The Apartheid Israel reality in summary: The sustained Zionist ethnic cleansing of 90% of Palestine means that a 2 state solution is dead. There is presently a one-state Apartheid reality as perceived recently by both Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem (but not reported by the Zionist-subverted ABC). The Subjects of Apartheid Israel total 14.3 million comprising 6.8 million Jewish Israelis (48%), 7.1 million Indigenous Palestinians (50%), 0.4 million non-Arab and non-Jewish Israelis, 1.9 million Palestinian Israelis (Third Class citizens under over 60 race-based, Nazi-style discriminatory laws), and 5.2 million Occupied Palestinians (73% of Apartheid Israel’s Indigenous Palestinian Subjects, with zero human rights, subjected to extreme poverty, excluded from Jews-only areas, and excluded from voting for the government ruling them i.e. subject to egregious Apartheid).
The Occupied Palestinians are highly abusively confined to West Bank ghettoes under military rule (3.2 million) or to the blockaded and repeatedly bombed and shelled Gaza Concentration Camp (2 million). The various groups of Palestinian Subjects of Apartheid Israel are controlled not just by guns but by specific compulsory ID passes just as were non-European Subjects of Apartheid South Africa and indeed the Subjects of Nazi Germany-occupied Europe. There are also 8 million mostly impoverished Exiled Palestinians deriving from successive mass expulsions of Indigenous Palestinians in 1948 and 1967, and excluded on pain of death from the homeland continuously inhabited by their forebears for thousands of years until the genocidal Zionist invasion, ethnic cleansing and colonization of Palestine.
90% of Palestine has now been ethnically cleansed of Indigenous Palestinian inhabitants, and the ongoing Palestinian Genocide has been associated with 2.2 million Palestinian deaths from violence, 0.1 million, and from imposed deprivation, 2.1 million, since the British invasion of the Middle East in 1914 with Australian assistance for oil and imperial hegemony. Apartheid Israel violently kills about 500 Occupied Palestinians each year. However the GDP per capita is a deadly $3,400 for Occupied Palestinians as compared to $46,400 for Israelis, and about 4,000 Occupied Palestinians die avoidably each year from imposed deprivation. One can understand why Ronnie Kasrils, an anti-racist Jewish hero in the fight against Apartheid in South Africa, described apartheid in Israel as far worse than that in South Africa.
However a very large body of anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish scholars, writers and leaders (including 4 South African Nobel Laureates Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee) have strongly condemned the Israeli equivalent of South African Apartheid. Indeed Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, the “Architect of Apartheid”, stated that “Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state”. Jewish anti-Apartheid hero Ronnie Kasrils has condemned Israeli Apartheid as worse than South African Apartheid”.
Documented below the expert opinions on Israeli Apartheid in 3 sections: (A) International Law, (B) Some expert International Law-informed opinions, and (C) Outstanding anti-racist scholars, writers, activists, leaders, legal experts, collectives and Nobel Laureates condemning Israeli Apartheid.
(A). International law
(1). Apartheid. Wikipedia: “Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 until the early 1990s”. However since the fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1993 the term “apartheid” has come to be generally applied to other situations of egregious racial segregation and discrimination, notably that from 1948, in Zionist-occupied Palestine.
(2). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (promulgated in 1948 just as South African Apartheid was being legislated, and making no mention of apartheid per se but proclaiming equality for all) (1948): “Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person…”. Detailed analysis shows that the Occupied Palestinians are deprived of all the human rights set out in the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
(3). The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UN Genocide Convention; approved in 1948; in force from 12 January 1951) does not mention apartheid per se but clearly inspired and contributed to the text of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (see (6) below): “Article I. The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish. Article II In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group…”. As detailed above in “The Apartheid Israel reality in summary”, the Indigenous Palestinians are subject to an ongoing Palestinian Genocide by a genocidally racist Apartheid Israel.
(4). The Fourth Geneva Convention (the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War) (1949) does not mention apartheid per se (apartheid it had just been legislated in South Africa) but Articles 55 and 56 unequivocally demand that an Occupying Power must provide life-sustaining food and medical services to its conquered Subjects “to the fullest extent of the means available to it”. Apartheid Israel grossly violates the Fourth Geneva Convention in its treatment of its Indigenous Occupied Palestinian Subjects. Thus the per capita GDP is a deadly and criminal 14-times lower for Occupied Palestinians as compared to that for the Occupier Israelis. It is estimated that while Apartheid Israel violently kills about 500 Occupied Palestinians each year , about 4,000 Occupied Palestinians die avoidably from imposed deprivation annually.
(5). International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ( in force 4 January 1965): “Article 1. (1). In this Convention, the term “racial discrimination” shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. Article 2. (1). States Parties condemn racial discrimination and undertake to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating racial discrimination in all its forms and promoting understanding among all races, and, to this end: (a) Each State Party undertakes to engage in no act or practice of racial discrimination against persons, groups of persons or institutions and to ensure that all public authorities and public institutions, national and local, shall act in conformity with this obligation;…Article 3. States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction. Article 4. States Parties condemn all propaganda and all organizations which are based on ideas or theories of superiority of one race or group of persons of one colour or ethnic origin, or which attempt to justify or promote racial hatred and discrimination in any form, and undertake to adopt immediate and positive measures designed to eradicate all incitement to, or acts of, such discrimination and, to this end, with due regard to the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the rights expressly set forth in article 5 of this Convention, inter alia…” .
(6). International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (came into force 18 July 1976): “Article I. 1. The States Parties to the present Convention declare that apartheid is a crime against humanity and that inhuman acts resulting from the policies and practices of apartheid and similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination, as defined in article II of the Convention, are crimes violating the principles of international law, in particular the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and constituting a serious threat to international peace and security. 2. The States Parties to the present Convention declare criminal those organizations, institutions and individuals committing the crime of apartheid. Article II. For the purpose of the present Convention, the term “the crime of apartheid”, which shall include similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practised in southern Africa, shall apply to the following inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them: (a) Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of person: (i) By murder of members of a racial group or groups; (ii) By the infliction upon the members of a racial group or groups of serious bodily or mental harm, by the infringement of their freedom or dignity, or by subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; (iii) By arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the members of a racial group or groups; (b) Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part; (c) Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to work, the right to form recognized trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association; (d) Any measures including legislative measures, designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups, the prohibition of mixed marriages among members of various racial groups, the expropriation of landed property belonging to a racial group or groups or to members thereof; (e) Exploitation of the labour of the members of a racial group or groups, in particular by submitting them to forced labour; (f) Persecution of organizations and persons, by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid”.
(7). Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (in force 1 July 2002): “Article 7. Crimes against humanity 1. For the purpose of this Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population; (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; (i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health”.
Apartheid Israel grossly violate all of these key humanitarian conventions.
(B). Some expert, International Law-informed opinions on Israeli apartheid.
Professor Francis Boyle (professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign, author of numerous books on genocide and International Law, and legal expert in international legal actions against genocide and apartheid) summarizing his book “Palestine, Palestinians and International Law” (2005): “The concluding chapter provides advice and guidance to the current international grassroots Campaign for Israeli Divestment/Disinvestment, inspired by Francis A. Boyle’s involvement in the original divestment/disinvestment campaign against the former criminal apartheid regime in South Africa. Today the Republic of South Africa stands as a beacon of hope for oppressed peoples and states all over the world. The same can be true for Palestine and Israel. This book explains why and how that can be done… CHAPTER 7. What Is To Be Done? / 153
1. UN Suspension of the State of Israel
2. International Law as the Basis for Peace
3. Dump the Dishonest Broker
4. Sanctions
5. International Criminal Tribunal for Palestine
6. World Court Lawsuit for Genocide
7. Divestment/Disinvestment Campaign
How To Support the Israeli Divestment/Disinvestment Campaign
Applying the 1973 Apartheid Convention to Dismantle Israel’s Genocidal Apartheid Regime
The Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court
Precedents from Dismantling the Former Criminal Apartheid Regime in South Africa
Conclusion. POSTSCRIPT / 177. APPENDIX I: Bibliography of Genocidal/Apartheid Acts Inflicted by Israel on the Palestinians during the Al Aqsa Intifada / 178”.
Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann (former President of the General Assembly) re Israeli apartheid (2008): “I believe it is very important that we in the United Nations use this term [apartheid]. We must not be afraid to call something what it is. It is the United Nations, after all, that passed the International Convention against the Crime of Apartheid, making clear to all the world that such practices of official discrimination must be outlawed wherever they occur”.
Professor Richard Falk (eminent anti-racist Jewish American law professor, UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights and professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University) in his Special Rapporteur’s reports to the General Assembly (2007): “Israel is clearly in military occupation of the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territory]. At the same time, elements of the occupation constitute forms of colonialism and of apartheid, which are contrary to international law. What are the legal consequences of a regime of prolonged occupation with features of colonialism and apartheid for the occupied people, the occupying Power and third States?” and (2010): “It is the opinion of the current Special Rapporteur that the nature of the occupation as of 2010 substantiates earlier allegations of colonialism and apartheid in evidence and law to a greater extent than was the case even three years ago. The entrenching of colonialist and apartheid features of the Israeli occupation has been a cumulative process. The longer it continues, the more difficult it is to overcome and the more serious is the abridgement of fundamental Palestinian right”.
John Dugard (South African lawyer, Emeritus Professor of International Law, University of Leiden; Honorary Professor in the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria; member of the International Law Commission 1997–2011; Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the Commission on Human Rights/Human Rights Council 2001–2008; judge ad hoc International Court of Justice) and John Reynolds (National University of Ireland) on apartheid (2013): “While any system of institutionalized racial discrimination would inherently conflict with the non-discrimination clause contained in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first instrument of international law expressly to proscribe the practice of apartheid was the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. In the Convention’s preamble, the states parties emphasize their alarm at ‘manifestations of racial discrimination still in evidence in some areas of the world and by governmental policies based on racial superiority or hatred, such as policies of apartheid, segregation or separation’. Article 3 then lays down an obligation for the signatories to oppose and eliminate apartheid: “States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction”… The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (the ‘Apartheid Convention’) was adopted subsequent to the initial prohibition in international human rights law with the aim of making it possible ‘to take more effective measures at the international and national levels with a view to the suppression and punishment of the crime of apartheid’. The Apartheid Convention is thus intended to complement the requirements of Article 3 of the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, with its chapeau referring directly to Article 3. It goes beyond the prohibition of apartheid by making it a criminal offence, declaring apartheid to be a crime against humanity which is subject to universal jurisdiction. The Convention accordingly obliges states parties to adopt legislative measures to suppress, discourage, and punish the crime of apartheid. The establishment of apartheid as an international crime underlines the gravity with which it is treated under international law and highlights the commitment undertaken by the international community of states to its eradication”.
Seraj Assi (a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, Washington DC) (2017): “A recent U.N. report has found Israel guilty of apartheid, causing a diplomatic skirmish between Israel’s supporters and opponents. The report, published by the U.N.’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), compares Israel’s rule over Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank to South Africa’s treatment of non-whites during its apartheid phase… The irony is that the idea of evoking the term “apartheid” [“separateness” in Afrikaans] to describe Israel’s treatment of Palestinians was not invented by Israel’s enemies, let alone Arabs and Palestinians, but by Israel itself. For decades, Israeli officials have employed the Hebrew term Hafrada (“Separation” or “Segregation”) to describe Israel’s governing policy in the West Bank and Gaza, and its attempts to separate the Palestinian population from both the Israeli population and the Jewish settlers population in the occupied Palestinian territories. The so-called Israeli West Bank Barrier, known in Hebrew as “Gader Ha-Hafrada” (“Separation Fence”), was built on this Hafrada vision”.
B’Tselem (Israeli human rights group; the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) (2021): “Today, B’Tselem published a new position paper that details how the Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it controls (Israeli sovereign territory, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip) an apartheid regime. One organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians”.
Human Rights Watch (2021): “About 6.8 million Jewish Israelis and 6.8 million Palestinians live today between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, an area encompassing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the latter made up of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Throughout most of this area, Israel is the sole governing power; in the remainder, it exercises primary authority alongside limited Palestinian self-rule. Across these areas and in most aspects of life, Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution”.
(C). Outstanding anti-racist scholars, writers, activists, leaders, legal experts, collectives and Nobel Laureates condemning Israeli Apartheid.
The website “Boycott Apartheid Israel” alphabetically lists expert humanitarian opinion on Israeli apartheid and/or why it should be opposed by Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and all its supporters as were successfully applied to destroy apartheid in South Africa (scroll down the pages to find “Boycott Apartheid Israel quotes” A-G, H-N, O-T and U-Z )[9]. Anti-racist Jewish individuals and Jewish organizations are highly represented in this listing of humanitarians. The names of these outstanding humanitarians and humanitarian organizations are listed below in some pertinent categories (and there are many more besides these):
Organizations and collectives: American Jews for a Just Peace, American Muslims for Palestine, American Studies Association, 200 American writers, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), Anti-racist Israeli Citizens espousing BDS, Artists Against Apartheid, Biblebelievers, Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (BIAC), BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, Artists Against Apartheid, Artists for Palestine UK, Australian academics, Australians For Palestine (AFP), Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network (APAN), Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA), Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem (Israeli human rights group; the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories), Byron Friends of Palestine, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) Melbourne, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) Canada, CODEPINK, 95 Creative writers and artists who signed a letter to the UK Guardian, 700 Creative professionals living in the UK, Durban III anti-racism conference, 64 Eminent humanitarians from around the world, including Nobel Laureates and leading anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish figures, Gush Shalom, 200 Holocaust scholars critique the IHRA Definition of anti-semitism in the Jerusalem Declaration, Human Rights Watch, Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC), Innovative Minds, International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, Jewish and non-Jewish American writers, Cartoonists and editors, 30 Jewish organizations, Jewish Voice for Peace and 40 other anti-racist Jewish organizations, Jews Against Occupation and Oppression, Jews Against the Occupation, Jews Against Racist Zionism, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, Justice for Palestine Matters, Marrickville BDS, Marrickville Council (Sydney, New South Wales), Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism, NSW (New South Wales) Greens, One-state solution, unitary state, bi-national state for a democratic, equal rights, post-apartheid Palestine, Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), 22 Palestinian community leaders, Palestinian Queers for BDS (PQBDS), 122 Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists and intellectuals, Rabbis for Human Rights, Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign (SEAMAC), Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Yesh Din (Israeli human rights organization).
Prominent and outstanding individuals: Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Kabeer, Seraj Assi, Paul Atwood, Anna Baltzer, Iain Banks, Ehud Barak, Nir Baram, Frank Barat, Omar Barghouti, Dr Ramzy Baroud, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Phyllis Bennis, John Berger, Rabbi Joseph Berman, Professor George Bisharat, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, Michael Brull, Michael R. Burch, Bradley Burston, Michael Chabon, Noam Chomsky, John Ricardo I. “Juan” Cole, Jonathan Cook, Ismail Coovadia, Dr Ned Curthoys, Professor Lawrence Davidson, Angela Davis, Uri Davis, Junot Díaz, Sidumo Dlamini, Dr John Docker, Professor John Dugard, Haidar Eid, Hagai El-Ad, Yves Engler, Brian Eno, Hedy Epstein (née Wachenheimer), Sophie Fiennes, Richard Ford, Dr Seth Frantzman, Eduardo Galeano, Arun Gandhi, Nadine Gordimer, Glenn Greenwald, Jeff Halper, Omar Hassan, Stephen Hawking, Professor Kamel Hawwash, Oliver Holmes, Tikva Honig-Parnass, Sarah Irving, Jerome Irwin, Anthony Mathew Jacob, Iqbal Jassat, Ronald (Ronnie) Kasrils, Ahmed Kathrada, Reem Kelani, John Kerry, Naomi Klein, Professor Rick Kuhn, Jason Kunin, Professor Steven Levitsky, Gideon Levy, John Martin Linton, Ken Loach, Dave Lordan, Professor Jake Lynch, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, William Mothipa “Willie” Madisha, Professor Saree Makdisi, Julius Malema, Mandla Mandela, Nelson Mandela, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, James Mattis (US General), Chris McGreal, Professor John Meersheimer, Craig Murray, Professor Rima Najjar, Sharif Nashashibi, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Ehud Olmert, Jonathan Ophir, David Palumbo-Liu, Professor Ilan Pappé, Miko Peled, John Pilger, Dr Gideon Polya, Natalie Portman, Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, Fadi Quran, Sefi Rachlevsky, Cyril Ramaphosa, Professor Judy Rebick, Professor Stuart Rees, Lee Rhiannon, Stephen Robert, Jennifer Robinson, Professor Hilary Rose, Professor Steven Rose, Leon Rosselson, Arundhati Roy, Amos Schocken, Michael Sfard, Natalie Abu Shakra, Professor Martin Shaw, Barry Sheppard, Professor Avi Shlaim, Henry Siegman, Gareth W.R. Smith, Dr Ahdaf Soueif, Dr Jill Stein, Dr Uri Strauss, Elia Suleiman, Mats Svensson, Dr Jennifer Louise Tonge (Baroness Tonge), Erkki Tuomioja, Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, Dr Vacy Vlazna, Sam Wainwright, Alice Malsenior Walker, David Ward, Margaret Waspe, Patrick Weiniger, Ben White, Asa Winstanley, Dr Ron Witton, Kourosh Ziabari, Professor Glen Weyl, and many more.
Nobel laureates: Jimmy Carter (Peace, US), J.M. Coetzee (Literature, South Africa), Nadine Gordimer (Literature, South Africa), Mairead Maguire (Peace, Ireland), Nelson Mandela (Peace, South Africa), Rigoberta Menchú (Peace, Guatemala), Adolfo Peres Esquivel (Peace, Argentina), Harold Pinter (Literature, UK), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Peace, South Africa), Betty Williams (Peace, Ireland), Jody Williams (Peace, US).
Leaders: Omar al-Razzaz (Prime Minister of Jordan), Ali Akbar Salehi (Iranian FM), Bob Carr (Australian FM, NSW Premier), Jimmy Carter (former US President), John Kerry (US Secretary of State), Nelson Mandela (South African President), Cyril Ramaphosa (South African President), Erkki Tuomioja (Finland FM), Dr Jill Stein (leader of the American Greens), Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr Hendrick Verwoerd (“Architect of Apartheid”, South African PM).
South Africans: J.M. Coetzee, Sidumo Dlamini, John Dugard, Nadine Gordimer, Iqbal Jassat, Ronald (Ronnie) Kasrils, Ahmed Kathrada , Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Julius Malema, Mandla Mandela, Nelson Mandela, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, William Mothipa “Willie” Madisha , Nelson Mandela, Cyril Ramaphosa (South African President), Desmond Tutu, Dr Hendrick Verwoerd (“Architect of Apartheid”).
Legal experts: B’Tselem (Israeli human rights group; the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories), Professor George Bisharat, Professor Francis Boyle, Edward C. Corrigan, Professor John Dugard, Professor Richard Falk, Glenn Greenwald, Human Rights Watch, Jennifer Robinson, Michael Sfard (legal adviser to Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din).
BOYCOTT APARTHEID ISRAEL QUOTES.
122 PALESTINIAN AND ARAB ACADEMICS, JOURNALISTS AND INTELLECTUALS RE BDS & THE IHRA DEFINITION OF ANTI-SEMITISM
122 Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists and intellectuals re the IHRA definition of “anti-Semitism” (2020): “We, the undersigned Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists and intellectuals are hereby stating our views regarding the definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), and the way this definition has been applied, interpreted and deployed in several countries of Europe and North America. In recent years, the fight against antisemitism has been increasingly instrumentalised by the Israeli government and its supporters in an effort to delegitimise the Palestinian cause and silence defenders of Palestinian rights. Diverting the necessary struggle against antisemitism to serve such an agenda threatens to debase this struggle and hence to discredit and weaken it. Antisemitism must be debunked and combated. Regardless of pretence, no expression of hatred for Jews as Jews should be tolerated anywhere in the world…
3. The IHRA definition of antisemitism and the related legal measures adopted in several countries have been deployed mostly against leftwing and human rights groups supporting Palestinian rights and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, sidelining the very real threat to Jews coming from rightwing white nationalist movements in Europe and the US. The portrayal of the BDS campaign as antisemitic is a gross distortion of what is fundamentally a legitimate non-violent means of struggle for Palestinian rights.
American writers’ anti-apartheid Israel letter to PEN America and signed by 11 organizations, 61 individuals and 148 additional signatories (2016): “To PEN American Center: We, the undersigned, including participants at PEN World Voices Festival, ask the Festival to reject support from the Embassy of Israel. The Embassy of Israel is listed among the “Champions” of the World Voices Festival, and as a sponsor of a panel. Given PEN American Center’s mission of supporting freedom of expression, it is deeply regrettable that the Festival has chosen to accept sponsorship from the Israeli government, even as it intensifies its decades-long denial of basic rights to the Palestinian people, including the frequent targeting of Palestinian writers and journalists… Since 2005, Palestinian civil society has called on people of conscience around the world to engage in a peaceful campaign of boycotting, divesting from, and sanctioning (BDS) Israel in order to force it to comply with international law and respect the rights of Palestinians now living under Israeli military occupation, as unequal citizens within Israel, or as refugees, denied their right to return to their homeland. The union representing Palestinian writers, the General Union of Palestinian Writers, actively supports this boycott call. We appeal to PEN American Center to honor this boycott call and refuse sponsorship by the Israeli embassy or any complicit Israeli institution for the 2016 World Voices Festival and for future PEN American Center activities… As with South Africa, where an international boycott played a crucial role in bringing an end to apartheid, we call on PEN American Center not to partner with the Israeli government or other complicit institutions until Israel fulfills its obligations under international law and fully recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to live in full equality and freedom in their homeland [signed by 11 organizations, 61 individuals and 148 additional signatories] (“Letter to PEN American Center: don’t partner with Israeli Government”, Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, 2016: https://adalahny.org/web-action/1376/letter-pen-american-center-don-t-partner-israeli-government ).
Saleh Abdel-Jawad (Associate Professor of History, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine), Abdul-Rahim Al-Shaikh, Naseer Aruri, Mourid Barghouti, Omar Barghouti, Ramzy Baroud, George Bisharat, Haidar Eid, Samera Esmeir, Wael Hallaq, Nadia Hijab, Jamil Hilal, Islah Jad, Hatem Kanaaneh, Ghada Karmi, Nur Masalha, Joseph Massad, Jean Said Makdisi, Saree Makdii, Zakaria Muhammad, Karma Nabulsi and Eyad al-Sarraj, 29 July 2010: “ The following open letter to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose elected mandate expired in July 2009 and who has remained in power under controversial emergency laws, was issued on 22 July 2010:
We are Palestinians of diverse perspectives and affiliations — scholars, intellectuals, artists, activists, trade unionists, human rights advocates and civil society leaders, inside historic Palestine and in exile — who are united in our commitment to the fulfillment of the fundamental rights of all Palestinians, particularly our inalienable right to self-determination. This universally sanctioned right encompasses, at a minimum, freedom from occupation and colonization in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem; full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel; and the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
During a 9 June [2010] meeting with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC], you [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] reportedly said: “I would never deny [the] Jewish right to the land of Israel,” a statement that you have yet to retract. We regard this announcement, which adopts a central tenet of Zionism, as a grave betrayal of the collective rights of the Palestinian people. It is tantamount to a surrender of the right of Palestinian citizens of Israel to live in equality in their own homeland, in which they have steadfastly remained despite the apartheid regime imposed on them for decades. It also concedes the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. No Palestinian institution or leader has ever accepted an exclusive Jewish claim to Palestine, which is irreconcilable with the internationally recognized rights of the Palestinian people. Our rights inhere in us as a people; they are not yours to do with as you please.
No Palestinian institution or leader has ever accepted an exclusive Jewish claim to Palestine, which is irreconcilable with the internationally recognized rights of the Palestinian people. Our rights inhere in us as a people; they are not yours to do with as you please.
We, as Palestinians urgently need a legally and democratically elected leadership that is responsible, capable and committed to the fulfillment of our national rights and aspirations to live in freedom, dignity and just peace in our ancestral homeland. We call on all Palestinians to immediately revive the democratic processes that our people have struggled so hard to build, so that we can designate leaders with an effective vision and strategy for achieving our rights as a people.
Initial Signatories:
Saleh Abdel-Jawad, Assoc. Prof. of History, Birzeit University (Ramallah); Abdul-Rahim Al-Shaikh, poet and academic (Jerusalem); Naseer Aruri, Prof. Emeritus, University of Massachusetts (Dartmouth); Mourid Barghouti, poet and author (Ramallah/Cairo); Omar Barghouti, commentator and human rights activist (Jerusalem); Ramzy Baroud, author and editor of the Palestine Chronicle (Seattle); George Bisharat, Prof., UC Hastings College of the Law (San Francisco); Haidar Eid, academic and boycott, divestment and sanctions activist (Gaza); Samera Esmeir, Assist. Prof. of Rhetoric, Univ. of California, Berkeley (Haifa); Wael Hallaq, Prof., Columbia University (New York); Nadia Hijab, author and human rights advocate (Washington, DC); Jamil Hilal, sociologist and author (Ramallah); Islah Jad, Assist. Prof. of Gender & Development, Birzeit Univ. (Ramallah); Hatem Kanaaneh, medical doctor and author (Sakhnin); Ghada Karmi, author and Fellow, Exeter University (Exeter); Nur Masalha, Prof. of Religion and Politics, St. Mary’s Univ. College (London); Joseph Massad, Prof., Columbia University (New York); Jean Said Makdisi, author (Beirut); Saree Makdisi, Prof., University of California at Los Angeles (Los Angeles); Zakaria Muhammad, novelist (Ramallah); Karma Nabulsi, Fellow in Politics, University of Oxford (Oxford); Eyad Sarraj, psychiatrist (Gaza)” (Saleh Abdel-Jawad and 21 other leading Palestinians, “Don’t deny our rights: open latter to Mahmoud Abbas”, The Electronic Intifada, 29 July 2010: https://electronicintifada.net/content/dont-deny-our-rights-open-letter-mahmoud-abbas/1075 ).
“Jewish Groups defend Israel boycott”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47299
Below is a letter published in March by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network that endorses the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
The letter was issued in response to a February 15 statement by Zionist (pro-Israel) groups that said the BDS campaign was anti-Semitic and “antithetical to freedom of speech”.
* * *
Because academic, cultural and commercial boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israel:
• are being called for by Palestinian civil society in response to the occupation and colonisation of their land,
• are a moral tool of non-violent, peaceful response to more than sixty years of Israeli colonialism,
• and, rightfully place accountability on Israeli institutions (and their allies and partners) that use business, cultural, and academic ties to white-wash Israel’s responsibility for continuing crimes against humanity,
The undersigned organisations and individuals stand firm in our support of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) initiatives against Israel until it meets its obligation to recognise the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law.
BDS is not anti-Semitic
We reject the notion that the 2005 BDS call from Palestine, and the BDS campaigns the world over which it has inspired, are rooted in anti-Jewish sentiment.
On the contrary, BDS is an anti-racist movement against the daily, brutal occupation of Palestine and military threat to the region by the state of Israel.
False claims of anti-Semitism distort the true nature of the Palestinian struggle and are an affront to, and betrayal of, the long history of Jewish survival and resistance to persecution.
BDS is not anti-democratic
We also reject the assertion that the cultural and academic boycotts of Israel defy the democratic principle of free speech.
Research and development in academic institutions play a central role in designing and defending Israel’s military and intelligence machinery.
Cultural institutions perpetuate the deception of Israeli democracy. To defend freedom of speech for those who disregard justice while demonising those who struggle for justice is a great disservice to genuine democracy.
Through boycott, divestment and sanctions, civil society asserts our commitment to not contribute to the Israeli state, which is responsible for atrocious acts of disregard for human life and well being.
Attacks against BDS campaigns will not prevent us from taking this stance against Israeli impunity.
For the Jewish organisations signed onto this letter, self-determination for Jews includes the right to participate in the movement for justice in Palestine and to live in the world with our fellow citizens in peace, freedom, and equity.
It does not include the domination and colonisation of other people or living separate from our fellow human beings in a state that privileges Jews.
BDS was a key strategy in ending the white South African system of apartheid by applying international pressure.
In pursuit of justice, peace and freedom for all, we speak out as Jews committed to BDS and Palestinian liberation.
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
• Not In Our Name (Argentina)
• Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in Middle East (EJJP, Germany)
• Not in Our Name: Jews Opposing Zionism (Canada)
• Jews for a Just Peace (Fredericton, Canada)
• Independent Jewish Voice (Canada)
• Middle East Children's Alliance (USA)
• Critical Jewish Voice (Austria)
• Women in Black (Austria)
• French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP)
• Bay Area Women in Black (USA)
• St. Louis Women in Black (USA)
• Philadelphia Jews for a Just Peace (USA)
• American Jews for a Just Peace (USA)
• Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (Britain)
• JUNTS, Catalan Association of Jews and Palestinians, Spain)
• Ronnie Kasrils, former South African government minister, writer, founder Not In My Name, South Africa
• Antony Loewenstein, Independent Australian Jewish Voices
• Peter Slezak, Independent Australian Jewish Voices
• Moshe Machover, Professor (emeritus) (UK), founder Matzpen
• Felicia Langer, Israeli lawyer, author, Right Livelihood Award 2006 (Alternative Nobel Prize) 1990, Bruno Kreisky Prize 1991
• Mieciu Langer, Nazi Holocaust survivor
• Hedy Epstein, Nazi Holocaust survivor
• Hajo G. Meyer PhD, Nazi Holocaust survivor
• Kamal Chenoy, IJAN India & The All India Peace and Solidarity Organization
• Paola Canarutto & Giorgio Forti, Rete ECO, Italy
• Liliane Cordova Kaczerginski, IJAN France
• Sonia Fayman, IJAN France & UJFP
• Ernesto Rosenberg, GRAMARPAL (Argentine-Palestinian Friendship Group, Neuquen, Argentina)
• Mark Elf, blogger, Jews sans Frontieres
Letter signed by 350 Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide and published by ICAN:
“As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world.
We are alarmed by the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society, which has reached a fever-pitch. In Israel, politicians and pundits in The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post have called openly for genocide of Palestinians and right-wing Israelis are adopting Neo-Nazi insignia.
Furthermore, we are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children. Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water.
We must raise our collective voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people. We call for an immediate end to the siege against and blockade of Gaza. We call for the full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. “Never again” must mean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!
Signed [by 350 Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide]” (see “Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza”, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), 23 August 2014: http://ijsn.net/nafa/survivors-and-descendants-letter/ ).
Jewish Voice for Peace and 40 other anti-racist Jewish organizations around the world on the anti-racism of BDS (2018) and the need to reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism (2018): “As social justice organizations from around the world, we write this letter with growing alarm regarding the targeting of organizations that support Palestinian rights in general and the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, in particular. These attacks too often take the form of cynical and false accusations of antisemitism that dangerously conflate anti-Jewish racism with opposition to Israel’s policies and system of occupation and apartheid.
We live in a frightening era, with growing numbers of authoritarian and xenophobic regimes worldwide, foremost among them the Trump administration, allying themselves with Israel’s far right government while making common cause with deeply antisemitic and racist white supremacist groups and parties.
From our own histories we are all too aware of the dangers of increasingly fascistic and openly racist governments and political parties. The rise in antisemitic discourse and attacks worldwide is part of that broader trend.
At times like this, it is more important than ever to distinguish between the hostility to or prejudice against Jews on the one hand and legitimate critiques of Israeli policies and system of injustice on the other.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which is increasingly being adopted or considered by western governments, is worded in such a way as to be easily adopted or considered by western governments to intentionally equate legitimate criticisms of Israel and advocacy for Palestinian rights with antisemitism, as a means to suppress the former.
This conflation undermines both the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality and the global struggle against antisemitism. It also serves to shield Israel from being held accountable to universal standards of human rights and international law.
We urge our governments, municipalities, universities and other institutions to reject the IHRA definition and instead take effective measures to defeat white supremacist nationalist hate and violence and to end complicity in Israel’s human rights violations. Israel does not represent us and cannot speak for us when committing crimes against Palestinians and denying their UN-stipulated rights.
The Nobel Peace Prize-nominated, Palestinian civil society-led BDS movement for Palestinian rights has demonstrated an ongoing proven commitment to fighting antisemitism and all forms of racism and bigotry, consistent with its dedication to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Some of the undersigned organizations support BDS in full, others in part, and others have no formal position on BDS. We all affirm the current call for BDS as a set of tools and tactics that should not be defined as antisemitic.
Signed:
Academia4equality (Israel)
Arbeter Ring/Workmen’s Circle, Southern California
Boycott from Within (Israeli citizens for BDS)
Coalition of Women for Peace (Israel)
Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine (France)
Dayenu: New Zealand Jews Against Occupation (New Zealand)
Een Ander Joods Geluid (A Different Jewish Voice) (The Netherlands)
Een Andere Joodse Stem – Another Jewish Voice (Flanders, Belgium)
European Jews for a Just Peace
Free Speech on Israel (UK)
Gate48 – critical Israelis in the Netherlands
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada)
Independent Jewish Voices (UK)
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Italian Network of Jews Against the Occupation
Jewish Anti-Fascist Action Berlin (Germany)
Jewish Socialists’ Group (UK)
Jewish Voice for Democracy and Justice in Israel/Palestine (Switzerland)
Jewish Voice For Labour (UK)
Jewish Voice for Peace (USA)
Jewish Voice for Peace members in London (UK)
Jews Against Fascism (Australia)
Jews against the Occupation (Australia)
Jews for Justice for Palestinians (UK)
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return (USA)
Jews of Color & Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in Solidarity w/ Palestine (USA)
Jews Say No! (USA)
JIPF – Judar för Israelisk Palestinsk Fred (Sweden)
Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden im Nahost e.V. (Germany)
Junts, Associació Catalana de Jueus i Palestins (Catalonia, Spain)
Los Otros Judíos (Argentina)
Manchester Jewish Action for Palestine (UK)
Quebrando Muros – Judeus Brasileiros Pela Descolonização da Palestina (Brazil)
Scottish Jews Against Zionism
SEDQ Network- A Global Jewish Network for Justice
South African Jewish Voices for a Just Peace (South Africa)
South African Jews for a Free Palestine (South Africa)
Union des progressistes juifs de Belgique (Saint-Gilles, Belgium)
United Jewish People’s Order (Canada)
Union Juive Française pour la Paix (France)
Boston Workmen’s Circle, Center for Jewish Culture and Social Justice” (Jewish Voice for Peace, “First-ever: 40+ Jewish groups world-wide oppose equating antisemitism with criticism of Israel”, Jewish Voice for Peace, 17 July 2018: https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/first-ever-40-jewish-groups-worldwide-oppose-equating-antisemitism-with-criticism-of-israel/ ).
500 Montreal artists supporting the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid (2010): “ Artists Against Israeli Apartheid: Montreal, February 25th 2010 . Today, a broad spectrum of Montreal artists are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and supporting the growing international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state. Last winter, the Israeli state launched a violent military assault on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, leaving over 1400 Palestinians dead, including over 300 children. Despite the official end of military operations, the blockade continues to this day, with devastating consequences for Gaza’s residents. Over 60 years from the beginning of the ongoing Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from historic Palestine through Israel’s creation, Montreal artists are united in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice…” (“500 artists against Israeli apartheid”, Tadamon, 25 February 2010: https://www.tadamon.ca/post/5824 ).
64 eminent humanitarians from around the world, including Nobel Laureates and leading anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish figures, have written an Open Letter protesting the horrendous violence by the state of Israel against its captive Palestinian population and concluding “We call on the UN and governments across the world to take immediate steps to implement a comprehensive and legally binding military embargo on Israel, similar to that imposed on South Africa during apartheid” [7-8] (2014):
OPEN LETTER.
“ Israel has once again unleashed the full force of its military against the captive Palestinian population, particularly in the besieged Gaza Strip, in an inhumane and illegal act of military aggression. Israel ‘s ability to launch such devastating attacks with impunity largely stems from the vast international military cooperation and trade that it maintains with complicit governments across the world. Over the period 2008-19, the US is set to provide military aid to Israel worth $30bn, while Israeli annual military exports to the world have reached billions of dollars. In recent years, European countries have exported billions of euros’ worth of weapons to Israel, and the EU has furnished Israeli military companies with research grants worth hundreds of millions. Emerging economies such as India , Brazil and Chile are rapidly increasing their military trade and cooperation with Israel , despite their stated support for Palestinian rights. By importing and exporting arms to Israel and facilitating the development of Israeli military technology, governments are effectively sending a clear message of approval for Israel’s military aggression, including its war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. Israel ‘s military technology is marketed as “field-tested” and exported across the world. Military trade and joint military-related research relations with Israel embolden Israeli impunity in committing grave violations of international law and facilitate the entrenchment of Israel ‘s system of occupation, colonisation and systematic denial of Palestinian rights. We call on the UN and governments across the world to take immediate steps to implement a comprehensive and legally binding military embargo on Israel , similar to that imposed on South Africa during apartheid.
Adolfo Peres Esquivel Nobel Peace Laureate, Argentina, Ahdaf Soueif author, Egypt/UK, Aki Olavi Kaurismäki film director, Finland, Alice Walker writer, US, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Nobel Peace Laureate, South Africa, Betty Williams Nobel Peace Laureate, Ireland, Boots Riley rapper, poet, arts producer, US, Brian Eno musician, UK, Caryl Churchill playwright, UK, Chris Hedges journalist, Pullitzer Prize 2002, US, Cynthia McKinney politician, activist, US, David Palumbo-Liu academic, US, Etienne Balibar philosopher, France, Federico Mayor Zaragoza former Unesco director general, Spain, Felim Egan painter, Ireland, Frei Betto liberation theologian, Brazil, Gillian Slovo writer, UK/South Africa, Githa Hariharan writer, India, Giulio Marcon MP (SEL), Italy, Hilary Rose academic, UK, Ilan Pappe historian, Israel, Ismail Coovadia former South African ambassador to Israel, James Kelman writer, Scotland, Janne Teller writer, Denmark, Jeremy Corbyn MP (Labour), UK, Joanna Rajkowska artist, Poland, Jody Williams Nobel Peace Laureate, US, John Berger artist, UK, John Dugard former ICJ judge, South Africa, John McDonnell MP (Labour), UK, John Pilger journalist and filmmaker, Australia, Judith Butler philosopher, US, Juliane House academic, Germany, Karma Nabulsi Oxford University, UK/Palestine, Ken Loach filmmaker, UK, Kool AD (Victor Vazquez) musician, US, Liz Lochhead national poet for Scotland, UK, Luisa Morgantini
former vice president of the European Parliament, Italy, Mairead Maguire Nobel Peace Laureate, Ireland, Michael Mansfield barrister, UK, Michael Ondaatje author, Canada/Sri Lanka, Mike Leigh writer and director, UK, Naomi Wallace playwright, screenwriter, poet, US, Noam Chomsky academic, author, US, Nurit Peled academic, Israel, Prabhat Patnaik economist, India, Przemyslaw Wielgosz chief editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, Polish edition, Poland, Raja Shehadeh author and Lawyer, Palestine, Rashid Khalidi academic, author, Palestine/US, Richard Falk f ormer UN special rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories, US, Rigoberta Menchú Nobel Peace Laureate, Guatemala, Roger Waters musician, UK, Ronnie Kasrils former government minister, South Africa, Rose Fenton director, Free Word Centre, UK, Sabrina Mahfouz author, UK, Saleh Bakri actor, Palestine, Sir Geoffrey Bindman lawyer, UK, Slavoj Zizek author, Slovenia, Steven Rose academic, UK, Tom Leonard writer, Scotland, Tunde Adebimpe musician, US, Victoria Brittain journalist, UK, Willie van Peer academic, Germany, Zwelinzima Vavi secretary general of Cosatu, South Africa ”. END OPEN LETTER.
(see Letter, “The arms trade and Israel ‘s attack on Gaza ” , The Guardian, 19 July 2014: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/arms-trade-israel-attack-gaza ; BDS Movement Petition : http://www.bdsmovement.net/stoparmingisrael ; “Boycott Apartheid Israel ”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/ ).
ABUNIMAH. Ali Abunimah (2023): “In fact, Israel does not permit same-sex marriage, although it does recognize such marriages if performed abroad. Israel does not even allow marriages between a man and a woman unless they are of the same religion. Mixed religious marriages are banned and there is no option for civil marriage – although, again, Israel does recognize such marriages only if they are performed in another country… In 2003, Israel adopted a law prohibiting Israeli citizens who marry Palestinians from the occupied West Bank or Gaza Strip, or nationals from several other regional states, from living with their spouse in Israel. The “emergency measure” has been renewed every year – except in 2021 – when it fell victim to Netanyahu’s efforts to discredit the coalition that briefly ousted him from the prime minister’s office. But in March 2022, Israeli Jewish racists were able to come together across party lines to renew the legislation… All of Israel’s tight restrictions on who can marry whom are aimed at ensuring continued Jewish demographic and political supremacy. As such, even if they differ in the details, Israel’s policies are very much in line with the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act that existed in apartheid South Africa, or the bans on interracial marriages that existed in some US states until they were overturned by the Supreme Court in 1967. And because they are aimed at ensuring the domination of one racial group over another, these restrictions are part of how Israel perpetrates the internationally recognized crime of apartheid” (Ali Abunimah, “Israel marriage ban too racist even for apartheid South Africa”, The Electronic Intifada, 10 March 2023: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-marriage-ban-too-racist-even-apartheid-south-africa .)
Omar al-Razzaz (Prime Minister of Jordan) (2020): "You close the door to the two-state solution, I could very well look at this positively - if we're clearly opening the door to a one-state democratic solution. .But nobody in Israel is talking about that, and so we cannot just sugar-coat what they're doing. Who's talking about the one-state solution in Israel? They're talking about apartheid in every single sense. I challenge anybody from Israel to say yes, let's end the two-state solution, it's not viable. But let's work together on a one-state democratic solution. That, I think, we will look at very favourably. But closing one and wishful thinking about the other is just self-deception"( Omar al-Razzaz quoted in “Jordan hints at support for one Israeli-Palestinian state”, Al Jazeera, 22 July 2020: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/jordan-pm-hints-support-israeli-palestinian-state-200721144404052.html?fbclid=IwAR3sNxMZmdLUWUEUsNEM9Wb3xhunxdxBExTksA9Hh2Ii21_HZiW_i9X7RG4 . )
Ali Akbar Salehi was the Iranian foreign minister in 2011 (see: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/israel-once-again-accused-apartheid-un-racism-meeting ).
Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi commenting on Apartheid Israel at the UN Durban III World Conference on Racism, New York (2011) referred to the "continuing existence of state-apartheid in the Palestinian occupied territories." [1].
[1]. Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi quoted in “Israel once again accused of “Apartheid” at U.N. racism meeting”, CNS News, 23 September 2011: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/israel-once-again-accused-apartheid-un-racism-meeting .
American Muslims for Palestine is a national education and advocacy organization supporting human rights for Palestinians (see: http://www.ampalestine.org/ ).
American Muslims for Palestine has been given a Badge of Honor by being named in the “top 10 anti-Israel groups” by the falsely defaming, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish anti-Semitic, racist Zionist Anti-Defamation league (ADL) (Ilan Ben Zion, “Two Jewish organizations on the ADL’s list of “top 10 anti-Israel groups”, The Times of Israel, 21 October 2013: http://www.timesofisrael.com/adl-publishes-list-of-top-10-anti-israel-groups/ ).
American Muslims for Palestine in opposing Israeli Apartheid: “The American Muslims for Palestine, a national grassroots organization educating the public about Palestine and its rich cultural and historical heritage, today announced the launch on March 25 of its new nationwide outdoor advertising campaign, calling for an end to Israeli apartheid and to unconditional American aid for Israel. The ads, which will appear at 25 stations on the New York City Transit Authority’s Metro North line, will run for four weeks before moving to another metropolitan area elsewhere in the nation.
“We timed the release of our ads with President Obama’s visit to the Middle East to underscore his administration’s failure to address the true cause of conflict: Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and its racist apartheid policies, which subject Palestinians on a daily basis to humiliation, deprivation and a loss of their basic rights, including the freedom of movement,” said Dr. Hatem Bazian, AMP chairman.
While Israel denies its policies constitute apartheid, one who knows the colonial, racist policies best, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, recognizes Israel as an apartheid state.
AMP’s ad quotes Tutu asserting, “I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa.”
A study by the South African Human Science Research Council in 2009 used several international laws such as the Hague Regulations of 1907, the Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Law of Armed Conflict and the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination of 1965 to prove its case comparing apartheid in South Africa and Israel. Among similar tactics used by both regimes are the use of murder, indefinite detentions without charge, torture, and extrajudicial killings, the study found. The report also underscored how Palestinians are governed by a network of military orders and are subject to a military court system while Jewish settlers are under the jurisdiction of civilian laws and court system.” [1].
[1]. American Muslims for Palestine, “AMP calls for an end to Israeli Apartheid and US aid to Israel”: http://www.ampalestine.org/index.php/newsroom/articles/499-amp-calls-for-an-end-to-israeli-apartheid-and-us-aid-to-israel .
The American Studies Association in its own words “exists to promote and encourage the study of American culture--past and present. Membership numbers approximately 5000” (see: http://www.theasa.net/ ).
Report on ASA boycott (2013): “A prestigious US academic body has joined a growing movement to boycott Israel in protest at its treatment of Palestinians, in a move both welcomed and condemned in a bitterly divisive international arena. The American Studies Association (ASA), which has more than 5,000 members, is the most significant US academic organisation to back a boycott of Israeli educational institutions following a two-thirds majority vote. Around a quarter of members took part in the ballot. The ASA resolution was "in solidarity with scholars and students deprived of their academic freedom", the organisation said in a statement. It cited "Israel's violation of international law and UN resolutions; the documented impact of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian scholars and students; [and] the extent to which Israeli institutions of higher education are a party to state policies that violate human rights." The resolution bans "formal collaborations with Israeli academic institutions, or with scholars who are expressly serving as representatives or ambassadors of those institutions".The vote came amid renewed calls in the aftermath of Nelson Mandela's death for an international boycott drive against Israel similar to the anti-apartheid campaign.’ [1].
American Studies Association on the ASA boycott (2013) : “The members of the American Studies Association have endorsed the Association’s participation in a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. In an election that attracted 1252 voters, the largest number of participants in the organization’s history, 66.05% of voters endorsed the resolution, while 30.5% of voters voted no and 3.43% abstained. The election was a response to the ASA National Council’s announcement on December 4 that it supported the academic boycott and, in an unprecedented action to ensure a democratic process, asked its membership for their approval. Please see the ASA website for a collection of supporting documents..” [2].
American Studies Association Resolution on Academic Boycott of Israel “December 4 2013.
Whereas the American Studies Association is committed to the pursuit of social justice, to the struggle against all forms of racism, including anti-semitism, discrimination, and xenophobia, and to solidarity with aggrieved peoples in the United States and in the world;
Whereas the United States plays a significant role in enabling the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the expansion of illegal settlements and the Wall in violation of international law, as well as in supporting the systematic discrimination against Palestinians, which has had documented devastating impact on the overall well-being, the exercise of political and human rights, the freedom of movement, and the educational opportunities of Palestinians;
Whereas there is no effective or substantive academic freedom for Palestinian students and scholars under conditions of Israeli occupation, and Israeli institutions of higher learning are a party to Israeli state policies that violate human rights and negatively impact the working conditions of Palestinian scholars and students;
Whereas the American Studies Association is cognizant of Israeli scholars and students who are critical of Israeli state policies and who support the international boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement under conditions of isolation and threat of sanction;
Whereas the American Studies Association is dedicated to the right of students and scholars to pursue education and research without undue state interference, repression, and military violence, and in keeping with the spirit of its previous statements supports the right of students and scholars to intellectual freedom and to political dissent as citizens and scholars;
It is resolved that the American Studies Association (ASA) endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. It is also resolved that the ASA supports the protected rights of students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Israel-Palestine and in support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement.” [3].
[1]. Harriet Sherwood, “Major US academic body backs boycott of Israeli educational institutions”, 17 December 2013: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/17/us-american-studies-association-boycott-israel .
[2]. “ASA members vote to endorse academic boycott of Israel:, ASA, 2013: http://www.theasa.net/from_the_editors/item/asa_members_vote_to_endorse_academic_boycott/ .
[3]. ASA, “American Studies Association Resolution on Academic Boycott of Israel”, 4 December 2013: http://www.theasa.net/american_studies_association_resolution_on_academic_boycott_of_israel .
According to Wikipedia: “Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), also known as International A.N.S.W.E.R. and the ANSWER Coalition, is a United States-based protest umbrella group consisting of many antiwar and civil rights organizations. Formed in the wake of the September 11th attacks, ANSWER has since helped to organize many of the largest anti-war demonstrations in the United States, including demonstrations of hundreds of thousands against the Iraq War. The group has also organized activities around a variety of other issues, ranging from the Israel/Palestine debate to immigrant rights to Social Security to the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.N.S.W.E.R. and http://www.answercoalition.org. ) .
ANSWER responding over false allegations by the US ADL (Anti-Defamation League) that put it on its list of top 10 anti-Israel groups: “We don’t have any negative feelings toward the Jewish people or the Jewish faith at all. Many of the people who volunteer with us are part of them. But we do think the policies of the Israeli state are criminal; it is an apartheid policy and we are opposed to it.” [1].
[1]. Ilan Ben Zion, “Two Jewish organizations on the ADL’s list of “top 10 anti-Israel groups”, The Times of Israel, 21 October 2013: http://www.timesofisrael.com/adl-publishes-list-of-top-10-anti-israel-groups/ .
Israeli Citizens espousing Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (2016): “We are Israeli citizens, opposed to the Israeli government’s policies of oppression, occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian people. Many of us are veteran human rights activists who have long worked against these policies. It's our long years of anti-racism advocacy that brought us to the understanding that the most effective way to stop the apartheid system is to deny its economic fuel and political legitimacy. Therefore, we strongly support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), aimed at ending these actions. We write to you to ask you to heed the Palestinian call for justice, and cancel your concert in Israel… Israel holds the Gaza Strip under hermetic siege, in which Israel conducts vicious major bombing campaigns on a regular basis. The latest one, in 2014, resulted in over 2000 innocent Palestinians massacred, 500 of whom were children. The Palestinians in Gaza live in constant anxiety, knowing that the next massacre is just around the corner. In the West Bank, Israel has massively escalated its home-demolition policies against Palestinians, while it continues to construct Jewish-only colonies on stolen Palestinian land. 2016 has seen a massive escalation in policy of extrajudicial executions, with an execution taking place almost every day, including women and children. Another oppressive policy seeing escalation is that of mass, arbitrary arrests, with currently 7000 Palestinians in Israel’s prisons. Over 10% of total prisoners are held without charge, trial, or release date. All prisoners are subject to systematic ill-treatment, medical neglect, beatings, and torture. Most disturbing is the fact that children aren’t protected, and in fact, Israel’s arrest of children has escalated in the past two years, despite United Nations pressure to end all forms of state child abuse. Within Israel itself there are no less than 50 laws discriminating against the Palestinian citizens of the State, while Israeli parliament members compete for votes, by exhibiting who can make the most genocidal statement ” (Israeli Citizens espousing Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, “From Israeli citizens to Peter Murphy – the answer is clear, boycott apartheid Israel”, BDS, 4 October 2016: https://bdsmovement.net/news/israeli-citizens-peter-murphy-answer-clear-boycott-apartheid-israel ).
Biblebelievers: "Nowhere else in the world is there anything of this kind. When the White South African government drew up "Apartheid" plans in the 1970s, a pattern existed already in the Israeli occupied territories -- and those "Bantustans" are now gone. Beyond the maps, the Israelis enforce a regime of colored and computerized passes that restrict where Palestinians can go, different color license plates for Jews and Arabs have a similar result, "by-pass" roads for "Jews only", land confiscations, home destructions, settlements, all on top of a deceptive and complicated systems of apartheid-type laws that create systematic separation while promoting Jewish interests and severely repressing and dispossessing Palestinians. The changes agreed to recently in the "Wye Memorandum" do not alter these overall conditions and are hedged with so many Israeli restrictions that the situation for Palestinians is likely to worsen.
The majority of Palestinians are essentially imprisoned in a large Gaza Ghetto from which they are unable to leave and which is now surrounded by a barbed wire, electrified fence.
Most others are now bottled up in one of the "autonomous" population centers, all of which are surrounded by Israeli check-points and roadblocks. Millions more Palestinians continue to live in dozens of refugee camps in neighboring countries or in diaspora" (see Map illustrating Gaza Ghetto and West bank "Bantustans": http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/maps1.htm . )
UK Guardian report with photograph of post-Apartheid South Africa-declassified 1975 Apartheid Israeli-Apartheid South Africa nuclear weapons deal document (2010): “Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons.The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.The documents, uncovered by an American academic, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in research for a book on the close relationship between the two countries, provide evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons despite its policy of "ambiguity" in neither confirming nor denying their existence. The Israeli authorities tried to stop South Africa's post-apartheid government declassifying the documents at Polakow-Suransky's request and the revelations will be an embarrassment, particularly as this week's nuclear non-proliferation talks in New York focus on the Middle East. They will also undermine Israel's attempts to suggest that, if it has nuclear weapons, it is a "responsible" power that would not misuse them, whereas countries such as Iran cannot be trusted.” [1].
[1]. Chris McGreal, “Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons”, Guardian, 24 May 2010: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons .
Apartheid Israeli politicians and other Israelis referring to Israel becoming or having become an apartheid state.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak (2010): “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state” [1].
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (2007): “If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished” [1].
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem (2002): “Israel has created in the Occupied Territories a regime of separation based on discrimination, applying two separate systems of law in the same area and basing the rights of individuals on their nationality. This regime … is reminiscent of distasteful regimes from the past such as the Apartheid regime in South Africa” [1].
Former Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Alon Liel (2013): “In the situation that exists today, until a Palestinian state is created, we are actually one state. This joint state — in the hope that the status quo is temporary — is an apartheid state” [1].
Israeli newspaper Haaretz editorial (2007): “The de facto separation is today more similar to political apartheid than an occupation regime because of its constancy. One side - determined by national, not geographic association - includes people who have the right to choose and the freedom to move, and a growing economy. On the other side are people closed behind the walls surrounding their community, who have no right to vote, lack freedom of movement, and have no chance to plan their future” [1].
Former Israeli admiral and Knesset member Ami Ayalon (2000): “Israel must decide quickly what sort of environment it wants to live in because the current model, which has some apartheid characteristics, is not compatible with Jewish principles” [1].
Former Israeli attorney general Michael Ben-Yair (2002): “[In 1967] We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one – progressive, liberal – in Israel; and the other – cruel, injurious – in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day” [1].
Former Israeli Minister of Education Yossi Sarid: (2008): “What acts like apartheid, is run like apartheid and harasses like apartheid, is not a duck - it is apartheid… What should frighten us, however, is not the description of reality, but reality itself… The Palestinians are unfortunate because they have not produced a Nelson Mandela; the Israelis are unfortunate because they have not produced an F.W. de Klerk” [1].
Former Israeli Minister of Education Shulamit Aloni (2007): “Jewish self-righteousness is taken for granted among ourselves to such an extent that we fail to see what’s right in front of our eyes. It’s simply inconceivable that the ultimate victims, the Jews, can carry out evil deeds. Nevertheless, the state of Israel practices its own, quite violent, form of Apartheid with the native Palestinian population” [1].
David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel, (1967; cited in 2005): “Israel [,he said,] better rid itself of the territories and their Arab population as soon as possible. If it did not Israel would soon become an Apartheid State” [1].
[1]. Just Foreign Policy, “Who talked about “Apartheid” in the context of Israel?”: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/israelis-on-apartheid .
Artists Against Apartheid “in Australia is part of an international alliance committed to human rights and justice, and to the elimination of Apartheid in our world, including in Australia. We stand in solidarity with the call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). We actively support the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel” (see: http://artistsagainstapartheid.wordpress.com/ ).
Artists Against Apartheid: “As Artists aware of our colonial history, we recognise the continued dispossession of the Indigenous people of this Land [Australia]. We also recognise and support the human rights of the Indigenous people of Palestine to live on their land with dignity – free from military occupation and the brutality of the Israeli Apartheid system. Israel’s Apartheid regime over the Palestinian people is a system that separates and discriminates against the Indigenous people. It is a system that is institutionalised by laws and military force. Artists Against Apartheid in Australia is part of an international alliance committed to human rights and justice, and to the elimination of Apartheid in our world, including in Australia. We stand in solidarity with the call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). We actively support the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel… The Cultural Boycott of Israel, as a key component of the global BDS Movement, shall be maintained until Israel meets its moral and legal obligation to recognise the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination by:
Ending its Occupation and colonisation of all Palestinian lands and dismantling the Apartheid Wall
Recognising the fundamental rights of the Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality
Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194
We call on all artists in Australia to support the vital BDS movement – a direct response by world citizens to the failure of so-called international diplomacy. It is no longer possible to remain silent. To be silent is to be complicit.
Artists Against Apartheid is a positive and non-violent movement that creatively works for justice in Palestine.” [1].
[1]. Artists Against Apartheid: http://artistsagainstapartheid.wordpress.com/ .
Sarah Irving (2015) : “More than 700 creative professionals living in the United Kingdom – including writers, visual artists, actors, musicians and many others – have signed up to a pledge to boycott collaboration with Israeli state-funded projects. Disclaimer: I have the privilege of being one of them… The pledge, which was launched on 14 February 2015 with a letter in The Guardian newspaper and a new website, reads: “We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality. In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights .Israel’s wars are fought on the cultural front too. Its army targets Palestinian cultural institutions for attack, and prevents the free movement of cultural workers. Its own theater companies perform to settler audiences on the West Bank – and those same companies tour the globe as cultural diplomats, in support of “Brand Israel.” During South African apartheid, musicians announced they weren’t going to “play Sun City.” Now we are saying, in Tel Aviv, Netanya, Ashkelon or Ariel, we won’t play music, accept awards, attend exhibitions, festivals or conferences, run masterclasses or workshops, until Israel respects international law and ends its colonial oppression of the Palestinians.
The list of signatories includes many high-profile artists based in the UK, including:
Writers Tariq Ali, William Dalrymple, Aminatta Forna, Bonnie Greer, Mark Haddon, Hari Kunzru, Liz Lochhead, Jimmy McGovern, China Mieville, Andrew O’Hagan, Michael Rosen, Kamila Shamsie, Hanan al-Shaykh, Gillian Slovo, Ahdaf Soueif, Marina Warner, Benjamin Zephaniah
Film directors Mike Hodges, Asif Kapadia, Peter Kosminsky, Mike Leigh, Phyllida Lloyd, Ken Loach, Roger Michell, Michael Radford, Julien Temple
Comedians Jeremy Hardy, Alexei Sayle, Mark Thomas
Musicians Richard Ashcroft, Jarvis Cocker, Brian Eno, Kate Tempest, Roger Waters, Robert Wyatt
Actors Rizwan Ahmed, Anna Carteret, David Calder, Simon McBurney, Miriam Margolyes
Theater writers/directors Caryl Churchill, David Edgar, Dominic Cooke CBE, Sir Jonathan Miller, Mark Ravenhill
Visual Arts Phyllida Barlow, John Berger, Jeremy Deller, Mona Hatoum
Architects Peter Ahrends, Will Alsop.’ (see Sarah Irving, “More than 700 artists pledge to boycott Israel”, Electronic Intifada, 14 February, 2015: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/sarah-irving/more-700-uk-artists-pledge-boycott-israel ”
The Pledge: “We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality. In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights” (for details and signatories see “Artists for Palestine UK”: http://artistsforpalestine.org.uk/ ).
Letter to Guardian: “Along with more than 600 other fellow artists, we are announcing today that we will not engage in business-as-usual cultural relations with Israel. We will accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government. Since the summer war on Gaza, Palestinians have enjoyed no respite from Israel’s unrelenting attack on their land, their livelihood, their right to political existence. “2014,” says the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, was “one of the cruellest and deadliest in the history of the occupation.” The Palestinian catastrophe goes on. Israel’s wars are fought on the cultural front too. Its army targets Palestinian cultural institutions for attack, and prevents the free movement of cultural workers. Its own theatre companies perform to settler audiences on the West Bank – and those same companies tour the globe as cultural diplomats, in support of “Brand Israel”. During South African apartheid, musicians announced they weren’t going to “play Sun City”. Now we are saying, in Tel Aviv, Netanya, Ashkelon or Ariel, we won’t play music, accept awards, attend exhibitions, festivals or conferences, run masterclasses or workshops, until Israel respects international law and ends its colonial oppression of the Palestinians. To see the full list of supporters, go to artistsforpalestine.org.uk.”
Khalid Abdalla, Riz Ahmed, Peter Ahrends, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Will Alsop, Richard Ashcroft, John Berger, Bidisha, Nicholas Blincoe, Leah Borrromeo, Haim Bresheeth, Victoria Brittain, Niall Buggy, Tam Dean Burn, Jonathan Burrows, David Calder, Anna Carteret, Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, Ian Christie, Caryl Churchill, Sacha Craddock, Liam Cunningham, Selma Dabbagh, Colin Darke, April De Angelis, Andy de la Tour, Ivor Dembina, Shane Dempsey, Elaine Di Campo, Patrick Driver, Earl Okin, Sally El Hosaini, Brian Eno, Gareth Evans, Annie Firbank, James Floyd, Aminatta Forna, Jane Frere, Kadija George, Bob Giles, Mel Gooding, Tony Graham, Omar Robert Hamilton, Jeremy Hardy, Mike Hodges, James Holcombe, Rachel Holmes, Adrian Hornsby, Rose Issa, Ann Jungman, John Keane, Brigid Keenan, Hannah Khalil, Shahid Khan, Peter Kosminsky, Hari Kunzru, Paul Laverty, Alisa Lebow, Mike Leigh, Tom Leonard, Sonja Linden, Phyllida Lloyd, Ken Loach, Liz Lochhead, David Mabb, Sabrina Mahfouz, Miriam Margolyes, Kika Markham, Simon McBurney, Sarah McDade, Jimmy McGovern, Pauline Melville, Roger Michell, China Miéville, Russell Mills, Laura Mulvey, Jonathan Munby, Courttia Newland, Lizzie Nunnery, Rebecca O’Brien, Treasa O’Brien, Andrew O’Hagan, Jeremy Page, Timothy Pottier, Michael Radford, Maha Rahwanji, Ravinder Randhawa, Siobhan Redmond, Lynne Reid Banks, Ian Rickson, Leon Rosselson, Kareem Samara, Leila Sansour, Alexei Sayle, Seni Seneviratne, Kamila Shamsie, Anna Sherbany, Eyal Sivan, Gillian Slovo, John Smith, Max Stafford-Clark, Maggie Steed, Sarah Streatfeild, Mitra Tabrizian, Mark Thomas, Cat Villiers, Roger Waters, Esther Wilson, Penny Woolcock, Susan Wooldridge, Emily Young, Andrea Luka Zimmerman” ( see Letter: over 100 artists announce a cultural boycott of Israel”, Guardian , 14 February 2015: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/13/cultural-boycott-israel-starts-tomorrow ).
Seraj Assi (a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, Washington DC) (2017): “A recent U.N. report has found Israel guilty of apartheid, causing a diplomatic skirmish between Israel’s supporters and opponents. The report, published by the U.N.’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), compares Israel’s rule over Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank to South Africa’s treatment of non-whites during its apartheid phase… The irony is that the idea of evoking the term “apartheid” ["separateness" in Afrikaans] to describe Israel’s treatment of Palestinians was not invented by Israel’s enemies, let alone Arabs and Palestinians, but by Israel itself. For decades, Israeli officials have employed the Hebrew term Hafrada (“Separation” or “Segregation”) to describe Israel’s governing policy in the West Bank and Gaza, and its attempts to separate the Palestinian population from both the Israeli population and the Jewish settlers population in the occupied Palestinian territories. The so-called Israeli West Bank Barrier, known in Hebrew as “Gader Ha-Hafrada” (“Separation Fence”), was built on this Hafrada vision” (Seraj Assi, “Is Israel an Apartheid State?”, Foreign Policy Journal, 7 April 2017: https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2017/04/07/is-israel-an-apartheid-state/ ).
Paul Atwood (professor history, University of Massachusetts-Boston) reviewing “The Invention of the Jewish People” by Professor Shlomo Sand (2012): “The state of Palestine seems increasingly impossible to come into existence unless something changes radically, perhaps on the order of the prescription with which Sand concludes. After all the original Zionists, despite their oft condemned slogan, “For a people without land, a land without people,” knew that Palestinians numbered about 450,000 at the dawn of the 20th century, and envisioned a bi-national state in which Jews and Arabs would be equals. Reality has undermined utopian logic. Yet if conditions do not change the entire region faces a far bloodier and destructive future, all the more ominous with Israel’s introduction of nuclear weapons. The emergence of suicide bombers is obviously of great concern yet this extreme phenomenon underscores the depths of growing despair among Palestinians. To what length will such assaults reach? The intensifying tension between Israel and Iran, deeply connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of Iran’s military support for both Hezbollah and Hamas, is among the three major “flash points” on earth today where a nuclear attack exists (India/Pakistan and the Korean peninsula are the others). Let us soberly take note of Seymour Hersh’s almost forgotten expose of Israel’s “Samson option” whereby, if Israeli officials believe the state is faced with destruction, Israel stands ready to vaporize each and every perceived enemy it can reach.[23] [Seymour Hersh, The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy, New York, Random House, 1991.] These are grave matters and no one can predict the outcomes but at every juncture the potential for disaster is looming…and not only for the Middle East” (Paul Atwood, “Review of Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People, London, Verso, 2009 (Translated by Yael Lotan)”, Repercussions and Reflections, 9 October 2012: https://blogs.umb.edu/joinercenter/2012/10/09/review-of-shlomo-sand-the-invention-of-the-jewish-people-london-verso-2009-translated-by-yael-lotan/ ).
“Australian academics call for boycott of Israel”, The Electronic Intifada, 26 March 2009: http://electronicintifada.net/content/australian-academics-call-boycott-israel/949
Responding to the Call of Palestinian civil society to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, we are an Australian campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel):
In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and
In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions:
We scholars, inspired by the wishes of Palestinian civil society, call 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. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
These nonviolent 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 Palestinian and Arab lands and dismantling the Wall which separates Palestinians from their arable lands;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
The principles guiding our campaign and the three goals outlined above are also points of unity for the British, Canadian, and US Campaigns for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI, this statement is a modified version of theirs). There can be no academic freedom in Israel/Palestine unless all academics are free and all students are free to pursue their academic desires.
If you are committed to these principles of unity, and wish to work on a campaign of boycotting academic and cultural institutions guided by this approach, please join our campaign.
Gaza is but the latest incident in a series of ongoing Israeli massacres, from Deir Yassin (1948) to Kafr Kassim (1956) to Jenin (2002) to the wars on Lebanon (from 1980s to 2006). All demonstrate a pattern of violence by a state that will not end its violations of international law and war crimes on its own, without international pressure. We must act now. As academics we wish to focus on campaigns in our universities and in institutions of higher education to advocate for compliance with the academic and cultural boycott, a movement that is growing internationally across all segments of global civil society.
This call for an academic and cultural boycott parallels the call in the non-academic world for divestment, boycott and sanctions by trade unions, churches and other civil society organizations in countries such as the United States, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand.
Actions
Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state-controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence, we call upon our colleagues to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by applying the following:
1. Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;
2. Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;
3. Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by academic institutions;
4. Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;
5. Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
As educators and scholars of conscience in Australia, we fully support this call. We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel’s ongoing attacks on the rights of Palestinians to education, land, and human dignity, and to support the nonviolent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions.
Undersigned: Dr. Anthony Ashbolt, University of Wollongong; Jumana Bayeh, Macquarie University; Professor Ann Curthoys, The University of Sydney; Dr Ned Curthoys, Australian National University; Professor John Docker, The University of Sydney; Ann El Khoury, Macquarie University; Professor Heather Goodall, University of Technology, Sydney; Laila Hafez, University of Wollongong; Professor Terry Irving, University of Wollongong; Dr Evan Jones, The University of Sydney; Dr Jon Jureidini, University of Adelaide; Dr Ray Jureidini, American University in Cairo, Egypt; Professor Peter Manning, University of Technology, Sydney; Dr Morris Morley, Macquarie University; Dr David Palmer, University of Adelaide; Rosemary Pringle; Professor Lyndall Ryan, University of Newcastle; Dr Ron Witton, University of Wollongong.
Australians For Palestine (AFP) ”seeks to dispel the myths and disinformation about Palestine in Australia” (see: http://www.australiansforpalestine.net/about-us ).
Australians For Palestine (AFP) position on boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel: “IX. Position on boycotts, divestment and sanctions. Australians for Palestine adopts the position that pressure must be put on Israel through boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to end its occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands …” [1].
Australians For Palestine (AFP) on the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine [detailed maps provided] (2012): “Background. For Palestinians, their land is their identity and this has been taken away from them in ever-increasing amounts since the United Nations decided to partition historic Palestine in 1947. The, the total area of historic Palestine was 6.5 million acres, with only a mere 370,000 acres under Jewish control. The Palestinians , who formed the majority population, owned some 2.25 million acres under various titles with the rest cam under the Islamic trust (waqf) and what we would call today “state land”.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. The UN Partition, which divided the land into 56 per cent for the Jewish State, 43 per cent for the Arab State with Jerusalem designated as an International Zone, never eventuated. Instead, the forcible dispossession of Palestinians began even for Israel was declared a state in 1948. Jewish Zionist leaders knew that Israel’s existence could only be assured by ridding it of the indigenous Palestinian population. Zionist militia groups used physical and psychological terror tactics to force Palestinians to flee their homes in towns and villages and then took control of 5 million acres of land. Some 400 Palestinian villages and towns were ethnically cleansed, but the Palestinians never thought for a moment that they would become “permanent” refugees. To obliterate any evidence of these villages, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) planted hundreds of thousands of non-native trees in their place. In effect, the new State of Israel took a further 22 per cent of Palestinian land, and to this day, has denied the indigenous Palestinians their right if return.
Israel’s illegal land grabs are continuing. Since the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians have been victims of a new wave of land expropriations and have witnessed the demolition of their homes and the razing of their farmlands to make way for illegal Israeli settlements, military posts, the Wall and Israeli-only freeways
The Palestinians who remained living in what had become Israel also feel the effects of Israel’s illegal land policies that favour Jewish citizens. For six decades Israel has refused to allow any new towns or villages to accommodate the growth rate of Palestinians. A 1961 law, which states that the JNF exists :for the purpose of settling Jews on such lands and properties”, blatantly discriminates on the basis if ethnicity”. [2].
[1]. Australians For Palestine (AFP), “Statement oif Principles”, About Us: http://www.australiansforpalestine.net/about-us .
[2]. Australians For Palestine (AFP) and Women For Palestine (Melbourne), “Palestinian Land Day [Yawm al Ard]”, Briefing Paper, 30 March 2012: http://www.australiansforpalestine.net/45585#more-45585 .
B’Tselem (Israeli human rights group; the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) (2021): “Today, B’Tselem published a new position paper that details how the Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it contols (Israeli sovereign territory, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip) an apartheid regime. One organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians.In the position paper B’Tselem rejects the perception of Israel as a democracy (inside the Green Line) that simultaneously upholds a temporary military occupation (beyond it). B’Tselem reached the conclusion that the bar for defining the Israeli regime as an apartheid regime has been met after considering the accumulation of policies and laws that Israel devised to entrench its control over Palestinians. The key tool Israel uses to implement the principle of Jewish supremacy is engineering space geographically, demographically and politically. Jews go about their lives in a single, contiguous space where they enjoy full rights and self-determination. In contrast, Palestinians live in a space that is fragmented into several units, each with a different set of rights – given or denied by Israel, but always inferior to the rights accorded to Jews. The Israeli regime pursues this organizing principle in four major areas: Land… Citizenship… Freedom movement… Political participation” (B’Tselem, “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is Apartheid”, 12 January 2021: https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20210112_this_is_apartheid ).
B’Tselem (Israeli human rights group; the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) (2021): “More than 14 million people [14.4 million] , roughly half of them Jews [47%] and the other half Palestinians [57%] live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea under a single rule. The common perception in public, political, legal and media discourse is that two separate regimes operate side by side in this area, separated by the Green Line. One regime, inside the borders of the sovereign State of Israel, is a permanent democracy with a population of about nine million, all Israeli citizens. The other regime, in the territories Israel took over in 1967, whose final status is supposed to be determined in future negotiations, is a temporary military occupation imposed on some five million Palestinian subjects. Over time, the distinction between the two regimes has grown divorced from reality. This state of affairs has existed for more than 50 years – twice as long as the State of Israel existed without it. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers now reside in permanent settlements east of the Green Line, living as though they were west of it. East Jerusalem has been officially annexed to Israel’s sovereign territory, and the West Bank has been annexed in practice. Most importantly, the distinction obfuscates the fact that the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is organized under a single principle: advancing and cementing the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians. All this leads to the conclusion that these are not two parallel regimes that simply happen to uphold the same principle. There is one regime governing the entire area and the people living in it, based on a single organizing principle… In the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the Israeli regime implements laws, practices and state violence designed to cement the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians. A key method in pursuing this goal is engineering space differently for each group… In the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the Israeli regime implements laws, practices and state violence designed to cement the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians. A key method in pursuing this goal is engineering space differently for each group” (B’Tselem, “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is Apartheid”, 12 January 2021: https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid ).
Anna Baltzer is a Jewish-American Columbia graduate, former-Fulbright scholar, the granddaughter of WW2 Jewish Holocaust refugees, and an award-winning lecturer, author, and activist for Palestinian human rights. Anna Baltzer is a volunteer with the International Women's Peace Service in the West Bank and author of the book, “Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories” (see: http://www.annainthemiddleeast.com/aboutanna.html , http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6724.shtm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Baltzer ).
Anna Baltzer on Apartheid Israel (2007): “if Israel desires control the territory that it has for more than two-thirds of its history, and to remain the state exclusively of the Jewish people, and to be democratic as well, it must find a way to create a Jewish majority on a strip of land in which the majority of inhabitants are not Jewish. There are only so many possible solutions: there's forced mass transfer (as was tried successfully in 1948, and is currently advocated by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman), there's mass imprisonment (10,000 plus Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails as I write), there's genocide ... or there is apartheid. The more humane alternatives of Israel withdrawing to the 1967 borders or becoming a state of all citizens are not even on the bargaining table.Apartheid and segregation failed in South Africa and the United States and they will fail in Israel and Palestine. Ethnocentric nationalism failed in Nazi Germany and it will fail in Zionist Israel. But until they do, the Ibrahims and baby Khalids of Palestine are counting on you and me to do something, to say something, since they themselves cannot. Silence is complicity. We cannot wait for things to get worse. The ethnic cleansing and apartheid have gone on long enough..” [1].
Anna Baltzer on Apartheid Israeli racism , genocide and human rights abuses (2010): “The question about recognising Israel's right to exist is a very interesting one and one that is oftentimes not given too much context. So, like I said, Israel is not the state of the people who have lived there for generations but very exclusively of the Jewish people, including even me, even if I never go there. But not of Palestinians, most of whom have been removed from the area. So when you ask a Palestinian person, do you recognise the right for there to be a state on your historic homeland that explicitly excludes you and your children and your people for eternity simply because of your ethnic and religious background? You know if they say I don't think there's a right for that, that's not anti-Semitism. You know, did the Aboriginals recognise the right for there to be a state that should exclude them? You know they recognised that there was a state created and it should include them, rightfully so, and this question as to Palestinians is really pushing them into a corner and asking them to, not only, you know, see that Israel is discriminating against them but that they're supposed to recognise Israel's right to do it… Actually I am hopeful. I am just not hopeful that it will come through the current negotiations where, you know, it's like a prisoner negotiating with a prison guard, is what we see today. I don't think that's going to bear much fruition of peace. However, if we look at historic models and what's happening today with the segregated roads in the West Bank and all of different kinds of segregation is that we see a real link to apartheid South Africa and what happened there. And likewise the struggle against it where people around the world said, you know, if our governments are not going to take a strong stand on this issue and stop the, pouring money into what's happening, we as citizens of the world are not going to profit off of this anymore as individuals and institutions. And thus began a campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions which has grown rapidly today, but towards apartheid Israel, to say that until Israel complies with international law we're not going to treat it like a normal country anymore.” [2].
[1]. Anna Baltzer, “The crime of being born Palestinian”, Electronic Intifada, 25 March 2007: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6724.shtm .
[2]. Anna Baltzer interviewed by Mark Colvin, “Activist outlines possibility for 5 new Palestinian Plan”, ABC Radio National. PM, 25 October 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s3047744.htm .
Iain Banks (born on 16 February 1954) is a Scottish writer. He writes mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks, and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, including the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies. His novels include “The Wasp Factory" , "The Bridge” and the forthcoming “The Quarry”. He is suffering from cancer and may only have months to live: (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks ).
Iain Banks in supporting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Apartheid Israel (2013): “I support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign because, especially in our instantly connected world, an injustice committed against one, or against one group of people, is an injustice against all, against every one of us; a collective injury… Feeling increasingly isolated, Israel is all the more vulnerable to further evidence that it, in turn, like the racist South African regime it once supported and collaborated with, is increasingly regarded as an outlaw state… The solution to the dispossession and persecution of one people can never be to dispossess and persecute another. When we do this, or participate in this, or even just allow this to happen without criticism or resistance, we only help ensure further injustice, oppression, intolerance, cruelty and violence in the future… The BDS campaign for justice for the Palestinian people is one I would hope any decent, open-minded person would support. Gentile or Jew, conservative or leftist, no matter who you are or how you see yourself, these people are our people, and collectively we have turned our backs on their suffering for far too long.” [1].
[1]. Iain Banks, “Iain Banks: why I’m supporting a cultural boycott of Israel”, The Guardian, 5 April 2013: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/05/iain-banks-cultural-boycott-israel .
Ehud Barak (former Israeli PM and defence minister) (1999) quoted by Jimmy Carter on Israeli apartheid (2009): “In 1999, former prime minister and now minister of defence told the Jerusalem Post, “Every attempt to keep hold of the area [Palestine] as one political entity leads, necessarily, to either a non-democratic or a non-Jewish state. Because if the Palestinians vote, then it is a binationa;l state, and if they don’t vote it is an apartheid state that might then become another Belfast or Bosnia” (Jimmy Carter, “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land”, Simon & Schuster, 2009).
Nir Baram (anti-racist Jewish Israeli writer and author of “A Land without Borders: My Journey Around East Jerusalem and the West Bank” ) commenting on the neo-fascist dominance in Apartheid Israel, the one-state solution and the equal rights struggle in Palestine (2015): “The reason I voted Meretz is that I feared its extinction – and, under the new electoral threshold law, it was indeed close to disappearing. To Meretz’s credit, it has to be said that in this campaign it was the only party, along with the Joint List of the Arab parties, that mentioned an issue that was buried in the recesses of the voters consciousness: the Palestinians. Two states? One state? Occupation? Palestinian rights? The subject was of no interest to the Jewish public… It is our obligation to contemplate new solutions and, above all, to question the feasibility of separation models. The Palestinians are doing so: Groups of them are working for the creation of one state or for a new two-state model that isn’t based on separation. The most critical struggle is to achieve equal rights for everyone living in this space, Jews and Palestinians – the political practicality is only a means to that end. Its also essential to find new partners in Jewish society for the equal-rights struggle, because Israel’s old, entrenched left is too feeble to broaden the circles on its own. In the wake of the election results, everyone in my close circle is in mourning and, in despair, even talking about leaving. I too feel that I have been dealt a vicious blow. But for those who have decided to make their life and their children’s lives here – there is no choice but to prepare for the fight ahead. I will never accept an apartheid state, and for me the struggle for equal rights for Jews and Palestinians is not over” (Nir Baram, “Time to give up on two states but not on coexistence”, Haaretz, 28 March 2015: https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-where-do-we-go-from-here-1.5342906 ).
Frank Barat is a human rights activist and coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. He has edited two books "Gaza in Crisis" (Haymarket/Penguin) with Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe and the forthcoming "Corporate Complicity in Israel's Occupation" (Pluto Press) with Asa Winstanley (see: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/20119512464643225.html ).
Frank Barat on the crime of Apartheid Israel (2011): “The crime of Apartheid. In order to keep Israel a "Jewish" state, racist policies amounting to apartheid have been used against Palestinians. In 1967, after what was called the "Six Day War" by Israelis and "An-Naksah" by Palestinians, Israel annexed Jerusalem and began occupying the West Bank and Gaza (known today as occupied Palestinian Territories oPT).
A vital question started to develop in the minds of the Israeli establishment from then on. How to remain a "Jewish State" while 20 per cent of its citizens are Palestinian and while occupying (and therefore controlling) nearly 4 million Palestinians? What is going to happen if the Palestinians actually become the majority in the Holy Land?
This was simply unimaginable for Israel, so its leaders started to put into place policies meant to ensure that the Jews would always remain a majority over the Palestinians. To face the "demographic threat" that the Palestinians posed, the Israeli government worked very hard to make certain the law would always be on their side.
In Israel itself more than 30 discriminatory laws have been passed in the last few decades. Every Israeli government has also worked on the "Judaisation" of the country while stripping Palestinians of their citizenship to the greatest extent possible.
In the oPT, a matrix of control has been put in place, one that curbs Palestinians' most basic human rights. A maze of checkpoints, roadblocks, settler-only roads have been created since 1967. In the meantime, Israel started to transfer its population to the West Bank. More than 500,000 Israelis now live in huge colonies all over the West Bank. Those colonies control all the most essential natural resources, such as water aquifers.
In 2002, the construction of the 710 km-long Separation Wall began deep inside the West Bank.
Separation/Apartness in Afrikaans translates as apartheid.
In 2009, a study by prominent South African and International Academics came to the conclusion that Israel was practising Apartheid and Colonialism in the occupied Palestinian Territories.” [1].
[1]. Frank Barat, “The crime of Apartheid”, Al Jazeera, 7 September 2011: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/20119512464643225.html .
BARGHOUTHI. Dr Mustafa Barghouthi, “Thirty years after the Oslo Accords: facing a reality of apartheid”, Mondoweiss, 13 September 2023: https://mondoweiss.net/2023/09/thirty-years-after-the-oslo-accords-facing-a-reality-of-apartheid/ .
Quotes: “After 30 years of Oslo, the only remaining alternative to apartheid is one democratic state with equal national and civil rights, including the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people… The number of Israeli settlers, considered illegal according to international law, grew from 121,000 to more than 700,000. Moreover, Israeli settlers have become a decisive political force in the Israeli Knesset, with no less than 14 members out of 120. They also became a decisive force in the current Netanyahu government. Among them is Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Minister of National Security. Another is Bezalel Smotrich, the Minister of Finance and de facto civil governor of the West Bank. The main agenda of both is to fill the West Bank with settlements and settlers, so that Palestinians, as Smotrich said, will lose any hope of having a state of their own. By hindering all forms of negotiations with Palestinians and pushing the rapid expansion of settlements, successive Israeli governments under Netanyahu gradually killed the possibility of a two-state solution. Their response to the demographic presence of Palestinians, who are equal to or slightly outnumber the Jewish Israeli population in the land of historic Palestine, was the creation of an apartheid state and reality, in which Palestinians are not given equal rights to Jewish Israelis.”
Omar Barghouti is a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. He is the author of the book "BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions - The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights" (2011) (see: http://www.inminds.com/article.php?id=10504 ).
Omar Barghouti in response to a question from a Zionist on the morality of a Boycott Apartheid Israel (2011): “The point is that when you are under occupation, when you are under apartheid, no have no moral choice. There is no choice. We ask people from outside to boycott because they have a moral choice. Responsibility comes with choice. Germans under Nazi rule who couldn't open their mouths were cowards but we can perhaps forgive them for not opening their mouths when you think you would be shot by the Nazi genocidal regime if they opened their mouths. Israelis that stay silent are far more cowardly because they do have a choice and they wont get shot if they stand up against the occupation. So we measure this with how much choice you have. When you have no choice what do you do? So there is absolutely no double standard for people under oppression to call on people who are not under oppression, standing in solidarity with them, to oppose and boycott completely the oppressive regime. What we cannot do, you can do in the UK.” [1].
[1]. Omar Barghouti at the 7th March 2011 London Review Bookshop launch of his book "BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions - The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights", Innovative Minds: http://www.inminds.com/article.php?id=10504 .
Dr Ramzy Baroud ( internationally syndicated columnist, a media consultant, founder of PalestineChronicle.com and an author of “ Searching Jenin”, “The Second Palestinian Intifada”, and “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story”) on new Israeli Apartheid laws after UNSC Resolution 2334 (2017): “The so-called "Regulation Bill" will retroactively validate 4,000 illegal structures built on private Palestinian land. In the occupied Palestinian territories, all Jewish settlements are considered illegal under international law, as further indicated in UNSC Resolution 2334. There are also 97 illegal Jewish settlement outposts - a modest estimation - that are now set to be legalised and, naturally, expanded at the expense of Palestine. The price of these settlements has been paid mostly by US taxpayers' money, but also the blood and tears of Palestinians, generation after generation.It is important, though, that we realise that Israel's latest push to legalise illegal outposts and annex large swaths of the West Bank is the norm, not the exception. Indeed, the entire Zionist vision for Israel was achieved based on the illegal appropriation of Palestinian land. Wasn't so-called "Israel proper" - as in land obtained by force from 1948 to 1967 - originally Palestinian land?...
BDS is pro-Semitic - US-backed IHRA Definition Of Antisemitism Is Anti-Arab Anti-Semitic & Anti-Jewish Anti-Semitic
By Dr Gideon Polya (2021-03-10)
(Gideon Polya, "BDS is pro-Semitic - US-backed IHRA Definition Of Antisemitism Is Anti-Arab Anti-Semitic & Anti-Jewish Anti-Semitic", Boycott Apartheid Israel, 10 March 2021:
https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/bds-is-pro-semitic ).
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of antisemitism is a comprehensively anti-Arab Anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish anti-Semitic document that is used by genocidally racist Zionists to falsely defame, censor and sideline anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish humanitarians critical of the horrendous crimes of nuclear terrorist and genocidally racist Apartheid Israel including the ongoing Palestinian Genocide and the ongoing US-imposed post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide of which it is a part.
Before analysing the 14 specific sections of the IRHA Definition of anti-Semitism [1] it is useful to make some general criticisms of racist Zionism, the IHRA Definition and the overwhelmingly nuclear weapons-endorsing and nuclear holocaust-threatening IHRA members.
(a). Racist Zionism and the fervently Zionist IHRA members violate anti-racist Jews with defamation, violate Arabs and Muslims with genocidal violence, and threaten Humanity with nuclear holocaust.
The bottom line is that protection of anti-racist Jews, and indeed of Humanity as a whole, requires resolute rejection of genocidally racist Zionism and its evil and genocidal expressions, namely nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel, the ongoing Palestinian Genocide [2], the ongoing Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide [2-7], and indeed the fervently Zionist IHRA whose mostly European US Alliance members threaten the world with a near-terminal nuclear holocaust.
The world’s 18 million Jews overwhelmingly live in the internally peaceful and relatively rich countries of Russia, Western Europe, Apartheid Israel, the US and the Anglosphere (the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) [8]. Accordingly, repugnant anti-Jewish anti-Semitism in overwhelming actuality involves verbal abuse from far right extremists including racist Zionists, whereas anti-Arab anti-Semitism and Islamophobia promoted by Zionists and their supporters (most notoriously including the US Alliance IHRA members) involves actual mass murder of Arabs and Muslims. The genocidally racist Zionists violate anti-racist Jews with false defamation [9] whereas they violate the Muslim world with ongoing egregious violence and deprivation, and existentially threaten Humanity as a whole with extinction through nuclear holocaust [10-12].
(b). IHRA members were variously involved in colonial genocides, the WW2 Jewish Holocaust, and post-WW2 genocides, with all but 2 endorsing nuclear holocaust as a military strategy and rejecting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
(i). The IHRA Definition of antisemitism has been adopted or endorsed by a select group of 34 countries including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States [1]. Of these countries all but 5 (Argentina, Australia, Canada, the United States, and Apartheid Israel) are located in Europe.
(ii). The 5 non-Europe endorsers (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Israel and the United States) all have horrendous histories of merciless genocide of the Indigenous inhabitants in the last 2 centuries [3-7, 11, 13].
(iii). Of the 29 Europe-located countries 10 had governments that variously collaborated with Nazi Germany in effecting the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Latvia) and 8 were heavily involved for centuries in horrendous genocidal colonialism in the “global South” of Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom) [4, 5, 13, 14].
(iv). In the case of Jewish Zionist-ruled and IHRA supported Apartheid Israel, the genocide of the Indigenous inhabitants, the century-long Palestinian Genocide, is ongoing with Palestinian deaths now totalling 2.2 million from violence ( 0.1 million) or from imposed deprivation (2.1 million) [2-7].
(v). Four (4) of the IHRA members are nuclear terrorist states, namely (Nobel Prize-winning ICAN-estimated numbers of nuclear weapons in brackets) Apartheid Israel (90), France (290) , United Kingdom (215), and the US (5,800) – these states have military strategies involving horrific mass murder of civilians by nuclear weapons and ultimate destruction of most of Humanity and the Biosphere [10-12].
(vi). Of the 29 Europe-located members of the IHRA all but Austria and Finland are members of nuclear-armed NATO, complicit in nuclear terrorism, and thus in gross violation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) that came into force on 22 January 2021 and which expressly prohibits State Parties from possession of nuclear weapons or assisting such possession “in any way” [12, 15, 16].
(vii). Of the 30 countries of nuclear-armed and nuclear terrorist NATO all but 6 of these nuclear holocaust-endorsing countries – Albania, Denmark, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway and Turkey - are members of the IHRA [1, 12, 15, 16].
(viii). Of the 34 members of the IHRA only 2 – Austria and Ireland – have ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The remaining 32 have refused to even sign up to the treaty i.e. they endorse the mass extermination of men, women and children and indeed of nearly all of Humanity as an official and major military strategy.
(ix). About 170 countries have not endorsed the IHRA, quite possibly because they have variously suffered genocidal devastation by endorsers with an appalling imperialist and colonialist past, namely Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Apartheid Israel, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the UK and the US) [2-5]. Thus Poland and Russia suffered holocausts in WW2 involving 6 million and 24 million deaths, respectively, but the IHRA ignores these atrocities in an act of egregious holocaust denial that deeply offends by only recognizing one (1) WW2 atrocity as a holocaust and indeed as “The Holocaust”, namely the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed by violence or imposed deprivation). As is explored below, the IHRA document is highly offensive in terms of lying, threatening free speech, threatening scholarly inquiry, and comprehensive genocide ignoring and holocaust ignoring amounting to anti-Arab anti-Semitism and indeed anti-Jewish anti-Semitism in relation to defamation of anti-racist Jewish humanitarians.
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi is a professor of psychology at the University of Haifa, Israel, and the author of “Original Sins : Reflections on the History of Zionism and Israel” (1998), “The Israeli Connection” (1987) as well as works about the dynamics of religion, most recently Prolegomena to the Psychological Study of Religion (1989) and Despair to Deliverance (1991) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Beit-Hallahmi ).
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi on genocidal racist Zionism (1998): Looking at Zionism without taboos means seeing the hard reality of the domination and oppression it has created. Out of the original sins of the world against the Jews grew the original sins of Zionism against the Palestinians. The issues are often raised through a counting and recounting of massacres and victims on both sides. The problem is one of principles, not atrocities. Even if nobody died, there is something wrong with Zionist principles. The problem is a moral one. Raising the moral question is not a mark of idealism but of realism.
Israelis seem to be haunted by a curse. It is the curse of the original sin against the native Arabs. How can Israel be discussed without recalling the dispossession and exclusion of non-Jews? This is the most basic fact about Israel, and no understanding of Israeli reality is possible without it. The original sin haunts and torments Israelis; it marks everything and taints everybody. The memory of the original sin poisons the blood and marks every moment of existence.
Can we speak of an Israeli 'collective responsibility' for the colonialist enterprise of Zionism?
Are all Israelis responsible for this sin? People cannot be held responsible for a situation created long before they were born, and this is the case for most Israelis. They have been born into a colonialist structure which favours them over the class of non-Jews. They cannot be blamed for it. At the same time, a person may be held responsible for the continuation of a colonialist situation, once he is in a position to change things. Most Israelis today, born after 1950, cannot be held responsible for early Zionist injustices. They can, and should, be held responsible for the present reality of injustice, which is a direct sequel of early Zionist principles.
All Israelis have come to recognise Zionism's original sin against the Palestinians. The terrible secret of the injustice is known to everybody, but cannot be openly faced.” [1].
[1]. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, “The Israeli Question”, epilogue from “Original Sins”, Pluto Press, London, pp.207-211: http://israel-academia-monitor.com/index.php?advice_id=104&cookie_lang=en&page_data[id]=172&type=large_advic .
Phyllis Bennis (anti-racist Jewish American writer, activist, and political commentator) (2015): “Obama’s challenge, then, is to craft an entirely new approach to dealing with Tel Aviv. It’s time to rethink the old assumptions, driven by pro-Israel lobbies and by outdated Cold War strategies, that called for providing Israel with uncritical support, diplomatic impunity, guaranteed military protection, and billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in military aid. Those have been the key features of the U.S.-Israeli relationship for at least 48 years, and they have failed. They’ve failed to bring Israel’s nuclear arsenal under international inspection or to make Israel sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. They’ve failed to bring about an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, its rejection of the Palestinians’ internationally guaranteed right of return, or its discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel. They’ve failed to encourage an Israel that respects human rights and accepts equality for all as an essential national goal. As Obama considers the possibility — so long in coming — of reducing its diplomatic protection of Israel at the United Nations and elsewhere, his administration should keep in mind that litany of failures. The U.S. relationship with Israel has sustained and cosseted an over-armed, nuclearized state that not only expropriates and occupies other peoples’ lands and deprives 20 percent of its own citizens of crucial national rights, but has also worked deliberately to derail U.S. and international negotiations with Iran. The United States can no longer welcome Israeli leaders who rely on openly racist provocations to win votes in support of apartheid policies or foolish wars” (Phyllis Bennis, “Jim Crow in the Holy Land”, Foreign Policy in Focus, 20 March 2015: https://fpif.org/the-jim-crow-holy-land/ ).
John Peter Berger (born 5 November 1926) is an English art critic, novelist, painter and author of the novel ”G.” which won the 1972 Booker Prize, and “Ways of Seeing” a BBC TV series and book on art criticism (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berger ).
John Berger advocating a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter to the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
Updated list of signatures as of 28 January 2007 (see
PACBI: http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=415 ).
Aguirre, Carmen, (dramatist)
Ajalon, Jamika (artist)
Al Bayati, Hana (film-maker)
Alam, Shahid (essayist)
Alcalay, Ammiel, (poet)
Alkadhi, Rheim (artist)
Al-Qattan, Omar (film-maker)
Amiry, Suad (architect)
Appignanesi, Richard (writer and editor)
Aziz, Sylvat (artist)
Bednarski, Cezary (architect)
Beguinstain, Teresa (aesthetics)
Benner, Ron (artist)
Berger, John (writer and artist)
Beveridge, Karl (photographer)
Beverley, John (writer)
Biggs, Simon (artist)
Bini, Oscar Abudara (filmmaker)
Bove, Paul (editor and writer)
Brandt, Chris Hirschman (writer)
Bresheeth, Haim (film-maker)
Brittain, Victoria (writer)
Brown, Mark (theatre critic)
Budney, Jen (curator)
Cameron, Lindsley (author)
Carew, Keggie (artist)
Casana, Manuel Molins (dramatist)
Chanan, Michael (writer and film-maker)
Chirot, David-Baptiste (artist/writer)
Chrysakis,. Thanos (composer)
Cohen, Mitchel (poet and editor)
Collen, Lindsey (novelist)
Conde, Carole (photographer)
Cooper, Peter (theatre director, actor)
Courtney, Andrew (artist)
Cox, Molly Hankwitz (artist and writer)
Creativity commons collective
Crowthers, Malcolm (photographer)
Curthoys, Ned (writer)
D’Agostino, Ornella (choreographer)
Davis, Mary Ellen (film-maker)
Davis, Matt (musician)
Davis, R.G. (theatre director)
Deane, Raymond (composer)
Deutsch, Stephen (composer)
Diaz Munoz, Roberto (writer)
Dibb, Mike (film maker)
Dickler, Howard (writer)
Di Prima, Diane (poet)
Diski, Jenny (novelist)
Donoghue, Ben (film maker)
Dutschke, Gretchen (author)
Engel, Kathy (poet)
Eno, Brian (musician)
Erfanian, Eshrat (artist)
Euvrard, Michel (film critic)
Felshin Nina (curator)
Fiennes, Sophie (film-maker)
Fisher, Jean (writer)
Fox, Steve (architect)
Frere, Jane (video artist)
Fried, Klaus (film maker)
Galeano, Eduardo (writer)
Galvin, Dallas (editor and writer)
Garcia, Adela (poet)
Ghaibah, Anas (TV director)
Ghazaleh, Raeda (theatre director)
Ghazoul, Ferial (writer)
Ghossein, Mirene (writer and editor)
Gill, Rajdeep Singh (curator)
Ginsberg, Terri (film theorist)
Gordon, Avery (writer)
Gover, Yerach (writer)
Graf, Michael (visual artist)
Greene, Susan (muralist)
Greyson, John (film-maker)
Guillen, Maria Munoz (dancer)
Halaby, Samia (artist)
Halama, Henry (artist)
Halbreich, Harry (musicologist)
Halbreich-Euvrard, Janine (author and film critic)
Hamka, Nada (artist)
Hanley, Cliff (artist)
Hashemi, Gita (artist)
Hassan, Jamelie (artist)
Hencke, Elaine (fabric artist)
Heredia, Shai (curator)
Huleileh, Serene (dancer/choreographer)
Humm, Maggie (writer)
Hussien, Reham (translator)
Jacir, Annemarie (filmmaker and poet)
James, Rob (writer)
Jencks, Charles (architect and author)
Jenik, Adriene (media artist)
Jimeno, Dolores (writer)
Joly, Magdalene (dancer and musician)
Karabelia, Vassia (art historian)
Kauff, Tarak (writer)
Kaya, Mircan (musician)
Kelani, Reem (singer)
King, Nick (writer)
Knupp, Rainer (movement artist)
Kukovec, Dunja (art historian)
Kumar, Vinod (writer)
Laitinen, Matti (writer)
Lane, Joel (poet)
Lederhandler, Lazer (translator)
Levidow, Les (writer and musician)
Lipman, Beate (film maker)
Loshitzky, Yosefa (writer)
Lozano, Rian (curator)
Macrae, Mike (architect)
Makhoul, Sana (art historian)
Malinowitz, Harriet (writer)
Manrique Cantos, Maria (painter)
Marlat, Daphne (writer)
Marqusee, Mike (author)
Masri, Hala (theatre coordinator)
Massarat, Mariam (translator)
Matelli, Federica (curator)
Mayers, Natasha (visual artist)
McCaughey, Peter (artist)
Metcalfe, Rohelia Hamilton (Film-maker)
Mezzano. Luis (architect)
Mieville, China (author)
Miyoshi, Masao (writer)
Montagnino, Carlo (artist)
Montoya, Roberto (writer)
Morgan, Jenny (film-maker)
Muldoon, Claire (actor and writer)
Muldoon, Roland (actor and writer)
Muller, Nat (curator)
Munnigh, Fidel (writer and translator)
Muntadas, Antoni (artist)
Naguib, Fabiola Nabil (artist and writer)
Neufeldt, Brigitte (artist)
Noonan, Maire (artist)
Nunez, Alejandra Perez (sound artist)
Ostrow, Saul (critic/curator)
Pace, Ian (pianist)
Pangbourne, Annabelle (composer)
Parker, Cornelia (artist)
Patterson, Ian (poet)
Payes, Adolfo (painter and sculptor)
Pennell, Miranda (film-maker)
Pietaro, John (musician)
Pratt, Minnie (poet)
Prince, Renate (architect)
Radhakrishnan, R (writer)
Reinart, Ustun (writer)
Rifkin, Adrian (writer)
Rodenbeck. Judith (writer)
Rosselson, Leon (song writer and author)
Roy, Arundhati (novelist)
Rozas, Ixiar (writer)
Rubin, Andrew (writer)
Sacks, Jeff (translator)
Salloum, Jayce (artist)
Salti, Rasha (writer)
Sampaio, Miriam (artist)
Samuel, Julian (novelist)
Sances, Jos (artist)
Saraste, Leena (photographer)
Sarlin, Paige (film-maker)
Schlesinger, Lisa (writer and dramatist)
Scordىa, Cinzia (performer0
Serra, Toni /Abu Ali (videomaker)
Shammas, Anton (novelist and film-maker)
Shibli, Ahlam (artist)
Shiri, Keith (curator)
Shyman, Carol (translator and film-maker)
Simons, Patrick (composer)
Skeates, Les (poet and essayist)
Smith, John (artist-film-maker)
Solt, John (poet)
Somes-Charlton, Chris (director)
Soueif, Ahdaf (novelist)
Staikou, Evi (artist)
Streamas, John (writer)
Suleiman, Elia (film maker)
Sureda, Joseph Ramis (dancer)
Szpakowski, Michael (composer)
Tachdjian, Selva (artist)
Tanbay, Zeynap) (dancer and choreographer)
Tres (artist)
Tudela, Ana Navarrete (artist)
Twair, Pat (journalist)
Valldosera, Eulalia (artist)
Van Zwanenberg, Roger (publisher)
Varma, Rahul (playwrite)
Wadimoff, Nicolas (filmmaker)
Walkley, Ron (architect)
Waller, John (architect)
Walsh, Shannon (film-maker)
Ward, David (composer)
Wellman, David (writer)
Westenra, Charlie (theatre director)
Wiles, Rich (photographic artist)
Williams, Patrick (writer)
Younghusband, Gene (media theorist)
Youssef, Marcus (playwrite)
Yurur, Ahmet (composer)
Yurur, Carol Stevens (writer)
Zangana, Haifa (novelist)
Rabbi Joseph Berman (anti-racist Jewish American rabbi and a key figure in Jewish Voice for Peace, JVP) (2017): “We need to stop the confirmation of David Friedman as US Ambassador to Israel.
Are you ready to join me? Because JVP specifically, even uniquely, needs to take him on.
David Friedman has zero diplomatic experience - he’s actually Trump’s bankruptcy lawyer. But he shares with Jared Kushner and other members of Trump’s inner circle shockingly extreme views on Israel/Palestine.
Friedman has denied the existence of Palestinian refugees, who are recognized under international law, called liberal Jews “kapos” for taking even measured efforts to change Israeli policies, advocated annexation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and endorsed discriminatory screening of Muslim immigrants to the United States.
And he’s not just a supporter of illegal, Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank - he’s the board chair of American Friends of Beit El, one of the oldest and most violent settlements in the West Bank.
David Friedman is a passionate activist for permanent apartheid and occupation.
And his appointment would bring all of these policy disasters closer:
Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem - in fact, he’s already declared his decision to live in Jerusalem personally.
Annexing Ma’ale Adumim or even all of the West Bank. Yesterday even the NYTimes described Friedman as in “closer political step with Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing rivals.” (yes, it is more than possible to out-flank Netanyahu to his right)
Deepening mutual aid between US and the Israeli governments on surveillance projects (think registries) and border militarization (think walls).
There isn’t a single statement of his that we’ve been able to find that shows even a modicum of respect for Palestinians or Palestinian human rights” (Rabbi Joseph Berman, “We need to stop the confirmation of David Friedman as US Ambassador to Israel”, Jewish Voice for Peace, January 2017).
George Bisharat (Professor of Law, at UC Hastings College, US, and Middle East expert) on the case for a democratic one-state solution (2019): “
“The case for a democratic one-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians… It is time to face some undeniable facts: First, despite Israel’s every effort to establish and maintain a Jewish majority, the two peoples living under Israeli rule hover at near parity, at approximately 6.5 million Jews and 6.5 million Palestinians. Of course, an Israel founded on equal rights for all will no longer be a “Jewish state.”
Second, Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs are destined to live together in Israel/Palestine in perpetuity. Neither people can or should be forced to leave the land in which they reside and to which they are passionately committed.
Third, segregation, of which the two-state solution was a form, is not the answer. As Americans know from our own historical experience, separate is never equal.
Finally, it is only equal rights and justice that can provide the foundation for a durable peace for Israelis and Palestinians.
The way forward will be difficult, but it could start with a compassionate declaration from Palestinians, along the lines of South Africa’s Freedom Charter, committing to a just society that includes both Israeli Jews and Palestinians. Such a declaration should embrace a broad, multi-faceted and contemporary vision of justice for this troubled land” (George Bisharat, “The case for a democratic one-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians”, Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA), 23 May 2019: http://www.afopa.com.au/blog/2019/5/29/the-case-for-a-democratic-one-state-solution-for-israelis-and-palestinians ; George Bisharat, “The case for a democratic one-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians”, Los Angeles Tomes, 23 May 2019: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-bisharat-one-state-palestinian-israel-trump-netanyahu-20190523-story.html?fbclid=IwAR15d6hzuI1WOmPXUDnsWxgDmMICQzTVKI4zL7KlCS_pXAtIsGSeJ2um87A ).
[Editor: as of 2019, the subjects of Apartheid Israel total 6.7 million Jews (47.8%), 1.9 million Palestinian Israelis 0.4 million non-Arab, non-Jewish Israelis and 5.0 million Occupied Palestinians i.e. the sorely oppressed Indigenous Palestinians are the biggest group at 49,.2% of these subjects (see “Demographics of Israel, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel ].
… It is time to face some undeniable facts: First, despite Israel’s every effort to establish and maintain a Jewish majority, the two peoples living under Israeli rule hover at near parity, at approximately 6.5 million Jews and 6.5 million Palestinians. Of course, an Israel founded on equal rights for all will no longer be a “Jewish state.”
Second, Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs are destined to live together in Israel/Palestine in perpetuity. Neither people can or should be forced to leave the land in which they reside and to which they are passionately committed.
Third, segregation, of which the two-state solution was a form, is not the answer. As Americans know from our own historical experience, separate is never equal.
Finally, it is only equal rights and justice that can provide the foundation for a durable peace for Israelis and Palestinians.
The way forward will be difficult, but it could start with a compassionate declaration from Palestinians, along the lines of South Africa’s Freedom Charter, committing to a just society that includes both Israeli Jews and Palestinians. Such a declaration should embrace a broad, multi-faceted and contemporary vision of justice for this troubled land” (George Bisharat, “The case for a democratic one-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians”, Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA), 23 May 2019: http://www.afopa.com.au/blog/2019/5/29/the-case-for-a-democratic-one-state-solution-for-israelis-and-palestinians ; George Bisharat, “The case for a democratic one-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians”, Los Angeles Tomes, 23 May 2019: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-bisharat-one-state-palestinian-israel-trump-netanyahu-20190523-story.html?fbclid=IwAR15d6hzuI1WOmPXUDnsWxgDmMICQzTVKI4zL7KlCS_pXAtIsGSeJ2um87A ).
[Editor: as of 2019, the subjects of Apartheid Israel total 6.7 million Jews (47.8%), 1.9 million Palestinian Israelis 0.4 million non-Arab, non-Jewish Israelis and 5.0 million Occupied Palestinians i.e. the sorely oppressed Indigenous Palestinians are the biggest group at 49.2% of these subjects (see “Demographics of Israel, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel ].
Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC): “The broad consensus among Palestinian civil society about the need for a broad and sustained Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resulted in the Palestinian Call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel that was launched in July 2005 with the initial endorsement of over 170 Palestinian organizations. The signatories to this call represent the three major components of the Palestinian people: the refugees in exile, Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the discriminated Palestinian citizens of the Israeli state.
The efforts to coordinate the BDS campaign, that began to grow rapidly since the 2005 Call was made public, culminated in the first Palestinian BDS Conference held in Ramallah in November 2007. Out of this conference emerged the BDS National Committee (BNC) as the Palestinian coordinating body for the BDS campaign worldwide.
The BNC’s mandate and role is:
• To strengthen and spread the culture of boycott as a central form of civil resistance to Israeli occupation, colonialism and apartheid;
• To formulate strategies and programs of action in accordance with the 9 July 2005 Palestinian Civil Society BDS Call;
• To serve as the Palestinian reference point for BDS campaigns in the region and worldwide;
• To serve as the national reference point for anti-normalization campaigns within Palestine;
• To facilitate coordination and provide support & encouragement to the various BDS campaign efforts in all locations.” (see: http://www.bdsmovement.net/BNC#.Tq8O3XJiSeI ).
Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights (9 July 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; Israel continues its construction of the colonial Wall with total disregard to the Court’s decision. Thirty eight years into Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights, Israel continues to expand Jewish colonies. It has unilaterally annexed occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and is now de facto annexing large parts of the West Bank by means of the Wall. Israel is also preparing – in the shadow of its lanned redeployment from the Gaza Strip – to build and expand colonies in the West Bank. Fifty seven years after the state of Israel was built mainly on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners, a majority of Palestinians are refugees, most of whom are stateless. Moreover, Israel’s entrenched system of racial discrimination against its own Arab-Palestinian citizens remains intact.
In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law; and
Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies; and
Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine; and
In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions; and
Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression;
We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call 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. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
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.
Endorsed by:
The Palestinian political parties, unions, associations, coalitions and organizations below [108 in total] represent the three integral parts of the people of Palestine: Palestinian refugees, Palestinians under occupation and Palestinian citizens of Israel.” [1].
[1]. BNC, “Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights”, BDS Movement, 29 July 2005: http://www.bdsmovement.net/call#.Tq8OYHJiSeI .
The Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (BIAC) in its own words: “The Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (BIAC) is a Vancouver-based group that formed in 2007 as part of a global movement against Israeli apartheid. Our work is based on a call from over 170 grassroots Palestinian organizations in 2005 for a global campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the State of Israel. The BDS campaign demands that Israel 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;
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.” [1].
[1]. The Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign (BIAC): http://www.boycottisraeliapartheid.org/about-biac/ .
BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within is a group of Palestinians and Jews, citizens of Israel, who join the Palestinian call for a BDS campaign against Israel, inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid (see: .http://boycottisrael.info ).
BOYCOTT! Letter to CRH plc (April 2010):
"April 22, 2010
To CRH plc management,
Dublin, Ireland
We, at BOYCOTT!*, a group of Israeli citizens, strive to stop our government’s human rights and international law violations, which have been facilitated by the cooperation of international companies. Your company has gone to great lengths in getting involved with the Israeli land and resources annexation, segregation and continued colonization of Palestine1. As you were told by your country’s Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), by investing in the Israeli group Mashav Initiating and Development Ltd., you are profiting from the Israeli colonization of Palestinian territory and facilitating illegal settlement expansion and population segregation.
Israeli settlements are illegal by international law, as determined by a number of UN Security council resolutions and according to the Fourth Geneva Convention. In fact, as exposed last year by an Israeli army whistle blower, building and land-seizing violations of Israel’s own laws are committed by “the very heart of the settlement enterprise”, with the silent approval of the Israeli government and security establishment2. By investing in a company that provides materials for settlements’ construction you are assisting a criminal activity and thereby putting your own company in harms way.
The Israeli settlement enterprise is a massive land-grab and segregation project, which includes also the building of apartheid roads and the apartheid wall. In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled the Israeli construction of the Wall in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) to be “contrary to international law” and called for its dismantling and for the annexed land and resources to be returned to their Palestinian owners with reparations. It has also declared the wall illegal for its key role in the segregation of Palestinian towns and villages, depriving Palestinians the right of movement, work, health and other public services.
By divesting from Mashav, CRH can distance itself from the immorality and illegal activity performed by the Israeli settlement enterprise . We will stand with IPSC in their campaign until that day comes.
Sincerely,
Hillel Barak
Ronnie Barkan
Ofra Ben Artzi
Adi Dagan
Naama Farjoun
Racheli Gai
Prof. Rachel Giora
Rosamine Hayeem
Shir Hever (The Alternative Information Center, Jerusalem)
Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass
Yael Oren Kahn
Peretz Kidron
Prof. (emeritus) Moshé Machover
Dr. Anat Matar (philosophy, Tel-Aviv University)
Yossef Mekyton
Dr. Dorothy Naor
Ofer Neiman
David Nir
Yonatan Pollak
Yehoshua Rosin
Dr. Michal Sapir
Ayala Shani
Tal Shapira
Jonatan Stanczak
Ruth Tenne
Karen Zack
Also endorsed by:
Union of progressive women – National Democratic assembly (Balad)
Kelvin Bland (The Royal Institute of British Architects)
Dr. Judit Druks
Prof. (emeritus) Nigel Harris
Dina Hecht
Harald Molgaard
Elias Nasrallah
* BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within is a group of Palestinians and Jews, citizens of Israel, who join the Palestinian call for a BDS campaign against Israel, inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid.
http://boycottisrael.info
1 See http://www.whoprofits.org/Company%20Info.php?id=614
2 Uri Blau, “Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement”. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060043.html
See also: CRH Divestment Campaign – Petition .” [1].
[1]. BOYCOTT! Letter to CRH plc, “BOYCOTT! CRH divest now from Apartheid Israel!”, Israeli Occupation Archive, April 2010: http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2010-04-23/boycott-crh-divest-now-from-apartheid-israel/ .
Michael Brull is an anti-racist Jewish Australian writer who writes in particular about Apartheid Israel . In his own words: “Michael Brill a leftist Jew, and his views should not be taken to represent the views of anyone else. His view that Palestinians are human has outraged the Zionist lobbies” (Michael Brull’s Blog, Independent Australian Jewish Voices: http://iajv99.wordpress.com/commentators-blogs/michael-brulls-blog/ ).
Michael Brull writing about the latest Apartheid Israeli Gaza Massacre (17 July 2014): “Israel’s bloody Apartheid: what happened and why you should be outraged… The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights has issued daily briefings, meticulously documenting major Israeli attacks on Gaza. Its latest report found that 181 Palestinians had been killed so far by Israel, 147 of them civilian, including 36 children and 29 women. They also found 1181 Palestinians had been injured so far…[conspicuously silent] Australian politicians have not covered themselves in glory in response to the onslaught on Gaza… The Greens can help find out the extent of Australia’s military cooperation with Israel, and back Amnesty’s call for an arms embargo, to “send a clear message that they will not facilitate further violations of international humanitarian law”. But it is up to the rest of us to persuade Australians that we should not support Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.” [1].
[1]. Michael Brull, “Israel’s bloody Apartheid: what happened and why you should be outraged”, New Matilda, 17 July 2014: https://newmatilda.com/2014/07/17/israels-bloody-apartheid-what-happened-and-why-you-should-be-outraged .
Michael R. Burch (anti-racist American poet, writer and founder and editor-in-chief of “The HyperTexts”): “Epitaph for a Palestinian Child ―for the children of Gaza and the Nakba -
I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide” (Michael R. Burch, “Michael R. Burch”, The Hyper Texts: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Michael_R_Burch_Poet_Poetry_Picture_Bio.htm ).
Michael R. Burch compilation of truth-telling, anti-racist Jews and non-Jews: “Jewish Intellectuals Who Have Opposed Zionism and/or Israeli Racism, Injustices, Occupation, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing… [numerous quotations from anti-racist Jews]. Other Jewish critics of Zionism and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians include renowned author Philip Roth, acclaimed poet Adrianne Rich, actor Ed Asner, actress Rosanne Barr, Sidney Hook, Jeff Halper, I. F. Stone, Paul Wellstone, Maxine Rodinson, Moshe Menuhin, Yehudi Menuhin, Alfred Lilienthal, Roger Cohen, Professor Don Peretz, journalist Eric Rouleau, Harvard Professor Sara Roy, Professor Jennifer Loewenstein, former South African government mnister Ronnie Kasrils, Professor Saul Landau, Professor Zachery Lochman, Professor Joel Beinin, Professor Ian Lustick, Professor Edward Herman, writer Stephen Lendman, Anthony Loewenstein, Professor Steven Zunes, Stanley Heller, Danny Schechter, Lenni Brenner, Jeff Blankfort, author and journalist Alain Gresh, Professor Cheryl Rubenberg, Professor Michael Selzer, Professor David Fromkin, Howard Zinn, author Seymour M. Hersh, Bob Simon, Senior CBS Foreign Correspondent Barry Lando, Democracy Now radio host Amy Goodman, media critic Norman Solomon, writer Bennett Muraskin, Professor Lawrence Davidson, Jerome M. Segal, Professor Mark Levine, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Jewish Voice for Peace activist Sydney Levy, Mark Braverman, author Phylis Bennis, journalist and editor David Finkel, Professor Mark Ellis, Joel Fischer, Professor Noel Ignatiev, Professor Bill Robinson, Allan C. Brownfeld editor of the American Council for Judaism Issues magazine, New York University Professor Bertrell Ollman, Dr. Gideon Polya, activist and writer Ralph Schoenman, writer Mike Marquisee, Swedish activists Snorre Lindquist and Lasse Wilhelmson, New York Times journalist Anthony Lewis, journalist Robert Scheer, journalist and blogger Philip Weiss, journalist Adam Horowitz, blogger Richard Silverstein, activist and writer Tim Wise, Professor Eric Alterman, Tsela Barr, Judith Laitman, Haley Michaels Pollack, Michelle Goldberg, activist and writer Adrienne Weller, Dan Leiberman editor of Alternative Insight, Dr. Marc Sapir, Hannah Mermelstein, Anna Baltzser, Professor Sharon Weill, Professor Randall Kuhn, author Ben Ehrenreich, Dr. Norton Mezvinsky, Dr. Joel Kovel and many other leading Jewish activists, intellectuals and religious figures.
Jewish and Israeli Peace and Humanitarian Organizations that have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Breaking the Silence (Israeli soldiers tell the truth about the Occupation)
Rabbis for Human Rights
Jews for Justice for Palestinians
Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions
B'Tselem
Jewish Voice for Peace
American Jews for a Just Peace
Gush Shalom
Jews Against the Occupation
and many others ...
Nobel Peace Laureates Who have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Desmond Tutu
Nelson Mandela
Jimmy Carter
Adolfo Peres Esquivel
Jody Williams
Mairead Maguire
Rigoberta Menchú
Betty Williams
Christian Churches and Organizations that have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America
Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s Palestine Israel Network
Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
Quaker Palestine Israel Network
United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network
Other Individuals and Organizations that have Opposed Israel's Racism, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing
Amnesty International
Mohandas Gandhi
Vanessa Redgrave (she sold a house to raise money to film a documentary about the plight of the Palestinians)
Roger Waters
Brian Eno
Boots Riley
Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple)
Michael Ondaatje
Edward Said
Rashid Khalidi
David Palumbo-Liu
Mira Nair
Mike Leigh
Ken Loach
John Pilger” (Michael R. Burch, “Jewish Intellectuals Who Have Opposed Zionism and/or Israeli Racism, Injustices, Occupation, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing”, The Hyper Texts: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Jewish%20Intellectuals%20Who%20Opposed%20Zionism%20Israel%20Racism%20Injustices%20Apartheid%20Ethnic%20Cleansing.htm ).
Bradley Burston (Jewish Israeli journalist writing for Haaretz) on Israeli Apartheid (2015): “What I'm about to write will not come easily for me. I used to be one of those people who took issue with the label of apartheid as applied to Israel. I was one of those people who could be counted on to argue that, while the country's settlement and occupation policies were anti-democratic and brutal and slow-dose suicidal, the word apartheid did not apply. I'm not one of those people any more… Only under a system as warped as apartheid, does a government need to label and treat non-violence as terrorism. Years ago, in apartheid South Africa, Jews who loved their country and hated its policies, took courageous roles in defeating with non-violence a regime of racism and denial of human rights. May we in Israel follow their example” (Bradley Burston, “It’s time to admit it. Israeli policy is what it is: Apartheid”, Haaretz, 17 August 2015: http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/1.671538 )
[Editor’s note: Zionism has been genocidal racism and apartheid since it very inception in genocidally racist Europe of the late 19th century (for the genocidally racist colonialist context see Sven Lindqvist, “Exterminate All the Brutes”). Thus genocidally racist psychopath and Jewish Hungarian founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, proposed colonization of Palestine to create a race-based Jewish state to the clear exclusion of the rights and indeed even presence of most of the Indigenous Palestinians (see Theodor Herzl “Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State)”, 1896: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/herzl2.html ) and this proto-Nazi, racist psychopath (who adored anti-Jewish anti-Semitic Richard Wagner’s implicitly but covertly anti-Jewish anti-Semitic opera “Tannhauser’) stated: “When we occupy the land, we shall bring immediate benefits to the state that receives us. We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly” (“Theodor Herzl”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl ). One notes that the Nazi Germans used elaborate deception to enable efficient deportation of millions of Jews to concentration camps and death by violence or deprivation. 2 million Palestinians have been killed by violence (0.1 million) or by violently-imposed deprivation (1.9 million) since 1936, a Palestinian Genocide that is part of an horrendous Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide killing 32 million Muslims by violence (5 million) or imposed deptivation (27 million) in the 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance in the 21st century, Zionist-promoted US War on Muslims (Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “Age Of Fools” By William Cook – Stop Neocon & Zionist Palestinian Genocide, War On Muslims & War On Humanity”, Countercurrents, 3 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya031215.htm ; “Palestinian Genocide” : http://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ; Gideon Polya, “Review: “The Plight Of The Palestinians. A Long History Of Destruction”, Countercurrents, 17 June, 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm ; Gideon Polya, “Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya221115A.htm ; Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes a succinct history of every country and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ; “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ )].
Wendy Campbell (US writer, film-maker, creator of the documentaries called "Neturei Karta: Jews Against Zionism" and "Truth: Exposing Israeli Apartheid") on racist Zionism (2004): “ Definition of Zionism. At any rate, please allow me to explain my definition of "Zionism". Zionism is a racist ideology that allows for Jews from anywhere in the world to go to Israel-Palestine to claim superior rights to the land and government there at the expense of the indigenous non-Jewish Palestinians. It can be argued that Zionist Jews expect certain privileges above and beyond the average citizen in any country they live. By the way, not all Jews are Zionists, and not all American Jews think of Israel as their homeland. Many American Jews, I'm sure, if not most, think of themselves as Americans first and foremost. Many American Jews, I'm sure, accept their fellow Americans as equals regardless of their religion, race, ethnicity or gender. However, only Jews enjoy completely equal rights in Israel, where it is not a true secular democracy even for Jews, in that only marriages between Jews are acknowledged as legal in Israel, for just one example. Furthermore, all non-Jews are marginalized in Israel.
Zionist American Jews are the chauvinistic Jews who commonly believe in innate, irreducible differences from others and their own cultural-religious superiority to gentiles, or non-Jews. This attitude apparently enables them to justify Israel's national campaign of blatant ethnic cleansing against the non-Jewish Palestinians at worst as per "hard Zionists" or at the very least, complete segregation as per the apartheid two-state solution favored by "soft Zionists"” (Wendy Campbell, “Miami Florida: Zionist Occupied Territory”, Rense.com, 6 March 2004: http://www.rense.com/general50/pro.htm ).
Bob Carr ( former Australian foreign minister, former New South Wales premier, and a patron of Australian Labor Friends of Palestine) on one-person-one-vote (2016): “Donald Trump can tweet and bluster. But the resolution [UNSC Resolution 2334] stands as international law, to be taken seriously by cabinets and bind the International Criminal Court. After years of provocation by Israeli hawks that's the genius of what Obama and Kerry have pulled off. If Israel responds with more settlements, or annexes slabs of the West Bank, then UN agencies and member states have to decide how to react. Leave that "how" to another day. In the meantime consider the following motion, an elegantly simple one: "Given that Israel continues to defy the 2016 resolution of the Security Council and spreads settlements so that a Palestinian state is no longer possible we move that every resident of Greater Israel be afforded equal rights. This includes the right to vote in national elections."How would you vote on that motion – in a parish council or church synod? At a union or party conference? A council meeting? On a campus? And what happens next?” (Bob Carr, “The genius of the UN’s resolution on Israeli settlements”, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 December 2016: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-genius-of-the-uns-resolution-on-israeli-settlements-20161225-gthumf.html ).
[Editor: Of the present 52% Indigenous Palestinian majority in “Greater Israel”, 73% presently cannot vote for the government ruling them i.e. Apartheid].
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize (the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office). Prior to becoming president, Carter served two terms in the Georgia senate followed by the governorship of the State of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and was a peanut farmer and naval officer (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter ).
1. Jimmy Carter in his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” (2006): “Israel’s continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land…The United States is squandering international prestige and goodwill and intensifying global anti-American terrorism by unofficially condoning or abetting the Israeli confiscation and colonization of Palestinian territories.” [1, 2].
2. Jimmy Carter speech about his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” (2006): “Some people have said the title is provocative, and I accept that categorization, but I don’t consider the word “provocative” to be a negative description, because it’s designed to provoke discussion and analysis and debate in a country where debate and discussion is almost completely absent if it involves any criticism at all of the policies of Israel. And I think the book is very balanced.
Secondly, the words “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” were carefully chosen by me. First of all, it’s Palestine, the area of Palestinians. It doesn’t refer to Israel. I’ve never and would imply that Israel is guilty of any form of apartheid in their own country, because Arabs who live inside Israel have the same voting rights and the same citizenship rights as do the Jews who live there.
And the next word is “peace.” And my hope is that the publication of this book will not only precipitate debate, as I’ve already mentioned, but also will rejuvenate an absolutely dormant or absent peace process. For the last six years there’s not been one single day of good faith negotiations between Israelis and their neighbors, the Palestinians. And this is absolutely a departure from what has happened under all previous presidents since Israel became a nation. We’ve all negotiated or attempted to negotiate peace agreements. That has been totally absent now for six years. So “peace.”
And then the last two words, “not apartheid.” The alternative to peace is apartheid, not inside Israel, to repeat myself, but in the West Bank and Gaza and East Jerusalem, the Palestinian territory. And there, apartheid exists in its more despicable forms, that Palestinians are deprived of basic human rights. Their land has been occupied and then confiscated and then colonized by the Israeli settlers. And they have now more than 205 settlements in the West Bank itself. And what has happened is, over a period of years, the Israelis have connected settlements with highways, and those highways make the West Bank look like a honeycomb and maybe a spider web. You can envision it. And in many cases, most cases, the Palestinians are prevented from using the highways at all, and in many cases, even from crossing the highways.
I’d like to make one other point. When Israel was founded back in 1948 by the United Nations, Israel was allocated 56% of what we would call “the holy land” between Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. After the wars, when the Arabs tried to destroy Israel, treaties were worked out, and Israel wound up with 77% of the holy land. 22% was designated as the West Bank, and 1% only, Gaza. So at the optimum case, as recognized by all the United Nations resolutions, Israel would wind up with 77% of the area, and the Palestinians only 23%, including Gaza and the West Bank. And remember that Gaza is on the sea coast, where the Philistines lived during the time of King David, and it’s separated by 40 kilometers, about 30 miles, from the rest of Palestinian territory. So in order for a Palestinian to go from Gaza to the West Bank, they have to go through 30 miles of Israeli land, though that’s just a geographical description.
This book is designed to restimulate the prospect for peace. And I’m going to just read three options that Israelis face. And I’d like to say at the beginning that none of them are completely acceptable to all Israelis. But for the last 40 years, a strong majority of Israelis have preferred to relinquish Arab land in return for peace. And this sentiment prevailed until the time when Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by an irate Israeli who didn’t like what Rabin and Shimon Peres had done at Oslo in negotiating a peace agreement for which they both received the Nobel Peace Prize.” [1].
3. Jimmy Carter in an interview in Apartheid Israel re the apartheid comparison: “When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank, and connects the 200-or-so settlements with each other, with a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa." [3, 4].
[1]. Jimmy Carter, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” (Simon & Schuster; 2006): http://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Peace-Apartheid-Jimmy-Carter/dp/0743285026 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Peace_Not_Apartheid .
[2]. Jimmy Carter, quoted in interview, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid… Jimmy Carter in his own words “, Democracy Now, 30 November 2006: http://www.democracynow.org/2006/11/30/palestine_peace_not_apartheid_jimmy_carter .
[3]. Jimmy Carter quoted in Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and apartheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
[4]. Jimmy Carter, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
Jimmy Carter discussing Israeli Apartheid in a key part of his book “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work” (2009): “In 1999, former prime minister and now minister of defence Ehud Barak told the Jerusalem Post, “Every attempt to keep hold of the area [Palestine] as one political entity leads, necessarily, to either a non-democratic or a non-Jewish state. Because if the Palestinians vote, then it is a binationa;l state, and if they don’t vote it is an apartheid state that might then become another Belfast or Bosnia.”
In an interview with Yediot Aharonot in December 2003, then vice prime minister Olmert said, “Above all hovers the cloud of demographics. It will come down as not in the end of days, but in just another few years. We are approaching a point where more and more Palestinians will say: “There is no place for two states between the Jordan and the sea. All we want is the right to vote.” The day they get it we will lose everything.”
More recently, in November 2007, Prime Minister Olmert said to Haaretz that if the two-sate solution collapsed, Israel would “face a South Africa-style struggle for equal voting rights, and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.” He warned that “the Jewish organizations, which were our power base in America, will be the first to come out against us because they will say they cannot support a state that does not support democracy and equal voting rights for all its residents…
Within Israel there has been a long-standing fundamental struggle between two powerful political forces: those who wish to preserve the purity if Judaism and other who wish to increase the population of a “Jewish state” throughout the Holy Land … Ariel Sharon expressed the dilemma of many prominent secular Jews in clear and vivid terms: "If I had to convert [to Judaism] , I would not pass”…
Many religious Jews welcome converts and encourage settlement in the Holy Land, which helps to delay the time when there will be a majority of non-Jews living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Some extremists would favor depriving Arab Israelis of equal voting rights or expulsion so they will not constitute a majority. So far, tnbhe increase in Arab population through higher birth rates has been substantially matched by an influx of Diaspora Jews. The dwindling number of immigrants from America and other Western nations (these may now be a net exodus) has been counterbalanced by about a million newcomers from the former Soviet Union, many of whom have retasined their former language and customs and trend to vote as a bloc. Yjey now make up about one-sixth of the Jewish population. A number of these families have doubtful credentials to prove their Jewish ancestry” (Jimmy Carter, “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land”, Simon & Schuster, 2009).
Michael Chabon (Pulitzer Prize-winning, anti-racist Jewish American writer and author of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay”) (2016): “Once you see [the Occupied West Bank] for yourself, it is pretty obvious, I think, to any human being with a heart and a mind, it is pretty clear what to feel about it. It is the most grievous injustice I have ever seen in my life… As a Jew and someone who has felt connected both to Israel and also to the Old Testament narratives, it actually does mean something to me to be in Hebron, to be where supposedly Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca and Leah are all buried. From my point of view, to see that place being dishonored and made less sacred and less holy by the presence of this incredibly cruel and unjust machinery, some literal machinery and figurative machinery of oppression, it offends me…I have seen bad things in my own country in America. There is plenty of horrifying injustice in the U.S. prison system, the "second Jim Crow" it is often called. Our drug laws in the United States are grotesquely unjust. I know to some degree what I am talking about. This is the worst thing I have ever seen, just purely in terms of injustice. If saying that is going to lose me readers, I don’t want those readers. They can go away and never come back” (Oren Ziv, “Q&A - Michael Chabon talks occupation, injustice and literature after visit to West Bank”, Forward, 24 April 2016: https://forward.com/culture/books/339119/qa-michael-chabon-talks-occupation-injustice-and-literature-after-visit-to/ and David Palumbo-Liu, “Backing BDS: another Pulitzer winner comes out for Palestinian rights”, Salon, 22 June 2016: https://www.salon.com/2016/06/22/backing_bds_another_pulitzer_winner_comes_out_for_palestinian_rights/ ).
Professor Noam Chomsky (outstanding, anti-racist Jewish American linguistics scholar at the prestigious, 85-Nobel-Laureate Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, Massachusetts, USA) (2015) “In the Occupied Territories, what Israel is doing is much worse than apartheid. To call it apartheid is a gift to Israel, at least if by ‘apartheid’ you mean South African-style apartheid. What is happening in the Occupied Territories is much worse. There is a crucial difference. The South African Nationalists needed the black population. That was their workforce… The Israeli relationship to the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is totally different. They just do not want them. They want them out, or at least in prison” (Noam Chomsky quoted in IMEMC News, “Noam Chomsky: Israeli Apartheid “much” worse than South Africa”, Mint Press, 25 August 2015: http://www.mintpressnews.com/noam-chomsky-israeli-apartheid-much-worse-than-south-africa/208936/ ).
Clackmannanshire is one of the smallest shires in Scotland, a country subjected to genocide by the English in the 18th and 19th centuries Highland Clearances (see: http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3007/scottish_council_boycotts_apartheid_israel ).
Clackmannanshire Council resolution to back boycott of Apartheid Israel (2012): “Clackmannanshire Council condemns the Government of Israel for its continuing illegal occupation of Palestine's East Jerusalem and the West Bank and for its continuing illegal blockade of Gaza. Clackmannanshire Council welcomes the decision of the United Nations on 29 November 2012 to grant "non member observer State" to Palestine. However, for the people of Palestine, the suffering of the last 64 years continues as the Government of Israel continues to ignore and breach international law. Just as individual sanctions against apartheid in South Africa led ultimately to its demise there, so individual and collection sanctions against the state of Israel will end apartheid and suffering in Palestine. Clackmannanshire Council therefore resolves to resist, insofar as legislative considerations permit, any action that gives political or economic support to the State of Israel." [1].
[1]. Scottish council boycotts “Apartheid Israel”, The Commentator, 22 March 2013: http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3007/scottish_council_boycotts_apartheid_israel .
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) Melbourne in its own words: “The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) is a Melbourne based group determined to see the end to Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinians.We are active in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign to hold to account those who profit from the oppression of the Palestinians and we hold events to raise awareness about the situation of the Palestinians.” (see CAIA: http://ozcoalitionagainstisraeliapartheid.wordpress.com/about/ ).
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) is a Canadian organization opposed to Canadian complicity in Apartheid Israel (see: http://www.caiaweb.org/who-we-are/ ).
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) stated the following about who they are : “The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid was formed in January 2006 as part of a growing, global movement against Israeli apartheid.
We believe Israel is an apartheid state that resembles South African Apartheid. Palestinian citizens of Israel are denied from controlling and developing over 90% of land because they are Palestinian. Palestinians expelled in 1948 and 1967 are denied the right to return to their homes and lands, despite the fact that anyone of Jewish background – from anywhere in the world – has the automatic right to become an Israeli citizen. In the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians live under separate and discriminatory military law.
The Canadian government provides extensive political and economic support to the Israeli apartheid regime. Canadian corporations profit through investments and joint operations with Israeli companies. We work to end all Canadian complicity in this apartheid state. We are a network of concerned individuals and organizations working to end this apartheid system. We believe that justice will not be achieved without equal rights for everyone in the region, regardless of religion, ethnicity or nationality. We understand Israeli apartheid as one element of a system of global apartheid. To this end, we stand in solidarity with all oppressed groups around the world, in particular, the indigenous people of North America. We oppose all forms of racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.
Our demands are based upon a July 2005 call from over 170 Palestinian organizations in support of a global campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS). BDS 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, dismantling the Wall and freeing all Palestinian and Arab political prisoners.
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality.
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN General Assembly Resolution 194.” [1].
[1]. The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA), “Who we are”: http://www.caiaweb.org/who-we-are/ .
CODEPINK in their own words: “CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end U.S. funded wars and occupations, to challenge militarism globally, and to redirect our resources into health care, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities. Won't you join us? Why women? CODEPINK is not exclusively women — we invite men to join us — -but we are particularly eager to see mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters, female workers, students, teachers, healers, artists, writers, singers, poets and all outraged woman rise up and oppose the global militarism” (see: http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?list=type&type=3 ).
CODEPINK has been given a Badge of Honor by being named in the “top 10 anti-Israel groups” by the falsely defaming, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish anti-Semitic, racist Zionist Anti-Defamation League (ADL) (Ilan Ben Zion, “Two Jewish organizations on the ADL’s list of “top 10 anti-Israel groups”, The Times of Israel, 21 October 2013: http://www.timesofisrael.com/adl-publishes-list-of-top-10-anti-israel-groups/ ).
CODEPINK Letter in support of Boycott of beauty products deriving from illegal Israeli Occupation of Palestinian territory: “Dear Store Manager, Your store carries products made by Ahava Dead Sea Laboraties, an Israeli company that is currently the target of an international boycott because it profits from the illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank. This letter is a request from CODEPINK Women for Peace (www.codepinkalert.org ) that you stop stocking these products.” [1] .
[1]. CODEPINK , “Stolen Beauty. Don’t buy Occcupation”: http://www.stolenbeauty.org/section.php?id=444 .
J.M. Coetzee (South African Literature Nobel Laureate) (2016): “Apartheid was a system of enforced segregation based on race or ethnicity put in place by an exclusive self-defined group in order to consolidate a colonial conquest, in particular to cement its hold on the land and its natural resources… To speak of Jerusalem and the West Bank, we see a system of enforced segregation based on religion and ethnicity put in place by an exclusive self-defined group to consolidate a colonial conquest, in particular to maintain, and indeed extend, its hold on the land and its natural resources" (J.M. Coetzee quoted in Iqbal Jassat, “Apartheid Israel: JM Coetzee Delivers A Devastating Blow”, Politicsweb, 29 May 2016: http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/apartheid-israel-jm-coetzee-delivers-a-devastating ).
John Ricardo I. "Juan" Cole (born: October 23, 1952) is an anti-racist, humanitarian American scholar, public intellectual, and historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia. He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Cole ).
Juan Cole on Israeli Apartheid (2013): “By denying the Palestinians a state, Israelis are actively destroying the Palestine they agreed to create in the Oslo Accords that Israel signed in 1993. Israelis prevent Gaza from exporting most of what it makes. The territory is denied an airport or seaport, and severe restrictions are placed on imports, plunging many of the Palestinians there into food insecurity and creating high incidences of anemia. In the West Bank, Israeli authorities are resorting to an ever more robust Israeli apartheid, which the world is signaling it will not accept… Because of overwhelming American support, especially in Congress, and because of the vast amounts of money and arms the U.S. has provided, fortress Israel can forge ahead with its colonization project if its leaders so choose. But Israel cannot escape the two inevitable consequences of this action. If it denies the Palestinians a state and insists on keeping Palestinian land, then it will become responsible for resolving the dire problem of Palestinian statelessness. And until it does that, Israel will increasingly be seen as an apartheid state and come under debilitating sanctions, first from civil society and then from governments.” [1].
Juan Cole on Israeli support for South African Apartheid (2013): The US considered the African National Congress to be a form of Communism, and sided with the racist Prime Ministers Hendrik Verwoerd and P.W. Botha against Mandela. Decades later, in the 1980s, the United States was still supporting the white Apartheid government of South Africa, where a tiny minority of Afrikaaners dominated the economy and refused to allow black Africans to shop in their shops or fraternize with them, though they were happy to employ them in the mines… Likewise British PM Margaret Thatcher befriended Botha and castigated Mandela’s ANC as terrorists. As if the Afrikaners weren’t terrorizing the black majority! She may have suggested to Botha that he release Mandela for PR purposes, but there is not any doubt on whose side she stood. The Israeli government had extremely warm relations with Apartheid South Africa, to the point where Tel Aviv offered the Afrikaners a nuclear weapon (presumably for brandishing at the leftist states of black Africa). That the Israelis accuse Iran of being a nuclear proliferator is actually hilarious if you know the history. Iran doesn’t appear ever to have attempted to construct a nuclear weapon, whereas Israel has hundreds and seems entirely willing to share.” [2].
[1]. Juan Cole, “Israel’s Apartheid deepens, along with its global isolation”, Truthdig, 12 December 2012: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/israels_apartheid_deepens_along_with_its_global_isolation_20121212 .
[2]. Juan Cole, “United States, Israel opposed Mandela, supported Apartheid”, Informed Comment, 6 December 2013: http://www.juancole.com/2013/12/mandela-supported-apartheid.html .
Jonathan Cook (born 1965) is a UK writer and a freelance journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, who writes about the Middle East and about Israel and Palestine in particular. He has a M.A. in Middle Eastern studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 2000 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Cook ).
Jonathan Cook on Apartheid in Israel (2010): “The pretty two-storey home with a red-tiled roof built by Adel and Iman Kaadan looks no different from the rows of other houses in Katzir, a small hilltop community in northern Israel close to the West Bank. But, unlike the other residents of Katzir, the Kaadans moved into their dream home this month only after a 12-year battle through the Israeli courts. The small victory for the Kaadans, who belong to Israel's Palestinian Arab minority, dealt a big blow to a state policy that for decades has reserved most of the country's land for Jews. Katzir is one of 695 so-called "co-operative associations", communities mostly established since Israel's creation in 1948, whose chief purpose is to bar non-Jews from residency.
In October, the Israeli parliament moved to enshrine in law the right of these associations, comprising nearly 70 per cent of all communities in Israel, to accept only Jews. The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved a private members' bill that will uphold the right of the communities' admissions committees to continue excluding Arab citizens, who make up one-fifth of the population. The bill is expected to pass its final reading in the coming weeks. Commentators have compared the legislation with South Africa's notorious apartheid laws such as the Group Areas Act. A leading jurist, Mordechai Kremnitzer, of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the bill gave off the "foul odour of racism". The legislation, both its supporters and opponents are agreed, is a rearguard action to prevent the possibility that other Arab citizens might be inspired to follow the Kaadans' example.
Israel Hasson, of the centrist Kadima party, who was among the bill's formulators, said it reflected "the state's commitment to the realisation of the Zionist vision" in Israel. That vision is embodied in a decades-old "Judaisation" programme to settle as many Jews as possible in the heavily Arab-populated north. Suhad Bishara, a lawyer with the Adalah legal centre for the Arab minority, said that the long-standing practice of using admissions committees to weed out applications from Arab citizens was being given legal standing for the first time. "This legislation makes clear in very blunt fashion that the thrust of policy in Israel is towards maintaining segregation in housing between Jewish and Arab citizens," she said. The question of control over land, Ms Bishara said, was felt especially keenly by the Arab minority, because the state had nationalised 93 per cent of all territory inside its recognised borders... The new legislation, known as the Admissions Committee Bill, is designed to pre-empt any ruling by the court. Gush Shalom, an Israeli peace group, said it would petition the Supreme Court to strike down the bill if, as expected, it becomes law in the next few weeks. The liberal Haaretz newspaper called the bill an "outrageous" attempt to preserve "Jewish purity" in communities such as Katzir and Rakafet. But the rightwing Jerusalem Post newspaper backed the legislation, saying Israeli Jews "should have the right to live in a community where they are not threatened by intermarriage or by becoming a cultural or religious minority". [1].
[1]. Jonathan Cook, “Apartheid Israel-style law to keep Jews and Arabs apart”, Global Research, 15 December 2010: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22412 .
Ismail Coovadia was a hero in the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa and a former South African Ambassador to Israel (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/vlazna300114A.htm ).
South African Ambassador to Israel, Ismail Coovadia who refused, on his retirement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and JNF honour of the customary planting of 18 trees in the Ambassador’s Forest and the later 3542 trees donated in his name with this ethical statement: "I have supported the struggle against Apartheid South Africa and now I cannot be a proponent of what I have witnessed in Israel, and that is, a replication of Apartheid!" [1].
[1]. Vacy Vlazna, “Jewish National Fund’s War Crimes Mission”, Countercurrents, 30 January 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/vlazna300114A.htm .
Edward C. Corrigan is a lawyer certified as a Specialist in Citizenship and Immigration Law and Immigration and Refugee Protection by the Law Society of Upper Canada in London, Ontario, Canada (see: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison ).
Edward. C. Corrigan on right-wing, pro-Zionist, Ontario, Canada MPs condemning those calling racist Israeli policies “Apartheid” (2 March 2010): “It is interesting to see what South Africans who actually lived under the apartheid system have to say about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. The natural basis of such kinship between the policies of Israel and South Africa was apparently recognized by the virulent supporter of apartheid and prime minister of South Africa, Hendrik Verwoerd. He noted in 1961 that Jews "took Israel from the Arabs after the Arabs had lived there for a thousand years. In that I agree with them, Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state."The much revered leader of the struggle against racism and apartheid in South Africa, and the first President of the non-racist Republic of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, had the following to say on the issue of the Palestinians, according to journalist John Pilger. "To Nelson Mandela," he wrote, justice for the Palestinians is "the greatest moral issue of our time"…There is much more debate and critical examination of Zionism and of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. The comparison between Israel's policies toward the Palestinians and to apartheid is a legitimate part of that debate and this is an analogy frequently used by Israelis and also by South Africans.” [1].
[1]. Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and partheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
Dr Ned Curthoys is an anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish Australian scholar who is a Research Fellow in the Research School of Humanities & the Arts, College of Arts and Social Sciences. According to the ANU website: “Ned Curthoys completed his PhD in the English Department at the University of Sydney in 2002. His doctorate focused on the dissemination of the humanist tradition of classical rhetoric into twentieth century literary theory, philosophy, and political theory. Post-PhD he has researched and published on the political theorist Hannah Arendt’s cross-cutting interests in literary narrative and biography. More recently he has published on various aspects of the German Jewish experience from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, returned to a long standing interest in Albert Camus and the Algerian war, and entered debates about the cross-cultural validity of secularism” (see: http://rsh.anu.edu.au/people/profile_system/public.php?id=123 ).
Dr Dr Ned Curthoys was a signatory to a letter by Australian academics urging boycotts against Israel (“Australian academics call for boycott of Israel”, The Electronic Intifada, 26 March 2009: http://electronicintifada.net/content/australian-academics-call-boycott-israel/949 ):
“Responding to the Call of Palestinian civil society to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, we are an Australian campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel):
In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and
In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions:
We scholars, inspired by the wishes of Palestinian civil society, call 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. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
These nonviolent 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 Palestinian and Arab lands and dismantling the Wall which separates Palestinians from their arable lands;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
The principles guiding our campaign and the three goals outlined above are also points of unity for the British, Canadian, and US Campaigns for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI, this statement is a modified version of theirs). There can be no academic freedom in Israel/Palestine unless all academics are free and all students are free to pursue their academic desires.
If you are committed to these principles of unity, and wish to work on a campaign of boycotting academic and cultural institutions guided by this approach, please join our campaign.
Gaza is but the latest incident in a series of ongoing Israeli massacres, from Deir Yassin (1948) to Kafr Kassim (1956) to Jenin (2002) to the wars on Lebanon (from 1980s to 2006). All demonstrate a pattern of violence by a state that will not end its violations of international law and war crimes on its own, without international pressure. We must act now. As academics we wish to focus on campaigns in our universities and in institutions of higher education to advocate for compliance with the academic and cultural boycott, a movement that is growing internationally across all segments of global civil society.
This call for an academic and cultural boycott parallels the call in the non-academic world for divestment, boycott and sanctions by trade unions, churches and other civil society organizations in countries such as the United States, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand.
Actions
Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state-controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence, we call upon our colleagues to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by applying the following:
1. Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;
2. Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;
3. Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by academic institutions;
4. Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;
5. Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
As educators and scholars of conscience in Australia, we fully support this call. We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel’s ongoing attacks on the rights of Palestinians to education, land, and human dignity, and to support the nonviolent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions.
Undersigned: Dr. Anthony Ashbolt, University of Wollongong; Jumana Bayeh, Macquarie University; Professor Ann Curthoys, The University of Sydney; Dr Ned Curthoys, Australian National University; Professor John Docker, The University of Sydney. Ann El Khoury, Macquarie University; Professor Heather Goodall, University of Technology, Sydney; Laila Hafez, University of Wollongong; Professor Terry Irving, University of Wollongong; Dr Evan Jones, The University of Sydney; Dr Jon Jureidini, University of Adelaide; Dr Ray Jureidini, American University in Cairo, Egypt; Professor Peter Manning, University of Technology, Sydney; Dr Morris Morley, Macquarie University; Dr David Palmer, University of Adelaide; Rosemary Pringle; Professor Lyndall Ryan, University of Newcastle; Dr Ron Witton, University of Wollongong.”
By his own testimony, “Lawrence Davidson was born in 1945 in Philadelphia PA. He grew up in Elizabeth NJ in a secular Jewish household. In 1963 he matriculated at Rutgers University for his BA. At Rutgers, Davidson developed a left leaning activist orientation to the problems facing the US in the 1960s. In 1967 he moved on to Georgetown University for his MA.
At Georgetown University he studied modern European intellectual history under the Palestinian ex-patriot Professor Hisham Sharabi. Sharabi and Davidson subsequently became close friends and one can date his interest in Palestinian, as well as Jewish and Zionist, issues from this time. His years at Georgetown (1968-1970) coincided with the height of the Vietnam war and Davidson became one of the founding members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Georgetown. Davidson managed to both strongly agitate against the Vietnam war and complete his MA during these years.
In 1970, with the breakup of the SDS, Davidson left the United States for Canada. This was a voluntary exile. He spent the next six years in Canada and obtained his PhD (1976), also in modern European Intellectual history, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. At that point he returned to the United States.
The mid 1970s was a bad time for the academic job market in history. Davidson spent several years as an adjunct instructor at various colleges and universities, as well as working for a time as a middle manager at Alexian Brothers Hospital, a Catholic hospital in St. Louis. Subsequently he was contracted to write the history of Alexian Brothers’ oldest hospital. This led to his first book length work, The Alexian Brothers of Chicago (1990). During this period he also published numerous articles in a number of different areas including medical history, history of education, US foreign policy and, increasingly, articles having to do with Zionism and the Palestinian question. Many of these latter pieces appear in the early issues of the Journal of Palestine Studies edited by Professor Sharabi.
In 1989 Davidson joined the faculty of history at West Chester University as a tenure track professor. He remained at this institution for 27 years and maintained an increasingly productive publishing record. He retired from WCU in May of 2013” (see: http://www.tothepointanalyses.com/biography ). Dr. Davidson has done extensive research and published in the areas of American perceptions of the Middle East, and Islamic Fundamentalism. His two latest publications are “Islamic Fundamentalism” (Greenwood Press, 1998) and “America's Palestine: Popular and Official Perceptions from Balfour to Israeli Statehood” (University Press of Florida, 2001). He has published thirteen articles on various aspects of American perceptions of the Middle East. Dr. Davidson holds a BA from Rutgers, an MA from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Alberta (see: http://mwcnews.net/component/comprofiler/userprofile/ldavidson1945.html ).
Dr Lawrence Davidson on the 8th anniversary of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement (2012): “The latest success in this effort came just recently, when two of the largest supermarket chains in the Netherlands announced they would no longer sell Israeli merchandise manufactured or grown in the Occupied Territories (OT). Indeed, so successful has BDS been that the Israeli government has established an official task force to counteract it. The European Union Makes a Move. Another recent event may be even more significant, because it suggests the potential for expanding BDS from the private to the public sphere. This was signaled when the European Union (EU) issued new rules for implementing certain categories of funding agreements with Israel. Funding of grants, prizes, loans and other financial cooperative ventures will now exclude Israeli institutions located in or doing business with the OT. I want to emphasize the notion of “potential” because the EU move is not a boycott action as such. It is a signal to Israel that the EU will not recognize Israel’s claim to any part of the Occupied Territories without a peace settlement, and therefore this move serves as a point of pressure on the Israeli government to give up its hubris and negotiate with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). By the way, the PNA as presently constituted is not a representative body and therefore has no legal authority to negotiate anything. However, the EU (along with the Israelis and the United States) persistently ignores this fact… Again, the BDS movement is only 8 years old. We can compare this to the more than 30 years it took the boycott of South Africa to end apartheid. So, comparatively, BDS is only at the beginning of its trek. Its fast start and ongoing achievements should bring hope and pride to those involved in the movement. They should also raise some serious second thoughts in the minds of those Israelis who think Netanyahu and his government of ideologues can prevent their country’s increasing isolation.” [1].
[1]. Dr Lawrence Davidson, The Boycott of Israel 8 years in”, MWC News, 28 July 2013: http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/29109-boycott-of-israel.html .
Angela Davis (African American scholar, author and renowned civil rights activist) supporting BDS against Apartheid Israel (2014): “In the US, there are some 2.5 million people in our country’s jails and prisons and military prisons, and jails in Indian country, and immigrant detention centers — on any given day, that is to say, there are 2.5 million people, approximately. It’s a daily census, so it doesn’t reflect the numbers of people who go through the system every week, or every month, or every year. The majority of those people are people of color. The fastest-growing sector consists of women, women of color. Many prisoners are queer, and trans — as a matter of fact, trans people of color are the group most likely to be arrested and imprisoned. Racism provides the fuel for the maintenance, reproduction and expansion of the prison industrial complex. And so, if we say, as we do, abolish the prison industrial complex, we should also say abolish apartheid. And end the occupation of Palestine. When we have, in the States, described the segregation in occupied Palestine, that so clearly mirrors the historical apartheid of racism in the southern United States of America, especially when we talk about this to black people, the response is often “why hasn’t anyone told us about this before? Why hasn’t anyone told us about the signs in occupied Palestine? And about the segregated express auto-highways? Why hasn’t anyone told us this before? ”And so, just as we say “never again” with the respect to the fascism that produced the Holocaust, we should also say “never again” with respect to apartheid, in the southern US. But that means, first and foremost, that we will have to expand and deepen our solidarities with the people of Palestine. People of all genders and sexualities. People inside and outside prison walls. Inside and outside the apartheid wall. Boycott G4S, support BDS, and finally, Palestine will be free” (transcript of Angela Davis speech in Nora Barrows-Friedman, “Angela Davis: “support BDS, and Palestine will be free””, Electronic Intifada podcast, 17 January 2014: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/angela-davis-support-bds-and-palestine-will-be-free ).
Dr Uri Davis is a philosophical anthropologist; honorary research fellow at the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Durham and at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.
He is the author of "Apartheid Israel: Possibilities For the Struggle Within" ( Zed Books). Uriel (Uri) Davis (born 1943 in Jerusalem, Palestine) is an academic and a civil rights activist in Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Middle East. He has served as Vice-Chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights and as lecturer in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, describes himself as "a Palestinian Hebrew national of Jewish origin, anti-Zionist, registered as Muslim and a citizen of an apartheid state - the State of Israel”, has been a member of Fatah since 1984, and was elected to the Revolutionary Council for the Palestinian party in 2009 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Davis
and http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/israels-apartheid/3451430 ).
According to an Australian ABC summary, "Uri Davis believes it's the truth that the state of Israel is possibly the last surviving apartheid state amongst the member states of the United Nations. He advocates international sanctions against the government of Israel, with the aim of dismantling the state's apartheid structures as a state for Jews only, and to assist the establishment of a democratic state of Palestine." . [1].
Uri Davis on Israeli Apartheid (2004): “The Geneva Accords fail to secure the removal of apartheid legislation from the Israeli statute books. Besides the Absentees Property Law mentioned earlier, key laws in this context are the World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency Status Law of 1952 and the Jewish National Fund Law of 1953. The Accords also fail to address the circumstances of the one million Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel (20 per cent of the total population of the pre-1967 Israel). While all Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel suffer the effects of Israeli apartheid legislation, some two hundred thousand among them suffer additional disabilities by virtue of being internally displaced persons. They are citizens of the State of Israel, yet, insofar as their pre-1948 property rights are con-cerned, their status is identical to that of the 1948 Palestine refugees. These fundamental omissions are likely to bring about the demise of the Geneva Accords, in a similar way as the Oslo Accords collapsed because a “peace process” and “interim arrangements” were used to avoid confronting the issues at the core of the Palestine question.” [2].
Uri Davis on the “political-Zionist apartheid JNF" and the Palestinian Genocide (2011): “On 30 March, Palestinians will celebrate the 35th anniversary of Land Day, commemorating the death of six Palestinian Arabs (five of whom were citizens of Israel) who actively resisted the decision of the Israeli Government in the 1970s to intensify the confiscation of Arab lands for settlements designated for “Jews” only. Also in March, the 81st issue of PYALARA’s Youth Times was printed, featuring Raniya Atallah’s splendid investigative report on the development of the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, nine kilometers north of Ramallah with a panoramic view of the Mediterranean, project of national importance and the symbol of the Palestinian right to build. On 8 February 2011, I published the summary of my research on Rawabi, and its acceptance of a large donation of pine trees from the Zionist charity the Jewish National Fund (JNF)… As I explained in my earlier article, the JNF is an organization largely behind the “greenwashing” of the expulsion of Palestinians from their villages by planting trees (mainly conifers), over the lands of many of the some 500 Palestinian Arab villages ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army in the 1948-49 war (the Palestinian Nakba) as well as by developing recreational parks named after various local and international dignitaries and after various member states of the United Nations. The JNF also developed Canada Park, this time over the ruins of and over the lands of the three Latrun villages of ‘Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army in the 1967 war. The mission of the political-Zionist apartheid JNF is the “redemption” of lands in “Eretz Israel,” including Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza and beyond for Jewish settlement. In accepting the donation of the JNF 3,000 saplings, Rawabi becomes complicit in the actions of the organization, particularly as cases go forward in the UK and Canada, seeking to have their charitable status revoked.” [3].
[1]. Dr Uri Davis, interviewed by Phillip Adams,“Israel’s Apartheid”, :Late Night Live, : http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/israels-apartheid/3451430 .
[2]. Uri Davis, “Apartheid Israel: a critical reading gof the Geneva Accords”, Peace News, March-May 2004: http://peacenews.info/node/3978/apartheid-israel-critical-reading-geneva-accords .
{3]. Uri Davis, “Rawabi remains settler-colonial sub-contractor”, BDS, 31 March 2011: http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/davis-rawabi-5931 .
[4]. Uri Davis, “Ten theses on the marketing of Israeli Apartheid as “The only democracy in the MiddleEast,” the question of support for the boycott of Israeli industrial, academic, cultural and scientific institutions and international U.N. sanctions against the rogue government of the state of Israel”: http://www.uridavis-official-website.info/ .
Junot Díaz (a Dominican-American writer, creative writing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), fiction editor at “Boston Review” and winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”) was signatory to American writers’ anti-apartheid Israel letter to PEN America and signed by 11 organizations, 61 individuals and 148 additional signatories) (2016): “To PEN American Center: We, the undersigned, including participants at PEN World Voices Festival, ask the Festival to reject support from the Embassy of Israel. The Embassy of Israel is listed among the “Champions” of the World Voices Festival, and as a sponsor of a panel. Given PEN American Center’s mission of supporting freedom of expression, it is deeply regrettable that the Festival has chosen to accept sponsorship from the Israeli government, even as it intensifies its decades-long denial of basic rights to the Palestinian people, including the frequent targeting of Palestinian writers and journalists… Since 2005, Palestinian civil society has called on people of conscience around the world to engage in a peaceful campaign of boycotting, divesting from, and sanctioning (BDS) Israel in order to force it to comply with international law and respect the rights of Palestinians now living under Israeli military occupation, as unequal citizens within Israel, or as refugees, denied their right to return to their homeland. The union representing Palestinian writers, the General Union of Palestinian Writers, actively supports this boycott call. We appeal to PEN American Center to honor this boycott call and refuse sponsorship by the Israeli embassy or any complicit Israeli institution for the 2016 World Voices Festival and for future PEN American Center activities… As with South Africa, where an international boycott played a crucial role in bringing an end to apartheid, we call on PEN American Center not to partner with the Israeli government or other complicit institutions until Israel fulfills its obligations under international law and fully recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to live in full equality and freedom in their homeland [signed by 11 organizations, 61 individuals and 148 additional signatories] (“Letter to PEN American Center: don’t partner with Israeli Government”, Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, 2016: https://adalahny.org/web-action/1376/letter-pen-american-center-don-t-partner-israeli-government ).
Sidumo Dlamini is currently President of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) (see: http://www.laborforpalestine.net/wp/2010/01/31/cosatu-president-sidumo-dlamini-addresses-gaza-reportback-isolate-apartheid-israel/ ).
1. COSATU President, Sidumo Dlamini on South African Labor support for Palestinians against Apartheid Israel (2010): “
Almost a year ago, Gaza was run down by the occupying forces of Israel in a barbaric show of might and in pursuit of their colonial expansionist ambitions. Schools, clinics, UN buildings, social services, water and electrical installations, cultural institutions and businesses literally crumbled under the weight of heavy bombs and artillery. Dangerous and banned warfare chemicals, like white phosphorus were used in an attempt to annihilate the entire population, in which case women and children were the worst victims. That was Israel at its best, doing what it knows best and what it has always done over the years to instil fear and terror amongst the occupied people.
Funded and supported by the US, Israel has no regard, whatsoever, for international law and continues to expand its colonial project to-date. Illegal settlements are all over Palestine and the inhumane treatment of the people of Gaza bears testimony to the savage occupation that some refuse to see, even when evidence is so naked...
COSATU has, on several occasions, been asked by opportunists why is it interested in a matter so far away from our land. The answer is simple, solidarity knows no boundaries or even geography, its about living people and their plight.
Our destiny is tied to theirs, our liberation is tied to theirs, our humanity is tied to theirs. Therefore, no worthy human being would tolerate the suffering and pain of others, wherever they are, worst still, those of us who have fought heroic struggles against apartheid, colonialism and occupation immediately feel it however far. We received solidarity from people we have never seen and were far away from Africa, let alone our country. They heard and responded to our cries. They did not ask how far are we from them. They asked what can we do to assist and they assisted, hence we are free.
Finally, dear comrades, we salute the courageous efforts of the Palestine Solidarity movement for organising these bold initiatives and they have our full support. We shall not be intimidated by attempts to silence us or some of our comrades. We shall be inspired to speak out even more louder and anger for the threat to deny us our right to shout loud against savagery.
We are here to affirm the correctness of our legend, Nelson Mandela’s words,“… our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”. On our part, we do not promise to do everything, but our most humble, yet effective contribution which we have no doubt shall make a decisive difference. Each one of us must do our part and together we shall conquer.
Amandla intifada!!” [1].
2. COSATU President, Sidumo Dlamini on Apartheid Israel and racist Zionism : "They support Zionism, a version of global racist domination and apartheid based on the doctrine that Jews are superior to Arabs and therefore have a right to oppress them and occupy their country." [2].
[1]. “COSATU President Sidumo Dlamini addresses Gaza reportback: Isolate Apartheid Israel!”, Labor for Palestine (US), 31 January 2010: http://www.laborforpalestine.net/wp/2010/01/31/cosatu-president-sidumo-dlamini-addresses-gaza-reportback-isolate-apartheid-israel/ .
[2]. Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and apartheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
Dr John Docker is an Honorary Professor in the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry at the University of Sydney. In 2002, he was part of a group calling for a boycott of visiting Israeli academics. According to the University of Sydney he “researches and writes in the fields of genocide and massacre studies, cultural theory, the Enlightenment, monotheism and polytheism, intellectual history, historiography, diaspora, ethnic and cultural identity, and the history of Zionism and Israel-Palestine” (see: http://sydney.edu.au/arts/history/staff/profiles/docker.shtml and http://hist-phil.arts.unsw.edu.au/staff/peter-slezak-160.html and http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/encounter/voices-of-dissent/3135248 ).
Dr John Docker was a signatory to a letter by Australian academics urging boycotts against Israel (“Australian academics call for boycott of Israel”, The Electronic Intifada, 26 March 2009: http://electronicintifada.net/content/australian-academics-call-boycott-israel/949 ):
“Responding to the Call of Palestinian civil society to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, we are an Australian campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel):
In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and
In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions:
We scholars, inspired by the wishes of Palestinian civil society, call 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. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
These nonviolent 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 Palestinian and Arab lands and dismantling the Wall which separates Palestinians from their arable lands;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
The principles guiding our campaign and the three goals outlined above are also points of unity for the British, Canadian, and US Campaigns for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI, this statement is a modified version of theirs). There can be no academic freedom in Israel/Palestine unless all academics are free and all students are free to pursue their academic desires.
If you are committed to these principles of unity, and wish to work on a campaign of boycotting academic and cultural institutions guided by this approach, please join our campaign.
Gaza is but the latest incident in a series of ongoing Israeli massacres, from Deir Yassin (1948) to Kafr Kassim (1956) to Jenin (2002) to the wars on Lebanon (from 1980s to 2006). All demonstrate a pattern of violence by a state that will not end its violations of international law and war crimes on its own, without international pressure. We must act now. As academics we wish to focus on campaigns in our universities and in institutions of higher education to advocate for compliance with the academic and cultural boycott, a movement that is growing internationally across all segments of global civil society.
This call for an academic and cultural boycott parallels the call in the non-academic world for divestment, boycott and sanctions by trade unions, churches and other civil society organizations in countries such as the United States, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand.
Actions
Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state-controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence, we call upon our colleagues to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by applying the following:
1. Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;
2. Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;
3. Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by academic institutions;
4. Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;
5. Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
As educators and scholars of conscience in Australia, we fully support this call. We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel’s ongoing attacks on the rights of Palestinians to education, land, and human dignity, and to support the nonviolent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions.
Undersigned: Dr. Anthony Ashbolt, University of Wollongong; Jumana Bayeh, Macquarie University; Professor Ann Curthoys, The University of Sydney; Dr Ned Curthoys, Australian National University; Professor John Docker, The University of Sydney; Ann El Khoury, Macquarie University; Professor Heather Goodall, University of Technology, Sydney; Laila Hafez, University of Wollongong; Professor Terry Irving, University of Wollongong; Dr Evan Jones, The University of Sydney; Dr Jon Jureidini, University of Adelaide; Dr Ray Jureidini, American University in Cairo, Egypt; Professor Peter Manning, University of Technology, Sydney; Dr Morris Morley, Macquarie University; Dr David Palmer, University of Adelaide; Rosemary Pringle; Professor Lyndall Ryan, University of Newcastle; Dr Ron Witton, University of Wollongong.”
Professor John Dugard (born in 1936 in Fort Beaufort) is a South African professor of international law. He has served as Judge ad hoc on the International Court of Justice and as a Special Rapporteur for both the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Law Commission. His main academic specializations are in Roman-Dutch law, public international law, jurisprudence, human rights, criminal procedure and international criminal law. He has written extensively on South African apartheid. He was former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Occupied Palestine (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dugard ).
1. John Dugard in a report on Occupied Palestine (February 2007): "It is difficult to resist the conclusion that many of Israel's laws and practices violate the 1966 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination.” [1].
2. John Dugan and his Report on Occupied Palestine (2007): “ Can it seriously be denied that the purpose [...] is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group (Jews) over another racial group (Palestinians) and systematically oppressing them? Israel denies that this is its intention or purpose. But such an intention or purpose may be inferred from the actions described in this report.” [1].
Professor John Dugard, Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Occupied Palestine: "But what is interesting is that every black South African that I've spoken to who has visited the Palestinian territory has been horrified and has said without hesitation that the system that applies in Palestine is worse." [2].
3. Professor John Dugard on the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid: “The Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (hereinafter Apartheid Convention) has it roots in the opposition of the United Nations to the discriminatory racial policies of the South African Government – known as apartheid – which lasted from 1948 to 1990. Apartheid was annually condemned by the General Assembly as contrary to Articles 55 and 56 of the Charter of the United Nations from 1952 until 1990; and was regularly condemned by the Security Council after 1960. In 1966, the General Assembly labelled apartheid as a crime against humanity (resolution 2202 A (XXI) of 16 December 1966) and in 1984 the Security Council endorsed this determination (resolution 556 (1984) of 23 October 1984). The Apartheid Convention was the ultimate step in the condemnation of apartheid as it not only declared that apartheid was unlawful because it violated the Charter of the United Nations, but in addition it declared apartheid to be criminal. The Apartheid Convention was adopted by the General Assembly on 30 November 1973, by 91 votes in favour, four against (Portugal, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States) and 26 abstentions. It came into force on 18 July 1976. As of August 2008, it has been ratified by 107 States… That the Apartheid Convention is intended to apply to situations other than South Africa is confirmed by its endorsement in a wider context in instruments adopted before and after the fall of apartheid. In 1977, Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 recognized apartheid as a “grave breach” of the Protocol (art. 85, paragraph 4 (c)) without any geographical limitation. Apartheid features as a crime in the Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind adopted by the International Law Commission on first reading in 1991 without any reference to South Africa and in 1996 the Draft Code adopted on second reading recognized institutionalized racial discrimination as species of crime against humanity in article 18 (f) and explained in its commentary that this “is in fact the crime of apartheid under a more general denomination”(Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its forty-eighth session (A/51/10), p. 49). In 1998, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court included the “crime of apartheid” as a form of crime against humanity (art. 7). It may be concluded that the Apartheid Convention is dead as far as the original cause for its creation – apartheid in South Africa – is concerned, but that it lives on as a species of the crime against humanity, under both customary international law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.” [3].
[1]. John Dugard, quoted in “John Dugard”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dugard .
[2]. Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and apartheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
[3]. John Dugard, “International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid”, Audiovisual Library of International Law: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html .
Durban III: in September 2011 the UN held the Durban III meeting on racism (World Conference on Racism) at UN Headquarters in New York. “Durban I” was the original 2001 meeting and “Durban II” was a review conference in Geneva in 2009, both conferences being subject to boycotts and walkouts by pro-Israel US Alliance members. 179 countries attended Durban III but 14 boycotted in support of genocidal, race-based Apartheid Israel, the boycotters in order of withdrawal being Canada, Israel, the U.S., the Czech Republic, Italy, Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Britain, New Zealand, France and Poland (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durban_III ). .
The Durban III conference agreed to “political commitment to the full and effective implementation of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action” which specified “Palestinian people under foreign occupation” as victims of racism. [1].
[1]. Patrick Goodenough, “Israel once again accused of “Apartheid” at U.N. racism meeting”, CNS News, 23 September 2011: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/israel-once-again-accused-apartheid-un-racism-meeting .
Haidar Eid (a member of The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and Al-Shabaka (The Palestinian Policy Network) Policy Adviser, and the author of “Worlding Postmodernism: Interpretive Possibilities of Critical Theory”) (2016): “Why boycott Apartheid Israel… I live in Gaza which has been under a hermetic Israeli siege for ten years. We have shortages of everything from electricity and water, to medicines and chocolate. Israel does not allow books and cement into Gaza, so we cannot nourish the brains of our children, nor can we build homes for them. Israel has been allowed to dehumanize and dispossess Palestinians for decades with impunity. US and international support have given Israel free rein to separate Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and 1948 and increase the number of Palestinian refugees whenever it felt like. But with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, we’re fighting back” (Haidar Eid, “Why boycott Apartheid Israel: a response top a liberal friend”, Palestinian Chronicle, 21 October 2016: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/boycott-apartheid-israel-response-liberal-friend/ ).
Haidar Eid (Palestinian writer, academic and humanitarian activist ) on the Gaza concentration camp (2019): “We have spent sleepless nights under Israeli bombs before - in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2018. On Saturday, apartheid Israel decided to launch yet another murderous campaign of bombardment against one of the most densely populated areas on earth… On Friday, like all the previous 57 Fridays, I joined thousands of peaceful protesters at the eastern fence of the Gaza concentration camp, where Israeli snipers shot and killed four Palestinians and injured 51, including children. One of those killed was 19-year-old Raed Abu Teir, who was walking on crutches, having been injured during previous protests… We will no longer allow Gaza to be severed from Palestine and the historical context behind the suffering of its people. This is not a "conflict", as the Israelis like to present it, with a hostile armed group. It is an occupation, launched by a settler-colonial power which seeks to ethnically cleanse an entire indigenous population in order to solidify and legitimise its colony. What is happening in Gaza is incremental genocide, not a "security operation". The barbaric massacres committed by apartheid Israel since 2006, have claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, including many children” (Haidar Eid, “Gaza has made its choice: it will continue to resist”, ”, Al Jazeera, 6 May 2019: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/gaza-choice-continue-resist-190506093125369.html ).
Hagai El-Ad (executive director of Israeli rights group B’Tselem) (2021): “Israel is not a democracy that has a temporary occupation attached to it. It is one regime between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and we must look at the full picture and see it for what it is: apartheid” (Oliver Holmes, “Israel is a non-democratic apartheid regime, says rights group””, Guardian, 12 January 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/12/israel-is-a-non-democratic-apartheid-regime-says-rights-group ).
Yves Engler (Canadian author of “Canada and Israel – Building Apartheid” and many other books) (2010): “How long Israel will continue in this geostrategic role for the US empire is unknown, but so long as it does, there will be a powerful force pushing Canada to be one-sidedly pro-Israel.” ( Yves Engler, “Canada and Israel – Building Apartheid”, Fernwood Publishing and RED Publishing, 2010; quoted in Montreal Serai, “Canada and Israel – Building Apartheid”, 28 September 2010: https://montrealserai.com/article/canada-and-israel-building-apartheid/ ).
“Yves Engler has signed, together with 500 artists, a call to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the state of Israel for the Israeli apartheid against Palestinians” (Yves Engler, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Engler ; see “500 artists against Israeli apartheid”, Tadamon, 25 February 2010: https://www.tadamon.ca/post/5824 ).
Brian Eno (Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno ) (born 15 May 1948) is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer, visual artist and a major innovator of ambient music (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno ).
Brian Eno advocating a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter to the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
Hedy Epstein (née Wachenheimer, born 15 August 1924 in Freiburg, Germany) is a Jewish American human rights activist, Holocaust survivor and activist for Palestinian human rights through the International Solidarity Movement (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Epstein ).
Hedy Epstein, Holocaust survivor, on maltreatment of Palestinians by Apartheid Israel (2008): “I was really not prepared for all the horrors that I saw. I had heard about checkpoints. And I thought a checkpoint was something like a toll booth on a highway here in the United States. It's not like that at all. And it's gotten worse every time I return. The way they are now, they remind me of when animals are rounded up and taken to slaughter, it's just so humiliating. “ [1].
[1]. Hedy Epstein, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
Professor Richard Falk is an outstanding Jewish American scholar: emeritus professor in international law at Princeton University, writer, the author or co-author of 20 books ) speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to2 UN positions on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Falk ). In 2008 this eminent Jewish international law scholar was arrested, imprisoned and deported by Apartheid Israel when he attempted to fulfil his role as UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Professor Richard Falk in “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust”: “There is little doubt that the Nazi Holocaust was as close to unconditional evil as has been revealed throughout the entire bloody history of the human species. Its massiveness, unconcealed genocidal intent, and reliance on the mentality and instruments of modernity give its enactment in the death camps of Europe a special status in our moral imagination … Against this background, it is especially painful for me, as an American Jew, to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as ‘holocaust’ … Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty … But Gaza is morally far worse[ than Darfur], although mass death has not yet resulted. It is far worse because the international community is watching the ugly spectacle unfold while some of its most influential members actively encourage and assist Israel in its approach to Gaza. Not only the United States, but also the European Union, are complicit, as are such neighbors as Egypt and Jordan … Israel is currently stiffening the boycott on economic relations that has brought the people of Gaza to the brink of collective starvation. This set of policies, carried on for more than four decades, has imposed a sub-human existence on a people that have been repeatedly and systematically made the target of a variety of severe forms of collective punishment.” [1].
Professor Richard Falk and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [2].
Professor Richard Falk report to the UN General Assembly (as UN Special Rapportuer on the Occupied Palestinians) on gross violation of Occupied Palestinians by Apartheid Israel (2010) “It is this general structure of apartheid that exists in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that makes the allegation increasingly credible despite the differences between the specific characteristics of South African apartheid and that of the Occupied Palestinian Territories regime. There is a question of definition as to whether Jews and Palestinians are “racial groups” within the meaning of these legal instruments. Some salient apartheid characteristics will be listed, although owing to limitations of space it is not possible to provide detailed accounts of these features of the occupation. For details on the apartheid character of the Israeli occupation, there exists an expert study that is both reliable and convincing. 13 Among the salient apartheid features of the Israeli occupation are the following: preferential citizenship, visitation and residence laws and practices that prevent Palestinians who reside in the West Bank or Gaza from reclaiming their property or from acquiring Israeli citizenship, as contrasted to a Jewish right of return that entitles Jews anywhere in the world with no prior tie to Israel to visit, reside and become Israeli citizens; differential laws in the West Bank and East Jerusalem favouring Jewish settlers who are subject to Israeli civilian law and constitutional protection, as opposed to Palestinian residents, who are governed by military administration; dual and discriminatory arrangements for movement in the West Bank and to and from Jerusalem; discriminatory policies on land ownership, tenure and use; extensive burdening of Palestinian movement, including checkpoints applying differential limitations on Palestinians and on Israeli settlers, and onerous permit and identification requirements imposed only on Palestinians; punitive house demolitions, expulsions and restrictions on entry and exit from all three parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” [3].
Professor Richard Falk urging divestment from corporations profiting from Israeli Militarism, Occuoation and Settlements (2013): "A few days ago I spoke to a student audience in support of a divestment resolution that was to be submitted for adoption at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The resolution was narrowly defeated the next day in the UCSB Student Senate, but this series of student initiated efforts to urge several campuses of the University of California to divest from corporations doing a profitable business selling military equipment to Israel represents an encouraging awakening on the part of American youth to the severe victimization of the Palestinian people by way of occupation, discrimination, refugee misery, and exile, a worsening set of circumstances that has lasted in its various forms for several decades, and shows no signs of ending anytime soon...
The Palestinian struggle for self-determination has become the great international moral issue of our time, a successor to the struggle in South Africa a generation ago against its form of institutionalized racism, the original basis of the international crime of apartheid. It is notable that the Statute of the International Criminal Court designates apartheid as one type of Crime Against Humanity, and associates it with any structure of discrimination that is based on ethnicity or religion, and not necessarily a structure exhibiting the same characteristics as present in South Africa. Increasingly, independent inquiry has concluded that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is accurately considered to be a version of apartheid, and hence an ongoing Crime Against Humanity.
It is against this background that divestment initiatives and the wider BDS Campaign take on such importance at this time, especially here in America where the governing authorities turn a blind eye to Israel’s wrongdoing" [4].
Professor Richard Falk on Israeli Apartheid: "By the 1973 Convention and the Rome Treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, apartheid is authoritatively considered one form of 'crime against humanity.' It does not depend on establishing a 'resemblance' to the racist structure that existed in South Africa during its apartheid period. What is necessary for the crime to be committed is systematic discrimination against a specific group identified by reference to ethnicity, race, religion, and encoded into its governing structure," and this systematic discrimination is what the people of Palestine have been long subjected to… ,settler only roads, the separation wall, checkpoints, and insecure residence permits, especially in Jerusalem are some of the expressions of this overtly discriminatory regime that would seem to qualify as a massive instance of the international crime of apartheid" [5].
Richard Falk (anti-racist Jewish American formerly international law and international relations professor at Princeton University, presently professor of Global and International Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara, Chair of the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, UN Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine, 2008-2014) (2019): “The Two State Solution should be pronounced ‘Dead.’ For several years, at least since the de facto abandonment of the Oslo diplomacy in 2014, the two-state solution cannot reasonably be continued to be put forward internationally and in liberal Zionist circles as a viable political option. Yet it continues to be affirmed by many governments and at the UN. This is not because there is any informed belief that it might finally happen, but rather because every other outcome seemed impossible, too horrible to contemplate, or calls upon Israel to give up its claim to be an exclusivist Jewish state … The strength of the Palestinian national movement is, and always has been, on the level of people as fortified by the growing international moral consensus that Israeli apartheid colonialism is wrong, indeed a crime against humanity according to international criminal law [see Article 7 of the Rome Statute governing the International Criminal Court and the International Apartheid Convention of 1973 on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid]. It is this bottom up process of struggle, spearheaded by Palestinian resistance and given leverage by global solidarity initiatives such as the BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions] Campaign as it gains momentum and heightens pressure… In light of these conclusions, what Is the best course of action? It would seem that only a democratic and secular single state could uphold self-determination for both peoples, holding out a promise of sustainable peace. It would need to be carefully envisioned and promoted with international safeguards along the path toward realization … In such a binational (one state, two nations) situation, the newly created single state could offer national homelands to Jews and Palestinians, while finding a name for the new state that is congenial to both peoples. Maybe this will never happen, but it is the most just and sustainable vision of a peaceful future that responds to decades of diplomatic failure, massive Palestinian suffering and abuse. Above all, such a solution recognizes that is people that possess the moral authority and fulfill political promise of national resistance and global solidarity. Such an understanding would be tantamount to a legislative victory by that still unacknowledged, yet powerful, Parliament of Humanity” (Richard Falk, “Can we igaine a just peace for Palestine?”, Countercurrents, 2 March 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/03/02/can-we-imagine-a-just-peace-for-palestine/ ).
[1]. Richard Falk, “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust “, The Translational Foundation for Peace and Future research (TFF), 29 Jiune 2007: http://www.transnational.org/Area_MiddleEast/2007/Falk_PalestineGenocide.html .
[2]. Letter from Richard Falk with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, and Howard Zinn re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, Califoirnai, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[3] Richard Falk, “Report of the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967”, UN General Assembly (2010) : http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/downloads/other_reports/report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territories-occupied-since-1967.pdf .
[4]. Richard Falk, "" Divestment at UCSB. Moving Toward Divestment from Corporations Profiting from Israeli Militarism, Occupation, and Settlements", MWC News, 16 April 2013:
http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/26191-divestment-at-ucsb.html.
[5]. Richard Falk quoted in Kourosh Ziabari, “Has Israel Turned Into An Apartheid Regime?”, Countercurrents, 14 August 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/ziabari140814.htm .
Sophie Fiennes (Sophia Victoria Twisleton Wykeham-Fiennes; born 12 February 1967) is an English film director and producer (e.g. Channel 4 TV production “Because I Sing”) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Fiennes ).
Sophie Fiennes advocating a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter to the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
Richard Ford (American writer, author of “Independence Day”, Pulitzer Prize winner, and PEN Member) was signatory to American writers’ anti-apartheid Israel letter to PEN America and signed by 11 organizations, 61 individuals and 148 additional signatories) (2016): “To PEN American Center: We, the undersigned, including participants at PEN World Voices Festival, ask the Festival to reject support from the Embassy of Israel. The Embassy of Israel is listed among the “Champions” of the World Voices Festival, and as a sponsor of a panel. Given PEN American Center’s mission of supporting freedom of expression, it is deeply regrettable that the Festival has chosen to accept sponsorship from the Israeli government, even as it intensifies its decades-long denial of basic rights to the Palestinian people, including the frequent targeting of Palestinian writers and journalists… Since 2005, Palestinian civil society has called on people of conscience around the world to engage in a peaceful campaign of boycotting, divesting from, and sanctioning (BDS) Israel in order to force it to comply with international law and respect the rights of Palestinians now living under Israeli military occupation, as unequal citizens within Israel, or as refugees, denied their right to return to their homeland. The union representing Palestinian writers, the General Union of Palestinian Writers, actively supports this boycott call. We appeal to PEN American Center to honor this boycott call and refuse sponsorship by the Israeli embassy or any complicit Israeli institution for the 2016 World Voices Festival and for future PEN American Center activities… As with South Africa, where an international boycott played a crucial role in bringing an end to apartheid, we call on PEN American Center not to partner with the Israeli government or other complicit institutions until Israel fulfills its obligations under international law and fully recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to live in full equality and freedom in their homeland [signed by 11 organizations, 61 individuals and 148 additional signatories] (“Letter to PEN American Center: don’t partner with Israeli Government”, Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, 2016: https://adalahny.org/web-action/1376/letter-pen-american-center-don-t-partner-israeli-government ).
FOX. Stefanie Fox, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for
Peace (2023): “Our outrage at
Smotrich includes a determination to end our own complicity in the system he
represents. We can stop the flow of money and support backing Israeli
Apartheid: from the U.S. congress sending nearly $4 billion a year in taxpayer
dollars to the hundreds of states, cities, unions, and organizations that
invest in Israel Bonds. And as American Jews, we call on our communities and
organizations to root out our own ongoing complicity in this government set on
pursuing Jewish supremacy and domination. From the Israel Bonds we got when we
turned 13, to the investments of Jewish Federations, the choice is clear:
divest now” ( Jewish Voice for Peace, “JVP rabbis teach Torah of Divestment at
hotel as Smotrich speaks at Israel Bonds fundraiser”, Press release, 12 March
FRANKL. Evie Frankl, member, Jewish
Voice for Peace – DC Metro (2023): “As anti-Zionist Jews, we’re here to call for immediate
divestment from Israeli apartheid and Israel bonds. That means no money going
to a state that assists in pogroms on Palestinian villages and makes genocidal
threats. Smotrich’s appearance at the Israel Bonds conference makes it more
clear than ever — support for Israel bonds is support for Israeli apartheid.
It’s long past time to divest” ( Jewish Voice for Peace, “JVP rabbis teach
Torah of Divestment at hotel as Smotrich speaks at Israel Bonds fundraiser”,
Press release, 12 March 2023: https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/03/torah-of-divestment/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=torah-of-divestment .)
Dr Seth Frantzman (Jewish Israeli researcher and Jerusalem Post journalist specializing in the Middle East with a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) on annexed but non-voting Palestinians in Apartheid Israel-annexed East Jerusalem and environs who have been forcibly and war criminally made Israeli citizens (2016): “ Israel expanded the municipal borders of Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed the city in 1980. … Ok, so Israel has 300,000 Arabs living in Jerusalem who were annexed without asking them if they wanted to be annexed. They don’t get to vote in Knesset elections, but they get a right to have Jerusalem IDs and be permanent residents. So they are half citizens. “But they can receive Israeli citizenship,” says the pro-Israel speaker. Actually that used to be the case, until thousands of them began applying every year and then the acceptance rate dropped to 2.9%. In the first half of 2016 only 4 Arabs in Jerusalem received citizenship. So the policy in Jerusalem is to run the lives of Arab lives in East Jerusalem without granting them citizenship and full rights. Meanwhile 300,000 Israeli Jews have built homes in East Jerusalem. The policy in East Jerusalem is also severe neglect of Arab neighborhoods. Only 1.5% of Arabs vote in municipal elections, a symbol of their rejection of Israeli rule. Some whole neighborhoods of Arabs in Jerusalem are walled off from the city they are supposed to be residents of. So they reside outside the “security fence,” and don’t receive city services but are residents of the city. That’s Israel’s policy. In Shuafat in Kafr Aqab and East Jerusalem” (Seth Frantzman, “It’s easy to shout at the UN; but what is Israel’s policy in the West Bank? Nada”, Seth Frantzman, 25 December 2016: https://sethfrantzman.com/2016/12/25/its-easy-to-shout-at-un-but-what-is-israels-policy-in-west-bank-nada/ ).
Eduardo Galeano (Eduardo Hughes Galeano; born September 3, 1940) is a Uruguayan journalist, writer, novelist and author of “ Memoria del fuego” (“Memory of Fire Trilogy”, 1986) and “Las venas abiertas de América Latina” (“Open Veins of Latin America”, 1971) which have been translated into twenty languages (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano ).
Eduardo Galeano advocating a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter to the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
Arun Manilal Gandhi (born April 14, 1934, Durban, South Africa) is the fifth grandson of the revered Mahatama Mohandas Gandhi through his second son Manilal. He is also a political activist. In 1987, Arun Gandhi moved to the US with his wife, Sunanda to University of Mississippi. To study the sorts of prejudices that existed in India, the US, and South Africa. Afterward they moved to Memphis, Tennessee and founded the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence hosted by the Christian Brothers University, a Catholic academic institution. This institute was dedicated to applying the principles of nonviolence. at both local and global scales. In 2007, after the passing of his wife, the institute moved to Rochester, New York, and is currently located on the University of Rochester River Campus. He was removed from being head of this institute after making comments critical of the “culture of violence” supported by Israel and its racist Zionist supporters (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arun_Manilal_Gandhi ).
Arun Gandhi on Apartheid Israel: "When I come here and see the situation [in the Palestinian territories], I find that what is happening here is 10 times worse than what I had experienced in South Africa. This is Apartheid." [1].
[1]. Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and apartheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
This “Gaza Concentration Camp” page exists to document the opinions of expert observers who correctly apply the descriptive “Gaza Concentration Camp” and like descriptives such as "blockaded Gaza", "siege on Gaza" and "open air prison" to the Gaza Strip that is surrounded and cruelly blockaded by war criminal, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and grossly human rights–abusing Apartheid Israel and by similarly war criminal, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and grossly human rights–abusing Fascist Egypt.
To put the Gaza Concentration Camp into the wider context of the genocidal crimes of Apartheid Israel below is a 2017 update on Israeli Apartheid and the ongoing Palestinian Genocide:
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and National Population Committee. The International Population Day 11/07/2017: “The Estimated Population of Palestine by mid-2017 was about 4.95 Million. Based on estimates prepared by PCBS according to the results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census of 2007, the total population of Palestine by mid-2017 was about 4.95 million; 2.52 million males and 2.43 million females. The estimated population of West Bank was 3.01 million of which 1.53 million males and 1.48 million females, while the estimated population of Gaza Strip totaled 1.94 million of which 988 thousand males and 956 thousand females”.
The population of Apartheid Israel proper in 2017 was 8.7 million, this comprising 6.6 million Jews, 1.8 million Indigenous Palestinians and 0.4 million non-Jews and non-Arabs (see “Vital statistics: latest population statistics for Israel”, Jewish Virtual Library: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/latest-population-statistics-for-israel ).
Thus the total Palestinian population of 6.8 million in Greater Apartheid Israel is 6.8 million x 100/13.7 million = 50% of the population of Greater Apartheid Israel, but 5.0 million Occupied Palestinians or 74% of the Palestinian subjects of neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel are excluded by the neo-Nazi Zionists from voting for the government ruling them.
The GDP per capita is US$2,800 for Occupied Palestinians as compared to US$39,000 for Apartheid Israel and Apartheid Israel deliberately kills about 5,000 Occupied Palestinians each year, 10% through violence and 90% through imposed deprivation. About 90% of the land of Palestine has now been ethnically cleansed of Indigenous Palestinians by nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel in a Nazi-style process involving invasion, occupation, gross mendacity, racism, intimidation, gross human rights abuse, mass abuse of women, mass child abuse, blackmail, ethnic cleansing, theft, illegality, torture, violence, killing, home destruction, land seizure, concentration camps, ghettoes, highly abusive military rule, and Jews-only segregation in gross violation of International Law, the UN Genocide Convention, the Geneva Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the UN Charter, numerous International Court of Justice decisions, General Assembly motions and Resolution 2334 of the UN Security Council that was passed unanimously except for US abstention (see Gideon Polya, “End 50 years of genocidal Occupation & human rights abuse by US-backed Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents, 9 June 2017: http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/06/09/end-50-years-of-genocidal-occupation-human-rights-abuse-by-us-backed-apartheid-israel/ )… [many opinions listed here: “Gaza Concentration Camp”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/gaza-concentration .]
Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) was a famed Jewish South African writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991 and was a vigorous anti-apartheid activist (see: http://www.newstatesman.com/africa/2010/06/interview-life-world-vote ).
Nadine Gordimer in 2008 controversially broke the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and attended a writers’ conference there on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the invasion-, dispossession-, race- and genocide-based apartheid state. Nadine Gordimer commented “I decided to come under a lot of pain, which I felt due to the fact that friends, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, told me not to come”. Asked about use of the term “apartheid” for the race-based state and its appalling treatment of Indigenous Palestinians, Nadine Gordimer and replied: “To me, it is accurate in one sense. The way people are treated in the occupied territories is exactly the way the blacks were treated in South Africa” [1].
Outstanding anti-racist Jewish American human rights activist, lawyer, author, investigative journalist and critic of western imperialism, Apartheid Israel and the US surveillance state, Glenn Greenwald, writing in the UK Guardian (2013): “Israel’s defense minister warned Tuesday that if Israel does not achieve a peace deal with the Palestinians, it will be either a binational state or an undemocratic apartheid state. . . .“The simple truth is, if there is one state” including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, “it will have to be either binational or undemocratic. . . . if this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.” Writing about the Israel/apartheid controversy without mentioning Barak’s recent statement would be like writing a column about the Senate reconciliation process without mentioning health care, or writing about the U.S. military’s counter-insurgency doctrine without mentioning Afghanistan… there has been an intense campaign to demonize those who analogize Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to apartheid (as Carter did, in the same way as Barak). That demonization campaign becomes impossible if Israel’s own Defense Minister makes exactly the same point… Barak’s willingness to explicitly raise the comparison that is all but off-limits in American political discussion once again illustrates the bizarre fact that debates over Israeli policies are far more permissive and open in Israel than they are in the United States” (Glenn Greenwald, “Dredging up the Israel/Apartheid question:, Salon, 2 March 2010: http://www.salon.com/2010/03/02/israel_29/ ).
Glenn Greenwald (an anti-racist Jewish American lawyer and writer , an editor of “The Intercept”, and famous for publishing documents obtained by Edward Snowden) (2016): “There has been no progress toward a two-state solution for many years. The composition of Israel’s Jewish population — which has become far more belligerent and right-wing than previous generations — has increasingly moved the country further away from that goal. There are key ministers in Israel’s government, including its genuinely extremist justice minister, who are openly and expressly opposed to a two-state solution. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has himself repeatedly made clear he opposes such an agreement, both in words and in deeds. In sum, Israel intends to continue to rule over and occupy Palestinians and deny them self-governance, political liberties, and voting rights indefinitely. Whether despite this aggression and oppression, or because of it, the Obama administration has continually protected Israel with unstinting loyalty and lavished it with arms and money… Even as Western consensus continues to revere the most stalwart supporters of South Africa’s apartheid regime — Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Shimon Peres — it at least now regards apartheid itself in that country as a historic disgrace. History should regard those enabling Israel’s own march to permanent apartheid in exactly the same light. The most aggressive and consistent enablers of this apartheid are found at the top of the U.S. political class” (Glenn Greenwald, “U.S. admits Israelis building permanent apartheid regime – weeks after giving it $38 billion”, The Intercept, 7 October 2016: https://theintercept.com/2016/10/06/u-s-admits-israel-is-building-permanent-apartheid-regime-weeks-after-giving-it-38-billion/ ).
Jeff Halper (born 1946) is a Jewish American and Jewish Israeli anthropologist, author, lecturer, political activist, and co-founder and Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Halper ).
Jeff Halper on the Palestinian Genocide by Apartheid Israel (2002): “The message of the bulldozers is: “You do not belong here. We uprooted you from your homes in 1948 and prevented your return, and now we will uproot you from all of the Land of Israel.” … And that is why house demolitions remain so prominent, the bulldozer beside the tank. Because in the end this process of reoccupation is one of displacement.” [1].
Jeff Halper (an anti-racist Jewish American Israeli, professor of anthropology, lecturer, political activist, author of several books and co-founder (1997) and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD)) on Israeli Apartheid (2015): “Israel is an apartheid state implementing a Matrix of Control which transforms the Occupied Palestinian Territory into probably the most monitored, controlled and militarised place on earth. It epitomises the dream of every general, security expert and police officer to be able to exercise total biopolitical control. In a situation where the local population enjoys no effective legal protections or privacy, they and their lands become a laboratory where the latest technologies of surveillance, control and suppression are perfected and showcased, giving Israel an edge in the highly competitive global market” [2].
[1]. Jeff Halper quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
[2]. Jeff Halper, “War against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification”, Pluto Press, 2015, p.143; quoted in Gareth W.R. Smith, “Apartheid Israel doesn’t need defending, Palestine does”, Echonetdaily, 20 January 2017: https://www.echo.net.au/2017/01/apartheid-israel-doesnt-need-defending-palestine/ .
Stephen Hawking, according to Wikipedia: “Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author. Among his significant scientific works have been a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularities theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set forth a cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He is a vocal supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics… Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; his A Brief History of Time stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking has a motor neuron disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years. He is almost entirely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device. He married twice and has three children.” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking ).
Stephen Hawking in the letter to organizers of the fifth President’s Conference in Jerusalem: “I have received a number of emails from Palestinian academics. They are unanimous that I should respect the boycott. In view of this I must withdraw from the conference.” [1].
[1]. Stephen Hawking quoted in Jonny Paul, “Stephen Hawking reaffirms support of Israel boycott”, Jerusalem Post, 8 May 2013: http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Stephen-Hawking-reaffirms-support-of-Israel-boycott-312505 .
Professor Kamel Hawwash (British Palestinian engineering academic, University of Birmingham, UK) on Apartheid Israel (2018): “Remember the date, 19 July 2018 is when Israel’s pretense of democracy, the Knesset passed the Nation State Bill, which could more aptly be called, the “Jewish State Apartheid Law” where Jews dominate the Israeli Palestinian Arabs who are lesser than them, even if they are citizens. I deliberately did not say Israeli Jews because the law gives all rights in historic Palestine to Jews, not only in Israel but across the world, including those Jews that do not identify with the state. My mother, who was born in Jerusalem before Israel was created, has no rights in the Holy city or her homeland but a Jewish lady with no connection to Israel can “return”, to a place she does not come from. The invaders, since they were not invited into our homeland, have enshrined the right to have my Palestinian homeland as theirs in law and also annulled my mother’s right to return, which is enshrined not in state but in international law. I can hear cries of “this is the Jewish homeland because we were here thousands of years ago”, really? If Jews – and it is only Zionists – believe they are entitled to return after thousands of years -which I reject – then how can they deny Palestinians the right to return after 71 years? In fact UN resolution 194 enshrined in international law gives Palestinians the Right of Return but there is no reference in international law to Jews having a “right to return” to historic Palestine. Let me be clear, I am not denying Jewish, Christian or Muslim connection to holy sites in historic Palestine. However, Palestinians reject the notion of singling Jews out for a “right of return” to our homeland now and forever. No other people are afforded the right to a freehold on a plot of land forever and Jews should be no different… All states, but particularly those that claim to be western style democracies, should have severed relations with Apartheid Israel, including those Arab states that have established relations with it.As for the rest of those that support Israel both as individuals and organisations, enough is enough. This Israel is not a state that anyone can support or declare a friend. In particular, “friends of Israel” groups in UK political parties should shut themselves down or rename themselves appropriately as “Friends of Apartheid Israel”. That is what it should say on the tin. Honourable and Right Honourable members should then resign from these racism-supporting groups and instead join the BDS movement. If Apartheid Israel is tolerated, next it will be Apartheid Myanmar and the door will be open for other states to court Apartheid. For the sake of our children let us not allow racism to be tolerated anywhere.” (Kamel Hawwash, “Israel challenges the world: I am an apartheid state, what are you going to do about it?”, Middle East Monitor, 23 July 2018: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180723-israel-challenges-the-world-i-am-an-apartheid-state-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it/ ). [Editor: The World’s answer – apply BDS to Apartheid Israel and all its supporters]
Oliver Holmes (Jerusalem correspondent for the UK Guardian) (2019): “One-state solution gains ground as Palestinians battle for equal rights. Belief in two-state solution crumbles as 600,000 settlers remain on occupied land… When polled, a majority of Palestinians do not see that [2-state solution] as a possibility. Roughly 600,000 Israeli settlers now live on occupied land with no intention of leaving. Meanwhile, Israeli politicians in cabinet talk about annexing vast swathes of the West Bank. “Almost nobody believes in the two-state solution anymore,” [Fadi] Quran says” (Oliver Holmes, “One-state solution gains ground as Palestinians battle for equal rights”, Guardian, 14 March 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/13/one-state-solution-gains-ground-as-palestinians-battle-for-equal-rights ).
Oliver Holmes (journalist for the UK Guardian) (2021): Israel is not a democracy but an “apartheid regime” that enforces Jewish supremacy over all the land it controls, a leading domestic rights group has alleged in a position paper bound to provoke fierce controversy. One organising principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians,” said B’Tselem, an organisation that documents human rights violations… In 2017, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia became the first UN body to accuse Israel of apartheid, a crime under international law, a move that Israel’s former foreign ministry spokesperson likened to Nazi propaganda. The UN’s leadership did not support the publication of the report, which was later from its website… • This article was amended on 12 January 2021 to add text clarifying that the 2017 UN report that accused Israel of apartheid was not supported by the body’s leadership and was later removed from the UN website” (Oliver Holmes, “Israel is a non-democratic apartheid regime, says rights group””, Guardian, 12 January 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/12/israel-is-a-non-democratic-apartheid-regime-says-rights-group ).
Tikva Honig-Parnass (anti-racist Jewish Israeli socialist activist and member of the Israeli Socialist Organization Matzpen (“Compass”); she is also a veteran of the 1948 War)(2019): “The Israeli regime encompasses by now all historical Palestine—from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. Israel has settled half a million of its own citizens there; it has extended its own laws there and uses aquifers and airspace there every single day. In practice, Israel has annexed the West Bank without officially declaring it. Many among the left Zionists adhere to the misleading claim that the West Bank (and Gaza) are exterior to the state of Israel and that the 1967 occupation is only temporary and eventually these areas will constitute the independent Palestinian state. They thus conceal the fact that these areas have in fact been annexed and are part and parcel of Greater Israel—something that allows them to retain the image of Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East.” Zionism has enforced its government on different parts of Palestine in different historical stages. Hence the different levels of civil rights and civil status of the Palestinian inhabitants of these parts—from no civil rights in the West Bank and Gaza, to formal citizenship granted to the remaining Palestinians after the Nakba of 1948, something that was a condition imposed on Israel in order to be accepted as a member of the United Nations. Therefore, the discussion of Israel’s democracy must include both the obvious and observable apartheid regime in the 1967 Occupied Territories—to which the left abroad is willing to admit—and the somewhat masked apartheid within the Green Line (“Israel Proper”), which they are reluctant to depict as such and still regard as a democracy” (Tikva Honig-Parnass interviewed by Leo Fischer, “Apartheid Israel and the contradictions of left Zionism”, International Socialist Review, Issue #72, 2 May 2019: https://isreview.org/issue/72/apartheid-israel-and-contradictions-left-zionism ) [the last issue after 22 years: https://isreview.org/issue/72 ].
The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) is South Africa's statutory research agency, conducts research that generates critical and independent knowledge relative to all aspects of human and social development (see: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/index.phtml ).
The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) on Apartheid Israel (2009): “The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) has released a study indicating that Israel is practicing both colonialism and apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The study is being posted for public debate on this website.
The interim report, which will form part of a discussion at an upcoming HSRC conference on the subject, titled Re-envisioning Israel/Palestine, on 13 and 14 June in Cape Town, serves as a document to be finalised later this year.
The HSRC commissioned an international team of scholars and practitioners of international public law from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Israel and the West Bank to conduct the study. The resulting 300-page draft, titled Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid?: A re-assessment of Israel's practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law, represents 15 months of research and constitutes an exhaustive review of Israel's practices in the OPT according to definitions of colonialism and apartheid provided by international law. The project was suggested originally by the January 2007 report by eminent South African jurist John Dugard, in his capacity as Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Council, when he indicated that Israel practices had assumed characteristics of colonialism and apartheid.
Regarding colonialism, the team found that Israel's policy and practices violate the prohibition on colonialism which the international community developed in the 1960s in response to the great decolonisation struggles in Africa and Asia. Israel's policy is demonstrably to fragment the West Bank and annex part of it permanently to Israel, which is the hallmark of colonialism. Israel has appropriated land and water in the OPT, merged the Palestinian economy with Israel's economy, and imposed a system of domination over Palestinians to ensure their subjugation to these measures. Through these measures, Israel has denied the indigenous population the right to self-determination and indicated clear intention to assume sovereignty over portions of its land and natural resources. Permanent annexation of territory in this fashion is the hallmark of colonialism.
Regarding apartheid, the team found that Israel's laws and policies in the OPT fit the definition of apartheid in the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. Israeli law conveys privileges to Jewish settlers and disadvantages Palestinians in the same territory on the basis of their respective identities, which function in this case as racialised identities in the sense provided by international law. Israel's practices are corollary to five of the six 'inhuman acts' listed by the Convention. A policy of apartheid is especially indicated by Israel's demarcation of geographic ‘reserves' in the West Bank, to which Palestinian residence is confined and which Palestinians cannot leave without a permit. The system is very similar to the policy of ‘Grand Apartheid' in apartheid South Africa, in which black South Africans were confined to black homelands delineated by the South African government, while white South Africans enjoyed freedom of movement and full civil rights in the rest of the country.
The Executive Summary of the report says that the three pillars of apartheid in South Africa are all practiced by Israel in the OPT. In South Africa, the first pillar was to demarcate the population of South Africa into racial groups, and to accord superior rights, privileges and services to the white racial group. The second pillar was to segregate the population into different geographic areas, which were allocated by law to different racial groups, and restrict passage by members of any group into the area allocated to other groups. And the third pillar was "a matrix of draconian ‘security' laws and policies that were employed to suppress any opposition to the regime and to reinforce the system of racial domination, by providing for administrative detention, torture, censorship, banning, and assassination."
The Report finds that Israeli practices in the OPT exhibit the same three 'pillars' of apartheid:
The first pillar "derives from Israeli laws and policies that establish Jewish identity for purposes of law and afford a preferential legal status and material benefits to Jews over non-Jews".
The second pillar is reflected in "Israel's 'grand' policy to fragment the OPT [and] ensure that Palestinians remain confined to the reserves designated for them while Israeli Jews are prohibited from entering those reserves but enjoy freedom of movement throughout the rest of the Palestinian territory. This policy is evidenced by Israel's extensive appropriation of Palestinian land, which continues to shrink the territorial space available to Palestinians; the hermetic closure and isolation of the Gaza Strip from the rest of the OPT; the deliberate severing of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank; and the appropriation and construction policies serving to carve up the West Bank into an intricate and well-serviced network of connected settlements for Jewish-Israelis and an archipelago of besieged and non-contiguous enclaves for Palestinians".
The third pillar is "Israel's invocation of 'security' to validate sweeping restrictions on Palestinian freedom of opinion, expression, assembly, association and movement [to] mask a true underlying intent to suppress dissent to its system of domination and thereby maintain control over Palestinians as a group."
The research team included scholars and international lawyers based at the HSRC, the School for Oriental and African Studies (London), the British Institute for International and Comparative Law, the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Durban), the Adalah/Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and al-Haq/West Bank Affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists. Consultation on the study's theory and method was provided by eminent jurists from South Africa, Israel and Europe.
The HSRC serves as the national social science council for South Africa. The Middle East Project of the HSRC is an independent two-year project to conduct analysis of Middle East politics relevant to South African foreign policy, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Government of South Africa. The analysis in this report is entirely independent of the views or foreign policy of the Government of South Africa and does not represent an official position of the HSRC. It is intended purely as a scholarly resource for the South African government and civil society and the concerned international community.” [1].
Human Rights Watch (2021): “About 6.8 million Jewish Israelis and 6.8 million Palestinians live today between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, an area encompassing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the latter made up of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Throughout most of this area, Israel is the sole governing power; in the remainder, it exercises primary authority alongside limited Palestinian self-rule. Across these areas and in most aspects of life, Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution…
The international community has for too long explained away and turned a blind eye to the increasingly transparent reality on the ground. Every day a person is born in Gaza into an open-air prison, in the West Bank without civil rights, in Israel with an inferior status by law, and in neighboring countries effectively condemned to lifelong refugee status, like their parents and grandparents before them, solely because they are Palestinian and not Jewish. A future rooted in the freedom, equality, and dignity of all people living in Israel and the OPT will remain elusive so long as Israel’s abusive practices against Palestinians persist...
The HRW Report has summarized the Israeli apartheid system thus: “Jewish Israelis. Free to live throughout Israel, Jerusalem & most of the West Bank… Palestinian citizens of Israel. Barred effectively from hundreds of small Jewish towns in Israel & largely concentrated on 3% of the land… East Jerusalem residents. Israel guarantees residency rights to Jewish Israelis but for Palestinians residency is conditional and revocable… West Bank ID holders. Barred effectively from building in the majority of the West Bank or entering Jewish settlements… Gaza ID holders. Barred with few exceptions from leaving Gaza or living in the other part of the OPT (the West Bank, including East Jerusalem)” (see Human Rights Watch (HRW), “A threshold crossed. Israeli authorities and the crimes of apartheid and persecution”, HRW, 27 April 2021: https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution .)
[Editor: According to latest demographic estimates (May 2021), despite 100 years of an ongoing Palestinian Genocide ( 2.2 million deaths from violence, 0.1 million, and from imposed deprivation, 2.1 million, since British and Anzac invasion of the Middle East in WW1), and major mass expulsion events (800,000 in 1948 and 400,000 in 1967), Indigenous Palestinians [7.1 million] still represent about 50% of the Subjects of Apartheid Israel [14.3 million] and Jewish Israelis 47% [6.8 million]. The 5.2 million Indigenous Palestinians of the Occupied Palestinian Territory are 72% of the Indigenous Palestinian Subjects of Apartheid Israel, live under highly abusive military rule in dire and deadly poverty (per capita GDP $3,400 versus $46,400 for Israelis), and are excluded from human rights, civil rights and from voting for the government ruling them i.e. they are subject to egregious apartheid that violates International laws and Conventions. Palestinian Israelis live as Third Class citizens under over 60 race-based laws and the Israeli Knesset recently rejected a bill for equal rights for Palestinian Israelis.7 million Exiled Palestinians are exiled from the land of their forebears for millennia. 7 million Palestinian refugees live in dire poverty in the Middle East and represent about 10% of the world's refugees. ]
Innovative Minds in their own words “is an Islamic group using the medium of the internet to campaign on issues effecting the Ummah. We are calling for the boycott of companies supporting the zionist occupation of Palestine” ( for details of their activities see their website: www.inminds.co.uk ).
Innovative Minds on the Boycott Israel campaign and listing companies with links to Apartheid Israel (2012): “The boycott of Israeli products and companies supporting Israel is a peaceful means of putting international pressure on apartheid Israel and follows in the footsteps of the successful boycott against South African apartheid. Help end Palestinian suffering by boycotting Israel today! [1].
[1]. Innovative Minds, Boycott Israel Campaign 2012, listing major corporations with links to genocidal Apartheid Israel: http://www.inminds.com/boycott-israel-2012.php .
The Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (hereinafter Apartheid Convention) has it roots in the opposition of the United Nations to the discriminatory racial policies of the South African Government – known as apartheid – which lasted from 1948 to 1990. Apartheid was annually condemned by the General Assembly as contrary to Articles 55 and 56 of the Charter of the United Nations from 1952 until 1990; and was regularly condemned by the Security Council after 1960. In 1966, the General Assembly labelled apartheid as a crime against humanity (resolution 2202 A (XXI) of 16 December 1966) and in 1984 the Security Council endorsed this determination (resolution 556 (1984) of 23 October 1984). The Apartheid Convention was the ultimate step in the condemnation of apartheid as it not only declared that apartheid was unlawful because it violated the Charter of the United Nations, but in addition it declared apartheid to be criminal. The Apartheid Convention was adopted by the General Assembly on 30 November 1973, by 91 votes in favour, four against (Portugal, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States) and 26 abstentions. It came into force on 18 July 1976. As of August 2008, it has been ratified by 107 States.
Professor John Dugard on the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid: “The Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (hereinafter Apartheid Convention) has it roots in the opposition of the United Nations to the discriminatory racial policies of the South African Government – known as apartheid – which lasted from 1948 to 1990. Apartheid was annually condemned by the General Assembly as contrary to Articles 55 and 56 of the Charter of the United Nations from 1952 until 1990; and was regularly condemned by the Security Council after 1960. In 1966, the General Assembly labelled apartheid as a crime against humanity (resolution 2202 A (XXI) of 16 December 1966) and in 1984 the Security Council endorsed this determination (resolution 556 (1984) of 23 October 1984). The Apartheid Convention was the ultimate step in the condemnation of apartheid as it not only declared that apartheid was unlawful because it violated the Charter of the United Nations, but in addition it declared apartheid to be criminal. The Apartheid Convention was adopted by the General Assembly on 30 November 1973, by 91 votes in favour, four against (Portugal, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States) and 26 abstentions. It came into force on 18 July 1976. As of August 2008, it has been ratified by 107 States… That the Apartheid Convention is intended to apply to situations other than South Africa is confirmed by its endorsement in a wider context in instruments adopted before and after the fall of apartheid. In 1977, Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 recognized apartheid as a “grave breach” of the Protocol (art. 85, paragraph 4 (c)) without any geographical limitation. Apartheid features as a crime in the Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind adopted by the International Law Commission on first reading in 1991 without any reference to South Africa and in 1996 the Draft Code adopted on second reading recognized institutionalized racial discrimination as species of crime against humanity in article 18 (f) and explained in its commentary that this “is in fact the crime of apartheid under a more general denomination”(Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its forty-eighth session (A/51/10), p. 49). In 1998, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court included the “crime of apartheid” as a form of crime against humanity (art. 7). It may be concluded that the Apartheid Convention is dead as far as the original cause for its creation – apartheid in South Africa – is concerned, but that it lives on as a species of the crime against humanity, under both customary international law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.” [1].
[1]. John Dugard, “International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid”, Audiovuisal Librayr of International Law: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html .
The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (see: http://www.ijsn.net/home/ ) has issued the following Letter in response to false and defamatory Zionist attacks on those advocating Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel (2011):
"Statement by Jewish Activists and Organizations active in BDS against Israel
Because academic, cultural and commercial boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israel:
• are being called for by Palestinian civil society in response to the occupation and colonisation of their land,
• are a moral tool of non-violent, peaceful response to more than sixty years of Israeli colonialism,
• and, rightfully place accountability on Israeli institutions (and their allies and partners) that use business, cultural, and academic ties to white-wash Israel’s responsibility for continuing crimes against humanity,
The undersigned organisations and individuals stand firm in our support of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) initiatives against Israel until it meets its obligation to recognise the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law.
BDS is not anti-Semitic
We reject the notion that the 2005 BDS call from Palestine, and the BDS campaigns the world over which it has inspired, are rooted in anti-Jewish sentiment.
On the contrary, BDS is an anti-racist movement against the daily, brutal occupation of Palestine and military threat to the region by the state of Israel.
False claims of anti-Semitism distort the true nature of the Palestinian struggle and are an affront to, and betrayal of, the long history of Jewish survival and resistance to persecution.
BDS is not anti-democratic
We also reject the assertion that the cultural and academic boycotts of Israel defy the democratic principle of free speech.
Research and development in academic institutions play a central role in designing and defending Israel’s military and intelligence machinery.
Cultural institutions perpetuate the deception of Israeli democracy. To defend freedom of speech for those who disregard justice while demonising those who struggle for justice is a great disservice to genuine democracy.
Through boycott, divestment and sanctions, civil society asserts our commitment to not contribute to the Israeli state, which is responsible for atrocious acts of disregard for human life and well being.
Attacks against BDS campaigns will not prevent us from taking this stance against Israeli impunity.
For the Jewish organisations signed onto this letter, self-determination for Jews includes the right to participate in the movement for justice in Palestine and to live in the world with our fellow citizens in peace, freedom, and equity.
It does not include the domination and colonisation of other people or living separate from our fellow human beings in a state that privileges Jews.
BDS was a key strategy in ending the white South African system of apartheid by applying international pressure.
In pursuit of justice, peace and freedom for all, we speak out as Jews committed to BDS and Palestinian liberation.
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
• Not In Our Name (Argentina)
• Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in Middle East (EJJP, Germany)
• Not in Our Name: Jews Opposing Zionism (Canada)
• Jews for a Just Peace (Fredericton, Canada)
• Independent Jewish Voice (Canada)
• Middle East Children's Alliance (USA)
• Critical Jewish Voice (Austria)
• Women in Black (Austria)
• French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP)
• Bay Area Women in Black (USA)
• St. Louis Women in Black (USA)
• Philadelphia Jews for a Just Peace (USA)
• American Jews for a Just Peace (USA)
• Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (Britain)
• JUNTS, Catalan Association of Jews and Palestinians, Spain)
• Ronnie Kasrils, former South African government minister, writer, founder Not In My Name, South Africa
• Antony Loewenstein, Independent Australian Jewish Voices
• Peter Slezak, Independent Australian Jewish Voices
• Moshe Machover, Professor (emeritus) (UK), founder Matzpen
• Felicia Langer, Israeli lawyer, author, Right Livelihood Award 2006 (Alternative Nobel Prize) 1990, Bruno Kreisky Prize 1991
• Mieciu Langer, Nazi Holocaust survivor
• Hedy Epstein, Nazi Holocaust survivor
• Hajo G. Meyer PhD, Nazi Holocaust survivor
• Kamal Chenoy, IJAN India & The All India Peace and Solidarity Organization
• Paola Canarutto & Giorgio Forti, Rete ECO, Italy
• Liliane Cordova Kaczerginski, IJAN France
• Sonia Fayman, IJAN France & UJFP
• Ernesto Rosenberg, GRAMARPAL (Argentine-Palestinian Friendship Group, Neuquen, Argentina)
• Mark Elf, blogger, Jews sans Frontieres." [1, 2].
[1]. Jewish Groups defend Israel boycott", Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47299.
[2]. International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, "Statement by Jewish Activists and Organizations active in BDS against Israel": http://www.ijsn.net/home/.
Israeli politicians and other Israelis referring to Israel becoming or having become an apartheid state.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak (2010): “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state” [1].
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (2007): “If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished” [1].
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem (2002): “Israel has created in the Occupied Territories a regime of separation based on discrimination, applying two separate systems of law in the same area and basing the rights of individuals on their nationality. This regime … is reminiscent of distasteful regimes from the past such as the Apartheid regime in South Africa” [1].
Former Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Alon Liel (2013): “In the situation that exists today, until a Palestinian state is created, we are actually one state. This joint state — in the hope that the status quo is temporary — is an apartheid state” [1].
Israeli newspaper Haaretz editorial (2007): “The de facto separation is today more similar to political apartheid than an occupation regime because of its constancy. One side - determined by national, not geographic association - includes people who have the right to choose and the freedom to move, and a growing economy. On the other side are people closed behind the walls surrounding their community, who have no right to vote, lack freedom of movement, and have no chance to plan their future” [1].
Former Israeli admiral and Knesset member Ami Ayalon (2000): “Israel must decide quickly what sort of environment it wants to live in because the current model, which has some apartheid characteristics, is not compatible with Jewish principles” [1].
Former Israeli attorney general Michael Ben-Yair (2002): “[In 1967] We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one – progressive, liberal – in Israel; and the other – cruel, injurious – in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day” [1].
Former Israeli Minister of Education Yossi Sarid: (2008): “What acts like apartheid, is run like apartheid and harasses like apartheid, is not a duck - it is apartheid… What should frighten us, however, is not the description of reality, but reality itself… The Palestinians are unfortunate because they have not produced a Nelson Mandela; the Israelis are unfortunate because they have not produced an F.W. de Klerk” [1].
Former Israeli Minister of Education Shulamit Aloni (2007): “Jewish self-righteousness is taken for granted among ourselves to such an extent that we fail to see what’s right in front of our eyes. It’s simply inconceivable that the ultimate victims, the Jews, can carry out evil deeds. Nevertheless, the state of Israel practices its own, quite violent, form of Apartheid with the native Palestinian population” [1].
David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel, (1967; cited in 2005): “Israel [,he said,] better rid itself of the territories and their Arab population as soon as possible. If it did not Israel would soon become an Apartheid State” [1].
[1]. Just Foreign Policy, “Who talked about “Apartheid” in the context of Israel?”: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/israelis-on-apartheid .
Iqbal Jassat (South African writer) (2016): “Shrewd, smart and brilliant is how I describe Coetzee's soft spoken demolition of Israeli Hasbara (a highly resourced propaganda outfit designed to spin its policies). In a single sentence, after explaining the construct of apartheid as it existed in South Africa, he made the following observation, which unsurprisingly met with a thunderous applause: "To speak of Jerusalem and the West Bank, we see a system of enforced segregation based on religion and ethnicity put in place by an exclusive self-defined group to consolidate a colonial conquest, in particular to maintain, and indeed extend, its hold on the land and its natural resources." There you have it. Apartheid in Jerusalem and the Occupied West Bank is built on the same foundations of apartheid in South Africa:
• Enforced segregation;
• Exclusive self-defined group;
• Colonial conquest;
• Maintain hold of land and natural resources.
In his brief remarks, Coetzee affirmed the power of words over the might of power in an appropriate setting amongst international literary stars” (Iqbal Jassat, “Apartheid Israel: JM Coetzee delivers a devastating blow”, Politicsweb, 29 May 2016: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/apartheid-israel-jm-coetzee-delivers-a-devastating ).
Open Letter to the Brooklyn Book Festival re Israeli sponsorship (2015): “We, the undersigned, including participants and exhibitors at the Brooklyn Book Festival, recently noticed that the festival has chosen to accept support from Israel's Office of Cultural Affairs in New York for one of its panels…
Israel has systematically attempted to suppress, expropriate and suffocate the art, culture, and literature of Palestinian writers, filmmakers, musicians, artists, and poets. We hope that you agree that partnering with a state that practices occupation, colonialism, and apartheid is paradoxical for a festival that celebrates a "lively literary marketplace"…
As was the case in South Africa, where international solidarity played a crucial role in bringing down apartheid by boycotting the economic, sports and cultural institutions of the apartheid regime, we sincerely hope you will not partner in any capacity with the Israeli government and other complicit institutions, until the Israeli government fulfills it obligations under international law and fully recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to live in full equality and freedom in their homeland.”
Librarians and Archivists with Palestine
Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel
Phan Nguyen, editor, Verso Books *
Jacob Stevens, editor, Verso Books *
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, author, Harlem is Nowhere *
Peter Kuper, cartoonist/editor, World War 3 Illustrated *
Seth Tobocman, cartoonist/editor, World War 3 Illustrated *
Ramsey Kanaan, publisher, PM Press *
MJ Kaufman, playwright
Kevin Caplicky, Justseeds Artists' Cooperative
Ken Chen, poet *
Jonathan House, publisher, Unconscious in Translation
Greg Grandin, author, Empire of Necessity *
Daniel Lang-Levitsky, co-editor, Dreaming In Public: Building the Occupy Movement
Craig O'Hara, publisher, PM Press *
Bhakti Sringarpure, editor, Warscapes *
Aurora Levins Morales, poet
Astra Taylor, author, The People's Platform *
Andrew Hsiao, editor, Verso Books *
Eleanor Davis, cartoonist, How to Be Happy *
Sarah Schulman, author, Israel/Palestine and the Queer International
Anthony Arnove, editor, Haymarket Books *
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within
Revolution Books, *
The Palestine Festival of Literature
Nafisa Haji, author, The Writing On My Forehead and The Sweetness of Tears
Nadeem Aslam, author, The Blind Man's Garden *
Eliot Weinberger, writer and essayist
Junot Díaz, author, This is How You Lose Her
Kamila Shamsie, author, A God in Every Stone
Gaiutra Bahadur, author, Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture
China Miéville, author
Allison Kilkenny, author, #NEWSFAIL
Amit Chaudhuri, author, Calcutta: Two Years in the City *
Conner Habib, author, The Sex Book
Elif Batuman, author, The Possessed *
Molly Crabapple, artist and writer *
Ahdaf Soueif, author, Cairo: My City, Our Revolution
Ricardo Cortés, author/illustrator **
Sasha Frere-Jones, critic
Anand Gopal, author, No Good Men Among the Living
Chase Madar, author, The Passion of Bradley Manning **
Remi Kanazi, poet
* indicates panelist or exhibitor at Brooklyn Book Festival 2014
** indicates past participant in the Brooklyn Book Festival
[1]. “Open Letter to the Brooklyn Book Festival re Israeli sponsorship”, Adalah-NY (The New York for the boycott of Israel): http://adalahny.org/adalah-web-action/1194/open-letter-brooklyn-book-festival-re-israeli-sponsorship .
CODEPINK history of Jewish Israeli calls for BDS: “The first BDS call in Israel was initiated by Gush Shalom. Launched in September 1997, it asked Israelis as well as the U.S., the European countries, and others having trade treaties with Israel to boycott products of the Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. The call proffered a provisional list in Hebrew, Arabic, and English of products produced in the settlements. However, the first Israeli initiatives supporting international calls for comprehensive boycott against Israel emerged only following the outbreak of the second intifada known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, in September 2000…
In April 2001, 35 Israelis published a call for boycotting Israel. The authors of this appeal are Israeli citizens and Jews of other nationalities whose families have been victims of racism and genocide in past generations, and who feel they cannot remain silent:
“We call on the world community to organize and boycott Israeli industrial and agricultural exports and goods, as well as leisure tourism, in the hope that it will have the same positive result that the boycott of South Africa had on Apartheid.
“This boycott should remain in force as long as Israel controls any part of the territories it occupied in 1967. Those who squash the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians must be made to feel the consequences of their own bitter medicine.
“We urge every recipient of this appeal, irrespective of origin and nationality, to:
“1. Start practicing the boycott on a personal level immediately, and make sure that the steps taken are known in the community (for example: tell your shopkeeper why you will not buy Israeli products; avoid leisure travel to Israel).
“2. Add your name to the appeal, circulate it to your friends, and do whatever you can to have it endorsed by groups concerned about human rights.
“3. Organize activities to put pressure on your government to cut economic and commercial ties with Israel and to rescind preferential economic treaties with Israel”.
Original signatures:
1. Meir Amor, Toronto, Canada
2. Yael Arbel, Tel-Aviv, Israel
3. Dita Bitterman, Tel-Aviv, Israel
4. Hagit Borer, Los Angeles, USA
5. Ouzi Dekel, Paris, France
6. Esty Dinur, Arena, USA
7. Aviva Ein-Gil, Tel-Aviv, Israel
8. Ehud Ein-Gil, Tel-Aviv, Israel
9. Arie Finkelstein, Paris, France
10. Rachel Giora, Tel-Aviv, Israel
11. Zamir Havkin, Givataim, Israel
12. Zvi Havkin, Tel-Aviv, Israel
13. Haggai Katriel, Haifa, Israel
14. Irit Katriel, Haifa, Israel
15. Justin Kodner, Princeton Junction, USA
16. Helga Kotthoff, Fulda, Germany
17. Miri Krasin, Tel-Aviv, Israel
18. Debby Lerman, Tel-Aviv, Israel
19. Mely Lerman, Tel-Aviv, Israel
20. Moshe Machover, London, UK
21. Yael Oren Kahn, Warwickshire, UK
22. Akiva Orr, Kfar Shmaryahu, Israel
23. Rachel Ostrowitz, Tel-Aviv, Israel
24. Eran Razgour, Tel-Aviv, Israel
25. Eyal Rozenberg, Haifa, Israel
26. Hilla Rudich, Givataim, Israel
27. Herzl Schubert, Tel-Aviv, Israel
28. Ilan Shalif, Tel-Aviv, Israel
29. Oz Shelach, New York, USA
30. Ur Shlonsky, Geneva, Switzerland
31. Toma Sik, Budapest, Hungary
32. Ehud Sivosh, London, UK
33. Gideon Spiro, Jerusalem, Israel
34. Guy West, Herzliyya, Israel
35. Adeeb Yaffawy, Yaffa, Israel
The 35 original signatories were supported by 994 signatures worldwide.” [1].
[1]. CODEPINK, “Milestones in the history of the history of the Israeli BDS movement”: http://www.stolenbeauty.org/article.php?id=5303 .
Jewish Voice for Peace in its own words: “Jewish Voice for Peace is the only national Jewish organization that provides a voice for Jews and allies who believe that peace in the Middle East will be achieved through justice and full equality for both Palestinians and Israelis. With offices in New York and California, 100,000 online activists, chapters across the country and an Advisory Board comprised of numerous prominent Jewish thinkers and artists, JVP supports nonviolent efforts here and in Israel-Palestine to end Israel’s Occupation, expand human and civil rights, and implement a US policy based on international law and democracy” (see: http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/about ).
Jewish Voice for Peace backs Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) : “Through grassroots organizing, education, advocacy, and media, Jewish Voice for Peace works to achieve a lasting peace that recognizes the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians for security and self-determination.
Jewish Voice for Peace is the only national Jewish organization that provides a voice for Jews and allies who believe that peace in the Middle East will be achieved through justice and full equality for both Palestinians and Israelis. With offices in New York and California, 100,000 online activists, chapters across the country and an Advisory Board comprised of numerous prominent Jewish thinkers and artists, JVP supports nonviolent efforts here and in Israel-Palestine to end Israel’s Occupation, expand human and civil rights, and implement a US policy based on international law and democracy.
JVP:
Conducts global campaigns to defend and free Israeli and Palestinian human rights activists
Fights McCarthyite censorship of debate and misuses of the charge of anti-Semitism, especially in the Jewish community
Supports the growth of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement through divestment from companies that profit from the occupation
Works in coalition with others including Arab, Muslim, Palestinian and Christian groups to fight bigotry and end the occupation
Facilitates Congressional outreach regarding policy in the region
Supports alternative Jewish rituals that include Palestinian narratives” [1].
Jewish Voice for Peace backs boycott of Israelis institutions by the American Studies Association (ASA) as reported by the Guardian(2013): “The US-based Jewish Voice for Peace also welcomed the ASA's move, saying it represented a "significant milestone in the growth of the BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] movement in the United States". Boycotts to pressure Israel to abide by international law were not inherently antisemitic, it said.” [2].
Rabbi Joseph Berman (anti-racist Jewish American rabbi and a key figure in Jewish Voice for Peace, JVP) (2017): “We need to stop the confirmation of David Friedman as US Ambassador to Israel.
Are you ready to join me? Because JVP specifically, even uniquely, needs to take him on.
David Friedman has zero diplomatic experience - he’s actually Trump’s bankruptcy lawyer. But he shares with Jared Kushner and other members of Trump’s inner circle shockingly extreme views on Israel/Palestine.
Friedman has denied the existence of Palestinian refugees, who are recognized under international law, called liberal Jews “kapos” for taking even measured efforts to change Israeli policies, advocated annexation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and endorsed discriminatory screening of Muslim immigrants to the United States.
And he’s not just a supporter of illegal, Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank - he’s the board chair of American Friends of Beit El, one of the oldest and most violent settlements in the West Bank.
David Friedman is a passionate activist for permanent apartheid and occupation.
And his appointment would bring all of these policy disasters closer:
Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem - in fact, he’s already declared his decision to live in Jerusalem personally.
Annexing Ma’ale Adumim or even all of the West Bank. Yesterday even the NYTimes described Friedman as in “closer political step with Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing rivals.” (yes, it is more than possible to out-flank Netanyahu to his right)
Deepening mutual aid between US and the Israeli governments on surveillance projects (think registries) and border militarization (think walls).
There isn’t a single statement of his that we’ve been able to find that shows even a modicum of respect for Palestinians or Palestinian human rights” [3].
[1]. About Jewish Voice for Peace: http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/about .
[2]. Harriet Sherwood, “Major US academic body backs boycott of Israeli educational institutions”, 17 December 2013: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/17/us-american-studies-association-boycott-israel .
[3]. Rabbi Joseph Berman, “We need to stop the confirmation of David Friedman as US Ambassador to Israel”, Jewish Voice for Peace, January 2017).
“Jews Against Occupation and Oppression” is an anti-racist Jewish Australian organization for Palestinian human rights and co-founded by Rick Kuhn (an anti-racist Jewish Australian Marxian economist, political analyst, Reader (Associate Professor) at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, and an opponent of Israeli apartheid) who has written (2017): “There’s a fight going on inside the [pro-Zionist] Labor Party over the cosmetics of its position on Israel and Palestine. Currently, party leader Bill Shorten is sticking with the ALP’s longstanding policy [2-state solution and no recognition of a Palestinian state yet]. Whether Labor or the Coalition has been in office, Australian governments have been among the fiercest supporters of apartheid Israel since its creation. Unlike about 138 other countries, Australia has refused to recognise the Palestinian Authority [PA] as the government of a Palestinian state. Slavish backing of Israel is mainly a by-product of the Australia-US alliance, which has long benefited the ruling class here… The squabble in the Labor Party over how best to back Israel reflects growing sympathy, crucially from ordinary people rather than governments, for the Palestinians. Increased recognition of the repressive PA as a state is symbolic of this shift. But it won’t satisfy the aspirations of the Palestinians for freedom. Only a democratic state made up of all those now living within the borders of historic Palestine, together with the Palestinian diaspora, can achieve that goal” (Rick Kuhn, “Labor in a tizz over how to save an apartheid Israel”, Red Flag, 6 March 2017, page 25: https://redflag.org.au/node/5696 ).
The "Jews Against Racist Zionism" website documents the views against racist Zionism of outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish scholars, leaders and writers ... This site is also inspired by the words of outstanding Jewish American scholar Professor Jared Diamond who in his best-selling book "Collapse” (Prologue, p10, Penguin edition) enunciated the "moral principle, namely that it is morally wrong for one people to dispossess, subjugate, or exterminate another people" – an injunction grossly violated by racist Zionist (RZ)-run Apartheid Israel and its racist, genocide-committing and genocide-ignoring US Alliance backers. As perceived by UK writer Alan Hart in his recent book “Zionism: the Real Enemy of the Jews. Volume 1. The False Messiah"” (Clarity Press), racist Zionism represents an immense threat not just to the Arab and Muslim World but also to decent, anti-racist, humanitarian Jews throughout the World (see:http://www.claritypress.com/Hart-I.html ).
"Jews Against Racist Zionism" website: "All decent, anti-racist, humanitarians must vigorously oppose and sideline those supporting racist Zionism, Apartheid Israel and racist Western wars and occupations who are currently complicit in 0.7 million non-violent excess deaths annually; continuing, racist perversion of human rights, humanitarian values and rational discourse in the Western democracies; ignoring of worsening climate genocide (that may kill 10 billion non-Europeans this century through unaddressed man-made climate change); and egregious anti-Jewish anti-Semitism through falsely identifying decent, anti-racist Jews with these appalling crimes." [1].
[1]. "Jews Against Racist Zionism" website: http://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ .
“Jews for Palestinian Right of Return” demand Palestinian Right of Return and a democratic state throughout historic Palestine (see : http://jfpror.wordpress.com/ ).
Petitition of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, “Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel!”
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, July 22, 2014: http://jfpror.wordpress.com/ and https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/benjamin-netanyahu-jews-say-end-the-war-on-gaza-no-aid-to-apartheid-israel-bds-with-200-initial-signers .
Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel!
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, July 22, 2014
On July 12, 2014, Gaza civil society issued an urgent appeal for solidarity, asking: “How many of our lives are dispensable enough until the world takes action? How much of our blood is sufficient?”
As Jews of conscience, we answer by unequivocally condemning Israel’s ongoing massacre in Gaza, whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled. This latest toll adds to the thousands Israel has killed and maimed since its supposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
In response to this crisis, we urgently reaffirm our support for a ban on all military and other aid to Israel.
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War with his famous declaration: “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Today, *we* cannot be silent as the “Jewish state” — armed to the teeth by the U.S. and its allies — wages yet another brutal war on the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel does not speak for us, and we stand with Gaza as we stand with all of Palestine.
In the face of incessant pro-Israel propaganda, we heed Malcolm X’s warning: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
For Israel’s relentless war on Gaza is no more an act of “self-defense” than such infamous massacres as Wounded Knee (1890), Guernica (1937), the Warsaw Ghetto (1942), Deir Yassin (1948), My Lai (1968), Soweto (1976), Sabra and Shatila (1982), or Lebanon (2006).
Rather, it is but the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide — including Israel’s very establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba. Indeed, eighty percent of the 1.8 million people sealed into Gaza are refugees.
Like any colonial regime, Israel uses resistance to such policies as an excuse to terrorize and collectively punish the indigenous population for its very existence. But scattered rockets, fired from Gaza into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place, are merely a response to this systemic injustice.
To confront the root cause of this violence, we call for the complete dismantling of Israel’s apartheid regime, throughout historic Palestine — from the River to the Sea. With that in mind, we embrace the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which demands:
* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories
* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel
* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194
Initial Signers (list in formation; organizations, schools and other affiliations shown for identification only; *Co-founder, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return)
Avigail Abarbanel, Psychotherapist; editor, Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists (2012, Cambridge Scholars), Inverness, Scotland
Noa Abend, Boycott From Within
Stephen Aberle, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver, BC
Lisa Albrecht, Ph.D. Social Justice Program, University of Minnesota
Anya Achtenberg, novelist and poet; teacher; activist; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Mike Alewitz, Associate Professor, Central CT State Unversity; Artistic Director, Labor Art & Mural Project
Zalman Amit, Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Author, Israeli Rejectionism
Anthony Arnove, International Socialist Organization
Gabriel Ash, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Switzerland
Ted Auerbach, Brooklyn for Peace
Anna Baltzer, author and organizer
Ronnie Barkan, Co-founder, Boycott from Within, Tel-Aviv
Judith Bello, Administrative Committee, United National Antiwar Coalition
Lawrence Boxall, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada; Vancouver Ecosocialist Group
Linda Benedikt, writer Munich, Germany
Nora Barrows-Friedman, journalist; Oakland
Prof. Jonathan Beller, Humanities and Media Studies Graduate Program in Media Studies, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn
Medea Benjamin, co-founder, CODEPINK
Rica Bird, Joint Founder, Merseyside Jews for Peace and Justice
Audrey Bomse, Co-chair, National Lawyers Guild Palestine Subcommittee
Prof. Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, UC Berkeley
Lenni Brenner, Author, Zionism In The Age Of The Dictators
Elizabeth Block, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON
Max Blumenthal, Author, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel; and Senior Writer for Alternet.org
Mary P. Buchwald, Jewish Voice for Peace-New York
Monique Buckner, BDS South Africa
Maia Brown, Health and Human Rights Project-Seattle & Stop Veolia Seattle
Estee Chandler, Jewish Voice for Peace, Los Angeles
Rick Chertoff, L..A. Jews for Peace
Prof. Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson School of Law; past president, National Lawyers Guild
Ally Cohen, Ramallah, Palestine; International Solidarity Movement media coordinator
Ruben Rosenberg Colorni, Youth for Palestine, Netherlands
Mike Cushman, Convenor, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK)
Margaretta D’arcy, Irish actress, writer, playwright, and peace-activist
Natalie Zemon Davis, Historian
Warren Davis, labor and political activist, Philadelphia, PA
Eron Davidson, film maker
Judith Deutsch, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Science for Peace
Roger Dittmann, Professor of Physics, Emeritus California State University, Fullerton; President, Scholars and Scientists without Borders Executive Council, World Federation of Scientific Workers
Gordon Doctorow, Ed.D., Canada
Mark Elf, Jews Sans Frontieres, London, UK
Hedy Epstein, Nazi Holocaust survivor and human rights activist; St. Louis, MO
Marla Erlien, New York NY
Shelley Ettinger, writer/activist, New York, NY
Inge Etzbach, Human Rights Activist, Café Palestina NY
Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton University; Former UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine, 2008-2014
Malkah B. Feldman, Jewish Voice for Peace and recent delegate to Palestine with American Jews For A Just Peace
Deborah Fink, Co-Founder, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods UK
Joel Finkel, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago
Sylvia Finzi, JfjfP; Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost, EJJP. Germany)
Maxine Fookson, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner; Jewish Voice for Peace, Portland OR-
Richard Forer, Author, Breakthrough: Transforming Fear Into Compassion – A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine
Sid Frankel, Associate Professor, University of Manitoba
Prof. Cynthia Franklin, Co-Editor, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of Hawai’i
Racheli Gai, Jewish Voice for Peace
Herb Gamberg, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada
Ruth Gamberg, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada
Lee Gargagliano, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Cheryl Gaster, social justice activist and human right lawyer, Toronto ON
Alisa Gayle-Deutsch, American/Canadian Musician and Anti-Israeli Apartheid Activist
Jack Gegenberg, Professor of Mathematics, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton NB
Prof. Terri Ginsberg, film and media scholar, New York
David Glick, psychotherapist; Jewish Voice for Peace
Sherna Berger Gluck, Emerita Professor, CSULB; Israel Divestment Campaign
Neta Golan, Ramallah, Palestine; Jews Against Genocide; Co-founder, International Solidarity Movement.
Tsilli Goldenberg, teacher, Jerusalem, Israel
Steve Goldfield, Ph.D.
Sue Goldstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Canada
Marty Goodman, former Executive Board member, Transport Workers Union Local 100; Socialist Action
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Freeman Fellow, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Hector Grad, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Spain
Prof. Jesse Greener, University of Laval
Cathy Gulkin, Filmmaker, Toronto ON
Ira Grupper, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY
Jeff Halper, The Israeli Committee Against House demolitions (ICAHD)
Larry Haiven, Independent Jewish Voices Canada, Halifax
Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, publisher, Germany
Stanley Heller, The Struggle Video News TSVN
Shir Hever, Jewish Voice for Just Peace, Germany
Deborah Hrbek, media and civil rights lawyer, NLG-NYC
Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Adam Horowitz, Co-Editor, Mondoweiss
Gilad Isaacs, Economist, Wits University.
Selma James, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Jake Javanshir, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto
Riva Joffe, Jews Against Zionism
Val Jonas, attorney, Miami Beach
Sima Kahn, MD; President of the board, Kadima Reconstructionist Community
Yael Kahn, Israeli anti-apartheid activist
Michael Kalmanovitz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (UK)
Dan Kaplan, AFT Local 1493
Susan Kaplan, J.D. National Lawyers Guild
Danny Katch, activist and author
Bruce Katz, President, Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), Montreal, Canada
Lynn Kessler, Ph.D., MPH, psychologist/social justice activist
Janet Klecker, Sonomans for Justice & Peace for Palestine, Sonoma CA
Prof. David Klein, California State University, Northridge; USACBI
Emma Klein, Jewish Voice for Peace, Seattle WA
Sara Kershnar, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Harry Kopyto, Legal activist Toronto ON
Richard Koritz, veteran postal trade unionist and former member of North Carolina Human Relations Commission
Yael Korin, PhD., Scientist at UCLA; Campaign to End IsraelI Apartheid, Southern California
Dennis Kortheuer, CSULB, Israel Divestment Campaign
Steve Kowit, Professor Emeritus, Jewish Voice for Peace
Toby Kramer, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Jason Kunin, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Dr. David Landy, Trinity College, Dublin
Jean Léger, Coalition pour la Justice et la Paix en Palestine, membre de la Coalition BDS Québec et de Palestiniens et Juifs Unis
Lynda Lemberg, Educators for Peace and Justice, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON
David Letwin,* activist and teacher, Al-Awda NY
Michael Letwin,* former President, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325; USACBI; Al-Awda NY
Les Levidow, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG), UK
Corey Levine, Human Rights Activist, Writer; National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Joseph Levine, Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Lesley Levy, Independent Jewish Voices, Montreal
Mich Levy, teacher, Oakland CA
Abby Lippman, Professor Emerita; activist; Montreal
Brooke Lober, PhD candidate, University of Arizona, Gender and Women’s Studies Department
Antony Loewenstein, journalist, author and Guardian columnist
Jennifer Loewenstein, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Alex Lubin, Professor of American Studies, University of New Meixco
Andrew Lugg, Professor Emeritus, University of Ottawa, Canada
David Makofsky, Jewish Voice for Peace, Research Anthropologist
Harriet Malinowitz, Professor of English, Long Island University, Brooklyn
Mike Marqusee, Author, If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew
Miriam Marton, JD
Dr. Richard Matthews. independent scholar, London ON
Daniel L. Meyers, Former President National Lawyers Guild-NYC
Linda Milazzo, Writer/Activist/Educator, Los Angeles
Eva Steiner Moseley, Holocaust refugee, Massachusetts Peace Action board member and Palestine/Israel Working Group
Dr. Dorothy Naor, retired teacher, Herzliah, Israel
Marcy Newman, independent scholar; Author; The Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans
Alex Nissen, Women in Black
Dr. Judith Norman, San Antonio, TX
Henry Norr, retired journalist, Berkeley CA
Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror
Prof. Bertell Ollman, NYU
Karin Pally, Santa Monica, CA
Prof. Ilan Pappé, Israeli historian and socialist activist
Karen Platt, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albany CA
Dr. Susan Pashkoff, Jews Against Zionism, London UK
Miko Peled, writer, activist; Author, The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine
Prof. Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA
Mitch Podolak, Founder, Winnipeg Folk Festival and Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Karen Pomer,* granddaughter of Henri B. van Leeuwen, Dutch anti-Zionist leader and Bergen-Belsen survivor
Lenny Potash, Los Angeles CA
Fabienne Presentey, Independent Jewish Voices, Montréal
Diana Ralph, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Roland Rance, Jews Against Zionism, London
Karen Ranucci, Independent Journalist, Democracy Now!
Ana Ratner, Artist, Puppeteer, Activist.
Michael Ratner, President Emeritus, Center for Constitutional Rights
Prof. Dr. Fanny-Michaela Reisin, Jewish Voice Germany
Diana M.A. Relke, Professor Emerita, University of Saskatchewan
Prof. Bruce Robbins, Columbia University
Stewart M. Robinson, retired Prof of Mathematics
Professor Lisa Rofel, University of California, Santa Cruz
Mimi Rosenberg, Producer & Host, Building Bridges and Wednesday Edition, WBAI 99.5 FM; Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325
Lillian Rosengarten, Author, From The Shadows Of Nazi Germany To The Jewish Boat To Gaza
Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP)
Yehoahua Rosin, Israel
Ilana Rossoff, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Martha Roth, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver BC
Marty Roth, Emeritus professor of English, University of Minnesota
Ruben Roth, Assistant Professor, Labour Studies, Laurentian University; Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Emma Rubin, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Cheryl A. Rubenberg, Middle East Scholar; Editor, Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; Author, The Palestinians in Search of a Just Peace
Josh Ruebner, Author, Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Mark Rudd, retired teacher, Albuquerque NM
Ben Saifer, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Evalyn Segal, Rossmoor Senior Community
Sylvia Schwarz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Yossi Schwartz, Internationalist Socialist League; Haifa
Carole Seligman, co-editor, Socialist Viewpoint magazine
Yom Shamash, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver, Canada
Tali Shapiro, Boycott from Within; Israel
Karen Shenfeld, Poet, Toronto ON
Sid Shniad, National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
William Shookhoff, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON
Melinda Smith, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albuquerque NM
Kobi Snitz, Tel Aviv
Marsha Steinberg, BDS-LA for Justice in Palestine, Los Angeles
Lotta Strandberg, Visiting Scholar, NYU
Carol Stone, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver BC
Miriam (Cherkes-Julkowski) Swenson, Ph.D.
Matthew Taylor, author
Laura Tillem, Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas
Peter Trainor, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto
Rebecca Tumposky, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Darlene Wallach, Justice for Palestinians, San Jose CA
Dr. Abraham Weizfeld, JPLO
Bonnie Weinstein, Co-Editor of Socialist Viewpoint magazine; Publisher, Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Sam Weinstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-Labor; former President, UWUA Local 132
Judith Weisman, Independent Jewish Voices; Not in Our Name (NION); Toronto ON
Paul Werner, PhD, DSFS Editor, WOID, a journal of visual language
Noga Wizansky, Ph.D., artist, instructor, and researcher; Administrator, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley
Marcy Winograd, public school teacher, former congressional peace candidate
Bekah Wolf, UC Hastings College of Law Student; Co-founder, Palestine Solidarity Project
Sherry Wolf, International Socialist Organization
Dave Zirin, Author, Game Over: How Politics Have Turned the Sports World Upside Down
Ronald (Ronnie) Kasrils was a South African Jewish hero in the fight against Apartheid. He was a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) (1987- 2007), member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) (1986-2007) and Minister for Intelligence (2004-2008) (for more details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Kasrils ) .
1. Ronnie Kasrils on Apartheid Israel, 2007: “Travelling into Palestine's West Bank and Gaza Strip, which I visited recently, is like a surreal trip back into an apartheid state of emergency. It is chilling to pass through the myriad checkpoints -- more than 500 in the West Bank. They are controlled by heavily armed soldiers, youthful but grim, tensely watching every movement, fingers on the trigger… The West Bank, once 22% of historic Palestine, has shrunk to perhaps 10% to 12% of living space for its inhabitants, and is split into several fragments, including the fertile Jordan Valley, which is a security preserve for Jewish settlers and the Israeli Defence Force. Like the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is effectively a hermetically sealed prison. It is shocking to discover that certain roads are barred to Palestinians and reserved for Jewish settlers. I try in vain to recall anything quite as obscene in apartheid South Africa.” [1].
2. Ronnie Kasrils on Apartheid Israel and Apartheid South Africa, 2009: “At the onset of international “Israel Apartheid Week” in solidarity with the embattled Palestinian people, I want to start by quoting a South African who emphatically stated as far back as 1963 that “Israel is an apartheid state.” Those were not the words of Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu or Joe Slovo, but were uttered by none other than the architect of apartheid itself, racist Prime Minister, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd. He was irked by the criticism of apartheid policy and Harold Macmillan’s “Winds of Change” speech , in contrast to the West’s unconditional support for Zionist Israel…To conclude: we must spare no effort in building a world-wide solidarity movement to emulate the success of the Anti-Apartheid Movement which played such a crucial role in toppling the apartheid regime in South Africa. Nelson Mandela stated after South Africa attained democratic rule that “ we South Africans cannot feel free until the Palestinians are free.” A slogan of South Africa’s liberation struggle and our trade union movement is “An injury to one is an injury to all!“ That goes for the whole of humanity. Every act of solidarity demonstrates to the Palestinians and those courageous Jews who stand by them in Israel - that they are not alone.” [2].
3. Ronnie Kasrils re pro-Zionist Canadian university and government blocking of anti-Apartheid Israel activism, 2009: “I’ve been quite taken a back by what is happening here. These university presidents, and your government, are locked in a time warp. They don’t get it. Being anti-Israel, or anti-Zionism does not in any way equal anti-Semitism. But this fact is lost with the presidents of various universities. It’s lost on the Jason Kenney’s. They still hold on to that notion if you “cry wolf,” and say this is anti-Israel and therefore anti-Semitic, that this will still carry any weight. And what I say in dialogue with Zionists, is that around the world this claim is really something that is now over. It is finished. Finito.” [3].
4. Ronnie Kasrils to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel: “As a South African freedom fighter and recently retired minister in our democratic government I salute your stand against apartheid Israel!” [4].
5. Ronnie Kasrils on Apartheid Israel and Apartheid South Africa: “ The occupation reminds me of the darkest days of apartheid, but we never saw tanks and planes firing at a civilian population. It's a monstrousness I'd never seen before. The wall you built, the checkpoints and the roads for Jews only - it turns the stomach, even for someone who grew up under apartheid. It's a hundred times worse.” [5].
6. Former South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils from a speech at Israel Apartheid Week (2009)."Israel came to resemble more and more apartheid South Africa at its zenith -- even surpassing its brutality, house demolitions, removal of communities, targeted assassinations, massacres, imprisonment and torture of its opponents, collective punishment and the aggression against neighbouring states." [6].
7. Ronnie Kastrils comparing Apartheid Israel and Apartheid South Africa (2009): “In its conduct and methods of repression, Israel … resemble[s] more and more apartheid South Africa at its zenith — even surpassing its brutality … How do we evaluate the inhumanity of dropping bombs and blazing white phosphorous on civilian populations, burning people alive, gassing them in a Gaza ghetto under relentless siege with no place to run or hide?” [7].
[1]. Ronnie Kasrils, “Israel 2007: worse than Apartheid”, Mail & Guardian On-line, 21 May 2007: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2007-05-21-israel-2007-worse-than-apartheid .
[2]. Ronnie Kasrils, “Who said nearly 50 years ago that Israel was an Apartheid State?”, Speech at Israel Apartheid Week, 2009, Global BDS Movement. Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions for Palestine, 20 March 2009: http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/347 .
[3] Ronnie Kasrils, quoted by Johan Boyden,”Israel Apartheid week in Canada welcomes Ronnie Kasrils and fights censorship and interference”, The Comment Factory, 9 March 2009: http://www.thecommentfactory.com/israel-apartheid-week-in-canada-welcomes-ronnie-kasrils-and-fights-censorship-and-interference-2046 .
[4]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
[5]. Gideon Levy, “Twilight zone/Cry the Beloved Country”, Haaretz, 26 January 2009: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/862911.html .
[6]. Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and apartheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
[7]. Ronnie Kasrils, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
KASSEM, Hana: "Israel has the means to provide the vaccine to Palestinians under occupation. By refusing to fully vaccinate the Palestinian people, Israel is engaging in medical apartheid"
Hana Kassem (Palestinian writer) on Israeli “medical apartheid” (June 2021): “The latest Israeli assault on Gaza enacted a heavy toll on the besieged enclave’s healthcare infrastructure, with fears that Gaza’s healthcare system is on the verge of collapse. However, Israel’s latest airstrikes that have killed Gaza’s top doctors and damaged medical facilities must be understood in the context of a larger strategy to undermine the health of Palestinians under occupation… Instead of upholding its international legal obligations to vaccinate the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel is currently sitting on an unused supply of ten million AstraZeneca vaccines at risk of expiring, with no plans to provide them to Palestinians under their occupation. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes that destroyed Gaza’s only COVID-19 testing site has set the besieged enclave further back in its pandemic response. Before the onslaught of Israeli missiles, Gaza’s population of two million people was testing at a twenty-eight percent positivity rate, among the highest in the world, and over half of its limited supply of 122,000 vaccines, mostly acquired through the COVAX initiative, are at risk of expiring as vaccine administration has been immobilized amidst the Israeli bombardment. The fact remains that by inoculating its citizens at one of the fastest rates in the world, including settlers illegally residing in the West Bank, Israel has the means to provide the vaccine to Palestinians under occupation. By refusing to fully vaccinate the Palestinian people, Israel is engaging in medical apartheid” (Hana Kassem, “Israel’s campaign to target Palestinian health”, Jadaliya”, June 2021 : https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/42884/Israel%E2%80%99s-campaign-to-target-Palestinian-health?utm_source=Arab%2BStudies%2BInstitute%2BMailing%2BList&utm_campaign=d8ea66303d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_11_12_52_COPY_94&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa9122f438-d8ea66303d-158617745&mc_cid=d8ea66303d&mc_eid=37b66f39d4 .)
Ahmed Kathrada is a non-White South African anti-apartheid activist who spent 26 years in prison, 18 of which were on Robben Island, under the apartheid government. He served as parliamentary counsellor to Nelson Mandela, and today, aged 85, remains an activist (see: http://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/why-can-t-israel-live-with-palestine-1.1729580#.U94wHWNG270 ). .
Ahmed Kathrada on Apartheid Israel (2014): “I have been prompted to write after viewing the nightly television images of the horrendous, ongoing atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza. Utilising highly destructive weapons, the main victims have been defenceless civilians; women, children and men. Israel’s aggression has been violent, merciless and uncivilised. Based on its actions, it will not solve its problem with the Palestinian people, and it certainly will not bring peace to its own citizens. While writing this, my thoughts go back to August-September of 1951, when I visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. I find myself asking: “Has apartheid Israel so quickly forgotten the millions of Jews, communists and gypsies who were exterminated by the Nazis, that they now commit the same crimes?” The indiscriminate bombings and destruction of infrastructure has resulted in the disruption of electricity and water supplies in Gaza. The human casualties increase at a rate that can only be described as genocide… A South African who is not white, does not need more than one day’s stay in Palestine to be thrown back to pre-1994 and realise that apartheid is very much alive under Israel as a colonial power. I spent a week in occupied Palestine, and was taken aback to personally relive a time, in some ways, worse than my apartheid days. South Africans living under apartheid, having experienced this complicity first hand, especially by the West, should therefore speak out more strongly than others. We should lead the global moral brigade against the Israeli apartheid state”. [1].
[1]. Ahmed Kathrada, “Why can’t Israel live with Palestine?”, Sunday Independent, 3 August 2014 : http://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/why-can-t-israel-live-with-palestine-1.1729580#.U94wHWNG270 .
KATZ. JVP Rabbinical Council member
Rabbi Ariana Katz (2023):“The
policies of Smotrich and the Israeli government are antithetical to Jewish
teachings, which repeatedly call for justice for all. We are here to tell
Smotrich, and all those who advocate pogroms and incite hate, that we will not
be silenced while you fundraise for apartheid” ( Jewish Voice for Peace, “JVP
rabbis teach Torah of Divestment at hotel as Smotrich speaks at Israel Bonds
fundraiser”, Press release, 12 March 2023: https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/03/torah-of-divestment/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=torah-of-divestment .)
Reem Kelani is a Palestinian musician, born in Manchester, England, UK, and brought up in Kuwait. Her debut solo CD was "Sprinting Gazelle – Palestinian Songs from the Motherland and the Diaspora" (2006) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reem_Kelani ).
Reem Kelani advocating a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter to the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
John Kerry according to Wikipedia: “John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American politician who is the 68th and current United States Secretary of State. He has served in the United States Senate, and was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry was the candidate of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election but lost to George W. Bush “ (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerry ). .
Secretary of State John Kerry in remarks before a group of high-ranking officials from the US, Europe and Japan known as the Trilateral Commission (2014): "A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens - or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state." [1].
[1]. John Kerry quoted by the UK BBC, “Kerry warns of “apartheid” without Middle East peace”, BBC News, 28 April 2014: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27195254 .
[Editor’s note: The State of Israel has been an Apartheid State since 1967. The race-based, nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run Apartheid State of Israel is a democracy-by-genocide - of about 12 million Palestinians only 7%, the adults of 1.7 million Palestinian Israelis (21% of the Israeli population) can vote for the government ruling all of Palestine plus part of Lebanon and a near-completely ethnically cleansed part of Syria, albeit as third class citizens; 1.8 million Occupied Palestinians are abusively confined to the Gaza Concentration Camp; 2.5 million Occupied Palestinians live under highly abusive military rule in West Bank Bantustans; about 6 million Palestinians are forbidden to even live in Palestine; there are 5.9 million Jewish Israelis and 0.3 million non-Jewish and non-Arab Israelis (see “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ and “Boycott Apartheid Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/home )].
John Kerry (US Secretary of State ) (2016): “The vote in the United Nations [UNSC Resolution 2334, carried 14-0 but from which the US abstained] was about preserving the two-state solution. That’s what we were standing up for: Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, living side by side in peace and security with its neighbors. That’s what we are trying to preserve for our sake and for theirs.… Today, there are a number – there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. They have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state, or they can separate into two states. But here is a fundamental reality: if the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic – it cannot be both” (John Kerry, “Secretary of State John Kerry . Remarks on Middle East Peace”, published in Marty Lederman, “Secretary Kerry’s speech on Israel and Security Council Resolution 2334”, Just Security, 28 December 2016: https://www.justsecurity.org/35868/secretary-kerrys-speech-israel-security-council-resolution-2334/ ).
[Editor: Of the present 52% Indigenous Palestinian majority in “Greater Israel”, 73% presently cannot vote for the government ruling them i.e. Apartheid].
Naomi Klein is a famous Jewish Canadian journalist, author and activist who is very well known for her books and critiques of corporate globalization (for biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Klein; see also Naomi Klein website: http://www.naomiklein.org/main ).
Naomi Klein on “never again to anyone”: “There is a debate among Jews - I'm a Jew by the way. The debate boils down to the question: "Never again to everyone, or never again to us?... [Some Jews] even think we get one get-away-with-genocide-free card...There is another strain in the Jewish tradition that say, 'Never again to anyone.”” [1].
.Naomi Klein and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [2].
Naomi Klein to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting disinvestment in Israel: “Congratulations to the students of Hampshire College for your principled and thoughtful divestment decision. Economic sanctions are among the most potent tools in the arsenal of non-violent tactics. Divestment and boycotts are controversial precisely because they work. So stay strong in the face of the attacks and misinformation, they are a measure of the effectiveness of the tactic you have chosen. And know that that there are many who stand with you, and will soon be inspired to join you” [3].
Naomi Klein on sanctions against Apartheid Israel as against Apartheid South Africa (2009): “It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.” [4].
[1]. Yotam Feldman, “Naomi Klein: oppose the state not the people”, Haartetz, 2 July 2007: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097058.html .
[2]. Letter from Naomi Klein with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, and Gore Vidal re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, California, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[3]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
[4]. Naomi Klein, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
Professor Rick Kuhn (an anti-racist Jewish Australian Marxian economist, political analyst and Reader (Associate Professor) at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, and a founder of Jews Against Occupation and Oppression) (2017): “There’s a fight going on inside the [pro-Zionist] Labor Party over the cosmetics of its position on Israel and Palestine. Currently, party leader Bill Shorten is sticking with the ALP’s longstanding policy [2-state solution and no recognition of a Palestinian state yet]. Whether Labor or the Coalition has been in office, Australian governments have been among the fiercest supporters of apartheid Israel since its creation. Unlike about 138 other countries, Australia has refused to recognise the Palestinian Authority [PA] as the government of a Palestinian state. Slavish backing of Israel is mainly a by-product of the Australia-US alliance, which has long benefited the ruling class here… The squabble in the Labor Party over how best to back Israel reflects growing sympathy, crucially from ordinary people rather than governments, for the Palestinians. Increased recognition of the repressive PA as a state is symbolic of this shift. But it won’t satisfy the aspirations of the Palestinians for freedom. Only a democratic state made up of all those now living within the borders of historic Palestine, together with the Palestinian diaspora, can achieve that goal” (Rick Kuhn, “Labor in a tizz over how to save an apartheid Israel”, Red Flag, 6 March 2017, page 25: https://redflag.org.au/node/5696 ).
Jason Kunin is a Toronto teacher and writer (see: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israeli-apartheid-any-other-name-still-stinks )..
Jason Kunin on Israeli Apartheid (4 March 2010): “As the annual Israeli Apartheid Week got underway this week in universities across Ontario and around the world, the denunciations are mounting. In the Ontario Legislature last week, MPPs from all parties supported a motion brought forward by Willowdale MPP Peter Shurman condemning the event and its use of the word "apartheid," which he called "hateful" and "odious." A similar motion is expected to be moved in parliament by the federal Conservatives this week… Israelis do not use the word "apartheid" -- they have their own word, "hafrada," meaning separation -- but as it amounts to more or less the same thing, it makes little sense to use with the public a word most people are unfamiliar with. A few facts about "hafrada" highlight the striking similarities with apartheid.
Israel rules directly over approximately five million Palestinian Arabs and six million Jews, yet for over 40 years it has maintained two sets of laws: civil laws for Jews, and military laws for the roughly four million Palestinians in the occupied territories. Israeli settlements in the territories are garrisoned by Israeli military forces and are connected both to each other and to Israel proper by an elaborate set of roads that are reserved exclusively for Jewish settlers, who also get to vote in Israeli elections.
Palestinians in the West Bank, meanwhile, have their movement curtailed even within the territories by hundreds of checkpoints, including "flying checkpoints" that appear without warning or reason. Israel controls borders, airspace, and all movement. Israel also controls all water, which it diverts for its own use while keeping Palestinians on strict water quotas and prohibiting them from digging wells. It continues to confiscate farm land for settlements, many of which are built on hills, dumping sewage onto Palestinian lands below. Palestinians who engage in non-violent resistance routinely face arrest and, quite often, torture.
If this cannot be described as apartheid, what can?”. [1].
Jason Kunin, “Israeli apartheid by any other name still stinks”, rabble.ca, March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israeli-apartheid-any-other-name-still-stinks .
95 creative writers and artists signed a letter to the UK Guardian endorsing an academic and cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel (2006):
"There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
Anti-racist Jewish American scholars Steven Levitsky (a professor of government at Harvard University) and Glen Weyl (an assistant professor of economics and law at the University of Chicago) (2015): “We are lifelong Zionists. Like other progressive Jews, our support for Israel has been founded on two convictions: first, that a state was necessary to protect our people from future disaster; and second, that any Jewish state would be democratic, embracing the values of universal human rights that many took as a lesson of the Holocaust. Undemocratic measures undertaken in pursuit of Israel’s survival, such as the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the denial of basic rights to Palestinians living there, were understood to be temporary. But we must face reality: The occupation has become permanent. Nearly half a century after the Six-Day War, Israel is settling into the apartheid-like regime against which many of its former leaders warned. The settler population in the West Bank has grown 30-fold, from about 12,000 in 1980 to 389,000 today. The West Bank is increasingly treated as part of Israel, with the green line demarcating the occupied territories erased from many maps. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin declared recently that control over the West Bank is “not a matter of political debate. It is a basic fact of modern Zionism.” This “basic fact” poses an ethical dilemma for American Jews: Can we continue to embrace a state that permanently denies basic rights to another people? Yet it also poses a problem from a Zionist perspective: Israel has embarked on a path that threatens its very existence… It is thus, reluctantly but resolutely, that we are refusing to travel to Israel, boycotting products produced there and calling on our universities to divest and our elected representatives to withdraw aid to Israel. Until Israel seriously engages with a peace process that either establishes a sovereign Palestinian state or grants full democratic citizenship to Palestinians living in a single state, we cannot continue to subsidize governments whose actions threaten Israel’s long-term survival” (Steven Levitsky and Glen Weyl, “We are lifelong Zionists. Here’s why we’ve chosen to boycott Israel”, Washington Post, 23 October 2015: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-zionist-case-for-boycotting-israel/2015/10/23/ac4dab80-735c-11e5-9cbb-790369643cf9_story.html?utm_term=.dfeafec3b09f ).
Gideon Levy (outstanding anti-racist Jewish Israeli journalist writing for Haaretz) on Jewish Israeli support for Apartheid excluding votes for Occupied Palestinians (2012): “Survey: Most Israeli Jews Wouldn't Give Palestinians Vote if West Bank Was Annexed. Survey, conducted by Dialog on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, exposes anti-Arab, ultra-nationalist views espoused by a majority of Israeli Jews” (Gideon Levy, “Survey: Most Israeli Jews Wouldn't Give Palestinians Vote if West Bank Was Annexed”, Haaretz, 23 October 2012: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/survey-most-israeli-jews-wouldn-t-give-palestinians-vote-if-west-bank-was-annexed.premium-1.471644 ).
John Martin Linton (born 11 August 1944) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Battersea from 1997 to 2010. He visited the West Bank and Gaza in September 2007 with the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group. Following that visit, Linton founded and currently chairs Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East. Martin Linton is parliamentary liaison for the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD UK) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Linton ).
Martin Linton on Apartheid Israel marriage laws violating fundamental Arab Israeli and Palestinian human rights (2011): “Raya is from Haifa and her husband Issam is from a village just 15 minutes' drive from the centre of Jerusalem, as close as Harrow to London. But he cannot live with his wife and children in their north Jerusalem home because his village lies outside the city limits. Under Israel's family unification law he cannot visit his children's school, nor even his wife when she was giving birth in hospital, because the school and the hospital are in Jerusalem and he's a West Banker. This is the law that the Israeli Supreme Court voted to uphold last week. It applies only to Arab Israelis. Jewish Israelis are free to marry and live with anyone they like (except Palestinians). The Israelis say it's because Palestinian spouses are a security risk. Palestinians say that the motive is ethnic engineering; that the Israelis will do anything to reduce the Arab population… Racism usually takes a more brazen form. It takes a particular cast of bureaucratic mind to use building permits and housing densities as tools of racial discrimination, but the Israelis have done it. Their policies are racist in everything but name and their system is apartheid in everything but name. Indeed a particularly cruel form of apartheid which works by making people's lives miserable, wearing them down, picking them off one by one. It is inaudible and invisible to the outside world until you look at the effects it has on the lives of ordinary Palestinians. As a country we protest to the Israelis that they breach international law - by annexing Jerusalem, by building settlements, by expropriating Palestinian land, building the wall inside the West Bank, by blockading Gaza. It is high time that we protested about this - their heartless treatment of ordinary families for no other reason than that they are Palestinian.” [1].
[1]. Martin Linton, “Israel’s law keeping Arab families apart”, New Statesman, 15 January 2012: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2012/01/palestinian-jerusalem-israel-family .
Ken Loach backing boycott against Apartheid Israel (2006): “Palestinians are driven to call for this boycott after forty years of the occupation of their land, destruction of their homes and the kidnapping and murder of their civilians.” [1].
[1]. Ken Loach, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
Dave Lordan is an Irish writer. His latest collection of poetry is “Invitation to a Sacrifice” (Salmon Poetry, Cliffs of Moher, 2010) (see: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11491.shtml ) .
Dave Lordan (2010): “I am proud to be among the many Irish and Ireland-based artists from across creative disciplines who have chosen to publicly support the growing campaign of boycott against apartheid Israel. Compared to the imprisoned Palestinian people themselves and to those taking part in flotillas and other perilous anti-apartheid activities in Palestine our contribution and risk may be justly considered small. At most we might lose the chance of lucrative invitations to read, perform or display our works in parts of the US where apartheid Israel's supporters hold the power of censorship. Departments of foreign affairs and ministries of culture may also not include us among those artists they can rely upon to project a lying image of a harmonious, bon vivant and, above all, harmlessly apolitical intelligentsia. We are sure to be slandered and ridiculed by the hired bullies of the global media empires.…The boycott, if it gained momentum, could have just the opposite effect. It could remove the visage of respectability and normality which the leaders of apartheid Israel so desperately crave in order that they can continue with the dirty work of oppressing the Palestinians unperturbed by the moral opinion of the rest of the world. It could undermine the confidence of the military rank and file and cause significant numbers to question and refuse the implementation of apartheid policies. Above all, it could help to inspire the continuing anti-apartheid resistance of the Palestinian people, and contribute -- similarly to how international solidarity with black South Africans did in their case -- to the eventual collapse of the apartheid system. To have played even the tiniest of roles in such an outcome would be a greater honor than any prize, review, or invitation is capable of giving us.” [1].
[1]. Dave Lordan, “An artist’s pledge to boycott [Apartheid Israel]”, Electronic Intifada, 27 August 2010: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11491.shtml .
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 .
Quotes: “The percentage of scholars who say that a two-state Israel-Palestine solution is no longer possible increased by five percentage points, from 52 percent to 57 percent. And the percentage of scholars who describe the current situation as “a one state reality akin to apartheid” grew even faster, from 59 percent in February to 65 percent in this latest poll. This increase is remarkably robust across the poll’s demographics: male and female respondents, political scientists or nonpolitical scientists, APSA and MESA members, respondents based in the United States or elsewhere, and those who participated in our first survey in February and those who didn’t. What explains such a significant increase in less than seven months? While it’s impossible to know for sure, two notable events intervened between the two surveys. First, the crisis in Israel following planned evictions of Palestinian families from their Jerusalem homes showed graphically the unequal treatment of Jews and Palestinians under Israeli control. The subsequent Gaza fighting between Israel and Hamas further focused global attention. Second, two human rights organizations — the Israeli-based B’Tselem and the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch — released widely read reports. The B’Tselem findings describe the reality in Israel and the Palestinian territories as apartheid, while the Human Rights Watch report argues that Israel’s behavior fits the legal definition of apartheid.”
William Mothipa "Willie" Madisha is a South African trade unionist. Madisha is the former President of both the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU; from 1999-2008) and the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU; from 1996-2008). Madisha grew up in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, South Africa, where he was a member of the United Democratic Front. He studied teaching at Transvaal College of Education. Madisha was fired from his position as COSATU president and expelled from the organization on February 27, 2008; he was also fired from SADTU on July 29, 2008..He backed Thabo Mbeki for the presidency against the now President Jacob Zuma (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mothipa_Madisha )..
Willie Madisha, in a letter supporting CUPE Ontario's resolution (The Canadian Union of Public Employees represents 600000 working women and men across Canada; its Ontario branch voted in 2006 to support divestment, boycott and sanctions against Apartheid Israel): "As someone who lived in apartheid South Africa and who has visited Palestine I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state. In fact, I believe that some of Israel's actions make the actions of South Africa's apartheid regime appear pale by comparison." [1].
[1]. Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and apartheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
Saree Makdisi (a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, and the author of "Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation") (2014): "The storm of controversy after Secretary of State John F. Kerry's warning that Israel risked becoming an "apartheid state" reminded us once again that facts, data and the apparently tedious details of international law often seem to have little bearing on conversations about Israel conducted at the highest levels of this country...
"Apartheid" isn't just a term of insult; it's a word with a very specific legal meaning, as defined by the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1973 and ratified by most United Nations member states (Israel and the United States are exceptions, to their shame).According to Article II of that convention, the term applies to acts "committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them…
Palestinian citizens of Israel must contend with about 50 state laws and bills that, according to the Palestinian-Israeli human rights organization Adalah, either privilege Jews or directly discriminate against the Palestinian minority. One of the key components of Israel's nationality law, the Law of Return, for example, applies to Jews only, and excludes Palestinians, including Palestinians born in what is now the state of Israel. While Jewish citizens can move back and forth without interdiction, Israeli law expressly bars Palestinian citizens from bringing spouses from the occupied territories to live with them in Israel. The educational systems for the two populations in Israel (not to mention the occupied territories) are kept largely separate and unequal. While overcrowded Palestinian schools in Israel crumble, Jewish students are given access to more resources and curricular options. It is not legally possible in Israel for a Jewish citizen to marry a non-Jewish citizen. And a web of laws, regulations and military orders governing what kind of people can live in which particular spaces makes mixed marriages within the occupied territories, or across the pre-1967 border between Israel and the occupied territories, all but impossible. And so it goes in all domains of life, from birth to death: a systematic, vigilantly policed separation of the two populations and utter contempt for the principle of equality. One group — stripped of property and rights, expelled, humiliated, punished, demolished, imprisoned and at times driven to the edge of starvation (down to the meticulously calculated last calorie) — has withered. The other group — its freedom of movement and of development not merely unrestricted but actively encouraged — has flourished, and its religious and cultural symbols adorn the regalia of the state and are emblazoned on the state flag.The question is not whether the term "apartheid" applies here. It is why it should cause such an outcry when it is used” ” [1].
[1]. Saree Makdisi, “Does the term “apartheid” fit Israel? Of course it does”, La Times, 17 May 2014: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-makdisi-israel-apartheid-20140518-story.html .
Julius Malema (former South African ANC Youth League leader and leader and co-founder of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with former ANC Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu) calling for the closure of the Israeli embassy in South Africa and for South Africa to close its embassy in Israel in solidarity with Palestine (2017): “The EFF is not an organisation for South Africans only, the EFF represents all those who reject imperialism and colonialism. EFF represents the masses of oppressed people all over the world. It doesn't matter whether you are white or black. As long as you are fighting colonialism, as long as you are fighting imperialism, as long as you know that USA is the enemy of the people, you are a friend of the EFF. That madman that is a president of the USA agrees entirely with the nonsense that is happening in Palestine, the nonsense that is perpetuated by apartheid Israel… [re BDS] If we boycott everything then they will feel the pain and go into genuine negotiations with Palestinian authorities… [re one state solution] We are living here with Afrikaners, it doesn't matter how much we hate them, we have to live with them because they have been naturalised here. If South Africans can do it, you can do it" (Julius Malema quoted in Alex Mitchley, “Malema calls for cutting all ties with “apartheid Israel””, News24, 2 November 2017: https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/malema-calls-for-cutting-all-ties-with-apartheid-israel-20171102 ).
MALKI. Riad Malki (Palestinian foreign minister), speaking at the second meeting of the Palestinian Heads of Mission in Africa, held in the capital Pretoria and speaking to the state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) after the session (2022).“If there is any country or countries that can comprehend the suffering and the struggle for freedom and independence of Palestine, it is the African continent and the people of Africa” (Thabi Myeni, “South Africa calls for Israel to be declared an ‘apartheid state’. The South African government has remained a strong ally of Palestine, providing both material and public support for its liberation cause”, Al Jazeera, 26 July 2022: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/26/south-africa-calls-for-israels-proscription-as-apartheid-state ).
Mandla Mandela ( grandson of South Africa’s first president and independence leader, Nelson Mandela) accused Israel of imposing an “apartheid regime” during a historic visit to Palestine (2017): “The settlements I saw here [in the West Bank] reminded me of what we had suffered in South Africa because we also were surrounded by many settlements and were not allowed to move from one place to another freely. Palestinians are being subjected to the worst version of apartheid… What we have experienced in South Africa is a fraction of what the Palestinians are experiencing. We were oppressed in order to serve the white minority. The Palestinians are being eliminated off their land and brought out of their territories, and this is a total human-rights violations. I think it is a total disgrace that the world is able to sit back while such atrocities are being carried out by apartheid Israel… We demand that Israel complies with International law and demand the return of six million Palestinian refugees driven from the land of their birth. We demand that all occupied land be returned, and we condemn the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Today, we stand to salute the brave and fearless Palestinian people who are facing the brutal might of the Israeli Army to defend al-Aksa with their bare hands. We demand that all occupied land be returned. Madiba reminded us that our freedom is incomplete until Palestine is free” (Mandla Mandela quoted in “Mandla Mandela: Israel imposing “Worst version of Apartheid””, Telesur, 29 November 2017: https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mandla-Mandela-Israel-Imposing-Worst-Version-of-Apartheid-20171129-0003.html ).
Nelson Mandela (born 18 July 1918) is a former President of South Africa (the first to be elected in fully democratic election) 1994 to 1999. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-Apartheid activist and the leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Mandela served 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela supported reconciliation and negotiation, and helped lead the transition towards multi-racial democracy in South Africa. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela ).
1. Nelson Mandela in an address at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Dec. 4, 1997: “The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”. [1].
2. Nelson Mandela speech on International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians (excerpt) : "The temptation in our situation is to speak in muffled tones about an issue such as the right of the people of Palestine to a state of their own. We can easily be enticed to read reconciliation and fairness as meaning parity between justice and injustice. Having achieved our own freedom, we can fall into the trap of washing our hands of difficulties that others faces. Yet we would be less than human if we did so.
It behooves all South Africans, themselves erstwhile beneficiaries of generous international support, to stand up and be counted among those contributing actively to the cause of freedom and justice.
Even during the days of negotiations, our own experience taught us that the pursuit of human fraternity and equality -- irrespective of race or religion -- should stand at the centre of our peaceful endeavours. The choice is not between freedom and justice, on the one hand, and their opposite, on the other. Peace and prosperity; tranquility and security are only possible if these are enjoyed by all without discrimination.
It is in this spirit that I have come to join you today to add our own voice to the universal call for Palestinian self-determination and statehood." [2].
3. Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid campaigner, former South African president and Nobel Peace Laureate (2001): “Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians contrary to the rules of international law and waged war against a civilian population, in particular children.” [3].
[1]. Nelson Mandela quoted in “Nelson Mandela quotes: A collection of memorable words from former South African president”, CBS News, 5 December 2013: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nelson-mandela-quotes-a-collection-of-memorable-words-from-former-south-african-president/ .
[2]. Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and apartheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
[3].Nelson Mandela quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela (South African MP and the grandson of Nelson Mandela) addressing Palestine Expo in London (2019): “On the 19th July 2018 the Knesset passed into law what we have always known to be the true character and reality of Israel: Israel is an apartheid state, period. For us as South Africans our experience of apartheid was defined by the following key defining characteristics:
statutory discrimination
pass laws
group areas
labour reservation
separate and unequal development
land expropriation
movement restrictions: the wall
military state: road blocks and random searches
assault on dignity and human rights
All these characteristics were present in Apartheid Israel since its inception but have now been codified and given constitutional status and expression by the Nation-State Law. Apartheid Israel perpetuates statutory discrimination through the very definition by the Nation-State Law as a Jewish State. By doing so it renders non-Jews as secondary citizens alternatively as foreigners in the land of their birth by virtue of who they are and who they are not. Although Israeli Jews and Arab Israelis already had different national identity documents that defined them as such, the Nation-State Law further emphasises that differentiation… the Nation-State Law serves as a proactive statement against attempts to de-legitimise Israel, in particular by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is campaigning internationally for economic, political and cultural sanctions against Israel” ( Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela quoted in Middle East Monitor, “Nelson Mandela’s grandson: “Israel is an apartheid state, period””, 8 July 2019: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190708-nelson-mandelas-grandson-israel-is-an-apartheid-state-period/ ).
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (born Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela; 26 September 1936) is a South African politician who has held several government positions and headed the African National Congress Women's League. She is currently a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee. She was the former wide of anti-Aparthed hero Nelson Mandela (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie_Madikizela-Mandela ).
Winnie Mandela on defeating Apartheid Israel: "Apartheid Israel can be defeated, just as apartheid in South Africa was defeated." [1].
[1]. Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and apartheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
Henning Mankell (Swedish crime writer, best known for a series of novels featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander) on his participation in the Gaza flotilla (2010): “[I want a situation in which] Palestinians are not treated like second-class citizens in their own country, a sort of apartheid system" (“Henning Mankell: Swedish crime writer, who created character Kurt Wallander, dies aged 67”, ABC News, 5 October 2015: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-05/swedish-crime-writer-henning-mankell-dies/6829396 ).
Sydney, New South Wales Marrickville Council’s decision to endorse the Palestinian call for BDS against Apartheid Israel was supported by 582 Jewish and non-Jewish individuals and 30 organizations.
Marrickville BDS: “Here is the list of [582 Jewish and non-Jewish] individuals who have asked to have their names added to our Open Letter supporting Marrickville Council’s endorsement of the global campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. The list of supporting organisations can be found here. “: https://marrickvillebds.wordpress.com/supportorg/signed/ .
(The names of individuals supporting Marrickville Council’s decision to endorse the Palestinian call for boycott of Israel until that country complies with international humanitarian law can be seen here)
Architects for Peace
Australian Artists Against Apartheid
Canterbury Bankstown Peace Group
Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine, Dulwich Hill, NSW
Critical Jewish Voice (Austria)
Comité de Solidariedade com a Palestina, (Committee of Solidarity with Palestine), Portugal
Educators for Peace and Justice, Ontario, Canada
Gaza Defence Committee
Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC)
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), Canada
Jews Against the Occupation
Just Peace, Qld
Labor 4A Just Palestine
Marrickville Peace Group
Netherlands Palestine Committee
Not In Our Name (NION) Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism
Palestine Solidarity Group, Cape Town, South Africa
Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group, UK
Samenwerken voor Palestina (Dutch Network of 28 organisations)
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Stop Agrexco Rome Committee, Rome, Italy
Sydney Peace Foundation
Teachers for Palestine, Ontario, Canada
The COSATU-led Coalition for a Free Palestine (CFP), Johannesburg, South Africa
Wits Palestine Solidarity Committee, (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa).
Women for Palestine
Women in Black (Vienna)
Women in Solidarity with Palestine (WSP), Toronto
Former US General James Mattis took over US Central Command, (area of responsibility of which includes the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia) from David Petraeus in 2010. General Mattis retired on May 22, 2013 after more than 41 years of service (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mattis ).
US General Mattis at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado in response to a question about the peace process (2013): “I paid a military security price every day as the commander of CentCom because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel, and that moderates all the moderate Arabs who want to be with us, because they can’t come out publicly in support of people who don’t show respect for the Arab Palestinians… “[current situation] unsustainable”… “[chances for peace] are starting to ebb because the settlements and where they’re at are going to make it impossible to maintain the two state solution… [lack of progress in peace talks]“shortstops a lot of support for us because all politics are local… And I would just tell you that they can’t come out in support of us if we don’t see some progress where Secretary [of State John] Kerry is wisely focused like a laser beam right now.” [1].
According to the Times of Israel article: “Mattis then described a hypothetical in which 500 Jewish settlers live among 10,000 Arabs, and the implications of where Israel draws the border. He called it a choice between giving up the idea of a Jewish state or becoming an apartheid state.” [1].
The Times of Israel further reports that “In a prepared statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee in March 2010, Petraeus said that the “conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of US favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in the AOR [area of responsibility] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support. The conflict also gives Iran influence in the Arab world through its clients, Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas.””
[1]. Lazar Berman, Ex-US general: we pay a price for backing Israel”, Times of Israel, 25 July 2015: http://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-us-general-we-pay-a-price-for-backing-israel/ .
Professor John Meersheimer (R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago) on Apartheid Israel and the eventual democratic bi-national state) (2010): “Contrary to the wishes of the Obama administration and most Americans — to include many American Jews — Israel is not going to allow the Palestinians to have a viable state of their own in Gaza and the West Bank. Regrettably, the two-state solution is now a fantasy. Instead, those territories will be incorporated into a “Greater Israel,” which will be an apartheid state bearing a marked resemblance to white-ruled South Africa. Nevertheless, a Jewish apartheid state is not politically viable over the long term. In the end, it will become a democratic bi-national state, whose politics will be dominated by its Palestinian citizens. In other words, it will cease being a Jewish state, which will mean the end of the Zionist dream… Nevertheless, the Palestinians are not going to get their own state any time soon. They are instead going to end up living in an apartheid state dominated by Israeli Jews. The main reason that a two-state solution is no longer a serious option is that most Israelis are opposed to making the sacrifices that would be necessary to create a viable Palestinian state, and there is little reason to expect them to have an epiphany on this issue… In sum, there are great dangers ahead for the Palestinians, who will continue to suffer terribly at the hands of the Israelis for some years to come. But it does look like the Palestinians will eventually get their own state, mainly because Israel seems bent on self-destruction” (John J. Meersheimer, “The future of Palestine: Righteous Jews versus New Afrikaners”, Monthly Review, 30 April 2010: https://mronline.org/2010/04/30/the-future-of-palestine-righteous-jews-vs-new-afrikaners/ ).
MIDDLE EAST SCHOLAR BAROMETER. Middle East Scholar Barometer, University of Maryland (this survey was carried out March 27 – April 11, 2023): https://criticalissues.umd.edu/sites/criticalissues.umd.edu/files/March-April%202023%20MESB%20Results.pdf .
Q6. The stated aim of international diplomacy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been to achieve two states, the state of Israel next to a sovereign state of Palestine established within the territories that Israel occupied in the 1967 war. Which of the following is closer to your view about the likelihood of this outcome? 1. It’s no longer possible: 63%.
Q7. In your opinion, which of the following comes closest to describing the current reality in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza: 5. A one-state reality akin to Apartheid: 68%.
Q8. If a two-state outcome is, or becomes, no longer possible, which of the following is most likely in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in the next ten years? 3. A one-state reality akin to Apartheid: 80%
Q9. What is your position on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement aimed at Israel? 1. I support it unconditionally: 31%; 2. I support it under certain conditions: 59%.
Q10. Regardless of your position on BDS, do you support or oppose boycotts of Israel? 1. I support all boycotts of Israel: 27%; 2. I support some boycotts of Israel: 58%.
Q11. Regardless of whether you personally support or oppose the boycott of Israel, which of the following is closer to your view? 2. We should OPPOSE laws that penalize people who boycott Israel: 92%.
Q12. In your view, is it possible to have full democracy for all Israeli citizens while maintaining a military rule over Palestinians in the occupied territories? 2. No: 87%.
Q13. As you know, Israel recently formed a government that included far-right members. Which of the following is closer to your view about the direction the government is taking (even as choices may overlap)? 2. It’s new only in intensity: 78%.
Q14. The current Israeli government’s plan to change the judicial system has generated sustained large-scale protests in Israel. How do you believe the government will act in response to these protests? 3. The government modifies the planned changes: 48%. 4. The government implements the planned changes: 31%.
Q15. How do you view the current Israeli government’s policy direction on the following:
Q15A. Israel’s judicial system and the Supreme Court: 5. Very negative: 78%.
Q15B. The situation in the occupied territories: 5. Very negative: 93%.
Q15C. Relations between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of Israel: 5. Very negative: 80%.
Craig Murray in his owns words: “Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010” (see: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/about-craig-murray/ ).
Craig Murray on the evil reality of Apartheid Israel (2014): “That Israel has become an apartheid state is so self-evident that it is impossible to put the fact back in the box. Sky News’ Sam Kiley said it a year ago, and that was almost as surprising as Kerry’s rush of honesty. A state which has hundreds of laws defining the rights and obligations of its different groups of citizens by their ethnicity, enforcing zoning and separate education and public service provisio, and even limiting the right of defined ethnic groups to live with their spouses, is a state which can be characterized by no other word than Apartheid. Israel’s claims to be a democracy exactly echo the similar claim of apartheid South Africa. I am however delighted if the neo-con plan for a “two state” solution is now dead, because that plan was precisely the same plan that South Africa had for its “Bantustan” reserves for black people. The only difference being that Israel has been much more vicious, herded the indigenous population into much smaller and less viable areas than was allowed to the “Bantustans”, subjected them to appalling economic blockade and then continually ripped away more and more of their small amount of land on a daily basis. The difference between apartheid South Africa’s Bantustans and the “two state solution”, is that the Israel version is, incredibly, even worse, even more evil. As in South Africa, the ONLY acceptable solution for Israel/Palestine is freedom and majority rule. People of goodwill should never again be sidetracked into pursuing the kind of apartheid solutions being pushed by Tony Blair” [1].
[1]. Craig Murray, “The Apartheid Israel poison is out”, Craig Murray Blog, 30 April 2014: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/04/the-apartheid-israel-poison-is-out/ .
Rima Najjar ( Palestinian former professor of English literature, Al-Quds University, Occupied West Bank) (2018): “Israel cannot survive as a Jewish state without a constant influx of Jews as immigrants to keep the Jewish majority it created by denying Palestinian right of return and blocking Palestinian aspirations to self-determination in their own homeland. Today, thanks to BDS, we are no longer trapped in the language of “disputed territory” or dual “narratives”. It’s finally clear that the demise of the Jewish state is inevitable, leading to an exodus of Jews from Palestine. Israel’s end will come, as Henry Siegman, President of the U.S./Middle East Project, writes in The National Interest, from one of two scenarios, both of which will be fueled by the nature or character of the Jewish state itself [Palestinians either prevailing or not prevailing in an “anti-apartheid struggle”]… The time has finally come for Zionist chains to be broken and for self-determination, dignity, and transformative justice for Palestinians to spring forth across synagogues, churches and mosques worldwide” (Rima Najjar, “Two scenarios only: is Jewish exodus from Palestine inevitable”, The Palestine Chronicle, 12 January 2018: https://www.palestinechronicle.com/two-scenarios-jewish-exodus-palestine-inevitable/ ).
Sharif Nashashibi is a journalist who writes for Al Arabiya English, The Middle East magazine and the Guardian, is an award-winning journalist and frequent interviewee on Arab affairs. He is co-founder of Arab Media Watch, an independent, non-profit watchdog set up in 2000 to strive for objective coverage of Arab issues in the British media (see: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2014/05/05/Acknowledging-Israeli-apartheid.html ).
Sharif Nashashibi writing on the reality of Israeli Apartheid and US Secretary of States John Kerry being attacked by the racist Zionists and pro-Zionists for mentioning the “prospect” of Israeli Apartheid (2014): “U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is a much maligned and misunderstood man in Israel. Last week, he said it was “imperative” to have a two-state solution, otherwise “a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second class citizens, or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state.. . However, Kerry’s very mention of the possibility of apartheid resulted in calls for an apology, and even his resignation. This despite the fact that, as the Associated Press put it, “he had voiced an opinion that is frequently heard in Israel itself.” Those voices include Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, and former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, among other prominent figures…Despite fury from pro-Israel lobbyists at accusations of apartheid, even a majority of Israelis - 58% - think that it exists in their country, with 39% saying it exists “in some ways,” and 19% “in many ways,” according to a poll in Oct. 2012. This view is shared and expressed across the country’s spectrum, from politicians to judges, journalists, academics, human rights groups and diplomats. As such, the debate - in Israel at least - seems to be not so much about whether apartheid exists, but whether it is justified… Denial that a state system of discrimination exists comes from fear of the resulting conclusion that many will draw, and are drawing: that the methods used to secure the rights of black South Africans could work for the Palestinians. Being blind to the reality of Israeli apartheid is bad enough, but silencing those who warn of the consequences is downright foolish. A friend should tell you the truth, not simply what you want to hear. The American-Israeli relationship has yet to come to this basic realization.” [1].
[1]. Sharif Nashashibi, “Acknowledging Israeli Apartheid”, Al Arabiya News, 5 May 2014: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2014/05/05/Acknowledging-Israeli-apartheid.html .
Viet Thanh Nguyen ( author "The Sympathizer", Vietnamese-American novelist, the Aerol Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, and 1 of 4 winners of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel , the others being Alice Walker, Richard Ford, and Junot Diaz) (2016): “Always remember, never forget. These powerful words compel us to think about both the injustices of the past and the injustices of the present. One of those contemporary injustices that we struggle to remember is the Israeli occupation and the deprivation of Palestinian rights. For any of us concerned with justice, the imperative is clear: we must stand with the disempowered and the forgotten against militarism and the state” (David Palumbo-Liu, “Backing BDS: another Pulitzer winner comes out for Palestinian rights”, Salon, 22 June 2016: https://www.salon.com/2016/06/22/backing_bds_another_pulitzer_winner_comes_out_for_palestinian_rights/ ).
The "Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism (NARZ)" website documents the views against racist Zionism of outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian non-Jewish scholars, leaders and writers: http://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ .
"Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism (NARZ)" website: "For anti-racist Jews - and indeed ALL anti-racist humanitarians - the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “never again to anyone”, “bear witness” and “zero tolerance for lying”.
However these sacred injunctions are grossly violated by the anti-Arab anti-Semitic racist Zionists running Apartheid Israel and their Western backers variously involved in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide (post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths 0.3 million, 2.5 million and 4.5 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million, 0.9 million and 2.4 million, respectively; refugees totalling 7 million, 5-6 million and 3-4 million, respectively, plus a further 2.5 million NW Pakistan Pashtun refugees) (2010 updated figures; for details and documentation see "Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide": http://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ ).
All decent, anti-racist, humanitarians must vigorously oppose and sideline those supporting racist Zionism, Apartheid Israel and racist Western wars and occupations who are currently complicit in 0.7 million non-violent excess deaths annually; continuing, racist perversion of human rights, humanitarian values and rational discourse in the Western democracies; ignoring of worsening climate genocide (that may kill 10 billion non-Europeans this century through unaddressed man-made climate change); and egregious anti-Jewish anti-Semitism through falsely identifying decent, anti-racist Jews with these appalling crimes.
This site is inspired by our obligation to the 30 million victims of the WW2 European Holocaust and indeed to the victims of all other holocaust and genocide atrocities such as the 35 million Chinese killed by the Japanese in WW2 and the 6-7 million Indians starved to death by the British in the 1943-1945 WW2 Bengal Famine (see Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ; Gideon Polya, “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ); Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability", G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 1998, 2008: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/; and see recent BBC broadcast "Bengal Famine" involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and other scholars: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html ).
This site is also inspired by the words of outstanding Jewish American scholar Professor Jared Diamond who in his best-selling book "Collapse” (Prologue, p10, Penguin edition) enunciated the "moral principle, namely that it is morally wrong for one people to dispossess, subjugate, or exterminate another people" – an injunction grossly violated by racist Zionist (RZ)-run Apartheid Israel and its racist, genocide-committing and genocide-ignoring US Alliance backers.
As perceived by UK writer Alan Hart in his recent book “Zionism: the Real Enemy of the Jews. Volume 1. The False Messiah"” (Clarity Press), racist Zionism represents an immense threat not just to the Arab and Muslim World but also to decent, anti-racist, humanitarian Jews throughout the World and indeed to ALL Humanity (see:
http://www.claritypress.com/Hart-I.html ).
The "Jews Against Racist Zionism" website (see: http://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ ) documents the views against racist Zionism of outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish scholars, leaders and writers.
Other key compilations of outstanding Jewish voices against racist Zionism have been provided by Canadian human rights lawyer Edward Corrigan in “Is it anti-Semitism to defend Palestinian human rights? Jewish opposition to Zionism”, Dissident Voice, 1 September 2009: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/09/is-it-anti-semitic-to-defend-palestinian-human-rights/ and by eminent Jewish American commentator Stephen Lendman in “Jews against Zionism”, Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinel, 7 December 2009: http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2009/120709Lendman.shtml .
A key compilation of Jewish and non-Jewish leaders, scholars, activists and writers opposed to racist Zionism is provided by “Qumsiyeh: a human rights web” Honor Roll: http://qumsiyeh.org/honorlist/ .
The racist Zionists are anti-Arab anti-Semitic and also anti-Jewish anti-Semitic, posing an immense threat not just to Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims but also to decent, non-racist Jews around the world. However the racist Zionists (RZs) continue to mount an evil, world-wide smear campaign accusing anyone opposing Israeli human rights abuses in Palestine of being anti-Semitic.
This racist Zionist (RZ) falsehood is readily exposed by the large number of outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian Jews opposed to the evil of racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel as summarized by key compilations of outstanding Jewish voices against racist Zionism.
Accordingly it takes peculiar courage for non-Jews to run the gauntlet of racist Zionist (RZ) blackmail, machinations, and defamation.
The Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism (NARZ) website documents the views against racist Zionism of outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian non-Jewish scholars, leaders and writers." [1].
[1]. "Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism":
http://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ .
The Greens are a pro-peace, pro-human rights, pro-equity and pro-environment Australia political party that has secured about 12% of the Australian primary vote. The major Australian parties, the Liberal-National Party Coalition and the Australian Labor Party (aka the Lib-Labs or Liberal-Laborals) with about 50% and 30%, respectively, of the primary vote, strongly support Apartheid Israel and firmly oppose Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel, Decent, anti-racist Australians vote 1 Green (see: http://greens.org.au/ ).
The NSW (New South Wales) Greens at their State Delegates Council meeting held on December 4 2010 in Sydney unanimously endorsed the following proposal backing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel (2010):
“That the Greens NSW call upon all Australians and the Australian government to boycott Israeli goods, trading and military arrangements, and sporting, cultural and academic events as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel's occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory, the siege of Gaza and imprisonment of 1.5 million people, and Israel's institution of a system of apartheid, by endorsing the following actions:
1. condemning Israel's apartheid and occupation policies;
2. censuring Israel's violations of the human rights of Palestinians and its failure to abide by international law;
3. halting any military cooperation or trade with Israel;
4. refraining from participation in any form of sporting event, academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions or teams except those that publicly oppose Israel's apartheid and occupation policies;
5. advocating a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions; and
6. supporting and promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.” [1].
[1]. “NSW Greens: Boycott Apartheid Israel!”, Green Left Weekly, 8 December 2010: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46369 .
Ehud Olmert (former Israeli PM) In an interview with Yediot Aharonot in December 2003, quoted by Jimmy Carter (2009), “Above all hovers the cloud of demographics. It will come down as not in the end of days, but in just another few years. We are approaching a point where more and more Palestinians will say: “There is no place for two states between the Jordan and the sea. All we want is the right to vote.” The day they get it we will lose everything” (Jimmy Carter, “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land”, Simon & Schuster, 2009).
Ehud Olmert in interview with Haaretz (November 2007) quoted by Jimmy Carter (2009): “If the two-state solution collapsed, Israel would “ face a South Africa-style struggle for equal voting rights, and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.” He warned that “the Jewish organizations, which were our power base in America, will be the first to come out against us because they will say they cannot support a state that does not support democracy and equal voting rights for all its residents” (Jimmy Carter, “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land”, Simon & Schuster, 2009).
This website entitled "One-state solution, unitary state, bi-national state for a democratic, equal rights, post-apartheid Palestine" is an alphabetical compendium of the humane views of numerous anti-racist Jewish Israeli, Palestinian and other scholars, writers, leaders and activists who argue the compelling case for urgent replacement of grossly humane rights-violating, international law-violating, nuclear-armed, state terrorist, race-based, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel in Palestine with a unitary state (bi-national state, one-state solution) as in post-apartheid South Africa involving peace, equal rights for all, economic justice for all, secular democracy, security, freedom of movement for all, and return of all refugees ( "One-state solution, unitary state, bi-national state for a democratic, equal rights, post-apartheid Palestine": https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/one-state-solution ).
Humanity demands that we speak out, bear witness, and tell the truth for a better world (see “Gideon Polya Writing”: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ and “Gideon Polya”: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ).
In 1880 Palestine contained about 500,000 Arab Palestinians and about 25,000 Jews (half of the latter being immigrants). Genocidally racist Zionists have been responsible for a Palestinian Genocide involving successive mass expulsions (800,000 in 1948 and 400,00 Arabs expelled in 1967) , ethnic cleansing of 90% of the land of Palestine, and in the century since the British invasion of Palestine in WW1 about 2.3 million Palestinian deaths from violence (0.1 million) or from violently-imposed deprivation (2.2 million). Presently there are now 8 million Palestinian refugees, and of 14 million Palestinians (half of them children and three quarters women and children) about 50% (7 million) are forbidden to even step foot in their own country on pain of death, only 1.8 million Palestinian Israelis (13%) are permitted to vote for the government ruling all of the former Mandated Palestine, and 5.0 million Palestinians have zero human rights as Occupied Palestinians in West Bank ghettoes or mini-Bantustans (3.0 million) or in the Gaza Concentration Camp (2.0 million). The “lucky”, circa 2 million Palestinian Israelis are Third Class citizens subject to about 50 Nazi-style discriminatory laws. Indigenous Palestinians now represent 50% of the population of the territory ruled by Apartheid Israel (Jewish Israelis represent 47%) but of these Indigenous Palestinian subjects, 74% are excluded from voting for the government ruling them – in a word, Apartheid. The per capita GDP (nominal) is a deadly $3,000 for Occupied Palestinians as compared to $40,000 for Apartheid Israel. Over 4,000 Occupied Palestinians die avoidably from imposed deprivation each year with an average of about 500 being killed violently by Apartheid Israel each year ( “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ).
The “two-state solution” has been a convenient fig-leaf for pro-Apartheid Western dishonesty and inaction over Palestine. The Zionist ethnic cleansing of 90% of Palestine has rendered the “two-state solution” dead but the continuing obscenity of a grossly human rights-abusing Apartheid Israel is intolerable to decent people around the world. However the racist Jewish Nation-State Law makes it abundantly clear that the racist Zionists running Apartheid Israel are resolutely committed to a neo-Nazi Apartheid State and endless, deadly subjugation of the Indigenous Palestinians with the ever-present threat of 100% ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The world must resolutely act over Apartheid Israel as it successfully did over Apartheid South Africa with Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and all its racist supporters (“Boycott Apartheid Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/ ).
A clear, humane solution to the continuing human rights catastrophe in Palestine is a unitary state (one-state solution, bi-national state) as in post-Apartheid South Africa that would involve return of all refugees, zero tolerance for racism, equal rights for all, all human rights for all, economic decency for all, one-person-one-vote democracy, justice, goodwill, reconciliation, airport-level security, nuclear weapons removal, internationally-guaranteed national security initially based on the present armed forces, and untrammeled access for all citizens to all of Palestine. It can and should happen tomorrow (Gideon Polya, “Israeli Jewish Nation-State Law enshrines Apartheid and genocidal racism”, Countercurrents, 24 July 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/07/24/israeli-jewish-nation-state-law-enshrines-apartheid-and-genocidal-racism/ ).
[Numerous humane and expert opinions presented here: "One-state solution, unitary state, bi-national state for a democratic, equal rights, post-apartheid Palestine": https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/one-state-solution ]
Jonathan Ophir (Israeli musician, conductor and writer based in Denmark) (2020): “Peter Beinart, Prince of ‘Liberal-Zionism’, published a nearly 7K-word essay in Jewish Currents titled “Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine”, explaining why he is abandoning the two-state solution. It was followed up by his much shorter piece in the New York Times titled “I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State”. I don’t need to write an essay to explain just how deeply this cuts into the Zionist heart. Equality between Jews and Palestinians is anathema to Zionism, and abandoning the Jewish State is relinquishing the conceptual means by which this inequality is maintained. These advocacies in general are not novel. Many others as well as this writer have been making them for years. But the person who is now voicing them is part of this story which makes it that much more explosive. The prince has just abandoned the castle. Even though Beinart seems keen to soften the blow by suggesting that Zionism continue more as “essence” rather than “form”, that is, become a kind of cultural signifier without a Jewish nation-state as such, for Zionists today, this is still very much tantamount to a death blow… And if it’s Apartheid, no matter what you do, then it’s logical that the goal needs to change from managing it, to abolishing it. When the goal is abolishing it, then we are called on to imagine a future without Apartheid. This is where the “pragmatists” of the status quo orthodoxies will come in to demolish these imaginings as “unrealistic” or worse. People once talked that way about Apartheid South Africa, too, until it wasn’t Apartheid anymore” (Jonathan Ophir, “Peter Beinart’s defection is a desperate crisis for liberal Zionists”, Mondoweiss, 20 July 2020: https://mondoweiss.net/2020/07/peter-beinarts-defection-makes-liberal-zionists-reactionary/ ).
Sarah Irving (2015) : “More than 700 creative professionals living in the United Kingdom – including writers, visual artists, actors, musicians and many others – have signed up to a pledge to boycott collaboration with Israeli state-funded projects. Disclaimer: I have the privilege of being one of them… The pledge, which was launched on 14 February 2015 with a letter in The Guardian newspaper and a new website, reads: “We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality. In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.Israel’s wars are fought on the cultural front too. Its army targets Palestinian cultural institutions for attack, and prevents the free movement of cultural workers. Its own theater companies perform to settler audiences on the West Bank – and those same companies tour the globe as cultural diplomats, in support of “Brand Israel.” During South African apartheid, musicians announced they weren’t going to “play Sun City.” Now we are saying, in Tel Aviv, Netanya, Ashkelon or Ariel, we won’t play music, accept awards, attend exhibitions, festivals or conferences, run masterclasses or workshops, until Israel respects international law and ends its colonial oppression of the Palestinians.
The list of signatories includes many high-profile artists based in the UK, including:
Writers Tariq Ali, William Dalrymple, Aminatta Forna, Bonnie Greer, Mark Haddon, Hari Kunzru, Liz Lochhead, Jimmy McGovern, China Mieville, Andrew O’Hagan, Michael Rosen, Kamila Shamsie, Hanan al-Shaykh, Gillian Slovo, Ahdaf Soueif, Marina Warner, Benjamin Zephaniah
Film directors Mike Hodges, Asif Kapadia, Peter Kosminsky, Mike Leigh, Phyllida Lloyd, Ken Loach, Roger Michell, Michael Radford, Julien Temple
Comedians Jeremy Hardy, Alexei Sayle, Mark Thomas
Musicians Richard Ashcroft, Jarvis Cocker, Brian Eno, Kate Tempest, Roger Waters, Robert Wyatt
Actors Rizwan Ahmed, Anna Carteret, David Calder, Simon McBurney, Miriam Margolyes
Theater writers/directors Caryl Churchill, David Edgar, Dominic Cooke CBE, Sir Jonathan Miller, Mark Ravenhill
Visual Arts Phyllida Barlow, John Berger, Jeremy Deller, Mona Hatoum
Architects Peter Ahrends, Will Alsop.’ (see Sarah Irving, “More than 700 artists pledge to boycott Israel”, Electronic Intifada, 14 February, 2015: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/sarah-irving/more-700-uk-artists-pledge-boycott-israel ”
”
The Pledge: “We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality. In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights” (for details and signatories see “Artists for Palestine UK”: http://artistsforpalestine.org.uk/ ).
Letter to Guardian: “Along with more than 600 other fellow artists, we are announcing today that we will not engage in business-as-usual cultural relations with Israel. We will accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government. Since the summer war on Gaza, Palestinians have enjoyed no respite from Israel’s unrelenting attack on their land, their livelihood, their right to political existence. “2014,” says the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, was “one of the cruellest and deadliest in the history of the occupation.” The Palestinian catastrophe goes on. Israel’s wars are fought on the cultural front too. Its army targets Palestinian cultural institutions for attack, and prevents the free movement of cultural workers. Its own theatre companies perform to settler audiences on the West Bank – and those same companies tour the globe as cultural diplomats, in support of “Brand Israel”. During South African apartheid, musicians announced they weren’t going to “play Sun City”. Now we are saying, in Tel Aviv, Netanya, Ashkelon or Ariel, we won’t play music, accept awards, attend exhibitions, festivals or conferences, run masterclasses or workshops, until Israel respects international law and ends its colonial oppression of the Palestinians. To see the full list of supporters, go to artistsforpalestine.org.uk.”
Khalid Abdalla, Riz Ahmed, Peter Ahrends, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Will Alsop, Richard Ashcroft, John Berger, Bidisha, Nicholas Blincoe, Leah Borrromeo, Haim Bresheeth, Victoria Brittain, Niall Buggy, Tam Dean Burn, Jonathan Burrows, David Calder, Anna Carteret, Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, Ian Christie, Caryl Churchill, Sacha Craddock, Liam Cunningham, Selma Dabbagh, Colin Darke, April De Angelis, Andy de la Tour, Ivor Dembina, Shane Dempsey, Elaine Di Campo, Patrick Driver, Earl Okin, Sally El Hosaini, Brian Eno, Gareth Evans, Annie Firbank, James Floyd, Aminatta Forna, Jane Frere, Kadija George, Bob Giles, Mel Gooding, Tony Graham, Omar Robert Hamilton, Jeremy Hardy, Mike Hodges, James Holcombe, Rachel Holmes, Adrian Hornsby, Rose Issa, Ann Jungman, John Keane, Brigid Keenan, Hannah Khalil, Shahid Khan, Peter Kosminsky, Hari Kunzru, Paul Laverty, Alisa Lebow, Mike Leigh, Tom Leonard, Sonja Linden, Phyllida Lloyd, Ken Loach, Liz Lochhead, David Mabb, Sabrina Mahfouz, Miriam Margolyes, Kika Markham, Simon McBurney, Sarah McDade, Jimmy McGovern, Pauline Melville, Roger Michell, China Miéville, Russell Mills, Laura Mulvey, Jonathan Munby, Courttia Newland, Lizzie Nunnery, Rebecca O’Brien, Treasa O’Brien, Andrew O’Hagan, Jeremy Page, Timothy Pottier, Michael Radford, Maha Rahwanji, Ravinder Randhawa, Siobhan Redmond, Lynne Reid Banks, Ian Rickson, Leon Rosselson, Kareem Samara, Leila Sansour, Alexei Sayle, Seni Seneviratne, Kamila Shamsie, Anna Sherbany, Eyal Sivan, Gillian Slovo, John Smith, Max Stafford-Clark, Maggie Steed, Sarah Streatfeild, Mitra Tabrizian, Mark Thomas, Cat Villiers, Roger Waters, Esther Wilson, Penny Woolcock, Susan Wooldridge, Emily Young, Andrea Luka Zimmerman” ( see Letter: over 100 artists announce a cultural boycott of Israel”, Guardian , 14 February 2015: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/13/cultural-boycott-israel-starts-tomorrow ).
David Palumbo-Liu ( anti-racist Asian American scholar, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor and Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University) on support for Palestinian human rights by anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish American writers (2016): “It is precisely these sorts of ethically and morally driven acts of the imagination that these [pro-Palestinian rights, Pulitzer prize-winning, pro-BDS] writers are engaged in, to, as Nguyen says, “always remember, never forget.” To abandon our consciences once we have gained freedom and rights, and abandon those who have yet to achieve them and are being denied the means to do so, is a sign of moral poverty. Conversely, to give witness to that suffering and disengage from the machinery that is perpetuating that misery is the job these and other artists are undertaking” (David Palumbo-Liu, “Backing BDS: another Pulitzer winner comes out for Palestinian rights”, Salon, 22 June 2016: https://www.salon.com/2016/06/22/backing_bds_another_pulitzer_winner_comes_out_for_palestinian_rights/ ).
PANDOR. Naledi Pandor (South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation) speaking at the second meeting of the Palestinian Heads of Mission in Africa, held in the capital Pretoria (2022): “The Palestinian narrative evokes experiences of South Africa’s own history of racial segregation and oppression. As oppressed South Africans, we experienced firsthand the effects of racial inequality, discrimination and denial and we cannot stand by while another generation of Palestinians are left behind,” As further reported by Thabi Myeni:” Pandor said Pretoria believes Israel should be classified as an apartheid state and that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) should establish a committee to verify whether it satisfies the requirements”( Thabi Myeni, “South Africa calls for Israel to be declared an ‘apartheid state’. The South African government has remained a strong ally of Palestine, providing both material and public support for its liberation cause”, Al Jazeera, 26 July 2022: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/26/south-africa-calls-for-israels-proscription-as-apartheid-state ).
Outstanding Jewish Israeli historian Ilan Pappé is Professor of history at the University of Exeter (UK) and co-Director of the Exeter Center for Ethno-Political Studies. He was formerly a Senior Lecturer in political science at Haifa University (1984-2007), and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies in Haifa (2000-2008). He is the author of “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” (2006) and many other scholarly books (for details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilan_Papp%C3%A9 ).
Professor Ilan Pappé in his book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”: "When it created its nation-state, the Zionist movement did not wage a war that `tragically but inevitably' led to the expulsion of `parts of' the indigenous population, but the other way round: the main goal was the ethnic cleansing of all of Palestine, which the movement coveted for its new state. A few weeks after the ethnic cleansing operations began, the neighbouring Arab states sent a small army - small in comparison to their overall military might - to try, in vain, to prevent the ethnic cleansing. The war with the regular Arab armies did not bring the ethnic cleansing operations to a halt until their successful completion in the autumn of 1948 … [after expelling 800,000 people, destroying 531 villages and empty eleven urban neighbourhoods] a clear-cut case of an ethnic cleansing operation, regarded under international law today as a crime against humanity." [1].
Professor Ilan Pappé in reviewing Alan Hart’s “Zionism, the real enemy of the Jews” (Clarity Press, 2009): ““In this extraordinary book, Alan Hart has succeeded in elucidating for us the immediate and long term dangers involved in the unconditional Western support for Zionism and its oppressive policies against the Palestinians. The author provides us with a chilling exposure of how this embrace developed and continues to endanger the Jewish existence and fuels the anti-Semitism that refuses to disappear. Motivated by a genuine concern for peace in Israel and Palestine and beyond in the world at large, Alan Hart has written not only a strong indictment of Zionism, based on both research and personal experience, but also provided us with a charter for a better future” [2].
Professor Ilan Pappé re Apartheid Israel and Apartheid South Africa, 2008: “There are similarities and dissimilarities. The colonialist history has many chapters in common and some of the features of the Apartheid system can be found in the Israeli policies towards its own Palestinian minority and towards those in the occupied territories. Some aspects of the occupation, however, are worse than the apartheid reality of South Africa and some aspects in the lives of Palestinian citizens in Israel are not as bad as they were in the hey days of Apartheid. The main point of comparison to my mind is political inspiration. The anti-Apartheid movement, the ANC, the solidarity networks developed throughout the years in the West, should inspire a more focused and effect pro-Palestinian campaign”. [3].
Professor Ilan Pappé to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel: “I was thrilled to learn about the courageous step the college has taken. I am confident that history would judge it to be in hindsight one of the definitive moments in the non violent struggle to tend the occupation and the oppression in Palestine and Israel.” [4].
Ilan Pappe, Israeli historian (2005): “This is a very simple story, a story of dispossession, of colonisation, of occupation, of expulsion. And the more I go into it, the clearer the story becomes … it also brought me to think of the state of Israel, and the Jewish majority in it, in very much the same terms that I used to think about places such as South Africa, and the white supremacy regime there.” [5].
Professor Ilan Pappe (Jewish Israeli author of numerous books and professor of history and director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter) (2015): “Ever since Likud took power for the first time after its historic 1977 victory, Jewish voters have preferred the real thing, so to speak, steadily turning away from the paler, liberal version of Zionism. Labor was in power long enough for us to know that it could not offer even the most moderate Palestinian leaders any deal that would have granted them genuine sovereignty — not even in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which form only a fifth of historic Palestine. The reason is very simple: the raison d’etre of a settler-colonialist society is displacement of the natives and their replacement by settlers. At best natives can be confined in gated enclaves, at worst they are doomed to be expelled or destroyed… The conclusion for the international community should be clear now. Only decolonization of the settler state can lead to reconciliation. And the only way to kick off this decolonization is by employing the same means exercised against the other long-standing settler state of the twentieth century: apartheid South Africa. The option of BDS — boycott, divestment and sanctions — has never looked more valid than it does today” [6]. [6].
[1]. Ilan Pappe, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” (Oneworld publications, 2006); Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Ethnic-Cleansing-Palestine-Ilan-Pappe/dp/1851684670 .
[2]. Ilan Pappe, review of Alan Hart’s book “Zionism, the real enemy of the Jews” (Clarity Press, 2009), Clarity Press: http://www.claritypress.com/files/Hart-I.html .
[3]. Interviews with Professors Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, OpEd News, 25 September 2008: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Noam-Chomsky-Ilan-Pappe-In-by-Duffer2205-080925-957.html .
[4]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
[5]. Ilan Pappe, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
[6]. Ilan Pappe, “The Messages From Israel’s Election”, Countercurrents, 21 March 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/pappe210315.htm .
Miko Peled (Jewish Israeli peace activist, author, karate instructor and author of “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine): “Just as people of conscience around the world hope to see the old tyrants like Mubarak and Qaddafi toppled, so must they act so that Zionist Israel will be transformed into a secular, tolerant, pluralistic democracy. A democracy in which all citizens enjoy equal rights and have a say in their future. As the drastic changes in the Middle East took place with little warning, one may expect that little warning will be given and that change will happen within Israel/Palestine sooner rather than later. Those who stand beside Zionist Israel now will later come to regret it and the stain of shame will be hard to erase. As it is the Zionist state will go down in history as the lowest and most shameful chapter in the long history of the Jewish people “ (Miko Peled, “Israel Is No “Island of Stability””, 12 April 2011: https://mikopeled.com/2011/04/14/israel-is-no-island-of-stability-april-12-2011-by-miko-peled/ ; see Miko Peled quotes: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Miko%20Peled%20Quotes%20Articles%20Essays.htm ).
Miko Peled: “Israel is faced with two options: Continue to exist as a Jewish state while controlling the Palestinians through military force and racist laws, or undertake a deep transformation into a real democracy where Israelis and Palestinians live as equals in a shared state, their shared homeland. For Israelis and Palestinians alike, the latter path promises a bright future” (Miko Peled in Miko Peled quotes: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Miko%20Peled%20Quotes%20Articles%20Essays.htm ).
John Pilger, renowned investigative journalist and documentary film-maker, is one of only two to have twice won British journalism's top award; his documentaries have won academy awards in both the UK and the US. In a New Statesman survey of the 50 heroes of our time, Pilger came fourth behind Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela. "John Pilger," wrote Harold Pinter, "unearths, with steely attention facts, the filthy truth. I salute him." (see New Statesman: http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2009/10/obama-pilger-war-peace ).
John Pilger on BDS against Apartheid Israel (2010): “Palestinian resistance to the theft of their country reached a critical moment in 2001 when Israel was identified as an apartheid state at a United Nations conference on racism held in Durban, South Africa. To Nelson Mandela, justice for the Palestinians is “the greatest moral issue of our time”. The Palestinian Civil Society Call for Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS), was issued on July 9, 2005, in effect reconvening the great non-violent movement that swept the world and brought the scaffolding of South African apartheid crashing down... In the United States and Europe, trade unions, academic associations and mainstream churches have brought back the strategies and tactics that were used against South African apartheid. In a resolution adopted by 431 votes to 62, the US Presbyterian Church voted for “a process of phased selective disinvestment in multinational corporations doing business with Israel”. This followed the opinion of the International Court of Justice that Israel’s wall and its “settler” colonies were illegal. A similar declaration by the court in 1971, denouncing South Africa’s occupation of Namibia, ignited the international boycott movement. Like the South Africa campaign, the issue of law is central. No state is allowed to flout international law as willfully as Israel. In 1990, a UN Security Council resolution demanding that Saddam Hussein get out of Kuwait was the same, almost word for word, as that demanding Israel get out of the West Bank. The United States and its allies attacked and drove out Iraq while Israel has been repeatedly rewarded… In 2005, the UK Association of University Teachers (AUT) voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. The AUT campaign was forced to retreat when the Israel lobby unleashed a blizzard of character assassination and charges of anti-Semitism. The Palestinian writer and activist Omar Baghouti called this “intellectual terror” — a perversion of morality and logic that says to be against racism towards Palestinians makes one “anti-Semitic”. However, the Israeli assault on Gaza on December 27, 2008, changed almost everything. The first US Campaign for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel was formed, with Desmond Tutu on its board. At its 2009 conference, Britain’s Trade Union Council voted for a consumer boycott. The “Israel taboo” is no more.” [1].
John Pilger, “For apartheid Israel, the reckoning”, Direct Action, Issue 19, February 2010: http://directaction.org.au/issue19/for_apartheid_israel_a_reckoning .
Dr Gideon Polya is an Australian biochemist, academic, writer, artist, humanist and human rights and environment advocate (see: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya ).
Dr Gideon Polya calls for all decent anti-racist folk to Boycott Apartheid Israel (2011): "As of 2011:
In 1880 there were about 0.5 million Indigenous Palestinians. Of the 25,000 Jews in Palestine half were immigrants (see: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story559.html and http://www.mideastweb.org/palpop.htm ). Palestinian casualties of war violence total about 80,000 since 1948 and about 100,000 since 1936 (see “Palestinian casualties of war”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_casualties_of_war ). However one must also consider avoidable Palestinian deaths from war-, expulsion- and occupation-imposed deprivation that now total about 1.9 million since 1948. Palestinian refugees total about 7 million. This has been a Palestinian Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention.
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry: “From 1920 through 1999, a total of 2,500 residents of Mandatory Palestine and, since 1948, the State of Israel fell victims to hostile enemy action; in most cases, terrorist attacks” (see: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+before+2000/ ) and “1,218 people have been killed by Palestinian violence and terrorism since September 2000” (see: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+since+2000/Victims+of+Palestinian+Violence+and+Terrorism+sinc.htm ).
The race-based, racist Zionist-run Apartheid State of Israel is a democracy by genocide. Of about 12 million Palestinians only the adults of 1.6 million Palestinian Israelis (21% of the Israeli population) can vote for the government ruling all of Palestine plus part of Lebanon and a near-completely ethnically cleansed part of Syria, albeit as third class citizens. 1.6 million Occupied Palestinians are abusively confined to the Gaza Concentration Camp and 2.7 million Occupied Palestinians live under highly abusive military rule in West Bank Bantustans. About 6 million Palestinians are forbidden to even live in Palestine. There are 5.9 million Jewish Israelis and 0.3 million non-Jewish and non-Arab Israelis.
Each year Apartheid Israel passively kills about 3,000 Occupied Palestinian infants, passively murders about 5,600 Occupied Palestinians through deprivation and violently kills another circa 600 Occupied Palestinians. Decent anti-racists around the World must Boycott Apartheid Israel and its racist supporters just as it successfully boycotted Apartheid Israel-supported Apartheid South Africa after the Sharpeville Massacre (60 Africans killed) (see: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/ ). The racist Zionists and their supporters, notably the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialists (NAZIs), must be sidelined in public life as have been like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK (see “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ and the recent book “The Plight of the Palestinians”: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
What can decent people do in the face of the immense threat of nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel to all of Humanity?
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people are obliged to (a) inform everyone they can and (b) impose comprehensive international and international Sanctions and Boycotts against Apartheid Israel and all its individual, organizational, corporate and national supporters – strategies that were successfully applied to the Nazi-inspired, Apartheid Israel-backed, anti-African, anti-Asian Apartheid régime in South Africa and its cowardly, racist supporters." (Gideon Polya, "Boycott Apartheid Israel": https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/ ).
Gideon Polya (anti-racist Jewish Hungarian-origin Australian scientist, writer, artist and humanitarian) (2017): “Netanyahu is the PM of nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, serial invader, serial war criminal, women-abusing, children-abusing, democracy-by-genocide, ethnic cleansing, pathologically mendacious, neo-Nazi, anti-Arab anti-Semitic and indeed anti-Jewish anti-Semitic, race-based kleptocracy Apartheid Israel. Netanyahu has been invited to visit pro-Zionist, US-lackey, climate criminal Australia, the world’s leading supporter of Apartheid Israel after the US, and will address the Australian Federal Parliament in February 2017…
Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention states that :“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”. Apartheid Israel is guilty of violating all these elements of the UN Genocide Convention: (1) since 1936 there have been 2 million Palestinian deaths from Zionist violence (0.1 million) or Zionist-imposed deprivation (1.9 million ); (2) there are 7 million Palestinian refugees and all of the 12 million Palestinians are excluded from all or part of Palestine; (3) of 12 million Palestinians (half of them children), 6 million are forbidden to even step foot in their own country on pain of death, 4.7 million are highly abusively and violently held hostage with zero human rights under Israeli guns in the Gaza Concentration Camp (2.0 million) or in ever-dwindling West Bank Bantustan ghettoes (2.7 million), and 1.7 million live as Third Class citizens as Israeli Palestinians under Nazi-style Apartheid Israeli race laws; (4) 90% of Palestine has now been ethnically cleansed of Indigenous Palestinian inhabitants (this making a 2-State Solution impossible); (5) the huge disparity in annual GDP per capita between Occupied Palestinians ($2,800) and Israel-proper ($38,000) is reflected in huge differential avoidable mortality of over 4,000 avoidable deaths per year for Occupied Palestinians versus zero (0) for Israelis; (6) through imposed deprivation, each year Apartheid Israel passively murders about 2,700 under-5 year old Palestinian infants and passively murders about 4,200 Occupied Palestinians in general; (7) Apartheid Israel violently kills an average of about 500 Occupied Palestinians each year (3,900 Gaza Palestinian violently killed in 2008-2014 in response to 32 Israeli deaths from home-made Gaza rockets since 2004); and (8) Occupied Palestinians are deprived of essentially all human rights by Apartheid Israel, of which the most fundamental is the right to live unmolested in their own country…
Decent people around the world urge and apply comprehensive Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against genocidally racist Apartheid Israel and all its racist supporters” (Gideon Polya, “Australia welcomes genocidal racist and serial war criminal Netanyahu”, Countercurrents, 10 February 2017: http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/02/10/australia-welcomes-genocidal-racist-and-serial-war-criminal-netanyahu/ ) .
POLYA. Dr Gideon Polya (2018): “The latest Israeli Gaza
Massacre in which Apartheid Israeli soldiers shot and killed 116 unarmed
Palestinian protesters and wounded 13,000, has divided the world into 2 camps,
(1) the Good, those who have variously reacted with horror, condemnation and demands
for action against the Israeli perpetrators, and (2) the Bad, those whose
responses have been to support the perpetrators or have been otherwise
deficient. Decent anti-racist people around the world have been galvanized by
these latest Gaza Massacres to urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and all its supporters after the
example of the ultimately successful Boycotts and Sanctions against Apartheid
South Africa and its supporters after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in which 69
unarmed African protesters were killed and 220 wounded by Apartheid South
African police” (Gideon Polya, “Apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions
against Apartheid Israel after the Gaza Massacre”, NewAgeIslam, 30 May 2018: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-west/dr-gideon-polya/apply-boycotts-divestment-sanctions-apartheid-israel-after-gaza-massacre/d/115402 .)
Natalie Portman (anti-racist Jewish Israeli-American actress) on Apartheid Israel’s racist nation-state law (2018): "The Nation-State law is racist. It is a mistake and I don't agree with it ... [people's] lives are [being] affected on a personal level by decisions made by politicians. I only hope that we will be able to truly love our neighbours and that we can work together” (“Natalie Portman slams Israel’s “racist” nation-state law”, Al Jazeera, 13 December 2018: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/natalie-portman-slams-israel-racist-nation-state-law-181213080811163.html ).
Palestinian Queers for BDS (PQBDS) exists to promote Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against race-based, racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel (see: http://queersagainstapartheid.org/ ).
Palestinian Queers for BDS (PQBDS) statement on their important victory in convincing the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Youth and Student Organization (IGLYO) to reverse its decision to hold its general assembly in Israel (2011): “Palestinian queer groups welcome the decision by the board of IGLYO to withdraw their annual General Assembly conference from Tel Aviv, Israel. Since June 1st, a campaign to get ‘IGLYO Out of Israel’ was launched byPalestinian Queer Groups to protest the organization’s decision to hold its General Assembly in Tel Aviv, and accept funding from the Israeli government, followed by a call to boycott the conference after IGLYO declined to change its location. We take this opportunity to salute IGLYO Member and Associate Organizations who took a principled and moral stance in support of our rights and headed our calls, including NUS-LGBTQ, Kaos-GL and Pembe Hayat fromTurkey; BelonG To, the Ireland LGBT youth organization; and Helem – Lebanese Protection for LQBTIQ, and IGLCN – The International Gay and Lesbian Cultural Network. This can only be seen as a continuation of the beautiful spirit of global solidarity, dominant during the South African anti-apartheid struggle and ongoing in solidarity with the rights of the Palestinian people, and oppressed people everywhere. We also call on other member organizations, and IGLYO to fully respect the Palestinian civil society call for BDS until Israel ends its oppression of the Palestinian people.
Palestinian Queer groups have launched this campaign in protest of the location’s conference, and acceptance of funding from the Israeli government, which directly implicates IGLYO in Israel’s occupation, colonization and apartheid, and Israeli efforts to ‘re-brand’ Israel. Israeli policies and occupation do not distinguish between queer and straight. All Palestinians—queer and straight— must deal with the effects of Israel’s apartheid system, illegal wall and colonial settlements, and military occupation. Furthermore, Palestinians in Gaza live under medieval and illegal siege, and the largest open-air prison in the world. Like all Palestinian citizens of Israel, queers are subject to institutionalized discrimination in all walks of life, and Palestinian refugees are denied their basic, UN-sanctioned right of return.
In light of this effective and commendable solidarity with our call for boycott of IGLYO’s GA in Israel, this decision by the IGLYO board can only be seen as a direct result of effective pressure from the IGLYO Out of Israel campaign and the strong moral stand taken by several IGLYO member and associate organizations, and other international groups. We urge other believe that Member Organizations and the IGLYO Board of Directors to heed our call, and respect our picket line by boycotting all complicit Israeli institutions, and any events that are in violation of the BDS call.
We, however, were disappointed by the vague reasoning and language used in IGLYO’s statement announcing the cancellation, and the complete ignorance of the calls and reasoning provided by Palestinian queer groups in opposition of the conference’s location. IGLYO cited ‘recent legal changes in Israel’ as a reason for their decision, they did not specify the nature of these changes, or why they are problematic, and thus did not address the underlying issues at the heart of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and thus Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights. This kind of wishy-washy reasoning allows IGLYO to back down from an unpopular decision, under pressure, while avoiding taking a stance on Israeli violations. A number of repressive laws have recently been passed in the Israeli parliament, including the anti-BDS law, and the Nakba law, and are part of an ongoing pattern of repressive laws that aim to further narrow the already dismal margin of freedoms available to those protesting Israel’s occupation, colonialism and system of racial discrimination and to effectively criminalize Palestinian non-violent resistance and solidarity with it. These laws, however, are but a part of a 63-year old policy of systematic discrimination against the Palestinian people. It isn’t just recent laws that should raise ‘concerns,’ but all the patently racist laws that have been passed by the Israeli Knesset throughout the last 63 years aiming to maintain a system of domination of one racial group over another…” [1].
[1]. QuAIA congratulates Palestinian Queers for BDS on victory in moving IGLYO meeting from Tel Aviv”, QuAIA, 29 July 2011: http://queersagainstapartheid.org/ .
Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Kabeer was the Saudi delegate to the UN Durban III World Conference on Racism, New York (2011) (see: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/israel-once-again-accused-apartheid-un-racism-meeting ).
Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Kabeer, the Saudi Arabian delegate to the UN Durban III World Conference on Racism, New York (2011): “[Israel acting] to wipe out the national and cultural identity of the Palestinian people… The clearest illustration of such comprehensive racial discrimination lies heavily before us against the Palestinian people today. The Palestinians have been subjected to all forms of racial, political, socio-economic and religious discrimination. The striking evidence of these aspects is manifested in the policies and measures that were adopted by Israel in Palestine.” [1].
[1]. Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi quoted in “Israel once again accused of “Apartheid” at U.N. racism meeting”, CNS News, 23 September 2011: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/israel-once-again-accused-apartheid-un-racism-meeting .
In its own words “Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) formed to work in solidarity with queers in Palestine and Palestine solidarity movements around the world. Today, in response to increasing criticism of its occupation of Palestine, Israel is cultivating an image of itself as an oasis of gay tolerance in the Middle East, a practice that is called pinkwashing. As queers, we recognize that homophobia exists in Israel, Palestine, and across all borders. However, the struggle for sexual rights cannot come at the price of other rights. Queer Palestinians continue to face the challenge of living under occupation and apartheid, subject to Israeli state violence and control, regardless of liberal laws within Israel that allow gays to serve in the military, or recognize same sex marriage and adoption for Israeli citizens. QuAIA works to fight homophobia, transphobia and gender oppression wherever they exist… QuAIA supports the 2005 call by Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law.” (see: http://queersagainstapartheid.org/who/ ).
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) on action against Apartheid Israel: “QuAIA congratulates Palestinian Queers for BDS (PQBDS) for their important victory in convincing the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Youth and Student Organization (IGLYO) to reverse its decision to hold its general assembly in Israel.” [1].
[1]. QuAIA congratulates Palestinian Queers for BDS on victory in moving IGLYO meeting from Tel Aviv”, QuAIA, 29 July 2011: http://queersagainstapartheid.org/ .
Fadi Quran (West Bank Palestinian activist) (2019): “Almost nobody believes in the two-state solution anymore” (Oliver Holmes, “One-state solution gains ground as Palestinians battle for equal rights”, Guardian, 14 March 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/13/one-state-solution-gains-ground-as-palestinians-battle-for-equal-rights ).
Sefi Rachlevsky (anti-racist Jewish Israeli columnist in the Israeli daily Haaretz) on “anti-democratic racism” i.e. Nazi-style Apartheid and genocide (2011): “If there is one country in the world that should have heeded the commandment 'Thou shall not fall into the chasm of anti-democratic racism,' it is Israel. The traumas of World War II of the horrors that racism and hatred wreaked on democracy, along with the fact that Israel sits on the seam of the Islamic world, should have kept it away from that path. But the regime threatens to turn Israel into a rising anti-democratic power after all… The fact that Jews were the ultimate victim of the anti-democratic and racist world has led many of them to embrace precisely that world. However, Israelis should not defend the country's uniqueness but rather defend their identity and their lives. If the regime that encourages incitement, racism and anti-democracy is not toppled soon, we will find that the future is already here” (Sefi Rachlevsky, “The anti-democratic racism of Israel must end”, Haaretz, 23 March 2011: http://www.haaretz.com/the-anti-democratic-racism-of-israel-must-end-1.351247 ).
[Editor: As exampled by genocide-based, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel’s ongoing Palestinian Genocide, the ultimate in racism and Apartheid is genocide and ethnic cleansing] .
Professor Judy Rebick is a well-known social justice activist, educator , writer, and speaker. She currently holds the Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University. Professor Judy Rebick is founder of rabble.ca, Canada’s most popular independent online news and discussion site and the author of several books and articles, most recently Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution (Penguin 2005). Her other books are Imagine Democracy (Stoddard 2000) and Politically Speaking (Douglas & McIntyre 1996). Her new book Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political is coming out in early March 2010. During the 1990’s, Judy was the host of two national TV shows on CBC Newsworld and a frequent commentator on CBC radio and television. She also contributes commentaries to a host of newspapers and magazines. Judy is perhaps best known to Canadians as a former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Canada’s largest women’s group. In the 1980’s she was active in the pro-choice movement and in coalitions to win employment equity federally and in the province of Ontario (see: http://transformingpower.ca/en/about-book ).
Professor Judy Rebick on Apartheid Israel abuses of Humanity (2 March 2010): “Before Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) even began members of the Ontario Legislature and the Canadian Parliament are falling all over each other to denounce it… Last week the Ontario Legislature unanimously passed a resolution denouncing Israel Apartheid Week submitted by PC Peter Shure who said calling Israel an apartheid state was "close to hate speech”… I heard last night at Ryerson from Na'eem Jeena: , a leading activist and academic from South Africa who works for Palestinian solidarity. He told us that South African apartheid had three pillars of apartheid and Israel shares all three.1. Different rights for different races... 2. Separation of so-called racial groups into different geographical areas…3. Security and Repression Matrix of Laws and Security… If Israel is becoming a pariah in the world it is not because of anti-Semitism, it is because they are practicing a form of apartheid even more egregious than that practiced in South Africa.” [1].
[1]. Judy Rebick, “Israel is an apartheid state and that is why they are losing legitimacy”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/judes/2010/03/israel-apartheid-state-and-why-they-are-losing-legitimacy .
Professor Stuart Rees (an indefatigable activist for Palestinian human rights, founder of the Sydney Peace Foundation and thr Sydney Peace Prize, Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia. and winner of the inaugural Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize) (2019): “UN Security Council Resolution 2334, of December 2016 said that Israel’s settlement activity constitutes a ‘flagrant violation of international law’ and has ‘no legal validity.’ The vote Was 10-0 with the US abstaining. In spite of this resolution, Israel continues to benefit from special treatment, not just from supportive US policies but through the benefits of diplomatic blind eyes. The UN imposes sanctions on other states but not on Israel even though, under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), its settlement policy constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity… To confirm critics’ judgements that the Jewish state of Israel is racist, that its governance amounts to apartheid, in December 2018, the Israeli Knesset rejected the Equality Bill, introduced by Mossi Raz of the Meretz party. The text was a direct quote from Israel’s Declaration of Independence. “The State of Israel shall maintain equal political rights among all its citizens, without any difference between religions, race and sex.” The bill was rejected by 71 -38. In the journal Mondoweiss, Yossi Gurvitz commented, “Those 71 votes represent the hard core of practical Zionism who decided that Israel would be a Jewish country not a democratic one”” (Stuart Rees, “Redefining free speech: opposing Israel is not anti-Semitism”, New Matilda, 15 January 2019: https://newmatilda.com/2019/01/15/redefining-free-speech-opposing-israel-not-anti-semitism/ ).
Lee Rhiannon (born 30 May 1951) is a Greens senator-elect from News South Wales, Australia. is an Australian politician and member of the Australian Greens. She was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council at the 1999 state election, and re-elected at the 2007 state election. She was successfully elected as a Greens Senator in New South Wales at the 2010 federal election (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Rhiannon and http://leerhiannon.org.au/ ) .
Lee Rhiannon quoted on as saying, in the wake of the Coalition's landslide victory in the 2011 NSW elections, that the Greens should have spent more time building support for the global BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement against the State of Israel (2011): "Months before the election we needed to explain why the Greens backed BDS and we needed to work closer with our allies on BDS - academics, the Arab community and social justice movements in Sydney and Melbourne…Collectively we didn't do enough to amplify support for BDS and show that this is part of an international movement." [1, 2, 3].
[1]. Lee Rhiannon quoted in Joe Kelly and Lauren Wilson ,“Bob Brown told to rein in anti-Israel senator Lee Rhiannon”, The Australian, 1 April 2001: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/bob-brown-told-to-rein-in-anti-israel-senator-lee-rhiannon/story-fn59niix-1226031644809 .
[2]. Lee Rhiannon quoted in Antony Loewenstein, “The ugly little Australian coalition against Palestinian rights (that will fail)”, Antony Loewenstein website, 1 April 2011: http://antonyloewenstein.com/2011/04/01/the-ugly-little-australian-coalition-against-palestinian-rights-that-will-fail/comment-page-1/#comment-562105 .
[3]. Lee Rhiannon quoted in Antony Loewenstein, “Are the Greens ready for hard-ball?”, New Matilda, 30 March 2011: http://newmatilda.com/2011/03/30/are-greens-ready-hard-ball .
RICE. Australian Greens Senator Janet Rice, “Australia musty speak out against Israeli apartheid… In a statement to the parliament earlier this month, senator Janet Rice expresses the Australian Greens’ solidarity with Palestinian people, and condemns both Israel’s Actions and Australia’s silence. … This week Palestinians commemorate Al Nakba day – Arabic for ‘the catastrophe’ – when in 1948 thousands of Palestinians were killed and an estimated 700,000 lost their homes and became refugees. Many of their descendants have remained in refugee camps since. This week, some Palestinians are facing the threat of a second expulsion, this time from Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem… Last week the EU said “The Israeli authorities should cease these activities and provide adequate permits for legal construction and development of Palestinian communities,” with similar sentiments expressed by UK officials and the US State Department. Australia must speak out and add our voice to stop the ongoing Nakba for Palestinians. I have spoken before about ongoing human rights abuses and I will keep speaking out in this parliament” (Janet Rice, “Australia musty speak out against Israeli apartheid”, The Greens, 21 May 2021: https://greens.org.au/magazine/australia-must-speak-out-against-israeli-apartheid ).
Stephen Robert in his own words: “I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts where my parents headed our local synagogue, Hadassah and the United Jewish Appeal. My first trip abroad after university, in 1962, included a week-long visit to Israel… I’ve been a contributor and fundraiser for the UJA-Federation of New York, a governor of the American Jewish Committee, which is dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism, and a founding director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. I’ve made five additional visits to Israel since 1962, the last this summer as part of a humanitarian aid trip to East Jerusalem and the West Bank. As a Jew who has been an ardent supporter of Israel since its independence, it pains me to record what I saw there… An investment banker much of my adult life” (see: http://www.thenation.com/article/162756/apartheid-steroids ).
Stephen Robert on Israeli Apartheid and gross human rights abuse (2014): “What I witnessed in the West Bank—home to about 2.5 million Palestinians and 400,000 Israeli settlers—exceeded my worst expectations. While the world’s statesmen have dithered, Israel has created a system of apartheid on steroids, a horrifying prison with concrete walls as high as twenty-six feet, topped with body-ravaging coils of razor wire. Spaced along these walls are imposing guard towers that harbor bunkers from which trespassers can be shot by Israeli soldiers. From this physical segregation—one land for Israelis; another, unequal land for Palestinians—flows a torrent of misery, violence and human rights abuses. The West Bank suffers from acute shortages of water, housing, jobs and healthcare. Palestinian children are separated from their parents, denied access to hospitals and stoned and beaten by Jewish settlers. Human rights sanctioned by international law, including the right to health, the prohibition on transferring populations into occupied territories and equal treatment before the law are routinely violated. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, once said that Israel will be judged by how it treats the Arabs. This is a moral test Israel now resoundingly fails—a failure that threatens to undermine all of its accomplishments and, as is increasingly clear, its future… With respect to fairness, the Israelis have done very well. Before the 1947 partition, the Jewish community owned only 6 percent of the land and comprised 35 percent of the population. The UN partition awarded them 55 percent of the land. The Palestinians, who had owned 94 percent of the land, were awarded 45 percent in the partition; Jerusalem was to be put under international supervision. After the 1948 war, however, the armistice line allocated Israel 78 percent of the land. Now many in the international community are advocating a return to those borders (with some land swaps) as a pillar of a peace agreement. Israel should be rejoicing under these terms, since they would receive 78 percent of the land available in 1947. An investment banker much of my adult life, I’d take this deal in a heartbeat.” [1].
Stephen Robert, “Apartheid on steroids”, The Nation, 12 August 2011: http://www.thenation.com/article/162756/apartheid-steroids .
Hilary Rose is a feminist sociologist of science and emerita professor at Bradford University, UK. She is married to neuroscientist to Stephen Rose, emeritus professor of neuroscience at the Open University. They recently co-authored Genes, Cells and Brains: the Promethean promises of the new biology, and were among the co-founders of BRICUP, the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/political-science/2013/may/13/stephen-hawking-boycott-israel-science ). .
Hilary Rose and Steven Rose on Stephen Hawking’s boycott of Apartheid Israel (2013): “That the world's most famous scientist had recognised the justice of the Palestinian cause is potentially a turning point for the BDS campaign. And that his stand was approved by a majority of two to one in the Guardian poll that followed his announcement shows just how far public opinion has turned against Israel's relentless land-grabbing and oppression. Hawking's public refusal follows that of prominent singers, artists and writers, from Brian Eno to Mike Leigh, Alice Walker and Adrienne Rich, all of whom have publicly rejected invitations to perform in Israel. But what winds Israel up is the fact that this rejection is by a famous scientist and that science and technology drive its economy. Hawking's decision threatens to open a floodgate with more and more scientists coming to regard Israel as a pariah state…
That Israel, a Middle East country, has managed to secure membership of the European Research Area and the many collaborative links with European labs underlines the importance of these links. When European parliamentarians challenged its membership on the grounds of Israel's numerous breaches of UN resolutions and of the European Human Rights conventions, the European Commission responded to the effect that research trumped human rights.
Israel's science and technology are not just a source of prestige and technological innovation, but underpin its military strength. It was an Israeli engineer who developed the drones that the US now employs in quantity. Israeli home-produced chemical weapons minimally match those of Syria, and Israeli universities amply supply the Israel Defence Forces with the sociological, psychological and technological methods it employs to suppress Palestinian protests against the occupation.
The complicity of Israeli academia in Israeli state policy is incontrovertible. However, this is the first time that a scientist of Hawking's status has taken so public a stand – and the hyperventilating response of the Jerusalem conference organisers (it is worth noting that the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where the conference Hawking refused to attend was to be held, is built on illegally annexed Palestinian land) has only added to its public impact.” [1].
[1]. Hilary Rose and Steven Rose, “Stephen Hawking ‘s boycott hits Israel where it hurts: science”, Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/political-science/2013/may/13/stephen-hawking-boycott-israel-science .
Outstanding Jewish British academic Professor Steven Rose is a Professor of Biology and Neurobiology at the Open University and the University of London.(for biographical data see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Rose ).
Professor Steven Rose advocating a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter ti the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
Professor Steven Rose in calling for a boycott of Israeli Universities: “The University and College Union annual congress last week voted by a two-thirds majority to organise a campus tour for Palestinian academic trade unionists to explain why they had called for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, and to encourage UCU members to consider the moral implications of links with Israeli universities. Not surprisingly, this overwhelming vote met with a roar of hostility from what we have learned to call the Israel lobby … Academic freedom, it appears, applies to Israelis but not Palestinians, whose universities have been arbitrarily closed, Bir Zeit for a full four years. Students and teachers have been killed or imprisoned. Attendance at university is made hazardous or impossible by the everyday imposition of checkpoints. Research is blocked by Israeli refusal to allow books or equipment to be imported. Even within Israel itself, some universities sit on illegally expropriated land, Arab student unions are not recognised and there are increasing covert restrictions on Arab-Israelis (20 per cent of the population) entering university at all.” [2].
Hilary Rose and Steven Rose on Stephen Hawking’s boycott of Apartheid Israel (2013): “That the world's most famous scientist had recognised the justice of the Palestinian cause is potentially a turning point for the BDS campaign. And that his stand was approved by a majority of two to one in the Guardian poll that followed his announcement shows just how far public opinion has turned against Israel's relentless land-grabbing and oppression. Hawking's public refusal follows that of prominent singers, artists and writers, from Brian Eno to Mike Leigh, Alice Walker and Adrienne Rich, all of whom have publicly rejected invitations to perform in Israel. But what winds Israel up is the fact that this rejection is by a famous scientist and that science and technology drive its economy. Hawking's decision threatens to open a floodgate with more and more scientists coming to regard Israel as a pariah state…
That Israel, a Middle East country, has managed to secure membership of the European Research Area and the many collaborative links with European labs underlines the importance of these links. When European parliamentarians challenged its membership on the grounds of Israel's numerous breaches of UN resolutions and of the European Human Rights conventions, the European Commission responded to the effect that research trumped human rights.
Israel's science and technology are not just a source of prestige and technological innovation, but underpin its military strength. It was an Israeli engineer who developed the drones that the US now employs in quantity. Israeli home-produced chemical weapons minimally match those of Syria, and Israeli universities amply supply the Israel Defence Forces with the sociological, psychological and technological methods it employs to suppress Palestinian protests against the occupation.
The complicity of Israeli academia in Israeli state policy is incontrovertible. However, this is the first time that a scientist of Hawking's status has taken so public a stand – and the hyperventilating response of the Jerusalem conference organisers (it is worth noting that the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where the conference Hawking refused to attend was to be held, is built on illegally annexed Palestinian land) has only added to its public impact.” [3].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
[2]. Steven Rose,”Why pick on Israel? Because its actions are wrong. Academic freedom, it appears, applies to Israelis but not to Palestinians”, The Independent, 4 June 2007: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steven-rose-why-pick-on-israel-because-its-actions-are-wrong-451648.html .
[3]. Hilary Rose and Steven Rose, “Stephen Hawking ‘s boycott hits Israel where it hurts: science”, Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/political-science/2013/may/13/stephen-hawking-boycott-israel-science .
Leon Rosselson (born 22 June 1934, Harrow, Middlesex) is a Jewish British songwriter and writer of children's books. He sings satirical and political songs and performed satirical songs in the BBC's TV programme of the early 1960s, “That Was The Week That Was” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Rosselson ).
Leon Rosselson advocating a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter ti the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, “The God of Small Things”, and has written two screenplays and several collections of essays. She is an outspoken anti-war, pro-human rights humanitarian (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arundhati_Roy ).
Arundhati Roy advocating a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter to the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
Arundhati Roy on Apartheid Israel atrocities (2006) “Palestine still remains illegally occupied. Its people live in inhuman conditions … They never know when their homes will be demolished, when their children will be shot, when their precious trees will be cut, when their roads will be closed, when they will be allowed to walk down to the market to buy food and medicine.” [2].
[2]. Arundhati Roy, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
Amos Schocken (anti-racist Jewish Israeli writer) on Israeli Apartheid (2016): “There are many differences between conditions in South Africa during the apartheid era and those current in the land from the Jordan River to the sea, especially in the territories that Israel controls beyond its internationally recognized borders. However, there is one important feature they share: two peoples living on one piece of land. One people has all the rights and protections, while the other is deprived of numerous rights and lives under the former's control… Israel as an apartheid state is not a viable situation, not only because of the corruption of values but also because this predicament is liable to lead Israel, like South Africa in its time, to banishment from the family of nations. It is not for nothing that Israel insists on defining itself as the only democracy in the Middle East, although in fact it is only a democracy for part of its residents, and therefore is not a democracy. (South Africa was a democracy for white people only, and therefore not a democracy)… The growing delegitimization of Israel is this country's own handiwork” (Amos Schocken, “Only international pressure will end Israeli Apartheid. The growing delegitimization of Israel is this country's own handiwork. Should Israel decide to end apartheid, it will return to being legitimate in every respect”, Haaretz, 22 January 2016: http://live.sekindo.com/content/video/splayer/assets/closeBtn.png ).
Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign (SEAMAC): “More than 5 million Palestinians are denied equal rights by the state of Israel under a system of apartheid, a deliberate policy of racial or ethnic segregation. Under Israeli military occupation, millions of Palestinians live in conditions which closely resemble the apartheid system that existed in South Africa:
No right of free speech, assembly or movement
Arrest and imprisonment without charge or trial
Torture
House searches without warrant
Assassination, extra-judicial murder
No right to vote for the Israeli government (even though it controls their lives)
Israel controls all Palestinian borders, all imports and exports, and all movement between towns and cities.
THE GAZA STRIP, still surrounded, besieged and controlled by Israel, has been sealed off and effectively turned into the world’s largest open-air prison… These are just some of the many aspects of Palestinian life affected by the Israeli government’s apartheid policies. Fortunately, an international solidarity movement has formed around the world and is heeding the call of Palestinian civil society to boycott, divest, and sanction (BDS) Israel for its flagrant violations of human rights. Just as in South Africa and the American South where whites joined with blacks to fight segregation and white supremacy, many Israeli Jews are also repudiating their government’s policies. They have actively joined with Palestinians to fight apartheid” (Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, “Equal rights for Palestinians”: http://www.seamac.org/equalrights.htm ).
Michael Sfard (legal adviser to Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din) (2020): “People should ultimately ask themselves what the end goal of Israel’s policy is. Twenty years ago, most people would say it was two states — but I’m sure that’s not their answer today. And if one democratic binational state is also not their answer, then they have no escape route from apartheid” (Michael Sfard quoted in Jonathan Ophir, “Peter Beinart’s defection is a desperate crisis for liberal Zionists”, Mondoweiss, 20 July 2020: https://mondoweiss.net/2020/07/peter-beinarts-defection-makes-liberal-zionists-reactionary/ ).
Natalie Abu Shakra is from Lebanon and is affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement. She defied Israeli orders for Lebanese citizens not to go to Gaza and was able to get in with the Free Gaza movement, She supports the Boycotting of Apartheid Israel (see: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14943 ).
Natalie Abu Shakra on the 2008/2009 Gaza Massacre and the need to Boycott Apartheid Israel (2009): “The concept of civil resistance is not new at all. This non-violent, unarmed, citizen oriented strategy of resistance in modern history played a role in the struggles against colonialism, and neo-colonialism especially in British colonies of Africa, in Apartheid South Africa, India, and the Middle East, particularly Palestine. We live in a very imbalanced world, where language, dress, technology, education, food, media, and other aspects in post-modern life are dictated by a few and are imposed on the many, the rest of the world. This few decides the flow of politics, and dictates how the world will rotate around. This few, also, will accept no resistance, at any cost… How can I affect what is happening and how can the world respond? The truth is that we can defy oppression and the illusion of power that the oppressor creates in our minds. I was asked once, “are you not afraid to die?” I am only afraid of what I consider the evil of all evils, repression, oppression, colonialism, and occupation, anything that can wipe my existence off, just erasing identities off the map, and this is what has been happening to the Palestinians for 61 years and on going now. What do you choose to do about it? Boycott Apartheid Israel.” [1].
[1]. Natalie Abu Shakra, “Boycott Apartheid Israel”, The Palestine Chronicle, 25 March 2009: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14943 .
Martin Shaw (research professor of international relations at the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI) and the University of Sussex, and professorial fellow in international relations and human rights at the University of Roehampton, and author of Among his books are War and Genocide: Organised Killing in Modern Society (Polity, 2003); The New Western Way of War: Risk-Transfer War and its Crisis in Iraq (Polity, 2005); and What is Genocide? (Polity, 2007)) (2014) : “Many will say, as I might have said before, that isolating Israel will only reinforce the deep reactionary trends in its politics. This may be true in the short term, but it seems as though only a sharp challenge and dislocation will turn this society and state in a different direction. Israel is radically overplaying its hand locally, regionally and globally by spurning the opportunities for settlement with Palestinian leaders which are on offer. If its present course continues, it is probably only a matter of time before the state experiences a radical shock which will present it with the existential crisis that its leaders' rhetoric has long invoked to justify its atrocities.
Such a shock may come about through the accelerating instability of the wider Middle East, which hardly promises a safe environment for this outpost of the west. It would be better for everyone if it came through western states’ pulling the plug on Israel's support-mechanisms. Boycotting Israel is not just a way of helping the Palestinians: it could also be the best way to save Israelis from the consequences of their own folly.” [1].
[1]. Martin Shaw, “Boycotting Israel: the situation has changed and I have changed my mind too”, Open Democracy, 31 July 2014: https://www.opendemocracy.net/martin-shaw/boycotting-israel-situation-has-changed-and-i-have-changed-my-mind-too .
Barry Sheppard (US writer and activist) (2020): “Trump has put in place the finishing touches on what Western imperialism has constructed over the past century (and for the past half century mainly the US) to back Zionism’s project. The reality that is present-day Israel consists of the borders the Israeli armed forces control and defend and the entire land between those borders. Within those borders, there is a single army, air force and navy. There is one foreign policy: that of the Israeli government. There is one currency: the Israeli shekel. There is one official language: Hebrew. In every aspect, there is one state in this territory, and its name is Israel. Within this single state, there are about 4.7 million stateless Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. They have no say in the policies of their rulers. That makes Israel an apartheid state. There are Palestinians within the green line, who are citizens of Israel, but second-class citizens. Israel’s Jewish Nation-State Law adopted by the Israeli parliament (Knesset) in 2018, made it crystal clear that no Palestinian state would ever be allowed. It refers to the state as “Eratz Yisrael”, and says it is the state of all the Jews, and refers to Jews living outside as exiles who are urged to be “gathered” into Israel. What its final borders will be is somewhat vague, but the present land Israel rules will be included within them. Biblical Israel includes Sinai (the desert region in Egypt between the Red and the Mediterranean Seas), so more land may be included” (Barry Sheppard, “Trump plan ratifies Israel as an apartheid state”, Green Left Weekly, 5 February 2020: https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/trump-plan-ratifies-israel-apartheid-state ).
SHLAIM, Avi (emeritus professor of international relations at Oxford University): "Greater Israel, Israel plus its colonies on the West Bank, is emphatically not a democracy; it is an ethnocracy, a political system in which one ethnic group rules over another. There is another name for this state of affairs – apartheid"
Avi Shlaim (emeritus professor of international relations at Oxford University and the author of “The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World”) (2018): “As Ahmad Tibi, the Palestinian member of the Knesset, has often remarked, Israel is a democracy for the Jews, but a Jewish state for the Arabs. Israel within its original borders is still a democracy in the narrow sense that its Palestinian citizens have the right to vote. Greater Israel, Israel plus its colonies on the West Bank, is emphatically not a democracy; it is an ethnocracy, a political system in which one ethnic group rules over another. There is another name for this state of affairs – apartheid. Any doubt on this score was finally removed by the recent law which declares Israel to be “the nation-state of the Jewish people”. As a “basic law”, this becomes part of the country’s constitution. It asserts that the Jewish people have an exclusive right to national self-determination in the state of Israel. This law stands in complete contradiction to the 1948 declaration of independence, which recognises the full equality of all the state’s citizens “without distinction of religion, race, or sex”. Arabic was demoted to a “special language”, from being an official language alongside Hebrew” (Avi Shlaim, “Palestinians still live under apartheid in Israel, 25 years after the Oslo accord”, The Guardian, 13 September 2018: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/13/palestinians-still-face-apartheid-israel-25-years-after-oslo-accord ).
Henry Siegman (Jewish American President of the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP), former research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Program of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, a former Senior Fellow on the Middle East at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former National Director of the American Jewish Congress) (2018): “Trump’s move on Jerusalem achieved what years of Israel’s settlements failed to do—shatter the illusion of a two-state outcome, and allow the Palestinian national movement to turn into a struggle for rights, which is to say a struggle to end Israel’s de facto apartheid regime, a course I have advocated for over a decade, and now increasingly embraced by younger Palestinians. What is particularly significant is that this younger generation is opting for a struggle for equal rights in a single state not because they despair of achieving a state of their own, but because it is their preferred solution. It is the right choice, for their struggle for a state of their own is one Palestinians cannot win, while a struggle to maintain an apartheid regime is one Israel cannot win. If after what undoubtedly would be a long and bitter anti-apartheid struggle Palestinians prevail, they will be in the clear majority. Having established the principle that the majority can impose on the minority the religious and cultural identity of the State, Israel will not be in a strong position to deny Palestinians that same right. That will lead in time to a significant exodus of Israel’s Jews. If Palestinians do not prevail, then the undeniable apartheid character of the state and the cost of the ongoing struggle will lead to the same result—an exodus of Israel’s Jews over time, creating an even greater demographic imbalance between the country’s Jewish and Arab populations. Palestinians will not leave because they will have nowhere to go. The outcome is therefore likely to be the end of Israel as a Jewish state. If so, it will be an outcome brought about not by BDS movements but by Israelis themselves, not only because of their rejection of the two-state solution, but because of their insistence on defining Israel’s national identity and territorial claims in religious terms” (Henry Siegman, “The implications of President Trump’s Jerusalem ploy”, The National Interest, 23 January 2018: http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-implications-president-trumps-jerusalem-ploy-24192 ) .
Gareth W.R. Smith (Byron Friends of Palestine, Byron Bay, Australia) on ultra-violent Apartheid Israel (2017): “Apartheid Israel doesn’t need defending, Palestine does… Israel’s non-WMD military might is ranked 16th from 126 countries… Against Israel’s advanced weaponry Palestine boasts slingshots, scissors, kitchen knives and thousands of rudimentary rockets which damaged some Israeli roofs; Gaza has been repeatedly blitzed, razed and will be uninhabitable by 2020… Al Jazeera’s covert investigation into Israel’s infiltration of British politics revealed shocking plans to ‘take down’ the UK’s deputy foreign secretary over his criticism of Israel’s settlement policy in the occupied West Bank… No doubt this infiltration is also happening in Australia and is a threat to national security”(Gareth W.R. Smith, “Apartheid Israel doesn’t need defending, Palestine does”, Echonetdaily, 20 January 2017: https://www.echo.net.au/2017/01/apartheid-israel-doesnt-need-defending-palestine/ ).
Ahdaf Soueif was born in Cairo, Egypt and educated in Egypt and the UK. She studied for a PhD in linguistics at the University of Lancaster. Her first novel was “In the Eye of the Sun” (1993)and her second novel “The Map of Love” (1999) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, has been translated into 21 languages and has sold over a million copies (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahdaf_Soueif ).
Ahdaf Soueif advocating a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter to the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT. Report by Thabi Myeni, “South Africa calls for Israel to be declared an ‘apartheid state’. The South African government has remained a strong ally of Palestine, providing both material and public support for its liberation cause”, Al Jazeera, 26 July 2022: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/26/south-africa-calls-for-israels-proscription-as-apartheid-state : “The South African government has expressed concerns that Israel’s continued occupation of “significant portions of the West Bank” and the development of new settlements there “are glaring examples of violations of international law” as the longrunning Israel-Palestine conflict goes on. “The Palestinian narrative evokes experiences of South Africa’s own history of racial segregation and oppression,” Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation, said at the second meeting of the Palestinian Heads of Mission in Africa, held in the capital Pretoria. “As oppressed South Africans, we experienced firsthand the effects of racial inequality, discrimination and denial and we cannot stand by while another generation of Palestinians are left behind,” she said. Pandor said Pretoria believes Israel should be classified as an apartheid state and that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) should establish a committee to verify whether it satisfies the requirements. Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki, who attended the forum, spoke to the state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) after the session. “If there is any country or countries that can comprehend the suffering and the struggle for freedom and independence of Palestine, it is the African continent and the people of Africa,” Malki said.”
Spinoza (evidently necessary pseudonym for an otherwise censored anti-racist Jewish Australian humanitarian) commenting on the Palestinian Genocide (2018): The leading supporters of Apartheid Israel are, in descending order, the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, France and Germany, with all the major parties of these pro-Apartheid Israel and hence pro-Apartheid countries opposing Boycotts Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), supporting Apartheid Israel and ignoring the dire plight of the Palestinians (thus , according to the World Bank (2017), the per capita GDP is a deadly $3,000 for the Occupied Palestinians as compared to $40,000 for the Apartheid Israeli Occupiers). Anti-racist Jewish Australians such as myself are utterly appalled that a nuclear terrorist, genocidally racist Apartheid Israel has seized all of Palestine, has engaged in repeated mass expulsion of Indigenous Palestinians (800,000 in 1948 and 400,000 in 1967), has ethnically cleaned 90% of Palestine, determines that 74% of its now 50% Indigenous Palestinian subjects cannot vote for the government ruling them (i.e. Apartheid), has deprived 5 million Occupied Palestinians of all human rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, highly abusively confines 5 million Occupied Palestinians (50% children, 75% women and children) to the Gaza Concentration Camp (2 million) or to West Bank ghettoes (3 million), horribly and offensively discriminates against nearly 2 million Israeli Palestinians, excludes 7 million Exiled Palestinians from even stepping foot in their own country, and has engaged in an ongoing Palestinian Genocide (2.3 million Palestinian deaths from violence, 0.1 million, or deprivation, 2.2 million, since the British invasion of Palestine in WW1) that in death toll is of a similar order of magnitude to the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed by the Nazis through violence or deprivation )” (Spinoza commenting on “`The political war against Palestinians”, ABC Radio National, Late Night Live, 25 September October 2018: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/the-uss-new-political-war-on-palestinians/10297892 ).
Dr Jill Stein is an anti-racist Jewish American physician and the US Green Party candidate for President of the United States (2012 & 2016). As reported by Wikipedia: “Stein has accused the Israeli government of "apartheid, assassination, illegal settlements, blockades, building of nuclear bombs, indefinite detention, collective punishment, and defiance of international law.” She supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel and regards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a "war criminal"” )( Jill Stein”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Stein ).
Jill Stein US Green Party campaign for the US Presidency (2016): “The Jill Stein campaign calls for ending support for governments committing war crimes and massive human rights violations, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.
It supports the BDS movement as a peaceful, nonviolent set of actions organized by civil society across the world aimed to end Israeli apartheid, occupation, war crimes, and systematic human rights abuses.
US foreign policy requires an emergency overhaul, from a program of total global military and economic domination, to a policy promoting international law, human rights and diplomacy. We must cease and desist from being, in the words of Martin Luther King, the greatest purveyor of violence world over. Our foreign policy currently serves war profiteers and fossil fuel companies, but not the American people or the cause of global justice, peace and security. Our failed wars of the past 14 years have cost us 5 trillion dollars, left over a million people dead in Iraq alone, and killed or maimed tens of thousands of US service men and women. Yet we – and the Middle East – are far less secure, not more secure.
In addition to ending our catastrophic and immoral wars for oil and markets, we must stop aiding and abetting the human rights violations and war crimes of our allies who are also massively defying international law. This includes the Israeli government and the rulers of Saudi Arabia.
With regard to Israel, the United States has encouraged the worst tendencies of the Israeli government as it pursues policies of occupation, apartheid, assassination, illegal settlements, demolitions, blockades, building of nuclear bombs, indefinite detention, collective punishment, and defiance of international law. Instead of allying with the courageous proponents of peace and human rights within Palestine and Israel, our government has rewarded consistent abusers of human rights.
Therefore, the Stein campaign calls for ending military and economic support for the Israeli government while it is committing war crimes and defying international law.
In addition, the Stein campaign supports actions of nonviolent resistance to the policies of the occupation and of the Israeli apartheid regime, including those of the global boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which was endorsed by the Green Party of the United States in 2005 and is supported by thousands of civil society peace activists and organizations.
Consistency in U.S. policy regarding human rights and international law will begin, but not end, with Palestine and Israel. I will apply this same approach to other nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt, among others.
Finally, we call for establishment of a Palestine and Israel Truth and Reconciliation Commission as the vehicle for shifting from an era of US support of human rights and international law violations to one based on justice and truth bringing all parties together as equals to seek workable solutions. A dedicated commitment to justice will further the security of all parties, Palestinians, Israelis, and all people in the region, much better than the current policies of politically, economically and militarily supporting the systemic and institutionalized abuse of one side against the other” (“Jill2016”: http://www.jill2016.com/statement_on_us_foreign_policy_palestine_israel_and_bds ).
Uri Strauss is a doctoral candidate in the linguistics program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a member of the Western Massachusetts Palestine Action Coalition (see: http://electronicintifada.net/content/defining-apartheid-israels-record/4095 ).
Uri Strauss’ detailed analysis of Israeli Apartheid: “The following document was compiled by Uri Strauss for the Electronic Intifada, from a UN document and from a report by Palestinian human rights organisations LAW. The document presents the internationally-accepted definition of ‘Apartheid’ alongside relevant examples of Israel’s human rights record in the occupied territories.
The definition of apartheid is taken from the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, ratified by United Nations General Assembly resolution 3068 (XXVIII) of 30 November 1973 [http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/11.htm].
Israel’s human rights record appears in the form of excerpts from Israel’s Brand of Apartheid: The Nakba Continues, a report by LAW [http://www.lawsociety.org/Apartheid/dibook.html]…
93% of the land within Israel was designated State land and through practical policies Palestinians are denied access to this land, which is for the exclusive access and use of Jewish Israelis. Access to the remaining 7% in private ownership is shared by both Palestinians and Jewish residents of Israel, so that Palestinians as 20% of the population in Israel have access to less than 7% of the land. The result of this is confining Palestinians into restricted, deliberately under-developed enclaves with reduced access to necessary resources, services and facilities. Israel has no laws to prevent discrimination in issues of land ownership, leasing, and residency issues. Israel’s use of quasi-governmental agencies and zoning or planning laws continue to confine Palestinians and particular areas and prevent natural growth. 34% of East Jerusalem is expropriated for ‘public use’ - and most of that is used for settlement construction. In occupied East Jerusalem (66%) is not accessible for Palestinians because of Israeli zoning, planning and building restrictions (for e.g. 40% is zoned ‘Green area’).”
“Since 1967 the Israeli colonising/occupying power has expropriated about 79% of the West Bank and Gaza Territories. Of these areas, about 44% was taken for so-called “military” purposes, 20% for “security reasons”, 12% for “public use”, and 12% because the owners were forced “absentees”. Likewise Palestinians have been confined to Bantustan-style enclaves, again with reduced access to necessary resources (including water supplies), services and facilities”
“Inside Israel, marriage is regulated under the personal status religious law, that effectively prohibits mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews. The State of Israel only recognizes mixed marriages which took place in other countries. There is no law that allows civil marriages which would enable mixed marriage ceremonies to be performed inside Israel.”” . [1].
[1]. Uri Strauss, “Defining Apartheid: Israel’s record”, Electronic Intifada, 19 September 2002: http://electronicintifada.net/content/defining-apartheid-israels-record/4095 .
Elia Suleiman (born July 28, 1960 in Nazareth, Israel), is a Palestinian film director and actor best known for the 2002 film “Divine Intervention” about living under occupation in Palestine which won the Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elia_Suleiman ).
Elia Suleiman advocating a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter to the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.
Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the regime to change without bloodshed.
Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now, when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call pacbi.org.
John Berger
Brian Eno
Sophie Fiennes
Eduardo Galeano
Reem Kelani
Leon Rosselson
Steven Rose
Arundhati Roy
Ahdaf Soueif
Elia Suleiman
and 85 others." [1].
[1]. Letter to the Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists, “Israel boycott may be the way to peace”, Guardian, 15 December 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/dec/15/israel.guardianletters .
Mats Svensson is a Senior Policy Specialist, the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), has been living in Jerusalem and working in the Swedish Consulate. Recently, he has been on leave from the Swedish International Development Agency and walking along the separation barrier in the West Bank from south to north, following house demolitions and settlement expansions in Jerusalem, and documenting life under the Israeli occupation. He has just published a book “Crimes, Victims and Witnesses - Apartheid in Palestine” (Real African Publishers, South Africa, 2013) (see: http://www.swedishwire.com/opinion/4719-israel-is-guilty-of-colonialism-and-apartheid ).
Mats Svensson comparing Apartheid Israel with Apartheid South Africa (2010): “Often my South African colleagues would cry out that apartheid in South Africa was a picnic compared to the West Bank and Gaza… The HSRC [South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council] declared that the similarities between apartheid in South Africa and today’s politics in Israel are many. The state of Israel is guilty of colonialism as well as apartheid… South African researchers now cast the spotlight not only on Israel, but also on each country within the European Union as well as America and others within the UN family.” [1].
[1]. Mats Svensson, “Israel is guilty if colonialism and apartheid”, The Swedish Wire, 27 May 2010: http://www.swedishwire.com/opinion/4719-israel-is-guilty-of-colonialism-and-apartheid .
Quotes: “The percentage of scholars who say that a two-state Israel-Palestine solution is no longer possible increased by five percentage points, from 52 percent to 57 percent. And the percentage of scholars who describe the current situation as “a one state reality akin to apartheid” grew even faster, from 59 percent in February to 65 percent in this latest poll. This increase is remarkably robust across the poll’s demographics: male and female respondents, political scientists or nonpolitical scientists, APSA and MESA members, respondents based in the United States or elsewhere, and those who participated in our first survey in February and those who didn’t. What explains such a significant increase in less than seven months? While it’s impossible to know for sure, two notable events intervened between the two surveys. First, the crisis in Israel following planned evictions of Palestinian families from their Jerusalem homes showed graphically the unequal treatment of Jews and Palestinians under Israeli control. The subsequent Gaza fighting between Israel and Hamas further focused global attention. Second, two human rights organizations — the Israeli-based B’Tselem and the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch — released widely read reports. The B’Tselem findings describe the reality in Israel and the Palestinian territories as apartheid, while the Human Rights Watch report argues that Israel’s behavior fits the legal definition of apartheid.”
Quotes: “The most recent results of the Middle East Scholar Barometer—a unique survey of Middle East scholars including members of the American Political Science Association specializing on the Middle East, and members of the Middle East Studies Association—shows that experts believe that Middle East politics are more strained now than they were six months ago. … The percentage of scholars who describe the current Israel-Palestine situation as “a one state reality akin to apartheid” increased even more markedly, from 59 percent in February to 65 percent in this most recent poll.”
Dr Jennifer Louise Tonge, Baroness Tonge (born Jennifer Louise Smith, 19 February 1941), is a medical doctor and was Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, London, UK from 1997 to 2005. She was Liberal Democrat spokesman on International Development from 1999 to 2003, and then the spokesperson for children from 2003 to 2004. In 2002 she asked PM Blair if he was "happy to allow the teaching of creationism alongside Darwin's theory of evolution in state schools" - to which he readily agreed, triggering a row over the issue. On 23 June 2005 she was made a life peer as Baroness Tonge. In 2006 she commented on the disproportionate influence of the Israeli Lobby in the West (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Tonge ).
Dr Jennifer Tonge on comparison of besieged Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto (2003): "You are almost getting a situation like the Warsaw ghetto - people can't get in or out. They can't work, they can't sell anything. There is this gradual squeeze…I feel it was an apartheid system and it is certainly getting worse - the area where the Palestinians live is getting smaller…Israel says everything it does is for security but they are not addressing the cause of terrorism, only terrorism itself.” [1].
Baroness Tonge in the House of Lords Tonge asked about investigations into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza (12 January 2009): "Is the Minister aware that Mrs Pillay, the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has spoken of war crimes being committed in Gaza? Will the Government, therefore, show leadership and call for the immediate—and I mean immediate—establishment by the United Nations Security Council of an independent fact-finding commission to Palestine to investigate all breaches of international law?” [2].
[1]. Dr Jennifer Tonge quoted in “MPs compare Gaza to Warsaw Ghetto”, Guardian, 19 June 2003: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/jun/19/foreignpolicy.israel .
[2]. Jennifer Tonge, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Tonge .
Erkki Tuomioja is the Foreign Minister of Finland (2011) (see: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4139719,00.html ).
Erkki Tuomioja (2011): "If you are occupying areas inhabited by... Palestinians who do not have the same rights as the Israelis in Israel, that is apartheid and that is not sustainable...I think that the majority in Israel has also realized this but they have been unable to provide a leadership that (can) move forward on the two-state solution." [1].
[1]. Erkki Tuomioja, quoted in “Finnish FM: Israel’s occupation of West Bank – like Apartheid”, Y Net News, 26 October 2011: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4139719,00.html .
Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is a South African activist who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of Apartheid. In 1984, Tutu became the second South African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Tutu was the first black South African Archbishop of Cape Town and primate of the Anglican Church of the Province of Southern Africa. Tutu chaired the post-Apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Tutu is vocal in his defence of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed. Tutu also campaigns to fight disease, poverty and racism. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism and the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2005 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu ).
1. Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Occupation, Apartheid and Divestment from Apartheid Israel (2002): “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.
Divestment from apartheid South Africa was fought by ordinary people at the grassroots. Faith-based leaders informed their followers, union members pressured their companies' stockholders and consumers questioned their store owners. Students played an especially important role by compelling universities to change their portfolios. Eventually, institutions pulled the financial plug, and the South African government thought twice about its policies.
Similar moral and financial pressures on Israel are being mustered one person at a time. Students on more than forty campuses in the U.S. are demanding a review of university investments in Israeli companies as well as in firms doing major business in Israel. From Berkeley to Ann Arbor, city councils have debated municipal divestment measures.
These tactics are not the only parallels to the struggle against apartheid. Yesterday's South African township dwellers can tell you about today's life in the Occupied Territories. To travel only blocks in his own homeland, a grandfather waits on the whim of a teenage soldier. More than an emergency is needed to get to a hospital; less than a crime earns a trip to jail. The lucky ones have a permit to leave their squalor to work in Israel's cities, but their luck runs out when security closes all checkpoints, paralyzing an entire people. The indignities, dependence and anger are all too familiar.
Many South Africans are beginning to recognize the parallels to what we went through. Ronnie Kasrils and Max Ozinsky, two Jewish heroes of the anti-apartheid struggle, recently published a letter titled "Not in My Name." Signed by several hundred other prominent Jewish South Africans, the letter drew an explicit analogy between apartheid and current Israeli policies. Mark Mathabane and Nelson Mandela have also pointed out the relevance of the South African experience.” [1].
2. South African Nobel Laureate and celebrated anti-apartheid activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu on occupation and divestment (2002): “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…a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation…“if apartheid ended, so can this occupation, but the moral force and international pressure will have to be just as determined. The current divestment effort is the first, though certainly not the only, necessary move in that direction.” [1, 2].
3. Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1989): "I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about." [3].
4. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African anti-apartheid campaigner and Nobel Peace Laureate, on Apartheid Israel (1989): “If you change the names, the description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would be a description of what is happening in South Africa.”[4].
5. Archbishop-Emeritus Desmond Tutu advocating Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against an Apartheid Israel (2012): “The Jewish Holocaust, engineered and implemented primarily by Europeans, gave some ideologues within the Jewish and Christian community an excuse to implement plans that were in the making for at least 50 years, under the rubric of exceptional Jewish security. In this way began the immense oppression of the Palestinian people, who were not at all involved in the Holocaust. Not only is this group of people being oppressed more than the apartheid ideologues could ever dream about in South Africa, their very identity and history are being denied and obfuscated. What is worse, is that Europe and the USA are refusing to take responsibility for their actions with regard to both the Holocaust and the over-empowering of the Israelis, their disregard for the international conventions and regulatory framework of the nuclear industry and their continued oppression of the Palestinian people. But God, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, neither slumbers nor sleeps. Prophetic voices have been calling this empowered people who were once oppressed and killed, to their deepest values of justice and compassion, but they have refused to listen even to the most reasonable voices. The human community cannot be silent in the face of the gross injustice being meted out to the people of Palestine. If international courts and governments refuse to deal with this matter, we in the churches and in the rest of civil society really have no choice but to act in small ways and big ways. God is busy doing a new thing. And God is using all of us to be partners with him. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians have to be liberated, but at this stage the greater onus is on the Israelis since they are the ones who are in power, economically, politically and militarily. We have to think about ways that will allow them to reflect deeply on what it is that they are doing and bring them back from the brink, not out of spite or revenge, but because we love them deeply. I therefore wholeheartedly support your action to disinvest from companies who benefit from the Occupation of Palestine. This is a moral position that I have no choice but to support, especially since I know of the effect that Boycotts, Disinvestment and Sanctions had on the apartheid regime in South Africa. May God bless your conference as you deliberate on this matter, and I pray that your decision will reflect the best values of the human family as we stand in solidarity with the oppressed. God bless you. Archbishop-Emeritus Desmond Tutu Cape Town, South Africa.” [5].
6. Archbishop Desmond Tutu in support of BDS against Apartheid Israel (2012): “ Black South Africans and others around the world have seen the 2010 Human Rights Watch report which "describes the two-tier system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates for the two populations in areas in the West Bank under its exclusive control, which provide preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians." This, in my book, is apartheid. It is untenable. And we are in desperate need of more rabbis joining the brave rabbis of Jewish Voice for Peace in speaking forthrightly about the corrupting decadeslong Israeli domination over Palestinians.
These are among the hardest words I have ever written. But they are vitally important. Not only is Israel harming Palestinians, but it is harming itself. The 1,200 rabbis may not like what I have to say, but it is long past time for them to remove the blinders from their eyes and grapple with the reality that Israel becoming an apartheid state or like South Africa in its denial of equal rights is not a future danger, as three former Israeli prime ministers — Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert and David Ben Gurion — have warned, but a present-day reality. This harsh reality endured by millions of Palestinians requires people and organizations of conscience to divest from those companies — in this instance, from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett Packard — profiting from the occupation and subjugation of Palestinians.
Such action made an enormous difference in apartheid South Africa. It can make an enormous difference in creating a future of justice and equality for Palestinians and Jews in the Holy Land.” [6].
Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid: “The past weeks have witnessed unprecedented action by members of civil society across the world against the injustice of Israel’s disproportionately brutal response to the firing of missiles from Palestine. If you add together all the people who gathered over the past weekend to demand justice in Israel and Palestine – in Cape Town, Washington, D.C., New York, New Delhi, London, Dublin and Sydney, and all the other cities – this was arguably the largest active outcry by citizens around a single cause ever in the history of the world. A quarter of a century ago, I participated in some well-attended demonstrations against apartheid. I never imagined we’d see demonstrations of that size again, but last Saturday’s turnout in Cape Town was as big if not bigger… Missiles, bombs and crude invective are not part of the solution. There is no military solution. The solution is more likely to come from that nonviolent toolbox we developed in South Africa in the 1980s, to persuade the government of the necessity of altering its policies. The reason these tools – boycott, sanctions and divestment – ultimately proved effective was because they had a critical mass of support, both inside and outside the country. The kind of support we have witnessed across the world in recent weeks, in respect of Palestine… Nelson Mandela famously said that South Africans would not feel free until Palestinians were free. He might have added that the liberation of Palestine will liberate Israel, too” [7].
[1]. Desmond Tutu, “Of Occupation and Apartheid. Do I divest?”, Counterpunch, 17 October 2002.
[2]. Archbishop Desmond Tutu quoted by the Palestinian Campaign for the Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel (PACB), “Open letter to Bono : entertaining Apartheid Israel… U2 Bono?”, International Solidarity Movement, 13 January 2010: http://palsolidarity.org/2010/01/10627 .
[3]. Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and apartheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
[4]. Desmond Tutu, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .
[5]. Archbishop-Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Letter to “Sear Friends of the United Methodist Church”, 26 April 2012, quoted by Friends of Palestinian and Israelis (FPI): http://friendsofpalestiniansandisraelis.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/christians-get-their-story-out-to-world.html .
[6]. Desmond Tutu, “Justice requires action to stop subjugation of Palestinians”, Tehran Times, 5 May 2012: http://www.tehrantimes.com/component/content/article/84-perspectives/97555-justice-requires-action-to-stop-subjugation-of-palestinians- .
[7]. Desmond Tutu “My plea to the people of Israel: liberate yourself by liberating Palestine”, 14 August 2014: http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/1.610687?v=66691173328C172D77ED27A198582751 .
UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), “Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid”, Executive Summary , 15 March 2017: “This report concludes that Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole. Aware of the seriousness of this allegation, the authors of the report conclude that available evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel is guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid as legally defined in instruments of international law.
The analysis in this report rests on the same body of international human rights law and principles that reject anti-Semitism and other racially discriminatory ideologies, including: the Charter of the United Nations (1945), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965). The report relies for its definition of apartheid primarily on article II of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973, hereinafter the Apartheid Convention):
The term "the crime of apartheid', which shall include similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practiced in southern Africa, shall apply to... inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.
Although the term "apartheid" was originally associated with the specific instance of South Africa, it now represents a species of crime against humanity under customary international law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, according to which:
"The crime of apartheid" means inhumane acts... committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.
Against that background, this report reflects the expert consensus that the prohibition of apartheid is universally applicable and was not rendered moot by the collapse of apartheid in South Africa and South West Africa (Namibia)…
Domain 1 embraces about 1.7 million Palestinians who are citizens of Israel. For the first 20 years of the country's existence, they lived under martial law and to this day are subjected to oppression on the basis of not being Jewish. That policy of domination manifests itself in inferior services, restrictive zoning laws and limited budget allocations made to Palestinian communities; in restrictions on jobs and professional opportunities; and in the mostly segregated landscape in which Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel live. Palestinian political parties can campaign for minor reforms and better budgets, but are legally prohibited by the Basic Law from challenging legislation maintaining the racial regime. The policy is reinforced by the implications of the distinction made in Israel between "citizenship" (ezrahut) and "nationality" (le'um): all Israeli citizens enjoy the former, but only Jews enjoy the latter. "National" rights in Israeli law signify Jewish-national rights. The struggle of Palestinian citizens of Israel for equality and civil reforms under Israeli law is thus isolated by the regime from that of Palestinians elsewhere.
Domain 2 covers the approximately 300,000 Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem, who experience discrimination in access to education, health care, employment, residency and building rights. They also suffer from expulsions and home demolitions, which serve the Israeli policy of "demographic balance" in favour of Jewish residents. East Jerusalem Palestinians are classified as permanent residents, which places them in a separate category designed to prevent their demographic and, importantly, electoral weight being added to that of Palestinians citizens in Israel. As permanent residents, they have no legal standing to challenge Israeli law. Moreover, openly identifying with Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory politically carries the risk of expulsion to the West Bank and loss of the right even to visit Jerusalem. Thus, the urban epicentre of Palestinian political life is caught inside a legal bubble that curtails its inhabitants' capacity to oppose the apartheid regime lawfully.
Domain 3 is the system of military law imposed on approximately 6.6 million Palestinians who live in the occupied Palestinian territory, 4.7 million of them in the West Bank and 1.9 million in the Gaza Strip. The territory is administered in a manner that fully meets the definition of apartheid under the Apartheid Convention: except for the provision on genocide, every illustrative "inhuman act" listed in the Convention is routinely and systematically practiced by Israel in the West Bank. Palestinians are governed by military law, while the approximately 350,000 Jewish settlers are governed by Israeli civil law. The racial character of this situation is further confirmed by the fact that all West Bank Jewish settlers enjoy the protections of Israeli civil law on the basis of being Jewish, whether they are Israeli citizens or not. This dual legal system, problematic in itself, is indicative of an apartheid regime when coupled with the racially discriminatory management of land and development administered by Jewish-national institutions, which are charged with administering "State land" in the interest of the Jewish population. In support of the overall findings of this report, annex I sets out in more detail the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory that constitute violations of article II of the Apartheid Convention.
Domain 4 refers to the millions of Palestinian refugees and involuntary exiles, most of whom live in neighbouring countries. They are prohibited from returning to their homes in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. Israel defends its rejection of the Palestinians' return in frankly racist language: it is alleged that Palestinians constitute a "demographic threat" and that their return would alter the demographic character of Israel to the point of eliminating it as a Jewish State. The refusal of the right of return plays an essential role in the apartheid regime by ensuring that the Palestinian population in Mandate Palestine does not grow to a point that would threaten Israeli military control of the territory and/or provide the demographic leverage for Palestinian citizens of Israel to demand (and obtain) full democratic rights, thereby eliminating the Jewish character of the State of Israel. Although domain 4 is confined to policies denying Palestinians their right of repatriation under international law, it is treated in this report as integral to the system of oppression and domination of the Palestinian people as a whole, given its crucial role in demographic terms in maintaining the apartheid regime…
The report concludes that the weight of the evidence supports beyond a reasonable doubt the proposition that Israel is guilty of imposing an apartheid regime on the Palestinian people, which amounts to the commission of a crime against humanity, the prohibition of which is considered jus cogens in international customary law. The international community, especially the United Nations and its agencies, and Member States, have a legal obligation to act within the limits of their capabilities to prevent and punish instances of apartheid that are responsibly brought to their attention. More specifically, States have a collective duty: (a) not to recognize an apartheid regime as lawful; (b) not to aid or assist a State in maintaining an apartheid regime; and (c) to cooperate with the United Nations and other States in bringing apartheid regimes to an end. Civil society institutions and individuals also have a moral and political duty to use the instruments at their disposal to raise awareness of this ongoing criminal enterprise, and to exert pressure on Israel in order to persuade it to dismantle apartheid structures in compliance with international law. The report ends with general and specific recommendations to the United Nations, national Governments, and civil society and private actors on actions they should take in view of the finding that Israel maintains a regime of apartheid in its exercise of control over the Palestinian people” (UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Palestine and the Israeli Occupation, Issue No. 1, “Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid”, Executive Summary , 15 March 2017: https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/0FE292B1F4A5971A852580E5004987A8 ).
Hendrik Verwoerd (8 September 1901 – 6 September 1966), later Dr H. F. Verwoerd, was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966. He is remembered as the “Architect of Apartheid” in South Africa (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Verwoerd ).
South African prime minister, and the architect of South Africa's racist apartheid policies, Hendrik Verwoerd, in dismissing an Israeli vote against South African apartheid at the United Nations (1961): "Israel is not consistent in its new anti-apartheid attitude... they took Israel away from the Arabs after the Arabs lived there for a thousand years. In that, I agree with them. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state."
NB Apartheid Israel later changed its attitude, and helped Apartheid South Africa develop nuclear weapons.
[1]. Hendrik Verwoerd, quoted in “Israel and the apartheid analogy”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_analogy .
Dr Vacy Vlazna (Coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters, editor of a volume of Palestinian poetry, “I remember my name”, and was convenor of Australia East Timor Association) on the boycott of Apartheid Israel from the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships by Malaysia, one of the international hosts of the games) (2019): “Malaysia’s principled boycott was not directed against the athletes but against the Jewish state of Israel in protest of decades of Israel’s brutal illegal occupation, its 12 year illegal siege of Gaza and its months of recent sustained atrocities against Gaza’s unarmed protestors at the non-violent Great March of Return… “According to the latest report issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the total number of wounded is 24,516 since the Gaza Return March started. The injuries in the lower limbs were 49.6% and 8.2% is the head and neck” [about 200 were killed]… The disabilities caused by the Israeli attacks since the beginning of Gaza March of Return reached 94, including 82 amputations in lower bodies, 12 amputations in upper body parts.” The Great March of Return is now in its 48th week. and despite the horror and carnage, young healthy as well as newly maimed Palestinians, children and grandchildren of the refugee survivors of the 1947-8 Nakba (Palestine’s holocaust) continue to protest for their legal Right of Return … Israel, according to international law, is not equitable, it is a belligerent apartheid coloniser which daily perpetrates crimes against humanity and war crimes against the indigenous Palestinian people and therefore the IPC should place sanctions against Israel until its ends its military occupation of Palestine” Vacy Vlazna, “Paralympic body shields”, Countercurrents, 2 March 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/03/02/paralympic-body-shields-israeli-systematic-mutilation-machine/ ).
[Editor note: According to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) IPC (2019): “The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on Sunday (27 January) stripped Malaysia of the right to host the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, which were due to be held in Kuching between 29 July and 4 August… ” ( “IPC strip Malaysia of 2019 World Para Swimming Championships”, Paralympics Australia, January 20189: https://www.paralympic.org.au/ipc-strip-malaysia-of-2019-world-para-swimming-championships/ ).
Dr Vacy Vlazna (Australian human rights activist, coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters, editor of a volume of Palestinian poetry “I remember my name”, Human Rights Advisor to the GAM team in the second round of the Acheh peace talks, convenor of the Australia East Timor Association, and coordinator of the East Timor Justice Lobby) (2019): “The chimerical two state solution is dead. Ironically Israel’s rapacious settlement expansion killed it. Palestine, inevitably has come full circle; support for a one state where Palestinians and Israelis “live under the same constitution and same social contract that provides them with freedom, justice and dignity for all.” is gaining traction” ( Vacy Vlazna, “10 points on Palestine’s Nakba and “Israel’s” illegitimacy”, Countercurrents, 15 May 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/05/10-points-on-palestines-nakba-and-israels-illegitimacy ).
Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an African American author, poet, activist and author of the novel “The Color Purple” (1982) for which she won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Walker ).
Alice Walker to Apartheid Israel publisher Yediot Books refusing permission for them to publish the Hebrew translation of her novel “The Color Purple” (2012): “Thank you so much for wishing to publish my novel THE COLOR PURPLE. It isn’t possible for me to permit this at this time for the following reason: As you may know, last Fall in South Africa the Russell Tribunal on Palestine met and determined that Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories. The testimony we heard, both from Israelis and Palestinians (I was a jurist) was devastating. I grew up under American apartheid and this was far worse. Indeed, many South Africans who attended, including Desmond Tutu, felt the Israeli version of these crimes is worse even than what they suffered under the white supremacist regimes that dominated South Africa for so long. It is my hope that the non-violent BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, of which I am part, will have enough of an impact on Israeli civilian society to change the situation.” [1].
Alice Walker supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel to End the Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank: “So what to do? Rosa Parks sat down in the front of the bus. Martin Luther King followed her act of courage with many of his own, and using his ringing, compassionate voice he aroused the people of Montgomery, Alabama to commit to a sustained boycott of the bus company; a company that refused to allow people of color to sit in the front of the bus, even if it was empty. It is time for us, en masse, to show up in front of our conscience, and sit down in the front of the only bus we have: our very lives.
What would that look like, be like, today, in this situation between Palestine and Israel? This "impasse" that has dragged on for decades. This "conflict" that would have ended in a week if humanity as a whole had acted in defense of justice everywhere on the globe. Which maybe we are learning! It would look like the granddaughter of Rosa Parks, the grandson of Martin Luther King. It would look like spending our money only where we can spend our lives in peace and happiness; freely sharing whatever we have with our friends.
It would be to support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel to End the Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and by this effort begin to soothe the pain and attend the sorrows of a people wrongly treated for generations. This action would also remind Israel that we have seen it lose its way and have called to it, often with love, and we have not been heard. In fact, we have reached out to it only to encounter slander, insult and, too frequently, bodily harm.
Disengage, avoid, and withhold support from whatever abuses, degrades and humiliates humanity.
This we can do. We the people; who ultimately hold all the power. We the people, who must never forget to believe we can win.
We the people.
It has always been about us; as we watch governments come and go. It always will be.” [1].
[1]. Alice Walker, “Letter from Alice Walker to publishers at Yediot Books”, Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, 9 June 2012: http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1917 .
[2]. Alice Walker, “Supporting Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel”, Huffington Post, 2010: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alice-walker/supporting-bds-boycott-di_b_603840.html .
Alice Walker (Pulitzer Prize winner , an African American novelist, short story writer, poet, activist and author of the novel “The Color Purple” for which she won the National Book Award for hardcover fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) on supporting BDS (2007): “ What would [the Civil Rights bus boycott] look like, be like, today, in this situation between Palestine and Israel? … It would look like the granddaughter of Rosa Parks, the grandson of Martin Luther King…. It would be to support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel to End the Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and by this effort begin to soothe the pain and attend the sorrows of a people wrongly treated for generations. This action would also remind Israel that we have seen it lose its way and have called to it, often with love, and we have not been heard. In fact, we have reached out to it only to encounter slander, insult and, too frequently, bodily harm. Disengage, avoid, and withhold support from whatever abuses, degrades and humiliates humanity” (David Palumbo-Liu, “Backing BDS: another Pulitzer winner comes out for Palestinian rights”, Salon, 22 June 2016: https://www.salon.com/2016/06/22/backing_bds_another_pulitzer_winner_comes_out_for_palestinian_rights/ ).
David Ward is a UK academic and MP. He was elected the new Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East in 2010, taking the seat from Labour. Born in Lincoln, he attended Boston Grammar School in Boston, Lincolnshire and then qualified as a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) in 1976. He attended the University of Bradford Management Centre to complete a MBA and a MPhil by research. He thence started working at Leeds Polytechnic (later to become Leeds Metropolitan University) from 1985 for the following 18 years as a Principal Lecturer in finance and strategic management and as a Business Development Manager. In 1996 he obtained a MSc from the University of Leicester. He was elected as Bradford Metropolitan District Councillor on for the Idle and Thackley ward in 1984 and served for 26 years until elected to Parliament in 2010 (see: http://davidward.org.uk/en/page/about-david ).
David Ward MP on Israeli crimes against humanity (2010): “"Having visited Auschwitz twice - once with my family and once with local schools - I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.” [1].
According to the UK Daily Mail “A Liberal Democrat MP who has questioned the existence of Israel was suspended from the party yesterday. David Ward will have the whip withdrawn until Parliament returns in September after branding Israel an 'apartheid state'. But the punishment - after Mr Ward repeatedly condemned Israel and 'the Jews' more widely - was condemned by Jewish groups as an 'empty gesture' that is 'too little, too late'. This is what David Ward wrote on Twitter: “Am I wrong or am I right? At long last the Zionists are losing the battle – how long can the apartheid state of Israel last?” [2].
[1]. David Ward quoted by Alan Hart, “Alan Hart: You must not tell the truth! and chutzpah defined”, Sabbah Report, 26 January 2012: http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2013/01/26/alan-hart-you-must-not-tell-the-truth-and-chutzpah-defined/#utm_source=Sabbah+Report+Newsletter&utm_campaign=77b36c8aa0-Mailchimp_RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email .
[2]. David Ward, quoted by Tim Shipman, “” Lib Dems kick out MP who accused Israel of being an “apartheid state”, Daily Mail, 18 July 2013: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2369779/Lib-Dems-kick-MP-accused-Israel-apartheid-state.html .
Margaret Waspe (Australian humanitarian) (2017): “An adequate historical knowledge is important for our leaders. When history is distorted or re-invented, how can appropriate foreign policy be formed? When the Israeli Prime Minister and our Prime Minister met, it was publicly said that we had a 100 year old history of friendship, since the Battle of Beersheba. Was this corrected at all? Who advises our leaders? Israel became a state in 1948. What are the facts? From the nineteenth century the European Zionists (in Europe) planned to acquire and expand territorial control in the Middle East and intended to use diverse methods to separate the inhabitants from their land. That was an age when European imperialism was still the norm. Palestine then was a thriving agricultural society with approx. 500,000 inhabitants. In the 1920s the British and the Zionists assured the Palestinian leaders, that by allowing in persecuted European Jews, Palestinian rights would be strictly preserved. On that basis, Palestinian leaders agreed to limited immigration of persecuted European Jews – as long as their land, Palestine was able to retain its Arab identity. There is evidence that Muslims were encouraged by a leader to welcome the Jews as brethren according to the hospitable traditions of their religion.8 As the true Zionist intentions became evident, resistance then grew. The British authorities struggled with what they regarded as Zionist terrorist gangs who acted violently to destabilise the social context. The problem was handed to the United Nations, who with difficulty and intense pressure and lobbying, voted in favour of partition in 1947. Was that biased or not? In 1948, in the Naqba (catastrophe) the Palestinians experienced massacre, were forced to flee from their villages and lands, many still now living in permanent refugee camps elsewhere. Evidence from the writing of Zionist government leaders, shows that a deliberate policy was followed, of – covertly provoking an incident over the border in order to incite a retaliatory response, which would instill fear of danger in their people, and could be used as means of further Israeli powerful military attack and extended territorial control. Peace was never intended… In 1974, I worked as a volunteer on Kibbutz Reshafim in Israel, for about 4 months, followed by a similar time living and working with Palestinians in Eastern Jerusalem. I grew to love the land and its people, but I realised I was in a type of apartheid state. As a concerned person I had been working to bring justice and positive change in the Police State of apartheid-era South Africa, with Jewish friends amongst my working associates” (Margaret Waspe, “Open letter to the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence, Senators and Members of the Australian Parliament. In search of truth. The Middle east and Australia’s future foreign policy”, 25 March 2017: https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/sites/g/files/net3551/f/submission/170331-715-margaret-waspe.pdf ).
Patrick Weiniger is a Melbourne socialist activist living in Melbourne and a regular contributor to the Socialist Alternative magazine.
Patrick Weiniger, “Why Jews should oppose Israel”, 2009: “Jews internationally have been involved in various struggles against racism. Many Jews in South Africa played a prominent and courageous role in the struggle against apartheid. Activists like Joe Slovo and Ruth First not only criticised apartheid: they sided with the oppressed black population and joined the ANC. Today anti-racist Jews must struggle against the violent apartheid system which defines the state of Israel. To describe Israel in these terms is not hyperbole. The apartheid wall in the West Bank is so named because it imprisons the Palestinians in small, disconnected parcels of land that can never be the basis of a viable state. In South Africa, these "homelands" were called Bantustans. Gaza is another such Bantustan… Zionism - that is, support for a specifically Jewish state in historical Palestine - is a political doctrine. It has never been a necessary or automatic component of Jewish identity. It does not make you a traitor to Jews to oppose the idea of a Jewish state that discriminates against other races and religions. There is nothing anti-Semitic in calling for a secular, democratic state in all of historical Palestine, with equal rights for Jews and non-Jews. Undoubtedly many anti-racist Jews are uneasy about what Israel does. Yet too few of us actually take a stand against Israel.” [1].
[1]. Patrick Weiniger , “Why Jews should oppose Israel”, Socialist Alternative, Issue 137, February 2009: http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1883&Itemid=106 .
Anti-racist Jewish American scholars Glen Weyl (an assistant professor of economics and law at the University of Chicago) and Steven Levitsky (a professor of government at Harvard University) (2015): “We are lifelong Zionists. Like other progressive Jews, our support for Israel has been founded on two convictions: first, that a state was necessary to protect our people from future disaster; and second, that any Jewish state would be democratic, embracing the values of universal human rights that many took as a lesson of the Holocaust. Undemocratic measures undertaken in pursuit of Israel’s survival, such as the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the denial of basic rights to Palestinians living there, were understood to be temporary. But we must face reality: The occupation has become permanent. Nearly half a century after the Six-Day War, Israel is settling into the apartheid-like regime against which many of its former leaders warned. The settler population in the West Bank has grown 30-fold, from about 12,000 in 1980 to 389,000 today. The West Bank is increasingly treated as part of Israel, with the green line demarcating the occupied territories erased from many maps. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin declared recently that control over the West Bank is “not a matter of political debate. It is a basic fact of modern Zionism.” This “basic fact” poses an ethical dilemma for American Jews: Can we continue to embrace a state that permanently denies basic rights to another people? Yet it also poses a problem from a Zionist perspective: Israel has embarked on a path that threatens its very existence… It is thus, reluctantly but resolutely, that we are refusing to travel to Israel, boycotting products produced there and calling on our universities to divest and our elected representatives to withdraw aid to Israel. Until Israel seriously engages with a peace process that either establishes a sovereign Palestinian state or grants full democratic citizenship to Palestinians living in a single state, we cannot continue to subsidize governments whose actions threaten Israel’s long-term survival” (Steven Levitsky and Glen Weyl, “We are lifelong Zionists. Here’s why we’ve chosen to boycott Israel”, Washington Post, 23 October 2015: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-zionist-case-for-boycotting-israel/2015/10/23/ac4dab80-735c-11e5-9cbb-790369643cf9_story.html?utm_term=.dfeafec3b09f ).
Ben White in his own words: “Ben White is a [British] freelance journalist, writer and activist, specialising in Palestine/Israel. He has been visiting the region since 2003 and his articles have been widely published in the likes of The Guardian’s Comment is free, Al Jazeera, Electronic Intifada, New Statesman, Salon, Christian Science Monitor, Middle East International, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and others. He currently works as a writer and researcher for Middle East Monitor and Journal of Palestine Studies. His most recent book, ‘Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy‘, was published by Pluto Press in January 2012, with a foreword by Member of Knesset Haneen Zoabi. It received endorsements from Booker Prize-shortlisted author Ahdaf Soueif, Prof Ilan Pappe, Ali Abunimah, and others. His first book, ‘Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide‘, was published in 2009 by Pluto Press, with a foreword by John Dugard, South African law professor and ex-UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The book received praise from the likes of Desmond Tutu, Nur Masalha and Ghada Karmi” (see: http://benwhite.org.uk/about/ ).
Ben White’s book “Israeli Apartheid . A beginner’s guide” (2014): “New edition of “Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide” is out NOW. Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide distills the work of academics and experts into a highly readable introduction. This is the book to read if you want to understand the root of the conflict and how apartheid applies to the situation in Palestine. Ben White begins by succinctly explaining the origins of Zionist theory and colonization and details what happened in 1948 during the creation of Israel, as Palestinians were killed, driven from their homes and deprived of their land and livelihoods. White goes on to examine current examples of Israeli apartheid. Packed with information, quotations and resources, the book is rooted in the author’s extensive on-the-ground experience in the region. It also includes short testimonies by Palestinians who describe how Israeli apartheid affects their daily lives. Indispensable for the Palestinian solidarity movement, Israeli Apartheid aims to inform and mobilize, and is a vital resource for anyone who wants to help work towards peace.” [1].
Ben White (UK freelance journalist, writer and activist, specialising in Palestine/Israel) (2012): “A poll of Jewish Israelis published last week in Ha'aretz newspaper created headlines round the world with its findings of support among the public for discriminatory policies. Some greeted the survey's results as vindication of claims made by critics of the Jewish state; others pointed to what they said were flaws in the methodology and how the statistics were being presented. There is, however, no need for such a poll in order to reach the conclusion that Israel is guilty of apartheid: The facts speak for themselves.… Across the whole of historic Palestine - Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip - the State of Israel rules over around 12 million people whose rights and privileges are determined on a discriminatory basis. Millions more are excluded from the country all together (because they are Palestinian). It is a regime intended to maintain the domination of one group at the expense of another. It is apartheid” [2].
[1]. Ben White, “Israeli Apartheid . A beginner’s guide” (Pluto Press, 2009, 2014).
[2]. Ben White, “Israel is an apartheid state (no poll required)”, Al Jazeera, 29 October 2012: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/10/20121027145235386715.html .
Asa Winstanley (London-based investigative journalist who writes about Palestine and the Middle East) (2018): “It’s time to admit that Israeli is an apartheid state… There are differences and there are similarities between apartheid Israel and apartheid South Africa. The white supremacist regime that once ruled South Africa, for example, did not tend to bomb into submission with fighter jets and attack helicopters the puppet Bantustan “homeland” enclaves that it controlled. Israel, however, regularly bombs the civilian population in the Gaza ghetto, using the pretext of “self-defence” against “terrorist” groups. It’s for this reason, and others, that some South African anti-apartheid struggle veterans have said that the Israeli regime is actually a worse form of apartheid than the late, unlamented regime in South Africa. The main point to remember, though, is that this entire debate is a red herring. According to international law, Israel can unequivocally be defined as an apartheid state. A 1976 United Nations document, the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, defines the term unambiguously, and Israel’s occupation regime in Palestine very much falls into the A-word category… Israel’s Palestinian citizens face discrimination on many levels simply because they are not Jews.The convention states that the term “the crime of apartheid” applies to acts including measures “calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country… including… [by violating] the right to freedom of movement and residence.”It’s time for people in the West to wake up to these facts and admit that Israel is, root and branch, an apartheid state” (Asa Winstanley, “It’s time to admit that Israeli is an apartheid state”, Middle East Monitor, 24 April 2018: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180424-its-time-to-admit-that-israel-is-an-apartheid-state/ ).
WISE. JVP Rabbinical Council co-founder Rabbi Alissa Wise (2023): “The American Jewish community is at a crossroads. Right now, at
kitchen tables and on the steps of shuls, people are asking ‘How can I buy
Israel Bonds when members of the Israeli government are calling for pogroms
against Palestinians?’ And we are here to say: ‘The Torah is clear. You don’t.
You divest. Come talk to us — we’re so glad you’re here’” ( Jewish Voice for
Peace, “JVP rabbis teach Torah of Divestment at hotel as Smotrich speaks at
Israel Bonds fundraiser”, Press release, 12 March 2023: https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/03/torah-of-divestment/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=torah-of-divestment .)
Dr Ron Witton is an anti-racist Jewish Australian and an Honorary Principal Fellow in the Faculty of Law at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia (see: http://www.uow.edu.au/law/honoraryfellows/index.html )..
Dr Ron Witton was a signatory to a letter by Australian academics urging boycotts against Israel (“Australian academics call for boycott of Israel”, The Electronic Intifada, 26 March 2009: http://electronicintifada.net/content/australian-academics-call-boycott-israel/949 ):
“Responding to the Call of Palestinian civil society to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, we are an Australian campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel):
In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and
In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions:
We scholars, inspired by the wishes of Palestinian civil society, call 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. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
These nonviolent 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 Palestinian and Arab lands and dismantling the Wall which separates Palestinians from their arable lands;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
The principles guiding our campaign and the three goals outlined above are also points of unity for the British, Canadian, and US Campaigns for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI, this statement is a modified version of theirs). There can be no academic freedom in Israel/Palestine unless all academics are free and all students are free to pursue their academic desires.
If you are committed to these principles of unity, and wish to work on a campaign of boycotting academic and cultural institutions guided by this approach, please join our campaign.
Gaza is but the latest incident in a series of ongoing Israeli massacres, from Deir Yassin (1948) to Kafr Kassim (1956) to Jenin (2002) to the wars on Lebanon (from 1980s to 2006). All demonstrate a pattern of violence by a state that will not end its violations of international law and war crimes on its own, without international pressure. We must act now. As academics we wish to focus on campaigns in our universities and in institutions of higher education to advocate for compliance with the academic and cultural boycott, a movement that is growing internationally across all segments of global civil society.
This call for an academic and cultural boycott parallels the call in the non-academic world for divestment, boycott and sanctions by trade unions, churches and other civil society organizations in countries such as the United States, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand.
Actions
Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state-controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence, we call upon our colleagues to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by applying the following:
1. Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;
2. Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;
3. Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by academic institutions;
4. Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;
5. Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
As educators and scholars of conscience in Australia, we fully support this call. We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel’s ongoing attacks on the rights of Palestinians to education, land, and human dignity, and to support the nonviolent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions.
Undersigned: Dr. Anthony Ashbolt, University of Wollongong; Jumana Bayeh, Macquarie University; Professor Ann Curthoys, The University of Sydney; Dr Ned Curthoys, Australian National University; Professor John Docker, The University of Sydney; Ann El Khoury, Macquarie University; Professor Heather Goodall, University of Technology, Sydney; Laila Hafez, University of Wollongong; Professor Terry Irving, University of Wollongong; Dr Evan Jones, The University of Sydney; Dr Jon Jureidini, University of Adelaide; Dr Ray Jureidini, American University in Cairo, Egypt; Professor Peter Manning, University of Technology, Sydney; Dr Morris Morley, Macquarie University; Dr David Palmer, University of Adelaide; Rosemary Pringle; Professor Lyndall Ryan, University of Newcastle; Dr Ron Witton, University of Wollongong.”
Yesh Din (Israeli human rights organization) reporting legal advice from Michael Sfard (2020): “The alibi used by successive Israeli governments that the situation is temporary and there is no desire or intent to maintain the domination and oppression of Palestinians in the area or preserve their inferior status falls apart in the face of the clear evidence that the separate policies and practices Israel applies in the occupied territory are designed to maintain and cement the domination and oppression of Palestinians and the supremacy of the Israelis who migrated to the area. That is not all. As described in this opinion, the government of Israel is carrying out a process of “gradual annexation” in the West Bank. From an administrative perspective, annexation means the revocation of military rule in the annexed area and the territorial extension of powers held by Israeli authorities deep into the West Bank. Continued creeping legal annexation, let alone official annexation of a particular part of the West Bank through legislation that would apply Israeli law and administration there, is an amalgamation of the regimes. This could mean strengthening the argument, which already is being heard, that the crime of Apartheid is not committed only in the West Bank. That the Israeli regime in its entirety is an apartheid regime. That Israel is an Apartheid state. That is distressing and shameful. And even if not all Israelis are guilty of the crime, we are all responsible for it. It is our duty, each and every one of us, to take resolute action to stop the commission of this crime” (Yesh Din, “The occupation of the West Bank and the crime of Apartheid: legal opinion”, Yesh Din, 9 July 2020: https://www.yesh-din.org/en/the-occupation-of-the-west-bank-and-the-crime-of-apartheid-legal-opinion/ ).
Kourosh Ziabari is a journalist, writer and media correspondent (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/ziabari140814.htm ).
Kourosh Ziabari on Israeli Apartheid (2014): “Has Israel Turned Into An Apartheid Regime?... Now, for the people of South Africa, apartheid is only a past memory that will be never rejuvenated and born again. However, in another part of our world today, there's a nation that is living under the miserable conditions which make them feel as if an apartheid regime is ruling them. The subjugated nation of Palestine whose homeland was stolen and taken from them around six decades ago in the most repugnant and inhumane way, are now subject to the atrocities of a colonial regime whose behavior, practices and policies are precisely reminiscent of the black and horrific days of apartheid in South Africa. There are incredibly close similarities between the policies and actions of the apartheid regime in South Africa and the Israeli regime that is considered by the United Nations and other international organizations as an "occupying power." Israel has established a system of racial discrimination against the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem Al-Quds that many legal experts and international lawyers have argued constitutes a crime against humanity. From a legal point of view, it's clearly demonstrable that the Israeli regime is simultaneously violating several internationally-recognized conventions and treaties of which it is a signatory, and most interestingly, when Israel commits acts in violation of these conventions and treaties, no voice is raised in protest by those who had introduced the treaties and are responsible for upholding them. "Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel" has listed some 50 laws passed by the Israeli parliament (Knesset) that discriminate against the Palestinians in all areas of life, such as their right to political participation, access to land, education, state budget resources, medical services, and criminal procedures based on their race and nationality... It's quite evident that Israel's policies and actions resemble the dark days of apartheid in South Africa, and can be categorized as the crime of apartheid.” [1].
[1]. Kourosh Ziabari, “Has Israel Turned Into An Apartheid Regime?”, Countercurrents, 14 August 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/ziabari140814.htm .
Apartheid Israeli state terrorism: (A) individuals exposing Apartheid Israeli state terrorism, and (B) countries subject to Apartheid Israeli state terrorism”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/apartheid-israeli-state-terrorism .
“Gaza Concentration Camp”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/gaza-concentration .
“Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ .
“Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ .
“Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
“Palestinian Genocide essays”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestinegenocideessays/ .
"Zionist quotes re racism and Palestinian Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/zionist-quotes .
BDS – Boycott Apartheid Israel: https://sites.google.com/view/bdsopinions/home .
Secular, democratic, one state Palestine: https://sites.google.com/view/onestatepalestine/home .
“Gideon Polya Countercurrents articles”, “Palestinian Genocide Essays”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestinegenocideessays/gideon-polya-countercurrents-articles .
“Countercurrents articles by Gideon Polya”: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/countercurrents-articles .
“Expose holocaust denial & ignoring”: https://sites.google.com/site/exposeholocaustdenialignoring/Home .