Facebook share Share on TwitterRSS feed

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

[Boycott - Academic]

The fight against Israeli apartheid


Tom Hickey, Socialist Worker
15 June 2010

Israel’s attack on the Gaza aid flotilla – an atrocity which saw nine unarmed aid workers killed – occurred during the lecturers’ UCU annual conference.




The day before, delegates debated the question of boycotting Israel and reaffirmed UCU support for the policy of boycott, disinvestment and sanctions (BDS). Delegates agreed the sidelining of the Israeli trade union, the Histadrut, and opposition to the EU-Israel trade agreement.

On the day of the atrocity delegates passed an emergency resolution condemning this act of murderous piracy in international waters.

The conference called on the British government to uphold the rules on universal jurisdiction so that Israeli ministers and senior officers can be brought to justice.

But even before this act, there had been a sharp shift in perspective within the trade union movement on the question of Israel. Israel and Israeli policy have been condemned in a series of British trade unions including Unite, Unison, the FBU, the RMT and the UCU. Last year both the Irish and Scottish TUC backed a policy of BDS.

The latest Israeli attack has changed things further – demonstrating to the world what the Palestinians suffer on a daily basis and focusing attention on the plight of the 1.5 million Palestinians kept in the open prison that is Gaza.

The BDS call came from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and has won support in Europe, Africa, Australia and North America. It is supported by 170 Palestinian organisations.

Resistance

Within Palestine it is organised by the Boycott National Committee that brings together Palestinian resistance in Gaza and the West Bank.

BDS represents a significant shift within Palestinian opposition to Israeli – the boycott call is not based on either a one or two-state solution, but is an alternative to the illusions in either a purely military or purely negotiated solution.

The BDS strategy is to seek international support and solidarity until Israel complies with international law: that means Israel must end the occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza and apply its own laws equitably and universally to Jew and to Arab alike.

BDS is about building an international movement to isolate Israel economically, culturally and academically. It is about persuading artists, writers, and performers not to work in Israel – following the examples of Gil Scott-Heron, Elvis Costello and others.

It is about identifying Israeli products that are imported into Britain – not just those produced by settlements on illegally confiscated Palestinian resources – and pressing importers and outlets not to stock them.

It is about gathering from supermarket shelves all products illegally produced in the West Bank and presenting them to the managers to help them avoid prosecution for selling stolen goods.

It is about boycotting academic conferences in Israel, not publishing in journals funded by Israeli institutions and not collaborating with Israeli universities and colleges.

But BDS is NOT about boycotting individual Israeli scholars or academics. It is an institutional boycott, not an individual boycott.

It is a campaign in which the trade union movement will prove pivotal. Unions provide continuity and a level of organisation that can help consumer boycott movements. They have structures that can facilitate the debate and raise the general awareness among their members.

The call to unions is to adopt a BDS policy, set up a joint trade union international research centre to track all trade and contacts with Israel, establish an annual international BDS-focused trade union conference and set up a website.

These are the things that every activist and socialist should be pursuing in their union over the next year – making sure there is an appropriate motion at their annual conference.

As the fight against apartheid in South Africa was in the 1970s and 1980s, the fight against Israeli apartheid in Palestine will be the central moral and international political issue in the first decades of the 21st century.

Tom Hickey is a member of the national executive committee of the lecturers’ UCU union

Source: http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=21547


Related Articles


Also Of Interest

Page URL: http://www.inminds.co.uk/article.php?id=10421
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

"The United States is 4.6% of the worlds people but still controls 50% of the worlds wealth and has a military that spends more than every other country in the world combined. I see this moment, as a moment that is very dangerous.. which is to say that the United States is a declining world economic power, similarly a declining political power, but what isn't declining is the military power. As you know from the 20th century that's a dangerous combination - a declining economic and political power but an overwhelmingly dominant military power. I think the national security state that we've seen organised since 9-11 in an unbelievably rapid way, which owes in no small part to Israel I must say, is a particular [example]."
A founding member of the Weather Underground
Meeting with members of 'Smash EDO' in Tel Aviv, April 2010 [88min / 40Mb]
[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.