Israel’s high court asked to overturn boycott law

overturn boycott law

An Israeli peace group has petitioned the country’s Supreme Court to overturn a controversial new law banning boycotts of West Bank settlements, as international human rights groups and Israel’s own attorney general joined a growing chorus of the legislation’s critics.

The Gush Shalom peace group, which says it began calling for a boycott of settlement products back in the 1990s, alleged that the new law violates basic democratic principles. “The parliamentary majority seeks, through the Boycott Law as by other pieces of legislation, to silence any criticism of government policy in general and of government policy in the occupied territories in particular,” the statement said. The state has 60 days to respond to the suit, at which time the court will decide how to proceed. The law, approved Monday in a vote that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leading officials did not attend, allows settlers to sue Israelis who promote settlement boycotts.