- Enough is enough. After 61 years of Palestinian slaughter,
displacement, occupation, oppression, and international dismissiveness
and complicity, global action is essential. Israel must be held accountable.
World leaders won't do it, so grassroots movements must lead the way.
-
- In 2004, Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote:
-
- "The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning
accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without
the help of international pressure - in particular the divestment movement
of the 1980s. Over the past six months, a similar movement has taken shape,
this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation."
-
- In July 2008, 21 South African activists, including ANC
members, visited Israel and Occupied Palestine. Their conclusion was
unanimous. Israel is far worse than apartheid as former Deputy Minister
of Health and current MP Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge explained:
-
- "What I see here is worse than what we experienced
- the absolute control of people's lives, the lack of freedom of movement,
the army presence everywhere, the total separation and the extensive
destruction we saw....racist ideology is also reinforced by religion,
which was not the case in South Africa."
-
- Sunday Times editor, Mondli Makhanya, went further: "When
you observe from afar you know that things are bad, but you do not know
how bad. Nothing can prepare you for the evil we have seen here. It is
worse, worse, worse than everything we endured. The level of apartheid,
the racism and the brutality are worse than the worst period of apartheid."
-
- Activist Opposition to a Fundamentally Evil Occupation
-
- In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society
organizations created the global BDS movement - for "Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law
and Universal Principles of Human Rights" for Occupied Palestinians,
Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees.
-
- Since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions condemned Israel's
colonial occupation, its decades of discriminatory policies, illegal land
seizures and settlements, international law violations, and oppression
of a civilian population, and called for remedial action.
-
- Nothing so far has worked. Palestine remains occupied.
Its people continue to suffer. Their human rights are denied. These abuses
no longer can be tolerated. In solidarity, people of conscience demand
justice and "call upon international civil society organizations
and (supporters everywhere) to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment
initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to (apartheid) South
Africa." Pressure is needed for "embargoes and sanctions....for
the sake of justice and genuine peace."
-
- Nonviolent punitive measures should continue until Israel:
-
- -- recognizes Palestinian rights to self-determination;
-
- -- respects international law;
-
- -- ends its illegal occupation;
-
- -- dismantles its Separation Wall;
-
- -- grants Israeli Arabs equal rights as Jews; and
-
- -- complies with UN resolution 194 affirming the right
of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and property or be fully
compensated for loss or damage if they prefer.
-
- Dozens of Palestinian political parties, organizations,
associations, coalitions, campaigns, and unions endorse the project,
including:
-
- -- the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine;
-
- -- the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen's
Rights (PICCR);
-
- -- the Consortium of Professional Associations;
-
- -- the Lawyers Association;
-
- -- the Network of Christian Organizations;
-
- -- the Palestinian Council for Justice and Peace;
- -- the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural
Boycott of Israel (PACBI); and
-
- -- the US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott
of Israel.
-
- PACBI
-
- In April 2004 in Ramallah, Palestinian academics and
intellectuals launched it by "buil(ding) on the Palestinian call
for a comprehensive economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel
issued in August 2002 (followed by further calls) in October 2003."
-
- In July 2004, its statement of principles read:
-
- -- "to comprehensively and consistently boycott
all Israeli academic and cultural institutions until Israel withdraws
from all lands occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem;
-
- -- removes all its colonies in those lands;
-
- -- agrees to United Nations resolutions relevant to the
restitution of Palestinian refugee rights; and
-
- -- dismantles its system of apartheid."
-
- PACBI states:
-
- "Boycotting Israeli academic and cultural institutions
is an urgently needed form of pressure against Israel that can bring
about its compliance with international law and the requirements for a
just peace." Israel won't comply. Why should it when world governments
are supportive and complicit and offer Palestinians no relief. Thus, grassroots
pressure is crucial. That's why organizations like PACBI are essential.
-
- So is the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott
of Israel (CACBI). It's comprised of US academics, "educators of
conscience....unable to stand by and watch in silence Israel's indiscriminate
assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions." They
call for:
-
- (1) boycotting all "academic and cultural cooperation,
collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions" not opposed
to their government's policies towards Palestinians;
-
- (2) "a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions
at the national and international levels (including) all forms of funding
and subsidies....;"
-
- (3) divestment and disinvestment from Israel;
-
- (4) academic, professional, and cultural groups condemnation
of Israel; and
-
- (5) support for Palestinian academic and cultural institutions.
-
- Israel flaunts the rule of law, pursues violence, not
peace, and discriminates against everyone not Jewish. Terror bombing Gaza
and daily West Bank incursions illustrate its arrogance and intentions.
CACBI "believe(s) that non-violent external pressure (through) academic,
cultural and economic boycott" are crucial. Worldwide support and
unwavering pressure must happen as well.
-
- In solidarity with PACBI, CACBI, and non-academic bodies
globally, Australian academics issued their own mission statement, calling
on like-minded activists to join them. Others elsewhere have done the
same.
-
- Inception of the Academic Boycott Idea
-
- On April 6, 2002, UK professors Steven and Hilary Rose
first presented the idea in an open letter to the London Guardian. They
wrote:
-
- "Despite widespread international condemnation for
its policy of violent repression against the Palestinian people in the
Occupied Territories, the Israel government appears impervious to moral
appeals from world leaders." For its part, America "seems reluctant
to act. However, there are ways of exerting pressure from within Europe....many
national and European cultural and research institutions....regard Israel
(alone in the Middle East) as a European state for the purposes of awarding
grants and contracts. Would it not therefore be timely" for a pan-European
moratorium of all further support "unless and until Israel abides
by UN resolutions and opens serious peace negotiations with the Palestinans"
along the lines of proposed "peace plans."
-
- By July, 700 signatures were registered, including from
10 Israeli academics, but not without controversy and opposition. Questions
of ethics and effectiveness were raised. Academic freedom, anti- Semitism,
and unfairly singling out Israel as well.
-
- On April 22, 2005, the UK Council of Association of University
Teachers (AUT - with support from 60 Palestinian academics) voted to
boycott two Israeli universities - Haifa and Bar-Ilan. Haifa for wrongly
disciplining a lecturer who supported a student's writing about 1948 Israeli
attacks on Palestinians and Bar-Ilan for conducting courses in the West
Bank, complicit with the occupation.
-
- Criticism of the AUT was immediate and harsh by Jewish
groups and its own members. Zvi Ravner, Israel's deputy ambassador in
London, said the "last time Jews were boycotted in universities was
in 1930s Germany." By May, pressure was intense, forcing AUT to cancel
its boycott, but the idea stayed viable.
-
- In May 2006, the National Association of Teachers in
Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) passed motion 198C, a call to boycott
Israeli academics who refused to speak out against their government.
As expected, criticism again was intense but those in support stayed firm.
-
- On May 30, 2007, the congress of the University and College
Union (UCU - created by AUT and NATFHE's merger) voted 158 - 99 on Motion
30 for a Palestinian trade unions boycott petition. It asked lecturers
to "consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links
with Israeli academic institutions."
-
- On September 28, after considerable opposition, UCU abandoned
its effort in a press release stating that lawyers advised that "an
academic boycott of Israel would be unlawful and cannot be implemented."
-
- Nonetheless, despite start-and-stop efforts and enormous
opposition, the BDS movement remains viable and has taken root globally.
In January 2009, the Ontario branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees
(CUPE) proposed banning Israeli academics from teaching, speaking at,
or doing research at Ontario universities unless they condemn Israel's
war on Gaza. After CUPE national president's opposition, local branch
officials removed the proposal from its web site but replaced it with
a statement calling for a boycott "aimed at academic institutions
and the institutional connections that exist between universities here
and those in Israel." It will also introduce a resolution on the
ban.
-
- On January 31, hundreds of Irish activists ran a full
page ad in The Irish Times condemning decades of Israeli militarism,
oppression, occupation, and violations of international law. They called
for the Irish government to:
-
- -- "cease its purchase of Israeli military products
and services and call publicly for an arms embargo against Israel;
-
- -- demand publicly that Israel reverse its settlement
construction, illegal occupation and annexation of land in accordance
with UN Security Council resolutions and to use its influence" to
achieve this;
-
- -- "demand publicly that the Euro-Med Agreement
under which Israel has privileged access to the EU market be suspended
until Israel complies with international law;
-
- -- veto any proposed upgrade in EU relations with Israel;
(and for)
-
- -- The Irish people to boycott all Israeli goods and
services until Israel abides by international law."
-
- On February 1, a new alliance of American Jews for a
Just Peace issued this statement against Israel's war on Palestine:
-
- "Israel recent War on Gaza resulted in worldwide
popular condemnation. Perhaps this marks an important turning point in
the relationship between Israel and the world community. We will not
stand by while Israel instigates a war, annihilates civilian infrastructure,
targets civilian shelters, blocks medical teams from reaching victims,
uses chemical weapons," and commits various other atrocities and
illegal acts. This isn't how a democratic state functions, one that respects
international laws and norms. "On the contrary, they are actions
of a rogue state....fully supported by the US government."
-
- "American Jews for a Just Peace calls for:
-
- -- immediate suspension of all US military aid to Israel
pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act;
-
- -- the US Congress to open an investigation into possible
war crimes as violations of the Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance
Acts in the war on Gaza;
-
- -- businesses and individuals to refuse to purchase Israeli-made
products that originate in or support Jewish settlements in Occupied
Palestine and the apartheid system of racial separation and oppression
in Israel/Palestine;
-
- -- the Israeli government to sign the International Convention
on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid that was
adopted by the United Nations in 1973...;
-
- -- the Israeli government to end the blockade and siege
of Gaza and allow unhindered access to all humanitarian aid organizations
as well as international journalists; and
-
- -- efforts by all activists to promote awareness of and
resistance to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, which continues through
the ongoing blockade, siege, displacement, annexation, and Israeli state-sponsored
terror."
-
- On February 3, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported
that "The only Palestinian university (Al Quds) to maintain ties
with Israeli colleges and oppose international calls for an (academic)
boycott....suspended contacts with Israeli universities in the wake of
the war in Gaza."
-
- Al Quds has 10,000 students on three West Bank campuses
- in El Bireh, Abu Dis, and East Jerusalem. By unanimous decision of its
board on February 1, it froze (but didn't end) 60 joint projects for
six months, pending a policy review and possible change. Its statement
cited no justification for continued ties and that cutting them "is
aimed at pressuring Israel to abide by a solution that ends the occupation,
a solution that has been needed for far too long and that the international
community has stopped demanding."
-
- Al Quds' board called on local, regional, and international
academics to support its position by halting their own cooperation with
Israeli universities.
-
- On February 5, Durban, South African dock workers refused
to offload an Israeli ship docked in the city's harbor. At the same time,
the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) called on "workers
and activists for justice and peace to join the ever growing movement
of people in solidarity with the suffering masses of Palestine."
COSATU asked workers globally to follow their lead not to offload Israeli
ships or handle Israeli goods in retail stores. It also affirmed its stand
to "strengthen the campaign in South Africa for boycotts, divestment
and sanctions against apartheid Israel."
-
- Despite its efforts, the Port of Durban used non-union
workers to offload the Israeli ship on February 6. On the same day, COSATU
and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign affirmed their boycott initiative
by protesting in front of the South African Zionist Federation offices
in Johannesburg.
-
- On February 6, stopwar.org.uk reported a "Wave of
Gaza solidarity action on UK campuses" over the past two weeks at
22 universities and colleges so far. Student demands include:
-
- -- providing scholarships for Palestinian students;
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- -- sending books and computers to Occupied Palestine;
-
- -- condemning Israeli attacks on Gaza; and
-
- -- divesting from Israel and BAE Systems that supplies
Israel with arms.
-
- On February 7, the Church of England announced that late
last year it divested over 2.2 million British pounds from Caterpillar,
a company whose bulldozers and equipment is used to demolish Palestinian
homes. It's a small step but an important one, given the Church's importance.
Hopefully it will inspire others to take similar steps and divest entirely
from Israel and companies with which it does business.
-
- On February 9, Hampshire College in Amherst, MA became
the first one in America to divest from companies involved in Israel's
occupation of Palestine. It marked a successful outcome of an intensive
two-year Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) campaign that pressured
the school's Board of Trustees to act. Over 800 students, faculty and
alumni were involved. Their efforts worked and shows that other campus
campaigns nationwide and globally may as well. This is an important first
step.
-
- On February 10, the Belfast Telegraph reported that the
Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) "launch(ed) a boycott of Israeli
goods as part of a major campaign to secure a peaceful settlement in
the Middle East."
-
- Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) dismissed
the idea but Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams expressed support in saying:...."Gaza
has been the target of an all-out military assault by Israeli forces.
Over 1300 people were killed, many of them children."
-
- Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Labour Party's
(SDLP) Carmel Hanna said that her country's experience with the "Troubles"
should inspire support for Middle East peace. "We have learned from
the conflict here that violence does not work and creates bitterness."
-
- On February 19, the Secretariat of the Palestinian Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions National Committee called on "all (globally)
to unite our different capacities and struggles in a Global Day of Action
in Solidarity with the Palestinian people and for a (BDS action) against
Israel on 30 March 2009" - as part of a "Global Week of Action
against the Crises and War from 28 March to 4 April."
-
- March 30 actions will focus on:
-
- -- "Boycotts and divestment from Israeli corporations
and international (ones) that sustain Israeli apartheid and occupation.
-
- -- Legal action to end Israel's impunity and prosecute
its war criminals through national court cases and international tribunals.
-
- -- Canceling and blocking free trade and other preferential
agreements with Israel and imposing an arms embargo as the first steps
towards fully fledged sanctions against Israel."
-
- The time for these actions is now. It must be sustained
until Gaza is free, the occupation of all Arab lands ends, the Separation
Wall is demolished, Israeli Arabs have equal rights as Jews, and Palestinian
refugees get their international law right to return to their homes and
property or receive full compensation for loss or damage if they prefer.
-
- On February 23, Amnesty International (AI) issued a press
release headlined: "Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories - Evidence
of Misuse of US-Weapons Reinforces Need for Arms Embargo."
-
- AI found evidence of US-supplied weapons and munitions
and "called on the UN to impose a comprehensive arms embargo."
It also accused Israel of using "white phosphorous and other weapons
supplied by the USA to carry out serious violations of international
humanitarian law, including war crimes. Their attacks resulted in the
death of hundreds of children and other civilians and massive destruction
of homes and infrastructure," according to Donatella Rovera, head
of AI's Gaza and southern Israel fact-finding mission.
-
- "As the major supplier of weapons to Israel, the
USA has a particular obligation to stop any supply that contributes to
gross violations of the laws of war and of human rights. The Obama administration
should immediately suspend US military aid to Israel."
-
- During the week of March 1 - 8, the fifth annual Israeli
Apartheid Week (IAW) will be held - last year in over 25 cities and this
year likely many more in the wake of the Gaza war and subsequent world
outrage. IAW is part of the growing global BDS movement - from Abu Dis
to Atlanta, Barcelona to Bethlehem, Chicago to Copenhagen, Halifax to
Hebron, New York to Nablus, Washington to Waterloo, and on and on in an
effort to make it unstoppable.
-
- Background Information and Member Global BDS Movement
Countries
-
- Organizations in 20 countries participate under the banner
of the International Coordinating Network on Palestine (ICNP). Formed
in 2002, it calls itself "a body of civil society organizations....under
the auspices of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People."
-
- Its mission "is to strengthen the role of civil
society in supporting and demanding, of governments and international
institutions, the full implementation" of all Palestinian rights
under international law, including to self-determination, national independence,
and sovereignty.
-
- ICNP coordinates global campaigns; facilitates communication;
aids local organizations; plans civil society conferences; and mobilizes
global BDS support. In the spirit of internationalism, it strives for
representation on every continent in many more nations than now.
-
- Participating organizations are currently in the following
countries:
-
- -- Australia;
-
- -- Belgium;
-
- -- Canada;
-
- -- the autonomous Catalonian northeast Spanish community
and its capital, Barcelona;
-
- -- Denmark;
-
- -- France;
-
- -- Egypt;
-
- -- Greece;
-
- -- Iceland;
-
- -- Italy;
-
- -- Netherlands;
-
- -- Norway;
-
- -- Scotland;
-
- -- South Africa;
-
- -- Spain;
-
- -- Sweden;
-
- -- United Kingdom; and
-
- -- United States.
-
- Formal Asian and Latin American representation is noticeably
absent, but BDS leaders look for change. They also promote broad international
BDS initiatives:
-
- -- academic and cultural boycotts by "refusing to
participate in cultural exchange, artists, and cultural institutions"
to tell Israel that its "occupation and discrimination against Palestinians
is unacceptable;" Israel promotes apartheid; non-Jewish voices are
excluded; Israeli children are taught to deny a Palestinian identity;
Israel monitors this closely and cracks down hard on non- compliers;
-
- -- consumer boycotts of Israeli products and services
through public awareness, bad publicity, pressuring stores to remove
merchandise denoting Israeli origin, and encouraging companies to stop
buying Israeli technology; overall, to create an inhospitable climate
for Israeli commerce;
-
- -- a sports boycott to highlight Israeli oppression and
discrimination and to stop its self-promotion as a "fair player"
by participating in bilateral and international competition; at the same
time, to promote a Palestinian presence in these events to support their
right to identity and self-determination;
-
- -- divestment/disinvestment in Israel and companies globally
that support its occupation and oppression; encourage and pressure individuals,
businesses, organizations, universities, pension funds, and governments
to shed their Israeli investments to provide pressure for change;
-
- -- sanctions - starting with open debate and raising
awareness on applying them; followed by implementing comprehensive economic,
political, and military measures to isolate the Jewish state; ending
Israel's membership in economic and political bodies like the UN, WHO,
Red Cross, WTO, and OECD;
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