Government reevaluating ban on BDS activists entering Israel
Strategic Affairs Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen allowing Columbia Law professor previously denied entry.
By LAHAV HARKOVAlitalia plane is seen on the tarmac after landing at Ben Gurion International airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel(photo credit: REUTERS)
An interministerial committee is reevaluating the effectiveness of a law that bans BDS activists from entering the country, Strategic Affairs Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen (Blue and White) said Thursday.The committee, which includes representatives from the Strategic Affairs, Justice, Foreign and Interior ministries, is reviewing the criteria by which Israel denies entry to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement activists. It was told to have a report ready within 45 days of its formation last week.Farkash-Hacohen said she was taking a neutral position and wants to make sure the policy is working three years after its implementation.“It is important to reexamine… a tool that hurts freedom of movement,” Farkash-Hacohen said.“We need to not only be right, but also to be smart and save the tool only for the last resort,” she said.“BDS is part of a larger campaign, and we are focused on the big goal of ending antisemitic, violent delegitimization of Israel,” Farkash-Hacohen said. “That is why I instructed my team to examine the criteria for barring the entry of BDS activists.”Israel has denied entry to 16 people based on a 2017 law that bans BDS supporters. Among them were US Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, whose planned 2019 visit was organized by Miftah, a Palestinian group that published a blood libel.Another was University of Florida Students for Justice in Palestine activist Lara Alqasem, who was registered to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Supreme Court overturned that decision in 2018.In addition to ordering a reevaluation of the policy, Farkash-Hacohen allowed Katherine M. Franke, a Columbia University law professor who has worked with the pro-boycott group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), to enter the country. In 2018, Franke was detained at Ben-Gurion Airport for 14 hours before being deported and banned from entering Israel.“I made the decision to allow [Franke] in after she declared she is no longer an activist in BDS organizations, and academics in Israel said [the bans] can hurt Israelis,” Farkash-Hacohen said.
