Three British organisations are on a list that Israel has published whose activists will be banned from entering the Zionist regime.
War on Want, Friends of Al Aqsa and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have been banned because they support the BDS movement, which boycotts Israel politically, economically and culturally.
Members of 20 groups which back BDS will be denied entry visas and residency rights under a controversial law.
Even those holding no official position within the blacklisted organisations will be denied entry, as well as mayors and politicians who promote boycotts.
“We have shifted from defence to offence,” said Gilad Erdan, the minister for strategic affairs, according to Haaretz.
“The boycott organisations need to know that the State of Israel will act against them and not allow [them] to enter its territory to harm its citizens.
“No country would have allowed critics coming to harm the country to entry it.”
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Arye Dery, head of the interior ministry which will be responsible for implementing the list, said: “These people are trying to exploit the law and our hospitality to act against Israel and to defame the country. I will act against this by every means.”
Meanwhile, Friends of Al Aqsa has called the blacklisting a “victory” for those who advocate the boycott of Israel until it ends its occupation of Palestine.
“The blacklist clearly demonstrates how far Israel is willing to go to stifle the legitimate voice of dissent. Rather than change its disastrous occupation policies, Israel is preoccupying itself with campaigns of harassment against anyone who dares criticise its inhuman treatment of Palestinians.
“This merely reinforced FOA’s support for the vital BDS campaign, which is growing steadily. We won’t end BDS until Israel ends its occupation,” said Ismail Patel, Chair of FOA.
FOA said the move also seems designed to reduce the number of visitors to East Jerusalem in order to pave the way for Israel to complete its occupation of the city by wresting control of the Al-Aqsa compound away from Palestinians.
Ismail Patel added: “The ban is a smokescreen, and the real goal here is Jerusalem. With less visitors to support Palestinians in Jerusalem, and lesser numbers of internationals at Al Aqsa, Israel appears to be in its final phase before occupying the Holy site itself. This will have severe consequences in the region and far beyond.”
Last year, Hugh Lanning, chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, became the first British citizen to be refused entry to Israel under the law, and Professor Kemal Hawwash, a British Palestinian man, was also forced to fly back to the UK.
Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry has been allocated $36m (£27m) for a plan to combat the BDS movement.
Here is a full list of the banned organisations:
The France Association Palestine Solidarity
BDS France
BDS Italy
The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine
Friends of Al-Aqsa
Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
The Palestine Committee of Norway
Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
War on Want
BDS Kampagne
American Friends Service Committee
American Muslims for Palestine
Code Pink
Jewish Voice for Peace
National Students for Justice in Palestine
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
BDS Chile
BDS South Africa
BDS National Committee
