Boycotting “the occupation” is not enough
By Ali Abunimah, ElectronicIntifada, 21 October 2016. Earlier this month, The New
York Review of Books published a call for “a targeted boycott
of all goods and services from all Israeli settlements in the occupied
territories, and any investments that promote the occupation, until such time
as a peace settlement is negotiated between the Israeli government and the
Palestinian Authority.”
York Review of Books published a call for “a targeted boycott
of all goods and services from all Israeli settlements in the occupied
territories, and any investments that promote the occupation, until such time
as a peace settlement is negotiated between the Israeli government and the
Palestinian Authority.”
Liberal Zionists are
attempting to co-opt BDS to preserve Israeli apartheid.
attempting to co-opt BDS to preserve Israeli apartheid.
Ryan Rodrick BeilerActiveStills
That call, signed by Peter Beinart, Todd Gitlin, Michael
Walzer and more than 70 other liberal Zionist writers and
luminaries, states that the so-called Green Line – the 1949 Armistice Line
separating the occupied West Bank from present-day Israel – “should be the
starting point for negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian parties on
future boundaries between two states.”
Walzer and more than 70 other liberal Zionist writers and
luminaries, states that the so-called Green Line – the 1949 Armistice Line
separating the occupied West Bank from present-day Israel – “should be the
starting point for negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian parties on
future boundaries between two states.”
Co-opting BDS
This is precisely the
kind of attempt to co-opt the success of the boycott, divestment and sanctions
(BDS) movement that Columbia University professor Joseph Massad cautions about
in a 2014 article for The Electronic Intifada:
liberal Zionists aim to redefine and redirect the movement’s strength and
efforts towards preserving, instead of challenging, Israel as a racist,
apartheid and colonial state.
kind of attempt to co-opt the success of the boycott, divestment and sanctions
(BDS) movement that Columbia University professor Joseph Massad cautions about
in a 2014 article for The Electronic Intifada:
liberal Zionists aim to redefine and redirect the movement’s strength and
efforts towards preserving, instead of challenging, Israel as a racist,
apartheid and colonial state.
Massad warns that BDS
could turn from something “untouchable by European and American officials and
liberal academics and activists – who understood its ultimate goal as one that
not only refuses to guarantee the survival of Israel as a racist state, but
also aims specifically to dismantle all its racist structures – to something
increasingly safe to adopt by most of them, as it now can be used to secure
Israel’s survival.”
could turn from something “untouchable by European and American officials and
liberal academics and activists – who understood its ultimate goal as one that
not only refuses to guarantee the survival of Israel as a racist state, but
also aims specifically to dismantle all its racist structures – to something
increasingly safe to adopt by most of them, as it now can be used to secure
Israel’s survival.”
Palestinians must
insist, Massad writes, that those in solidarity with them adopt BDS with an
explicit commitment to its goals, “to bring about an end to Israel’s
racism and colonialism in all its forms inside and outside the 1948 boundaries”
– the whole of present-day Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
insist, Massad writes, that those in solidarity with them adopt BDS with an
explicit commitment to its goals, “to bring about an end to Israel’s
racism and colonialism in all its forms inside and outside the 1948 boundaries”
– the whole of present-day Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Opening
In the current issue of The New
York Review of Books, more than 100 activists, scholars and artists
from Palestine and around the world – including BDS movement co-founder Omar Barghouti, activist and scholar Angela Davis, historian Joan
Scott, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, writer Alice Walker and South African freedom fighter Ronnie Kasrils – have responded.
York Review of Books, more than 100 activists, scholars and artists
from Palestine and around the world – including BDS movement co-founder Omar Barghouti, activist and scholar Angela Davis, historian Joan
Scott, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, writer Alice Walker and South African freedom fighter Ronnie Kasrils – have responded.
The new letter – of
which I am one the signers – says that it defies “common sense” to call only
for “boycotting settlements while letting Israel, the state that has illegally
built and maintained those settlements for decades, off the hook.”
which I am one the signers – says that it defies “common sense” to call only
for “boycotting settlements while letting Israel, the state that has illegally
built and maintained those settlements for decades, off the hook.”
“By omitting Israel’s
other serious violations of international law, the statement fails the moral
consistency test,” the letter adds. “Aren’t Palestinian refugees, the majority
of Palestinians, entitled to their UN-stipulated rights? Shouldn’t Palestinian
citizens of Israel enjoy equal rights by repealing Israel’s dozens of laws that
racially discriminate against them?”
other serious violations of international law, the statement fails the moral
consistency test,” the letter adds. “Aren’t Palestinian refugees, the majority
of Palestinians, entitled to their UN-stipulated rights? Shouldn’t Palestinian
citizens of Israel enjoy equal rights by repealing Israel’s dozens of laws that
racially discriminate against them?”
It emphasizes that
the Palestinian call for BDS is aimed at “all entities, Israeli or
international, that are complicit in denying Palestinians everywhere their
rights.”
the Palestinian call for BDS is aimed at “all entities, Israeli or
international, that are complicit in denying Palestinians everywhere their
rights.”
Like The Nation and The London Review of Books, The
New York Review of Books has rarely opened its pages to Palestinian
writers, and has been a bastion of liberal Zionist orthodoxy.
New York Review of Books has rarely opened its pages to Palestinian
writers, and has been a bastion of liberal Zionist orthodoxy.
So in that sense, its
publication of the letter represents a small opening in the wall of exclusion.
publication of the letter represents a small opening in the wall of exclusion.
