Action Alert: San Francisco Chronicle--Boycotting Israel

by George Bisharat

Please Distribute Widely-----


George Bisharat has made an important call in the San
Francisco Chronicle for a boycott against Israel on
the basis of its numerous human rights infractions.
The op-ed represents an unusual breakthrough in the
opinion pages and merits our widespread support
against the anticipated backlash.

Please limit your letters to 200 or fewer words and
include your name, address, and telephone number (for
verification purposes only).  Shorter letters have a
better chance of being selected for publication. Email
your letter to letters@sfchronicle.com.

===

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/15/EDASRIF3U.DTL

OPEN FORUM

Boycott movement targets Israel
George Bisharat

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

When does a citizen-led boycott of a state become
morally justified?

That question is raised by an expanding academic,
cultural and economic boycott of Israel. The movement
joins churches, unions, professional societies and
other groups based in the United States, Canada,
Europe and South Africa. It has elicited dramatic
reactions from Israel's supporters. U.S. labor leaders
have condemned British unions, representing millions
of workers, for supporting the Israel boycott.
American academics have been frantically gathering
signatures against the boycott, and have mounted a
prominent advertising campaign in American newspapers
- unwittingly elevating the controversy further in the
public eye.

Israel's defenders have protested that Israel is not
the worst human-rights offender in the world, and
singling it out is hypocrisy, or even anti-Semitism.
Rhetorically, this shifts focus from Israel's human
rights record to the imagined motives of its critics.

But "the worst first" has never been the rule for whom
to boycott. Had it been, the Pol Pot regime, not
apartheid South Africa, would have been targeted in
the past. It was not - Cambodia's ties to the West
were insufficient to make any embargo effective.
Boycotting North Korea today would be similarly
futile. Should every other quest for justice be put on
hold as a result?

In contrast, the boycott of South Africa had grip. The
opprobrium suffered by white South Africans
unquestionably helped persuade them to yield to the
just demands of the black majority. Israel, too,
assiduously guards its public image. A dense web of
economic and cultural relations also ties it to the
West. That - and its irrefutably documented
human-rights violations - render it ripe for boycott.

What state actions should trigger a boycott? Expelling
or intimidating into flight a country's majority
population, then denying them internationally
recognized rights to return to their homes? Israel has
done that.

Seizing, without compensation, the properties of
hundreds of thousands of refugees? Israel has done
that.

Systematically torturing detainees, many held without
trial? Israel has done that.

Assassinating its opponents, including those living in
territories it occupies? Israel has done that.

Demolishing thousands of homes belonging to one
national group, and settling its own people in another
nation's land? Israel has done that. No country with
such a record, whether first or 50th worst in the
world, can credibly protest a boycott.

Apartheid South Africa provides another useful
standard. How does Israel's behavior toward
Palestinians compare to former South Africa's
treatment of blacks? It is similar or worse, say a
number of South Africans, including Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, U.N. special rapporteur in the occupied
territories John Dugard, and African National Congress
member and government minister Ronnie Kasrils. The
latter observed recently that apartheid South Africa
never used fighter jets to attack ANC activists, and
judged Israel's violent control of Palestinians as "10
times worse." Dual laws for Jewish settlers and
Palestinians, segregated roads and housing, and
restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement
strongly recall apartheid South Africa. If boycotting
apartheid South Africa was appropriate, it is equally
fair to boycott Israel on a similar record.

Israel has been singled out, but not as its defenders
complain. Instead, Israel has been enveloped in a
cocoon of impunity. Our government has vetoed 41 U.N.
Security Council resolutions condemning Israeli
actions - half of the total U.S. vetoes since the
birth of the United Nations - thus enabling Israel's
continuing abuses. The Bush administration has
announced an increase in military aid to Israel to $30
billion for the coming decade.

Other military occupations and human-rights abusers
have faced considerably rougher treatment. Just recall
Iraq's 1990 takeover of Kuwait. Perhaps the United
Nations should have long ago issued Israel the
ultimatum it gave Iraq - and enforced it. Israel's
occupation of Arab lands has now exceeded 40 years.

Iran, Sudan and Syria have all been targeted for
federal and state-level sanctions. Even the City of
Beverly Hills is contemplating Iran divestment
actions, following the lead of Los Angeles, which
approved Iran divestment legislation in June. Yet the
Islamic Republic of Iran has never attacked its
neighbors nor occupied their territories. It is merely
suspected of aspiring to the same nuclear weapons
Israel already possesses.

Politicians worldwide, and American ones especially,
have failed us. Our leaders, from the executive branch
to Congress, have dithered, or cheered Israel on, as
it devoured the land base for a Palestinian state.
Their collective irresponsibility dooms both
Palestinians and Israelis to a future of strife and
insecurity, and undermines our global stature. If
politicians cannot lead the way, then citizens must.
That is why boycotting Israel has become both
necessary and justified.

George Bisharat is a professor of law at Hastings
College of the Law in San Francisco, and writes
frequently on law and politics in the Middle East.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/15/EDASRIF3U.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 9 of the San
Francisco Chronicle

__._,_.___