ISRAEL
IN CONTEXT
How scared should we be? I BY BEV GOLDMAN
“NOT ONLY IS ISRAEL HARMING PALESTINIANS,
but it is harming itself… The reality is that
Israel is becoming an apartheid state like
South Africa in its denial of equal rights.
(This) is not a future danger… but a present-day reality. This harsh reality endured
by millions of Palestinians requires people
and organisations of conscience to divest
from those companies… (which are) profiting from the occupation and subjugation of
Palestinians. Such action made an enormous difference in apartheid South Africa.
It can make an enormous difference in creating a future of justice and equality for
Palestinians and Jews in the Holy Land.” –
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
The international BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) Campaign, of which Desmond Tutu is a staunch supporter, presents itself as a pro-peace initiative, but is
definitely not that! It is, instead, a thinlyveiled, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic “weapon of mass destruction”, whose goal is the
demonisation, delegitimisation, and ultimate demise of the Jewish State.
The stated goals of the movement are the
end of Israeli occupation and colonisation of
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Arab land, full equality for Arab-Palestinian
citizens of Israel, and respect for the right of
return of Palestinian refugees.
While it claims to work peacefully by using “punitive economic means” to pressure
Israel into rectifying the wrongs she is accused of having perpetrated against human
rights in the Palestinian territories, it has
instead launched a global campaign against
Israel, uniting Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims who have been violently opposed to
making peace with the country for more
than 60 years, and who, by their deceptions
and falsifications, have proven nothing less
than their desire to bring about the dissolution of the world’s only Jewish state.
In 2012, leading Lebanese American Palestinian professor of political science, As’ad
Abu Khalil, declared: “The real aim of BDS
is to bring down the State of Israel... that
should be stated as an unambiguous goal.
There should not be any equivocation on
the subject. Justice and freedom for the
Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the State of Israel.”
The BDS movement has also chosen to
“expose and challenge” what it defines as
Israel’s repressive and hateful policies, including denying Palestinian refugees the
right of return, using military violence
against innocent Palestinian men, women
and children, confiscating and occupying
Palestinian land in Israel, demolishing Palestinian homes, practising racism against
Palestinians by encumbering their freedom
of movement, access to education and ability to earn a living.
On 9 July 2005, 171 Palestinian nongovernmental organisations united in support of the Palestinian cause for boycott,
divestment and international sanctions
against Israel. Using the anti-apartheid
campaigns waged against white minority
rule in apartheid era South Africa to give
credibility to their actions, the BDS campaign called for “various forms of boycott
against Israel until it mee