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Israel

What A Boycott On Israeli Goods Would Mean For Israel

Though chances still remain low, Israel wants to be prepared as threats grow of a major global boycott of its goods, like what happened in South Africa in the 1980s.

In Birmingham, UK
In Birmingham, UK
Mickey Peled

TEL AVIV — Is there a real threat of an international boycott against Israel? And what would the damage be?

Currently, most Israelis seem to agree, the situation is unpleasant, but bearable. The chances are still slim that the boycott against Israel and Israeli-made goods could reach the magnitude of that against apartheid-era South Africa.

As hopes fade in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, both the Finance and Economy Ministers have joined the debate about the intensifying boycott.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid cited a ministry study last week saying that the Israeli economy would face immediate layoffs of 9,800 employees and a loss of 20 billion shekels ($5.7 billion) to the country's GDP if the European Union decided to scrap the accord that grants Israel special status in political, economic and cultural exchanges.

But at the same time, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett dismissed the severity of the threat, quipping that a single rocket attack on Israel's Ben Gurion Airport would deal a more damaging blow to the Israeli economy than a boycott on Israeli exports.

Senior government officials, as well as left-leaning think tank Molad, believe that the truth is in the middle of these two positions. Such a boycott wouldn't cause irreversible damage to the Israeli economy, since markets like the United States, Latin America, and East Asia could compensate for the partial loss of European imports.

Yet such a scenario would leave Israel scarred, harming its image and status in a way that is difficult to quantify in shekels.

The question that now both the government and exporters are grappling with is how to avoid any such "doomsday scenario," as it was dubbed yesterday by the government.

A dramatic collapse in the talks currently taking place between Israel's chief negotiator Tzipi Livni and the Palestinian envoy Saeb Erekat could help trigger a major backlash. The negotiations that started last August are meant to last no more than nine months, and Erekat has already stressed he will not agree to extend the timeframe further.

If failing talks coincide with a new wave of calls to stop doing business with the Israeli government — and even more specifically Israeli firms operating in the settlements — the boycott could spread quickly. For such calls to infiltrate the European public and political mainstream, legitimacy from official or academic bodies is required.

Scandinavian pullback

Growing pressure from pro-Palestinian organizations, as well as calls for boycott by university professors associations, has led the British Department of Trade and Industry to warn against working with citizens and businesses that deal with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, citing "potential reputational implications." Still, the same statement also mentioned the UK government "strongly opposes boycotts."

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Protest in London — Photo: claudia gabriela marquez vieira

Last week, Danske Bank, Denmark's largest bank, announced it is severing its ties with Israeli Bank HaPoalim due to the latter's activities in the settlements; and Sweden's Nordea Bank asked for clarifications from two other Israeli banks regarding their own activities in the West Bank.

At the same time, Norway's pension fund has recently revived a decision not to invest in Israeli holding and investment company Africa Israel for the same reason; and in November, Israel's government had to agree to a convoluted legal compromise for the European Union to sign the Horizon 2020 agreement, which enables the participation of Israeli scientists in research projects and grants.

Dr. Assaf Sharon, academic director at Molad, studied the boycott scenarios, and he believes concern should not be only over the risk of boycotts of current relations, but also from economic relations not being renewed in the future.

For example, says Sharon, in 2009 the Israeli-EU agreement to upgrade the level of bilateral relations was frozen during Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. The agreement was intended to improve Israel's status vis-à-vis EU member states and allow for removing hurdles in trade, tax as well as science and technology cooperation. However, to this day the talks are stumbling due to disputes over the question of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But the government is not standing idle. The strategic affairs ministry is busy with working out a plan meant to prevent, or at least significantly minimize, boycott scenarios. The plan is expected to include an overt advocacy campaign, meetings with European politicians and encouragement of pro-Israeli activists to prevent boycotts, and perhaps also explicitly encourage purchasing Israeli products.

Meanwhile, the UK government's warnings haven't influenced British investors. Two weeks ago the Israeli government issued a 10-year 1.5 billion euro bond with a yield of 2.932%, after demands were exceptionally high. The stock exchange success might therefore suggest that boycotting bell peppers from the Jordan Valley is one thing, but government bonds is another.

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Society

What's Spoiling The Kids: The Big Tech v. Bad Parenting Debate

Without an extended family network, modern parents have sought to raise happy kids in a "hostile" world. It's a tall order, when youngsters absorb the fears (and devices) around them like a sponge.

Image of a kid wearing a blue striped sweater, using an ipad.

Children exposed to technology at a very young age are prominent today.

Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — A 2021 report from the United States (the Youth Risk Behavior Survey) found that 42% of the country's high-school students persistently felt sad and 22% had thought about suicide. In other words, almost half of the country's young people are living in despair and a fifth of them have thought about killing themselves.

Such chilling figures are unprecedented in history. Many have suggested that this might be the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sadly, we can see depression has deeper causes, and the pandemic merely illustrated its complexity.

I have written before on possible links between severe depression and the time young people spend on social media. But this is just one aspect of the problem. Today, young people suffer frequent and intense emotional crises, and not just for all the hours spent staring at a screen. Another, possibly more important cause may lie in changes to the family composition and authority patterns at home.

Firstly: Families today have fewer members, who communicate less among themselves.

Young people marry at a later age, have fewer children and many opt for personal projects and pets instead of having children. Families are more diverse and flexible. In many countries, the number of children per woman is close to or less than one (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong among others).

In Colombia, women have on average 1.9 children, compared to 7.6 in 1970. Worldwide, women aged 15 to 49 years have on average 2.4 children, or half the average figure for 1970. The changes are much more pronounced in cities and among middle and upper-income groups.

Of further concern today is the decline in communication time at home, notably between parents and children. This is difficult to quantify, but reasons may include fewer household members, pervasive use of screens, mothers going to work, microwave ovens that have eliminated family cooking and meals and, thanks to new technologies, an increase in time spent on work, even at home. Our society is addicted to work and devotes little time to minors.

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