A European delegation was yesterday
banned from visiting the occupied Palestinian territories because of its support for the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, the
Times of Israel reported.
Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri would not allow the 20-strong team, which includes French MPs and mayors and members of the European Parliament, to undergo a visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank on 19-23 November.The group was due to visit Palestinian MP Marwan Barghouthi and other Palestinian prisoners who are being held in Israeli jails.
Deri said that the EU officials would be refused entry if they landed in Israel, and that he would also notify them in advance in the hope that they will not make the journey at all.
"This is not the first time I have denied entry to BDS activists," the Israeli minister said, "but this time it is a delegation of European officials who are coming in order to work against Israel, which gives [the decision] more weight."
"We will not allow entry to those who actively call for harming the State of Israel," he said. "We are talking about political leaders who actively support the boycott against Israel and even promote it."
Comment: How shocking that someone would support a boycott against Israel, an apartheid state that regularly persecutes, imprisons and murders Palestinians. The only argument Israelis have against the charges against them is that the 'Palestinians don't accept Israel's right to exist'. But this is a spurious argument given that from the very beginning of its creation in 1948, the Zionist entity set out to destroy the very existence of the Palestinians as a people. Evidence for this is seen today in the fact that very little remains of historical Palestine, most of it having already been incorporated into Israel via illegal Israeli settlements and rabidly racist settlers.
It is therefore the duty and responsibility of every person of conscience to support, in whatever way they can, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement as a way to curtail Israeli brutality.
Comment: How shocking that someone would support a boycott against Israel, an apartheid state that regularly persecutes, imprisons and murders Palestinians. The only argument Israelis have against the charges against them is that the 'Palestinians don't accept Israel's right to exist'. But this is a spurious argument given that from the very beginning of its creation in 1948, the Zionist entity set out to destroy the very existence of the Palestinians as a people. Evidence for this is seen today in the fact that very little remains of historical Palestine, most of it having already been incorporated into Israel via illegal Israeli settlements and rabidly racist settlers.
It is therefore the duty and responsibility of every person of conscience to support, in whatever way they can, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement as a way to curtail Israeli brutality.