Secret confab: world Jewry discuss BDS

ANT KATZ

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported on Wednesday that a senior Israeli government ministry held a secret conference in Jerusalem with international Jewish leaders on ways to fight campaigns of BDS, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

Some 150 leaders and activists attended the conference held on Sunday and Monday in Jerusalem, run by the Strategic Affairs Ministry. The event was first reported by the Hebrew-language news website NRG on Tuesday.

The meeting was held a month before the BDS annual flagship project, Israel Apartheid Week, which rolls out on campuses around the world. Combating this project of the increasingly embattled BDS was most likely the subject of much of the discussions,

The delegates had been asked to keep the contents of the conference planning and discussions secret because, according to NRG, Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said that “exposing the information about the conference participants could be life endangering”.

Obviously no journalists were invited to attend.