Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid on Wednesday met with the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, as part of a series of meetings in Brussels with EU officials.
The purpose of the meetings is to lead a wide-ranging move against the activities of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the phenomenon of boycotts against Israel.
Lapid asked Mogherini to issue a statement along with the foreign ministers of the EU saying that the EU rejects the activities of the BDS movement.
He also asked her to lead an initiative by which all the foreign ministers of the EU will issue a joint declaration on the issue, a statement from his office said.
Mogherini told Lapid that she would act on the BDS issue and stressed that she objects to the BDS movement, as does the entire European Union.
Lapid said after the meeting, “I explained to Mogherini that it is inconceivable that Jews in Marseille cannot walk around with a skullcap, and that the Swedish Foreign Minister continues to express herself in a hateful manner toward Israel. We must not leave the scene. Just as the IDF should reach every area which attacks Israel, so must we in the foreign arena be wherever they attack Israel, respond and try to change the situation.”
It is noteworthy that while Mogherini emphasized to Lapid that she and the EU are against the BDS movement, she recently reiterated that the EU will not drop its plan to label Jewish products from Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights – another form of a boycott of Israel.
Mogherini said last month that the EU is “united on these technical guidelines on the indication of origin” and continued to insist the labeling plan “is in no way a boycott.”
Many experts have warned that the labeling is only the first step leading to a total boycott of Israel, particular given the active role of BDS boycott groups in getting the labeling passed.