Boycotts of Israel are economic and political cultural campaigns or actions that seek a selective or total cutting of ties with the State of Israel, Israelis or Israeli corporations.[1] Such campaigns are employed by those who challenge the legitimacy of Israel's policies or actions towards the Palestinians over the course of the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflict, oppose Israeli territorial claims in the West Bankor Jerusalem or even oppose Israel's right to exist.
Arab boycotts of Zionist institutions and Jewish businesses began before Israel's founding as a state. An official boycott was adopted by the Arab League almost immediately after the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, but is not fully implemented in practice.
Similar boycotts have been proposed outside the Arab world and the Muslim world. These boycotts comprise economic measures such as divestment; a consumer boycotts of Israeli products or businesses that operate in Israel; a proposed academic boycott of Israeli universities and scholars; and a proposed boycott of Israeli cultural institutions or Israeli sport venues. Many advocates of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu use the 1980smovement against South African apartheid as a model.[2]
"Refuse to finance the occupation – Boycott Israel"— A Swedish poster calls for a boycott of Israel.
Main article: Arab League boycott of Israel
The Arab League boycott of Israel is an effort by Arab League member states to isolate Israel economically to prevent Arab states and discourage non-Arabs from providing support to Israel and adding to Israel's economic and military strength.[3]
While small-scale Arab boycotts of Zionist institutions began before Israel's founding as a modern state, an official organized boycott was only adopted by the Arab League after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The implementation of the boycott has varied over time among member states. Egypt (which has diplomatic relations with Israel) seems to be violating its obligation with the Arab League, However most Arab and Muslim nations are following the boycott of Israel.
Palestinian United Call For BDS Against Israel
Main article: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
In 2005, on the one year anniversary of the International Court of Justice's ruling on the legality of Israeli West Bank barrier, Palestinian NGOs and labor unions issued a call for boycott,[4] divestment and sanctions targeted at Israel with the stated goals that:
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.
On the other hand, the PLO, its branches, Palestinian businesses and universities cooperate with Israel daily. 85% of Palestinian residents in the West Bank are interested in cooperation with Israel, according to a survey by Geocartography Knowledge.[5] In addition, the Palestinian people themselves choose to work in Israel. According to the head of the Federation of Trade Unions of Palestine, Shaher Saad, some 31,000 Palestinian Arab workers are now employed in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Saad also said that some 70,000 others are working in Israel proper.[6]
Academic boycotts
Main article: Academic boycotts of Israel
In 2006, two of Britain's lecturers' unions, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education and the Association of University Teachers, voted to support an academic boycott against Israel.[57] The AUT ban was overturned by members at anEmergency General Meeting a few weeks later, while the NATFHE boycott expired when a merger with AUT to form the University and College Union came into effect.[58] In May 2007, the UCU congress passed Motion 30, which called on the members to circulate information and consider a boycott request by Palestinian trade unions.
In 2009, Spanish organizers of an international solar power design competition excluded a team from the Israeli Ariel University Center. The stated reason was that the Ariel university is located in the West Bank, a Spanish official was quoted saying that "Spain acted in line with European Union policy of opposing Israel's occupation of Palestinian land".[59]
In 2010 the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) announced it had collected 500 endorsements from US academics for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. The endorsements were seen as a sign of changing US attitudes toward Israel in the wake of an Israeli raid on a humanitarian aid flotilla in the Mediterranean.[60] In September 2010 the campaign called forWikimedia to reconsider holding the August 2011 Wikimania conference in Israel because it said Israel is an "unwelcoming environment for majority of techies in the region" and because of what it described as Israel's "atrocious violations of Palestinian human rights."[61]Wikimania defended holding the conference in Haifa, stating, "it is easily accessible to the Palestinian community."[62]
In 2011 the University of Johannesburg decided to suspend ties with Israeli Ben-Gurion University, citing the University's support for the Israeli military. The decision was seen to affect projects in biotechnology and water purification.[63] However, two days later, Ihron Rensburg, vice chancellor and principal of the university issued a statement saying that "UJ is not part of an academic boycott of Israel...It has never been UJ's intention to sever all ties with BGU, although it may have been the intention of some UJ staff members."[64]
University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann said in January 2012 that the university "has clearly stated on numerous occasions that it does not support sanctions or boycotts against Israel." She said that the school was not a sponsor of a BDS conference taking place on campus in February 2012.[65]
Other
In June 2010, a delegation of gay residents of Tel Aviv was banned from joining a gay pride march in Madrid in response to an Israeli actions on a humanitarian ship convoy headed to the Gaza Strip. Organizers of the Madrid event said that it would have been "barbaric" to allow the Israelis to take part.[136]
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) produced a comprehensive document mapping the organizational sources in the UK of the global BDS campaign.[137]
Australian government response
Though Israeli chocolate company Max Brenner is targeted by some Australian Palestinian activists, the Australian Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, “I don't think in 21st-century Australia there is a place for the attempted boycott of a Jewish business.”[186]
Senior figures in the Australian Labor Party linked action against the Australian Greens at a state conference, where the Greens were denied automatic preferences, to the Greens' previous support for the BDS movement. Former state treasurer and Australian Labor Party general secretary Eric Roozendaal and fellow Legislative Councillor Walt Secord, stated, "The Greens will carry forever the stain of their support for the BDS campaign and their attempts to delegitimise Israel and the Jewish community - and this is one of the reasons why we must stand strong against the Greens."[187]
French supreme court verdict
On May 22, the Cour de Cassation (highest French court) ruled that publicly calling for a boycott of Israeli products constitutesincitement and discrimination based on nationality. The verdict by the Cour de Cassation was the final verdict in a lengthy legal battle, which consisted of a seris of convictions, acquittals, and appeals.[188] French lawyer Michael Ghnassia wrote that the ban on publicly calling for a boycott of Israeli products does not violate freedom of speech because such boycotts affect all Israelis, and is tehrefore "based on a racial, religious or national criterion and rather than representing a simple opinion, is a discriminatory action.”[189]
BOIKOT PRODUK ISRAEL BERSEKUTU!!
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - Perguruan tinggi AS telah bergabung dengan kampanye internasional memboikot produk-produk Israel untuk memprotes kebijakan perampasan tanah ilegal Tel Aviv dan penghancuran rumah di tanah Palestina.
The Flaming Eggplant, sebuah kafe yang dikelola mahasiswa di Evergreen State College di Olympia di Washington, telah mengumumkan bahwa siswa telah memilih untuk memboikot produk Israel dari pemukiman ilegal Yahudi di tanah Palestina yang diduduki untuk mengakhiri keterlibatan perguruan tinggi mereka dalam pelanggaran Israel atas hak warga Palestina, menurut Olympiabds.org.
''Kami bangga untuk bergabung dengan gerakan tanpa kekerasan untuk menekan Israel agar mengakhiri pelanggaran hak asasi manusia terhadap warga Palestina,'' kata mereka dalam sebuah pernyataan.
The Flaming Eggplant adalah bisnis yang paling terakhir yang bergabung dengan gerakan internasional Boikot Divestasi, dan Sanksi (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions - BDS) melawan produk-produk Israel dari pemukiman Yahudi.
Mahasiswa universitas di AS, Inggris, dan Belgia juga menyerukan boikot pada akademik Israel atas perlakuan buruk Tel Aviv pada tahanan Palestina, memperluas pemukiman Yahudi ilegal di tanah yang diduduki, dan meneror Gaza.
Redaktur: Djibril Muhammad
Sumber: IslamTimes
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