Haaretz Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Israel's Military Intelligence Monitoring Dozens of BDS
Groups Around the World
While the IDF is responsible for foreign groups, local
groups supporting BDS are monitored by the Shin Bet.
Gili Cohen
The Israel Defense Forces routinely gathers information
on foreign, left-wing organizations that it believes are working to
delegitimize the State of Israel, Haaretz has learned.
The Military Intelligence Research Division's
Delegitimization Department was established as part of the lessons learned
after the Mavi Marmara affair in 2010. As Haaretz revealed in 2011, the
department focuses on studying the activities of anti-Israeli groups operating
overseas, including some that promote sanctions on Israel.
Nine foreign nationals were killed when IDF commandos
boarded the Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla trying to break the embargo on
Gaza, in May 2010. A tenth died in 2014, after being in a coma for four years.
As part of its activities, the Delegitimization
Department gathered proof of Hamas violations of international law during
2014?s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
Among the overseas organizations monitored by Military
Intelligence are dozens affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS) movement, though groups with the same goals working within Israel are not
monitored by the department. Such activity inside Israel was criticized in the
past, due to its political connotations.
The BDS movement conducts campaigns aimed at promoting
boycotts of Israel and persuading companies to withdraw their investments from
the country.
The monitoring of every BDS-linked group is approved in
advance by a senior officer in the research division, following a decision not
to follow groups which have indirect contacts with Israeli activists.
The IDF has emphasized in recent weeks that it does not
collect information on Israeli citizens. That is the job of the Shin Bet
security service, which monitors Israeli citizens involved in what are regarded
as delegitimization activities.
In the past, left-wing activists belonging to the BDS
movement have reported being contacted by a woman from the Shin Bet who calls
herself Rona. Re?ut Mor, a media consultant for the Joint Arab List, said in
June that she was questioned by Rona after returning from a trip abroad. The
questioning covered a flotilla that had attempted to reach Gaza at the time and
her positions on the BDS movement, the IDF and Zionism.
Gili Cohen
Haaretz Correspondent
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