July 20, 2009 – New York – AJC welcomed the decision of the Council of Europe’s European Court of Human Rights that boycotting Israeli goods is illegal.

“This landmark ruling is the clearest legal directive against any efforts in Europe to initiate boycotts of Israeli products,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “Anti-Israel boycotts are illegal because they prejudicially blame an entire people for the supposed misdeeds of the Israeli government.”

The court, an institution of the Council of Europe, upheld last Thursday an earlier French court ruling against Seclin Mayor Jean-Claude Fernand Willem, who in 2002 called for boycotting Israeli products. Willem petitioned the European Court of Human Rights in 2005, asserting that his freedom of expression had been violated when the French court fined him for provoking discrimination.

In its ruling, the Council of Europe court determined that Willem was originally convicted “for inciting the commission of a discriminatory, and therefore punishable act,” and not for his political views.

“British academics, among others, who have sought boycott initiatives against Israel should be on notice that these misguided policies are discriminatory and unwelcome on the European continent,” Harris said.