 Israel's
New Anti-Boycott Task Force
By LAWRENCE DAVIDSON
On June 8th Israeli Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni announced that the Israeli government was forming
a "task force" to combat the academic boycott. This
is not their first attempt at such an endeavor. A year or two
ago Jerusalem commissioned Benjamin Netanyahu to argue its case
against the boycott. It seems that effort came to naught.
Now, with a big step taken
in the direction of boycott by the British faculty union, and
a host of other UK unions and organizations considering endorsement
of the boycott, the Israeli government is trying again. The task
force, which is characterized as a "public relations"
endeavor, will be headed by Foreign Ministry Deputy Director
General for Europe Rafi Barak and have among its members folks
from both the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Education.
There will also be representatives from the Histadrut (which
will attempt to interface with foreign unions) and heads of Israeli
universities and colleges.
Foreign Minister Livni is quoted
in Haaretz (June 8, 2007) as saying that "We cannot afford
to do nothing. We have an obligation to prevent the expansion
of this process." And then she proceeded to tell us why.
The reasons she gives suggests to us that Ms Livni has no real
insight into the actual reasons why her government and nation
is facing a growing boycott movement. Indeed, her reasons remind
this writer of President Bush's infamous explanation, "They
hate our values," for why the US government imagines the
9/11 attack was carried out. In any case, let's list some of
Livni's reasons and their all too obvious short-comings.
1. "We are dealing
with hypocrisy and hatred, which must not be allowed to emerge...."
A. Ms. Livni does not elaborate
on the alleged hypocrisy of the boycott supporters. However it
is easy to give an example of the hypocrisy of the Israeli establishment
when it comes to the academic boycott. They cry bitterly about
the violation of Israeli academic freedom while simultaneously
and systematically suppressing Palestinian academic freedom as
part of a campaign to destroy Palestinian society and culture
as a whole. Now that is hypocrisy for you.
B. And where is the hatred
that, according to Ms Livni, fuels the boycott? Actually, there
is very little evidence of open hatred. Rather, there is plenty
of evidence of a passionate commitment to justice. Then there
is the fact that some of the boycott organizers and supporters
are themselves Jewish and involved in this effort not only for
the sake of justice for the Palestinian people (a worthy cause
in and of itself), but out of a desire to stop the apparent evolution
of Israel into a Jewish fascist state. In other words, to obtain
justice for the Palestinians may have the added benefit of saving
Ms Livni and her crew from themselves. I would not call that
hatred.
2. "We must initiate
a move that will render the boycott illegitimate in the eyes
of the world."
A. And just how does Ms Livni's
public relations team plan to do that? For some 40 years the
Zionists monopolized the message on the Israel-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. It is because they have finally lost that monopoly,
and the fate of the Palestinians at the hands of the Zionists
is no longer hidden, that the academic and other boycotts are
now gathering strength. So just proclaiming the same message
of the past 40 years will no longer work for the Israelis. But
the truth is that they have no new messages. There is nothing
the Israeli public relations task force can say that cannot be
countered with the truth of their near genocidal behavior. In
a free information environment the Israeli message is doomed.
B. So, when Ms Livni says that
she intends to make the boycott "illegitimate in the eyes
of the world" what she must be inferring is that she and
her task force will try to reimpose their past monopoly by using
money, connections and assorted types of blackmail. These tactics
will be directed toward a Western media that is already largely
self-censoring in Israel's favor. Here too the Foreign Minister
misses the point. What is happening today, reflected in the growing
strength of the boycott movement, is a grass roots phenomenon.
It does not rely on a distorted and misleading mass media and
never has. It has come about despite the distortions of that
media. Thus it cannot be stopped by it. Yet the Israelis have
nowhere to go, in terms of message, but to a mass media that
can no longer do what they want it to do.
C. Of course, the Israeli task
force will do what it can to pressure the leadership of unions,
universities and colleges to act as their agents and attempt
to suppress the boycott efforts. The Zionists have always been
well practiced at twisting the arms of the elites. And this may
actually serve to delay the movement for a while. But it cannot
stop it. Ironically, the reason that this is so is that the Israelis
themselves will not stop. They will continue to steal other people's
land, colonize it in violation of international law, and slowly
but surely grind Palestinian culture into dust. The more they
do this the more certainly they guarantee their own pariah status
in the eyes of more and more people throughout the world. It
is a tragic connection to which Ms. Livni seems oblivious.
3. And finally comes the
threat. Ms Livni proclaims that "whoever promotes the boycott
must understand that it has a price."
A. And what may that be? Will
she make us suffer the manic stalking of Professor Dershowitz?
Will she embarrass us with the finger wagging of Tony Blair?
Will she send the Mossad out to assassinate us? Will she treat
us as she treats the Palestinians? What will she do?
B. Well, once again the Israelis
and their local Zionist allies might pressure academic administrations
to go after some unfortunate untenured faculty supporters of
the boycott. Those corrupted administrators might even threaten
to expel some student supporters. On the one hand, this will
disrupt the lives of people who are only guilty of being in active
support of justice for the Palestinians. And that is a miscarriage
of justice for which those administrators should ultimately be
held accountable, through civil suits if necessary. On the other
hand, however, such a tactic will inevitably backfire for the
Zionists for it will create martyrstragic cases that can and
will be used to convince more and more people of the ruthless
nature of the Israelis and their supporters.
The boycott movement, in its
academic and other manifestations has no power to intervene in
the Occupied Territories and make stop Israeli killing, robbing
and ethnic cleansing. It only has the power to bring the reality
of this barbarism to the rest of the world and insist that as
many people as possible shun Israel because of its behavior.
Make it a pariah state as once was done to its apartheid cousin
country South Africa. Ms Livni's blind callousness and her feeble
attempts at "public relations" cannot stop this process.
Indeed, her hypocrisy will only serve to make the boycott stronger.
Readers have left 6 comments.
MPAC's latest anti-Zionist compatriot.
Davidson's diatribe is nothing more than any decent SWP or Respect proponent could muster.
Please say, Mr Davidson, how does Israel defend itself fom vile Hamas and Hizbollah attacks? Actually, I don't ask this question in sincerity, because I don't believe people like you consider such tactics (tube bombs) on middle England invalid unless middle Englanders first admit that they deserve them.
A very well written rebuttal to the racist state.
Your question reinforces my opinion that the Zionists only believe violence is th only solution.
If you wish to end the counter attacks by any resistance group then don't give them the reason to resist.
But, it is classic to see Zionist turning the topic away from the root causes of the middle east, which is racism, occupation and injustice.
We must boycott for the sake of peace. Almost 60 years of occupation and thing have got worse. We did it for South Africa now lets do it for the Palestinians and Israelis (because they will also benefit in the long run).
Boycott for peace now!
the answer colin is simple end occupation of palestinian lands and homes or have one man one vote for all the people of palestine.
it is rather that simple unless you have no real wish for democracy or for giving back what you have stolen.
Reply to colin
What hypocrisy.
you as the rest of your ilk pick on one point that has mossads finger prints. How come you never mention 60 years of SUPREME WAR CRIMES carried out by the new nazis - the terrorist state of Isra hell
And your types think getting the fascists roman mayor walter veltroni to act as a proxy and build a school in malawi and dedicate it to one of the jewish victims of Israeli terrorism is great PR! Your kind is really nauseating, repulsive & disgusting.
|
