Israel's anti-BDS programme: €40,000 to stop stickers

Earlier this week, London-based The New Arab revealed how the Israeli government has been running a decade-long covert programme targeting BDS activists overseas.

As part of the programme, the Belgian law firm Van Bael & Bellis (VBB) was hired to prepare advocacy material and legal opinions that could be used to criminalise activists involved in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In the first three years of the programme, Van Bael & Bellis charged the Israeli government some €594,000 for its work.

One of VBB’s assignments involved developing a legal strategy to criminalise activists engaged in a campaign of placing BDS stickers on Israeli-sourced products.

According to a memo from the Israeli ministry of justice to Van Bael & Bellis, activists had been placing “defamatory” stickers on Israeli products in supermarkets to highlight their provenance and potential role in the continued occupation of the West Bank.

“The sticker campaign is increasing in popularity, and our concern is that if this strategy succeeds there is a good chance that the BDS movement will attempt to label products in additional countries,” the memo stated. The law firm was asked to determine if this practice could be interpreted as a criminal act in certain jurisdictions.

The information they would prepare could be used “as part of diplomatic discussions”, or in preparation of legal actions.“The outcome that we would like is to prevent activists from placing stickers on the products in the first place,” one Israeli official said.

VBB produced four of these papers, focusing on the countries of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and the United Kingdom, for a total discounted fee of €40,000. Three of the four memos are being published here today.

We contacted the law firm Van Bael & Bellis and the Israeli Ministry of Justice for comment. No reply was received in time for publication.