A call from within to join the boycott of Israel

We, Palestinians, Jews, citizens of Israel, have joined the Palestinian call for a BDS campaign against Israel, inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid. We stand against all forms of racism and oppression and support BDS action as a legitimate political activity for promoting universally recognized human rights and the respect of international law as a necessary means of non-violent resistance to such violations.

Why boycott Israel?

Israel is an Apartheid state and should be treated as such by the international community. Israel denies the Palestinians of their fundamental rights for over six decades and international pressure has to be applied on it until it abides by its obligations under international law and respects the three rights: those of Palestinians in the occupied territories, those of Palestinians who have been exiled, and those of Palestinians who are systematically being discriminated against inside the State of Israel. The Israeli economy is profiting from the occupation of Palestine by exploiting its land, water and other resources as well as human resources in the form of cheap labour. All of this while using their control over the Palestinians and their land as a military testing ground for its oversized security industry. Years of activism inside Israel and efforts to bring about change have proven totally ineffective, as they do not insist on the basic rights of the oppressed. We therefore reached the conclusion that international pressure is essential in bringing about a change in Israel and ending its criminal policy. Israel can only carry out its policies due to the support it receives from western powers. Carrying on this support and complicity of the west in Israeli crimes is incoherent with these countries' legal obligations, while ending their support is paramount to ending Israel's impunity to crime. Most importantly - the Palestinians are united in their call for BDS (over 170 different civil society organizations have signed it back in July 2005) and it is now up to us to respect and promote this very responsible call.

http://boycottisrael.info

But how can we boycott Jews, is it not anti-Semitic?

The BDS campaign is far from being anti-Semitic. We have zero tolerance to any form of racism, including that of Zionism. It is indeed a very responsible campaign that clearly differentiates between individuals and institutions. Hence the campaign is only directed against the complicit Israeli institutions and their representatives, rather than against all Israelis.

Why include artists and academics in the boycott? Don't they generally oppose the policies of the state?
Every single Israeli university is complicit in occupation and apartheid in various ways. Some have a military base on campus, receive research funding from the Ministry of Defence, hold specific courses for military personnel and much more. Given all that, every Israeli university must be institutionally boycotted, but this does not apply to individual academics, only to the complicit institution and its representatives. Many Israeli artists and cultural figures are unfortunately taking upon themselves the role of "cultural ambassadors" in order to whitewash apartheid in an effort to portray a different, liberal image of Israel around the world. They therefore use and abuse their art in defence of Israeli crimes and most times with the backing of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Their role as cultural attach is what makes them boycottable and not their Israeli origin. If they choose to do art rather than serve the propaganda machine ("Hasbara"), the call for BDS will not apply to them.

Further reading: Artists Violating Cultural Boycott of Israel: Moral Inconsistency and Logical Incoherence
http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1582

PACBI Guidelines for the International Cultural Boycott of Israel

http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1047

The Complicity of Israeli Academic Institutions in Occupation of Palestinian Territories

http://www.bdsmovement.net/files/2011/02/EOO23-24-Web.pdf

Tel Aviv University A Leading Israeli Military Research Centre

http://www.pacbi.org/pics/file/SOAS-Palestine-Society-Paper-TAU-Military-Complicity-Feb-2009.pdf

http://boycottisrael.info