Israel has established an
“apartheid
regime”
By Ramzy Baroud: The Israeli state has violated international law
more than any other country, yet has rarely, if ever, been held accountable for
its crimes and misconduct.
Israel’s successful public relations
campaigns through its ever-willing western media partners, coupled with the relentless
work and pressure carried out by its powerful backers in Washington
DC, London, Paris and elsewhere, have borne stupendous results.
For a while, it seemed that Israel was
capable of maintaining its occupation and denying Palestinians their rights
indefinitely, while promoting itself as “the only
democracy in the Middle East”.
Those who dared challenge that skewed
paradigm through resistance in Palestine were eliminated or imprisoned; those
who challenged Israel in public arenas anywhere in the world were smeared as “anti-Semitic”
or “self-hating
Jews”.
Things seemed to move forward nicely for
Israel. With American-western financial and military aid, the size, population
and economy of illegal settlements grew at a
fast rate. Israel’s trade partners seemed oblivious to the fact that
settlement products were manufactured or grown on illegally occupied
Palestinian land.
Indeed, for a long time the occupation
was very profitable with very little censure or pressure.
All that Israeli leaders needed to do was
to adhere to the script: Palestinians are terrorists, we have no peace partner,
Israel is a democracy, our wars are all carried out in self-defence and so on.
The media repeated such misleading notions in unison. Palestinians, oppressed,
occupied and disowned were duly demonised. Those who knew the truth about the
situation either faced the risk of speaking out – and suffered the consequences
– or remained silent.
But as the saying goes: “You can fool all
the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you
cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Justice for Palestinians, which once
appeared as if a “lost cause” received a massive resurgence during the Second
Palestinian Intifada (Uprising) in 2000.
Growing awareness resulting from the
dedicated work of many intellectuals, journalists and students saw the arrival
of thousands of international activists to Palestine as part of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
Academicians, artists, students, religious
officials and ordinary people came to Palestine and then fanned out to many
parts of the globe, utilising whatever medium available to spread a unified
message to their numerous communities.
It was that groundwork that facilitated the
success of the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).
Established in 2005, BDS was a call made by
Palestinian civil society organisations to people around the world to take part
in exposing Israeli crimes and to hold accountable the Israeli government, army
and companies that benefit from the subjugation of Palestinians.
With large and growing networks already in
place, BDS spread quickly and took the Israeli government by surprise.
In the last decade, BDS proved resilient
and resourceful, opening many new channels
and platforms for discussions on Israel, its occupation, Palestinian
rights and the moral accountability for those who either support or ignore
Israel’s violations of human rights.
What worries Israel most about BDS is what
it calls the movement’s attempt to “delegitimize”
it.
Since its inception, Israel has fought for
legitimacy. But it is difficult to achieve legitimacy without respecting the
rules required for a country to be legitimate. Israel wants to have it both
ways: sustain its profitable occupation, test its latest weapon technology,
detain and torture, besiege and assassinate while receiving international nods
of approval.
Using threats, intimidation, cutting off of
funds, the US and Israel have laboured to silence criticism of Israel,
America’s main ally in the Middle East, to no avail.
As recently as days ago, a United
Nations report said that Israel has established an “apartheid
regime”; although the author of the report, Rima Khalaf
resigned under pressure, the genie cannot go back to the bottle.
Progressively, BDS has grown to become the
incubator of much of the international censure of Israel. Its early impact
included artists who refuse to entertain in Israel, then companies started to
shut down their Israel operations, followed by churches and universities
divesting from Israeli economy. With time, Israel has found itself facing a
unique, great challenge.
So, what is Israel to do?
Ignoring BDS has proved dangerous and
costly. Fighting BDS is like launching a war on civil society. Worse, the more
Israel tries to disrupt the work of BDS, the more it legitimises the movement,
offering it new platforms for debate, media coverage and public discussions.
In March 2016, a large
conference brought together Israeli government officials, leaders
from the opposition, media pundits, scholars and even entertainers from Israel,
the US and elsewhere.
The conference was organised by one of
Israel’s largest media companies, Yedioth Ahronoth.
It was a rare display of unity in Israeli
politics; hundreds of influential Israelis and their backers trying to forge a
strategy aimed at defeating BDS.
Many ideas
were put on the table.
Israeli Interior Minister, Aryeh Deri,
threatened to revoke the residence of Omar Barghouti, BDS co-founder and one of
its most effective voices.
Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister,
Israel Katz, called for the “targeted civil elimination” of BDS leaders,
signaling Barghouti, in particular.
Public Security Minister, Gilad Erdan,
wanted BDS activists to “pay the price”.
The war on BDS had officially started,
although the groundwork for that battle was already in motion.
The UK government
announced earlier in the year that it was illegal to “refuse to buy
goods and services from companies involved in arms trade, fossil fuels, tobacco
products, or Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.”
That same month, Canada passed
a motion that criminalises BDS.
A couple of months earlier, the US Senate passed
the Anti-Semitism
Awareness Act, conflating the definition of anti-Semitism to include
criticism of Israel on US campuses, many of which have responded positively to
the call made by BDS.
Eventually, the UK adopted a similar
definition equating between legitimate anti-Jewish hate crimes and criticism of
Israel.
More recently, Israel passed a law that bans
individuals accused of supporting the BDS movement from entry to
Israel. Considering that entering Israel is the only way of gaining access to
the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the Israeli ban aimed at severing the
strong rapport that has been connecting Palestinians to the global solidarity
movement.
The anti-BDS campaign finally culminated in
the detaining and interrogation of Omar Barghouti himself.
On 19 March, Israeli tax
authorities detained Barghouti and accused him of tax evasion.
By doing so, Israel has revealed the nature
of the next stage of its fight, using smear tactics and faulting leading
activists based on charges that are seemingly apolitical in order to distract
from the urgent political discussion at hand.
Along with other steps, Israel feels that
defeating BDS is possible through censorship, travel bans and intimidation
tactics.
However, Israel’s war on BDS is destined to
fail, and as a direct result of that failure, BDS will continue to flourish.
Israel has kept global civil society in the
dark for decades: selling it a misleading version of reality. But in the age of
digital media and globalised activism, the old strategy will no longer deliver.
Regardless of what transpires in the case
of Barghouti, BDS will not weaken. It is a decentralised movement with local,
regional, national and global networks spanning hundreds of cities across the
world.
Smearing one individual, or a hundred, will
not alter the upward movement of BDS.Israel will soon realise that its war on
BDS, freedom of speech and expression is unwinnable. It is a futile attempt to
muzzle a global community that now works in unison from Cape Town, South Africa
to Uppsala, Sweden.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the
Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a
media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com.
His books include “Searching Jenin”, “The Second Palestinian Intifada” and his
latest “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story”. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.
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