Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met top Israeli officials this week to discuss how the Jewish state will deal with the looming threat of economic boycotts, according to Agence France Presse Wednesday.
Netanyahu met with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz Sunday following US Secretary of State John Kerry's commentary earlier this month that Israel "was facing a growing campaign of deligitimisation" that could increase if the peace negotiations collapsed.
In recent months, a growing number of government and international businesses are starting to create no-trade policies with Israeli firms that have ties to Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, including the European Union's recent decision to block grants and funding for "any Israeli entity operating in the occupied territories."
Some reports have speculated that the EU's decision is directly linked to the so-called BDS movement-boycott, divestment, and sanctions--that "works to convince governments, businesses and celebrities to cut ties with Israeli companies active in the occupied Palestinian territories," similar to the divestment work from South Africa.
However, a foreign ministry officer said that the EU's decision was purely because "European states and institutions that have problems with Israel's actions [in the occupied West Bank], but could not be considered a boycott of Israel since they continue to invest in the Jewish state [in other ways]."
