Written, compiled and prepared by Sonja Karkar for Australians for Palestine Published October 2010 by Australians for

Palestine Box 2099, Hawthorn 3122 Melbourne Australia Copies of this manual can be obtained by contacting Tel: +61 3 9818 5080 info@australiansforpalestine.com This manual is also available online www.australiansforpalestine.com

ontents

Letter from Archbishop Tutu - 5 Jewish National Fund (JNF) - 6 The Root of the Problem - 7 Apartheid - 8 The Occupation of Palestine - 9 Palestinian Refugees 10 West Bank Palestinians 11 Palestinians in East Jerusalem 12 Palestinians in Gaza 13 Israels Unequal Citizens 14 Palestinian Political Entities 15 Palestinian Political entities: Hamas - 16 Illegal settlements/colonies 17 Industrial sites/parks 18 Maps - 19 The Apartheid Wall 20 Can Israel be called an Apartheid state? 21 Origins of the BDS movement - 22 What is BDS? 23 Who is calling for BDS? - 23 What are the goals of BDS? - 24 Will BDS work against Israel? 24 How does BDS work? - 25 Why should people boycott? 25 Groups and campaigns to avoid - 26

Ways to boycott - 27 Consumer boycotts 27 Partial boycotts 27 Cultural boycotts 28 Sporting boycotts 28 Academic boycotts 29 Divestment 30 Sanctions - 31 BDS: Churches 32 BDS: Trade Unions 33 BDS: Universities - 34 BDS: Local and regional governments 35 BDS: Political Parties - 36 Arguments against BDS answered 37 Consumer/corporate boycott successes 41 Cultural/academic boycott successes 43 Divestment successes 45 Sanctions successes 46 When the people lead, the leaders follow 47 What you can do - 48 Products to boycott 49 Campaign to stop the Jewish National Fund - 53 APPENDICES 55 IAJV: Statement of Principles 56 IAJV: Jews say Enough is Enough - 57 Palestinian Christians Kairos Document 58 National Council of Churches in Australia - 59 Australian Academics call for BDS 60 Trade Union Congress (UK) statement 62 Australian unions commit to BDS 64 BDS information sites 65 BDS: Recommended Reading - 66 3

Archbishop Tutu

1989

If you change the names, the description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would be a description of what is happening in South Africa

Anti-apartheid campaigner, elder statesman, Nobel Peace Laureate, global activist now retired

(extract of letter Archbishop Tutu sent to the student leaders at UC Berkeley in March 2010 regarding Berkeleys decision to divest from Israel. The bill to divest from General Electric & United Technologies was passed on a 16-4 vote.)
I am writing to tell you that, despite what detractors may allege, you are doing the right thing. You are doing the moral thing. You are doing that which is incumbent on you as humans who believe that all people have dignity and rights, and that all those being denied their dignity and rights deserve the solidarity of their fellow human beings. I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid. I have witnessed the humiliation of Palestinian men, women, and children made to wait hours at Israeli military checkpoints routinely when trying to make the most basic of trips to visit relatives or attend school or college, and this humiliation is familiar to me and the many black South Africans who were corralled and regularly insulted by the security forces of the Apartheid government. In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of nonviolent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime. The abuses the Palestinians face are real, and no person should be offended by principled, morally consistent, non-violent acts to oppose them. It is no more wrong to call out Israel in particular for its abuses than it was to call out the Apartheid regime in particular for its abuses.

Jewish National Fund (JNF)

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) is one of the most prominent Zionist colonisation enterprises. It illegally expropriated most of the land of 372 Palestinian villages which were ethnically cleansed by Zionist forces in 1948. The owners of this land are over half the UN-registered Palestinian refugees. In many instances, the JNF actively participated in the physical destruction of the villages, evacuating their inhabitants and planting parks in their place. Today the JNF controls over 2500 sq km of Palestinian land, which it leases to Jews only. Its aim is to acquire and develop land exclusively for the benefit of Jews residing in Israel. For the last decade, it has marketed itself as the premier Zionist environmental organisation promoting its Blueprint Negev as a miracle in the desert. Thousands of indigenous Bedouin Arabs have been subjected to systematic land confiscations, the destruction of their homes and deprived of access to flowing water. Some 80,000 Bedouins who once owned 90% of the land have been living in 45 unrecognised villages in Israel with no access to amenities and basic services denied to them. The JNF is a multinational corporation with offices in about a dozen countries world-wide where it is geberally registered as a charity. It receives millions of dollars from wealthy and ordinary Jews around the world most of which are tax-exempt contributions. To avoid investigation, honours are bestowed on non-Jewish notables such as naming forests after them, some of Australias former prime ministers among them. JNF also extends its operations by proxy or directly to the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the West Bank and Gaza. All this is in clear violation of international law and particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention which forbids confiscation of property and settling the Occupiers citizens in occupied territories. Ethnic cleansing, expropriation of property and destruction of houses are war crimes. As well, use of tax-exempt donations in these activities violates the domestic law in many countries where JNF is domiciled.

Some extracts from John Howards Dubious Jewish National Fund Honour by Sonja Karkar, Electronic Intifada, May 2007 and Financing Racism and Apartheid by Palestine Land Society (PLANDS), August 2005 www.plands.org

Nelson Mandela

2001

Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians contrary to the rules of international law and waged war against a civilian population, in particular children.
Anti-apartheid campaigner, elder statesman, Nobel Peace Laureate, global activist now retired

The Root of the Problem

When Israel was created in 1948, after the UN voted to partition Palestine, it dispossessed the Palestinian people of their homes, properties and land and refused more than 750,000 of them the right to return home. Those Palestinians and their descendants are still internally displaced or living in refugee camps in neighbouring countries. (They now number around 5 million). In 1967, Israel occupied the remaining Palestinian lands - the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip and to this day has subjected the Palestinians living there to a brutal regime of apartheid and ethnic cleansing as it continues to execute with impunity its colonisation and judaisation of all the land. At the time of Israels 1967 conquest, one of its most revered intellectuals, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, prophesied that this colonising situation . . . will turn into a system of imposed rule over two peoples, one ruling and the other ruled. He then surmised as unlikely that human rights and civil freedoms can exist even in the Jewish sector. The consequences he said will lead to self-destruction of the Jewish state, and of relations with the Arabs based on perpetual terror. There is no way out of this situation, he warned, except withdrawal from the territories. More than four decades later, the warning bells may well be ringing too late for Israel. Justice is waiting at the gates.

Apartheid
. . . the crime of apartheid . . . shall apply to the following inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over another racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them . . . Israel's regime over the Palestinian people amounts to apartheid precisely because it displays many of the main features of the crime as defined by international law: 1. Racial discrimination against the indigenous Palestinian people who became citizens of the State of Israel was formalized and institutionalized through the creation by law of a Jewish nationality", which is distinct from Israeli citizenship. No Israeli nationality exists in Israel, and the Supreme Court has persistently refused to recognize one as it would end the system of Jewish supremacy in Israel. The 1950 Law of Return entitles all Jews -- and only Jews -- to the rights of nationals, namely the right to enter Eretz Yisrael (Israel and the OPT) and immediately enjoy full legal and political rights. 2. The 1952 Citizenship Law [40] has created a discriminatory two-tier legal system whereby Jews hold nationality and citizenship, while the remaining indigenous Palestinian citizens hold only citizenship. [41] Under Israeli law the status of Jewish nationality is accompanied with first-class rights and benefits which are not granted to Palestinian citizens. 3. The Israeli Status Law of 1952 authorizes the World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency and its subsidiaries, including the Jewish National Fund, to control most of the land in Israel, for the exclusive benefit of Jews. [This] constitutes an institutionalised form of discrimination, because these agencies by definition would deny the use of these properties to non-Jewish citizens of the State. 4. The Return of Palestinian refugees and Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs), as required by international law, has been prevented by means of force and legislation simply because they are not Jews. Palestinian refugees were denationalized and turned into stateless refugees

Article II, International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, UN General Assembly Resolution 3068, 30 Nov 1973 An excellent study by the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa Occupation Colonialism, Apartheid? A Re-assessment of Israels Practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories under International Law, May, 2009 www.hsrc.ac.za

(extract from Our South Africa moment has arrived by Omar Barghouti, founding member of the BDS campaign, 18 March 2009)

The Occupation of Palestine

Israels Occupation has evolved into a system of warehousing, which Israel is attempting to present as a permanent given, a non-issue, a state of status quo immune to any genuine solution. It is worse than the apartheid-era South African bantustans. From every point of view, historically, culturally, politically and economically, the Palestinians have been defined as surplus humanity; nothing remains to do with them except warehousing, which the concerned international community appears willing to allow Israel to do. If Israel can package and export its layered Matrix of Control, a system of permanent repression that combines Kafkaesque administration, law and planning with overtly coercive forms of control over a defined population hemmed in by hostile gated communities (settlements in this case), walls and obstacles of various kinds to movement, then as Naomi Klein writes starkly, every country will look like Israel/Palestine: One part looks like Israel; the other part looks like Gaza. In other words, a Global Palestine. Israel is offering a useful model that can be applied to surplus populations everywhere. The term warehousing, then, is meant as a warning. We must continue our efforts to end the Israeli Occupation our language must not only be honest and unsparing, [it] must keep pace with political intentions and ever more rapidly developing facts on the ground.

(extract from The Palestinians: Warehousing a surplus people by Jeff Halper, ICAHD

Palestinian refugees
Eighty percent of the Palestinians are refugees, and half of the Palestinians still live in refugee camps within and around their homeland. Any sustainable peace is dependent upon the just resolution of the refugee issue. Israel must acknowledge the refugees right of return; a resolution of the issue cannot depend solely on humanitarian gestures. And Israel must acknowledge its responsibility for driving the refugees from their country. Just as Jews expected Germany to accept responsibility for what it did in the Holocaust so, too, will the refugee issue continue to fester and frustrate attempts to bring peace to the region until Israel admits its role and asks forgiveness. Genuine peacemaking cannot be confined to technical solutions alone; it must also deal with the wounds caused by the conflict. To the degree that negotiations are entered into, they must have as their terms of reference international law and UN resolutions if the Palestinians are to enjoy even minimal parity with their Israeli interlocutors. In the meantime, growing opposition to the occupation on the part of the international grassroots is making it increasingly difficult for governments to support Israeli policies. The movement targeting Israel for boycott, divestment and sanctions gains strength by the day, as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict begins to assume the dimensions of the anti-apartheid struggle. Until the majority of Palestinians, and not merely political leaders, declare that the conflict is over, the conflict is not over. Until most Palestinians believe it is time to normalize relations with Israel, there will be no normalisation. Israel cannot win.

(extract from Dismantling the Matrix of Control by Jeff Halper, ICAHD, 2009)

10

West Bank Palestinians

Israel has put into place a matrix that has virtually paralysed the Palestinian population. The matrix is composed of several overlapping layers. First is the actual physical control settlements; a massive system of highways and by-pass roads; army bases and industrial parks at key locations; closed military areas; "nature preserves"; control of aquifers and other natural resources; internal checkpoints and control of all border crossings. The second layer of the matrix is bureaucratic and legal political zoning of land to freeze natural development; building permits enforced by house demolitions to confine population to restricted enclaves; land expropriation; planting restrictions and destruction of Palestinian crops; closure; restrictions on movement and travel; and more. The third layer involves the use of violence to maintain control over the matrix massive imprisonment and torture (currently there are more than 8,500 political prisoners); use of collaborators to control local population; pressure on families to sell their lands, the undemocratic, arbitrary and violent rule of the Military Commander of the West Bank and the Civil Administration. The average Israeli has no concept of this matrix. Average Palestinians are highly attuned to its presence since they hit up against it every time they move. The Palestinians can wrest 95% of the Occupied Territories from Israel, can oversee the dismantling of almost all the settlements and can establish a recognized state, but unless they effectively dismantle the "matrix of control" a viable Palestinian state will elude them.

(extract from The Matrix of Control

by Jeff Halper, 2001)

11

Palestinians in East Jerusalem

Since 1967, around 2,000 homes have been demolished in East Jerusalem. The number of outstanding demolition orders is estimated at up to 20,000. The absence of a building permit can lead to an administrative or court decision to demolish a home. Whilst Palestinians represent about 30% of Jerusalem's population they are currently confined to just 7% of the city's area, [a policy] aimed at preserving demographics in the city. This policy is put into practice via a series of discriminatory measures - discriminatory urban planning, discrimination in the allocation of public services between East and West Jerusalem, passive or active support for judaization of East Jerusalem through illegal settlement construction, precarious residency status and the demolition process. House demolitions are just one mechanism within a matrix of control implemented by Israel via military, economic, administrative, and cultural occupation. Discrimination against Palestinians in Jerusalem is aimed at delegitimising their presence and claims over the Holy City. Israeli local and national governments systematically deny Palestinian legitimacy and make lives unsustainable, while concurrently colonizing Palestinian neighbourhoods. These processes are aimed at the quiet transfer of Palestinian residents out of Jerusalem.

Extract from

East Jerusalem Demolitions

www.icahd.org

12

Palestinians in Gaza
Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution, its once productive population transformed into one of aiddependent paupers. This context is undeniably one of mass suffering, created largely by Israel but with the active complicity of the international community, especially the U.S. and European Union, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Gazas subjection began long before Israels recent war against it. The Israeli occupationnow largely forgotten or denied by the international communityhas devastated Gazas economy and people, especially since 2006. The deepened sanction regime and siege imposed by Israel and the international community, and later intensified has all but destroyed the local economy. There is little in society that possesses legitimacy. Trauma and grief overwhelm the landscape despite expressions of resilience. The feeling of abandonment among people appears complete, understood perhaps in their growing inability to identify with any sense of possibility. The most striking was this comment: It is no longer the occupation or even the war that consumes us but the realization of our own irrelevance. If Palestinians are continually denied what we want and demand for ourselvesan ordinary life, dignity, livelihood, safety, and a place where they can raise their children and are forced, yet again, to face the destruction of their families . . . what looms is no less than the loss of an entire generation of Palestinians. And if this happensperhaps it already haswe shall all bear the cost.

(extract from The Peril of Forgetting Gaza by Sara Roy, Senior Research Scholar Harvard University, 2009)

13

Palestinians: Israels unequal citizens

Although Palestinian citizens of Israel are entitled to vote and participate in Israeli political life, and several Palestinians are members of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), they do not receive the same treatment as the Jewish citizens at the hands of the government. Israel still applies 20 laws that privilege Jews over Arabs. The 1950 Law of Return grants automatic citizenship rights to Jews from anywhere in the world upon request, while denying that same right to Palestinians. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Freedom ensures that Israel is the state of the "Jewish people," not its citizens. Israel's flag and other national symbols are Jewish religious symbols, not neutral or national ones that represent all the citizens of the state. Government resources, meanwhile, are disproportionately directed to Jews and not to Arabs. Human Rights Watch has compiled an extensive study of Israel's policy of "separate, not equal" schools for Palestinian children, finding that "Governmentrun Arab schools are a world apart from government-run Jewish schools. In virtually every respect, Palestinian Arab children get an education inferior to that of Jewish children, and their relatively poor performance in school reflects this." As many as 100 Palestinian villages in Israel, many of which pre-date the founding of the state, are not recognized by the Israeli government, and are not listed on maps and receive no services (water, electricity, sanitation, roads, etc.) from the government. More than 70,000 Palestinians live in these unrecognized villages. Meanwhile, hundreds of new Jewish towns have been established on lands confiscated from Palestinians.

(from background briefings, Institute for Middle East Understanding IMEU)

14

Palestinian political entities

Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) founded In 1964 to fight for the Palestinian national struggle. The PLO aimed for the creation of a single, democratic and secular state in Palestine/Israel. In 1988, the PLO recognised the State of Israel, and in 1993, the group signed the Oslo Accords with Israel. Until his death in 2004, Yasser Arafat was PLO Chairman and was succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian National Authority (PNA) also referred to as Palestinian Authority (PA) Created out of the Oslo Accords the PNA administers the parts of the occupied Territories granted varying degrees of autonomy (Areas A, B and C). The president is Mahmoud Abbas and the Prime Minister is Salam Fayyad (Oct 2010). This latter role is contested by Hamas which contends that Ismail Haniyeh is the democratically elected Prime Minister (the Hamas government was dismissed by Abbas in June 2007 as part of the HamasFatah conflict. Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) The elected legislature of the PNA. In January 2006, Hamas won a majority in the PLC elections. (taken from Ben Whites book Israeli Apartheid: A Beginners Guide) 2009 Fatah founded in 1959 by Yasser Arafat and others, By the late 1960s, Fatah had become the main political party in the PLO.

15

Palestinian political entities: Hamas

Hamas was formed in 1987, 20 years into Israels military occupation. Some Palestinians were disillusioned with leftist or secular parties and look for an alternative politics. Sometimes Hamas is lumped together with al-Qaeda, despite the huge differences in origins, context, social base and aims. This clumsy analogy is often drawn for propaganda purposes, and sometimes made out of ignorance. In fact, Hamas has demonstrated a flexible approach to pragmatic politics. It has held to unilateral ceasefires and key leaders have even expressed a willingness to implicitly recognise Israels existence as part of a genuine two state solution. Unfortunately, the Israeli government has chosen to assassinate important Hamas moderates, only strengthening the hand of the hardliners. Some have noted the antisemitism of the 1988 Charter. According to leading Hamas expert Khaled Hroub, however, this document has since become largely obsolete. Hroub says: The vague idea of establishing an Islamic state in Palestine as mentioned in early statements of the movement was quickly sidelined and surpassed . . . Hamas has developed and is still developing, into a movement that is more preoccupied with current and immediate, and medium-term goals. The reasons for the surge in support for Hamas at the ballot box in 2006 were nothing to do with an upswing in the number of Palestinians seeking an Islamic state. Hamas had proven itself to be efficient in providing a number of vital services, such as health care and charitable support in stark contrast to the Palestinian Authority.

(extract from Israeli Apartheid A Beginners Guide by Ben White, 2009)

16

Illegal settlements/colonies
Since the 1967 military occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, Israel has built in these occupied territories civilian colonies, or settlements, and encouraged Israeli citizens and industries to move into them. Presently there are 135 Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and dozens of additional outposts settlements not yet officially recognized by the Israeli government. These house over 562,000 Jewish Israeli residents: 282,000 in the West Bank (excluding Jerusalem), 260,000 in neighbourhoods built in Arab Jerusalem or annexed to Jerusalem, and 20,000 in the Golan Heights. A report has recently exposed how Israeli banks are knowing principal beneficiaries of the illegal settlements providing the financial infrastructure for all activities of companies, governmental agencies and individuals in the continuing occupation of Palestine. The Israeli civilian construction has been one of the methods in which occupied areas were effectively annexed, partially or in full, into Israel. The on-going construction includes housing developments as well as extensive infrastructure projects such as roads and water systems for the exclusive use of Israeli settlers, on lands confiscated from Palestinians or declared state lands in various ways. The Israeli colonizing efforts are illegal by international law that stipulates that an occupying power moving its citizens into an occupied area is in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and any permanent changes made in the occupied land for such settlers is in violation of The Hague Regulations.

Financing the Occupation Who Profits? 18 October 2010

(extract from by Jeff Halper, ICAHD, 2001)

The Matrix of Control

17

Industrial sites/parks
Israeli industrial zones within the occupied territories hold hundreds of companies, which export their products worldwide. Settlement production benefits from low rents, special tax incentives, lax enforcement of environmental and labour protection laws and other governmental supports. Palestinians employed in these industrial zones work under severe restrictions of movement or organization, and with hardly any governmental protections, this results in high exploitative employment practices and labour rights violations. The origin of exported settlement products is often intentionally obscured. Companies hold marketing addresses within Israel, or market their products under a label, which mixes their products with products from within Israel. Seven such parks have already been built, with several others in various stages of planning and construction. Yet, while providing employment to the Palestinian workforce, they threaten the economic viability of the Palestinian state and maintain a dependency relationship on Israel. They allow Israeli firms continued access to cheap Palestinian labour while denying the workers access to Israel (a key component of the separation strategy). Just as serious, the lax environmental standards and low costs means that these industrial parks attract Israels most polluting industries chemical, aluminum, plastics, metalworks, batteries. . . [and] ensure Israels ability to continue dumping its industrial wastes into the West Bank.

(extract from

The Matrix of Control

by Jeff Halper, ICAHD, 2001)

18

Fragmented Palestine panel from triptych, oil on canvas, Dora McPhee, Melbourne 2010

Richard Hamilton Maps, UK 2010

19

The Apartheid Wall

In February 2003, just eight months after construction of the wall began, an internal analysis by the World Bank revealed that approximately 75 miles of the wall had already been built The wall is not just a wall, the World Bank analysis notes. Depending upon location, sections will comprise some (or all) of the following elements: four-meter [12 feet] deep trenches on either side; a dirt path to which access will be forbidden where potential infiltrators would be exposed to IDF fire; a trace path to register foot prints; an electronic warning or smart fence; a concrete barrier topped with barbed wire; a concrete wall rising as high as eight meters [24 feet]; a two-lane military patrol road; and fortified guard towers placed at regular intervals. Furthermore, the Israeli State Attorney has indicated that the territory between the Green Line and the wall will be declared a Closed Military Zone. Most significantly, the wall is not being built entirely on the Green Line. According to a recent UN report, only 11 percent of the wall runs along the West Banks border with Israel. In some areas, the wall curves nearly four miles into the West Bank, cutting roads and severing water networks. By curving inward, the wall incorporates 10 Israeli settlements on its western or Israeli side. The World Bank reported extensive physical destruction of agricultural lands and assets. Communities located near the wall will be cutoff from part or all of their agricultural land, water sources, business assets, urban markets, public services and extended social networks, resulting in severe income loss. According to the UN, the Israeli map shows the completed wall running over 400 miles on a serpentine route including along the eastern side of the West Bank, totally surrounding 12 Palestinian communities and cutting the West Bank into 16 isolated enclaves. Anywhere from 15 to 60 percent of the West Bank - containing some of the areas most fertile lands - would be effectively annexed to Israel, isolating or otherwise adversely affecting between 674,000 and 875,000 people.

(an extract from A Nightmare Peace: Destroying the basis of a Palestinian State by Sara Roy, (senior research scholar, Harvard University), PalestineIsrael Journal, 2004)

20

Jimmy Carter

2006

When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank and connects the 200-orso settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa.
former US President, elder statesman, Nobel Peace Laureate, human rights activist, author

Can Israel be called an Apartheid state?

An excellent study by the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa Occupation Colonialism, Apartheid? A Reassessment of Israels Practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories under International Law, May, 2009 www.hsrc.ac.za
Apartheid means separateness and the crime of apartheid has been defined by the United Nations as policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination. Israel has done this. It has constructed a separate system of laws, schools, health care, roads and highways, identification papers and citizenship based on ethnicity. Through this system of segregation (hafrada in Hebrew), Palestinians are daily deprived of access to land, water, housing, health care, decent roads, freedom of movement, education and work, for the sole reason that they are not Jews. In essence, Israel has created a democracy for Jewish people only. Different rights for different races was the first pillar of apartheid in South Africa. Israel has also nearly completed construction of the Separation Wall, a network of barriers including 8-metre high concrete walls, military watchtowers and razor wire fencing that when complete, will have illegally annexed some 46% of the West Bank. The path of the Wall makes clear the nature of Israeli apartheid: separation in service of dispossession. The second pillar was the separation of racial groups into different geographical areas and the Wall and illegal settlements have been designed to shunt the Palestinians into isolated Bantustans. The third pillar of apartheid was security and repression and while there was serious repression in the black townships, there were never tanks and F-16 bombers wreaking death and destruction over the civilian population as Israel is doing with impunity. As apologists for Israel struggle furiously to denounce the South African apartheid comparison, those three pillars of apartheid are there for all to see.

21

Origins of the BDS Movement

The campaign traces its origins to a July 2004 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (the World Court), which found Israel's separation wall in the West Bank to be "contrary to international law." The ICJ also recommended that the parts of the wall built inside the occupied territories be dismantled and that Palestinians affected by the wall be compensated. When a year passed with no sign that the opinion would be enforced, a wide-ranging coalition of more than 170 organizations representing Palestinian civil society issued a call for boycott, divestment and sanction of Israel "until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights." The "call" was notable for unifying the Palestinian grassroots and for the simplicity and coherence of its platform. BDS was seen as an "essential component" for shifting the playing field in the Palestinians' favour after the slow death of the peace process, the Israeli settlement expansion and the inability of the international community to hold Israel accountable. Today the BDS movement is loosely coordinated by a body called the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Campaign National Committee (BNC), which is made up of nongovernmental organizations representing Palestinian civil society. The BNC is not affiliated with any political party (though it has been endorsed by some) and does not take positions on issues that fall outside the specific principles of the "call." Thus it does not endorse either a one-state or two-state solution to the conflict. The movement has won adherents by saying that it will accept any gesture of boycott or divestment that Westerners are willing to make. "If you only want to boycott an egg, we want you to boycott an egg," said Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the

Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which is part of the BNC.

(extract from The Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement, The Nation, 28 June 2010)

22

Mahatma Gandhi

1938

What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred.
political and spiritual leader of India who pioneered mass civil disobedience as resistance to tyranny

What is BDS?
BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. These are three nonviolent, punitive tactics that a grassroots movement can use to pressure a repressive government into meeting its obligations under international law and human rights conventions. BDS campaigns were used to good effect against the Apartheid regime in South Africa. The most effective morally consistent means for achieving justice and genuine peace, are now being called for against the Apartheid regime in Israel.

Who is calling for BDS?

Palestinian civil society has issued the call for BDS to be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognise the Palestinian peoples inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law. This call has been endorsed by over 170 Palestinian parties, organisations, trade unions and movements representing the three major constituents of the Palestinian people Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians living in the Diaspora. It was adopted by the UN International Civil Society on 13 July 2005 and is coordinated by the BNC Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Campaign National Committee.

23

What are the goals of the BDS?

The BDS movement has very defined goals.

IMMEDIATE GOALS: to isolate Israel economically and

diplomatically in order to pressure Israel to begin living up to its obligations under international law. Also, to pressure respective governments to revise their Middle East policy so that it is based on international law and human rights.

ULTIMATE GOALS: an end to Israels occupation and

colonisation of Arab lands; the dismantlement of the Separation Wall; equal rights for Arab-Palestinian citizens inside Israel; the right of return of Palestinian refugees as set out UN resolution 194. BDS will be maintained only as long as it takes to achieve these goals.

Will BDS work against Israel?

There is every reason to believe BDS will work. BDS power comes from the mobilisation of the international community at all levels of society. With the aid of the internet, it is growing rapidly. Boycott statements and campaigns are being initiated by groups of activists, churches, trade unions, political parties, universities, NGOs and businesses. As the various initiatives take off, they reinforce each other, making it all the more difficult for governments and corporations to ignore Israels apartheid policies. 24

Ilan Papp

2005

This is a very simple story, a story of dispossession, of colonization, of occupation, of expulsion. And the more I go into it, the clearer the story becomes it also brought me to think of the state of Israel, and the Jewish majority in it, in very much the same terms that I used to think about places such as South Africa, and the white supremacy regime there.
Israeli historian, Professor of History at Exeter University, UK, one of Israels New Historians

How does BDS work?

The first step in any BDS campaign is education. It is important that the public understands the need for BDS and that it can only be effective if it is sustained and carried out by a peaceful, international, grassroots movement. Individual boycotts against consumer goods made in Israel and the illegal settlements can be undertaken as the public becomes more aware of which products to target. Unions can pass motions to implement boycotts and begin industrial bans. Churches and universities can look at divesting from companies operating in or profiting from operations in Israel and the illegal Israeli settlements. Governments and governmental institutions are usually the last to undertake sanctions, but with enough support at the grassroots level, history has shown that this can happen and has happened. The idea is to maintain consistent and systematic pressure in order to isolate the repressive government.

Why should people boycott?

Not to boycott Israel is to repeat the international silence that prevailed when Jews were being horrifically exterminated under the Nazi regime in Germany. Not to boycott is to repeat the decades of silence that allowed the white apartheid regime in South Africa to brutalise the indigenous black population and deny them their freedom and rights. Not to boycott is to deny almost 6 million Palestinians living under apartheid conditions today, their right to freedom and selfdetermination.

25

Groups and campaigns to avoid

INVEST FOR PEACE - Efforts to sabotage the BDS
movement abound and one such campaign is called Invest for Peace (Stanford University USA) which pushes for investment in joint Israeli-Palestinian projects to uplift Palestinian society and economy. It assumes Palestinians and Israelis are equal partners when in fact there is a vast power imbalance. While emphasis is on peace and economic prosperity, investing in peace can only have positive outcomes if pressure is brought to bear through BDS to change the realities on the ground.

STAND WITH US - Another organisation that claims to

bring peace to the Middle East is Stand With Us. Based in Israel, it has spread globally promoting much disinformation on campuses, churches and numerous communities. It actually mimics, although very negatively, the projects and campaigns of the BDS movement in a bid to confuse a wellmeaning public with its focus on peace. In fact, peace without justice for the Palestinians will never bring peace.

TULIP Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine

calls itself a new global movement encouraging peace, justice and reconciliation based on a two-state solution through dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian national trade union centres. In reality, its purpose is to stop trade unions from supporting the BDS movement, which TULIP claims is destroying any chance for a real Israeli-Palestinian peace.

PERES CENTRE FOR PEACE claims to build peace

through socio-economic cooperation and development and people-to-people interaction. However, any partnership between Israelis and Palestinians cannot be equal as long as Palestinians remain oppressed by Israel.

26

Ken Loach

2006

Palestinians are driven to call for this boycott after forty years of the occupation of their land, destruction of their homes and the kidnapping and murder of their civilians.

Ways to boycott
CONSUMER BOYCOTTS are the easiest to implement beginning with
the simple refusal to buy products made in Israel or refusing to frequent a store that continues to sell such products after it has been told the reasons for the boycott. Products that have been made in Israel, an illegal settlement or in one of the industrial zones built illegally inside the West Bank usually have a bar code beginning with 729. Those that dont usually say Made in Israel. While such boycott might begin with an individual act, it only becomes powerful when it finds strong support in organisations and movements willing to promote the boycott. In primary boycotts, consumers boycott products from Israeli companies. In secondary boycotts, consumers avoid goods produced by companies with significant business interests in Israel or containing parts produced by Israel. It includes boycott of companies whose managements use the profits and the power of the company to promote Israeli colonial policies of occupation and apartheid. This approach was used successfully in South Africa.

See www.bdsmovement.net for guidelines.

Partial boycotts
Pressure from Israel and its apologists have frightened some people and groups into compromising BDS and calling for a partial boycott on just goods produced in the illegal Israeli settlements rather than all goods made in Israel. This includes only divesting from companies that make Israels occupation possible rather than divesting from all Israeli companies. While better than nothing, such boycotts fail to target the repressive state itself which is instrumental in the colonial expansion of Palestinian lands through the settlement project. It is Israel that must be held to account not just the individual settlements.

27

Ways to boycott
CULTURAL BOYCOTTS
specifically target Israeli cultural and sporting institutions and those people who represent them as well as international cultural and sporting events that are sponsored by the State of Israel. Many performers, sports people and other personalities have joined the call for a cultural boycott and have cancelled their tours to Israel.

. . .virtually all Israeli cultural institutions, unless proven otherwise, are complicit in maintaining the Israeli occupation and denial of basic Palestinian rights, whether through their silence or actual involvement in justifying, whitewashing or otherwise deliberately diverting attention from Israels violations of international law and human rights. Accordingly, these institutions, all their products, and all the events they sponsor or support must be boycotted. Events and projects involving individuals explicitly representing these complicit institutions should be boycotted, by the same token. (PACBI)

SPORTING BOYCOTTS

in particular aim to stop Israel from promoting itself as a fair player through the participation of its sporting teams and individual players in international competitions. Sports boycotts were used against apartheid South Africa and it was South Africas exclusion from all major official competitions that played an important role in isolating the regime and its supporters. A powerful antidote to the propaganda of the white sports bodies at that time was the declaration by the non-racial sports federation The South African Council on Sport (SACOS) no normal sport in an abnormal society. Today, these words resonate just as powerfully against Israels apartheid policies and practices. 28

Hedy Epstein

2008

I was really not prepared for all the horrors that I saw. I had heard about checkpoints. And I thought a checkpoint was something like a toll booth on a highway here in the United States. It's not like that at all. And it's gotten worse every time I return. The way they are now, they remind me of when animals are rounded up and taken to slaughter, it's just so humiliating.
American human rights activist, Holocaust survivor, advocate for Palestinian human rights

Ways to boycott
ACADEMIC BOYCOTTS
target Israeli academic institutions that are complicit with the governments occupation and apartheid policies and practices while claiming normality as a democratic society. This can take the form of refusing to take part in academic exchanges and cooperation in research.

While an individuals academic freedom should be fully and consistently respected an individual academic, Israeli or not, cannot be exempt from being subject to boycotts that conscientious citizens around the world (beyond the scope of the PACBI boycott criteria) may call for in response to what is widely perceived as a particularly offensive act or statement by the academic in question (such as direct or indirect incitement to violence; justification an indirect form of advocacy of war crimes and other grave violations of international law; racial slurs; actual participation in human rights violations; etc.). At this level, Israeli academics should not be automatically exempted from due criticism or any lawful form of protest, including boycott; they should be treated like all other offenders in the same category, not better or worse. (PACBI)
NOTE: Not a single Israeli academic institution has petitioned the Israeli
government to protect Palestinian rights to education or to cease interference with and destruction of Palestinian schools and colleges.

See www.pacbi.org for guidelines

29 6

Ways to boycott
DIVESTMENT CAMPAIGNS
rely on others withdrawing their investments from financial institutions and companies that do business with Israel. Their purpose is to curb the profits of Israels war and apartheid economy. Generally a divestment campaign is targeted at businesses and organisations with investments in Israel in order to encourage broader values of corporate responsibility. Divestment campaigns are being undertaken on university campuses, within churches and unions as well as pension funds. Once institutions begin to feel that investing in Israel is simply too risky, the downward spiral for Israel will begin. Companies with direct links to direct actors in Israeli crimes are the obvious target for divestment, but divestment from Israel as a whole can send a message to Israeli society that there is a growing tide of disaffection globally with its governments treatment of the Palestinian people. Even if a campaign does not achieve success in hurting the offending company or Israel itself financially, it can bring about changes in public perception about the companys activities and Israel itself.

See www.bdsmovement.net for guidelines

30

John Dugard

2007

There are gross, egregious and systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the OPT, committed not by undisciplined and uncontrolled militias but by one of the most disciplined and sophisticated armies in the modern world, directed by a stable and disciplined government.
South African professor of international law and was the UNs special rapporteur on human rights in Palestine

Ways to boycott
SANCTIONS
The principle problem of sanctions is that action rests on states and global institutions, many of whom have a long history of supporting or implementing colonialism and occupations in the Middle East. However, a campaign for sanctions can be very effective in raising public awareness as government measures are often perceived by the general public to have more 'legitimacy' than boycotts and pickets by activists. Although, sanctions are only likely to be applied by governments and international institutions once grassroots pressure begins to take effect in boycott and divestment campaigns. There are three types of sanctions that can be applied: ending or refusing free trade agreements, applying arms embargos or severing diplomatic relations with Israel. The argument for sanctions against Israel is a powerful one as Israel is in breach of almost all its obligations under international law. In particular, Israels acceptance into the United Nations was conditional on its acceptance and implementation of UN Resolution 194, which affirms the right of all Palestinians to return to their homes and lands from which they were exiled in 1948 and compensate them for their losses if they choose not to return. Israel refuses to abide by this resolution as well as many others. It is also in clear breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which is the cornerstone of international humanitarian law that ensures minimum protections for civilians in armed conflict and occupation.

See www.bdsmovement.net for guidelines

31

BDS: Churches
BDS can also be undertaken by religious groups. With their emphasis on moral and ethical principals any action taken by a religious body in defence of Palestinian human rights would have particular resonance. For many reasons, there has been a reluctance by faithbased groups to hold Israel to account because they think it would be an attack on the Jewish faith. Nothing could be further from the truth. Israel is a state like any other and operates on an exclusionary basis, which actively discriminates against non-Jewish religious faiths. This applies especially to Palestinian Christians and Muslims who find their places of worship attacked, taken over or banned to them. It is important to emphasise that religion is NOT the issue in Palestine, since Palestinians of all faiths, including Jews, have lived in peace for centuries. Major Christian churches have large investment portfolios and could begin to divest from companies that support and profit from the occupation. Already divestment campaigns targeting Caterpillar have been initiated in a number of churches as they become more aware of the appalling human rights violations suffered by the Palestinians.

See www.bdsmovement.net for guidelines

32

Ronnie Kasrils

2009

. . . . in its conduct and methods of repression, Israel resemble[s] more and more apartheid South Africa at its zenith - even surpassing its brutality How do we evaluate the inhumanity of dropping bombs and blazing white phosphorous on civilian populations, burning people alive, gassing them in a Gaza ghetto under relentless siege with no place to run or hide?
former South African government minister & executive member of the ANC, anti-apartheid activist, author

BDS: Trade Unions

The trade union boycott works very like the consumer boycott or divestment campaign at an institutional level. It means that trade unions cut economic, social and political ties with Israel and build ties with Palestinian unions. Much the same as the huge role they took on in fighting against Apartheid South Africa, their emphasis on international workers solidarity can be a real rallying cry against Israeli Apartheid. Trade unions need to be informed about the discriminatory nature of Israels Histadrut, which from its inception aimed to replace Arab workers with Jewish ones under a conquest of labour policy. Israels occupation aims to further conquer Palestinian labour through a series of joint industrial zones wherein Palestinians will essentially work as migrant workers on their own land for low wages in poor conditions without the option to organise. The Histadrut is the only trade union in Israel and continues to work on a racist framework that leaves Palestinian workers facing apartheid labour conditions in Israel itself. To support BDS, trade unions can pass motions, measures and resolutions condemning Israeli occupation and apartheid; promote a consumer boycott among their members and citizens; change purchasing and investment policy to ensure that trade unions are not contributing financially to the occupation; and partner with Palestinian unions.

See www.bdsmovement.net for guidelines.

33

BDS: Universities
An academic boycott of Israeli universities should be seen in light of their complicity with their governments expansionist and oppressive policies. It is an institutional boycott. Individual academics will only be affected if they are acting on behalf of, or as officials or representatives of Israeli academic institutions or of Israeli higher education nationally. At the practical level, the academic and political elites in Israel have always been inter-twined with professors appointed as legal advisers, heads of ministries and administrative bodies often with military ranks. Israeli universities are heavily involved in tailored teaching for the military and security services. An academic boycott is both a personal and or collective act made in solidarity with Palestinian colleagues whose academic freedom is currently denied. Palestinian academics are affected by Israels destruction of infrastructure, civil society, cultural and intellectual life and obstructions that prevent them from teaching and research, as well as arbitrary detentions and delays, violence and arrests. It is the apartheid conditions under which they are forced to live and work that override any arguments disparaging academic boycotts against Israeli universities. It is interesting that liberals who are so deeply opposed to BDS on academic freedom grounds did not say a word when Birzeit University near Ramallah was closed for nearly four years or when the Islamic University of Gaza was bombed by Israel.

FOR GUIDELINES and INFORMATION www.bricup.org.uk www.pacbi.org www.right2edu.birzeit.edu

34

Luisa Morgantini

2009

Israel has consistently disregarded international outcries from both the ICJ and UN as to the illegality of its policies, and the world has not moved to call Israel to account. The wall has reached 60% completion. Enough is enough. It is time to adopt a weapons' embargo and divestments from all companies which profit from Israeli military occupation.
Leading member of the Italian peace movement and former Vice President of the European Parliament

BDS: Local and regional governments

Municipalities across the world have played their part in effecting change in the political sphere. During the South African struggle, some 10 councils in the UK imposed a permanent boycott against South African apartheid by placing a ban on all purchasing and investment, as well as ensuring anti-apartheid resources and materials were available in library services and education facilities. In the US, the Cities for Peace initiative saw 46 cities passing council motions against the illegal invasion of Iraq. A grassroots movement against Israeli apartheid can be developed in the following ways: 1. Motions, resolutions and twinning Motions and actions may take the form of a complete ban on Israeli goods and services, divestment from Israeli bonds or shares in Israeli companies, banning relations with companies complicit with the occupation, such as Caterpillar, and twinning with Palestinian municipalities. Campaigners need to ensure that adherence is built and maintained. 2. Engage with your local politicians Write to your representative or lobby them in person, highlighting Israel's breaches of international law and the reality of apartheid on the ground Palestine, and suggesting motions of support and BDS. 3. Establish a local campaign group to put pressure on local politicians Join or organize a local campaign group to spread the word about putting pressure on politicians. Draft a standard letter and circulate it by email or post. Spread the word by having your campaign group arrange meetings and speakers and invite other members of the public. 4. Link local activism to other BDS campaigns Campaigns, such as against Caterpillar or Veolia, can be adopted and activists can make use of the research and the public awareness raising already done.

35

BDS: Political parties

Activists and advocates for Palestine must increase their political activity to ensure that BDS is seen by politicians and lawmakers as a legitimate and effective tactic to stop Israels violations of international law. This requires meeting and developing relationships with the national representatives as well as state and local officials. Effective advocates are those who consistently maintain contact and provide thoroughly researched, accurate, well-prepared and timely information. In preparing a case for BDS, the broader national interest should be considered. In particular, countries that are high contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention should be made aware of their responsibilities to hold Israel to account and a failure to do so diminishes the reputation of that country. Israels failure to abide by international law and UN resolutions provides a very strong case for any country to impose sanctions against Israel. Such advocacy, however, can only be truly effective if there is support from the community. There are many things that can be done to let government representatives and the opposition parties know how the public feels about certain issues. Writing letters do let them know that people are aware and interested in effecting change. The more they receive the better. Individuals have every right to ask to see their representative and should use that opportunity while unions and religious groups should make representations to let lawmakers know that the grassroots movement is backed by institutions in the wider community. But, the most effective way to emphasise the importance of BDS would be to provide opportunities for lawmakers to see the realities on the ground for themselves with organised visits to the Occupied Palestinian territories.

36

Arundhati Roy

2006

Palestine still remains illegally occupied. Its people live in inhuman conditions . . . They never know when their homes will be demolished, when their children will be shot, when their precious trees will be cut, when their roads will be closed, when they will be allowed to walk down to the market to buy food and medicine.
Indian novelist, Booker prize winner, Sydney Peace Laureate, human rights activist and a world citizen

Arguments against BDS answered

BDS bring politics into sport, culture and academia: The reality
for Palestinians is that politics and every facet of their lives are inextricably linked. The freedom enjoyed by Israelis comes at the expense of Palestinians who are deprived of their right to participate in such activities. Israels policies and practices infringe the freedom of Palestinian academics. Also, the privileging of academic freedom over other freedoms is antithetical to the very foundation of human rights. In other words, the evils targeted by boycotts are greater than the boycotts themselves.

BDS infringes academic freedom:

BDS closes down free debate and exchange of ideas: BDS is

aimed at institutions not individuals and hold those institutions responsible for protecting the absolute right of individuals to academic freedom.

BDS censors people: BDS does not prevent Israelis or Israeli

institutions from saying or doing anything. It merely asks us to withhold support for Israel and refrain from normalising relations with it until it abides by international law.

BDS delegitimises Israel: BDS is about exposing Israels illegal

policies and practices that have violently oppressed and dispossessed millions of Palestinians. Israels own actions delegitimise it, not BDS. 37

Arguments against BDS answered

Palestinians have the right to decide on the best tactic to use for attaining freedom from Israels illegal occupation and repressive measures. Supporters - whether Israelis or from the international community - should affirm the Palestinian right to resist, especially when that resistance is nonviolent. BDS campaigns are morally sound and effective means of struggle in order to apply global pressure that will enforce compliance with international law. BDS campaigns have the potential to appeal to the decency of ordinary Israelis to end apartheid now.

BDS alienates Israeli supporters:

BDS singles out Israel for punishment: The

worst first has never been the rule for whom to boycott (Bisharat, 2007) and BDS campaigns indeed target many countries for their human rights violations. This campaign focuses on Israel. Furthermore, Israel has set itself apart through its policies of occupation and apartheid and is unique in that it receives massive financial and military support from the USA. This power allows Israels crimes to have a global reach outside the crimes carried out by other states.

38

Roger Waters

2009

The suffering wrought on the population of Gaza by both the invasion and the siege is unimaginable to us outside the walls. . . . [may] ordinary, decent people round the world see the enormity of the crimes that have been committed, and demand that their governments bring all possible pressure to bear on Israel to lift the siege.
English musician and songwriter and founder and former leader of the world-famous rock band Pink Floyd

Arguments against BDS answered

BDS is one-sided: This is not an equal conflict. Israel is the occupier
and violator of human rights. The Palestinians living under occupation and apartheid see BDS as a way to redress the imbalance and to reinstate the rule of international law and human rights conventions.

BDS hurts Israelis who support Palestinian rights through peace and dialogue: Palestinians are already hurting and while the
goal is not to hurt Israelis, there is sometimes a price that must be paid when confronting an illegal occupation, apartheid and the denial of human rights. Palestinian civil societys needs must be put first in the struggle against Israels colonial expansion and oppression

BDS accuses Israel of racism when its policies are motivated by security: If that were true, the Separation Wall would be built along the
1967 Green Line border. Instead 85% is built inside the Palestinian West Bank effectively appropriating that land for Israel. The Wall and the house demolitions, land razing and breaking up of families and communities that it requires is not a way to achieve security. It certainly creates a situation of profound insecurity for the Palestinians who are forced to live in a state of constant fear, isolation and hopelessness. Under such circumstances, no one will be secure.

BDS is anti-Semitic: Israel is a state like any other and must comply
with international law. The focus of BDS is on Israels abuse of power and Israeli institutions that acquiesce in that power, not on Jewish people or Judaism. The second-class status of Palestinian citizens of Israel is a key issue that BDS seeks to redress. Furthermore, not all Jews support Israels government policies and many support BDS. 39

Arguments against BDS answered

BDS wants to destroy Israel because it seeks the right of return for Palestinian refugees:
Palestinians have every right under international law to return to their homes and to be compensated for their losses when they were dispossessed in the war of 1947-48. Israel denies the Palestinians the right to return home because of their religion and ethnicity, while it encourages Jewish immigration from anywhere in the world and gives citizenship to anyone of Jewish background citizenship.

BDS was used legitimately against Apartheid South Africa, but Israel is quite different.
While there are differences, the similarities have been noted by many eminent persons from South Africa particularly Archbishop Tutu, Mandela, Kasrils, Dugard. In fact, they and many other South Africans say it is a much worse form of apartheid.

BDS hampers the peace process: Israels use of

military and economic power to systematically destroy Palestinian society and to impose negotiations designed to force Palestinians to renounce their legitimate rights is the key obstacle to peace. There is also the question of justice. Without respect for Palestinian human rights, international law and UN resolutions regarding Palestine, the peace process will never achieve peace or justice. 40

Naomi Klein

2009

It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.

Canadian author, internationally known for her bestseller The Shock Doctrine and a human rights activist

Consumer/corporate boycott successes

OLYMPIA FOOD CO-OP, USA July 2010: voted to stop selling all Israeli goods with the exception of a single brand called Peace Oil. OAKLAND DOCKWORKERS, USA June 2010: Responding to appeals from Palestinian civil society after Israels attack on a humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza, dockworkers in Oakland - California, Sweden, and Norway all refused to dock and unload Israeli ships, imposing a blockade so-tospeak on Israeli goods. Similar historic action was taken by South African dockworkers in February of 2009. BRITISH METHODIST CHURCH June 2010: decided to boycott products becoming the first major Christian denomination in Britain to officially adopt such a policy. TWO ITALIAN SUPERMARKET CHAINS: announced the suspension of sales of products from Agrexco, the principal exporter of produce from Israel and the illegal Israeli settlements. AHAVA DEAD SEA COSMETICS July 2009 2010: Kristen Davis was suspended from her post as Oxfam spokesperson after it was revealed that she also represented AHAVA Beauty Products. Davis later ended her contract with Ahava. IRISH CONGRESS OF TRADE UNIONS February 2009: launched a boycott of Israeli goods

41

Consumer/corporate boycott successes

SOUTH AFRICAN DOCKWORKERS, February 2009: refused to unload an Israeli ship as part of a refusal to support oppression and exploitation. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) drew parallels with the 1963 boycotts against Apartheid South Africa. The Maritime Union of Australia (WA) supported the move and called for a boycott of all Israeli vessels. BRITISH NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS April 2007: called for a boycott of Israeli goods similar to those boycotts in the struggles against Apartheid South Africa. VEOLIA, France 2006 - 2010: The Derail Veolia campaign against Veolia for its involvement in the construction of a light rail from Jerusalem into Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, led to a loss of over 7 billion for the company across several countries.. LEV LEVIEV DIAMONDS November 2007 - 2010: A global campaign against Israeli billionaire, diamond mogul, and settlement-builder Lev Leviev led to his renunciation by UNICEF, denunciation by Oxfam, the removal of a promotional section of his website featuring actors like Salma Hayek, Drew Barrymore, and Halle Berry at some of their requests and a UK government decision not to rent embassy space from his company,

42

John Berger

2006

. . .the day to day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death . . . UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed.

English art critic, novelist, painter, 1972 Booker Prize winner and well known for his essay Ways of Seeing

Cultural/academic boycott successes

HOLLYWOOD ACTORS MEG RYAN & DUSTIN HOFFMAN July 2010: cancelled plans to attend the Jerusalem film festival following Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine dead. FOLK-ARTIST DEVENDRA BANHART June 2010: cancelled two shows he had been set to play in Tel Aviv just hours before his scheduled arrival in Israel. ROCK BAND THE PIXIES June 2010: cancelled their first ever concert date in Israel just after the Gaza flotilla incident, blaming "events beyond our control. ROCK SINGER ELVIS COSTELLO May 2010: pulled out of two concerts in Israel, saying that his appearance there could have been interpreted as a political act. 500 ARTISTS FROM MONTREAL February 2010: joined boycott call. THE UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE UNION, UK May 2010: well over 100,000 members, voted to sever all relations with the Histadrut union in Israel and commence looking into the boycott of Ariel College. SOUL PERFORMER GIL SCOTT-HERON April 2010: will not play an upcoming show in Israel. announces that he

43

Cultural/Academic boycott successes

500 US ACADEMICS ENDORSE BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL 2010: seen as a sign of changing US attitudes towards Israel in the wake of Israels raid on the flotilla. WRITER SARAH SCHULMAN March 2010 - chose not to accept the invitation to participate in a conference at Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Universities. GUITARIST SANTANA February 2010: cancelled his concert in Israel due to pressure not to play there. This was after letters directed at him, including one from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel. SPANISH GOVERNMENT 2009: excluded a team from Ariel University from a prestigious international competition for sustainable architecture because it is located in the occupied West Bank. RAPPER SNOOP DOG cancelled a concert in Israel THE YES MEN withdrew their film from the Jerusalem Film Festival; ROGER WATERS (Pink Floyd) refused to play in Israel again until it removes the Separation Wall.

44

John Pilger

2008

Trapped by checkpoints and arbitrary curfews the Palestinian economy is in ruins. Cutting a swathe through this poverty and despair are the Israeli "settlements": surreal, middle class suburbs that are armed fortresses with watchtowers.The settlers have no right to be there under international law
Australian journalist, war correspondent, author, documentary filmmaker and 2009 Sydney Peace Laureate

Divestment successes
ONE OF WORLDS LARGEST RETIREMENT FUNDS TIAA-CREF July 2010: Jewish Voice for Peace activists presented it with over 15,000 petitions and postcard signatures asking them to divest from companies documented as profiting from Israels occupation of Palestinian territories. EVERGREEN STATE COLLEGE STUDENTS, WASHINGTON June 2010: voted to divest the college foundations funds from companies profiting from Israels illegal occupation. DEUTSCHE BANK 2010: sold its holdings in Elbit Systems SWEDISH ASSA ABLOY: resolved to move one of its factories out of the West Bank. NORWEGIAN PENSION FUND September 2009: announced its divestment from one of the most important Israeli defence contractors, and constructor of Israels wall, Elbit Systems. BRITISH BANK BLACKROCK August 2009: divested from the West Bank settlement projects of Lev Leviev and his company, Africa Israel Investments Limited. This was especially significant since Blackrock was the second largest shareholder of Africa Israel. HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE USA February 2009: a pioneer in the 1970s for becoming the first US university to divest from apartheid South Africa, it decided to divest from some 200 companies that "violated the college's standards for social responsibility," including six companies with close connections to Israel's occupation.

45

Sanctions successes
EUROPEAN UNION COURT February 2010 - ruled that products from Israeli settlements on the Occupied Palestinian Territories are not Israeli and are therefore not eligible for the trade benefits between Israel and the European Union. BRITISH GOVERNMENT July 2009 - blocked the sale of spare parts for Israels fleet of missile gunships because they were used in the 2009 bombing of Gaza, revoking five of Israels arms licenses with the UK. BELGIAN GOVERNMENT February 2009: stopped exporting weapons to Israel that would bolster its military capabilities. THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT January 2009 - managed to halt negotiations on strengthening the trade relationship between the EU and Israel in the framework of the Association Agreement and there are new, emboldened efforts to try and get the Association Agreement suspended altogether.

46

Jeff Halper

2002

The Message of the Bulldozers is: You do not belong here. We uprooted you from your homes in 1948 and prevented your return, and now we will uproot you from all of the Land of Israel. And that is why house demolitions remain so prominent, the bulldozer beside the tank. Because in the end this process of reoccupation is one of displacement.
Israeli anthropologist, Nobel Peace nominee, co-founder, ICAHD-Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

When the people lead, the leaders follow

Any international effort to defeat Israeli apartheid needs a clear, compelling political vision accompanied by an aggressive and well-financed strategy of advocacy. It has to be said that advocates for a just peace in Palestine/Israel have a much harder "sell" than did the anti-apartheid movement. Not only do they have to contend with images of the Arabs (and especially the Palestinians) as terrorists, greatly compounded by 9/11, but they face a moral framing that makes compelling sense: Jews as victims fighting once again for their existence in a little state arising from the ashes of the Holocaust. Zionism - and by extension Israeli policies that are carefully couched in terms of religion, rights, security, and history's debt to the Jews - enjoys a legitimacy that apartheid completely lacked. Thus, while opponents of the apartheid regime were seen as supporting the forces of liberation and the struggle against racism, critics of Israeli policies are accused of anti-Semitism. All this obliges us to reframe the conflict in ways that will help overcome a powerful reluctance to pressure Israel, a situation that, on the surface at least, the African National Congress did not have to confront. What is called for are strategic "metacampaigns" that highlight the occupation and the attendant human rights violations, Israeli accountability, and the international community's responsibility toward the Palestinians. Such metacampaigns include a campaign of divestment/sanctions. Grassroots activism - Palestinian, Israeli, and international alike - will be needed in a political process that pits a powerful state against an occupied people possessing only a limited governmental authority with no sovereign territory. Energy and commitment are not enough, however. Effective activism requires leadership and direction . . . under Palestinian guidance, but in coordination with the Israeli peace movement and international activists, such a movement must impart a vision, principles, red lines and alternative scenarios. The BDS movement has embarked on that road already.

(an extract from Paralysis over Palestine: Questions of strategy by Jeff Halper, Journal of Palestine Studies, Jan 2005)

47

What you can do

Familiariseyourself with products made in Israel or the illegal Israeli settlements. Familiarise yourself with products made in Israel or the illegal Israeli settlements. Familiarise yourself with products made in Israel or the illegal Israeli settlements.

Tell everyone you know about BDS. Tell everyone you know about the issues and why BDS is necessary. Familiarise yourself with products made in Israel or the illegal Israeli settlements. Write letters toto the store and asknot to stock Israeli- made products. Write a letter stores and ask them them not to stock these products.

If store does does not respond or responds negatively, write say that you will tell If the store not respond or responds negatively, write again to again to say that you will tellnot to shop there until the products are withdrawn. withdrawn. people people not to shop there until the products are Think a protest with some friends outside the store. outside the store. Stage about staging a protest with some friends Make your own signs and leaflets for pickets and distribution. Make your own signs and leaflets. Initiate a petition and circulate it.
Initiate a petition and circulate it.

Write protest letters to institutions that carry on business as usual with Israel.
Write protest letters to institutions that carry on business as usual with Israel.

Write letters to the media.

Write letters to the media about BDS.

Join a local activist group and encourage others to join.

Join a local activist group and encourage others to join. Use creative action methods and direct nonviolent tactics. Ask your union or church to look at a BDS strategy Propose a resolution for BDS at your next union or church meeting. Investigate the investment portfolio of your university, church or other group and check for human rights violation and the breaking of international law. Lobby your MP/representative and government (emails, letters, fax etc to implement sanctions against Israel for its defiance of international and resolutions. Sign petitions and statements that call for BDS and network with groups and individuals to add to the momentum of the BDS movement. This is a time to work together.

48

Products to boycott
BEIGEL & BEIGEL factory in Ariels Barkan industrial estate on land confiscated from the surrounding Palestinian villages. Almost half of the workers are Palestinian and are not paid the Israeli minimum wage. HYDRO-INDUSTRIES the automatic garden hose reels are manufactured in the Israeli city of Rosh Haayin which was built on the ethnically-cleansed and razed Palestinian town of Ras AAaain. Israel does not allow Palestinian refugees from there to return home. NAOT FOOTWEAR the company has an outlet store in the illegal settlement of Kfar Etzion, Gush Etzion Industrial Zone. Eighty per cent of the shoes are sold to companies outside Israel. AHAVA DEAD SEA COSMETICS manufactured in the illegal Mitzpe Shalem settlement. Ahava uses Palestinian natural resources from the Dead Sea without permission or compensation while denying Palestinians access to their own shores on that sea. JAFFA CITRUS FRUIT exported by Agrexco, a 50% state owned Israeli company exporting from occupied Palestine. Often mislabelled as Made in Israel. Thousands of Palestinians are employed in packing houses often on land taken from their communities. SEACRET SPA DEAD SEA COSMETICS the product line is developed and produced in two Israeli factories in Ashdod and Migdal Haemek - using minerals from the Dead Sea in the Jordan Valley which has been declared off limits to the Palestinians who own the land and shores from which the Dead Sea mud comes. MAX BRENNER CHOCOLATE a 100% Israeli-owned company belonging to the Strauss Group, the second largest Israeli food and beverage company. Under corporate responsibility the Strauss Group emphasises the support it gives to the Israeli army saying it wants to sweeten their special moment. It supports the Golani reconnaissance platoon known for its murderous assaults on Palestinian civilians.

49

Products to boycott (continued)

ISRAELI BARCODE Goods marked with the barcode beginning 729 originate from Israel. Put pressure on your local supermarkets and stores to remove these products from their shelves and find an alternative. PRIGAT GRAPEFRUIT JUICE leading fruit juice brand in Israel. Involved with the Jewish National Fund instrumental in the 1948 ethnical cleansing of Palestine and acquiring land and property in Palestine for exclusive Jewish settlement. As of 2006, Prigat spent a total of 3 million NES on treeplanting of which 2 million square metres of orchards were planted in the Negev, land confiscated from the Bedouin SARA LEE worlds largest clothing manufacturer Hanes, Playtex, Champion, Leggs, Wonderbra and includes the food brand Sara Lee. In 1998, it was awarded Israels highest honour, the Jubilee Award, in recognition of those individuals or organisations who have helped Israels economy most through trade and investments. MOTOROLA supports the worst of Israels illegal occupation practices. It produces fuses for high-explosive bombs used against civilians, the Wide Area Surveillance System used to monitor and secure the illegal Separation Wall and radar detection devices for illegal West Bank settlements amongst other things. ELBIT SYSTEMS provide security systems for illegal West Bank settlements and the illegal Israeli Wall. It is also the provider of Israeli drones used during Israels attack on Gaza and UGVs (unmanned ground vehicles) for patrolling the seamline in the West Bank. Its social responsibility charter says adopt a regiment and support Zionism. REVLON major producer of cosmetics and personal care products and controlled by billionaire Ronald Perelman who supports Israeli causes. He is a trustee of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre which is a notorious pro-Israel front group with over 300,000 global members. . STARBUCKS Chairman Howard Schulz was praised by Israels Foreign Ministry in 2002 for helping to promote Israel and for building a close alliance with the US. He has accused Palestinians of terrorism and anti-semitism and has sponsored fund raisers for Israeli causes. 50

Products to boycott (continued)

ESTEE LAUDER Chairman Ronald Lauder also chairs the Jewish National Fund which develops land in Israel on behalf of the Jewish people in perpetuity. It has confiscated land from the Palestinians and expelled them to develop these lands exclusively for Jews. Non-Jews are excluded from renting or buying property, getting finance, opening a business on Jewish land under Israels apartheid policy. LOREAL/THE BODY SHOP has a deep and extensive involvement in business relations with Israel operating a factory in Migdal Haemek, land formerly owned by Palestinians who are denied the right to return home. LOreal Israels chairman Gad Propper was heavily involved in promoting trade with Australia and New Zealand. McDONALDS - this fast food retailer is a major partner of the Jewish United Fund and Jewish Federation. It is a major fundraiser and through its Partnership to Israel program, contributes large sums annually to further illegal settlement development on occupied Palestinian land. INTEL produces computer processors and hardware components and employs thousands of Israelis. Has heavily invested in Israel. Its Qiryat Gat plant lies on Iraq al Manshiya village land where 2,000 Palestinians were expelled to construct the illegal settlement that replaced it. Also allocates funds to apartheid education. COCA-COLA worlds largest soft drink maker. Since mid-1960s has been a staunch Israel supporter. In 2002, it announced plans to build a Kiryat Gat plant on stolen Palestinian land, and in 2005, raised its investment in the Israeli-based Tavor Windery to 51% CATERPILLAR manufactures and provides bulldozers used in demolitions of Palestinian houses in the occupied territory, in the construction of the Separation Wall, in military incursions, and as weapons. The companys sole representative in Israel, ITE of Zoko Enterprises is responsible for retrofitting the machines, as well as for ongoing maintenance even during military operations. N E S C A F bought a controlling share in the Israeli firm Osem, allowing Nestle to sell its products in Israel. Its a deal which provides Osem with a worldwide distribution and advertising infrastructure.

51

Products to boycott (continued)

OPTUS national sponsor o the Israel Chamber of Commerce in Australia. Uses Israeli company Gilat, an occupationprofiteer, for a broadband satellite network. Gilat offer telecommunication networking and security applications to the Israeli army and its military atennas are installed at checkpoints in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. CEMEX Mexican holding company owns the Israeli Readymix Industries which has plants in the occupied West Bank. Owns a quarry there and exploits the Palestinian natural resources. Its concrete elements are used for the construction of infrastructure, military checkpoints and the Separation Wall. Readymix in Australia is also a subsidiary. VEOLIA ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (VES) French multinational in waste management, energy and transport services and water supply & management. Its Israel subsidiary owns and operates the Tovlan landfill in the occupied Jordan Valley. VES subsidiary Connex operates bus services to settlements along the Jewish-only road 443 and is involved in the Jerusalem light rail network under construction that will transport Jewish passengers to the illegally occupied East Jerusalem. In Australia, Veolia Transport operates bus services in Queensland, WA and NSW. Connex trains in Victoria did not have its contract renewed after protracted protests in 2009. VOLVO GROUP Volvo Buses holds 26.5% of shares of the Israeli company Merkavim which manufactures buses and uses them to take Palestinian political prisoners from the occupied Territory to Israeli prisons. Also manufactures armoured buses to ferry Israelis to and from the illegal West Bank settlements. Volvo Construction Equipment and Volvo Trucks demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and construct military checkpoints and the illegal Israeli settlements. Commercial trucks and buses are available from distribution centres in Sydney and Brisbane.

DANONE known for its yoghurt, Danone is also the

BOYCOTT second largest global producer of bottled water (in value) including Evian. The Danone Group is in a joint venture with Eden Springs which is located in Katzrin on the Golan Heights a Syrian territory occupied by Israel. Its CEO was honoured by PM Netanyahu in 1998 for having done the most to strengthen the Israeli economy. 52

International campaign to stop Jewish National Fund

The Jewish National Fund (JNF)[1] was instrumental in the ethnic cleansing[2] of Palestine in the 1948 Nakba, and continues to play a central role in maintaining Israels regime of apartheid.[3] The JNF provided political, financial and intelligence[4] support for the Zionist forces in their conquest, massacres and ethnic cleansing operations that characterized the 1948-49 war and the Palestinian Nakba. Today, the JNF controls vast properties belonging to millions of Palestinians, developing them exclusively for persons of Jewish nationality, a concept established and promoted in the JNFs charter to exclude all others. The JNF was created in 1901 to acquire land and property rights in Palestine and beyond for exclusive Jewish settlement. While indigenous Palestinians are barred from leasing[5], building on, managing or working their own land, the JNF holds the land in trust for those of Jewish race or descendency living anywhere in the world to promote the interests of Jews in the prescribed region.[6] To ensure such racist control over the majority of confiscated Palestinian lands, Israel adopted the JNF model of discriminatory land management as official state policy. In 1953, the Israeli Knesset legislated special status for JNF, enabling it to carry out governmental functions as a Zionist institution (for Jews only). The JNF continues to operate as a state-chartered organization[7] under Israeli law with direct control over some thirteen percent of the land in pre-1967 Israel. Further, the JNF appoints six out of thirteen members of the governing board of the Israel Lands Authority (ILA), which manages the JNFs thirteen percent, in addition to another eighty percent of all land in Israel. It is through this relationship with the JNF that Israel, while portraying itself as the only democracy in the Middle East, in fact, outsources the land-management functions of the state to this discriminatory state-chartered organization. After the 1948 Nakba and the expulsion of approximately two-thirds of the Palestinian population from their homeland, the JNF was repackaged as an environmentalist organization carrying out forestation activities. The JNFs forests, parks and recreational facilities, planted and built on the ruins of hundreds of destroyed and depopulated Palestinian villages, have critically served to veil from public view the continuing official Israeli attempts to erase the traces of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The JNF is thus fundamentally complicit in the denial of displaced Palestinians rights to return, restitution and compensation, and in green-washing Israels regime of apartheid, colonization and occupation. The JNFs activities are not limited to the part of mandate Palestine that became Israel in 1948. The JNFs Canada Park, for example, covers the remains of the Palestinian villages Imwas, Yalu, and Beit Nuba, which the Israeli army depopulated and razed on the explicit orders of the then Chief-of-Staff, General Yitzhak Rabin, in the course of the 1967 war. Moreover, through its subsidiary Hemnuta, the JNF has illegally acquired lands and houses in the occupied West Bank, and particularly in 1967 occupied Jerusalem. Today, the JNFs projects of displacement and forestation continue, particularly in the Naqab (Negev) and the Galilee. In these areas, development projects in which the JNF plays a central role, aim to continue the forced displacement of Palestinian citizens of Israel to make way for exclusively Jewish settlements and for JNF parks and forests.

53

International campaign to stop Jewish National Fund

The JNF continues to serve as a global fundraiser for Israeli colonization and apartheid. Despite its complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, and despite its status as a chartered agent of the State of Israel, the JNF and its affiliate organizations enjoy charitable status in over 50 countries as environmental charities. These JNF branches worldwide also work to muster the political support necessary for legitimizing and promoting Israeli apartheid, a task greatly facilitated by the political, economic and cultural elites in each country that have signed on as JNF patrons. As part of the global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the state of Israel until such time as it respects and implements international law, we the undersigned organizations call on global civil society to join us in a campaign to challenge the JNF by: exposing and documenting the role of the JNF in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine; protesting and disrupting the JNFs fundraising activities across the globe; opposing and acting to nullify the JNFs charitable and tax exempt status in Europe, the Americas, Oceania and Asia, and Africa; condemning the activities of the JNF through popular tribunals and truth commissions; supporting Palestinian and Israeli organizations resisting the forced displacement of Palestinians in the Naqab and Galilee; and urging those organizations collaborating with the JNF, and especially those with environmental and anti-racist mandates, to break ties with the JNF.

Endnotes 1. 2. In Hebrew, Keren Kayemet LYisrael (KKL) [literally, the 'Perpetual Fund for Israel.'] In some states, JNF affiliate organizations use this name instead of JNF. Ethnic cleansing by means of expulsion, massacre and population transfer and related grave breaches and crimes defined in the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), as well as the Charter of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal (1945) and the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court (1998). The term apartheid refers to the crime defined in article 2 of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The JNF played an important role in the preparation of the Village files, used by Zionist forces as a primary reference in planning and executing the depopulation and destruction of Palestinian communities in the 1948 Nakba (See Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Oxford: One World Press, 2006, pp. In some cases, Palestinians Bedouin in the Naqab have been allowed 3-year leases (compared to the 49-year leases granted Jewish citizens of Israel. Jewish National Fund Memorandum of Association (1907). State-chartered, or para-state, organizations are organizations that through a formal, legal agreement, participates in the functions of the state. Most villages of Palestinian Bedouin of the Naqab were rendered non-existent by Israels 1965 Planning and Construction Law. Today, over 80,000 of these Palestinian citizens of Israel live in the unrecognized villages, their land has been confiscated, they receive no water, electricity, or any other form of government-provided means of existence, and face the constant threat of home demolition and forced eviction. The state aims to displace them to the urban townships and use their land for exclusively Jewish settlement.The JNF aims to play a leading role in this process through its Blueprint Negev fundraising campaign, through which it plans to invest $600 million in 10 years supporting a new generation of Israeli pioneers. See the electronic book JNF:Colonizing Palestine Since 1901, pg.18

3. 4.

5. 6. 7.

8.

54

To join campaign contact stopjnf@bdsmovement.net

APPENDICES

Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV) 56 IAJV: Jews say Enough is Enough - 57 Palestinian Christians: Kairos Document 58 National Council of Churches in Australia 59 Australian academics call for BDS 60 Trade Union Congress (UK) Statement 62 Australian Unions commit to BDS 64 BDS information sites 65 BDS: Recommended Reading - 66

55

Independent Australian Jewish Voices

Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV) was launched on March 5, 2007 following the emergence of similar groups overseas in Britain and Germany and earlier in the US and Netherlands. Only three weeks after the launch, the number of signatories including prominent academic, writers and lawyers was over 450 and more than that of the British group.

Statement of Principles: A Call for an Alternative View

We are Jews with diverse opinions on the Middle East who share a deep concern about the current crisis in the region. We are committed to ensuring a just peace that recognizes the legitimate national aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians with a solution that protects the human rights of all. We condemn violence by all parties, whether state sanctioned or not. We believe that Israels right to exist must be recognized and that Palestinians right to a homeland must also be acknowledged. As Australians we are privileged to live in a democratic state that embodies the principles of tolerance and free speech. We feel there is an urgent need to hear alternative voices that should not be silenced by being labelled disloyal or self-hating. Uncritical allegiance to Israeli government policy does not necessarily serve Israels best interests. Our concern for justice and peace in the Middle East is a legitimate opinion and should be met by reasoned argument rather than vilification and intimidation. In particular, we are concerned that the Jewish establishment does not represent the full range of Jewish opinion. Contrary to widespread concerns, anti-Semitism is not fuelled by Jews who publicly disagree with actions of the Jewish State. Jews understand what it is to suffer racism and victimization and therefore we are not only concerned about anti-Semitism but also the demonisation of all other minorities. We call upon fellow Jews to join us in supporting free debate to further the prospects of peace, security and human rights in the Middle East.

www.iajv.squarespace.com
56

Jews say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

The advertisement appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian newspapers on 9 October 2010 and Australian Jewish News on 8 October 2010.

JEWS SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

The attitude we adopt towards the Arab minority will provide the real test of our moral standards as a people. - Albert Einstein, in a letter to the New York Times, 1948. Not all Australian Jews condone Israels actions. As a growing group of concerned Jews, we share the widespread outrage at the Israeli Governments unjust treatment of the Palestinian people. We condemn Israels constant violations of international law which include: the invasion of Gaza in 2008 that caused around 1400 mainly civilian deaths. the ongoing blockade of Gaza in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention. the military assault in May against a civilian flotilla in international waters trying to break the blockade on Gaza. the separation wall running through the West Bank which was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004 the 43 year military occupation of the West Bank and the illegal settlements. We believe that uncritical support of the Jewish State is not the way to memorialise the Holocaust. We have a moral obligation to speak out. Join us in urging the Australian Government to exert pressure on Israel to conform to International Law and humanitarian standards.

For signatures see website www.iajv.org

57

Palestinian Christians: Kairos Document

In solidarity with Palestinian Christians, the National Council of Churches of Australia (NCCA) has asked its member Churches and the wider Australian community to consider a boycott of goods produced by Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The NCCAs aid agency, Act for Peace, will assist churches that need information to help them consider the issues around a boycott.

15 December 2009 - This document is the Christian Palestinians word to the world about what is happening in Palestine. It is written at this time when we wanted to see the Glory of the grace of God in this land and in the sufferings of its people. In this spirit the document requests the international community to stand by the Palestinian people who have faced oppression, displacement, suffering and clear apartheid for more than six decades. The suffering continues while the international community silently looks on at the occupying State, Israel. Our word is a cry of hope, with love, prayer and faith in God. We address it first of all to ourselves and then to all the churches and Christians in the world, asking them to stand against injustice and apartheid, urging them to work for a just peace in our region, calling on them to revisit theologies that justify crimes perpetrated against our people and the dispossession of the land. In this historic document, we Palestinian Christians declare that the military occupation of our land is a sin against God and humanity, and that any theology that legitimizes the occupation is far from Christian teachings because true Christian theology is a theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed, a call to justice and equality among peoples. This document did not come about spontaneously, and it is not the result of a coincidence. It is not a theoretical theological study or a policy paper, but is rather a document of faith and work. Its importance stems from the sincere expression of the concerns of the people and their view of this moment in history we are living through. It seeks to be prophetic in addressing things as they are without equivocation and with boldness, in addition it puts forward ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and all forms of discrimination as the solution that will lead to a just and lasting peace with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital. The document also demands that all peoples, political leaders and decision-makers put pressure on Israel and take legal measures in order to oblige its government to put an end to its oppression and disregard for the international law. The document also holds a clear position that non-violent resistance to this injustice is a right and duty for all Palestinians including Christians. The initiators of this document have been working on it for more than a year, in prayer and discussion, guided by their faith in God and their love for their people, accepting advice from many friends: Palestinians, Arabs and those from the wider international community. We are grateful to our friends for their solidarity with us. As Palestinian Christians we hope that this document will provide the turning point to focus the efforts of all peace-loving peoples in the world, especially our Christian sisters and brothers. We hope also that it will be welcomed positively and will receive strong support, as was the South Africa Kairos document launched in 1985, which, at that time proved to be a tool in the struggle against oppression and occupation. We believe that liberation from occupation is in the interest of all peoples in the region because the problem is not just a political one, but one in which human beings are destroyed. We pray God to inspire us all, particularly our leaders and policy-makers, to find the way of justice and equality, and to realize that it is the only way that leads to the genuine peace we are seeking.

www.kairospalestine.ps
58

National Council of Churches in Australia

59

Australian academics call for boycott

The father and son academics Professor John Docker from Sydney University and Dr Ned Curthoys from the Australian National University teamed up in 2009 to form the Australian Committee for the Dismantling of Zionism , thus beginning an academic and cultural boycott against Israel in Australia.
26 March 2009 - Responding to the Call of Palestinian civil society to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, we are an Australian campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel: In light of Israel's persistent violations of international law, and given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel's colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions: We scholars, inspired by the wishes of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace. These nonviolent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to selfdetermination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by: 1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Palestinian and Arab lands and dismantling the Wall which separates Palestinians from their arable lands; 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194. The principles guiding our campaign and the three goals outlined above are also points of unity for the British, Canadian, and US Campaigns for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI, this statement is a modified version of theirs). There can be no academic freedom in Israel/Palestine unless all academics are free and all students are free to pursue their academic desires.

60

Australian academics call for boycott - continued

If you are committed to these principles of unity, and wish to work on a campaign of boycotting academic and cultural institutions guided by this approach, please join our campaign. Gaza is but the latest incident in a series of ongoing Israeli massacres, from Deir Yassin (1948) to Kafr Kassim (1956) to Jenin (2002) to the wars on Lebanon (from 1980s to 2006). All demonstrate a pattern of violence by a state that will not end its violations of international law and war crimes on its own, without international pressure. We must act now. As academics we wish to focus on campaigns in our universities and in institutions of higher education to advocate for compliance with the academic and cultural boycott, a movement that is growing internationally across all segments of global civil society. This call for an academic and cultural boycott parallels the call in the nonacademic world for divestment, boycott and sanctions by trade unions, churches and other civil society organizations in countries such as the United States, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand.

Actions
Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state-controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence, we call upon our colleagues to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel's occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by applying the following: 1. Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions; 2. Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions; 3. Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by academic institutions; 4. Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations; 5. Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support. As educators and scholars of conscience in Australia, we fully support this call. We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel's ongoing attacks on the rights of Palestinians to education, land, and human dignity, and to support the nonviolent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions.

61

Trade Union Congress (UK) General Statement on the Middle East

Thursday 17 September 2009
In a landmark decision, Britains trade unions have voted overwhelmingly to commit to build a mass boycott movement, disinvestment and sanctions on Israel for a negotiated settlement based on justice for Palestinians. The motion was passed at the 2009 TUC Annual Congress in Liverpool today (17 September), by unions representing 6.5 million workers across the UK. The motion additionally called for the TUC General Council to put pressure on the British government to end all arms trading with Israel and support moves to suspend the EU-Israel trade agreement. Unions are also encouraged to disinvest from companies which profit from Israels illegal 42-year occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. The motion was tabled by the Fire Brigades Union. The biggest unions in the UK, including Unite, the public sector union, and UNISON, which represents health service workers, voted in favour of the motion. The motion also condemned the Israeli trade union Histadruts statement supporting Israels war on Gaza, which killed 1,450 Palestinians in three weeks, and called for a review of the TUCs relationship with Histadrut. Britains trade unions join those of South Africa and Ireland in voting to use a mass boycott campaign as a tool to bring Israel into line with international law, and pressure it to comply with UN resolutions that encourage justice and equality for the Palestinian people.
The TUC reiterates its belief that only when a sovereign, independent, democratic contiguous and viable Palestinian state is created, living side by side with a secure Israel will there be a chance for peace and stability in the Middle East. We remain committed to a two-state solution to the crisis in the Middle East and support for the Road Map. We recognize the enormous suffering of the Palestinian people, and we call upon the British Government to make appropriate representations to the international community to secure lasting peace through a negotiated settlement based on mutual respect and selfdetermination, on justice for the Palestinians and on security for Israel. The TUC reiterates its condemnation of the Government of Israels offensive in Gaza which resulted in 1,450 Palestinian deaths and 5,000 injured, as well as the massive, systematic destruction of infrastructure. We also reiterate our condemnation of the rocket attacks from inside Gaza against Israeli civilians. We welcome the findings of the UN investigation which highlighted possible war crimes on both sides of the conflict. The TUC remains concerned about the situation in Gaza and reiterates its opposition to the Israeli blockade, which is in contravention of international law and prevents vital supplies from reaching the people of Gaza. We welcome the contributions unions made earlier this year to the TUC Aid appeal for Gaza.

62

Trade Union Congress (UK) - continued

As a result of the Gaza offensive, the TUC calls on the British Government to: (a) condemn the Israeli military aggression and the continuing blockade of Gaza; (b) end arms sales to Israel which reached a value of 18.8 million in 2008, up from 7.7 million in 2007; (c) seek EU agreement to impose a ban on the importing of goods produced in the illegal settlements; and (d) support moves to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement which provides preferential trade facilities to Israel. The TUC reiterates our pledge to work in solidarity with the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) and urges unions to support financially the TUC/PGFTU projects funded through TUC Aid as well as the joint HistadrutPGFTU projects being developed in several sectors under the auspices of Global Union Federations. We welcome the resolution last year of the longstanding dispute over the remittance of membership subscriptions from the Histadrut to the PGFTU, which was brokered by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and support any stronger relations between the Histadrut and the PGFTU that they wish to develop. The TUC condemns the Histadrut statement of 13 January 2009 which backed the attacks on Gaza and showed insufficient concern for the level of civilian casualties. At the same time, we recognize the recent Histadrut resolution on peace and cooperation, welcomed by the ITUC, which calls on the Israeli government to make concessions and take courageous and concrete steps towards attaining peace. We will continue to press Histadrut to take a firmer line on these issues. The General Council will raise Congress concerns with the Histadrut and report back to Congress on future relationships. To increase the pressure for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories, and the removal of the separation wall and the illegal settlements, we will support a boycott (where trade union members should not put their own jobs at risk by refusing to deal with such products) of those goods and agricultural products that originate in illegal settlements - through developing an effective, targeted consumer-led boycott campaign working closely with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign - and campaign for disinvestment by companies associated with the occupation as well as engaged in building the separation wall. In undertaking these actions each affiliate will operate within its own aims and objectives and within the law. We reiterate our encouragement to unions to affiliate to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and to raise greater awareness of the issues.

63

Australian Unions commit to BDS

In Australia, Australians for Palestine has been at the forefront of soliciting the support of unions to take up the call for BDS against Israel. Just like in apartheid South Africa, where the international community, led by the unions, said no more to apartheid, so too do we believe that the citizens of the world will say no more to Israels brutal and illegal occupation of the Palestinians and their land. Below is a list of Australian unions who have committed to full or partial BDS: 1. AEU Federal Executive 2. 3. 4. AMWU National Council ASU NSW/ACT Branch Executive Australian Services Union (Clerical & Administrative Branch) - central & and southern Queensland CFMEU (C&G) - Queensland CFMEU National Executive Committee ETU national ETU QLD State Council Finance Sector Union Queensland Branch Geelong Trades Hall Council HACSU Victorian Branch Committee of Management LHMU Queensland MUA Sydney Branch MUA VIC Branch MUA WA Branch Newcastle Trades Hall Council Queensland Teachers Union State Council RTBU Queensland Branch South Coast Labour Council (NSW) UnionsACT Executive Committee Victorian Trades Hall Council

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

64

BDS information sites

Global BDS Movement - the Palestinian grassroots campaign for the boycott of Israel. Includes
the text and signatories of the original 2005 joint call to action

www.bdsmovement.net/ Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) includes detailed guidelines of when exactly to apply the cultural boycott of Israel. www.pacbi.org/ Stop the Wall - the Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and resource for the
international BDS campaign.

www.stopthewall.org/

Who Profits? - a grassroots database exposing companies and corporations involved in Israels occupation of Palestine. www.whoprofits.org/ Corporate Watch - tracking corporate complicity in Occupied Palestine www.corporateoccupation.wordpress.com British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) an organisation of UK-based academics supporting the Palestinian call for academic boycott. www.bricup.org.uk/ U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI) a US campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli and academic and cultural institutions. www.usacbi.wordpress.com Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) British activist group campaign. www.palestinecampaign.org Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign - Irish activist group www.ipsc.ie Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) - Scottish activist group www.scottishpsc.org.uk/ Coalition against Israeli Apartheid - Canada BDS resource for Canada (Toronto) www.caiaweb.org/ Australian Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Campaign for Palestine new Australian site www.australianbdscampaign.wordpress.com AUSPalestine Australian Unionists supporting Palestine www.auspalestine.org/ Australians for Palestine Australian advocacy group www.australiansforpalestine.com Badil Palestinian residency and refugee rights www.badil.org BTSelem Israeli human rights group www.btselem.org ICAHD Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions www.icahd.org 65

BDS: Recommended reading

BOOKS
ABUNIMAH, Ali - One Country BALTZER, Anna - Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jewish American woman in the Occupied Territories BAROUD, Ramzy - My Father was a Freedom Fighter CHRISTISON, Kathleen and Bill Palestine in Pieces COOK, Jonathan Disappearing Palestine GORDON, Neve Israels Occupation MAKDISI, Saree - Palestine Inside Out An Every day Occupation NEUMANN, Michael The Case against Israel PAPPE, Ilan The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine REINHART, Tanya - Israel/Palestine WHITE, Ben Israeli Apartheid a Beginners Guide WILES, Rich Behind the Wall

REPORTS

All reports available at www.australiansforpalestine.com

AMNESTY: Suffocating the Gaza Strip under Israeli blockade, Amnesty International January 2010 AMNESTY: Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses, Amnesty International, December 2009 GOLDSTONE REPORT: United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, September 2009 AMNESTY: Israel/Gaza: Operation Cast Lead, 22 days of death and destruction, Amnesty International, July 2009 HUMAN SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL (HSRC):Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? May 2009 MAAN: Apartheid Roads Promoting Settlements, Punishing Palestinians, Maan Development Centre, December 2008 UN OCHA: The Humanitarian Impact on Palestinians of Israeli Settlements and other Infrastructure in the West Bank, July 2007
m

66