http://www.bdsmovement.net/2015/solidarity-with-the-palestinian-popular-resi
stance-boycott-israel-now-13313#.VhlbdGmYED8.facebook
Statements
Solidarity with the Palestinian popular resistance! Boycott Israel now!
Posted on October 10, 2015
by Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
Whether the current phase of Israel's intensified repression and Palestinian
popular resistance will evolve into a full-fledged intifada or not, one
thing is already evident-a new generation of Palestinians is marching on the
footsteps of previous generations, rising up en masse against Israel's
brutal, decades-old regime of occupation, settler colonialism and apartheid.
World governments, especially in the west, are calling this a "cycle of
violence" where both sides are to blame, ignoring the root cause of the
colonial conflict and their own complicity in enabling Israel to maintain it
and to violate international law with impunity. Almost all Palestinians
today are calling for a full boycott of Israel and for isolating it
internationally, in all fields, just as apartheid South African once was.
In this latest round, Israel has fanned the flames of Palestinian grassroots
resistance by stepping up its attacks against al-Aqsa mosque compound, the
Noble Sanctuary, located in the heart of the Israeli occupied Old City of
Jerusalem. Fanatic, government-backed Jewish fundamentalist settler groups
have persistently desecrated the compound, often verbally insulting
worshippers with vile racism and openly calling for the destruction of the
mosque. This has triggered widespread anger and protests in Jerusalem and
among Palestinians everywhere in historic Palestine.
Typically, the Israeli army's response was to protect the criminal settlers
and punish the Palestinian victims, ultimately denying almost all
Palestinians access to their holy site.
These threats are taken seriously by Palestinians who suffer daily the
consequences of Israel's official policy of "Judaization" of the city, a
policy of gradually colonizing the land and replacing its indigenous
Christian and Muslim Palestinian population with illegal Jewish settlers.
This policy, which amounts to ethnic cleansing and a war crime under
international law, is implemented through incessant land confiscations,
expansion of the colonial wall, house demolitions, settler take-overs of
Palestinian homes, extrajudicial killings, arrests and expulsions, all
supported by Israel's "justice" system, a constantly reliable, rubber-stamp
partner in crime.
The latest Israeli attack against the al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East
Jerusalem, moreover, is not an isolated incident. Hundreds of historic
churches and mosques have been destroyed by Zionist militias and later the
Israeli state since 1948. Last summer, during the massacre in Gaza, Israel
bombed to the ground 73 mosques. Many Palestinian churches and mosques have
been defaced or otherwise desecrated this year alone by Jewish extremists in
so-called "price tag attacks," including the Church of Loaves and Fishes
(Multiplication), overlooking Lake Tiberias, which was set on fire last
June.
These racist and criminal attacks against Palestinians and their freedom of
religion come as an extension of a massive shift in Israel to the extreme
right and the unprecedented prevalence in Israeli society of overt,
deeply-seated colonial racism and racial hatred against the indigenous
Palestinian people.
Virtually all Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza are denied access to
Jerusalem, which is besieged by walls, watch towers and barbed wire, and are
subject to daily assault and humiliation.
In a typical so-called "period of calm", Israel enforces its medieval siege
of Gaza, conducts incursions into Palestinians cities, confiscates
Palestinian land, including in the Naqab (Negev), destroys Palestinian
property, and builds illegal Jewish-only settlements. In its ongoing
attempts to entrench its system of apartheid and colonial rule, Israel
denies Palestinians their full spectrum of rights in the most banal of ways,
from a child's right to education to a mother's access to health care, to a
farmer's ability to reach his/her land and to the right of a family to even
live together in one home. And all this is done with the blessing of the
courts.
In light of the apathy or direct complicity of world governments and the UN,
and as a result of Israel's impunity in perpetuating this system of
injustice against Palestinians, in historic Palestine as well as in exile,
the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has made great strides
in redefining Israel's positioning in the world stage as a pariah state.
Through boycotts of institutions that are complicit in Israeli violations of
international law, through divestment from corporations supporting Israeli
oppression and through a principled call for sanctions against Israel, the
BDS movement has increased the isolation of Israel and started to impose
costs on its regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid and occupation.
The World Bank has revealed that Palestinian imports from Israel are falling
significantly. Israeli businessmen are reporting that European investors are
no longer willing to invest in Israel, while a UN study confirms that
foreign direct investment in Israel dropped by 46% in 2014, as compared to
2013. A Rand study predicts that BDS may cost Israel between 1% and 2% of
its GDP each year over the next ten years, and, most recently, credit rating
agency Moody's has reported that BDS is a potential threat to the Israeli
economy.
More needs to be done, however, to hold Israel to account and shatter its
still strong impunity. Complicit governments must be exposed. Corporations
that are enabling and profiting from Israel's human rights violations must
pay a price in their reputation and revenues. Israel's military machine,
including its research arm, must face a comprehensive international military
embargo, and all Israeli leaders, officers and soldiers who are involved in
the commission of the current and past crimes must be prosecuted at the
International Criminal Court as well as national courts that respect
international jurisdiction.
Israel is not just oppressing Palestinians; it is exporting its ruthless
model of securitization and repression to the world. Israel is deeply
involved in training and arming death squads in Latin America, often as a US
proxy, selling weapons and military expertise to dictatorships in Asia and
Africa, often to both sides of a civil war, and militarizing police forces
in Ferguson, Los Angeles, London and cities around the world. Israel today
is a key player in domestic repression against racial, social, economic and
environmental justice movements around the world.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the Palestinian leadership of
the global BDS movement, calls on people of conscience around the world to
support Palestinians in their quest for freedom at this crucial moment by
stepping up BDS activities against Israel's regime of oppression. In
particular, and related to the current mass revolt on the streets of
Palestine, we call on supporters of the Palestinian struggle to:
Build awareness about Palestinian rights under international law and support
for BDS through media outreach, including social media;
Pressure parliaments to impose a military embargo on Israel;
Campaign against Israeli military companies such as Elbit Systems;
Support boycott and divestment campaigns against complicit companies, such
as G4S and HP, that are most blatantly complicit in Israel's infrastructure
of oppression;
Pass effective and strategic, not just symbolic, BDS resolutions in unions,
academic associations, student governments and social movements that can
lead to concrete measures, and enhance the cultural boycott of Israel;
Consider legal action against Israeli criminals (soldiers, settlers,
officers and decision-makers) and against executives of corporations that
are implicated in Israel's crimes and violations of international law.
Like their parents' generation, the thousands of Palestinian youth in
Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, Jaffa, Nazareth and elsewhere
who have taken to the streets in large protests against Israel's occupation
and apartheid are first and foremost shaking off despair and liberating
their minds of the myth of oppression as fate. They are also nourishing the
entire Palestinian people's aspiration to self-determination and living in
freedom, dignity and a just peace.
It is high time to isolate Israel's regime of militarization, securitization
and racism as a danger not just to Palestinians and the Arab region, but to
humanity at large.
- See more at:
http://www.bdsmovement.net/2015/solidarity-with-the-palestinian-popular-resi
stance-boycott-israel-now-13313#.VhlbdGmYED8.facebook