Zionist Netanyahu Meets Top Ministers over Boycott Threat

Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with three of his top ministers to discuss ways to deal with the threat of economic boycotts against the Zionist entity following the settlement extension in the West Bank, media reported Monday.

The Sunday meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, the reports said.

The meeting comes less than a fortnight after US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the entity was facing a growing campaign of delegitimization which could worsen if peace talks with the Palestinians collapsed.

A growing number of governments and international businesses have said they will not trade with Zionist firms with ties to Jewish settlements, highlighting the creeping success of a Palestinian-led boycott campaign.

The so-called BDS movement — boycott, divestment and sanctions — works to convince governments, businesses and celebrities to cut ties with Zionist companies active in the occupied Palestinian territories, in a bid to repeat the success of the boycott which ended apartheid in South Africa.

The boycott has been given added impetus by a European Union decision to block grants and funding for any Zionist economic entity operating in the occupied territories.

A foreign ministry official told media outlets on Monday there was a crucial difference between the BDS movement and “European states and institutions that have problems with the Zionist actions” in the occupied West Bank.

The BDS was a “fringe group” that effectively “seeks to bring an end to Israel” by calling for the right of return for all Palestinian refugees to Israel, the official said.