UN Envoy Danon lauds anti-BDS successes
Israel’s ambassador leads a UN conference entitled ‘Lawyers Against BDS,’ tells Ynet Israel becoming the ‘prosecutors instead of the defendants. It’s too early to say we have won but there is a real change.’
The conference, held at the UN headquarters in New York and attended by hundreds of experts and academics, was convened to discuss legal methods to counter the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel and to establishment of a network of pro-Israeli legal experts who will act to combat attempts to delegitimize Israel.
The conference also aimed to create practical tools to foil local boycott initiatives across the world.
“BDS is a dangerous and it is a global movement, which has branches in many places,” Danon said during an interview with Ynet. “In May we held an extremely big conference in the UN and committed ourselves to fighting it on every front. This time we focused on the legal aspect.”
Danon added that the struggle against BDS was taking place in many countries but that mechanisms were being put in place frustrate the movement’s initiatives.
“We are advancing legislation in many countries against the BDS, including in the US so that it will simply be illegal to boycott Israel,” he continued.
“In my opinion the combination of the courts, legislative houses and students on campus is a winning combination. I sincerely believe that it it possible to beat the BDS movement. We need to raise our heads and fight against them.”
According to Danon, the efforts undertaken thus far are already starting to yield results. “I would not yet come out and say that we have succeeded or that we have won because it is still early but I am definitely seeing a change in the trend,” claimed Danon.
“We are transforming from being the defendants to being the prosecutors and advancing legislation and this is an extremely positive change.”
