Professor Jake Lynch is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (see: http://newmatilda.com/2012/12/13/why-boycott-israel ).
Professor Jake Lynch on why he supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and why support for BDS is growing (2012): “According to a large scale opinion survey, carried out in the UK and six other western European countries in 2010 by the polling company ICM, public understanding of the realities of the conflict has become much stronger over recent years. Fully 49 per cent of respondents could successfully identify Israel as an occupying power, compared with earlier surveys suggesting the proportion was much lower. Daud Abdullah of the Middle East Monitor, which commissioned the poll, linked this increased level of understanding, in turn, with "a growing rejection of Israeli policies," after a long period in which Israel enjoyed a "high level of support because it was perceived as a progressive democracy in a sea of Arab backwardness". This transition has probably travelled still further since the poll was conducted, as the world has witnessed another attack on Gaza, involving what Human Rights Watch called "serious violations of the laws of war," along with the fatal shooting of activists on board an aid vessel bound for the territory. The materials on board were needed because Israel keeps Gaza under a state of siege, designed — according to US diplomatic cables disclosed by Wikileaks — to "keep its economy on the brink of collapse". That, by the way, makes it a collective punishment and therefore, according to the distinguished international jurist, Richard Falk, another war crime. The effects include the poisoning of Gaza’s water supply, declared undrinkable earlier this year because authorities there cannot import the parts they need to repair sewage systems damaged in the 2008-9 attack Operation Cast Lead. These are among the reasons why, elsewhere in the world, there has been a steady growth in the BDS movement… Until very recently, the world at large has, in effect, condoned and supported Israeli militarism and lawlessness, and failed to empower Palestinians. While that imbalance remains in place, the pattern of violence — direct, structural and cultural — will continue. This is why Palestinian civil society issued the call for international solidarity in the form of BDS, and why we at Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies joined it in the first place. Yes, there are dissenting voices within Israel, but they are not strong enough to effect change by themselves, and neither can we expect the Palestinians to wait until they are. The boycott campaign is a lead indicator of substantive political change at other levels. That is underway, and it was manifest at the most recent UN vote. Australia should get ahead of the curve or it will find itself on the wrong side of history. ” [1].
[1}. Jake Lynch, “Why I boycott Israel”, New Matilda, 13 December 2012: http://newmatilda.com/2012/12/13/why-boycott-israel .