Israel Hits Back Against Boycott
Sunday, April 02, 2017
By Marjorie Cohn, Consortium News | News Analysis
On March 19, Israeli tax officials arrested Omar Barghouti, a prominent
Palestinian human rights defender and co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Omar and his wife Safa, an Israeli citizen,
were detained for 16 hours and have been subjected to daily interrogation
sessions.
Barghouti's arrest is indirect evidence of the growing strength of the BDS
movement, a worldwide non-violent challenge to Israel's illegal occupation
of Palestinian lands, a protest campaign that the Israeli government has
identified as an existential threat to Israel.
Israel is particularly sensitive in light of the new United Nations report
concluding that it has established an "apartheid regime" and recommending
that national governments support BDS activities to challenge Israel's
illegal system of oppression of the Palestinians. The report was co-authored
by Richard Falk, an international law expert and former U.N. Special
Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In his address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated, "We
will defend ourselves against slander and boycotts."
Barghouti wrote in the New York Times, "Having lost many battles for hearts
and minds at the grass-roots level, Israel has adopted since 2014 a new
strategy to criminalize support for BDS from the top" in order to "shield
Israel from accountability."
Last year, the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs established a
"tarnishing unit" to tarnish the reputation of BDS human rights defenders
and networks.
According to the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National
Committee, the "inflammatory fabrications" against Omar Barghouti constitute
the "latest chapter of repression and intimidation" against him. For years,
various arms of the far-right Israeli government have subjected Barghouti to
intense threats, intimidation and repression.
The investigation of Barghouti is part of Israel's "systematic efforts to
criminalize the BDS movement, intimidate activists and stop free speech,"
the Committee said.
"After failing to intimidate them through the threat of revoking Omar's
permanent residence in Israel, and after the effective travel ban imposed on
him proved futile in stopping his human rights work," the Committee stated,
"the Israeli government has resorted to fabricating a case related to Omar's
alleged income outside of Israel to tarnish his image and intimidate him."
Travel Ban
The latest travel ban against Barghouti, imposed in connection with the
investigation, coincidentally comes shortly before he is scheduled to travel
to the United States to accept the Gandhi Peace Award, along with Ralph
Nader, at Yale University.
In addition to the travel ban on Barghouti, top Israeli officials have
threatened BDS activists in general and Barghouti in particular. At a "Stop
the Boycott" conference in Jerusalem last year, Israeli public security and
strategic affairs minister Gilad Erdan warned that BDS activists "will know
they will pay a price for it."
During the same conference, Yisrael Katz, Israel's intelligence minister,
called for attacks on BDS leaders. Katz utilized the same Hebrew word the
military uses for "targeted civil elimination," or civil assassination.
Aryeh Deri, Israel's interior minister, told attendees at the conference
that he might revoke Barghouti's residency permit.
After threats against Barghouti at the conference, Amnesty International
stated it was concerned for the "safety and liberty of Palestinian human
rights defender Omar Barghouti, and other boycott, divestment and sanctions
activists, following calls alluding to threats, including of physical harm
and deprivation of basic rights, made by Israeli ministers."
Adnan Ramadan, another co-founder of BDS, said, "All of this tax evasion
business is just an excuse to pressure the BDS movement as a whole . . .
part of their war against the campaign, but it won't work . . . because the
BDS campaign isn't one person or two people or ten people, it's an organized
movement of hundreds of thousands of people."
"This latest desperate chapter of repression and intimidation by the Israeli
government against Omar Barghouti is the strongest indicator yet of the
failure of the Israeli regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and
apartheid to slow down the impressive growth of the BDS movement for
Palestinian rights," the Committee stated.
And, according to the Forward, a report issued by the Anti-Defamation League
and the Israel-based Reut Institute concluded, "Jewish communal efforts
against the BDS movement have largely failed."
What Is BDS?
The BDS movement was launched in 2005 by representatives of Palestinian
civil society. They called 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 . [including] embargoes and sanctions
against Israel."
This call for BDS specified that "these non-violent punitive measures"
should last until Israel fully complies with international law by (1) ending
its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the
barrier 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 land as
stipulated in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194.
BOYCOTTS involve withdrawing support for Israel and Israeli and
international companies involved in violations of Palestinian human rights,
as well as complicit Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions.
DIVESTMENT campaigns urge banks, local councils, churches, pension funds and
universities to withdraw investments from all Israeli companies and from
international companies involved in violating Palestinian rights.
SANCTIONS campaigns pressure governments to fulfill their legal obligation
to hold Israel to account by ending military trade, free-trade agreements
and expelling Israel from international forums.
BDS was a major factor behind the 46 percent drop in foreign direct
investment in Israel in 2014, according to a U.N. report. Israeli exporters
have repeatedly complained that it is getting harder to export products to
Europe. A World Bank report reveals that Israel's exports to the Palestinian
economy dropped by 24 percent in the first quarter of 2015.
Investors who have divested from companies targeted by the BDS movement
include government pension funds in Sweden, Norway, New Zealand and
Luxembourg. Investors include George Soros, the Bill Gates Foundation, the
huge TIAA-CREF public sector pension fund in the U.S., Dutch pension giant
PGGM and Norwegian bank Nordea.
BDS initiatives have been passed by more than 50 councils in Spain and by
dozens of other councils in the U.K., Australia, Sweden, Norway and Ireland.
U.S. churches, including the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of
Christ and the United Methodist Church (UMC), and several Quaker bodies have
voted to divest from Israeli and international companies targeted by the BDS
movement.
Academic associations in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, South Africa and the
U.K. have voted to support BDS. Thousands of artists and cultural figures,
including Roger Waters, Marcel Khalife and Alice Walker support the cultural
boycott of Israel. Lauryn Hill, Elvis Costello and Vanessa Paradis have
canceled shows in Israel. World renowned scientist Stephen Hawking refused
to attend a conference hosted by former Israeli president Shimon Peres.
The Chilean government suspended free trade agreement talks with Israel
during its 2014 attacks on Gaza. Bolivia and Venezuela have cut diplomatic
ties with Israel. Brazil refused to appoint a settler leader as Israeli
ambassador to the country. The University of Johannesburg severed its ties
with Israel's Ben-Gurion University.
More than 30 U.S. student associations and 11 Canadian student associations
have voted to support divestment from Israeli apartheid. BDS is supported by
the U.K. National Union of Students, 30 other U.K. student unions and
student organizations in Belgium, South Africa, Brazil, Chile and beyond.
SodaStream closed its factory in the illegal Israeli settlement of Mishor
Adumim following a high-profile boycott campaign against the company that
saw retailers and investors across the world cut links with the company.
SodaStream is still a major target of the BDS movement because it is a
high-profile Israeli export, and the company was complicit in the ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians in the Naqab (Negev) in the south of Israel.
French telecom Orange left the Israeli market, in response to BDS campaigns
in France and Egypt about the role Orange's Israeli franchise holder played
in supporting the Israeli military, its attacks on Gaza, and its involvement
in illegal Israeli settlements.
G4S announced plans to sell its Israeli subsidiary after the international
Stop G4S campaign cost the company millions of dollars in lost contracts.
The Bill Gates Foundation cut its ties with the company. G4S provides
security services and equipment to Israeli checkpoints, illegal settlements,
and prisons where Palestinian political prisoners are held without trial and
subjected to torture. G4S has a record of breaking promises to end its
support for Israeli apartheid so the campaign against G4S is ongoing until
the sale is complete.
French multinational Veolia withdrew from Israel after a BDS campaign over
its role in Israel's colonization of Palestinian land, resulting in billions
of dollars in lost contracts. Israeli state water company Mekorot lost
contracts in Brazil, Argentina, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Community mobilizations during Israel's 2014 attack on Gaza prevented
Israeli ships from docking at a port in Oakland, California, after actions
by dockworkers at ports in South Africa, Sweden and India in recent years.
The E.U. has introduced rules prohibiting funding of Israeli companies and
bodies based in illegal Israeli settlements and has warned businesses about
the risks of doing business with illegal Israeli settlements.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not
be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Marjorie Cohn
Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former
president of the National Lawyers Guild and deputy secretary general of the
International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Her books include The
United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse; Cowboy
Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law and Drones and Targeted
Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues. Visit her website:
MarjorieCohn.com. Follow her on Twitter: @MarjorieCohn.
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