MK Gideon Sa’ar, who is the front contender for the job of Likud chairman, in opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday morning told a special meeting of the Israel Allies Foundation in Jerusalem of the need for foreign governments to show greater moral clarity in their approach to the region. He condemned in particular international financial support for the Palestinian Authority which pays terrorists to murder Israelis.
The meeting was attended by 25 ministers and parliamentarians from Venezuela, Estonia, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, Guatemala, Finland, Sweden, Colombia, Slovakia, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Lithuania, Spain, Australia, and North Carolina. The delegates presented MK Sa’ar with a declaration against the decision that had been taken recently by the European Court which called for marking goods made by Jewish residents in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan heights. The same court did not call for goods made by non-Jews from the same areas to be marked.
MK Sa’ar told the delegation: “In the decision to mark these Israeli goods, the EU is not acting morally, nor is it acting legally. Applying rules to Israel that it does not apply anywhere else in the world is against the laws of the World Trade Organization.”
Sa’ar added, “This is an attempt to delegitimize the right of the Jewish people to live and build our future in the land of our forefathers. Your announcement that you are making here today is a clear and important voice. It is making clear the rights of the Jewish people in our homeland. Making clear you reject BDS, and that you recognize BDS as a clear expression of anti-Semitism. Making clear that the Jewish people cannot be ‘occupiers’ in their own land.”
Sa’ar concluded, “Today, I accept warmly this important statement, on behalf of all of Israel, and join you in calling on the EU, and on governments around the world: Do not be blind to the truth. It is time to show moral clarity, when it comes to this conflict and all the issues in the Middle East.”