Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that ‘’attempts to impose a boycott on the State of Israel are immoral and unjust’’
‘’Moreover, they will not achieve their goal. First, they cause the Palestinians to adhere to their intransigent positions and thus push peace further away. Second, no pressure will cause me to concede the vital interests of the State of Israel, especially the security of Israel's citizens. For both of these reasons, threats to boycott the State of Israel will not achieve their goal, " he told a weekly meeting of his cabinet.
He was responding to US Secretary of State John Kerry warning that Israel faced a growing boycott threat if peace talks with the Palestinians fail.
"Today's status quo absolutely, to a certainty, I promise you 100 percent, cannot be maintained. It's not sustainable. It's illusionary. There's a momentary prosperity, there's a momentary peace," said Kerry.
Speaking last week at the Munich Security Conference, Kerry was relating to Israel's current economic situation, claiming that it will be seriously debilitated if the peace talks with the Palestinians fail.
Israeli Minister of Economy Naftali Bennet came out harshly against Kerry's threats: "The Jewish nation is stronger than the threats leveled against it. Let's be clear: there has never been a nation the relinquished its land as a result of threats. Only security will bring economic stability, not a terrorist state next to Ben-Gurion Airport. We expect our friends around the world to stand beside us, again t anti-Semitic boycott efforts targeting Israel, and not for them to be their amplifier," he said.
Two weeks ago, two of Europe’s largest financial service institutions announced they would terminate all joint operations with Israeli banks who deal with settlements in the West Bank, deemed by the European Union to be illegal under international law.
Denmark's second largest bank, Danske Bank, recently announced that it has blacklisted Israel's Bank Hapoalim because of its links to construction in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). However, Bank Hapoalim announced that it has no savings or investments of any kind made by the Danske Bank.
Sweden’s Nordea Bank demanded of Israeli banks Leumi and Mizrahi-Tefahot to immediately make public their operations in the West Bank.
An official statement released by the Swedish bank two weeks ago cited concern over “possible violations of international norms” that the Israeli banks might have committed.
Guidelines published in July by the European Commission in Brussels mandate a denial of European funding to, and cooperation with, Israeli institutions based or operating over the Green Line, and a requirement that all future agreements between Israel and the EU include a clause in which Israel accepts the position that none of the territory over the Green Line belongs to the Jewish state.
In December, Dutch water company Vitens, which provides water to 5.4 million people in the Netherlands, announced that it would discontinue all joint ventures with Israel’s national water supplier Mekorot, in protest against the Israeli company’s operations in the West Bank.
“The company concluded that it would be very difficult to develop joint ventures together, considering the fact that they cannot be seen as divorced from their political context,” a company statement said. ”We follow international law.”
The same month, the British Trade and Investment agency discouraged British firms from entering into business deals with companies located in or associated with West Bank settlements.
The agency warned businesses of the “clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the settlements,” which are “illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible.”
The report urged firms contemplating economic or financial involvement in settlements to seek legal counsel on the matter, and also addressed the “potential reputational implications” that could result from dealing with businesses beyond the Green Line, as well as “possible abuses of the rights of individuals.”