Netanyahu made the decision to ban the members of 20 organizations from entering Israel because of their support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign is the latest escalation in Israel’s offensive against the Palestinians.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The ban prevents many of those who support the establishment of a Palestinian state from entering Israel, including occupied Jerusalem—which Israel annexed illegally after the 1967 war, and other Occupied Territories. Its aim is to deepen the isolation of the Palestinians and quash both international and domestic opposition.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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This decision is a violation of freedom of speech, above all the right to criticize government policies and human rights violations and to advocate non-violent actions to address human rights abuses, as well as the right of free movement and travel.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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The 20 organisations include the Palestine-based BDS National Committee, the UK-based Friends of al-Aqsa group, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestine solidarity and BDS activist organisations across Europe, in South America, South Africa and the United States, the anti-poverty NGO War on Want, the US-based Jewish Voice for Peace group, the American Quaker organisation, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for helping victims of the Nazis, American Muslims for Palestine, and Code Pink.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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Israeli minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan announced the list, saying that “boycott organizations need to know that Israel will act against them and not allow [them] to enter its territory to harm its citizens.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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“We have shifted from defense to offence. No country would have allowed critics to harm the country by entering it,” he added.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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BDS was founded in 2005 following a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, academic boycotts initiated in Britain, and after a call by 170 Palestinian NGOs for boycott, divestments and sanctions as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel. Run by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, it seeks an end to Israel’s occupation, settlements in Palestinian land and the Golan Heights and the blockade of Gaza, full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel and acknowledgement of the right of return of Palestinian refugees.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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Although the BDS movement has had little effect on Israel’s economic relations, with its main impact being in the field of academic boycotts and the cancellation of some entertainers’ visits, it has provoked a furious response from Israel.<\/p>","content_source":"","content_url":"","content_columns":"0","content_date_start":"2018-01-13 13:54:46","content_date_finish":"2018-01-13 13:54:46","content_date_register":"2018-01-13 14:08:42","content_date_last_edit":"2018-01-13 14:08:42","content_show_img":"1","content_show_details":"0","content_show_related_img":"0","content_show_slider":"1","content_show_title_slider":"1","content_comment":"1","content_score":"0","content_recorded":"0","content_confirmed":"0","content_status":"1","content_kind":"0","old_id":"0","tag_id":null,"tag_word":null,"tag_service":null,"tag_total":null,"tag_soundex":null,"attach_token":"2426525210","attach_date_register":"2018-01-13 14:07:48","attach_id":"415590","attach_file_ext":"jpg","attach_file_header":"image\/jpeg","attach_img_type":"2","attach_img_width":"640","attach_img_height":"360","attach_file_media":"1","attach_show_watermark":"1","score_average":null,"score_count":null,"score_date_last":null,"visit_count":"258","visit_date_last":"2025-05-14 04:23:56","attach_title":"69063090100084640360no","node_title":"news","ot_node_left_right":"[{\"node_id\":122, \"left\":2, \"right\":53}]"}]]