Watchdogs slam IsraHell law making boycott calls illegal

Israeli human rights watchdogs lashed out on Tuesday at the passage of a parliamentary bill clearing the way for lawsuits against groups urging boycotts of Israel or its settlements, dubbing the legislation a threat to democracy.

Photograph by: Amir Cohen, Reuters

JERUSALEM — Israeli human rights watchdogs lashed out on Tuesday at the passage of a parliamentary bill clearing the way for lawsuits against groups urging boycotts of Israel or its settlements, dubbing the legislation a threat to democracy. 
 
The so-called “boycott ban” passed Israel’s 120-seat Knesset late Monday by a vote of 47 to 38, despite the absence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and much of his cabinet.
 
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel accused Netanyahu of trying to hide behind the members of his right-wing Likud party who introduced the bill and warned the law would draw international opprobrium.
 
“The Boycott Law will lead to unprecedented harm to freedom of expression in Israel and will bring justified criticism against Israel from abroad. We will all have to pay the price for this atrocious law,” said ACRI executive director Hagai El-Ad.
 
The legislation makes it a civil offence to call for the boycott of “the state of Israel, one of its institutions, or an area under its control,” with the last clause seen as a direct reference to Israel’s West Bank settlements.
 
Those accused of calling for such a boycott can be sued by any individual or institution claiming damage as a result, and organizations found to have called for a boycott risk losing their tax-exempt status.
 
Watchdogs and campaign groups accused parliament of providing Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territories with blanket protection from criticism.
 
“The bill seeks to enforce legal protection for an illegal project,” said Hadas Ziv of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. “It signals a de jure annexation of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.”
 
Eilat Maoz of the Coalition of Women for Peace accused the Knesset of “political persecution,” warning that the law would “create an atmosphere of fear” and “incite the entire Israeli public against peace and human rights activists and organisations.”
 
In a column in the Maariv newspaper, commentator Ben Caspit denounced the new law as “fascism.”
 
“When private citizens can be convicted for voicing their opinions . . . this is fascism. This is a blatant and resounding shutting of people’s mouths. This is the thought police. There is no choice but to use this word,” he wrote.
 
Caspit, who said he personally opposed the use of boycotts against Israel or its settlements, wrote that the law was likely to further damage the Jewish state’s image overseas and accused the right-leaning ruling coalition of “running amok.”
 
Fellow commentator Sima Kadmon wrote in the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot daily that Netanyahu had chosen to avoid the vote because he realized the law “is one of the most anti-democratic . . . ever passed by the plenum.”
 
“This is a law that even in its softened version still suppresses the freedom of speech and the freedom to protest in Israel, which is liable to sabotage mortally Israeli discourse,” she wrote.
 
Israeli human rights groups have announced plans to challenge the law both before the courts and in practice.
 
Anti-settlement organization Peace Now has already set up a Facebook group called “Prosecute me, I boycott the settlements!”