Israel Implementing Ban On BDS Activists

By Daniel J. Solomon July 6, 2017

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 solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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