Boycott Israel


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. --Nobel Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu, April 2002

When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged roaches in a bottle.-- Rafael Eitan, Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff, April 1983

The Arabs are liars from birth.--Israel's Minister of Justice, Avraham Sharir, February 1988


 

Israel is the most racist state in the world at this time


Zionism calls for a Jewish state.  Israel defines Jewishness, in part, in genetic terms.  A person is legally Jewish if his or her mother is Jewish, regardless of place of birth or religious belief.  The result of Israeli state policies has been a 60 year program of ethnic cleansing, including expulsion of the Palestinian population, military occupation, and mass murder.

Supporting a boycott against Israel is not Anti-Semitic


Zionism is NOT synonymous with Judaism.
Supporting a boycott against Israel is no more anti-Semitic than support of the boycott of Apartheid South Africa during the 1980s was anti-White.  Many Jews of conscience and Jewish organizations condemn Israel's crimes against humanity, and support sanctions and boycott.  Among these are the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, L.A. Jews for Peace, Jews in Solidarity with Palestine, 540 Israeli citizens, and Israeli academics such as Neve Gordon, Emmanuel Farjoun, Rachel Giora and Kobi Snitz.

But aren't Palestinians equally responsible for the violence?

No.  Palestinians are overwhelmingly the victims of Israeli violence, much as American Indians were overwhelmingly the victims of U.S. violence in previous centuries. Israel avoids peace because peace interfers with territorial expansion and ethnic cleaning.
Israel's use of White Phosphorus
furthers its agenda of ethnic
cleansing.  This deadly weapon,
produced at Pine Bluff Arsenal
in Arkansas, has had devastating
effects on the Palestinian
population.  For more photos,
click here.  For video, click here.
A statistical analysis entitled,  Reigniting Violence: How Do Ceasefires End? written by faculty members at MIT and Tel Aviv University, and a graduate student at Harvard found that "79% of all conflict pauses were interrupted when Israel killed a Palestinian, while only 8% were interrupted by Palestinian attacks (the remaining 13% were interrupted by both sides on the same day)" and that "of the 25 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than a week, Israel unilaterally interrupted 24, or 96%, and it unilaterally interrupted 100% of the 14 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than 9 days." 




Learn more
about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, and how U.S. mainstream media distort and censor information.  Watch this balanced free Internet film: Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land: U.S. Media and the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict.
Extraordinary Courage  This two minute video shows how a young woman faced off Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinian children. This Youtube interview of Rachel Corrie was made two days before she was killed by Israel using a U.S. made Caterpillar military tractor. 


Watch
U.S. Activists urge boycott of Israeli companies
Read Naomi Klein's interview about boycotting Israel without cutting off dialogue over Palestine



How You can Support the Boycott

A. Endorse the Palestinian Unified call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions.  Add your name at: http://bdsmovement.net/

B. Go to http://www.ijsn.net/225/ for a clear summary and further links for how to participate in any of the following:

1) Consumer boycott of Israeli goods. Support CodePink's boycott of Ahava Beauty products (to find more companies to boycott, click here.)

2) Academic and cultural boycott
    (see especially: http://www.pacbi.org/ and U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel)

3) Sports Boycott

4) Divestment from the Israeli Economy (Caterpillar Co.; for other examples, click here.)

5) Pressure local government to divest from and enforce sanctions on Israel.  In Los Angeles, check for updates on  "Thirsting for Justice" at www.bds-la.org/ (See also: Sommerville Divestment Project). 

6) Organize your union to divest from and enforce sanctions on Israel (See: Sommerville Divestment Project)



Photos, Videos, and Audio Resources



Extraordinary Courage, 2 minute video

Gaza Villages Wiped Off the Map, Video, 21 January 2009

Gaza University
, photographs of the destruction

Israel killed medics, attacked ambulences and half of Gaza's hospitals, Video from Guardian U.K.,  23 March 2009

Norwegian Doctor in Gaza, Video of hospital, patients, and bombing, 5 January 2009

"Only the truth...Only the truth", Video with music

Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land: U.S. Media and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, a must-see Internet Documentary

Photographs of Chemical Warfare Victims of Israel


'Phosphorus shells' hit Gaza UN school, Video narrated by John Ging, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency

Rachel Corrie: Photo Story of her Murder by Israel

Rachel Corrie Interview, two days before she was killed, Youtube video

Rap Music for Boycott, "The Emperor's Clothes", by Invincible

Sequential Photographs of Isreal's White Phosophorus Attack of U.N. School

The aftermath of the shelling of Beit Lahiya school, Gaza

Thousands of Israelis protest against the war in Gaza

U.S. Activists urge boycott of Israeli companies

White Phosphorus Victim in Gaza, BBC Video


Historical Background: Apartheid in South Africa and Israel

Applicability of the Crime of Apartheid to Israel, by Karine Mac Allister

Boycotts against Apartheid

Position Paper on Academic/Cultural Boycotts, African National Congress, Lusaka, May 1989

The Academic Boycott of South Africa: Symbolic Gesture or Effective Agent of Change?

South African academic study finds that Israel practices Apartheid and Colonialism


Censorship and Academic Freedom

Academic Freedom and Columbia University, faculty letter to campus president

Academic Freedom Threatened in Ontario Universities, by Margaret Aziza Pappano

Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB, the case of Prof. William I. Robinson

Exposed: University of Toronto suppresses pro-Palestinian activism

Ithaca College professor denied tenure, article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, 24 Sept. 2008
Ithaca College Injustice: a tenure travesty

Ithaca College faculty fight censorship of criticism of Israel


Jeffrey Goldberg's gasping, dying smear tactics, by Glenn Greenwald

Statement of Joel Kovel Regarding his Termination by Bard College

Why is Norman Finkelstein Not Allowed to Teach?, by David Klein

A Word about Free Speech
, by David Noble


Important Links


Amnesty International report on weapons flow, and call for ending export of weapons to Israel/Gaza

Amnesty International Report on Israel's use of White Phosphorus in Gaza

Anna Baltzer's site: A Witness in Palestine

British Committee for the Universities of Palestine

Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid--Southern California

Caterpillar Company, article by Steven Zunes

Chomsky: Undermining Gaza

Electronic Intifada

Enough. It's time for a boycott, by Naomi Klein,
and "Naomi Klein Shows You Can Boycott Israel Without Cutting Off Dialogue Over Palestine" by Cecilie Surasky

Global BDS Movement: Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions for Palestine

In Defense of Academic Boycotts: A Response to Martha Nussbaum,  by Mohammed Abed

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

Irish Call for Boycott of Israel, a petition published in the Irish Times, 31 January 2009, and signed by members of the Irish Parliment, Irish Representatives to the European Union, professors, cultural figures, and citizens

Israel Wanted a Humanitarian Crisis, by Ben White

Israel's Marriage Law, by Justin Huggler

Jews in Solidarity with Palestine

L.A. Jews for Peace

Likud Charter Does Not Recognize Palestine, by Frank Barat

Palestinian Campaign for the Boycott of Israel

Reigniting Violence: How Do Ceasefires End?

Road Map to Sustainable Ethnic Cleansing, by Edward Herman

Sommerville Divestment Project

Support of Israel must stop, by David Klein

The Politics of an Israeli Extermination Campaign, by James Petras

US Campaign to End the Occupation

U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel

Who Profits? Exposing the Israeli Occupation Industry


Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the People of Palestine, by Noel Ignatiev