The PA, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) last week called “on the peoples of the world and their democratic and progressive forces” to actively participate in the BDS Movement against Israel and to “dismantle Israel’s system of settler colonialism, apartheid, and military occupation.”

Their communique refers to Zionism as a “racist, genocidal ideology that encourages terrorism and fascism.”

Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior project manager at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) and ex-head of the IDF Military Intelligence research division, told JNS that “the communique calls for the direct destruction of Israel and praises terrorism.”

The boycott calls emerged from a series of conferences and meetings in which the PA’s Ministry of Justice and the PLO joined the BNC to discuss their “anti-apartheid agenda.”

The first conference was held in Al-Bireh, a city situated adjacent to Ramallah, under the rubric “Towards a Global Front to Combat and End Israeli Apartheid.” The second event was a “Press Conference to Announce the Call of the First National Conference and Preparatory Committee to Combat Apartheid and Settler Colonialism.”

Dan Diker, president of the JCPA and a former secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, told JNS concerning BDS that “a lot of civil society groups surrounding the Palestinian issue are really political groups with radical agendas that are linked to terror groups.”

Diker said that the PA has sought to maintain a cautious approach to the BDS movement. The PA has been concerned about its relationship with Israel and other key international actors.