Economic boycott against Israeli apartheid

Economic Boycott

The economic boycott is the easiest to understand. It is analogous to the boycott imposed on South-African which helped pressure the apartheid regime. In the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression, in July 2005, the following appeal was launched:

“We, representatives 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 non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”

BDS appeal

What you can do?

– Don’t buy “Made by Israeli Apartheid”! Make it a point not to buy Israeli goods, and ask stores to stop supporting Israeli Occupation and Apartheid and to change the brand of their merchandise. Ask your friends and colleagues to join the boycott of Israeli Occupation and Apartheid. It depends on each of us to make the boycott grow and become more effective – it doesn’t cost time or money, but it can be an important step towards the fall of the Apartheid Wall and the end of Israeli Apartheid.
– Picket lines and leafleting in front of stores and shopping malls that are known for selling Israeli goods is a simple but effective way of promoting the boycott. You are able to inform the public, raise awareness and, at the same time, pressure the management of the stores to stop selling Israeli goods.
– In most of the mainstream media it is not easy to obtain space to get your message across. Work with independent and local media, and approach publications of organizations and those intended for specific target groups that might be more sensitive to the issue. Write letters to the editor and opinion-editorial articles.

Examples around the world:

– Everywhere:
Caterpillar Destroy Homes
Stop Caterpillar

– Canada :
Indigo Books and Music Inc. (Indigo, Chapters, World’s Biggest Bookstore, SmithBooks, Coles, The Book Company or Indigospirit ). Picketts are being held regularly in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Vancouver, Victoria etc…
Israeli wines and particularly from the Golan heights (Yarden)

– USA:
Starbucks
Victoria’s Secret

– Belgium:
Israeli fruits (Carmel, Jaffa) and softwares
French
Flemmish

– Switzerland:
Connex and Alstom

– France:
Connex , Veolia and Alstom

– UK:
Marks & Spencers
Carmel, Waitrose, Sainsburys, Tesco

– Spain:
Eden water
Spanish
Catalan

For Background Information:

Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel Campaign
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (Toronto)
Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
Global BDS Movement

– In french:
Une entrevue avec Majid Nassar
ISM-France
Europalestine
ISM-France
BDS info en Suisse

6 Comments »

Israel: Time To Boycott, Divest and Sanction

“I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa.”
~Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The situation in Israel has become more murderous and unjust than ever in the sixty year life of that nation. Founded over the bodies of an indigenous population, and rationalized as somehow permissible because of the Nazi persecution of European Jews in World War Two, the Jewish state has been treated by the USA as a holy land beyond criticism, and often beyond rational thought. The Palestinian people were thrown out of their homeland, into refugee camps, or forced to live in Israel as second class citizens, maligned and forgotten souls who had done nothing to incur the vengeful wrath that was visited upon them, and has grown worse over the years.

Israel’s birth at the expense of indigenous people was really not that different from America’s and in keeping with the ancient and bloody history of one people attacking another and taking over their habitat. But this new nation was supposed to somehow be uniquely based on justice, to serve a people who had survived persecution , abuse, loss of their homelands and massacres at the hands of oppressors. Result? They persecuted, abused , expelled from their homeland and massacred the inhabitants of Palestine. And this was treated with uncritical support and financing by much of the guilty west, never with more passionate and unquestioning devotion than by the USA.

We have been the major financial and military sponsor of the Jewish state, far surpassing aid it received from Germany, which at least had reason to atone for its previous dreadful treatment of Jews. Why has the USA given tens of billions of dollars and thousands of lives as well, to help perpetuate a Jewish apartheid state ? The answer is the American Jewish lobby, which uses the power of money, and guilt, and sees to it that our government responds to Israeli interests first, by often placing American interests second. This charge usually provokes frenzied accusations of anti-Semitism , even when it is made by supposedly safe figures like establishment academics or ex presidents. Though the anti-Semitic label is losing some of its power, it still can make presidential candidates and the American congress tremble in fear. Why? How?

The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) power structure that exercised much control over the U.S. government through the middle of the twentieth century has since been replaced by the Jewish Lobby. And though many critics insist on calling it just another lobby, it is unlike any other , past or present. It doesn’t support industries, as most commercial lobbies did under WASP control, nor does it represent ethnic , racial or religious groups , as do lobbies which originated after the WASP era ended and identity group politics, no threat to their power, began. It stands exclusively for the interests of a foreign country, and it exercises an antidemocratic control over the American political process to an extreme that has become more threatening with time.

The worst political and military excesses of the USA in the Middle East are rationalized by some as simply being about control of oil. But whether they are sincerely ignorant , cynical apologists or cringing cowards , they are in a state of treacherous denial. Our uncritical support for Israel is not only the cause of much hatred for our nation in the rest of the world, but could inflict future damage on the USA far beyond the tragedy of 911.

It is irresponsible to think, as some do, that a small minority of American Jews who speak out against Israeli policies can change the situation. They are relatively meaningless , not only in number and financial clout, but in that they rarely if ever identify the lobby, often in fear of being called self hating Jews. It is for the American people as a whole to speak in a democratic voice and demand an end to the existence of a Jewish state, perpetuated on the backs of a conquered people, and surviving in its present form only because of American dollars and military might . And to do so in no uncertain terms.

The economic policy of divestiture, boycott and sanctions worked to make the world aware that change had to come in the apartheid state of South Africa, and that kind of movement must be brought to bear on American support for the apartheid state of Israel. Many church , community and campus groups have already begun to take such action and need the support of new groups , to literally join in a democratic lobby against the lobby. And to do so with what power fears almost as much as the barrel of a gun ; that is, the contents of a wallet .

Our federal tax dollars supporting Israel are not the only ones we should be conscious of , though we need to pressure our government in Washington most of all . States, counties and municipalities, as well as labor unions and pension funds use our taxes to invest in Israel Bonds and financial paper, as well as private Israeli firms. We need to exercise control of our money and divest it from those sources that are under the sway of the lobby and are used to strengthen injustice. Funds supposedly under public and not private control need to be the first, but not the only targets of this campaign. And it must be conducted with all deliberate speed, to end a human rights atrocity and help bring about one democratic state of Palestine, not two , with equal rights for all its people; Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Copyright (c) 2008 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.

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frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net

Frank Scott writes political commentary which appears in the Coastal Post, The Independent Monitor and on his shared blog at:

http://legalienate.blogspot.com

Comment by frank scott — March 26th, 2008 @ 8:48 PM

About the Chapters/Indigo boycott: It would be helpful to provide a number of stores to shop at instead, because for my Christmas shopping there were some books that I could not find at stores other than at Chapters/Indigo. I fully support the boycott, but where am I to go to get books?

Comment by Dave — January 18th, 2009 @ 10:57 PM

For Dave:
In Montreal, there’s Paragraphe book store. Just about any book can be ordered online from Alibris and Amazon.

Comment by carla — February 1st, 2009 @ 2:41 PM

Please let me know about your protests, I would like to be physically present.

Comment by CJ Plourde — January 6th, 2011 @ 3:06 PM

29 avril, 2011
Dégelis

La chaîne alimentaire Métro vend présentement des carottes produites en Israël.

SVP BOYCOTTER

Comment by Yvon A Moreault — April 29th, 2011 @ 3:08 PM

May I ask why Starbucks is being boycotted?

Comment by Michael — April 13th, 2012 @ 5:07 AM

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