathered in front of the Israeli Embassy in central London, in support of Gaza’s Great March of Return in London, UK on 30 March 2018 [Palestinian Forum in Britain]

Former Israeli intelligence officers and government officials have justified the reported involvement of Mossad in efforts to combat the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

Speaking to the Jerusalem Post, “some called BDS a real potential threat to the security of Israel” affirming that “the country must do its best to combat it”, and that “it was a good idea to utilize the agency to perform surveillance and sabotage some BDS activities”.

One such former official, ex-national security council chief and Major-General Yaakov Amidror, told the Jerusalem Post that “all – and I mean all – that Israel can do to fight BDS needs to be praised and acted on”.

“It is legitimate for the state to rally all means to stop a movement which is trying to go after the legitimacy of Israel,” he added.

READ: Israel forced closure of 30 BDS fundraising accounts

Other officials “note[d] the that Mossad’s mandate includes ‘special operations’ that might not be thought of as conventional intelligence work,” the paper continued.

“Thus, they said, the Mossad should be employed in the struggle against BDS, providing the operations are legal and discrete.”

The former officials added “it would be preferable that the Mossad – with its discrete skills in spy craft – carry out the assignments rather than another less experienced agency which might leave ‘fingerprints’.”

“The Mossad knows best how to carry out activities which leave people guessing about whether anything was actually done and who acted, they said,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

“Less experienced operatives from different agencies could even harm the Mossad’s reputation if their actions were clumsily revealed, they said.”

READ: Israel’s anti-BDS tactics mirror White South Africa’s defence of apartheid