Israel's anti-boycott belligerence

A bill seeking to outlaw boycotts of Israeli institutions and products – including in settlements – is diplomatically explosive


A new "anti-boycott bill", the third in a series of proposed laws that aim to curtail the ability of civil society to criticise Israeli government policy, will punish Israelis or foreign nationals who initiate or promote a boycott of Israel.

The bill not only prohibits boycotts of legal Israeli institutions, but also of settlement activities and products. It seeks to impose fines on Israelis who "promote boycotts" and transfer the fines to boycotted organisations.

It will impose a 10-year entry ban on foreign residents engaging in boycotts, and forbid them to carry out any economic activities in Israel.

Heavy sanctions will also be imposed on "foreign political entities" engaging in boycotts. Any government promoting a boycott will be "prohibited from carrying out any action in Israeli bank accounts, in shares traded in Israel, in land or in any other property requiring registration of transfer", and no money or property will be transferred from Israel to that government.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/30/israel-anti-boycott-bill

about resisting a boycott campaign? Do you think the Israelis should just sit back and take it? Whatever the rights and wrongs of Israel and its government, do you think a country has no right to object to a boycott and to try everything in its power to make the boycott unfeasible or at least uneconomical?

about laws criminalizing a boycott. Everything.

But criminalizing political activities, and support for them, even when you diaagree with them, is anti-democratic.

economic activity.

Should the city of Montgomery, Alabama have passed a law making it illegal to encourage participation in the public bus boycott because it was destroying its revenue and tarnishing its image?

And the economic blockade of Gaza is different too.

at least as far as the Occupation goes.

This may be the only nonviolent way to do so.

The boycott is a legitimate and humane method of supporting the Palestinian people in their struggle against oppression. Israel would lose nothing if it stopped doing the things that inspired the boycott.