Israel Blacklist Organizations: Twenty organizations banned from entering the country

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Israel has announced it is barring twenty organizations from entering the country. The groups are in favor of a boycott of Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian land. The list includes a Nobel Peace Prize winning group that helped save people from the Nazis during World War Two. CGTN's Stephanie Freid has this report.

It's called "The Blacklist". And if an organization's name is on it, the group's members are not welcome in Israel. Their crime? Supporting a boycott the Israeli government says undermines the country's legitimacy.

Boycott advocates say it's a tool for pressuring Israel into ending more than half a century of occupation. Most recently BDS - the acronym for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions - convinced singersongwriter Lorde to cancel her Tel Aviv concert.

STEPHANIE FREID RAMALLAH "If creating a blacklist seems like an extreme and serious measure, that's because it is. But here in the West Bank at BDS headquarters, they're conducting business as usual."

OMAR BARGHOUTI, FOUNDER BOYCOTT DIVESTMENT SANCTIONS "This last step of producing a list is such a desperate move on the part of Israel. BDS does not rely on people visiting occupied Palestine. We rely on people acting in their own home states. We want the French and the British and the South Africans and the Argentinians to do BDS in their countries."

But at least one person - the Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace - is feeling the blacklist on a personal level. Rebecca Vilkomerson has "extensive family" in Israel. She is now barred from visiting.

But, she says she is, nonetheless, heartened by the blacklist because it means BDS is gaining in strength.

According to a Rand study, Israel loses up to fifty billion dollars a year in commercial and defense contracts because of pressure on governments and militaries. Stephanie Freid, CGTN, RAMALLAH.