(JNS.org) The movement to boycott Israel is a “Third Intifada” whose roots are Israeli construction beyond the 1967 lines, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote Feb. 4. This intifada isn’t led by the Palestinians, but “by the European Union in Brussels and other opponents of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank across the globe,” according to Friedman, whose column came on the heels of Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent warning at a security conference in Munich that Israel would face more boycotts and isolation if the U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations fail.

“If Israel really wanted to slow down the boycott campaign, it would declare that as long as Kerry is trying to forge a deal, and there is hope for success, Israel will freeze all settlement activity to give peace its best chance,” Friedman wrote.

Andrea Levin, executive director of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, told JNS.org that Friedman in his column “claims the BDS attackers are motivated by opposition to ‘the occupation’ and to settlements – when actually BDS proponents openly call for the dissolution of the Jewish state.”