BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will reportedly convene a meeting of government ministers this afternoon to discuss growing concerns over European efforts to boycott Israel.

Both Haaretz and Maariv report that the high-level meeting will be attended by senior ministers including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon. According to Haaretz, the meeting will deal with two parallel concerns – firstly, European governments targeting goods and services from West Bank settlements and secondly, measures taken by European companies against Israeli companies based within the pre-1967 borders which have commercial ties in the West Bank.

The meeting was apparently spurred by the recent decision of Dutch pension company PGGM, one of the world’s top 20 pension asset managers, to divest from five Israeli banks because they are involved in the financing of construction in West Bank settlements. Yesterday, an item in the Telegraph suggested that the National Union of Journalists would vote in April on a motion to “encourage members to boycott Israeli products and back… professionals who refuse to cooperate with Israeli institutions.”

Ministers Livni and Bennett sharply disagreed earlier this week in Cabinet over the impact of settlements on boycott initiatives. EU Ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Anderson told Channel Two recently that, “if the settlement business continues to expand, Israel will be facing increasing isolation.” Earlier this month, Israel’s ambassadors in the UK, France, Spain and Italy were summoned to respective foreign ministries over Israeli settlement construction. Prime Minister Netanyahu subsequently said the European Union (EU) should “inject some fairness in the discussion.”

However, despite these diplomatic tensions, in December EU foreign ministers announced a significant upgrade in political, economic, cultural and scientific cooperation with both Israel and a future Palestinian state, in the event of a peace agreement. Both would be granted a Special Privileged Partnership with the EU, the closest possible ties with a non-member state.