JEWS FOR BOYCOTTING ISRAELI GOODS - boycott, divestment & sanctions against Apartheid Israel

Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG) is an organization of group of British and Israeli Jews resident in the UK who have come together to support the Boycott Israeli Goods (BIG) campaign (see: http://www.bigcampaign.org/index.php?page=jbig ).

Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG): “We are a group of British and Israeli Jews resident in the UK who have come together in this 40th year of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land to support the Boycott Israeli Goods (BIG) campaign.

In 1967, the Israeli army took military control of the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Since that time the government of Israel has built settlements, roads and other infrastructure for its Jewish citizens, using land and resources stolen from the Palestinian people. This situation continues, unchallenged by Western governments, despite Israel’s being in violation of international humanitarian law and over 60 UN resolutions.

Israel daily destroys Palestinian lives, livelihoods and homes; it continues to build its illegal colonies and separation wall on stolen land; it continues to control Gaza while slicing the West Bank into Bantustans, separating Palestinian families from their schools, places of work and agricultural land; it denies Palestinian refugees their right to return and operates a form of racism in many respects worse than the South African apartheid system. Its policies of intimidation and humiliation aim to destroy Palestinian hopes of statehood. Israeli businesses export freely from Palestinian land while the Palestinian economy is on its knees as a result of the occupation.

We believe that this constitutes a betrayal of the best trends in Jewish ethical tradition. It inflames hatreds in our unstable world and renders impossible the achievement of a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians. We therefore support the existing campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions to enforce Israeli compliance with international law.

We call on those of our fellow Jews who are inclined to support the State of Israel unconditionally to think critically about what Israel does in our names. We call on every ethical consumer, of any faith or none, to refuse to support the Israeli economy for as long as the illegal occupation and exploitation of Palestine persists.” [1].

Letter by J-BIG members to UK media, 2007: “:We welcome the courageous decision of the National Union of Journalists to boycott Israeli goods (Letters, April 23). Given Israel's contempt for international law, with the complicity of the US and UK governments, pressure has to be increased by civil society if justice is to be achieved. A boycott of Israeli goods is a legitimate form of grassroots action and is particularly appropriate as Israel is destroying the Palestinian economy. Such a boycott has been called for by Israeli peace organisations.

As a result of its illegal occupation, Israel is able to flood the Palestinian market with its products, while preventing Palestinian farmers from growing and trading their own. We believe Israel's actions betray Jewish ethical traditions - the cutting down of olive and fruit trees is prohibited by Jewish law. The continuing occupation and exploitation of Palestinian land is a major obstacle to peace for Israelis and Arabs alike which has global implications for world peace.

Deborah Fink, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Mike Cushman, Sylvia Finzi, Tony Greenstein, Ruth Tenne, Deborah Maccoby, Prof Moshe Machover, Mike Marqusee,

Jews for Boycotting Israel Goods.” [2].

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi (London-based Jewish campaigner for Palestinian rights who helped form Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG)): "Groups like mine - Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods - support the call made by nearly 200 Palestinian civil society organisations in 2005 for a broad campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions, including an institutional academic and cultural boycott, until Israel respects Palestinian human rights and abides by international law." [3].

[1]. Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG), Statement, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS): http://www.bigcampaign.org/index.php?page=jbig .

[2]. Letter by J-BIG members to UK media, 2007, specifically in the Jewish Chronicle, 27 April 2007 and in the UK Guardian, “Apartheid and boycotts in the Middle East”, 25 April 2007: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/25/israel.comment .

[3]. Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, “Boycott – the sane response to Israeli Apartheid”, The Palestinian Telegraph, 24 August 2009: http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/1984-boycott-the-sane-response-to-israeli-apartheid .