Is Europe fighting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement? Although the atmosphere seems to point out that BDS is stronger, many European countries are fighting this phenomena.

Last week, the World Jewish Congress and Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations hosted more than 2,000 dignitaries, public officials, NGO representatives at the UN headquarters for the second Ambassadors Against BDS summit.

Also this week, Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis came out firmly against the BDS movement during a meeting with a delegation of Knesset members, who visited the country to mark 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel.

In the United States, at least 12 states have already passed anti-BDS laws, divesting from companies that are boycotting Israel, including Arizona, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, and South Carolina.

Spain is already regulating laws against BDS.

The Partido Popular (People’s Party), the ruling party in Spain, has approved amendments that explicitly reject the BDS campaign, according to the pro-Israel Spanish group ACOM.

Switzerland’s national Council – the lower chamber of the legislature – passed a bill to stop government funding of organizations that promote boycotts of Israel and spread antisemitism and racism.

The measure will be submitted in May to the Swiss Council of States, the upper chamber of the legislature, which will decide whether it becomes law.

Last October the Bank of Ireland closed the accounts of the pro-BDS organization’s Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). The group’s accounts were terminated in Ireland and Northern Ireland, according to media reports.

In many other countries there is more and more awareness about the negative consequences of BDS. It appears to be a large trend within the European banking system to sever ties with pro-BDS groups.

Similar decisions like in Ireland, Spain and Switzerland, have been taken also in other European countries including Austria, Germany, France and the UK where banks have closed down accounts of Palestinian campaign groups. The first bank accounts that has been closed as anti-BDS policy were in France, Germany and Austria in 2016. Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, shut a BDS account last June. The Austrian bank Bawag shut down the account of the Austria-Arab Culture Center. The Austrian financial company Erste Group terminated BDS Austria’s account in April.

French banking giant BNP Paribas shut down its subsidiary DAB bank account with BDS-Campaign in February in Munich. Belgium-based BDS group that holds a Paribas bank account is called Association Belgo-Palestinienne (Belgian-Palestinian Association). It has an office in New York State where Gov. Andrew Coumo signed an anti-BDS executive order in June. He said at the time: “If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you.”

In Italy, a BDS gathering due to take place in the Municipality of Rome was prohibited. The rector of the Turin University, Prof. Gianmaria Ajani, rebuked a letter from the student organization that asked to cancel collaboration agreements with the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology. Prof. Ajani pointed out that her university’s collaboration agreement with the Technion focuses on healthcare, rather than weapons.

" In my personal experience, the vast majority of Italian researchers, particularly those dealing with science and technology, are in favor of strengthening ties with Israel," explained to European Jewish Press Dr. Emanuele Dalla Torre, an Italian Jew who is a senior lecturer at Bar-Ilan University's physics department. "But unfortunately, this is a silent majority that sometimes appears to be non-existent faced with the vocal minority trying to negate Israel's right to exist,’’ he said. ‘’Today the number of researchers in favor of an academic boycott is very small. But if we let them raise their voice we risk ending up in a situation like England, where the support for a boycott presents a significant danger to academic freedom. We need to let people know that the vast majority of Italian scientists are in favor of Israel and they are happy to cooperate with us,’’ he added.

The pro-boycott movement activists make much noise, and some researchers accept their thesis without verifying . For example, in Turin University, the student council recently expressed their support for the Academic boycott of the Technion in Israel, based on the false claim that the "MIT of Israel" builds weapons for the Israeli army. The motion was subsequently brought up for vote in the Academic Senate on March 1st: the professors unanimously voted against the boycott, and thus in favor of continuing the cooperation with Israel. Prof. Gianmaria Ajani, motivated their refusal to boycott Israel explaining that the collaboration with Israeli universities ‘’are aimed to develop new technologies that improve global health and nutrition."

Last month, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, approved a new law banning entry to foreigners who support boycotting the country. The approval of the law was defended by government ministers and supporters as a necessary response to the movement that calls for Israel to be boycotted over its 50-year occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The law defines boycott as "deliberately avoiding economic, cultural or academic ties with another person or body solely because of their affinity with the state of Israel, one of its institutions or an area under its control, in such a way that may cause economic, cultural or academic damage."

"The new law is very bad. It expresses first of all the government's lack of self confidence,’’ Prof. Michael Walzer of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, told EJP "They are not willing to say to critics: "Come to Israel and see what kind of a country it really is." And, second, it expresses the government's authoritarian drift. Excluding foreign critics will only be the beginning; they will go on, or they will try to go on, to repress domestic critics.’’

‘’The law will encourage the defenders of BDS since it suggests that the boycotters are winning (which they are not), and that the government is desperate and can't think of any other response than exclusion. And it will push people who are critical of the government, but not sympathetic to BDS...toward BDS. This can't help Israel. In fact, it is so obviously unhelpful that I doubt that it will be seriously enforced.’’

In response to a question from a member of the European Parliament about banning BDS in Europe, EU’s foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini stated last September:’’ The EU stands firm in protecting freedom of expression and freedom of association in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which is applicable on EU Member States' territory, including with regard to BDS actions carried out on this territory. Freedom of expression, as underlined by the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, is also applicable to information or ideas ‘‘that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population’’. She added however that ‘’the EU rejects the BDS campaign's attempts to isolate Israel and is opposed to any boycott of Israel.’’