March 2014 The Middle East 4140 The Middle East March 2014
The impetus gained by the Boycott, Di-vestment and Sanctions
(BDS) movement is shattering Israels illusion of invulner-ability.
The delegitimisation movement, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
defines it, is building consensus among international actors and
Israeli Jews them-selves, in defiance of the Anti-boycott law.
Despite a still limited impact on Israels economy, the BDS
movement has been shining a spotlight on the violations of
Palestinian human rights and triggered a change in Israels public
image that is stirring anxiety in the political establishment.
According to the BBC Globescan poll, Israel is competing with North
Korea, Pakistan and Iran for the worst perceived country.
Israeli Minister of Finance Yair Lapid has expressed concerns
that the growing boycott movement will shift from targeting the
occupation to targeting Israel as a whole, which is what the BDS
movement calls for as a means towards achieving its three goals:
ending the occupation of 1967, ensuring equality for Palestinians
living in Israel and according the right of return to Palestinian
refugees.
BDS success threatens Israel The recent decision by the $200bn
Dutch pension fund PGGM and the Norwegian Danske Bank to blacklist
their Israeli partners, the support for the academic boy-cott in
the US and Ireland and the decision of a number of institutions to
disinvest from companies like Veolia and G4S that are profiting
from the occupation has brought Israel to recognise the BDS as a
strategic threat.
Omar Barghouti, human rights activist and co-found-er of the BDS
movement, defines this as the South Africa moment, a tipping point.
Michael Deas, of the BDS National Committee, agrees that there has
recently been a groundswell of support in favour of the
Pales-tinian struggle and says that there is a real fear inside
Israel of becoming a pariah state in the way that South Africa once
was.
Following years of civil lobbying, the European Union has voted
in favour of labelling settlement goods and has drawn guidelines
banning any EU funding of Israeli institutions beyond the 1967
borders, in compliance with the duty of non-assistance.
Germany has recently taken a further step, becoming the first EU
member to condition grants to Israeli high-tech companies located
over the Green Line and arousing Israel concern that other EU
countries will follow suit.
In the US, Israels major world ally, the academic boycott of
Israeli institutions movement has been en-dorsed by some of the
leading academic associations. Omar Barghouti welcomes this as a
milestone in the BDS movement: The fact that in one year four
academic as-sociations managed to break through the layers of deep
intimidation, bullying and outright threats and adopt a full
academic boycott of Israel shows that this part of the BDS is
gaining ground at an unprecedented pace.
The decision taken by the American Studies Asso-ciation (ASA)
and others has encountered the strong criticism of the American
Council on Education and
Business/BDS BOYCOTTfrom Within, support the Palestinian call
for boycott and demand serious transformation in the state. Ronnie
Barkan, one of the leaders of the Israeli BDS wing, argues that
Israeli Jews have a moral responsibility to speak up as the voice
of an Israeli Jew carries more weight in a country based on ethnic
supremacy. Being among equals is a very radical notion is Israel,
he says, anyone who speaks about human rights is regarded as some
sort of traitor.
Israel has tried to contain the spread of the BDS by endorsing
an Anti-boycott law, which equates boycott to a civil offence.
Towards a global boycottThe steps taken by the European Union to
end its com-pliance towards Israeli companies and institutions
op-erating outside the 1967 borders have been welcomed by BDS
representatives who believe they are seeing a huge leap forward.
However critics have pointed out that the new directives draw a
fictitious distinction between the settlements and Israel and
bestow legitimacy on future cooperation between the EU and
Israel.
Israeli participation in the Horizon 2020 project, an initiative
aimed at securing Europes global competitive-ness over the next six
years, has not met with universal approval. Israel, as the only
non-EU country, has been subject to explicit mention of the
European guidelines in the appendix of the agreement, legitimising
the countrys involvement in an 80bn euro science and innovation
programme. According to Michael Deas there is a real danger that
Israels participation will result in the EU providing funding to
the next generation of technology that will be used to oppress
Palestinians. This also rep-resents a breach of Article 2 of the EU
Association Agree-ment, which states the necessity for both parts
to respect concepts of international law that Israel is daily
violating.
The BDS is not a one-size-fits-all recipe, says Bargh-outi,
every international partner is free to decide whether to boycott
Israeli companies as a whole or only those involved in the oPt. But
no one called for boycotting only Sudanese factories in Darfur due
to Sudans massive violation of international law there. Only when
it comes to Israel do we hear this strange distinction and we are
asked to fight the crime, not the criminal who committed it.
Barghouti strongly believes the EU has to take four immediate
measures to restore its credibility among the disillusioned Arab
and Palestinian civil society: Firstly, impose a military embargo
on Israel and the entire re-gion as a conflict zone; secondly, ban
imports from all Israeli companies that profit from the occupation;
thirdly, stop funding Israeli universities and research institutes
involved in violations of international law; and instruct European
companies to stop their involve-ment in Israeli violations of
international law, including occupied Jerusalem.
The Israeli BDS wing Boycott from Within, advocates a global
boycott of Israel. The ultimate aim is equality, which according to
Ronnie Barkan is regarded by Zion-ists as the destruction of the
state of Israel. What the BDS movement calls for is the
dismantlement of its system of segregation, just as South Africa
was not destroyed by ending apartheid. n
Below: Omar Barghouti, human rights activist and co-founder of
the BDS movementBottom: A growing awareness exists about where
goods are being produced and exactly who profits
Boycott from withinThe BDS movement is gaining momentum also
among Jews and within Israel itself. A rising number of Jewish
figures are opposing Israels authority to speak in their name,
undermining the very basic conviction that Israel and the Jews are
one and the same. A group of Israeli Jew-ish citizens, united in
the grassroots organisation Boycott
B.D.S bites deep By Federica Marsi
There Are InCreASIng COnCernS In Tel AvIv ThAT The BOYCOTT,
DIveSTmenT & SAnCTIOnS mOvemenT hAS TrIggereD A ShIfT In hOw
ISrAel IS perCeIveD BY The wIDer wOrlD
by a number of Ivy League institutions. According to Michal Deas
the strong reaction that followed the decision reflects a
realisation by pro-Israeli organisa-tions that within many student
groups, Israel has lost the debate and the only terrain on which
they can now fight is legal action, repression and false
accusations of anti-Semitism.
