Laying down the law

By Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, ISRAEL HAYOM

One year ago, U.S. President Barack Obama signed a trade measure into law that contained landmark legislation combating the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement in Europe. Proponents of the legislation hoped it would discourage European governments from participating in BDS activities by leveraging the powerful incentive of free trade with the U.S.

So far it seems the measure has not only been effective, it has also resulted in other countries and institutions following suit, with two recent, noteworthy examples.

This week, the Paris city council adopted two resolutions condemning attempts to boycott Israel following the popular “Tel Aviv Sur Seine” festival that celebrates Israel in the City of Lights, issuing a statement saying that the council “opposes publicly all attempts to isolate Israel from the collective of nations,” and that it stands by the city’s “commitment to the promotion of a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israel conflict.”

This is not the first measure France has taken against BDS, but is another step in what seems to be a firm stance against this new form of anti-Semitism. At least four activists representing the BDS movement have been convicted of hate crimes in recent years, based on the 2003 legislation that proscribes discrimination against nations or their citizens. And last year the French High Court upheld a controversial ruling that sentenced a group of pro-Palestinian activists in Colmar, in eastern France, to pay hefty fines for having aggressively urged grocery store customers not to buy products made in Israel, including handing out flyers referring to supposed war crimes and genocide in the Gaza Strip.

This week, the United Kingdom joined the U.S. and France in laying down the law on modern day anti-Semitism, as British minister Matthew Hancock announced landmark new regulations banning local municipalities and public institutions from boycotting Israel. The announcement was made in Israel, where the minister and a delegation are visiting this week.

The ruling is the result of legal proceedings by the organization Jewish Human Rights Watch against three British municipalities (Leicester, Swansea, and Gwynedd) for passing boycott motions. The organization, which according to its website was established to combat and record the anti-Jewish boycott movement’s actions and the rise of anti-Semitism, said the boycott motions are anti-Semitic, detrimental to Jewish life in the U.K., and damaging to British foreign relations.

The director of Jewish Human Rights Watch, Jonathan Neumann, says that thanks to these efforts, the British government recognized the threat the BDS movement poses to the Anglo-Jewish community and to relations between the U.K. and Israel, and decided to take action against it.

This positive step in Anglo-Israeli relations follows a visit by London Mayor Boris Johnson to Israel in November last year, when he mocked BDS supporters as a fringe and radical minority and affirmed the importance of the friendship between the U.K. and Israel.

The new regulation is the biggest development in the fight against BDS in the U.K. in years, and stands in stark contrast to the actions of the European Union, which recently went the other way and called for the labeling of Israeli products made in Judea and Samaria. One can hope the British move will have an impact on EU policy, or at least that the smart new methods used to combat hate crimes will discourage other political actors and show that using this form of propaganda will have lasting and noticeable consequences.

Using careful lobbying and legislation to combat the BDS movement is a new method, but it is proving impressively effective, and the results last longer than those of a well-placed meme. What is being accomplished is paramount, as organizations like Jewish Human Rights Watch are not only showing politicians and decision-makers the hypocrisy of the boycott movement, but, by initiating legal action, are also taking important steps to safeguard us from future anti-Semitic attacks as the hateful scourge inevitably takes on new forms.

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein is a political adviser and writer on the Middle East, religious affairs and global anti-Semitism. Follow her on Twitter @truthandfiction.