20 groups that advocate boycotting Israel will now be denied entry

A sign in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on June 5, 2015, calls to boycott Israeli products coming from Jewish settlements. (Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM — Members of 20 international organizations that promote a boycott campaign of Israel, many of them affiliated with the BDS movement, will be banned from entering the country, according to a list published Sunday by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs.

The list was created after Israel’s parliament in March approved legislation that would deny entry visas to foreign nationals who publicly back or call for any kind of boycott — economic, cultural or academic — of Israel or its West Bank settlements.

BDS, which stands for ''boycott, divestment and sanctions,” aims to pressure Israel into complying with international law vis-à-vis its policies toward the Palestinians. The movement discourages the purchase of Israeli goods, pressures international companies not to conduct business in Israel and urges celebrities not to visit or perform in the country.

The Israeli government increasingly views the BDS campaign as a threat and has ramped up the fight against what it calls delegitimization efforts.

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, appointed to spearhead the battle against BDS and other such movements, said Sunday that the blacklisting was “another step in our work to thwart anti-Israel boycott organizations.”

“The state of Israel will actively prevent such groups from spreading their falsehoods and odious methods from within the country,” he said.

Among those featured on the list are six U.S. organizations, including two run by Jewish activists — Jewish Voice for Peace and Code Pink.

The ban will include individuals who hold senior positions in the listed organizations and those who are particularly active in promoting the boycott, including establishment figures from various countries.

Although details of the ban have yet to be fully worked out, the ministry said that there was no intention of barring entry to individuals who express political criticism of Israel and that it would not apply to those who hold Israeli citizenship.

Some of the organizations included in the ban responded on social media, with the Jewish Voice for Peace tweeting: “Israel’s decision to specifically ban JVP is disconcerting but not surprising, given the further erosion of democratic norms and rising anxiety about the power of BDS as a tool to demand freedom.”

Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, said in a statement that the ban was a “badge of honor.”

“When Israel, which aims to portray itself to the world as liberal and democratic, blacklists activists dedicated to nonviolent organizing and dissent, it only further exposes itself as a fraud,” he wrote on the group’s website.