Israel's Private Legal Army Targets the Palestinian Rights Movement

At the center of this campaign: Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs.

In my latest piece for In These Times magazine, I take a close look at an Israeli government-sponsored legal campaign against the Palestinian rights movement waged by two Israeli non-profits, Shurat HaDin and the International Legal Forum.

This litigation against the Palestinian rights movement is part of a much larger campaign spearheaded by Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs. The ministry finances and leads a campaign of online trolling, legal harassment and intelligence-gathering against Palestinian rights activists worldwide. The ministry’s number one target is the global campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions targeting Israel.

“[The Ministry’s] attacks on the BDS movement are part of a larger campaign to stifle the growing support for Palestinian rights, using dirty tactics including cyberbullying and false legal claims that intimidate and try to silence criticism of Israeli policy,” Rebecca Vilkomerson, who was executive director of the pro-BDS Palestine solidarity group Jewish Voice for Peace for ten years, told me. “These disingenuous attacks—including anti-BDS legislation at the state and national level—lead directly to violations of our First Amendment right to free speech.”

Read the whole article here!