Avigdor Liberman (Photo:emil Salman)
Photo: Emil Salman
Lieberman seeks to defund Knesset parties who call for boycott
Yisrael Beytenu leader submits legislation proposal calling on the Knesset to pull funding from any party supporting the labelling of settlement products.
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman proposed on Thursday his first legislation as a member of the opposition places the crosshairs directly on opposition parties who support the boycott and/or labeling of settlement products.
According to the proposal, state funding will be withdrawn for any Knesset party that actively promotes the boycott against or product labeling of either Israel at large or the settlements specifically.
According to Lieberman, the draft was submitted as a reaction to statements from Joint Arab List MKs, and after Meretz tried to promote legislation that would label settlement products.
The explanatory portion of the legislation states: "In conjuncture with Israel's current battle against boycotts, sanctions and financial damages caused by states and anti-Israel organizations seeking to hurt Israel, including Israeli owned corporations and businesses, it is only appropriate that the state itself doesn't fund Knesset parties and factions which call for such a boycott or support it."
Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Gil Yochanan)
"I have no doubt that the calls for a boycott, which hurts Israel and its citizens, are much more damaging and severe when coming from within Israel's own legislature," he said. "It is not logical that Israeli taxpayers fund those who call for acts hurting their income and the state's economy."
"This new methodology of boycotting Israeli goods is simply a new form of anti-Semitism which has no place in the Knesset," he said. "This legislation seeks to give the Speaker of the Knesset the power to form guidelines for defunding Knesset parties who call for a boycott of Israel."
