A pro-Israel member of the European Parliament, Fulvio Martusciello, has managed to introduce a clause into complex legal policy that could protect Israel against boycotts in Europe.
Mr Martusciello is the chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Israel, but he is also Rappporteur for the Competition Policy Report in the Economic Committee of the European Parliament.
Mr Martusciello has inserted into the report a statement which does not mention Israel but underlines the need for the EU “to fight against unfair collective boycotts, defined as a situation in which a group of competitors agree to exclude an actual or potential competitor, as restrictions of competition by object”.
A spokesperson for Mr Martusciello confirmed that the clause was introduced by him to “translate for the first time into EU commercial policy the stated objections of EU leaders to BDS,” an acronym for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
