Solidarity, not cultural boycott

A new open letter signed by 2,000 Israeli citizens, some living in Israel, others abroad, calls for intensified international pressure on Israel. The letter’s authors are undoubtedly motivated by values Solidarity shares, and signatories include many veterans of Israeli leftist and peace movements. But rather than posing specific demands for targeted forms of pressure against the infrastructure of the Israeli war machine, the letter seems to posit such measures as ending “all scientific and cultural collaboration” as the way forward, whilst dismissing any possibility for transformative change from within.

Cutting ties with any and all Israeli organisations, invariably translated by many into cutting ties with any and all Israelis, even those actively campaigning against war and occupation, and then maybe shunning Jews who feel some critical empathy with Israelis, will not help stop the war. Instead, deeper ties of solidarity with Israeli peace movements, to help them grow their struggles, are needed.

Placing demands on our own governments to undertake specific forms of “sanction” against Israel, such as the withdrawal of arms sales licences, is a vital focus for anti-war activity. But external pressure alone will not transform Israeli society.

Apartheid

The toppling of South African apartheid provides a salient historical lesson here. Campaigns of boycott and economic isolation were pursued against the apartheid state for decades, without threatening its political foundations. Those foundations were most meaningfully shaken when black workers, on whose labour the apartheid system relied, rose up in strikes and mass action.

The 20% Palestinian minority within Israel is overwhelmingly part of the country’s working class. Despite facing significant racism and repression, it has a greater ability to assert itself politically than the bombarded and occupied populations of Gaza and the West Bank. A movement that unites those workers with at least a substantial part of the (much larger) Jewish working class, on the exploitation of whose labour the Israeli economy primarily depends, could have a radically transformative effect.

Building such a movement requires winning those workers to a perspective based on equality. We can contribute most to progressive change on the ground by providing political support and practical solidarity to activists undertaking those efforts.