AL QUDS, Aug 22: Measures adopted by the Non-Aligned Movement to boycott Israeli settlers and firms building the West Bank barrier have stirred real worries in the Jewish state of a broader sanctions campaign.
"We must remember that these sanctions are only the beginning," said Nitza Nahmias, a political science professor at Israel's Haifa University. "This is the marker that grants legitimacy to economic and commercial sanctions, which could endanger our future and security," she wrote in the Maariv newspaper.
The 115-member group of developing countries urged its members late last week to ban visits by settlers and boycott firms that work on the barrier, which Israel says it needs to keep out suicide bombers but Palestinians call a land grab.
The decision of the Non-Aligned Movement followed a non-binding ruling against the barrier by the International Court of Justice in June, which was echoed by a UN General Assembly resolution.
Israeli officials brushed aside the boycott call. "We are sorry for this decision," said one. "But we think this political decision will be impossible to implement." Israeli commentators, however, said it could still prove damaging, even if not entirely unexpected from a grouping that includes many Arab countries and has long been sympathetic to Palestinians fighting for a state.
Many Arab states maintain diplomatic and trade boycotts on Israel - until talks with the Palestinians in the 1990s they even shunned firms that did business there - but few other countries now take such sanctions against Israel.
The big fear for Israel now is an international campaign similar to that against South Africa's apartheid regime. That gained momentum after the World Court ruled illegal South Africa's occupation of Namibia.
Israel's attorney general urged the government on Thursday to reroute the barrier to minimise the risk of foreign sanctions. Israel's High Court earlier ordered the route to be changed, partly for the same reason.
Among key members of the Non-Aligned Movement is India, seen as a long term friend of Israel and buyer of defence equipment. Some Latin American states could also be important customers for Israel's defence industry.
"India ... cannot for long continue its excellent relations with Israel if this momentum continues," said former top Foreign Ministry official Alol Liel. "This is a hard hit for us that shows international frustration to Israeli behaviour," he told Army Radio. -Reuters
