SA organisation barred by Israelis

Palestinian solidarity organisation BDS South Africa has been blacklisted by the Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry, barring it from entering the country.

BDS SA is among 21 international nongovernmental organisations to have been blacklisted by the ministry, headed by Gilad Erdan.

BDS stands for boycott, divestment, sanctions.

The announcement follows an ANC resolution to downgrade or shut down South Africa’s embassy in Israel following US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

According to Haaretz Newspaper, Erdan said the country had now “shifted from defence to offence”.

“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,” it quoted him saying. “No country would have allowed critics coming to harm the country to enter it.”

The publication quotes Israel’s interior minister, “whose ministry is responsible for implementing the list”, to have 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.”

BDS SA charged that international activists now face only “a shadow of what Palestinians endure daily”.

“For example, to date, Israel has denied entry [in violation of international law] to the over 700 000 indigenous Palestinian refugees who were in 1947 evicted, forcibly removed and prevented from returning to their homes,” it said.

Among the 20 groups is the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organisation that was honoured with the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize for assisting and rescuing Jewish victims from the Nazi regime during World War II.

AFSC official Kerri Kennedy told UK publication The Independent that it “answered the call for divestment from apartheid South Africa” and did the same “with the call for boycott and sanctions from Palestinians, who faced decades of human rights violations”.

“If anything, with this blacklist and barring of people, Israel – like apartheid South Africa – is isolating itself,” said Jewish Voices for Peace.

The Israeli embassy declined to comment.