Facebook share Share on TwitterRSS feed

Innovative Minds © 2014. All Rights Reserved. www.inminds.co.uk

[Boycott - Other News]

Boycott gathers pace as friends fall away


Ed O'Loughlin, The Sydney Morning Herald
14 July 2007

The international campaign to boycott Israel took a new turn this week with news that the Dutch Government has warned a Rotterdam company to stop supplying construction equipment for Israel's 700-kilometre Palestinian separation barrier.

Media reports say Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs, recently told the firm Riwal that its contract to supply cranes was "undesirable" in light of the International Court of Justice's ruling - three years ago this month - that the project breaks international law.

This warning from a government normally considered friendly to Israel reflects a mounting international campaign to boycott Israel because of its continuing occupation and colonisation of Arab territories seized 40 years ago last month.

But the calls have sparked a bitter counter-campaign from Israel and its supporters abroad. Also this week, the US Congress unanimously passed a resolution condemning as "anti-Semitic" the proposed boycott of Israeli contacts by the British academics' union on May 30.

"When Israel comes under attack from hatemongers, it is American values that are also under attack," said the resolution's main sponsor, the congressman Patrick Murphy.

Last week the 800,000- member British Transport and General Workers Union voted to join Unison, Britain's biggest union, with 1.3 million members, in boycotting Israeli goods and sporting contacts in a campaign similar to that imposed on South Africa's apartheid regime in the 1980s.

In South Africa itself, the trade union congress, COSATU, is spearheading its own campaign to isolate Israel over what it describes as apartheid policies, despite opposition from its senior partner in the ruling coalition, the President Thabo Mbeki's African National Congress.

In the US, meanwhile, the family of the peace activist Rachel Corrie this week revived its attempt to sue the multinational Caterpillar Corporation for supplying the Israeli Army with the armoured bulldozer that crushed the 23-year-old in Gaza in March 2003.

Last year the synod of the Church of England voted to divest its shares in Caterpillar and other companies supplying equipment used in Israel's military occupation, although church commissioners subsequently refused to do so.

The US Presbyterian Church has also voted to divest from some companies trading with the Israeli military, as it did from South Africa in the 1980s.

The Israeli Government says it is ludicrous for foreign journalists or academics to seek to boycott the only country in the Middle East with a free press and academic freedom. It asks why Israel's government is singled out for human rights protests ahead of regimes such as Sudan, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

"The idea that all the problems of the region are Israel's fault doesn't stand up to logical examination," said an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev. "It makes it look like there's an agenda there that hasn't been stated openly … The same people will justify suicide-bombing, all too often."

In the US the leading pro-Israeli academic Alan Dershowitz, a professor of human rights law at Harvard, is leading what he terms a campaign for academic freedom. Professor Dershowitz has assembled a team of the world's 100 best lawyers, who will sue to "devastate and bankrupt" those seeking to boycott Israel. "We will isolate [British universities] from the rest of the world," he said.

US academics who criticise Israel and its policies are subject to close monitoring by Israeli support groups, who often organise protests against what they term anti-Semitic views.

The prominent sociologist Norman Finkelstein and a supporter were last month denied tenure at Chicago's DePaul University following a campaign led by Professor Dershowitz, whose book, The Case for Israel, had been criticised by Professor Finkelstein.

Palestinians say calls for an academic or trade boycott of Israel should be seen in the light of Israel's own restrictions on Palestinian life, including academic and economic activity.

Bernard Sabella, a sociology lecturer at Bethlehem University and a Christian MP for the party Fatah, contrasts Israel's opposition to boycotts or sanctions with its own imposition of a total economic blockade on the Gaza Strip, which, according to a World Bank report leaked yesterday, now faces "irreversible economic collapse".

But Dr Sabella is ambivalent about calls for an academic boycott. "You have hundreds of Israeli academics who are outspoken against the occupation and thousands who aren't. … It's very complex and you can't just go and say you want to boycott a particular university or a particular individual. I see the call more as a kind of challenge to Israeli academics, to wake up and take up their role, to take a position that will advance the peace process."

War was a success, says Olmert

THE Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, toured the border with Lebanon on Thursday and declared last year's war with Hezbollah a success.

On the first anniversary of the war, Mr Olmert tried to sound positive in spite of two Israeli soldiers remaining in the hands of Hezbollah. "We had great achievements in this war," he said, speaking near a road that was hit by one of the nearly 4000 rockets Hezbollah fired into Israel last year.

Mr Olmert's view of the war as a success is not shared by many Israelis. The Prime Minister has already been chastised by the Winograd Committee for his conduct in the war, which was described as a "severe failure". Analysts believe he will be unable to remain in office once the final report is delivered next month.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/boycott-gathers-pace-as-friends-fall-away/2007/07/13/1183833774281.html


Also Of Interest

Page URL: http://www.inminds.co.uk/article.php?id=10188
Support Us
If you agree with our work then please support us.

Give one time donation:
£

Setup monthly donation:
£
INMINDS Facebook Live Feed
Latest Video's
Latest News..
[all-by date]
[all-by category]
[all-by modify date]
INMINDS Twitter Feed
Boycott Israel Campaign
Featured Video's
You need Flash player 8+ and JavaScript enabled to view this video.
Why boycott Israel on Campus[1:50:05]
12 London universities discuss need for BDS on campuses. Speakers include Rafeef Ziadeh, Ilan Pappe, Karma Nabulsi & Mike Cushman
Love Letters to Gaza[31:08]
A unique theatrical event using personal messages of love, support and hope from people of all ages and all walks of life to the people of Gaza.
John Pilger[7:55]
journalist and documentary maker
Antiwar Mass Assembly 8 Oct 2011
Julian Assange[7:07]
founder of WikiLeaks
Antiwar Mass Assembly 8 Oct 2011
Lauren Booth, Sami Ramadani & Yvonne Ridley[6:28]
Reading the names of the dead
Antiwar Mass Assembly 8 Oct 2011
George Galloway[6:39]
Antiwar Mass Assembly 8 Oct 2011
Jemima Khan[8:42]
Antiwar Mass Assembly 8 Oct 2011
Why Boycott Marks & Spencer 2011?[23:29]
Demo outside M&S Oxford Street(24 Sept 2011)
Sean Clinton[4:59]
Israeli Blood Diamonds Campaign
Al Quds Day rally, Trafalgar Square (31 Aug 2011)
Lauren Booth[5:24]
Al Quds Day rally, Trafalgar Square (31 Aug 2011)
Lauren Booth - Prayer for Gaza[2:46]
Al Quds Day rally, Trafalgar Square (31 Aug 2011)
Benny Morris - Historian or Racist?[34:07]
Activists oppose visit of racist Israeli historian Benny Morris who justifies ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Is Israel applying apartheid?[2:12:56]
Speakers: Yael Kahn, Jody McIntyre and Ghada Karmi (5 May 2011)
Karen Mitchell[48:27]
Partner at Thompsons Solicitors
Life changing visit to Palestine in 2008 (21 Feb 2011)
Ramzy Baroud[1:59:32]
Editor-in-chief of the Palestine Chronicle
"My Father Was A Freedom Fighter - Gaza's Untold Story" (25 Mar 2011)
Women United in the Intifada[2:31:36]
Speakers: Lizzie Cocker, Ewa Jasiewcz, Alaa Kassim, Yvonney Ridley, Isis Amlak, Sukant Chandan, Ramzy Baroud (14 Mar 2011)
George Galloway[1:01:48]
Solidarity with the Middle-East Revolution, support the people - oppose US/UK intervention (SOAS, 11 Mar 2011)
Omar Barghouti[55:08]
BDS Movement co-founder
"Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions" book launch (7 Mar 2011)
Shir Hever[1:49:09]
Alternative Information Centre
The Political Economy of Israel's Occupation, Kings College London (17 Feb 2011)
Why academic boycott of Israel[1:29:37]
Speakers: Mohammed Abuabdou(PSCABI), Mike Cushman(BRICUP), Jodey McIntyre(activist) (8 Feb 2011)
Dashed Hopes - Gaza Blockade[1:23:08]
Mohammed-Ali Abu Najela (Oxfam), Andrea Becker (MAP), Ewa Jasiewicz (Free Gaza Movement) (1 Feb 2011)
Jordan Valley: Apartheid[1:17:12]
Sarah Cobham(Brighton Jordan Valley Solidarity), Chris Osmond (Corporate Watch) (House of Commons, 1 Feb 2011)
Dump Veolia Demo[7:00]
Protesting at settlement supporter Veolia's sponsership of exhibit at the Natural History Museum (23 Oct 2010)
Boycott Israeli Dates [1/2][9:11]
Are you financing Israels brutal occupation this Ramadan?
Boycott Israeli Dates [2/2][9:05]
Are you financing Israels brutal occupation this Ramadan?
Lee Jasper [1/2][10:13]
[4 of 8] Genocide Memorial Day 2010 Session One, 17-1-2010
Lee Jasper [2/2][9:51]
[5 of 8] Genocide Memorial Day 2010 Session One, 17-1-2010
One Oppressor One Bullet[8:11]
Imam Achmad Cassiem, veteran of the armed struggle against apartheid in South Africa, speaks at the StW rally (London, 19 Feb 2005)
Salwa Alenat [1/2][9:56]
KavLaOved (Workers Rights hotline)
[1 of 8] Israel's Occupation - Abuse of Palestinian Workers (LSE 19 Nov 2009)
Salwa Alenat [2/2][8:57]
KavLaOved (Workers Rights hotline)
[2 of 8] Israel's Occupation - Abuse of Palestinian Workers (LSE 19 Nov 2009)
For Anwar [1of2][10:01]
Carmel Agrexco Valentines Action 7 Feb 2009
For Anwar [2of2][9:56]
Carmel Agrexco Valentines Action 7 Feb 2009
big
[all videos (over 200)..]
Featured MP3 Podcast

"Something is wrong when 11,000 Palestinian prisoners including 376 children and 121 women is in jail including our leaders, and this does not get reported in the international press which gets consumed with one ONE Israeli soldier!"
Palestinian Minister of Information
Enough Occupation Rally, June 2007 [12min / 6Mb]
[need flash]

[all podcasts..]
Newsletter
To subscribe
enter your email:

COPY VERIFICATION CODEcopy this code —>
Feedback
If you wish to comment on this page:

(all fields optional)



COPY VERIFICATION CODEcopy this code —>
The opinions expressed on this site, unless otherwise stated, are those of the authors.
All logos & trademarks are the property of their respective owners and their use is covered under 'fair use' policy.
Copyright © 1998-2012 Innovative Minds www.inminds.com All Rights Reserved.
The opinions expressed on this site, unless otherwise stated, are those of the authors.
All logos & trademarks are the property of their respective owners and their use is covered under 'fair use' policy.
Copyright © 1998-2012 Innovative Minds www.inminds.com All Rights Reserved.