Strike Updates: Boycott Israel

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Israel it could find itself increasingly targeted by a boycott if it fails to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Malcolm Hoenlein, a top American Jewish leader said the growing international campaign to boycott Israel is the greatest threat facing Israel.

Hoenlein said those boycotting Israel are undermining prospects of more settlements. He called on Western governments to go after activist and urged “zero tolerance” of the boycott.

Concerns about a widening boycott of Israel over its continued settlement activities have moved to center stage in the Israeli public discourse.

A growing number of European businesses and pension funds have dropped investments or limited trade recently with Israeli firms involved in West Bank settlements. At the same time, a Palestinian-led movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions —knows by its acronym, BDS — has scored many successes.

“We have to counter the BDS movement in the strongest possible way,” Hoenlein told General Strike USA. “That means zero tolerance, and that has to become the mantra of our time.”

Hoenlein said he believes the boycott campaign is dangerous and could only lead to a peaceful two-state solution.

“People are beginning to recognize how effective this is, how this movement is not something to be dismissed,” he added.

Israel in 2013 demolished 390 shacks and other structures in the West Bank’s strategic Jordan Valley, displacing nearly 600 Palestinians, twice as many as the year before. In 2012, 172 structures were demolished, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.