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The Boycott of Israel is Gaining Speed
http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/09/the-boycott-of-israel-is-gaining-speed/
Posted on 08. Sep, 2010 by Raja Mujtaba in Gaza Today
An Analysis By Professor Lawrence Davidson
On September 5, 2010 the Israel newspaper Haaretz published an article
the headline of which read "Anti-Israel Economic Boycotts are Gaining
Speed." The subtitle went on to state that "the sums involved are not
large, but their international significance is huge." Actually, what
seems to have triggered the piece was not international. Rather, it
was the decision of a "few dozen theater people" to boycott "a new
cultural center in Ariel," an illegally settled town in the Occupied
Territories. This action drew public support from 150 academics in
Israel. The response from the Israeli right, which presently controls
the government and much of Israel's information environment, was loud
and hateful.
Though this affair was domestic, it provided a jumping off point for
Haaretz to go on and examine the larger international boycott of
Israel which is indeed "gaining speed." It noted that Chile had
recently pledged to boycott products from the Israeli settlements and
Norway's state pension plan had divested itself of companies involved
in construction in the Occupied Territories. The Haaretz article
pointed out that these incidents (and there are others that can be
named in such countries as Ireland and Venezuela) are signs that the
boycott movement –so long the province civil society– is now finding
resonance at the level of national governments. The Israeli paper
declared that "the world is changing before our eyes. Five years ago
the anti-Israel movement may have been marginal. Now it is growing
into an economic problem."
The article puts forth two explanations for this turn of events one of
which is problematic, and the other incomplete. Let's take a look at
them.
1. "Until now boycott organizers had been on the far left. [Now] they
have a new ally: Islamic organizations….The red side has a name for
championing human rights, while the green side [the Islamic side] has
money." I have some personal knowledge of the boycott movement and I
find some of these particulars to be, at best, exaggerations. The term
"far left" must be based on some arbitrary Zionist definition of the
political spectrum. Worldwide community support for the growing
boycott movement has gone beyond political alignments. Today, it is a
reflection of real united front seeking the promotion of Palestinian
human rights (in this Haaretz is on the mark). As for the "green side"
there is certainly an understandable affinity here. Muslims too are
concerned about the human rights of Palestinians (including the
Christians ones). However, the claim of any significant flow of cash
is, as far as I know, another exaggeration. The Haaretz piece cites
the example of the aid flotilla to Gaza, with its link to Turkey. But
this is just one case in a worldwide movement. And, there was nothing
illegitimate (despite Israeli propaganda) about the involvement of
Turkish charities. It might come as a surprise to the Israelis, but
you can run a boycott movement without heavy outside funding–as was
the case of the boycott against South Africa.
2. Haaretz continues, "but then came the occupation, which turned us
into the evil Goliath, the cruel oppressor, a darkness on the
nations." The article suggests that this is such a contrast with the
righteous stand that helped convince the West to support the original
formation of Israel that many have turned away from Israel in
disappointment. "And now we are paying the price of presenting
ourselves as righteous and causing disappointment: boycott." No doubt
there is much disappointment. The horrors of Israeli expansionism and
occupation are such that they draw worldwide attention. And rightly
so. But, they are symptoms of some deeper cause. What might it be? The
state of Israel was founded on an ideological program called Zionism.
That program called for the establishment of a state designed to serve
the exclusive interests of one religiously identified group. While the
Zionists felt this aim was justified by the centuries of persecution
suffered by European Jews, it actually carried within it the seeds of
its own corruption. The simple truth is that you cannot successfully
design a state for one group only unless you found it on some desert
island. If you put it down in a place that is occupied by others who
are not of your group, what is the most likely next step? You turn
into racists, ethnic cleansers, or worse. The Zionist adherence to
their ideology and its program is the cause of their turning into
"cruel oppressors." The means dictated by their end made it so.
The Haaretz article does not go beyond these points, but there is
plenty more to say. Those who wonder whether they should support the
boycott should certainly consider the horrors of the Israeli
occupation and its ghettoizing of the people of Gaza. They might also
consider the following:
1. The non-Jewish population of Israel proper, that is Israel within
the 1967 borders (the "Green Line") are subject to segregation and
economic and social discrimination that is both de jure and de facto.
Their overall standards of living are lower than the Israeli Jews,
their educational facilities inferior and their economic prospects
poorer. This is to be expected. If you are running your state based on
a racist principle, by definition discrimination must infuse the home
front. This fact does not appear to fit with the often heard claim
that the Israelis are "just like us" Americans. However, in a rather
anachronistic way they are "like us" – that is like the United States
prior to our civil rights legislation. In other words, Israel is like,
say, Georgia or Alabama circa the 1920s.
2. The second factor worthy of consideration is the negative
international impact of Zionist ideology, for the harm Zionism is not
confined to either Israel or its Occupied Territories. The fact is
that Zionist influence spreads far beyond Israel's area of dominion
and now influences many of the policy making institutions of Western
governments, and particularly those of the United States. This
influence is corruptive if only because it distorts both official and
popular notions of national interests in the Middle East. When you
have a powerful and single-minded lobby that is able to manipulate
your government in such a fashion that it pours its national treasure
into a racist state, arms it and protects it to the point of becoming
an accomplice to its crimes, and by doing so willfully alienates 22%
of the world's population, you know that
your notion of national interest has been seriously mangled. This
harmful influence makes it imperative that Israel's oppressive
behavior be singled out as a high priority case from among the many
other oppressive regimes that may be candidates for boycott.
So no one in Israel, the U.S. or anywhere else should be surprised
that the boycott against Israel, in its many manifestations, is
"gaining speed." If you are not yet a supporter you should become one.
To join the boycott is good the world's future in general. It is
certainly good for the Palestinians, and yes, it is good for the Jews
too.
Lawrence Davidson is a Professor of Middle East History at West
Chester University in West ChesterPennsylvania.He is the author of
America's Palestine: Popular and Official Perceptions from Balfour to
Israeli Statehood (University Press of Florida, 2001), Islamic
Fundamentalism (Greenwood Press, 2003), and, co-author with Arthur
Goldschmidt of the Concise History of the Middle East, 8th and 9th
Editions (Westview Press, 2006 and 2009). His latest book is entitled
Foreign Policy, Inc.: Privatizing American National Interest
(University of Kentucky Press, 2009). Professor Davidson travels often
and widely in the Middle East. He also has taken on the role of public
intellectual in order to explain to American audiences the impact of
U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its full
capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not mean that I
agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL" means that I believe
it is important for the people of this planet to know about what people think or
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your right to say it".
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"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.
On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.
Rael
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