Vol.
14, No. 3
- To certain audiences, BDS supporters will emphasize that the reason why the international community should apply punitive measures to Israel is due to its presence in territory captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. However, in many cases, BDS activists are often quite clear about their intentions.
- Omar Barghouti: “The current phase has all the emblematic properties of what may be considered the final chapter of the Zionist project. We are witnessing the rapid demise of Zionism, and nothing can be done to save it, for Zionism is intent on killing itself. I, for one, support euthanasia.”
- As’ad Abu Khalil: “Justice and freedom for the Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the State of Israel.”
- Ahmed Moor: “OK, fine. So BDS does mean the end of the Jewish state….I view the BDS movement as a long-term project with radically transformative potential….In other words, BDS is not another step on the way to the final showdown; BDS is The Final Showdown.”
- If the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations bear fruit and continue, will the PA shun the growing number of its officials who support and promote BDS, or will the PA allow this tendency to continue to grow?
In
the past few years, Israel has been subjected to an international campaign of
political subversion – known as the “Delegitimization Campaign” – aimed at
undermining its existence as a sovereign state. The campaign operates in the
political, legal, academic, cultural, and economic fields, and sometimes also
includes “direct action” activities such as flotillas or pre-coordinated
demonstrations and marches around the world.
In
many instances, the same individuals and groups – primarily from the far left,
the Muslim Brotherhood including its Middle Eastern branches and affiliates in
Europe, and Fatah or other PLO organizations – have been active in a range of
campaigns. While these various activities and actions are presented as being
initiated by grassroots, civil society organizations, they are usually part of
networks made up of a rather small number of activists that work together on
the basis of joint ideology and end goals, personal ties, and sources of
funding.
The
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) angle of the campaign, which
represents much of the battle in the economic field, has recently monopolized
the headlines – against the background of actress Scarlett Johansson’s
persistence in promoting SodaStream, and Secretary of State John Kerry’s
warning during the Munich Security Conference that Israel will face growing
boycott pressure in the future if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not
resolved.
What
is BDS?
The
BDS initiative, inspired by the 2001 “Durban Strategy,” was launched in July
2005, when its proponents called for “non-violent punitive measures” to be
maintained until Israel meets three basic obligations:
- Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
- Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
- Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194 [which, according to the Palestinian interpretation, means returning to the whole of Israel].1
These
basic obligations are constantly reiterated by the main figures identified with
BDS, such as Omar Barghouti. As he explained in January 2014: “B.D.S.
calls for ending Israel’s 1967 occupation, ‘recognizing the fundamental rights
of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality,’ and the right of
Palestinian refugees to return to the homes and lands from which they were
forcibly displaced and dispossessed in 1948.”2
It
is this last point that has raised suspicions about the ultimate aim of the BDS
movement. Writing in the New York Times, Roger Cohen, who is often
critical of Israeli policy, nonetheless concludes that the BDS movement has a
“hidden agenda,” which he states is “the end of Israel as a Jewish state.”
Indeed, Barghouti wrote back in December 2003 that his goal is a one-state
solution, which he defines earlier in the same article as a unitary state in
which “by definition, Jews will be a minority.”3 Nevertheless, he is
outraged by Cohen’s charge, calling him “a bigot, not a liberal.”4
BDS
Leaders Disclose Their Real Intentions
To
certain audiences, BDS supporters will emphasize that the reason sanctions must
be applied to Israel is due to Israel’s presence in territory captured in the
1967 Six-Day War. Even the reporters of the Financial Times fell for
this false characterization of the BDS movement, defining it as “a broad
coalition of activists committed to isolating Israel’s economy until it
withdraws from the Palestinian lands it occupied in 1967.”5 At
times, BDS leaders actually share their far more expansive intentions. Here are
a few samples:
Omar
Barghouti
The
two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is really dead. Good
riddance! But someone has to issue an official death certificate before the
rotting corpse is given a proper burial and we can all move on and explore the
more just, moral and therefore enduring alternative for peaceful coexistence
between Jews and Arabs in Mandate Palestine: the one-state solution…
The
current phase has all the emblematic properties of what may be considered the
final chapter of the Zionist project. We are witnessing the rapid demise of
Zionism, and nothing can be done to save it, for Zionism is intent on killing
itself. I, for one, support euthanasia.
Going
back to the two-state solution, besides having passed its expiry date, it was
never a moral solution to start with.6
Ahmed
Moor
OK,
fine. So BDS does mean the end of the Jewish state….I view the BDS movement as
a long-term project with radically transformative potential….In other words,
BDS is not another step on the way to the final showdown; BDS is The Final
Showdown.
This
belief grows directly from the conviction that nothing resembling the
“two-state solution” will ever come into being. Ending the occupation doesn’t
mean anything if it doesn’t mean upending the Jewish state itself.7
As’ad
Abu Khalil
Justice
and freedom for the Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the
State of Israel.8
Jamal
Jum’a, regarding the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli
negotiations
…this
opens up the space for questions regarding the underlying paradigm that reduces
the Palestinian struggle for liberation to a border dispute and calls for
action by different actors, including not least international civil society and
the rapidly growing boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign.9
PLO
Factions and PA Officials Endorse BDS
BDS
has received several endorsements from within the Palestinian Authority,
including from senior Palestinian officials who have also expressed their
insistence on the Palestinian “right of return,” such as Dr. Nabil Shaath, a
Fatah foreign relations commissioner, member of the PLO Political Committee,
and former foreign minister. In addition, some activist groups and individuals
are close to Riyad al-Maliki, the current foreign affairs minister. In recent
articles and interviews, the two insisted that Israel cannot be recognized as a
Jewish state, tying this point to the effect that such recognition would have
on the “right of return.”10
One
of the most important arenas in which BDS promotes itself is within trade
unions. On April 30, 2011, the first Palestinian trade union conference for
boycotting Israel convened in Ramallah.11 During the conference,
“the broadest trade union coalition” for the boycott was launched – most likely
the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS), listed among the
current members of the BDS National Council (BNC).12 Alongside the
many trade union figures present at the conference were Dr. Husam Zomlot, a
senior adviser to Shaath; Sheikh Fadel Hamdan, a Hamas legislator from
Ramallah and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC); and Qais
Abd al-Karim, a leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (DFLP) and member of the PLC.
The
conference highlighted the role of trade unions as a key formative component in
the Palestinian struggle via the promotion of BDS in trade unions around the world
as a major form of “popular” and “peaceful” resistance to the Israeli
occupation. Letters of support were accepted from senior figures in
various PLO factions, such as Abu Maher Ghneim, a member of Fatah’s Central
Committee; Ahmed Saadat, Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); Rakad Salem, Secretary-General of the Arab
Liberation Front (ALF); and Jamil Shahada, Secretary-General of the Palestinian
Arab Front (PAF); as well as from many trade unions in Europe, South Africa,
Canada, Australia, and the United States. Finally, the conference called for
the continuation of the BDS campaign until the three obligations mentioned
above were fulfilled.
In
September 2011, following President Abbas’ speech at the United Nations, Dr.
Sabri Saydam, the president’s adviser on high-tech affairs, revealed
Palestinian plans for the coming months: to use weapons that were made
available by modern technology – recruit and develop social networks in order
to organize campaigns for boycotts of Israeli goods; apply more pressure on the
Israeli academy by asking universities in countries supporting the Palestinian
cause to cut their ties with these institutions; organize demonstrations with
more attendees; and strengthen the relations between various solidarity groups,
so they can better communicate and listen to each other and not fall under
specific factions.13
In
April 2012, Abdel Fattah Hamayel, Governor of Bethlehem, reportedly issued a
circular that included all public and private institutions, as well as private
individuals; the circular was intended to prevent any direct links or meetings
with the Israeli side, acts that would be considered outside the law and lead
to penalties.14
Palestinian
NGOs and BDS
The
current domain of BDS’s National Council, BNC (www.bdsmovement.net),
was registered by Jamal Jum’a, head of the Ramallah-based Palestinian
Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, which since its inception in 2002 “has
been the main national grassroots body mobilizing and organizing the collective
efforts against the Apartheid Wall.”15 Among its various activities,
the campaign operates the popular committees, which coordinate the
demonstrations held against Israel in various villages, and in some cases have
led to violence. Jum’a has expressed his support for the ongoing Palestinian
“resistance” more than once.16
Jum’a
was among the speakers at the first BNC conference that was held in Ramallah in
November 2007,17 where he pointed out that boycotts were an
effective tool in supporting Palestinian farmers and the building of a
Palestinian economy of steadfastness on the land, as opposed to grandiose
“development projects” that effectively entrenched dependency on the
“occupation.” Opposition to normalization, Jum’a stated, had to be a crucial
element of the campaign, “in order to strengthen Palestinian cohesion and give
a signal to the people and the leadership.”
Representing
the Palestinian NGO network (PNGO), Dr. Allam Jarrar summarized the need for a
boycott in the current political context, “because 60 years into the
Palestinian Nakba, we are beginning to revise the strategy of our struggle for
the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among them our
rights to self-determination, independence and return [for refugees].”
Adnan
Ateyah, speaking for the Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan Heights Advocacy
Initiative (OPGAI), explained the criteria for the BDS campaign and emphasized
the strategic character of this campaign that aimed not only to end the
military occupation in place since 1967, but also to challenge Israel’s
ideology, Zionism, and its international relations. Indeed, among the
recommendations raised in three workshops were to build “public awareness about
the importance of the campaign and the criteria for boycott and
anti-normalization; initiate action and build a popular culture of boycott; and
develop a response to those insisting on normalization”; and emphasizing that
the campaign “does not only target Israel’s economy, but challenges Israel’s
legitimacy, being a colonial and apartheid state, as part of the international
community.”
The
fourth annual BNC Conference took place on June 18, 2013, at Bethlehem
University, under a slogan that reinforced the stated goals of BDS: “Boycotting
Israel and Opposing Normalization Contribute to Liberation, Return of Refugees,
and Self-Determination.”18 According to a BNC report, “Members of
the Palestinian Legislative Council and the PLO Executive Committee also took part
in the conference, underlining official recognition of the BDS Movement’s
increasing clout and impact.” Moreover, Mustafa Barghouti, a key PA
oppositionist with ties to the European affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood
and international far-left circles – and also a major player in advancing
anti-Israel boycotts around the world – delivered a speech on behalf of the
National and Islamic Forces in Palestine, “a main pillar of the BNC.”
The
Future of BDS
New
York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote on February
4, 2014, that the “third intifada” is underway, this time “propelled by
nonviolent resistance and economic boycott.”19 It is worth noting
that back in April 2008, the intentions of PA figures and NGOs to open a third
“peaceful intifada” in case the talks with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
failed – “under the patronage” of Israeli and international peace activists –
were presented to Al-Quds Al-Arabi.20
BDS
supports and promotes completely different values than those which currently
stand at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. It is a highly
controversial notion even within far-left circles. In a December 2011 lecture, Ha’aretz
journalist Amira Hass said: “As someone who grew up in a Marxist environment, I
say, ‘don’t make a religion of it.’”21 In February 2012, Norman
Finkelstein, one of the most vocal critics of Israel, stated that the BDS
movement was a “cult” and that those who ran it were dishonest. He concluded by
saying: “At least be honest what you want – ‘we want to abolish Israel and this
is our strategy for doing it.’”22
Thus,
several questions have to be raised: Are those in “the European Union in
Brussels and other opponents of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank across
the globe,” who Friedman says now lead the “third intifada,” choosing the right
partners? Are they wise to continue to fund NGOs that promote BDS and therefore
agitate for the opposite outcome to that which the European Union asserts it is
trying to promote? If the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations bear fruit and
continue, will the PA shun the growing number of its officials who support and
promote BDS, or will the PA allow this tendency to continue to grow?
*
* *
Notes
1.
Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS, 9 July 2005, http://www.bdsmovement.net/call
2.
Omar Barghouti, “Why Israel Fears the Boycott,” New York Times, 31
January 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/opinion/sunday/why-the-boycott-movement-scares-israel.html?_r=0
3.
Roger Cohen, “The B.D.S. Threat,” New York Times, 10 February 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/opinion/cohen-the-bds-threat.html?_r=0
4.
Ali Abunimah, “’NY Times’ Roger Cohen is a bigot, not a liberal,’ says Omar
Barghouti,” The Electronic Intifada, Feb. 11, 2014, http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ny-times-roger-cohen-bigot-not-liberal-says-omar-barghouti
5.
Peter Aspden and John Reed, “Scarlett Johansson, star whose charity work
fizzled as her ad went pop,” Financial Times, 31 January 2014, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/110a24be-8902-11e3-bb5f-00144feab7de.html#axzz2t71TQVne
8.
As’ad Abu Khalil, “A Critique of Norman Finkelstein on BDS,” Alakhbar English,
17 February 2012, http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/4289
9.
Jamal Juma’, The Wild West is back in Palestine, 28 August 2013, http://www.stopthewall.org/2013/08/28/wild-west-back-palestine
10.
Nabil Shaath, Arabic article on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades website, 9 August
2013, http://3asfa.com/ar/index.php?act=post&id=14827;
“‘Jewish
state’ demand bares clashing Mideast narratives,” Maan News, 26 January
2014, http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=668363;
Michel
Abu Najm, “Palestinian foreign minister: We will never recognize Jewish
character of Israel,” Asharq al-Awsat (UK), 20 January 2014, http://www.aawsat.net/2014/01/article55327533
16.
See, for example, “Israel: Cornerstone of the ‘New Middle East’ – Palestine:
Cornerstone of Resistance,” https://web.archive.org/web/20070612050014/http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/58
17.
First Palestinian Conference for the Boycott of Israel (BDS) – Summary Report, http://www.jai-pal.org/en/content.php?page=640
18.
Report on the Fourth National BDS Conference, 8 June 2013, Bethlehem, http://www.bdsmovement.net/2013/report-fourth-national-bds-conference-11080#sthash.oEASTBSh.dpuf
19.
Thomas Friedman, “The Third Intifada,” New York Times, 4 February 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/opinion/friedman-the-third-intifada.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
20.
Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), 30 April 2008; also see http://jcpa.org/article/the-global-march-to-jerusalem-part-of-the-international-campaign-to-delegitimize-israel/
21.
Lisa Goldman, “Amira Hass on BDS: ‘Don’t make it into a religion,’” 972Magazine,
19 December 2011, http://972mag.com/amira-hass-on-bds-dont-make-it-into-a-religion/30550/
Publication: Jerusalem Issue Briefs
- See more at:
http://jcpa.org/article/what-is-the-real-bds-endgame/#sthash.T9zjS9jq.dpuf
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