Last August, Israel's Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan decided to set up an interagency task force to bar foreign nationals who support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement from entering the country. Knesset members Roy Folkman of the center-right Kulanu Party and Bezalel Smotrich of the ultra-right HaBayit HaYehudi Party authored similar legislation that has already received preliminary approval, even by opposition head and leader of the center-left Zionist Camp, Isaac Herzog.
But what started out as a measure against anti-Israel boycott supporters has in the past few weeks been expanded to include human rights activists. On Feb. 8, Israeli border police detained Jennifer Gorovitz, the vice president for operations and administration of the New Israel Fund.
