How do we persuade people to support BDS?\u00a0 We point out the ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Palestinians in 1948.\u00a0 We point out the systematic theft of Palestinian land in 1967 to today with a further 25,000 new illegal dwellings in occupied East Jerusalem, announced in June.\u00a0 We point out the theft of water in the West Bank and possibly the most serious is the establishment of an Apartheid state in the West Bank.\u00a0 Finally we point out that the people who are oppressed by Israel, the Palestinians, via their organisations have asked us to do something non-violent to enable them to get basic human rights.<\/p>\n
We rightly expect scrutiny of what we claim.\u00a0 The most controversial is that Israel has established an apartheid state.\u00a0 Are there separate roads for Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank?\u00a0 Are there separate schools? Are there separate law enforcement systems for Palestinians and Israelis?\u00a0 Are there separate residential areas?\u00a0 As a matter of observable fact the answers to all these are yes.\u00a0 These are sufficient for the system to be designated Apartheid.\u00a0 Many of us opposed the South African Apartheid, as racist and oppressive, and see the same with Israeli Apartheid.<\/p>\n
We meet opposition.\u00a0 Douglas Murray is associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society. (Last Wednesday, 5th July, the BBC Today program called it a “highly respected”\u009d think tank, I beg to differ.)\u00a0 The objectors raise three strategies.\u00a0 The first is insult\/slander.<\/p>\n
“There are a lot of Nazi caparisons being thrown around these days. Where might they be most accurately directed? Toward the State of Israel? Or against the growing number of people who believe that it is permissible to boycott any herb, any product or indeed any tune if it comes from the hand or the heart of a Jew<\/a>?”\u009d<\/p>\n I know of no individual or organisation that proposes a boycott of Jewish products.\u00a0 The nasty piece of misinformation slanders us, and if taken seriously, spreads fear within the Jewish community.\u00a0 It is pollution in the arena of public debate.<\/p>\n Secondly there is “Israel is wonderful”\u009d approach.\u00a0 This is Douglas Murray again.\u00a0 “How can a man as brilliant as Hawking boycott Israel when it makes the microchip that enables him to talk?”\u00a0 This is called a non sequitur.\u00a0 Israel has created some wonderful products therefore it can create an Apartheid state, really?<\/p>\n Finally there is the “other places are worse”\u009d here and<\/a> here<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n Can a burglar say let me go because there is a murderer free? \u00a0 Or can a murderer say “Ah but I only killed one person.\u00a0 Why pick on me when Assad\/Bush\/ Blair killed tens or even hundreds of thousands?” Of course not.<\/p>\n Douglas Murray believes the solution is a Palestinian state beside Israel with only some of the illegal settlements being removed.\u00a0 Why on earth would Israel accept even this miserable compromise?\u00a0 It is taking chunks of Palestinian land because it has the military power to do so.\u00a0 It is robing Palestine of its natural capital, Jerusalem, by systematic building of Israeli estates because it has the power to do so.\u00a0 It ignores the ICJ ruling on the illegality of the Apartheid wall because it has the power to do so.\u00a0 Israel can do these things while ever it has Western Governmental support and cheerleaders like Douglas Murray.\u00a0 He makes me think of a man on the flying Scotsman who professes to want to go to London, while heaping coal into the boiler of the Edinburgh bound train.<\/p>\n Israel has created an Apartheid state.\u00a0 It robs Palestinians of land, water and freedom of movement.\u00a0 Israeli Apartheid is not the only bad thing in the world.\u00a0 But it is one that anti-racists, anti-Apartheid activists, and people who want dignity for everyone should campaign against.\u00a0 Join us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do we persuade people to support BDS?\u00a0 We point out the ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Palestinians in 1948.\u00a0 We point out the systematic theft of Palestinian land in 1967 to today with a further 25,000 new illegal dwellings in occupied East Jerusalem, announced in June.\u00a0 We point out the theft of water in the … Continue reading BDS and our critics<\/span>