Support the boycott of Israeli apartheid

Omar Barghouti* argues that all those who seek a just solution in Palestine should actively support some form of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Campaign

While Palestinians have a right to resist occupation with all legal means, civil resistance, particularly in the form of the boycott, is the most morally and politically sound strategy to adopt in the struggle against Israel Apartheid.

Zionism is racism

According to a reliable Israeli poll conducted on July 31 and August 1 2006, almost the entire Jewish- Israeli public supported the bombing of Lebanese civilians and their infrastructure during the war against Lebanon in 2006, despite knowing the level of destruction and civilian casualties that resulted. This indicates that the overwhelming majority of Jewish-Israelis stand behind their state’s racist and colonial policies towards Palestinians and its continued violations of international law.

After Israel’s defeat in Lebanon, its oppression particularly in Gaza has increased. It is almost sixty years since the ethnic cleansing of most of Palestine by Zionists during the 1948 Nakba or Catastrophe

(the forced removal of Palestinians from their land to create the state of Israel). Zionists are those who support the creation of a Jewish-only state in palestine even though the population is made up of muslims (the majority), as well as Jews and Christians. It is forty years since Israel began its military occupation of Gaza Strip and the west Bank, and its Occupation of East Jerusalem in 1976.

1. The Forty (40) Years of military occupation and colonisation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Including East Jerusalem

1. The denial of Palestinian refugees’ their

2. rights, including their right to return

3. The system of racial discrimination against Palestinian citizens who live within Israel, from land ownership to marriage laws.

what is to be done?

It is time for all those around the world who seek a just peace in Palestine to shift their solidarity activism from protests to include creative campaigns of boycott against Israel to end its occupation and oppression.

The failure of the international community in the last few decades to get Israel to comply with international law led Palestinians to look for alternatives. On July 9, 2005, more than

170 Palestinian political parties, trade unions, professional associations and other civil society organisations issued a Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), directed against Israel. This boycott is to continue until Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.

The BDS campaign is a form of non-violent resistance to Israeli oppression. This Call was signed by representatives of the three sectors of the people of Palestine – Palestinians under occupation

in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Palestinians in exile and Palestinian citizens of Israel. It is the first resistance, particularly in the form of the boycott, is the most morally and politically sound strategy to adopt in the struggle against Israeli Apartheid.