THE Israeli Minister of Environmental Protection, Avi Gabay, has officially resigned in protest at the appointment of extremist politician Avigdor Lieberman as the regime’s new minister for military affairs.
Gabbay, founding member of the Kulanu party resigned from his position in the government, saying: ‘I see the recent political moves and the replacement of the defence minister as grave acts that ignore what’s important to national security, and will bring about more extremism and rifts among the people.’
The public wants a rightist cabinet, but they do not support the establishment of an extremist cabinet, Gabbay added. His decision came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed up Lieberman as Israel’s new war minister last Wednesday in a pact beefing up his coalition to six parties with control over 66 of parliament’s 120 seats, up from a razor-thin majority of 61.
Later in the day, the party of far-right Israeli politician Lieberman announced it will join the ruling coalition of Netanyahu under the agreement between him and Netanyahu. Lieberman had reportedly earlier accepted an offer by Netanyahu to become the minister of military affairs.
Netanyahu had summoned Lieberman’s predecessor Moshe Ya’alon and reproached him over supporting an analogy between Israel’s situation and Nazi Germany. Ya’alon then officially resigned both from the cabinet and the Knesset (parliament), citing ‘lack of trust’ in the premier. He also said Israel and the ruling Likud Party was taken over by ‘dangerous and radical officials’.
On May 20, Israel’s former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak described the removal of Ya’alon and his replacement with Lieberman as a ‘purge’ and said it ‘should be a red light for all of us regarding what’s going on in the administration’.
‘This administration needs to be brought down before it brings all of us down,’ the former Israeli prime minister said, adding that foreign officials he speaks to are no longer supportive of Israel.
Meanwhile, a new report has revealed the leading role played by top Israeli academics in promoting a growing international campaign that calls for boycotting Israel. According to a report released on Thursday by the Zionist group Im Tirtzu, prominent Israeli professors encourage, legitimise and often promote anti-Israel boycott efforts.
The report said dozens of Israeli academic figures, through petitions and letters, have encouraged the American Anthropological Association (AAA) to boycott Israeli higher academic institutions. They have urged the association to continue pressing for an academic boycott against Israel.
A vote on boycotting Israeli institutions will be held by the AAA’s 10,000 members on May 31. Should the resolution pass, it would mark the largest association to date boycott Israel. The report said that some of the Israeli signatories to the petitions are directly connected to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Meanwhile, Im Tirtzu’s CEO, Matan Peleg has expressed concern about the growing trend among Israeli academics and professors to lead the academic boycott of Israel. ‘Decision-makers and presidents of Israeli universities look to combat the international BDS movement, but completely ignore the boycott phenomenon from within Israel that is being led by Israeli academics,’ Peleg said.
‘It is sad to see that those leading the boycott are cutting off the branch on which they are sitting and are working behind the scenes to mortally wound the future of Israeli academia,’ he added. The developments come as more than 300 groups in Europe have recently urged the EU to hold Israel accountable for its human rights violations and join the BDS.
The BDS movement was initiated in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organisations that were pushing for ‘various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law’. Thousands of volunteers worldwide have joined the BDS ever since to help promote the Palestinian cause.
The Netherlands has rejected calls by Israel to declare illegal a growing international campaign that calls for the boycott of Israeli products. Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said on Thursday the Dutch government has explained to Tel Aviv that people joining the campaign was an issue of free speech, to which the Dutch people are entitled.
The Netherlands is the second country in the European Union to have announced its support for people’s right to join the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. ‘Statements or meetings concerning BDS are protected by freedom of expression and freedom of assembly as enshrined in the Dutch Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights,’ Koenders said.
Dutch Ambassador to Israel Gilles Beschoor Plug defended Koender’s remarks, saying that joining the campaign in Holland ‘is not illegal and therefore it falls within the limits of freedom’. ‘As long as what one says is not illegal you are free to say it,’ he added.
At the start of 2014, Dutch pension fund PGGM withdrew investments worth tens of millions of euros from five Israeli banks, citing the banks’ unethical and illegal activities in the occupied West Bank as reasons for the divestment. According to the pension fund, the decision to withdraw the investments came after a long process of attempting to convince the Israeli banks to cease their financial support of Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank.
At the start of May this year, two Dutch political parties officially called for sanctions on Israel and a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement if Israel continued its refusal to halt illegal settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon denounced the Dutch government’s recent decision, saying there had to be ‘limits’ on the concept of freedom of speech.
Israel has been pressuring the US and European countries to introduce legislation and take other repressive measures to confront the BDS movement. In February, Britain introduced new rules, banning local authorities and public-sector organisations from boycotting Israel and pledging severe penalties for violators.
Banking behemoth Credit Mutuel also shut down the account of La Campagne BDS France at the request of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) last week. Sweden, however, supported the right to join the BDS in March 2016, saying the movement is ‘a civil society movement’ and that ‘governments should not interfere in civil society organisation views’.
Earlier this month, more than 300 groups in Europe urged the EU to hold Israel accountable for its human rights violations and join the global campaign for boycott of Israeli products. The 352 signatories to a letter included human rights and aid organisations, church groups, trade unions and political parties from across the continent, including France, Germany, Norway and Belgium.
The BDS movement is currently asking people to add their names to an appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take necessary measures to protect those who campaign for Palestinian rights.