Challenge to Israeli boycott ban

14 July 2011 Last updated at 14:16 GMT By Yolande Knell BBC News, Jerusalem A woman in Tel Aviv signs a new Peace Now petition against settlement products Israeli civil rights groups are planning to challenge a new law designed to stop boycotts of products from West Bank settlements.

The ban on any "geographically-based boycott" was passed on Monday.

The law has been strongly condemned as "deeply undemocratic" and a violation of freedom of expression.

Petitions against it are to be filed in Israel's High Court. One group is also calling for a boycott of olive oil and wine from settlements.

The law enables the filing of civil lawsuits against Israeli individuals or organisations who openly appeal for a boycott. No evidence of actual financial damage is required by the party suing for damages.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel says the new law is "unconstitutional and anti-democratic" and sets a bad precedent. It is demanding its disqualification by the High Court.

Gush Shalom, an organisation which campaigns for an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory, is also pledging to challenge the law on legal grounds.

It said the legislation aimed "to silence criticism against the government's policies in general and its policies in the occupied territories in particular, and prevent an open and productive political discourse, which is the backbone of a democratic regime".

A coalition of four rights groups - Adalah, a legal rights organisation for Israeli-Arabs, Physicians for Human Rights, the Public Committee against Torture and the Coalition of Women for Peace - says it will join legal appeals.

Peace Now has already taken a different tack, directly defying the new restrictions. It is using posters and social media to call on the Israeli public to boycott Ahiya Olive Oil and Psagot Wine which are produced by Jewish settlers.

Its Facebook group, "So Sue Me, I'm Boycotting the Settlements", already has more than 7,000 likes.

Right-wing measure

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six Day War but its settlements are deemed illegal under international law. Continued building in the settlements derailed the latest peace talks with the Palestinians who want the land as part of a future state.

The "Law for Prevention of Damage to the State of Israel through Boycott" won a majority of 47 to 38 votes in the Israeli Knesset. It was proposed by right-wing politicians, angry at domestic dissent towards Israeli policies in the West Bank.

Israeli artists decided to boycott a new cultural centre in the West Bank settlement of Ariel

Among the recent initiatives was a declaration by Israeli academics and artists that they would boycott the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

Israeli developers also agreed not to use products or services from settlements when they signed on to help build a new modern Palestinian city, north of Ramallah.

Speaking on Israeli Army Radio, the finance minister, Yuval Steinitz said: "Boycotts against the state of Israel certainly cannot be considered legitimate from Israel's point of view and boycotts against the settlements or any other region of the country are not a democratic way to determine democratic oversight."

The Israeli media has criticised the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for not turning up to vote on Monday. However he has defended the legislation.

"I approved the law. If I hadn't approved, it wouldn't have gotten here and it wouldn't have passed," Netanyahu said. "I am against boycotts aimed at the state of Israel in general, and I am against boycotts aimed at groups within Israel."

The concept of boycotts is a sensitive one for Israelis, going back to a long-standing boycott by the Arab world that led some global firms to avoid doing business with Israel.

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Israeli troops kill man in Nablus

13 July 2011 Last updated at 11:34 GMT Relatives mourned the death of Ibrahim Sarhan at the Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus A Palestinian man has been killed in an Israeli military raid on a West Bank refugee camp.

The Israeli military said troops fired at a man who tried to evade arrest in the el-Fara camp north of Nablus.

But a witness said residents had thrown stones at the troops, who responded with live fire, killing 21-year-old university student Ibrahim Sarhan.

In Gaza, Israeli aircraft struck two suspected weapons factories overnight, injuring a Palestinian woman.

The air strikes also damaged the main water pipe in an eastern neighbourhood of Gaza City, cutting water to a large part of the city, said Gaza's emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya.

Israel's military said the air strikes came in retaliation for rockets fired from Gaza into Israel on Tuesday.

Another rocket hit southern Israel on Wednesday morning, Israel's military said, but no-one was hurt in the attacks.

'Bled to death'

Omar Sarhan said his son was shot after attending morning prayers in a local mosque, and bled to death because no ambulance was allowed to attend to him.

The 21-year-old had been shot twice, once in each thigh, and was dead by the time he reached hospital, Palestinian medics said.

Israel's military said the dawn raid was part of "routine activity" at the refugee camp.

"One of the Palestinians tried to flee arrest, at which point the soldiers began an arrest procedure, eventually firing at his lower body," a spokeswoman told the AFP news agency.

Seven Palestinians were arrested during the raid, the spokeswoman said, adding that an explosive device was hurled at Israeli troops during the operation. No soldiers were injured.

The Israeli army often carries out raids in Palestinian town and cities, some of which are coordinated with Palestinian police, says the BBC's Jon Donnison from Ramallah.

The West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.

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Stoning for Israeli dog denied

20 June 2011 Last updated at 13:55 GMT Reports that a Jewish rabbinical court in Israel condemned a stray dog to death by stoning have been strongly denied.

The source of the report, Israel's Maariv newspaper, apologised for its headline and for any offence caused.

The head of the court, Yehoshua Levin, was quoted by Maariv as saying: "There is no basis for abuse of animals from the side of Jewish Halacha [law].''

In a statement, the court denied that a dog had been condemned.

A dog had entered the court and been removed, it said.

The story was reported in the Israeli and international press, including the BBC News website.

The original reports said that the dog entered the Jerusalem financial court several weeks ago and would not leave.

It was reported that the dog reminded a judge of a curse passed on a now deceased secular lawyer about 20 years ago, when judges bid his spirit to enter the body of a dog. The animal was said to have escaped before the sentence was carried out.

An animal welfare organisation filed a complaint with the police against a court official.

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Scandal-hit Israeli tycoon dies

3 June 2011 Last updated at 10:19 GMT Reports said the funeral of Sami Ofer (centre) would take place later on Friday Sami Ofer, an Israeli billionaire at the centre of a scandal over business contacts with Iran, has died at his home in Tel Aviv.

Israeli media reported the 89-year-old had passed away after a long illness.

The US last month imposed sanctions on the Ofer Brothers Group, co-owned by Mr Ofer and his brother Yuli, accusing it of selling an oil tanker to a blacklisted Iranian firm.

The Ofers denied any wrongdoing, saying the US had made an unfortunate mistake.

Forbes magazine recently said the brothers were the richest men in Israel with interests in shipping, chemicals, real estate worth $10.3bn (?6.3bn) in total.

Forbidden contact

They have faced a mounting backlash in their home country over the allegations that Ofer Brothers Group and its Singapore-based subsidiary, Tanker Pacific Management, were involved in a sale to Iran's national shipping company, Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

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[Ofer Brothers Group] and its subsidiary, frankly, has failed to do proper due diligence ”

End Quote Mark Toner US State Department Many are shocked that two of Israel's most prominent businessmen could have benefited from trading with a country which the Israeli government believes is developing nuclear weapons - a charge Iran denies.

After the sanctions announcement, Ofer Brothers Group said it had never sold ships to Iran, and that the Israeli government would confirm this.

But US state department Mark Toner dismissed the denials, saying: "Ofer Holdings Group is the parent of a company called Tanker Pacific, and that's the company that actually sold this tanker to the Iranians.

"And the company and its subsidiary, frankly, has failed to do proper due diligence and to prevent this transaction. So they're responsible."

Then on Sunday, it emerged that several tankers part-owned by Tanker Pacific had repeatedly transported oil and petroleum products to and from Iran over the past decade, while Israeli officials were engaged in an intense diplomatic effort to tighten international sanctions.

Tanker Pacific said the shipments to and from Iran were legal at the time, and that it had stopped transporting refined petroleum products to Iran last year in compliance with unilateral US sanctions unveiled in July 2010.

On Thursday, sources close to the family said Sami Ofer had instructed all Ofer Brothers Group ships not to dock in Iran last year.

It came after a report that one of their vessels had stopped in Iran in February.

The Israeli parliament's economic committee tried to debate the affair, but its meeting was halted after only 15 minutes when the chairman received a note warning that such a discussion could be "damaging".

This prompted speculation that the Ofer brothers might have been helping the Israeli security services spy on Iran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has meanwhile asserted: "Israel's policy on Iran is very clear - any and all contact with it is forbidden."

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