People should stop buying products made by Isis, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says

Mr Netanyahu wants activists to boycott things made in Islamic State territory

Benjamin Netanyahu (AP)

The prime minister of Israel has called for a boycott of products made and sold by the Islamist militant group Isis.

Benjamin Netanyahu accused activists who boycotted Israeli goods of “hypocrisy” and said they should also forego products made by the so-called Islamic State.

“They boycott Israel but they refuse to boycott Isis. That tells you everything you want to know about the [boycott, divestment and sanctions] movement," he said. "They condemn Israel and do not condemn Isis; they condemn themselves,”

It is not clear to which products Mr Netanyahu is referring.

The PM, who was recently re-elected, described his own country as an “exemplary democracy”.

“We have academic freedom, press freedom, human rights. Isis tramples human rights to the dust,” he told a press conference.

The United Nations and other international organisations have criticised the Israeli government’s human rights record, however.

In a report released earlier this year the UN said that more civilians were killed in Palestine last year than at any time since 1967 and that survivors were being denied their “basic human rights” by Israel’s illegally occupying military.

“Overall, some 4,000,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip remain under an Israeli military occupation that prevents them from exercising many of their basic human rights,” the official report released in March said.

“This crisis stems from the prolonged occupation and recurrent hostilities, alongside a system of policies that undermine the ability of Palestinians to live normal, self-sustaining lives and realize the full spectrum of their rights, including the right to self-determination.”

In July of last year Israel bombarded the Gaza strip for seven weeks then sent troops into the area as militant groups fired rockets at Israel.

Many critics of Israel support a boycott of Israel goods and services as a peaceful means of pressuring the country to change its policies and end its illegal occupation.

This movement is known in Israel and elsewhere as the “BDS” movement – standing for boycott, divestment, and sanctions.