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
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30