Israel accused European Union institutions on Friday of funding non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that promote "anti-Israel boycotts" and called for the support to end.
Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry published a report with a list of groups that it says receive EU funding and call for boycotts against Israel. It said some of the groups had links to militant groups while receiving EU money.
The report was the latest salvo by Israel in its fight against a global movement calling for boycotts, divestment and sanctions over of its treatment of the Palestinians. The movement, known as BDS, has urged businesses, artists and universities to sever ties with Israel and it includes thousands of volunteers around the world. Supporters of the movement say the tactics are a nonviolent way to promote the Palestinian cause.
Munjid Abu Jaish of PNGO Net called Friday's report "another Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and their institutions." "We will continue our legal nonviolent struggle according to the international law, regardless of the results, because we believe in this path," he said, as reported by AP. The call to the EU follows other steps Israel has taken to ratchet up its fight against the boycott movement. Earlier this year, Israel identified 20 activist groups from around the world whose members would be banned from entering the country over their calls to boycott the Jewish state.
For its part, the EU has recommended that its member states put special labels on exports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It has stopped short of banning settlement products, but they do not receive the same tax emptions that products made in Israel receive. The EU has upheld the free expression rights of its citizens to call for a boycott of Israel but has stressed that the body opposed any boycott of Israel.
Israel has been at odds with the EU over the Israeli use of live fire targeting unarmed Palestinians as well as Trump's decision to unilaterally withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
As tensions simmer between Israel and EU, a senior European official warned Israel not to "disparage" Europe, adding that Donald Trump's legacy may be scrapped, according to Israel Television News Company's Hadashot TV news bulletin, The Times of Israel, an Israel-based online newspaper reported. The remarks came after Israel has summoned the ambassadors of Spain, Slovenia and Belgium over their votes at a U.N. body calling for an international probe of the deadly shootings of dozens of Palestinians on the Gaza border, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.
