Boycott/Divest/Sanction
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Boycott/Divest/Sanction |
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"The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure-- in particular the divestment movement of the 1980s. Over the past six months, a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation". - Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Why support the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions? By Sheri Wander, MPT Core Community member Personally, I supported the call for movement for boycotts divestment, and sanctions for some time. About a year and a half ago there was a push to get the local food coop to stop selling Israeli goods. At that time I really started to think about the issue more seriously, advocating for the boycotting and writing a blog post, (http://playfulspirit.wordpress.com/2007/11/ ) and several letters about it. In that post, I noted that when I was a college student at Kent State one of the first “long term” campaigns I got involved with was around the issue of South African apartheid. I recall building “shanty towns” in the student center to educate the campus community to the realities of life in South Africa, pressuring the university to divest and all businesses where we thought we might have some voice to boycott any products of the apartheid regime. At the time even as I put what felt like “a lot” of time into this, I wondered in my heart how much of a difference it would make. Would anyone in South Africa really care if little old Kent State University divested? Would the people we tried to stand in solidarity with even know what we were doing – in the hardships that defined so much of their lives would they care? Years later I had the privilege of traveling to the Hague Appeal for Peace conference. One of the conference presenters was Bishop Desmond Tutu….someone whose work I truly admire. I was so surprised and heartened to hear what he had to say. In one of the workshops he spoke his thanks to those who worked to put pressure on the South African government to end apartheid. He gave thanks to the university students, labor folks, and religious leaders who worked against apartheid. He mentioned educating people about the realities of life under apartheid, and pressure for boycotts and divestment. He said that in doing these things we gave people hope. Later, a dear friend had the opportunity to travel in South Africa. While there she toured Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela spent much of his 27 years in prison, along with other anti-apartheid leaders). The man who gave the tour was a former political prisoner himself, who spent years imprisoned on the island, and like Bishop Tutu he thanked those in the audience who had worked against apartheid, and he gave special thanks to those Americans in the group (not something we usually get to hear!) letting them know the work we did gave the prisoners hope. It seems to me, supporting a boycott is a little thing – with so little effort on our end – for such an important result – for giving hope. It may not seem like much – giving hope. But we know that hope is power. And those that feel hopeless are more likely to turn to violence, to engage in actions that seem "not understandable”, and to lose their creative visions for the future. So if support for a boycott has a chance to make a difference, to my mind the question that remains is: is the comparison to South Africa an honest one? Is the system in Palestine/Israel an apartheid system? My own eyewitness and that of my MPT colleagues’ who have traveled there tell me it is. Many members and supporters of MPT came to similar conclusions. Yet, as an organization we had not signed on to the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement. We wondered: What is the role in the BDS movement for an organization that engages in third party nonviolent intervention? How would such a statement impact our work with Palestinians and Israelis struggling nonviolently for justice? At the March 2009 Core community meeting we came to the conclusion that - as an organization - this is a movement we fully support and need to put our name behind. Third Party Nonviolent Intervention (TPNI), Nonviolent Conflict Resolution (NCI), Violence Reduction Peace Teams - and the many other names given to this work - is an ever evolving field within the big field of nonviolence. Within the field there are a variety of ways to look at the value of “nonpartisanship’ or “multi-partisanship“. Where the third party becomes just an extension of the original party(s) in the conflict is an open question and one that is heavily dependent upon perception. As is true with much of this work, there are no hard and fast rules about what is the “right” approach. Likely, it useful to have groups that work within different mandates along a “spectrum of neutrality.” To this end, MPT has realized that it is sometimes important to participate in solidarity actions with one party in the conflict in order to offer balance where there is a large power discrepancy. These acts of solidarity strive to create the space that allows both parties to negotiate honestly. Honest negotiation rarely happens in the face of extreme power differences. The goal then of solidarity actions - like other tactics of nonviolent conflict intervention - is to create the space for those involved in the conflict to come to a just and peaceful resolution. With this in mind, it is only logical that MPT support the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions. The Palestinians have asked for this, and in many cases have stressed that they think it is the most important thing internationals can do. John F Kennedy stated that “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” The Palestinians have lived under a system of oppression for far too long. This will change. It simply has to. Those of us who care about justice, security and peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike must support the nonviolent movement to bring about such change. Supporting the BDS movement is one way to do this. This is consistent with MPT’s mission, and it is the right thing to do. What does the MPT supported call for BDS mean? Simply put, a boycott is voluntarily abstaining from using, buying or dealing with a person, group or nation as an expression of protest. As the web site for the global BDS movement (http://www.bdsmovement.net) points out, “In the global north, and within consumer-based societies, boycott has come to be seen as an important tool of protest, to be exercised through not purchasing the products of an offending country, company or institution. However, boycotts can relate to cultural, sports and many other fields that are not linked to the capacity of a society to consume” To this end goals should be measured not just in terms of economic impact, but in terms of their capacity to educate and ultimately to change public opinion. Additionally “success” can be measured by the psychological impact upon the “opponent” to realize that their behavior is not acceptable. Boycotts are a highly democratic and inclusive tool: the power to use the tool of boycott is in the hands of everyone and can be implemented in daily life. Again, the Global BDS website notes: “Boycotts are a tool for social and political change that can be accessed by perhaps the largest number of people around the globe.” According to Wikipedia, Divestment refers to the use of a concerted economic boycott, with specific emphasis on liquidating stock, to pressure a government, industry, or company towards a change in policy, or in the case of governments, even regime change. In other words, divestment means putting an end to investments in Israel and companies supporting Israeli occupation and apartheid. The aims of divestment are to “Encourage and pressure individuals, financial institutions and companies to shed their investments in Israel in order to curb the profits of Israel’s war and apartheid economy. To raise awareness about Israel’s policies and true nature among companies, and encourage them to use their economic influence to put pressure on Israel to end the discrimination and expulsion of the Palestinian people and the occupation of their land. “ Sanctions are somewhat harder to define. After all, simply defined, sanctions can be just about any form of punishment or permission - depending on the context. For this reason it might be more useful to look at the goals and types of sanctions we are talking about. These encompass trade, oil, military, travel and diplomatic sanctions, which can be implemented from the local level, and on a national scale, as well as across the wider international community. Given the current level and dependency of Israel upon global markets - particularly the technology and research sector - sanctions at a state, regional or institutional level may be the most effective measure to bring about effective pressure. And while the challenge of a sanctioning campaign is that action rests on states and global institutions, “The experiences of the anti-apartheid movement against South Africa demonstrated how ‘peoples sanctions’ made an impact from a local level. Once grassroots campaigners built popular, widespread support for sanctions, these were taken up at regional, national and global institutions“ (http://www.bigcampaign). Boycott Israel:
An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way
to save his country. Israel: Boycott, Divest, Sanction By Naomi Klein, The Nation
BDS explained by Dr. Barghouti (two-part video clip)
What is the Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)? On July 9, 2005, one year after the historic Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found Israel's Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal, a clear majority of Palestinian civil society 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, until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with international law. BDS has been endorsed by over 170 Palestinian parties, organizations, trade unions and movements representing the Palestinian people in the 1967 and 1948 territories and in the Diaspora. On July 13, 2005 the UN International Civil Society Conference adopted the Palestinian Call for BDS. Michigan Peace Team also supports this nonviolent call to action. How do I know what products to boycott?
If the first three numbers of the bar code are 729, the product was made by Israel, within the Green Line or in one of the Israeli-controlled industrial zones built illegally inside the West Bank. However, there are also products made by Israel which do not have a bar code or use another number. There are also product components that are made by Israel but do not carry the 729 bar code; among these are computers and clothing. If you think a product that does not have the 729 code may have been made by Israel, within the Green Line or in its illegal settlements or industrial zones, ask the merchant who is selling the product and/or the product manufacturer.
Join MPT's Facebook Cause: "Stop the Massacre in Gaza – Boycott Israel Now - Use the strategy that helped end apartheid in South Africa"
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