Monday, July 11, was a historic day for the movement to abolish the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The right-wing dominated Israeli Knesset gave the campaign to boycott the Israeli occupation a Good Housekeeping seal of approval -- a hechsher, if you will -- by passing legislation to punish it.
Of course, the effect of this legislation will be to rejuvenate the Israeli peace movement ["Israeli Left launches public campaign against new law banning boycotts," Haaretz reports] and promote the boycott. It is a sign of the political bankruptcy of the Israeli Right that it is now condemned to take actions which promote the agenda of its opponents.
This month, the right-wing Israeli government shone a spotlight on its illegal blockade of Gaza when it made giving free publicity to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla the top Israeli government priority. Every day, it seemed, there was a new Israeli government statement calling attention to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, more outrageous than the last: 67-year-old Alice Walker was going to pour sacks of sulfur on Israeli soldiers and light them on fire; journalists who reported on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla were going to be banned from Israel for 10 years.
Fresh from that propaganda "victory," the Israeli government then decided to devote its resources to publicizing its illegal collective punishment against Palestinians in the West Bank. A few hundred peace activists gave the Israeli government an opportunity to do so by announcing their intention to fly to Israel to participate in solidarity actions with Palestinians in the West Bank. Again, rather than ignoring a few hundred peace activists, the right-wing Israeli government devoted its resources to promoting their agenda, by pulling out the stops to block the activists from traveling to the West Bank.
"Israeli commentators and some politicians have described the Israeli preparations as excessive and bordering on hysterical," the New York Times reported.
The Palestinian hosts decried the Israeli measures, but also chalked up a small victory. Fadi Kattan, a Palestinian organizer, said at a news conference in Bethlehem that he was "pleased -- sadly pleased" that the episode had exposed what he described as Israel's draconian anti-Palestinian policies.
And now this. The parliament of "the only democracy in the Middle East" has passed legislation to punish Israeli Jews who call for a boycott of the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "The bill would affect boycotts like the artists' boycott of the cultural center of Ariel," Haaretz noted, prior to the bill's passage, referring to an Israeli artists' campaign that drew international support.
Will this stop the boycott movement? It will surely promote it, by making it more sexy. Banned by the Israeli Knesset! Government attempts to ban ideas usually backfire. In 1930, Bertrand Russell wrote,
Every boy is interested in trains. Suppose we told him that an interest in trains is wicked; suppose we kept his eyes bandaged whenever he was in a train or on a railway station; suppose we never allowed the word "train" to be mentioned in his presence and preserved an impenetrable mystery as to the means by which he is transported from one place to another. The result would not be that he would cease to be interested in trains; on the contrary, he would become more interested than ever...
"The boss organizes the workers," labor activists like to say. The Israeli government is doing a fantastic job of organizing resistance against the occupation. Mazl tov! Keep up the good work!
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Israel Boycott Ban Passes House
Israel's boycott ban is down to siege mentality | Carlo Strenger ...
Israel's boycott ban meets swift resistance - CSMonitor.com
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/un-report-gaza-blockade-legal-israel-doesn-t-owe-turkey-apology-for-marmara-1.371841
Israel has been acting incredibly stupidly, I think. They're playing a very dangerous brinksmanship game which nobody can win, and certainly not Israel. All their power comes from the US and its coddling, politically fearful behavior. They've gotten away with so much for so long that I think they're starting to believe their own imagery. Such as that god so favors them as a nation, they can do no wrong. Not even in engaging in collective punishment toward an entire people, something everyone in the entire world knows is going on. (With possible exception of US citizens cuz of our controlled media.)
They're simply putting the stark differences of reality and image right on center stage next to each other, for all to see. Testing their own power to get away with anything and everything. But we now see behind that curtain and once that's so, there's no going back.
When I see people make such statements I always wonder, where does ignorance of such magnitude comes from.
I always wonder, have these people met any Sabra? Ever been to Israel and actually pay attention to their surroundings. Based on that statement alone, I'd say it's upbringing and, either the inability to seek education, or some sort of a learning disability.
The fact that you'd chose to admonish the above poster for such a statement, it just underscores the attitude of entitlement.
Did you know Hamburger Time has a link from WikiSpooks that proves Israel was behind 9/11? Yeah, it's true! He also suggested that Israel caused Wednesday's Mumbai attacks. Who says cartoon characters can't be utterly brilliant?
The whole point of the article.
*eyeroll*
Boycott all products made in Israel--I don't buy them and neither should you, until they start treating the Palestinians like human beings and not like dogs.
Someone as invested in democratic ideals as you wouldn't think of telling people what to buy and what not to. Therefore "you do not know what democracy is!"
I didn't know there was a similar law on the US books. Did you?
You may already be guilty of a crime!
Welcome back to Democracy. Do you need a towel? To dry off! :-)))
http://www.bis.doc.gov/complianceandenforcement/antiboycottcompliance.htm
It was already illegal for a US citizen to engage in a boycott against Israel. However it is not enforced
So what does this mean in practice? It means that a group of angry Americans can organize a boycott of France and French products to protest France's perceived non-support of the US in the Iraq war, notwithstanding the fact that France is a country that is "friendly to the United States." And Americans are free to organize a boycott against Canada, a close friend of the U.S., to protest seal hunting or to organize a boycott against Mexico, simply because they don't like it. And any American can organize a boycott of Arizona to protest its outrageous racial profiling policy. And a food co-op in Olympia, Oregon can legally boycott Israeli products. "
This is a free country. I may start a boycott, and promote that boycott, against any nation, group, or campany that I wish, and promote such, with no restrictions whatsoever. It is enshrined and protected by our constitution.
By our laws, however, I may not enjoin IRAN in an Iranian lead Boycott of Israel, or anyone else that is friendly to the US, which would put me at odds with US foreign Policy.
I may simultaneously start my own for my onw reasons at any time.
Capice?