Israel Implementing Ban On BDS Activists
Israel has issued formal guidelines to block the entry into the country of those supporting the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction the country for its occupation of the Palestinian territories.
According to Haaretz, new regulations from Israel’s border police state that agents should refuse visitors entry if they believe the person has traveled to Israel to promote BDS against the country, including the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. It didn’t explain how the officials might find that out.
The new guidelines also specify that those believed to be planning a visit to the West Bank or Gaza should be subjected to extra questioning from a representative of the Israel Defense Forces.
The regulations come after a law passed in the Knesset that allows the state to refuse entry to those supporting the BDS movement. The law could result in the denial of entry for liberal Zionists, many of whom back a limited boycott of West Bank settlements, not Israel proper.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
