“While BDS is proving to be an effective tool of peaceful resistance and responsible, ethical investment and consumer responsibility to hold Israel to account, this happens!” Hanan Ashrawi tweeted.
By TPS
The Abraham Accords, the normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), constitutes a blow to the global campaign to boycott Israel, senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi admitted.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed on Saturday signed an order canceling the law on boycotting products from Israel and economic contacts with Israelis, a phase ahead of the full normalization of ties with Israel.
The order enables the import of Israeli goods and the signing of contracts with Israeli firms and abolishes the 1972 state law that upholds an economic boycott on Israel and the sanctions associated with it.
“The Decree comes as part of the UAE’s efforts to expand diplomatic and commercial cooperation with Israel, and by laying out a roadmap towards launching joint cooperation, leading to bilateral relations by stimulating economic growth and promoting technological innovation,” the UAE official WAM news stated.
Ashrawi, a member of PLO Executive Committee, conceded in a tweet that “while BDS is proving to be an effective tool of peaceful resistance and responsible, ethical investment and consumer responsibility to hold Israel to account, this happens! UAE issues decree ending Israel boycott after U.S-brokered deal to normalize ties.”
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision as “an important step in promoting prosperity and peace in the region.”
The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement promotes financial, academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, ostensibly as a nonviolent protest against the so-called “Israeli occupation.”
The scope of the boycotts has ultimately been negligible on the Jewish state but has served as a catalyst for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments at its centers of activity.
Critics say its activities are a modern form of anti-Semitism and that its true objective is to destroy the State of Israel.