Anti-Boycott Law

Human Rights Watch Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir speaks to press ahead of his deportation from Israel, flanked by HRW head Kenneth Roth, right, and attorney Michael Sfard, left, November 25, 2019 (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org).

How Israel’s top court outlawed moral opposition to the occupation

In the topsy-turvy world of Israel's High Court, international law is nothing more than a disguise to delegitimize the state and its settlements.

By Hagai El-Ad January 16, 2020

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch (Courtesy of Omar Shakir).

Supreme Court rules Israel can expel top Human Rights Watch director

Israel's top court says Omar Shakir can be deported, escalating the government's efforts to silence criticism of its policies.

By Henriette Chacar November 5, 2019

Right-wing protesters wave Israeli flags as they demonstrate against a ceremony commemorating the Nakba that was held by Palestinian and Israeli students in the entrance to the Tel Aviv University. The event took place under heavy police presence, May 13, 2013. (Photo by: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

The redundancy of Israel’s ‘Jewish Nation-State Law’

The Israeli government is pushing a law that would force judges to prioritize Israel’s Jewish character over democratic principles. But that has always been the case. The “Jewish Nation-State Law,” which is currently making its way through the Knesset as a proposed Basic Law – the closest thing Israel has to a constitutional amendment – would require…

By Amjad Iraqi July 12, 2017

Latest

Thousands attend a protest in Wadi Ara, northern Israel, following recent housing demolitions and the death of Yacoub Abu al-Qi'an earlier this week. January 21, 2017. (Basel Awidat/Flash90)

Arab citizens, not Israeli leftists, pay the real price for speaking out

The Israeli government may be cracking down on human rights NGOs and left-wing activists, but Palestinians citizens of Israel are the ones suffering from concrete persecution — with sometimes fatal results. The recently-passed law prohibiting the entry of boycott supporters into Israel is just the latest in a string of legislation and administrative measures aimed at curtailing…

By Roi Maor March 12, 2017

Participants in the Open Hillel Conference, Harvard University. (photo: Gili Getz)

Israel passes ‘dissenter ban’ barring entry to boycott advocates

It’s impossible to predict how and against whom the new law will be applied, but the message it sends is clear: if your politics don’t toe the Israeli government line, you won’t be allowed in. Even if your opposition is entirely non-violent. As Donald Trump signed a revised travel ban against nationals of six Muslim countries…

By Mairav Zonszein March 7, 2017

BDS graffiti on Israeli separation wall, Bethlehem, West Bank, June 17, 2014. (Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

The right to boycott is non-negotiable

Regardless of one’s views of BDS, it is ridiculous that one should have to tell self-proclaimed ‘democracies’ that the right to boycott is a basic civil right, not a punishable crime. Last week, over 120 people attended a conference in Nazareth on the subject of “BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) and ‘48 Palestinians (citizens living…

By Amjad Iraqi March 2, 2016

Panel of the Israeli Supreme Court (file photo, Activestills.org)

Boycott goes on trial in Israel’s High Court

Civil rights organizations argue the ‘anti-boycott law’ has created a chilling effect, stifling debate on one of the most divisive issues facing Israeli society. If that’s the case, the state counters, then how has BDS grown so much in recent years? In a hearing that felt at times like the political boycott itself was on…

By Dahlia Scheindlin February 16, 2014

Protest against the boycott Law, Tel Aviv, June 12 2011 (photo: Oren Ziv/activestills)

Israeli High Court to hear petition against ‘anti-boycott law’

An expanded panel of nine justices of the Israeli High Court of Justice will hear a petition against the “anti-boycott law” Sunday morning, which several NGOs are arguing silences debate on one of the most important and divisive issues in Israeli society. Passed by the Knesset in 2011, the law, formally known as the “Law…

By +972 Magazine February 15, 2014

Knesset bill would formalize second-class status for Arab citizens

New Knesset bill aims to have “Jewish nature” of state preferred over democracy, cancel official status of Arabic, and have Jewish law “guide” courts’ rulings There is one talking point repeated in every hasbara (the Hebrew term for state sponsored propaganda) talk given by an Israeli representative, or in every booklet your campus’ Jewish Agency…

By Noam Sheizaf August 4, 2011

Boycott law proves Israel’s one-state vision

More than anti-democratic, the boycott law is indicative of Israel’s de facto annexation of the West Bank Everyone who is up in arms about the passing of the boycott law this week has been emphasizing the severity of its violation of freedom of expression and dialogue. While this is of course true, what is even…

By Mairav Zonszein July 13, 2011

Protest against the "Boycott Law" Tel Aviv Photo by Oren Ziv/activistills.org

Knesset study: No democracy has similar anti-boycott laws

Some claim that the Israeli anti-boycott bill is similar to anti-boycott measures in other democratic countries. A Knesset fact finding commission found that there are similar anti-boycott measures in countries like Venezuela and Eritrea but could not find anything similar in another democracy. Late yesterday evening after a marathon discussion which bordered on a filibuster,…

By Joseph Dana July 11, 2011