This week I was able to con Miko Peled, an Israeli peace activist, to return to my column space in order to bail me out. I am behind with work due to being under the weather for several days this week. Also I think I might have a guest next week as well, now that I ponder. Just consider this my autumn break or something. Thank you and I hope you garner some good information from the following as it is very important, in my not so humble view.
Proposed bill in US Senate vs. free speech
- By Miko Peled
Israel is ready to wage war against the boycott campaigns, which calls for the withdrawal of investments and sanctions and the abolition of the legitimacy of the Zionist state. The strategic affairs ministry, headed by Gilad Arad, a former army general, retired brigadier general, is now equipped with a budget. General Sima Vakini, who serves as Director-General of the Ministry and a new assistant to the Director-General, Tsahi Gavrieli, who has brought a new spirit to the fight against the boycott. Gavrieli introduced a team of legal experts, economists and media specialists.
According to a recent story in Hebrew on Ynet, it invites the Israeli public to participate in the anti-boycott campaign. According to the story, some parts of the campaign are public and some are hidden and the ministry will no longer be in a defensive position, but it will take an active and offensive stance. Israelis are now encouraged to join this campaign through apps like ACT.IL Which shows how to manage the battle on social media and fight against the campaign against Israel.
According to Gavrieli, the boycott movement is beginning to lose in the United States, bringing, for example, an age like the recent laws that have passed more than 20 states to criminalize the call to boycott Israel. Among those states are California, New York and New Jersey to name a few.
There is currently a proposed bill in the United States Senate that proposes criminalizing the call to boycott Israel as a federal crime culminating in 20 years imprisonment and a $ 1 million fine. The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the law in a letter sent to US senators. Gavrieli also claims that the boycott call is "an attempt to delegitimize Israel by demanding Palestinian rights." He said the claim made by the boycott movement that Israel was a apartheid regime "similar to South Africa" was "baseless". "I call on every Israeli" to "participate in this," Gavrieli added.
The goals of the boycott movement can not be clearer and all one needs is to read them. The lies of the State of Israel and its supporters are baseless. The boycott calls for boycotting, divestment, and sanctions against the State of Israel until the military occupation ends and the Palestinian citizens of Israel are granted equal rights and Palestinian refugees are allowed to return to their homes and lands.
The removal of any racial element or any incitement to hatred or discrimination of any kind. It is an unequivocal demand to make the Zionist state do what is necessary to achieve these goals. We must remember that negotiations with successive Israeli governments have all failed and that Israel has made it clear that it does not intend to end the policies of occupation, murder, incitement and racial discrimination and its demand for the surrender of the Palestinians.
It is worth noting that Senator Chuck Schumer's remarks on the boycott system at the World Forum of the American Jewish Committee on 5 June 2017. "Sometimes anti-Semitism is blocked by some movements that do not incite bias but convincingly condemn Israel And therefore the Jewish people - with a different standard from others. " This is indeed a very dangerous statement that can be greatly misunderstood. Does the senator mean that all Jews should be responsible for the actions of the Government of Israel?
"There is no greater example of this malicious effort that harms the Jewish state than boycott, divestment and sanctions," Schumer said. "The question that arises here is that South Africa was affected by the call to boycott the apartheid regime? Certainly not black South Africa. "The global movement of the boycott movement is a deeply biased campaign aimed at delegitimizing the Jewish state," Schumer said.
"But nothing in the demands of the boycott or the activities of the boycott movement speaks of destroying or disposing of the Jewish state. Instead, it calls for an improvement in the conditions in which Palestinians live and the conditions created by Israel for which Israel bears responsibility. The demands of the call seek to redress inequalities Palestinians face such as military occupation and lack of rights.
"The supporters of boycotting sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally are all practicing a modern form of anti-Semitism," Schumer says. Indeed, it is wise to refer to calls for justice, equality and anti-Semitism. What is the modern form of anti-Semitism that does not incite against Jews does not call for killing or discrimination against Jews, but demands that all people be allowed to enjoy the same privileges. Does Senator Schumer claim that calling for justice and freedom is contrary to Judaism?
Tsahi Gavrieli says that something more dangerous than the boycott movement is the illegality of the Jewish state, especially within Jewish communities. He is right. This is a serious issue because, from its inception, there has been no way in which the State of Israel could be legitimized except through fraud and deception. A state created by a settlement colonial movement, which means that all settler colonialist movements are based on racism and the use of violence against indigenous peoples. Israel participates in the genocide, a claim that can be easily demonstrated by reading the Geneva Convention on the Crime of Genocide: in particular articles 2 (b), (c) and 3. Furthermore, the State of Israel has participated in ethnic cleansing, Where Palestinians are the rights granted to Jews. The legalization of this State is indeed a serious task, if not an impossible task.
The Jerusalem Post recently published an article by Adnan Oktar claiming that the boycott movement "serves the continuation of the conflict, if not an escalation." In fact, all resistance movements may be accused of escalating conflicts. According to this argument, the French did not have to fight the Germans during the Second World War and the Algerians should not resist the French; the Vietnamese should not insist on fighting the French and then the Americans.
Certainly, the Lebanese should not fight the Israelis to end the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. In fact, a full movement that we know today as Hezbollah was created by the Lebanese for this purpose and was successful. According to Mr. Oktar's argument, all oppressed people must die in silence and the world will be a more peaceful place. Is this true? The oppressors are always blamed for their unwillingness to remain oppressed. Resistance is a response to violence and it has never been the cause of violence.
What is evident from many written articles, conferences held, counter-intuitive strategies and laws enacted with regard to the boycott is that nothing in this world can stop the Palestinian struggle for justice. Calling for a boycott movement that was created for that cannot be defeated. The boycott of Israel is the right thing to do. The demands of the boycott call are realistic and calculated, and every person with conscience and every government must respond to this call. I remind those governments that claim to support the Palestinian cause and express their solidarity while trading with Israel, which is hypocrisy.