Solidarity with the Palestinians, not boycott of Israel
Resolution 54 to Unison’s national delegate conference (June 19-22) calls for the union to support a campaign to boycott (undefined) Israeli institutions. Workers’ Liberty supporters are working with others in Unison to oppose this resolution on the basis of positive solidarity with the Palestinians.
If you would like to support this statement, please email links.not.boycott@gmail.com with your name, branch and position (all signatories will be listed in a personal capacity unless specifically requested).
AS democrats, socialists, critics of the policies and actions of the Israeli government, advocates of Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories, and supporters of the right of both the Palestinian and the Israeli Jewish peoples to an independent state, we, the undersigned members of Unison, reject Resolution 54 to the union's National Delegate Conference, which calls for a “a union-based campaign of boycott and sanctions against Israeli institutions”.
At first glance the idea of a boycott answers the need we all feel to “do something” in response to the seemingly endless carnage. But in fact a boycott would do more harm than good.
A boycott of Israel would at best exert only the most marginal pressure on the Israeli state. The movement to boycott South Africa continued for more than three decades, with only the most marginal effects on South Africa. Apartheid did not begin to crumble until the new black-majority workers' movement and the population of the townships rose up.
Moreover, boycotts of whole nations and their institutions are the crudest political weapons. They hit opponents of the government being boycotted, those who share the viewpoint of the boycotters as well as supporters of what the boycotters object to.
This objection had far less weight for South Africa because everyone saw it as pressure towards majority rule rather than aimed at crushing the whole country.
Apartheid was the exploitation by a small white oligarchy of a black majority deprived of rights. The Israeli-Jewish state in its pre-1967 borders did not depend on the exploitation of Arabs, and does not now depend for its existence on exploitation of the Occupied Territories.
A boycott would contribute to strengthening the sense of being under siege in a world of enemies which is a strong element in the power of the Israeli right, and weaken those in Israel who want a just settlement with the Palestinians.
The boycott brands all Israeli Jews (or all who do not pass some prescribed political test) as beyond talking to.
In Britain, a boycott-Israel movement would, inexorably, become an anti-Jewish movement, directed against those closely linked to Israelis, i.e. Jews.
Resolution 54 calls for a “boycott against Israeli institutions”. Does that include such “Israeli institutions” as the Israeli trade union federation, the Histadrut? Or Israeli anti-occupation groups?
We understand and strongly sympathise with the desperation which has driven the Palestinian trade unions and some other civil society organisations to call for a boycott, but we do not believe it will help.
Much better, a positive labour movement campaign of solidarity with the Palestinians, with the Israeli peace movement, and with workers on both sides.
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wow!
171 Palestinian organizations on the secular left suport the boycott call. Roughly 50 Palestinian trade unions support the boycott call. A growing movement of progressive anti-racist Jewish voices support the boycott call. And we're supposed to listen to the AWL, which is trapped in the framework of Zionist ideology and whose alarmist rhetoric is closer to the discourse of Alan Dershowitz than the more reasoned and nuanced viewpoints of people like Uri Davis and Illan Pappe! The demands of the boycott movement are clear: http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=66_0_1_10_M11
This is the call that people are mobilized around, not some dark conspiracy that the AWL sees. Funny, that the AWL wants the world to accept that its okay for ethnic cleansing to be practiced and supports the disposession of 5-million Palestinians who are locked out of their homeland. It's clear what's happened, the secular Palestinian left and Palestinian working people in solidarity with a number of Jewish people have setup a picket line around apartheid Israel and the AWL in this case are acting as scabs. As a Jewish person I know this boycott isn't targeting me, but instead the Israeli state. I'm certain of that because I talk to the Palestinian left all the time, as well as engage with progressive Jewish voices here and abroad -- the boycott is of the Israeli state and institutions affiliated to it, not individuals....
Please AWL, your propaganda and lies should stop. This isn't honest, but just the perpetuation of racist biases by a decaying and untenable faction of the left that has glorified Zionism since its inception....
Let's fight all forms of racism and not be selective here. You cannot fight anti-semitism by basing it on the Zionist project which is premised on the denial of the rights of an entire semitic people - the Palestinians! This is a fact!
Regards,
NEve = Yafa, Palestine
A Picket?
But if your description of the boycott is of a picket it DOES mean blacking everyone inside that picket. The fact is that experience in Britain for example in UNiversities is that those that support the boycott interpret it not just as against the Israeli government but of Jews in general inside and out of Israel.
Arthur Bough
arthur... who are you talking about?
how many times does it have to be said: its not a boycott of individuals, but products and institutions that don't take a clear stand against occupation and apartheid... you still haven't responded as to why you don't consider the oppinion of every major working class palestinian organization in favor of the boycott as worthy of progressive consideration and support...
I DO
Your first comment is bullshit. You can't boycott "institutions" without boycotting the individuals that work in them. A boycott of an institution would just mean people not going to that institution, but would leave open meeting with the individuals that work there whatever their politics!!! A boycott of products actually means a boycott of the labour of Israeli workers many of whom are in fact Palestinians dependent upon the Israeli economy for a living. What you are advocating there is colelctive punishment not just of Isaraeli workers whatever there political persuasion, but a punishment of Palestinian workers in Israel too!!!!!
So yes I have taken into consideration your comments about the boycott being called for by Plaestinian organisations, and conclude they are mistaken, badly advised and that it is the job os socialists to point out to them why.
Arthur Bough