Palestinian BDS committee slams Israeli anti-boycott law

Maan News Agency:

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian BDS National Committee released a statement Tuesday slamming an Israeli law which criminalizes the boycott of Israel or illegal Israeli settlements. “Israel is once again taking draconian measures to criminalize civil resistance to its system of apartheid, colonialism and occupation over the Palestinian people. "But so long as Israel continues its illegal siege of the Gaza Strip, brutal occupation, denial of Palestinian refugee rights and system of institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians, repressive acts such as these will only offer further evidence of the undemocratic and oppressive nature of Israeli political life and motivate even more people of conscience to join our global BDS movement for freedom, justice and equality,” the coordinator of the committee Hind Awwad said Tuesday. “We stand in solidarity with all principled Israeli citizens and organizations who are the primary target of this law, and who may be fined and even imprisoned for exercising their fundamental right to speak out and act non-violently in order to bring their state into compliance with international law,” Awwad added. The Palestinian civil society campaign for BDS calls for applying broad boycott, divestment and sanctions [BDS] initiatives against Israel, similar to those applied to South Africa during the apartheid era, until Israel meets its obligations under international law by respecting the basic right of the Palestinian people to self determination, the statement said. The Israeli parliament approved a law on July 11 which effectively bans Israelis from calling for a boycott of Israel or illegal settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.