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
The St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee hosted two Flash Mobs today (Saturday Decemeber 4, 2010) that I was lucky enough to be a part of! The Flash Mob was to raise awareness about Motorola’s support of Israeli human rights violations. You can find more info on the reasons why to boycott Motorola at the link provided:
Tuesday, 23 November 2010 12:54 Tindersticks
It is with sadness that Tindersticks announce the cancellation of their forthcoming concerts in Tel Aviv.
When agreeing to play our music in Israel we, perhaps naively, believed that the music we make is beyond political considerations.
Over the past weeks, the pressure exerted on us by people and organisations, some close to us, has shown us that this is not the case. It is difficult to defy a rapidly growing movement with whose aims we agree, even if we are not wholly convinced by their methods.
The songs we looked forward to playing and singing have already been tainted and their enjoyment stifled, if not completely drowned out by the political furore.
We sincerely look forward to a time when we, and others, can make our music for the people in the Middle East for the pure joy of the music itself.
On Sunday 31 October 2010, 25 persons gathered in the town center of Gothenburg, Sweden, to demonstrate support for the 80 activists in France who face legal charges for racist hate crimes because they have called for boycott of Israel. It is Bureau National de Vigilance Contre l’Antisémitisme and the government of France that is conducting a campaign to criminalise such hand-outs of flyers, wearing of t-shirts, and sticker marking of goods from Israel.
Dressed in similar t-shirts as the French activists, the support protest was initiated with a gathering around posters with messages such as “to boycott Israel is not racist” and “freedom of expression for Sakina [Arnaud]”. Thereafter, the protest group marched through the town center and visited two grocery stores that, despite Israel’s occupation of Palestine, have Israeli goods in their assortment. Finally, H&M’s establishment of several stores in Israel was highlighted as the protest group marched through the flagship store and handed out flyers outside the entrance.
Today’s support protest could have been prosecuted if it had been carried out in France. It is in Sweden and EU legitimate and legal to critisise states for their crimes against international law and to recommend boycott and sanction until they act law-abidingly. But French citizens are being deprived of this right — when the state is Israel. It is also worrying that citizens of Sweden and EU risk prosecution and punishment if they participate in BDS activism in France.
More info:
http://ism-sweden.org/page.php?catego…
http://bdshm.org
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