A Knesset committee approved on Wednesday a first reading of a bill that would ban supporters of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement from entering Israel Israeli media reported.
According to The Jerusalem Post the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee of Israel’s parliament approved the first reading of the bill which is supported by MK Bezalel Smotrich from the far-right Jewish Home party.
A bill needs to go through three readings in the Knesset before becoming a law.
“We should remember that the right to enter Israel should not be taken for granted. There is no reason to allow someone who wants to harm the country to come here” Smotrich claimed in the committee meeting.
Committee chairman David Amsalem (Likud) said: “Why should I let in my home someone who slanders the country and harms it? We are not afraid of criticism but we have our national dignity.”
“If a person who received temporary residency from us harms us why would we let him stay?” he further claimed.
MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) said that the legislation is intended to silence dissent.
“The purpose of the bill is to censor those who object to the occupation. All of us are against boycotting Israel but this bill includes calls to boycott areas that are under Israeli military control” he added.
“This bill asks to silence people on the bases of political opinion but people should have the right to have a political opinion here” Zandberg further stated.
MK Yael German (Yesh Atid) said “This bill is bad mainly because it is irrelevant but also because we are against boycotts but in the same time we are boycotting others [those who would be denied entry to Israel].”
The BDS movement was founded in July 2005 as a peaceful movement to restore Palestinian rights in accordance with international law through strategies aiming to boycott Israeli products and cultural institutions complicit in violations against Palestinians.
The introduction of the bill comes after years of Israeli efforts to crack down on the BDS Movement.
The Israeli government has grown increasingly concerned about the growth of the BDS movement as the movement’s support base has expanded to include companies universities and religious institutions around the world divesting from organizations complicit in Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights.
