Yuli Edelstein, Speaker of the Knesset, in London: ‘Boycott campaign against Israel hurts the Palestinians’:
The Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein has condemned the boycott campaign as “anti-Palestinian” and praised the British government for its stance on the issue.
Mr Edelstein was speaking at the conclusion of a two-day visit to London during which he addressed a joint meeting of MPs and peers, a separate meeting of 300 young activists, and a group of Jewish community leaders.
Mr Edelstein, a former refusenik who left the Soviet Union for Israel in 1987 after three years in various gulags, has been Speaker of the Knesset since 2013 and is a senior member of the Likud party. Calm and pragmatic, he spoke to journalists with the slightly weary air of a man who has said the same thing many times.
“I don’t like people who don’t put their money where their mouth is,” he said of the BDS campaigners. “They themselves don’t boycott Israel: they use iPhones and medical technology and computers. The day I see a BDS leader who will say, in my presence, that he is going to live in a cave and not use any of the modern technology which has been devised by Israel, then I might have some respect for him.
Until then, it’s a little bit…sad. They want other people to boycott Israel under the guise of helping the Palestinians – and actually it’s against the Palestinians”. …
The boycott campaign against Israel hurts Palestinians just as much as it does Israelis, the Speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, said in London where he addressed a joint eeting of MPs and peers and met with British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond. “The boycott is counterproductive, because anyone who wishes to boycott goods produced in Judea and Samaria ultimately harms the Palestinian workers who earn their wages working for those companies,” Yuli Edelstein said.
One good example of Edelstein’s comments is the SodaStream factory, which was forced to shut down its factory in Mishor Adumim in the West Bankdue to boycott calls, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian Arab employees losing their jobs and income. It has moved to the Negev in the south of Israel. “
11 years ago we left Gaza and evicted thousands from their homes and what we got is not peace but terror. The situation was exacerbated by our withdrawal from Gaza”.Edelstein noted that unfortunately most of the funds that reach Gaza are invested in rockets and terror tunnels instead of in the welfare of the population. …
http://ejpress.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55350&catid=8
http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/knesset-speaker-blasts-anti-palestinian-boycotts-of-israel-on-uk-visit/
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/UK-activists-protest-Knesset-speakers-speech-splash-anti-Israel-slogans-on-Parliament-building-446622
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JewishNews / EJPress – foto: Voorzitter van de Knesset Yuli (Yoel) Edelstein, rechts, tijdens zijn tweedaags bezoek in Londen, hier met de Britse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, Philip Hammond