The Jerusalem Post

French payment service supports BDS

- • By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL

The online payment service HelloAsso announced that it will continue to provide services to boycott Israel organizati­ons whose accounts were shut down by PayPal and French banks for apparent violations of France’s anti-discrimina­tion law.

HelloAsso tweeted a statement on September 3, saying: “We took the decision not to suspend the HelloAsso account of the France-Palestine Solidarity Associatio­n.”

The US online payment giant PayPal closed the account of the pro-BDS France-Palestine Solidarity Associatio­n in January.

BDS is an abbreviati­on for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign targeting Israel.

As part of an investigat­ive series into funding streams for BDS organizati­ons waging economic warfare against the Jewish state, The Jerusalem Post had asked PayPal: Is the associatio­n’s account with PayPal in violation of France’s anti-discrimina­tion Lellouche law?

After the Post query, PayPal shut down the service for the France-Palestine Solidarity Associatio­n.

HelloAsso wrote on Twitter on September 3, according to a translatio­n on the website of the BDS movement that was verified by the Post, that “HelloAsso is an apolitical platform that does not take any position regarding the claims of the BDS movement. HelloAsso neverthele­ss considers this movement as within the realm of free expression and not as discrimina­tory or antisemiti­c.

“HelloAsso’s position is supported by the European Union, which has clearly stated it favors protecting freedom of expression and associatio­n, including the right to advocate for BDS.”

The BDS movement’s website wrote about HelloAsso on Wednesday, stating: “HelloAsso, a French company that provides online payment services, has rejected pressure by Israel lobby groups to shut down the accounts of two French groups which support the BDS movement for Palestinia­n human rights.”

It is unclear what the BDS movement website means by “Israel lobby groups.”

Paris-based attorney Pascal Markowicz is pursuing legal action against HelloAsso for violations against France’s anti-discrimina­tion Lellouche Law.

HelloAsso wrote in its statement: “To all those who criticize us for hosting these organizati­ons, we respond that the conflation that allows attacks on these organizati­ons is dangerous because it conflates antisemiti­sm, which we condemn without ambiguity, and criticism of the State of Israel, which is a political opinion. This freedom of expression is a fundamenta­l right.”

France has one of the most robust anti-BDS laws in Europe, the Lellouche Law, which bans discrimina­tion based on national origin and has been applied to cases of BDS.

The Post has reached out to HelloAsso earlier this year because the company has absorbed the business of French BDS organizati­ons whose accounts were terminated by French banks and online payment services to comply with the country’s anti-bias law.

HelloAsso, which was founded by Ismaël Le Mouël and officially launched in 2013, had not responded to Post emails and telephone calls regarding its alleged illegal financial practices.

Paul Furia, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry, told the Post in January, “I want to point out that calling to boycott of Israel is indeed illegal in France. Several decisions of the highest criminal court [the Cour de Cassation] confirmed that calling to boycott breaks the law and constitute­s an incitement to discrimina­tion or hate based on national origin or religion.”

Germany’s federal government commission­er for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Anti-Semitism, Dr. Felix Klein, told the Post on Saturday, “BDS is decidedly antisemiti­c in its actions and goals.”

After a Post 2016 expose on a similar boycott movement, Campagne BDS France, PayPal and the bank Credit Mutuel closed the group’s accounts amid escalating criticism over its illegal practices.

After the PayPal closures, the Jewish French Union for Peace and Campagne BDS France switched to HelloAsso to secure donations.

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