by Ariel Kahana
Strategic Affairs Ministry names 42 anti-Israel groups affiliated with Hamas, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, says they receive their orders from Palestinian Authority
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The BDS movement
comprises over 300 organizations worldwide, report says
Illustration: Reuters
The
Strategic Affairs Ministry on Tuesday named 42 major anti-Israel
organizations as having clear ties to Palestinian terrorist groups.
According to the ministry's data, these
groups – part of a network of 300 boycott, divestment and sanctions
organizations operating worldwide – have traceable ties to Hamas and
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and receive their
orders directly from the Palestinian Authority.
This network is directed by the BDS
National Committee, which is headed by the co-founder of the global BDS
movement Omar Barghouti, who holds permanent Israeli residency status
and lives in the northern city of Acre.
The Strategic Affairs Ministry, tasked by
the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet with heading Israel's efforts to
counter the BDS movement and its efforts to delegitimize Israel, has
spent the past two years mapping what it calls the "network of hatred."
The ministry's data shows that not only do
Hamas and the PLFP support BDS activists in theory, their operatives
take an active part in BDS initiatives.
The report names, for example, the Al-Haq
human rights organization, Defense for Children International –
Palestine, and the Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights as being
headed by former PFLP operatives.
Al-Haq is chaired by Shawan Jabarin, of
Ramallah, who served 13 years in an Israeli prison for being a member
of the PLFP's military wing. Jabarin is a leading figure in the BDS
movement's lawfare campaign against Israel, especially its attempts to
pursue legal action against Israeli officials in the International
Criminal Court in The Hague.
Other examples include groups such as the
Palestinian Return Center, which the ministry says promotes Hamas
interests in Europe; and members of the U.K.-based Palestine Solidarity
Campaign and Friends of Al-Aqsa group, which the ministry says have
neem with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, participated in the 2010 Navi
Marmara flotilla that sought to breach the maritime blockade on the
Gaza Strip, and have recently held a demonstration outside the British
Prime Minister's Office in support of Hamas so-called "March of
Return" or Gaza border riot campaign.
Speaking at the biennial GC4I conference in
Jerusalem Wednesday, attended by the directors of over 150 pro-Israeli
groups, as well as Jewish community heads and activists from around
the world dedicated to fighting the BDS movement, Strategic Affairs
Minister Gilad Erdan said much of the anti-Israel group's momentum is
fuel by the Palestinian Authority.
Ramallah is a longtime proponent of
anti-Israel boycotts and the National Palestinian Council has
officially endorsed the BDS movement during its annual meeting in May.
"We have seen the attempts led by senior Palestinian Authority officials to suspend Israel from FIFA and to promote various 'blacklists'
at the U.N. Human Rights Council. These campaigns have all been widely
promoted by the network of hatred exposed by the Strategic Affairs
Ministry," he said.
Erdan noted that leading world powers such
as the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Canada and others, were
turning their backs on the BDS movement, adding that in recent years,
25 states in the U.S. have passed laws foiling BDS activities after
their anti-Semitic and discriminatory nature was exposed.
Erdan further said that the ministry has
identified a new BDS trend – calling for trade embargos against the
Jewish state, especially with respect to its military industries,
saying that BDS activists were lobbying among parliamentarians
worldwide to boycott Israeli defense contractors.
"Terrorist organizations and the BDS
movement have never been closer, ideologically and operationally. I
will continue to lead a counterattack against the perpetrators of the
anti-Semitic hate campaign emanating from Gaza and Ramallah."
Ariel Kahana
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/06/20/major-bds-groups-have-ties-to-palestinian-terror-groups-ministry-says/
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