Former Israeli Diplomat: Tel Aviv Threatened by Unprecedented Sanctions and Boycotts

Tel Aviv - Afaq News - A former Israeli diplomat warned today, Monday, that Tel Aviv may face unprecedented sanctions and boycotts, which could extend from the West Bank settlements to Israel, in a trajectory he compared to the isolation of South Africa during the apartheid era.

This came in a message sent by the former Israeli ambassador to Italy and France, Avi Pazner, to a group via the "WhatsApp" application that includes senior officials in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which was reviewed by the Hebrew newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth."

Pazner, who also served as the media advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, stated that current policies could lead to unprecedented sanctions on Israel.

He wrote that most members of the group "witnessed the process that South Africa went through when it faced economic and political sanctions in the mid-1980s that led to the collapse of the apartheid system in the early 1990s."

He noted that sanctions are currently being imposed, with limited exceptions such as the Netherlands, on the West Bank settlements.

He warned that "if the current coalition, the government coalition led by Netanyahu, wins the elections, Israel will enter a situation it has never known before in terms of sanctions and boycotts, which may expand from the West Bank settlements to all of Israel."

According to "Yedioth Ahronoth", Bazner's message came against the backdrop of reports regarding the subjecting of luggage belonging to Israeli travelers arriving in the Netherlands on flights from Israel to customs inspections.

Earlier on Monday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a warning to its citizens wishing to travel to the Netherlands, stating that travelers may face "lengthy and humiliating luggage inspections."

The warning came after a Dutch order prohibiting the import of goods sourced from West Bank settlements, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights came into effect, according to the same source.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry clarified that violating the Dutch order is a crime that may result in fines or imprisonment.

The Dutch step came after the announcement of 12 Western countries on September 14, 2023, of their intention to impose trade restrictions with Israeli settlements.

The countries are France, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, in addition to Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

The 12 countries demanded that Israel immediately halt the expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and curb settler violence.

The Israeli government boasts that since its formation in late 2022, it has approved the establishment of 104 new settlements, while it has established 160 agricultural outposts in the West Bank.

The United Nations considers the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as occupied Palestinian territory, and regards the Israeli settlements established there as illegal under international law.

Palestinians warn that Israel is paving the way, through settlement expansion and attacks by the army and settlers, for the official annexation of the West Bank, which undermines the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state.