2-2-2014 Netanyahu brushes off Kerry's boycott warning - Aron Heller and Moshe Edri Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/02/israel-kerry-us-boycott/5151551/
A small but growing number of European businesses and pension funds have begun to drop investments or limit trade with Israeli firms involved in the West Bank settlements. At a security conference in Germany this weekend, Kerry warned that a breakdown in Israeli-Palestinian talks would accelerate this trend and could threaten Israel's economic prosperity and its safety….At the opening of his weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said international pressure on Israel would backfire....
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid recently said that even in the case of a limited boycott that reduces Israeli exports to the European Union by 20 percent, the damage would amount to about 20 billion shekels ($5.7 billion) in exports annually.
In a related development, Lapid also ordered that all payments to settlements be stopped until their use is clarified. The move followed a TV report that said funds were allegedly being illegally transferred to the Yesha Council — an umbrella groups of settlers — that was illicitly using the money for political purposes.
Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member
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