For years I have been rather ambivalent about the wisdom of boycotting Israel. While a boycott of anything related to the illegal settlements in the West Bank, which are a clear derivative of a brutal occupation, is an absolute necessity, and which I have fully supported, I have always been reserved about the boycotting of Israel proper. Today I feel that there is no choice but to call for a full and total boycott directed against Israel – Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS).
For the good of Israel and in the hope that blatant pressure from abroad directed primarily at the Israeli economy is the only way to wean Israel from what Thomas Friedman in a recent editorial called “Israel’s crack addiction”. It is the only way to wake Israelis up from their (crack) pipe dream of “business as usual” or the feasibility of maintaining a disastrous status quo that will only lead to more land grabs, violence and war, ultimately jeopardizing Israel itself. It is the only way to convince present and future governments that the current situation is untenable and unviable. It is the only way to save us from ourselves. At this point in time, Israelis are unable to affect change from within.
The atmosphere has become so poisoned that attempts at the grassroots level to affect political change are insignificant at best, particularly in light of attempts at the legislative level to delegitimise grassroots initiatives and make local NGOs seeking to advance political change illegal.
The current Israeli government (as well as past governments, whether led by Labour, Likud or the catch all Kadima party) has zero intention of moving forward with negotiations with the Palestinians. They would much rather “manage” the conflict than seek a truly just solution.
The continued occupation is having a disastrous effect on Israeli society as a whole. Human life has become cheap, a form of Judeo-Fascism is developing here, led by rabbis, far right politicians in the Knesset and leaders in the occupied Palestinian territory. Jim Crow legislation has been tabled at the Knesset, rabbis have signed calls not to lease or sell property to Arab Israelis, hundreds demonstrate against Arab Israeli neighbors, and recently a group of minors were arrested for conducting what can only be called pogroms against innocent Arab citizens in the center of Jerusalem.
The poison of the occupation has infected Israeli society as a whole at a level that can only be diagnosed as gangrenous. The only way to convince Israelis that the current status quo cannot be continued is to attach a real and significant price to the continued occupation, and yes, to force local political leaders to take responsibility, to lead rather than manage, to commit, rather than hide behind spin doctors or the outright lies of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Anyone who yet rationalises non-action against Israel is actively contributing to the inevitable use of the only other tool world history has provided for social and political change: violence! Please boycott my country today, you are our only hope!
The author chooses to withhold his name for fear of repercussions against his family. The threat is real. Suffice to say that the author is an Israeli academic in the field of the social sciences. While the author is fully prepared to pay the price for his opinions, there is no reason for his family to suffer.
The author can be reached at: pleaseboycottus@gmail.com
band annie's Weblog 
December 24, 2010 at 3:12 pm
A striking feature of this emphatic all to boycott israel is the writer’s oblivion to any Palestinian agenda, reality, suffering, and of course legal and human rights. This is a blatant testimony to what the writer calls “Judeo-Fascism”. It permeates Jewish-israeli society to the point that even those israelis who are considered anti-israel extremists rely on a deeply supremacist-racist worldview as the motive for their actions. This strengthens the need for strong outside pressure – most people living inside israel have been blinded by the poison in which they live and which they actively maintain as the only possible reality. Anyone with a minimal amount of human solidarity with the Palestinians should abandon hesitations and join the boycott movement before it is too late (for Palestinians, not for israelis).
December 29, 2010 at 1:43 pm
As the author of this piece, and someone who has been active for years in trying to achieve justice for Palestinians, I can only disagree with your comment. Indeed, the motivation for this piece is my disgust with the current and past situation. My world view is neither racist nor supremacist. I am well aware, far from oblivious to Palestinian suffering.