The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic
and Cultural Boycott of Israel(PACBI) has learned
that you have been invited by Israeli President Shimon
Peres to take part in a conference designed to
mark Israel's contributions
to medicine, science, and conservation.
We urge you, as a prominent activist on issues of global
inequality and a campaigner for basic human
rights, to say no to Israel, especially since the invitation
coincides with celebrations marking the 60th
anniversary of the founding of the
state. With the creation of this state sixty years ago,
“Palestine ceased to exist except in the hearts
and mind of Palestinians,”[1] of whom three quarters
of a million were dispossessed and uprooted from their
homes and lands, condemned to a life of exile and destitution.
Israel at 60 is a state that is still denying
Palestinian refugees their UN-sanctioned rights,
simply because they are "non-Jews." It is still
illegally occupying Palestinian and other Arab lands,
in violation of numerous UN resolutions. In the occupied
Palestinian territory (OPT), Israel is continuing the
construction of its colonies and massive Wall in
direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention as
well as the advisory opinion of the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) of July 2004. It is still persistently and
grossly breaching international law and infringing
fundamental human rights with impunity afforded
to it through munificent US and European economic,
diplomatic and political support. It is still
treating its own Palestinian citizens with institutionalized
discrimination.
We urge you to reject the invitation from a man who
has nothing to do with the lofty ideals of progress in science,
medicine and the environment. His decades-long political
career includes war crimes committed against
the Lebanese and Palestinian people.
In 1996, when Israel still occupied southern Lebanon,
Shimon Peres as Prime Minister launched
"Operation Grapes of Wrath," causing 400,000
Lebanese to flee their homes, with almost 800 of
them fleeing to a UN base in Qana, South Lebanon. On
April 18 the Israeli army shelled the UN
shelter in Qana, killing 102 civilians, mainly women,
children and the elderly. Many more were injured.
Human Rights Watch, the UN and Amnesty
International subsequently disproved the myth that the
Israeli army did not deliberately intend to shell the UN base.
Shimon Peres said at the time, "In my opinion, everything was
done according to clear logic and in a responsible way.
I am at peace."
Peres is on record for being responsible for
other war crimes, from building colonies on occupied
Arab land to endorsing a policy of extra-judicial killings,
by which Palestinians and other Arabs are
murdered without the benefit of a trial or, in fact, any
evidence other than that provided by Israeli intelligence.
Peres also supports the siege of Gaza and the elaborate
system of checkpoints all across the West Bank.
He defends the demolition of Palestinian homes, and he
justified the atrocities committed by the Israeli army
in its recent war on Lebanon in 2006.
We, like all other Palestinians and international
supporters of human rights and international law, expect
you to uphold the highest standard of
respect for the human rights of the Palestinians of the
Gaza Strip, which has been under a hermetic siege imposed
by Israel for almost two years. Poverty is rampant, and the
lives of the ill, children, and the elderly
are in danger. Difficult and brave decisions need to be
taken in support of Palestinians exactly like South Africa
was supported long before it became fashionable to do so.
Instead of legitimizing Israeli war criminals
by accepting their invitations, people of conscience who respect
international law and justice should shun them.
In 2005, inspired by the anti-apartheid struggle
in South Africa, Palestinian civil society called for boycott,
divestment and sanctions (BDS) [2] against Israel until it
fully complies with international law and recognizes the
fundamental human rights of the people of Palestine. A
specific call for cultural boycott of Israel [3]
was issued a year later, garnering wide support.
Among the many groups and institutions that have
heeded the Palestinian boycott calls and started
to consider or apply diverse forms of effective pressure
on Israel are Aosdana, the Irish state-sponsored academy
of artists; the British University and College
Union (UCU); the two largest trade unions in the UK;
the Church of England; the Presbyterian Church (USA);
prominent British architects; the British National Union of
Journalists (NUJ); the Congress of South African
Trade Unions (COSATU); the South African Council of
Churches; the Canadian Union of Public Employees
(CUPE) in Ontario; celebrated authors, artists
and intellectuals led by John Berger; and Palme d'Or
winner director Ken Loach.
We strongly urge you to uphold the values of
freedom, equality and just peace for all by rejecting the
invitation to attend a conference in Israel
celebrating that country's contribution to science and
scholarship. Israel is not a member in good standing of
the global community of scientists and scholars, and cannot
be honored as such. After all, "it's not about charity,
it's about justice."
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and
Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
www.PACBI.org
info@BoycottIsrael.ps
[1] Arundhati Roy, "Come September,"
speech delivered in New Mexico, 2002.
http://nmazca.com/verba/roy.htm
[2] http://www.pacbi.org/boycott
more.php?id=66_0_1_10_M11
[3] http://www.pacbi.org/boycott
more.php?id=315_0_1_0_C
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