Meron Rapoport
Middle East Eye
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was in a triumphant mood last week. His coalition has managed to pass a few controversial laws and his government was about approve its record high budget for 2019: 400 billion Shekel ($117bn).
"Israel finds itself in an unprecedented phase of political might, economic might and military might and it changes the country beyond recognition," he said in a speech at an economic conference in Jerusalem on Thursday.
As with every politician, there was a certain amount of bragging in Netanyahu's words. Yet it cannot be denied that Israel looks good in numbers. Its economy grew three percent in 2017, its exports passed the $100bn mark for the first time and the exports of Israeli high-tech companies have more than doubled to a record of $23bn. Israel's GDP per capita has passed the $40,000 bar, higher than France. Only 10 years ago it stood at $25,000 per capita.
Yet early in the same week in which Netanyahu delivered his jubilant speech, his government announced new measures again the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement: it prohibited activists from several allegedly pro-BDS organisations from entering Israel. If Israel's economy is going so well, what has it to fear from a boycott movement which does not seem to have had any real effect so far?
Last week's move was just another step in a battle Israel is waging against the boycott movement. In 2011 it passed a law which defined any boycott of Israel or "areas under its control" - a legal term used to describe the occupied West Bank - as a "civil wrong". Anyone infringing this law is libel to pay compensation for the damage done.
Last year Israel went one step further and passed a law allowing the minister of interior to bar entry to anyone promoting boycott or sanctions against it. The measures announced last week were taken according to the entry ban law.
There is no doubt that these new measures take Israel further away from its claim to be "the only democracy in the Middle East". Among the organisations named in last week's announcement is the American Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Read more
Middle East Eye
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was in a triumphant mood last week. His coalition has managed to pass a few controversial laws and his government was about approve its record high budget for 2019: 400 billion Shekel ($117bn).
"Israel finds itself in an unprecedented phase of political might, economic might and military might and it changes the country beyond recognition," he said in a speech at an economic conference in Jerusalem on Thursday.
As with every politician, there was a certain amount of bragging in Netanyahu's words. Yet it cannot be denied that Israel looks good in numbers. Its economy grew three percent in 2017, its exports passed the $100bn mark for the first time and the exports of Israeli high-tech companies have more than doubled to a record of $23bn. Israel's GDP per capita has passed the $40,000 bar, higher than France. Only 10 years ago it stood at $25,000 per capita.
Yet early in the same week in which Netanyahu delivered his jubilant speech, his government announced new measures again the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement: it prohibited activists from several allegedly pro-BDS organisations from entering Israel. If Israel's economy is going so well, what has it to fear from a boycott movement which does not seem to have had any real effect so far?
Last week's move was just another step in a battle Israel is waging against the boycott movement. In 2011 it passed a law which defined any boycott of Israel or "areas under its control" - a legal term used to describe the occupied West Bank - as a "civil wrong". Anyone infringing this law is libel to pay compensation for the damage done.
Last year Israel went one step further and passed a law allowing the minister of interior to bar entry to anyone promoting boycott or sanctions against it. The measures announced last week were taken according to the entry ban law.
There is no doubt that these new measures take Israel further away from its claim to be "the only democracy in the Middle East". Among the organisations named in last week's announcement is the American Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Read more
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