Re: Boycott Israel - Neve Gordon - L.A. Times
Mahdy
tdny wrote:
> I say this as a Jew who has chosen to raise his children in Israel,
> who has been a member of the Israeli peace camp for almost 30 years
> and who is deeply anxious about the country's future.
>
>
> http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gordon20-2009aug20,0,6144555,print.story
>
>
> latimes.com
> Opinion
> Boycott Israel
> An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion
> that it's the only way to save his country.
> By Neve Gordon
>
> August 20, 2009
>
>
> Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry
> articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel.
>
> Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals,
> Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his
> decision to perform in Tel Aviv,
>
> and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson,
> a British actress who also endorses cosmetics produced
> in the occupied territories.
>
> Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that
> helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South
> Africa is gaining many followers around the world.
>
> Not surprisingly, many Israelis -- even peaceniks -- aren't signing on.
>
> A global boycott can't help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism.
>
> It also brings up questions of a double standard
> (why not boycott China for its egregious violations of human rights?)
> and the seemingly contradictory position of approving a boycott of one's
> own
> nation.
>
> It is indeed not a simple matter for me as an Israeli
> citizen to call on foreign governments, regional authorities,
> international social movements, faith-based organizations,
> unions and citizens to suspend cooperation with Israel.
>
> But today, as I watch my two boys playing in the yard,
> I am convinced that it is the only way that Israel
> can be saved from itself.
>
> I say this because Israel has reached a historic crossroads,
> and times of crisis call for dramatic measures.
>
> I say this as a Jew who has chosen to raise his children in Israel,
> who has been a member of the Israeli peace camp for almost 30 years
> and who is deeply anxious about the country's future.
>
> The most accurate way to describe Israel today is as an apartheid state.
>
> For more than 42 years, Israel has controlled the
> land between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea.
>
> Within this region about 6 million Jews and close
> to 5 million Palestinians reside. Out of this population,
> 3.5 million Palestinians and almost half a million Jews
> live in the areas Israel occupied in 1967, and yet while
> these two groups live in the same area,
>
> they are subjected to totally different legal systems.
>
> The Palestinians are stateless and
> lack many of the most basic human rights.
>
> By sharp contrast, all Jews -- whether they live in the occupied
> territories or in Israel -- are citizens of the state of Israel.
>
> The question that keeps me up at night,
> both as a parent and as a citizen, is
> how to ensure that my two children as
> well as the children of my Palestinian
> neighbors do not grow up in an apartheid regime.
>
> There are only two moral ways of achieving this goal.
>
> The first is the one-state solution: offering
> citizenship to all Palestinians and thus establishing
> a bi-national democracy within the entire area controlled
> by Israel.
>
> Given the demographics,
> this would amount to the demise
> of Israel as a Jewish state;
> for most Israeli Jews, it is anathema.
>
> The second means of ending our apartheid
> is through the two-state solution, which
> entails Israel's withdrawal to the pre-1967
> borders (with possible one-for-one land swaps),
> the division of Jerusalem,
>
> and a recognition of the Palestinian right
> of return with the stipulation that only a
> limited number of the 4.5 million Palestinian
> refugees would be allowed to return to Israel,
> while the rest can return to the new Palestinian state.
>
> Geographically,
> the one-state solution appears much more
> feasible because Jews and Palestinians are
> already totally enmeshed; indeed, "on the ground,"
> the one-state solution (in an apartheid manifestation) is a reality.
>
> Ideologically,
> the two-state solution is more realistic because
> fewer than 1% of Jews and only a minority of
> Palestinians support binationalism.
>
> For now, despite the concrete difficulties,
> it makes more sense to alter the geographic
> realities than the ideological ones.
>
> If at some future date the two peoples decide to share a state,
> they can do so, but currently this is not something they want.
>
> So if the two-state solution is the way
> to stop the apartheid state, then how
> does one achieve this goal?
>
> I am convinced that outside pressure is the only answer.
>
> Over the last three decades,
> Jewish settlers in the occupied territories
> have dramatically increased their numbers.
>
> The myth of the united Jerusalem has led
> to the creation of an apartheid city where
> Palestinians aren't citizens and lack basic services.
>
> The Israeli peace camp has gradually dwindled
> so that today it is almost nonexistent,
> and Israeli politics are moving more and
> more to the extreme right.
>
> It is therefore clear to me that the only way
> to counter the apartheid trend in Israel is
> through massive international pressure.
>
> The words and condemnations from the Obama
> administration and the European Union have
> yielded no results, not even a settlement freeze,
> let alone a decision to withdraw from the occupied territories.
>
> I consequently have decided to support the Boycott,
> Divestment and Sanctions movement that was launched
> by Palestinian activists in July 2005 and has since
> garnered widespread support around the globe.
>
> The objective is to ensure that Israel
> respects its obligations under international
> law and that Palestinians are granted the
> right to self-determination.
>
> In Bilbao, Spain, in 2008,
> a coalition of organizations from all over
> the world formulated the 10-point Boycott,
> Divestment and Sanctions campaign meant to
> pressure Israel in a "gradual, sustainable
> manner that is sensitive to context and capacity."
>
> For example,
> the effort begins with sanctions on and
> divestment from Israeli firms operating
> in the occupied territories,
>
> followed by actions against those that
> help sustain and reinforce the occupation
> in a visible manner.
>
> Along similar lines,
> artists who come to Israel in order to
> draw attention to the occupation are welcome,
> while those who just want to perform are not.
>
> Nothing else has worked.
>
> Putting massive international pressure on
> Israel is the only way to guarantee that
> the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians -- my two boys included
> -- does not grow up in an apartheid regime.
>
> Neve Gordon is the author of "Israel's Occupation"
> and teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel.
>
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