The UCU boycott dents the prestige of British academia just as the NUJ boycott tars the British media. But none of that matters to the boycott activists.
They believe if they demonstrate concrete results by pushing Israelis off conference platforms and out of the pages of academic journals, other sectors with similar clout will follow. In that regard, they can point to the boycott calls issued by groups of British doctors and British architects, all of whom accuse their Israeli counterparts of, as the UCU would say, “complicity” in the supposed crimes committed by Israel.
And they will positively rejoice at the news that, later in June, the annual conference of UNISON – Britain’s biggest union, with 1.6 million members working in public services – will consider a boycott motion. If passed, members will be asked to boycott Israeli goods and pension funds will be urged to withdraw from Israel-related investments. The Histadrut has already voiced concern at the negative economic impact this might have.
Yet Britain is not the only country where boycott activism has taken hold. In recent years, boycotts, or appeals for them, have surfaced in Norway, Canada and Ireland, in Protestant churches, and at numerous NGO conferences on Palestine (organized under the UN’s auspices).
But the country where the boycott movement has gained the most traction is South Africa.
In moral and historical terms, South Africa’s contribution to the boycott movement is far more noteworthy than British efforts. South Africans are commonly regarded as the guardians of the word “apartheid”. Many of the country’s leading politicians and intellectuals have shown no qualms about labeling Israel as an apartheid state.
Part of the explanation for this lies in South Africa’s political culture. The politics of “anti-imperialism” were always influential in the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which consistently maintained close ties with South Africa’s Communist Party. Opposition to Zionism – caricatured as a form of racism and as a twin of apartheid – was as fundamental for the extreme left in South Africa, of the Stalinist and non-Stalinist varieties, as it was in other countries.
COSATU, South Africa’s powerful trade union federation, has now emerged as a vocal advocate for a boycott of Israel. On May 25th, its President, Willie Madisha, demanded that the South African government break all diplomatic ties with Israel. Alongside Madisha, South Africa’s best-known boycott advocate is a government minister, Ronnie Kasrils. In a recent column published in a Gulf newspaper, Ramzy Baroud, an Arab-American journalist, related that Kasrils had told him that for a boycott to be successful, the Palestinian leadership, now led by Hamas, had to call for it.
Thusfar, Palestinian leaders have not taken Kasrils advice. They may feel that the boycott campaign is doing well enough without their intervention. Indeed, it has been Palestinian NGOs – the other primary partners in the international boycott network – which have aggressively pushed the boycott campaign.
They joined together to issue the appeal for the academic, cultural and medical boycott campaigns which were so eagerly picked up in the UK. Just as the South Africans provide the boycott campaign with argumentative weight by promoting the use of “apartheid,” so the Palestinian organizations give it moral credibility by posing as authentic representatives of Palestinian suffering. The fact that many of these organizations, which work in areas as varied as theatrical arts and trauma counselling, receive substantial funds from European governments and private foundations merely boosts this image.
But what the NGOs spin as “non-violent resistance” is actually an integral part of a strategy which aims to strip Israel of its legitimacy. All the boycott initiatives described here are the tangible manifestations of an ideology which Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse, at AJC’s most recent Annual Meeting, described as the most successful in the world today: anti-Zionism.
Anti-Zionism has for its adherents an extraordinary explanatory power. To be an anti-Zionist in our time is not just to oppose a Jewish state; it is about having a framework which both interprets the world and identifies the source of much, even all, that is wrong with that world. For those who adhere, regrettably, to that explanation, that source, is Israel.
Related Articles
14 users responded in this post
S. Africa is a perfect example of the the liberal world’s rigidity and moral blindness when it comes to making basic determinations about which countries exemplify justice on the world stage. The anti-Apartheid struggle is so ingrained in their heads as evidence of S. African virtue, no amount of new evidence attesting to the diminution of this virtue will take hold - whether it’s coddling dictators in Zimbabwe and Sudan, or refusing to face scientific facts concerning the spread of AIDS in their country. Likewise, Israel - once difinitively tarred with the “occupier” label - can not shake free of the presumption of guilt in all subsequent acts. Fighting this facile “oppressor/oppressed” political paradigm is one of the more compelling challenges of our time.
My late grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, put it best: “as long as there is one of us [Jews], they [the majority of non-Jews] will hate us.” That is the truth, and no number of assorted Jewish or other sympathetic organizations can make much of a difference in that.
This state of affairs applies to other disfavored groups slated for destruction (and in some cases, largely destroyed already), such as the Roma and Sinti (”Gypsies”),the severely disabled, etc. The forces of history found awkward, obviously-evil sounding excuses for the destruction, but today’s “liberals” (who are not classical liberals at all, but, as noted, folks of whom Stalin would have been proud) are much better with language. They sell “peace is war” and “freedom is slavery” better than the killers of old ever did. And so it will continue, unless they trip up, fall flat on their faces, and “innoculate” a generation or two from hatred. Then it will start all over again. That is the world.
In 2002 Australian ‘academics’ also tried a boycott of Israeli academics.Check it out on this website…..
http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s574915.htm
IF THE CALL FOR BOYCOTTING ISRAEL IS HEEDED - then these IGNORANT callers for the boycott should also boycott every medicine, vaccination, cell phones, music, litature, technological advancements, medical advances, scientific achievements and all human benefits discovered and developed by Israelis. They should throw away their cell phones immediately (a major modern technical development from Israel).
No one should be surprised at the eagerness of so many British organizations to join in the campaign to boycott Israeli commerce and educationalists. In essence it is nothing more than anti-semitism.
Born and bred in England I have always detected the constant undercurrent of anti-semitism and on many occasions I confronted it head on. I have no doubt that had Hitler succeeded in occupying Britain there would have been little opposition to his exterminating Britains Jews.
It seemed to me that for each Brit that disavowled attacks on Jews there were at least aonther who could not care less or supported it.
But the most surprising aspect of the campaign to boycott Israeli products and acadamia is the incredible ignorance of those who sign on to the cause, especially those who role in in education. We can credit the effective Arab proganda and misinformation for much of it but the fact that those favouring the boycott accept on face value the misinformation speaks poorly for their integrity.
Israel cannot be blameless in every regard and like other nations they commit errors of judgement which are eagerly picked up by their adversaries. What is needed a confference of all the leading Jewish NGOs such as WJC, ADL, etc., to launch a massive PR campaign toright the misinformation. Each of these proud organizations should put aside their selfish self identitiy and work together for benefit of not just Israel, but Jews worldwide.
iT CERTAINLY HELPS TO SPREAD THE WORD OF THE THREATS TO OUR COMMUNITY.
TOO BAD T FOLLOW SUIT AND I MUST ALSO ADD THHAT MORE JEWISH COMMUNITYE GENERAL PRESS. NEWSPAPERS DO NOT
TOO BAD OUR COMMUNITY JEWISH NEWSPAPERS DO NOT FOLLOW SUIT BY INCLUDING THIS KIND OF INFORMATION FOR THEIR READERS. THE SAME GOES FOR THE GENERAL CIRCULATION PAPERS.
A CORRECTION OF PRIOR COMMENTS.
The best part of your article was the last bit identifying anti-Zionism as the scariest modern ideology we must deal with today. I personally have had arguments with otherwise extremely intelligent and very supportive “progressive liberal” friends where they identify Zionism as a “failed experiment”. I am noticing that it’s very easy for our liberal friends to jump on this band wagon. It’s important to take them aside and explain to them exactly what Zionism means and who started it and why. Or just point them to the Wikipedia entry on it so they can become enlightened. The key point is to explain to one’s friends that promoting anti-Zionism is the equivalent of saying “Israel does not have the right to exist”.
I myself am more than happy to boycott products and services from any country ignorant enough in todays world affairs as to blame Israel for defending themselves from terrorist nations.
Couldn’t agree more with Barry Shell. People who would not dream of calling themselves anti-Semites are eager to identify themselves as anti-Zionists. Some progressive liberals, even Jewish ones (at least in the San Francisco Bay Area where I live), KNOW that promoting anti-Zionism is equivalent to saying “Israel does not have the right to exist” but usually add qualifiers to that, most frequently “… if that existence makes them transgress what it means to be a Jew.” or “… and maybe it shouldn’t exist if it makes Jews do to Palestinians what the Nazis did to them.” One person even told me that if “we” — Jews — continue to persecute the Palestinians we are in danger of losing our souls.” Other secular liberals argue that religion and tribalism are the only reason Jews feel they have to hang on to Israel, that religion and tribalism are the root of the world’s worst problems, and therefore Jews should be rational enough to leave Israel if they really believe in tikkun olam.
There are many arguments to make against all these positions, and I’ve probably made most of them in recent years, but it has never occurred to me to refer anyone to Wikipedia. Maybe that will work. Must admit, however, that I sometimes despair. If people will not read history, insist on equating exoticism with virtue, and refuse to think analytically, maybe they don’t want to understand — and that state of mind is an illness for which there is no cure as well as a mental environment in which anti-Semitism can thrive.
One idea I am toying with (as a writer and researcher) was inspired by rereading Leon Uris’ novel The Haj. Perhaps getting out material of an entertaining sort that dramatizes inner Arab life, using primarily Arab protagonists, exploring that culture from a non-hostile but completely honest perspective, without the least hint of propaganda, could at least offset hostility to Israel by showing clearly the forces they are dealing with. Nothing can move a dedicated anti-Semite, but perhaps there is a way to nudge those anti-Zionists who are idealistic and well-meaning but largely uninformed. Any comments on this approach would be appreciated.
South African history didn’t begin in 1994. Israel’s cooperation with the previous apartheid regime may have something to do with it’s current unpopularity in that country.
Where’ the beef? We all know this already. It is cool now to be anti Zionist. It is becoming “grass roots” As our long established organizations have rubber chicken dinners regular Jews just ignore or sit and whine and do not know what to do.. Where is the action on a grass roots level. When do non jewish members of the American community see Jews out of their offices. I feel our leeadeship is in a rut. Yes we need the big lobby-but unless there is grass root connection with America we are doomed. No jew really has the luxury to be silent. I no longer consider anti zionists and one sided pro palestinians as friends. And I am tired of prefaceing everything with “yes Israel does bad things but…” Where is our leadership? Google “jewish activism” and you will get anti Zionism.
David Sokol
Athena…
kinda makes you wonder….
costumes…
this is why i always pick my nose….
Leave A Reply
Please Note: Comment moderation maybe active so there is no need to resubmit your comments