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Didi Remez

Subject: FW: Clarification of ZOA Position On Israeli Anti-Boycott Law

From: iplist@googlegroups.com [iplist@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Lara Friedman [lfriedman@peacenow.org]

Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 7:03 PMTo: IPlistSubject: Clarification of ZOA Position On Israeli Anti-Boycott Law

July 13, 2011

Contact Morton A. Klein at: 212-481-1500

  Attn: NEWS EDITOR 

Clarification of ZOA Position on Israeli Anti-Boycott Law

ZOA President Morton A. Klein has released the following statement:

ZOA has been widely quoted on our position on Israel's internal anti-boycott law, which strongly implied ZOA iscompletely against it.

ZOA’s position is much more nuanced than that, especially after fully examining this new Law today as we promised todo.

Israel is under existential threat from many countries and peoples around the world. Israel is enduring an organizedworldwide campaign to boycott, divest from and sanction (BDS) the Jewish state. Israel is also watching with deepconcern as its neighbors are undergoing dramatic change which could bring even more radical Islamist, anti-Israel, anti-US, and anti-West governments into power. Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin wrote, “those seeking to implement boycottsare not merely expressing criticism of government policies but are, in fact, waging economic warfare on Israel. Moreoversuch boycotts are not merely symbolic efforts to chide the Jewish state on a particular issue but part of an insidiousinternational conspiracy to strangle a nation. If the majority of Israelis, and it would appear a majority of the country aswell as the Knesset backs this measure, it is because they rightly see advocacy of boycotts as racist attacks on their veryexistence…Israel’s foes are not, as some in this country falsely assert, merely objecting to its possession of the West Bankand the city of Jerusalem but its very existence.” 

We, in America, thankfully do not have to worry about and deal with these kinds of threats. Therefore, the ZOA believesthat Jewish organizations should be very careful about telling Israel how to protect its security and economic interests,especially when enemies of Israel and outright anti-Semites are using the words of Jewish organizations that criticizeIsrael to encourage and promote their own external boycott, delegitimization and sanction efforts against Israel.

When other countries have felt these types of substantial threats they have frequently gone so far as to have invokedMarshall Law, suspending certain rights that citizens normally enjoyed.

 As the articles quoting ZOA have stated, “we were still examining this Law,” which allows “citizens to bring civil suitsagainst persons and organizations that call for economic, cultural or academic boycotts against Israel, Israeli institutionsor regions under Israeli control.” ZOA now sees that the enacted Law has eliminated any criminal penalties forboycotting Israeli products or institutions, and allows only civil remedies such as fines and eliminating governmentfunding to violators; the ZOA now is more sympathetic with the Israeli Knesset’s actions even though the Law is notperfect, e.g. the wording of the Law is vague, therefore could be interpreted to apply to any boycott of an Israeli citizenor anybody for almost any violation and as such could cause a “chilling effect on all boycotts.” 

The New Israel Fund has falsely claimed that the bill “criminalizes freedom of speech,” and Gush Shalom, falsely statesthe law is “a death sentence for the right to freedom of expression.” The anti-boycott law applies to any area under

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Israeli control. The global BDS movement targets all of Israel, even within the Green Line, and explicitly rejects theexistence of Israel within any borders.

Eli Hertz, a member of ZOA’s national Board, very powerfully reminded us that even the United States protects Israelfrom boycotts, and in a stronger way than the Israeli law does. Hertz wrote,

 “The Anti-boycott laws under the U.S. Export Administration Act of 1979 [as amended in August 1999] were writtenspecifically to protect Israel from the Arab League and other Moslem countries.

On Monday, July 11, 2011 the Knesset [the Israeli Parliament] passed an Anti-boycott law against those who promoteand call to boycott Israel….

 A look at the U.S. Anti-boycott laws objectives, should be helpful in defending the Israeli law.

"The [U.S.] Anti-boycott laws discourage, and in some circumstances, prohibit U.S. companies from furthering orsupporting the boycott of Israel sponsored by the Arab League, and certain Moslem countries, including complying withcertain requests for information designed to verify compliance with the boycott. Compliance with such requests may beprohibited by the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and may be reportable to the Bureau."

The U.S. Laws Prohibits among others:

"Agreements to refuse or actual refusal to do business with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies.

"Agreements to discriminate or actual discrimination against other persons based on race, religion, sex, national origin ornationality.

"Agreements to furnish or actual furnishing of information about business relationships with or in Israel or with blacklistedcompanies.

"Agreements to furnish or actual furnishing of information about the race, religion, sex, or national origin of anotherperson."

 Acting against the U.S. laws is considered a criminal behavior and carry with it penalties of up to $1 million and 20 yearsimprisonment per violation.” 

We should also remember that even a liberal Jewish group such as the American Jewish Congress was one of the majoropponents of boycotting anything in Israel. Its publication “Boycott Watch” was its respected monitor of anti-Israelboycott issues.

The ZOA is firmly opposed to boycotting Israeli goods, services, cultural and sporting events anywhere in the world. A boycott against any part of the Jewish state of Israel, a human rights loving democracy, which has given all of Gaza andone-half of Judea & Samaria to the Palestinian Arabs and offered far more only to be rejected by the Palestinians whorefuse to negotiate, and whose Palestinian Authority has named hundreds of schools, streets, and sports teams after Jew-killing terrorists, refuse to arrest terrorists, outlaw terrorist groups and who align themselves with Hamas, whose chartercalls for the murder of every Jew, including the Jewish boycotters, is wrong, immoral, despicable, and frequently anti-Semitic.