Yesh Atid Party Chairman Yair Lapid met with the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on Wednesday, January 13 in Brazil to discuss the threats posed to Israel by the BDS Movement.
During the conversation, Lapid, who served as finance minister in Netanyahu’s coalition government between 2013 and 2014, reportedly told Mogherini that calls to boycott Israel encourage and strengthen the voices of anti-Semitism in Europe.
“I called upon her to oppose these slanderous calls. I explained to her that it cannot be that Jews cannot walk around with a Kippa (religious skullcap) on their heads in Marseille. We cannot abandon this arena. Just as the IDF must be able to reach any theater from which Israel is attacked, the Foreign Ministry also needs to reach any place from which Israel is attacked and to respond and attempt to change the situation,” Lapid said.