- The upcoming flotilla to break the Gaza siege is gathering
steam from a flood of innovative Boycott, Divest and Sanctions activities
around the world, says Eric Walberg
-
- From 7-20 March, more than 75 university groups on six
continents held their seventh annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). According
to Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti, "Our South Africa moment has
finally arrived." " Israel's version of apartheid is more sophisticated
than South Africa's was. It's an evolved form," explains Barghouti
in his hot-off-the-press BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights.
"In South Africa, the overall plan was to exploit blacks, not throw
them out."
-
- The true nature of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians
prompted Jewish-American folk legend Pete Seeger to speak out. Seeger,
92, used to participate in the Israeli Arava Institute's virtual rally
"With Earth and Each Other", but Arava's behind-the-scenes partner
is the Jewish National Fund, responsible for destroying Palestinian lands
and building forests on them to hide their crimes. Seeger now realises
Arava is in fact a subtle tool of "Rebrand Israel": "Now
that I know more, I support the BDS movement as much as I can." Seeger
has long given royalties from his famous Bible-based song from the 1960s
"Turn, Turn, Turn," to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
for their work in rebuilding demolished homes and exposing Israel's practice
of forcing Palestinians off their land to build Jewish villages and cities.
-
- In the build-up to IAW, the Ramallah-based "Stop
the Wall Campaign" and "It's Apartheid" media collective
announced the winners of the first International Israeli Apartheid Short
Film contest in February. The winners "Apartheid Road", "Ali
Wall" and "Confronting the Wall" can be viewed at <itisapartheid.info>itisapartheid.info.
Ali Al-Jadar's story is especially touching: as a callow 16-year-old, he
built a ladder and planted a Palestinian flag at the top of the wall near
his home. The IDF came in the night, arrested, tortured and sentenced him
to eight years in prison, though mercifully he was release in a prisoner
exchange after two years. He is one of the thousands of modest heroes that
inspire IAW activists around the world.
-
- In Beirut, South African anti-apartheid activist Salim
Vally provided insights from the earlier South African struggle. Lebanese
activist Rania Masri described the boycott movement as a vehicle against
global and local neoliberalism. Iconic Palestinian freedom fighter Leila
Khaled linked IAW goals with current anti-government revolts in the broader
Arab world, which are dominated by social movements for justice and self-determination.
-
- Ontario universities joined together to draw up a petition
signed by 140 academics to divest from BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Hewlett
Packard and Lockheed, all of which provide military and/or information
technologies that help Israel violate international law.
-
- A dramatic IAW event was staged by students from the
Arizona chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace at the University of Arizona
(UA) and UA migrant rights group No Más Muertes/No More Deaths (NMM),
who erected a mock apartheid wall dividing the UA campus in Tucson for
a week, drawing a parallel between the wall being built dividing Mexico
and the US and the Israeli apartheid wall. "People are dying and suffering
from abominable policies being funded with US tax dollars," remarked
JVP coordinator Chicano-Jewish student Gabriel Matthew Schivone.
-
- More than 6000 human remains of Mexicans seeking a better
life have been recovered from the US/Mexico borderlands in the past two
decades. "We will not stand idly by nor stay silent regarding the
enormous suffering being inflicted either in our local deserts and cities,
or 10,000 miles away in Israeli-occupied Palestine . Our wall symbolised
our collective will to end global apartheid and work toward a world that
truly offers justice for all."
-
- Last year Hampshire College in Massachusetts, the first
US college to divest from South Africa in 1979, became the first to divest
from the Israeli occupation, following its anti-racism Action Awareness
Week 2008. As in Arizona, students constructed a mock wall, distributed
Palestinian and Israeli passports randomly to students, and when they tried
to pass through, the activists showed them how they would be treated in
Israel . As in Toronto they launched a petition drive to divest from firms
supporting Israeli apartheid.
-
- As a result student Will Delphia made his debut as documentary
film producer last year with the 30-minute film "To Know is Not Enough",
using Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine archival footage, clips
from media coverage, and interviews with the personalities involved. The
film can be seen online at <vimeo.com/13802936>vimeo.com/13802936.
Though the administration never admitted it divested because of Israeli
apartheid, as one student says in the film, "The administration divested.
But the administration is not the college. The staff, students and community
are. We made the decision and we are making the statement."
-
- University of Johannesburg went a step further to become
the first South African university to implement an academic boycott of
an Israeli university, Ben-Gurion University. The UJ Senate concluded that
"there is significant evidence that BGU has research and other engagements
that support the military and armed forces of Israel, in particular in
its occupation of Gaza." Bishop Desmond Tutu argued: "Palestinians
have chosen, like we did, the nonviolent tools of boycott, divestment and
sanctions. South African universities with their own long and complex histories
of both support for apartheid and resistance to it should know something
about the value of this nonviolent option."
-
- EuroPalestine is engaged in spectacular and frequent
BDS actions that the European Israel lobby and the French government try
relentlessly to block through legal actions. They recently made a 15-city
tour of France with 200 activists and posted their documentary about it
at <europalestine.com>europalestine.com. They plan to bring thousands
to East Jerusalem and the West Bank 8-16 July for the Gaza Freedom March,
with Palestinians hosting their foreign supporters. To join them, go to
<BienvenuePalestine.com>BienvenuePalestine.com.
-
- The most important BDS-inspired event of 2011, marking
the first anniversary of the tragic Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara
last May, will be the Free Gaza Movement flotilla expected in late May,
when 12 ships carrying a thousand peace activists with humanitarian supplies
will head for Gaza. Israel's Ambassador to Turkey Gaby Levy asked the Turkish
government to help stop the activists, but was told the flotilla was "an
initiative by civil society". Israel's UN Ambassador Meron Reuben
called the activists "terrorists" who are "willing to become
martyrs". One of the "terrorists" is retired US Colonel
Ann Wright, who vowed, "Despite these threats, we are definitely sailing."
-
- The courage that Palestinians have shown under six decades
of brutal occupation is now infecting people with a conscience around the
world. It looks like the siege will finally be broken in June, with the
flotilla and with Egypt's promise to open the Gaza crossings, to be followed
by the arrival at Ben-Gurion airport in July of thousands more activists
determined to embrace their Palestinian brothers and sisters.
-
- ***
- Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/
You can reach him at http://ericwalberg.com
|
