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The Case for Sanctions Against Israel
In July 2011, Israel passed legislation outlawing the public support of boycott activities against the state, corporations, and settlements, adding a crackdown on free speech to its continuing blockade of Gaza and the expansion of illegal settlements. Nonetheless, the campaign for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) continues to grow in strength within Israel and Palestine, as well as in Europe and the US.
This essential intervention considers all sides of the movement including detailed comparisons with the South African experience and contains contributions from both sides of the separation wall, along with a stellar list of international commentators.
Contributors: Merav Amir and Dalit Baum, Ra'anaan Alexandrowicz, Hind Awwad, Mustafa Barghouthi, Omar Barghouti, Joel Beinin, John Berger, Angela Davis, Nada Elia, Marc Ellis, Noura Erakat, Ran Greenstein, Neve Gordon, Ronald Kasrils, Jamal Khader, Naomi Klein, Mark LeVine, Ken Loach, David Lloyd and Laura Pulido, Haneen Maikey, Ilan Pappe, Jonathan Pollak, Lisa Taraki, Rebecca Vilkomerson, Michael Warschawski, Slavoj iek."
This essential intervention considers all sides of the movement including detailed comparisons with the South African experience and contains contributions from both sides of the separation wall, along with a stellar list of international commentators.
Contributors: Merav Amir and Dalit Baum, Ra'anaan Alexandrowicz, Hind Awwad, Mustafa Barghouthi, Omar Barghouti, Joel Beinin, John Berger, Angela Davis, Nada Elia, Marc Ellis, Noura Erakat, Ran Greenstein, Neve Gordon, Ronald Kasrils, Jamal Khader, Naomi Klein, Mark LeVine, Ken Loach, David Lloyd and Laura Pulido, Haneen Maikey, Ilan Pappe, Jonathan Pollak, Lisa Taraki, Rebecca Vilkomerson, Michael Warschawski, Slavoj iek."
256 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 1, 2022
Another foul rant by a hate-mongert aimed at stamping out a democratic micro-state and it's five million people, through starving out the Jews. Omar Bhargoutti has said himself that the aim of BDS is the 'euthanasia of Israel' in other words a second holocaust.
Nazi Germany also began it's campaign to annihilate the Jews of Europe by economic boycotts of Jewish businesses and today the modern day equivalents of the Nazis wear not brown shirts but keffiyahs and red, white, green and black colours as they try to terrorize shoppers and shop workers in London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Sidney and Cape Town not to buy or sell Israeli goods.
Stave out the Jews. Make sure the will of the Jewish people is sapped by seeing their children go hungry.
Ironically the same people who urge boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel also caterwauled against sanctions on Iraq during the bloody rule of their hero Saddam Hussein. Crying that it caused starvation of children. They were enraged by the hunger of Iraqi children but support the starvation of Israeli children
But we not allowed to call them anti-Semitic.
The enemies of Israel want the physical elimination of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel. This constitutes anti-Semitism. The point is that they want a Judenreihn "Palestine" the same way that Hitler wanted a Judenreihn Europe. The anti-Zionists claim that they are not anti-Semites but that think the only country on the earth that must be annihilated is Israel. The anti-Zionists claim that they are not anti-Semites but that think the only country on the earth that must be annihilated is Israel. The anti-Zionists claim that they are not anti-Semites but that the only children on earth whose being blown up is okay if it serves a good cause are Jewish children. As regards the so-called 1 state solution favoured by so many sophisticated leftwing intellectuals today, we can discuss this all day and all night , but dismembering Israel into a single Arab dominated state means a second holocaust. It means methodical massacre of millions of Jews , of hundreds of thousands of Jewish children. Anyone who pushes for this '1 state solution' is actually pushing for a second holocaust. Denying a nation's right to exist is genocidal racism, akin to Nazism, hence in my opinion ,Aanti-Zionism is Nazism. Only the hard-hearted, hate-filled and cowardly will deny Israel the right to exist and defend herself. One must always continue to ask why the powerful organizations, unions, church groups, academics ,governments etc advocate a boycott of Israel and only Israel, while not advocating any boycott or censure of States that do enage in genocide or severe repression and persecution like China, North Korea, Zimbabwe,Syria Iran or Myanmar. THEY NEVER have an answer!
Nazi Germany also began it's campaign to annihilate the Jews of Europe by economic boycotts of Jewish businesses and today the modern day equivalents of the Nazis wear not brown shirts but keffiyahs and red, white, green and black colours as they try to terrorize shoppers and shop workers in London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Sidney and Cape Town not to buy or sell Israeli goods.
Stave out the Jews. Make sure the will of the Jewish people is sapped by seeing their children go hungry.
Ironically the same people who urge boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel also caterwauled against sanctions on Iraq during the bloody rule of their hero Saddam Hussein. Crying that it caused starvation of children. They were enraged by the hunger of Iraqi children but support the starvation of Israeli children
But we not allowed to call them anti-Semitic.
The enemies of Israel want the physical elimination of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel. This constitutes anti-Semitism. The point is that they want a Judenreihn "Palestine" the same way that Hitler wanted a Judenreihn Europe. The anti-Zionists claim that they are not anti-Semites but that think the only country on the earth that must be annihilated is Israel. The anti-Zionists claim that they are not anti-Semites but that think the only country on the earth that must be annihilated is Israel. The anti-Zionists claim that they are not anti-Semites but that the only children on earth whose being blown up is okay if it serves a good cause are Jewish children. As regards the so-called 1 state solution favoured by so many sophisticated leftwing intellectuals today, we can discuss this all day and all night , but dismembering Israel into a single Arab dominated state means a second holocaust. It means methodical massacre of millions of Jews , of hundreds of thousands of Jewish children. Anyone who pushes for this '1 state solution' is actually pushing for a second holocaust. Denying a nation's right to exist is genocidal racism, akin to Nazism, hence in my opinion ,Aanti-Zionism is Nazism. Only the hard-hearted, hate-filled and cowardly will deny Israel the right to exist and defend herself. One must always continue to ask why the powerful organizations, unions, church groups, academics ,governments etc advocate a boycott of Israel and only Israel, while not advocating any boycott or censure of States that do enage in genocide or severe repression and persecution like China, North Korea, Zimbabwe,Syria Iran or Myanmar. THEY NEVER have an answer!
December 29, 2013
In July 2005 a group of around 700 Palestinian civil society groups issued a call for boycotts, disinvestment and sanctions against Israel as part of an ongoing campaign for civil and political rights. At the core of their call were three criticisms of Israel:
1. its occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands and construction of a segregation wall across the West Bank;
2. the more limited rights granted Palestinian citizens of Israel, and therefore the lack of equality among its citizens; and
3. Israel’s failure to allow Palestinian refugees to return to the homes and property.
In framing their call, these groups were careful not to call for boycotts and sanctions against individual Israelis, but against the Israeli state. This is a crucial difference, and although this campaign is often compared to the anti-apartheid campaign of the 1950s-1990s, in the case of the struggle against apartheid the call was for the absolute isolation of South Africa. It is this conflation with apartheid, alongside the deep-seated orientalism of western political discourses that makes this BDS campaign so problematic – and the three demands go straight to the heart of the issue. They state that Israel is a colonial state (by all definitions of the term it is a classic settler colony where the arrival of one group of refugees displaced another people making them refugees); that is, Israel’s colonialism is not just its military occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip, but also its exclusion of the occupants expelled in 1948. They state also that Israel denies full equality to all its citizens, which challenges the claim to its status as a democracy.
This excellent collection of essays explores four key issues in this demand: the first set look at the character of the Israel/Palestine dynamic. The second set then go on to look at the boycott movement itself, focussing on activism in the US, Palestine and Israel itself as well as the legitimacy of the comparisons with South African apartheid. The third set then looks at the links between the situation of Palestine and other struggles – anti-apartheid, colonialism in North America, the struggles for sexual liberation theological and justifications for BDS support from within Jewish and Christian thinking. Finally, the last set of papers considers, from a range of perspectives, the rationale for and shape of a boycott, and in doing so reveal the diversity of views among those who support the campaign as well as the diversity of tactics.
Many of the papers are new (just under half of the 26 are not previously published but several are adapted from much longer pieces) but some of the most potent and sharpest are new pieces. Crucially, the campaign is having a notable impact and forcing Israel to become more aggressive in its responses. This has produced not only the ‘Brand Israel’ campaign, a major government driven PR campaign, alongside the anti-democratic attempts to make advocacy of BDS in Israel a crime.
Among the most controversial aspects of the campaign has been cultural and academic boycott, widely attacked by BDS opponents as a suppression of free speech. The collection confronts this directly, including by exploring the intimate links between the ‘Brand Israel’ campaign and cultural workers, film makers, musicians, academics and other in the (broadly) cultural industries, and be making clear this the campaign targets the state, not individual Israelis. For instance, as both Naomi Klein and John Berger note, it is possible to publish Hebrew editions of their books in Israel and still respect the boycott by being very careful about who the publisher is – Klein, for instance, works with a publisher that specialises in translation of Arabic texts into Hebrew and receives no state funding or other support.
As far as I can work out, the essays are clear and accurate, in all but one case – although this error relates to the anti-apartheid sport campaign, not to Israel/Palestine as such. In his essay about the campaign against apartheid the former African National Congress cabinet minister Ronnie Kasrils states that a powerful boycott campaign in New Zealand caused the 1982 Springbok rugby tour to be cancelled; on two important points Kasrils is wrong – the tour was in 1981 and only two of the planned 16 games were cancelled. They are small errors but in these heated debates poor fact-checking opens otherwise sound arguments to avoidable attacks that can undermine. It is only one shoddy paragraph, but it shouldn’t be shoddy and it opens the rest of his otherwise good essay up to avoidable critque.
There are, no doubt, many who will find this collection abhorrent – just as many did when the anti-apartheid boycott began; it took over 30 years before that campaign was supported on a mass global scale, and often by major corporations and states because they had no economic or political option. The BDS campaign is moving much faster. I confess that I was already sympathetic to the BDS cause; these essays have given me evidence to improve my arguments in support.
This is a valuable and important activist tool.
1. its occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands and construction of a segregation wall across the West Bank;
2. the more limited rights granted Palestinian citizens of Israel, and therefore the lack of equality among its citizens; and
3. Israel’s failure to allow Palestinian refugees to return to the homes and property.
In framing their call, these groups were careful not to call for boycotts and sanctions against individual Israelis, but against the Israeli state. This is a crucial difference, and although this campaign is often compared to the anti-apartheid campaign of the 1950s-1990s, in the case of the struggle against apartheid the call was for the absolute isolation of South Africa. It is this conflation with apartheid, alongside the deep-seated orientalism of western political discourses that makes this BDS campaign so problematic – and the three demands go straight to the heart of the issue. They state that Israel is a colonial state (by all definitions of the term it is a classic settler colony where the arrival of one group of refugees displaced another people making them refugees); that is, Israel’s colonialism is not just its military occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip, but also its exclusion of the occupants expelled in 1948. They state also that Israel denies full equality to all its citizens, which challenges the claim to its status as a democracy.
This excellent collection of essays explores four key issues in this demand: the first set look at the character of the Israel/Palestine dynamic. The second set then go on to look at the boycott movement itself, focussing on activism in the US, Palestine and Israel itself as well as the legitimacy of the comparisons with South African apartheid. The third set then looks at the links between the situation of Palestine and other struggles – anti-apartheid, colonialism in North America, the struggles for sexual liberation theological and justifications for BDS support from within Jewish and Christian thinking. Finally, the last set of papers considers, from a range of perspectives, the rationale for and shape of a boycott, and in doing so reveal the diversity of views among those who support the campaign as well as the diversity of tactics.
Many of the papers are new (just under half of the 26 are not previously published but several are adapted from much longer pieces) but some of the most potent and sharpest are new pieces. Crucially, the campaign is having a notable impact and forcing Israel to become more aggressive in its responses. This has produced not only the ‘Brand Israel’ campaign, a major government driven PR campaign, alongside the anti-democratic attempts to make advocacy of BDS in Israel a crime.
Among the most controversial aspects of the campaign has been cultural and academic boycott, widely attacked by BDS opponents as a suppression of free speech. The collection confronts this directly, including by exploring the intimate links between the ‘Brand Israel’ campaign and cultural workers, film makers, musicians, academics and other in the (broadly) cultural industries, and be making clear this the campaign targets the state, not individual Israelis. For instance, as both Naomi Klein and John Berger note, it is possible to publish Hebrew editions of their books in Israel and still respect the boycott by being very careful about who the publisher is – Klein, for instance, works with a publisher that specialises in translation of Arabic texts into Hebrew and receives no state funding or other support.
As far as I can work out, the essays are clear and accurate, in all but one case – although this error relates to the anti-apartheid sport campaign, not to Israel/Palestine as such. In his essay about the campaign against apartheid the former African National Congress cabinet minister Ronnie Kasrils states that a powerful boycott campaign in New Zealand caused the 1982 Springbok rugby tour to be cancelled; on two important points Kasrils is wrong – the tour was in 1981 and only two of the planned 16 games were cancelled. They are small errors but in these heated debates poor fact-checking opens otherwise sound arguments to avoidable attacks that can undermine. It is only one shoddy paragraph, but it shouldn’t be shoddy and it opens the rest of his otherwise good essay up to avoidable critque.
There are, no doubt, many who will find this collection abhorrent – just as many did when the anti-apartheid boycott began; it took over 30 years before that campaign was supported on a mass global scale, and often by major corporations and states because they had no economic or political option. The BDS campaign is moving much faster. I confess that I was already sympathetic to the BDS cause; these essays have given me evidence to improve my arguments in support.
This is a valuable and important activist tool.
August 10, 2022
This collection of essays by Verso provides a rather good outset for the issues surrounding Palestine/Israel - many concepts of which are explored are incredibly fascinating for example ‘pinkwashing’ in which the Israeli state attempts to present itself as progressive regarding gender and sexuality and demonizing Palestine as being non-progressive as supposedly they don’t respect these rights as such. Although I expected more of the Zizek essay and of the Angela Davis one also the fact it didn’t relate capitalism to the struggle for a free Palestine and also to the occupation of Palestine. However, that would be my only two criticisms, but for providing a good yet slightly challenging approach to BDS and Palestine definitely check this out! My personal favorite were ‘Economic activism against the Occupation: working from within’, “the brain of the monster” and ‘Boycott Israel’ by Neve Gordon which was particularly moving and highly emotional. So to end on a slightly less depressing note - this quote by Eilat Maoz speaks incredible truth “An illegitimate government passes an illegitimate law to protect an illegitimate occupation, while complaining about delegitimization. We will continue boycotting, protesting, demonstrating and resisting the occupation - and we call on everyone else to do so.”
July 9, 2015
Glad I read it as an intro to BDS, but I wish the essays dug a little deeper into the theory and practice. Only so many "overview" essays one can read in a single anthology.
November 2, 2015
V roku 2005 sa palestínski aktivisti a aktivistky obrátili k svetovej občianskej spoločnosti s výzvou o zahájenie bojkotu Izraela. Podľa nich totižto palestínska spoločnosť vyčerpala všetky možnosti nenásilného odporu proti okupácií – pokojné demonštrácie sú násilne rozháňané, mierové rokovania slúžia ako pláštik pod ktorým Izrael naďalej kolonizuje Západný breh a rezolúcie OSN sú Izraelom ignorované. Inšpirovaní bojom proti apartheidu v Juhoafrickej republike vyzvali svetovú verejnosť k bojkotu, stiahnutiu investíci a k zavedeniu sankcí voči Izraelu, kým nenastane splnenie nasledujúcich bodov:
Kampaň nezahrňuje len bojkot výrobkov z nelegálnych izraelských osád, či stiahnutie investícií z firiem profitujúcich z prebiehajúcej okupácie, ale aj bojkot akademický a umelecký. Vychádza pritom z ekonomickej logiky, podľa ktorej sa Izrael musí podriadiť medzinárodnému právu, pretože jeho nedodržovanie je politicky aj ekonomicky príliš nákladné. (str.111)
Už aj u nás
Za 10 rokov sa hnutie rozšírilo po svete, predovšetkým do západnej Európy a USA a o jeho úspechoch svedčí fakt, že v roku 2011 prijal Izrael zákon kriminalizujúci jeho podporu. Hnutie BDS však nemá prakticky žiadnu podporu v Českej republike, preto je dôležité, že vydavateľstvo Broken Books v spolupráci s českou pobočkou Mezinárodního hnutí solidarity vydalo v októbry 2015 český preklad zborníku Izrael: bojkot, divestice, sankce zostavený editorkou Audrea Lim v roku 2011.
Zborník poskytuje prehľad základných argumentov v prospech BDS a vysporiadava sa s najčastejšími protiargumentami. Jeho najsilnejšou stránkou je široký okruh autorov a autoriek a to ako z geografického hladiska, tak aj z profesného. Medzi aktivistami a aktivistkami z Palestíny tak nájdeme akademičku z USA, slovinského filozofa (hádajte), bývalého člena (post-apartheidnej) vlády v Juhoafrickej republike, aktivistov a aktivistky z Izraela a USA, zástupcu palestínskych kresťanov, amerického profesora venujúceho sa judaizmu, kanadskú novinárku (ha!), či izraelských umelcov, samotných postihnutých bojkotom.
Sprosté slovo apartheid
Najzaujímavejšie bolo zrovnávanie hnutia BDS s bojkotom juhoafrického apartheidu. Izraelský režim podľa mnohých splňuje definíciu apartheidu, tak ako ho definovalo OSN v roku 1973 a jeho pád v Juhoafrickej republike im slúži ako príklad úspešného medzinárodného bojkotu. Napriek mnohým podobnostiam je ale izraelský apartheid odlišný od juhoafrického (černoši nemali, na rozdiel od izraelských Palestíncov právo voliť, a i.), ako píše Noura Erakatová:
Ran Greenstein prichádza s pojmom apartheid zvláštního druhu, ktorý charakterizuje ako:
Kontroverzie
Jedným z najkontroverznejšou časťou BDS je akademický a umelecký bojkot Izraela. Podľa oponentov dochádza tak k ostrakizácií izraelských umelcov a umelkýň a k cenzúre slobodného prejavu, obmedzovaniu akademickej slobody a k mareniu vedeckej a kultúrnej výmeny. Zborník však pomerne presvedčivo objasňuje, ako umelecká a akademická sféra participujú na apartheidnom režime. Umelci slúžia ako ambasadori Izraela s cieľom napraviť jeho pošramotenú povesť, sú súčasťou vládou platenej propagandy. Dokazujú to slová bývalého generálneho riaditeľa izraelského ministerstva zahraničných vecí Nissin Ben-Sheetrita:
Bojkot sa pritom nevzťahuje na umelcov a umelkyne, ktorí sa od štátnej propagandy dištancujú, resp. neprijímaju na svoju činnosť peniaze od izraelských štátnych inštitúcií. Podľa Nady Elia:
Podľa aktivistov a aktivistiek BDS sa univerzity zas podieľajú na vývoji zbraní či bezpečnostných a monitorovacích systémov používaných na Západnom brehu. Zároveň je celý izraelský školský systém segregačný a diskriminačný – podľa štúdie z roku 2009 vynaložil Izrael za jeden rok na vzdelanie jedného izraelského dieťaťa 1100 dolárov, na vzdelanie jedného palestínskeho dieťaťa len 190 dolárov.(str. 78)
Cieľom bojkotu pritom nemajú byť ale jednotlivci, ale inštitúcie. Tento argument však nebol úplne spoľahlivo vysvetlený a vyvolal u mňa skôr len ďalšie otázky. Ako je možné spolupracovať s vedcom – jednotlivcom, zamestnaným na izraelskej univerzite - inštitúcií? Môže to byť len v jeho voľnom čase? Alebo je možná spolupráca len s nezamestnanými vedcami?
Jeden, dva, tri, štyri štáty
S otázkou jednoštátneho, alebo dvojštátneho usporiadania sa kampaň BDS vysporiadava pomerne elegantne. Nieje pre ňu totiž vôbec zásadná, snaží sa len, aby boli práva Palestíncov naplňované bez ohľadu nato, v akom štáte žijú a v akom si predstavujú, že budú žiť zajtra. Ako vysvetluje Omar Barghouti:
Nieje preto dôležité ako bude budúce usporiadanie vyzerať, ale to, aby mali Palestínci práva o ktoré žiadajú, a zároveň aby mali všetci v budúcom usporiadaní práva rovnaké.
BDS v ČR chceme
Pestrá zmes autorov a autoriek je zároveň aj istou slabinou knihy. Jednak kvalita článkov kolísa, jednak väčšina z nich nevznikla kvôly tomuto zborníku. Množstvo údajov a argumentov sa tam teda zbytočne opakuje. To že sa Naomi Klein pridala k bojkotu, či to že Izrael kriminalizuje jeho podporu sa tam dozvieme minimálne 5 krát. Únavne tiež niekedy pôsobí opakované vymenovávanie jednotlivých aktivistických skupín zapojených do hnutia, či hudobných hviezd odmietajúcich koncertovať v Izraely. Niektoré argumenty mohli byť tiež vysvetlené viac. Českému vydaniu by prospela tiež dôslednejšia editorská práca – pomerne často sa vyskytujú chyby sazby, či preklepy.
Knižka je však veľmi užitočným sprievodcom po BDS a jej české vydanie je veľmi dôležité. Bolo by skvelé, keby inšpirovalo k vytvoreniu lokálnej odnože BDS aj u nás, v Českej republike a na Slovensku. Úloha ČR ako jedného z najoddanejších partnerov Izraela je totiž hanebná. Navyše, od vydania originálu knižky sa situácia v Gaze a na okupovaných územiach zhoršila – minuloročný masaker v Gaze zanechal 2104 mŕtvych, z toho 1462 civilistov, Izrael zvažuje odobranie povolenia k pobytu Palestíncom v okupovanom východnom Jeruzaleme a naďalej buduje osady na Západnom brehu. Je len na medzinárodnom spoločenstve, aby to zastavilo.
Dočítali ste až sem? Tak to by vás mohla zaujímať knižka o osudoch jednej rodiny palestínskych utečencov Studená Řeka. Jedna strana sa dokonca odohráva v Brne, takže všetci lajk!
1.) Ukončenie okupácie a kolonizácie všetkých arabských území a zbúranie separačnej bariéry
2.) Priznanie základných práv arabsko-palestínskym občanom Izraela tak, aby bolo dosiahnuté rovnosti
3.) Rešpektovanie, ochranu a presadzovanie práv palestínskych utečencov, aby sa mohli vrátiť do svojich domovov a na svoju pôdu, tak ako to ukladá Rezolúcia OSN 194 (str. 39)
Kampaň nezahrňuje len bojkot výrobkov z nelegálnych izraelských osád, či stiahnutie investícií z firiem profitujúcich z prebiehajúcej okupácie, ale aj bojkot akademický a umelecký. Vychádza pritom z ekonomickej logiky, podľa ktorej sa Izrael musí podriadiť medzinárodnému právu, pretože jeho nedodržovanie je politicky aj ekonomicky príliš nákladné. (str.111)
Už aj u nás
Za 10 rokov sa hnutie rozšírilo po svete, predovšetkým do západnej Európy a USA a o jeho úspechoch svedčí fakt, že v roku 2011 prijal Izrael zákon kriminalizujúci jeho podporu. Hnutie BDS však nemá prakticky žiadnu podporu v Českej republike, preto je dôležité, že vydavateľstvo Broken Books v spolupráci s českou pobočkou Mezinárodního hnutí solidarity vydalo v októbry 2015 český preklad zborníku Izrael: bojkot, divestice, sankce zostavený editorkou Audrea Lim v roku 2011.
Zborník poskytuje prehľad základných argumentov v prospech BDS a vysporiadava sa s najčastejšími protiargumentami. Jeho najsilnejšou stránkou je široký okruh autorov a autoriek a to ako z geografického hladiska, tak aj z profesného. Medzi aktivistami a aktivistkami z Palestíny tak nájdeme akademičku z USA, slovinského filozofa (hádajte), bývalého člena (post-apartheidnej) vlády v Juhoafrickej republike, aktivistov a aktivistky z Izraela a USA, zástupcu palestínskych kresťanov, amerického profesora venujúceho sa judaizmu, kanadskú novinárku (ha!), či izraelských umelcov, samotných postihnutých bojkotom.
Sprosté slovo apartheid
Najzaujímavejšie bolo zrovnávanie hnutia BDS s bojkotom juhoafrického apartheidu. Izraelský režim podľa mnohých splňuje definíciu apartheidu, tak ako ho definovalo OSN v roku 1973 a jeho pád v Juhoafrickej republike im slúži ako príklad úspešného medzinárodného bojkotu. Napriek mnohým podobnostiam je ale izraelský apartheid odlišný od juhoafrického (černoši nemali, na rozdiel od izraelských Palestíncov právo voliť, a i.), ako píše Noura Erakatová:
...jihoafrická zkušenost sice dodáva paradigmatu apartheidu na přesvědčivosti, nicméně podle ní nelze poměřovat všechny ostatní režimy apartheidu, ať už v Izraeli, a Palestině, nebo kdekoli jinde(str. 119)
Ran Greenstein prichádza s pojmom apartheid zvláštního druhu, ktorý charakterizuje ako:
systém spojujíci demokratické normy, vojenskou vládu a vylučování či zahrňování obyvatel žijících mimo území(str. 186)
Kontroverzie
Jedným z najkontroverznejšou časťou BDS je akademický a umelecký bojkot Izraela. Podľa oponentov dochádza tak k ostrakizácií izraelských umelcov a umelkýň a k cenzúre slobodného prejavu, obmedzovaniu akademickej slobody a k mareniu vedeckej a kultúrnej výmeny. Zborník však pomerne presvedčivo objasňuje, ako umelecká a akademická sféra participujú na apartheidnom režime. Umelci slúžia ako ambasadori Izraela s cieľom napraviť jeho pošramotenú povesť, sú súčasťou vládou platenej propagandy. Dokazujú to slová bývalého generálneho riaditeľa izraelského ministerstva zahraničných vecí Nissin Ben-Sheetrita:
Kulturu vnímame jako prvořadý nástroj hasbara [propagandy] a osobně mezi kulturou a hasbara nespatřuji žádný rozdíl(str. 50)
Bojkot sa pritom nevzťahuje na umelcov a umelkyne, ktorí sa od štátnej propagandy dištancujú, resp. neprijímaju na svoju činnosť peniaze od izraelských štátnych inštitúcií. Podľa Nady Elia:
kulturní dílo podléhá bojkotu na základě financování svého vzniku, nikoli na základě obsahu (…) jestliže je nějaké vystoupení nebo dílo financované Izraelem v rámci jeho kampaně na „vylepšení značky“, podléhá bojkotu bez ohledu na to, co vyjadřuje.(str. 79)
Podľa aktivistov a aktivistiek BDS sa univerzity zas podieľajú na vývoji zbraní či bezpečnostných a monitorovacích systémov používaných na Západnom brehu. Zároveň je celý izraelský školský systém segregačný a diskriminačný – podľa štúdie z roku 2009 vynaložil Izrael za jeden rok na vzdelanie jedného izraelského dieťaťa 1100 dolárov, na vzdelanie jedného palestínskeho dieťaťa len 190 dolárov.(str. 78)
Cieľom bojkotu pritom nemajú byť ale jednotlivci, ale inštitúcie. Tento argument však nebol úplne spoľahlivo vysvetlený a vyvolal u mňa skôr len ďalšie otázky. Ako je možné spolupracovať s vedcom – jednotlivcom, zamestnaným na izraelskej univerzite - inštitúcií? Môže to byť len v jeho voľnom čase? Alebo je možná spolupráca len s nezamestnanými vedcami?
Jeden, dva, tri, štyri štáty
S otázkou jednoštátneho, alebo dvojštátneho usporiadania sa kampaň BDS vysporiadava pomerne elegantne. Nieje pre ňu totiž vôbec zásadná, snaží sa len, aby boli práva Palestíncov naplňované bez ohľadu nato, v akom štáte žijú a v akom si predstavujú, že budú žiť zajtra. Ako vysvetluje Omar Barghouti:
...nosným pilířem výzvy BDS byl přístup zaměřený na práva a ten neprosadzuje žádné konkrétní politické řešení arabsko-izraelského koloniálního konfliktu – má-li však být toto řešení spravedlivé a udržitelné, musí splňovať všechna tři práva vymíněná ve výzvě(str. 111)
Nieje preto dôležité ako bude budúce usporiadanie vyzerať, ale to, aby mali Palestínci práva o ktoré žiadajú, a zároveň aby mali všetci v budúcom usporiadaní práva rovnaké.
BDS v ČR chceme
Pestrá zmes autorov a autoriek je zároveň aj istou slabinou knihy. Jednak kvalita článkov kolísa, jednak väčšina z nich nevznikla kvôly tomuto zborníku. Množstvo údajov a argumentov sa tam teda zbytočne opakuje. To že sa Naomi Klein pridala k bojkotu, či to že Izrael kriminalizuje jeho podporu sa tam dozvieme minimálne 5 krát. Únavne tiež niekedy pôsobí opakované vymenovávanie jednotlivých aktivistických skupín zapojených do hnutia, či hudobných hviezd odmietajúcich koncertovať v Izraely. Niektoré argumenty mohli byť tiež vysvetlené viac. Českému vydaniu by prospela tiež dôslednejšia editorská práca – pomerne často sa vyskytujú chyby sazby, či preklepy.
Knižka je však veľmi užitočným sprievodcom po BDS a jej české vydanie je veľmi dôležité. Bolo by skvelé, keby inšpirovalo k vytvoreniu lokálnej odnože BDS aj u nás, v Českej republike a na Slovensku. Úloha ČR ako jedného z najoddanejších partnerov Izraela je totiž hanebná. Navyše, od vydania originálu knižky sa situácia v Gaze a na okupovaných územiach zhoršila – minuloročný masaker v Gaze zanechal 2104 mŕtvych, z toho 1462 civilistov, Izrael zvažuje odobranie povolenia k pobytu Palestíncom v okupovanom východnom Jeruzaleme a naďalej buduje osady na Západnom brehu. Je len na medzinárodnom spoločenstve, aby to zastavilo.
Dočítali ste až sem? Tak to by vás mohla zaujímať knižka o osudoch jednej rodiny palestínskych utečencov Studená Řeka. Jedna strana sa dokonca odohráva v Brne, takže všetci lajk!
November 7, 2014
Excellent intro to the BDS movement. It covers a number of the debates both within the movement and with those outside its ranks written as short essays from leading spokespeople of the campaign.
August 24, 2014
An education from the voices who can speak with authority on the great shame of our time.
Read
December 13, 2023“The tipping point came when major companies realized that the economic costs of dealing with the apartheid regime in Pretoria were unsustainable. In the Palestinian case, the success of an international solidarity movement is contingent upon three major factors: 1) careful organization and detailed planning, a high degree of discipline, and tight coordination; 2) a rational, civilized rhetoric that refuses to play into Israel’s tactics of provocation; and 3) the recruitment of progressive movements and peoples in societies abroad, including anti-Zionist Jews and Jews opposed to Israeli policies.”
“The idea of a religious state, Jewish or Islamic, suffocates the state, confines it within narrow limits, and transforms it into a state that practices discrimination and exclusion, preferring one citizen over another. Let the state be a state for all its citizens, with a vision constructed on respect for religion, but also on equality, justice, liberty, and respect for pluralism, and not on domination by a religion or a numerical majority.”
“It is therefore clear to me that the only way to counter the apartheid trend in Israel is through massive international pressure. The words and condemnations from the Obama administration and the European Union have yielded few results—only a limited and temporary settlement freeze, and no decision to withdraw from the occupied territories.
Consequently, I have decided to support the BDS movement that was launched by Palestinian activists in July 2005, and has since garnered widespread support around the globe. The objective is to ensure that Israel respects its obligations under international law, and that Palestinians are granted the right to self-determination.”
“Zionism is not a national liberation movement but a colonial movement, and the State of Israel is and has always been a settler-colonial state. Peace—or, better yet, justice—cannot be achieved without a total decolonization”
“Like any other people, the Israelis want to be accepted, even loved. They have, however, a twofold difficulty: to pay the price for this acceptance—i.e. to behave in a civilized manner—and to trust the other to normalize relations with them.”
“Why this growing international movement? Over the last sixty years Israel, backed by the US, has shown contempt for hundreds of UN resolutions and for the Geneva Convention, and has continually broken international law. It has demonstrated itself to be a violent and ruthless state, as was clearly shown by the recent massacres in Gaza, and was even prepared to challenge international law further by use of phosphorous weapons. It flouts public opinion around the world, and no clearer example can be found than its determination to continue to build the wall through Palestinian territories despite the recent decision of the International Court of Justice. What does the international community do? Nothing but complain. What does the US do? It continues to voice its “grave concern” while subsidizing the Israeli state to the tune of some three billion dollars a year. Meanwhile, “on the ground” (a good title for a film), Israeli settlers continue, day by day, to take over more Palestinian homes and lands, making a viable Palestinian homeland impossible. Normal life, with basic human rights, is now a virtual dream for most Palestinians.”
“Given the failure of international law and the impunity of the Israeli state, there is no alternative but for ordinary citizens to try their best to fill the breach.”
“Israelis who refute the boycott or are offended by it can’t say that other measures weren’t tried. It seems that we don’t move unless we’re pushed very strongly.”
“The idea of a religious state, Jewish or Islamic, suffocates the state, confines it within narrow limits, and transforms it into a state that practices discrimination and exclusion, preferring one citizen over another. Let the state be a state for all its citizens, with a vision constructed on respect for religion, but also on equality, justice, liberty, and respect for pluralism, and not on domination by a religion or a numerical majority.”
“It is therefore clear to me that the only way to counter the apartheid trend in Israel is through massive international pressure. The words and condemnations from the Obama administration and the European Union have yielded few results—only a limited and temporary settlement freeze, and no decision to withdraw from the occupied territories.
Consequently, I have decided to support the BDS movement that was launched by Palestinian activists in July 2005, and has since garnered widespread support around the globe. The objective is to ensure that Israel respects its obligations under international law, and that Palestinians are granted the right to self-determination.”
“Zionism is not a national liberation movement but a colonial movement, and the State of Israel is and has always been a settler-colonial state. Peace—or, better yet, justice—cannot be achieved without a total decolonization”
“Like any other people, the Israelis want to be accepted, even loved. They have, however, a twofold difficulty: to pay the price for this acceptance—i.e. to behave in a civilized manner—and to trust the other to normalize relations with them.”
“Why this growing international movement? Over the last sixty years Israel, backed by the US, has shown contempt for hundreds of UN resolutions and for the Geneva Convention, and has continually broken international law. It has demonstrated itself to be a violent and ruthless state, as was clearly shown by the recent massacres in Gaza, and was even prepared to challenge international law further by use of phosphorous weapons. It flouts public opinion around the world, and no clearer example can be found than its determination to continue to build the wall through Palestinian territories despite the recent decision of the International Court of Justice. What does the international community do? Nothing but complain. What does the US do? It continues to voice its “grave concern” while subsidizing the Israeli state to the tune of some three billion dollars a year. Meanwhile, “on the ground” (a good title for a film), Israeli settlers continue, day by day, to take over more Palestinian homes and lands, making a viable Palestinian homeland impossible. Normal life, with basic human rights, is now a virtual dream for most Palestinians.”
“Given the failure of international law and the impunity of the Israeli state, there is no alternative but for ordinary citizens to try their best to fill the breach.”
“Israelis who refute the boycott or are offended by it can’t say that other measures weren’t tried. It seems that we don’t move unless we’re pushed very strongly.”
August 16, 2024
--The aim of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS, established in July 2005) is freedom for Palestine and justice for the Palestinians. The target is Israel’s illegal settler-colonialism, military occupation and 'apartheid society'. It mirrors the successful BDS non-violent mobilisation in South Africa during the rule of the apartheid and racist regime (1948 to 1990s CE).
--The BDS activists wish Israel to comply with international law and universal principles of human rights. Audrea Lim’s edited book The Case for Sanctions Against Israel (2012) explains the origins, aims, and growth of the BDS movement, which today is a global movement with many activists, including Israeli activists and radical dissidents.
--How does the BDS campaign function as a non-violent civil society activist movement? Key to the BDS’s work is consciousness-raising about Israel's injustice and racism towards the Palestinians—and pressure the Israeli leaders to transform their ways; the BDS movement promotes the boycott of Israeli products and services that originate from the Israeli settlements or those elsewhere that assist the settlements. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI, established in 2004) is part of the BDS. However, it is important to note that the BDS focuses on the Israeli-owned institutions and corporations which support the occupation. The BDS is not directed against the Israeli people, individuals, nation, or culture (p. 218).
--The book contains four parts and twenty-six chapters, each written by a separate author. Each author addresses an individual element of the BDS argument, highlighting the nuances and complexity of Israel’s post-1967 fifty-seven-year brutal occupation of Palestine and how best to resist it peacefully.
--The book’s debate and analysis of contemporary Palestine is insightful and wide-ranging. Barghouthi explains that non-violent collective resistance, Palestinian self-determination and nation-state building within his lifetime are ideal. Barghouthi says that ‘the strategic aim of the Palestinian struggle… must be to make the costs of the Israeli occupation and its apartheid system so great as to be unsustainable’ (p.10). This approach includes developing today’s Palestinian education system, agriculture, health and culture; national unity and democratic, unified leadership; enhancing the pro-Palestinian solidarity abroad and winning universal support. Pollak compares Israel with apartheid-era South Africa, Barghouti speaks of the successful cultural boycott of Israel, while Baum and Amir take a feminist anti-occupation stance to monitor and highlight Israel’s economic dealings domestically and in the illegal settlements involving the supply of goods to the latter and their produce. They make a profound statement: ‘Injustice is a threat to justice everywhere’ (p. 191).
--The book’s strength is its comprehensive coverage of the BDS campaign and what this means for each author, the Palestinian people and broader humanity. However, the conflict has escalated atrociously since the book’s publication in 2012, specifically in late 2023 and during 2024 in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and on the Lebanon and Israeli border. Sadly, the dire warnings about the dynamic of Israeli settler colonialism made by some of the authors seem to have come to pass.
--The Case for Sanctions Against Israel is recommended for all readers, human rights activists, journalists, and university students and scholars researching the conflict, particularly civil society's peaceful resistance to settler-colonialism and military occupation.
--The BDS activists wish Israel to comply with international law and universal principles of human rights. Audrea Lim’s edited book The Case for Sanctions Against Israel (2012) explains the origins, aims, and growth of the BDS movement, which today is a global movement with many activists, including Israeli activists and radical dissidents.
--How does the BDS campaign function as a non-violent civil society activist movement? Key to the BDS’s work is consciousness-raising about Israel's injustice and racism towards the Palestinians—and pressure the Israeli leaders to transform their ways; the BDS movement promotes the boycott of Israeli products and services that originate from the Israeli settlements or those elsewhere that assist the settlements. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI, established in 2004) is part of the BDS. However, it is important to note that the BDS focuses on the Israeli-owned institutions and corporations which support the occupation. The BDS is not directed against the Israeli people, individuals, nation, or culture (p. 218).
--The book contains four parts and twenty-six chapters, each written by a separate author. Each author addresses an individual element of the BDS argument, highlighting the nuances and complexity of Israel’s post-1967 fifty-seven-year brutal occupation of Palestine and how best to resist it peacefully.
--The book’s debate and analysis of contemporary Palestine is insightful and wide-ranging. Barghouthi explains that non-violent collective resistance, Palestinian self-determination and nation-state building within his lifetime are ideal. Barghouthi says that ‘the strategic aim of the Palestinian struggle… must be to make the costs of the Israeli occupation and its apartheid system so great as to be unsustainable’ (p.10). This approach includes developing today’s Palestinian education system, agriculture, health and culture; national unity and democratic, unified leadership; enhancing the pro-Palestinian solidarity abroad and winning universal support. Pollak compares Israel with apartheid-era South Africa, Barghouti speaks of the successful cultural boycott of Israel, while Baum and Amir take a feminist anti-occupation stance to monitor and highlight Israel’s economic dealings domestically and in the illegal settlements involving the supply of goods to the latter and their produce. They make a profound statement: ‘Injustice is a threat to justice everywhere’ (p. 191).
--The book’s strength is its comprehensive coverage of the BDS campaign and what this means for each author, the Palestinian people and broader humanity. However, the conflict has escalated atrociously since the book’s publication in 2012, specifically in late 2023 and during 2024 in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and on the Lebanon and Israeli border. Sadly, the dire warnings about the dynamic of Israeli settler colonialism made by some of the authors seem to have come to pass.
--The Case for Sanctions Against Israel is recommended for all readers, human rights activists, journalists, and university students and scholars researching the conflict, particularly civil society's peaceful resistance to settler-colonialism and military occupation.
February 20, 2024
I don’t really have much to say aside from echoing what is written in this book. This is a collection of essays, all highlighting the effectiveness of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Solutions) movement, with some pointing out Israel’s haphazard response of passing an illegal law of banning any boycotts against itself as a further acceleration of its own inevitable demise. This book can be considered a form of praxis, where the various contributors give many examples of how simple choices in our daily lives can affect the economic status and public reception of Israel. While originally published in 2011, much of the tactics and strategies laid out here can be of use today, as the BDS have created a list of what brands to boycott, divest, and ultimately, spread the word about companies who are either complicit and/or actively take part in Israel’s economy. This compilation also takes the cake for having the shortest essay Slavoj Zizek ever wrote. But I digress, if you are looking for strong, practical ways to support Palestine, “The Case for Sanctions Against Israel” would be the place to look. Theory you can get elsewhere, but praxis can be obtained here.
March 26, 2018
This was excellent! The case for BDS is made through a series of short essays looking at it from a variety of view points, making the case for BDS and answering some of the common arguments against it. A few of the essays repeated information and some were more informative than others but as a collection the case for BDS, as viewing Israel as an apartheid state and Israel's attempts rebrand using culture was well made.
"The strategic aim of the Palestinian struggle...must be to make the costs of the Israeli occupation and its apartheid system so great as to be unsustainable."
"The strategic aim of the Palestinian struggle...must be to make the costs of the Israeli occupation and its apartheid system so great as to be unsustainable."
July 24, 2021
Was nice reading such a wide variety of folks stating their case for Sanctions against Israel in response to the injustices ranging from the Nakba all the way through the assault on Gaza and the subsequent attack on the freedom flotilla.
February 17, 2024
BDS is an important message (now more than ever) and whilst this explains and examines it, it is a bit less concise than it could be. Solid collection of essays on the history, importance and future of the BDS movement though.
March 8, 2024
A set of essays, primarily around the non-violent BDS movement and its impact, Israel's similarities with apartheid South Africa, etc. Liked the ones by Omar Barghouti and Ronnie Kasrils, and the interview with the filmmaker Ra'anan Alexandrowicz.
April 4, 2024
𝕊𝕦𝕔𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕥 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕟𝕖𝕔𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕒𝕣𝕪. ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕨.
June 20, 2024
texty by mohly méně opakovat, je tam mnoho textů s prakticky totožným obsahem, ale zajímavé jinak
August 12, 2025
this was a very timely book in response to the growing BDS movement, which a decade later felt a little less timely lol. I wished the essays had more coherence, there were so many repeated points in terms of describing the goal of BDS/major wins it got hard to focus. i think the intersections part of the body was the most worth it
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