Boycotts of Israel

See also: Boycotts

Boycott of Israel

Boycotts of Israel are economic and political cultural campaigns or actions that seek a selective or total cutting of ties with the State of Israel. Such campaigns are employed by those who challenge the legitimacy of Israel, Israel's policies or actions towards the Palestinians over the course of the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflict, oppose Israeli territorial claims in the West Bank or Jerusalem or even oppose Israel's right to exist.

Arab boycotts of Zionist institutions and Jewish businesses began before Israel's founding as a state. An official boycott was adopted by the Arab League almost immediately after the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, but is not fully implemented in practice.

Similar boycotts have been proposed outside the Arab world and the Muslim world. These boycotts comprise economic measures such as divestment; a consumer boycotts of Israeli products or businesses that operate in Israel; a proposed academic boycott of Israeli universities and scholars; and a proposed boycott of Israeli cultural institutions or Israeli sport venues. Many advocates of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu use the 1980s movement against South African apartheid as a model.

Arab League boycott of Israel

Main article: Arab League boycott of Israel

The Arab League boycott of Israel is a systematic effort by Arab League member states to isolate Israel economically in support of the Palestinians.

While small-scale Arab boycotts of Zionist institutions began before Israel's founding as a modern state, an official organized boycott was only adopted by the Arab League after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The implementation of the boycott has varied over time among member states.

Anti-Boycott Laws

The Export Administration Act discourages, and in some circumstances, prohibit U.S. companies from furthering or supporting the boycott of Israel sponsored by the Arab League, and certain Muslim countries, including complying with certain requests for information designed to verify compliance with the boycott. Compliance with such requests may be prohibited by the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and may be reportable to the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security. (See general Anti-boycott article.)

Palestinian United Call For BDS Against Israel

Main article: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

In 2005, on the one year anniversary of the International Criminal Court ruling on the legality of Israeli West Bank barrier, Palestinian NGOs and labor unions issued a call for boycott, divestment and sanctions targeted at Israel with the stated goals that:

These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;

2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and

3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

Political boycotts

• In October 2009, Turkey announced it had excluded the Israeli air force from planned joint military exercises titled "Anatolian Eagle", due to the Gaza War. The war games were due to have been based in the city of Konya, and were reportedly to have involved bombing runs in airspace near the Iranian, Syrian and Iraqi borders. The cancellation was reported to be a "major shock" to Israeli strategists.

• In May 2010, Turkey announced it was to cancel three joint military exercises with Israel as a response to an Israeli attack on a humanitarian aid shipment to the Gaza Strip.

• In May 2010, Norway announced it was cancelling a seminar as a response to an Israeli attack on a humanitarian aid shipment to the Gaza Strip. The seminar was to have included an Israeli army officer as speaker, which was objected to by the Norwegian Defence Ministry.

Disinvestment campaigns and product boycotts

Main article: Disinvestment from Israel

• In July 2004, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA) voted to "initiate a process of phased selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel."
• On June 19, 2006, the Committee on Peacemaking and International Issues of the PCUSA adopted a compromise resolution that calls for the Church to invest only in "peaceful pursuits" in Israel and Palestine. The new resolution does not include the word "divestment."

• On July 9, 2005, 171 Palestinian non-governmental organizations put out a call for an international economic campaign against Israel which has come to be referred to as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) after the resolution's call "... for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights." The three stated goals of the campaign are:

1. An end to Israel's "occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;"

2. Israeli recognition of the "fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;" and,

3. Israeli respect, protection, and promotion of "the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194."

• In December 2005, the Sør-Trøndelag regional council of Norway passed a motion calling for a comprehensive boycott of Israeli goods. The council acted as a result of lobbying by Norwegian activists, who had launched a national "Boycott Israel" campaign in June 2005. Sør-Trøndelag has a population of 270,000, including Trondheim, Norway's third-largest city.

• In May 2006, the Ontario section of the Canadian Union of Public Employees approved a resolution to "support the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until that state recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination" and to protest the Israeli West Bank barrier.

• The Congress of South African Trade Unions published a letter expressing their support for the CUPE boycott of Israel.

• The Toronto assembly of the United Church of Canada (UCC) supports CUPE's boycott. In 2003, the Toronto assembly voted to boycott goods produced by Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. The national umbrella UCC declined to support a boycott and instead encouraged pro-peace investment..

• The Church of England synod has voted for disinvestment from Israel, which was criticised by George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury as "inappropriate, offensive and highly damaging".

• Britain's National Union of Journalists called for a boycott on April 14, 2007. By a vote of 66 to 54, the annual delegate's meeting of Britain's largest trade union for journalists called for "a boycott of Israeli goods similar to those boycotts in the struggles against apartheid South Africa led by trade unions, and [for] the [Trades Union Congress] to demand sanctions be imposed on Israel by the British government."

• At its biennial delegate conference held in May 2008, IMPACT (the Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union), Ireland's largest public sector and services trade union, passed two resolutions criticising Israeli suppression of the Palestinians and endorsing a boycott of Israeli goods and services. The motions also supported divestment from those corporations engaged in or profiting from the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.[4]

• In November 2008 the United Kingdom initiated measures to label products produces in Israeli settlements :

The Foreign Office has confirmed that Britain's initiative against Israeli exports originating in the West Bank is merely the opening shot in a wider campaign it is waging against the settlements. [...] The FO [foreign office] reiterated its view that "the settlements are illegal... Practical steps ... include ensuring that goods from the settlements do not enter the UK without paying the proper duties and ensuring that goods are properly labelled."

Sources near the talks say London is accusing some Israeli companies of fraud: Their labeling indicates that they manufacture in Israel, but their plants are in the territories.

Based on experience, there are concerns in Israel that the discussion on exports from the territories will affect all Israeli exports to Europe. Roughly that happened four years ago, after Israel rejected European demands to specifically label products produced outside the pre-1967 war borders.

Tzipi Livni protested : It appears to be the fruits of long efforts by a strong pro-Palestinian lobby that now spur the British into action. Nevertheless, the British insist that at British consumers want to know the source of the products that they purchase. [...] But the biggest fear in Israel is that the issue will spill beyond manufacturers in the territories, affecting all local exporters and all exports to the EU - as was the case the last time that the issue boiled to the surface.

• In February 2009 the Belgian government decided to stop exporting such weapons to Israel, that would bolster its military capacities. Minister Patricia Ceysens said the decision followed a cabinet discussion concerning Israel's actions in Gaza. Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht added that "given the current circumstances, weapons cannot be shipped from Belgium to Israel."

• It was reported in May 2009 that in some cases boycott protests have contributed to companies such as Veolia (involved in building a light railway linking East Jerusalem to Israeli settlements) being excluded from bidding for major investment projects in other countries.

• In Britain, The Ahava company's cosmetic products sparked controversy because they are manufactured in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. The store chain Selfridge withdrew Ahava's products (among others) in December 2001 after a boycott campaign launched by pro-Palestinian groups, but reinstated them a few weeks later. Critics argue that the products are labelled as of 'Israeli origin' whereas the European Union does not consider goods originated in the West Bank or Gaza as being of Israeli origin because "according to international public law, including the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, these territories cannot be considered to be part of the State of Israel", and does not include them in the Trade Agreement signed with Israel . The boycott of Ahava has been endorsed also by the Code Pink organization, which argues that Ahava’s use of Palestinian natural resources from the Dead Sea is, according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, a "patently illegal use by an occupying power of stolen resources for its own profit." The boycott further takes issue that Ahava's products are labeled as if they originated from "Israel".

• The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) launched a boycott of Israeli goods in February 2009 as a response to the Gaza war, arguing that "a sustained international effort was needed to secure a durable settlement".

• In September 2009, Britain's Trade Union Congress (TUC) endorsed an initiative to boycott products originating from the Israeli-occupied territories, stating "[to] increase the pressure for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories and removal of the separation wall and illegal settlements, we will support a boycott (...) of those goods and agricultural products that originate in illegal settlements - through developing an effective, targeted consumer-led boycott campaign working closely with Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) - and campaign for disinvestment by companies associated with the occupation as well as engaged in building the separation wall." The Fire Brigade Union (FBU) as well as Britain's largest trade union, Unite, and the largest public sector union, Unison, called for a complete boycott of all Israeli products. In October 2009, the University of Sussex Students' Union became the first in Britain to vote for a boycott of Israeli goods. Anti-Zionist scholar Norman Finkelstein praised the move as "a victory, not for Palestinians but for truth and justice."

• In February 2009, dock workers in South Africa refused to unload an Israeli ship as "as part of a refusal to support oppression and exploitation". The Congress of South African Trade Unions, COSATU, compared Israel to "dictatorial and oppressive" states such as Zimbabwe and Swaziland. COSATU also drew parallels to events in 1963, when dock workers across the globe began to boycott vessels from South Africa to protest its apartheid regime. The Western Australian members of the Maritime Union of Australia supported the move and called for a boycott of all Israeli vessels.

• In November 2009 the Palestinian Authority began encouraging a boycott of supermarket chains in the West Bank that carried products from Israeli settlements. According to Palestinian authorities, consumers were not aware that some of the products on sale at these outlets were produced in Israeli settlements, and it was felt that boycotting settlement products would improve demand for Palestinian produce. The authorities invoked existing legislation under which trading in goods originating in the settlements was illegal in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian boycott of settlement goods was widened in 2010, and it was reported that some businesses in the settlement of Maale Adumim had closed as a consequence. In August 2010 the mayor of the settlement Ariel said that the Palestinian boycott of settlement goods "was causing great damage to factories in the area".

• In May 2010, two Italian supermarket chains announced the suspension of sales of products from Agrexco, the principal exporter of produce from Israel and the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

• As a response to an Israeli attack on a humanitarian aid shipment to the Gaza Strip, Swedish port workers decided to refuse processing Israeli ships for a period of one week in June 2010. Similar boycotts in response to the Israeli raid were launched by port workers in Norway and California .

• In June 2010, the British Methodist Church decided to begin boycotting products originating in Israeli settlements, becoming the first major Christian denomination in Britain to officially adopt such a policy. The boycott, which was seen as placing the Methodists on a collision course with Britain's Jewish minority, encourages also lay Methodists to to follow the church's lead and boycott any products made on Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

• In July 2010, the Olympia food co-op in the State of Washington in the United States decided to stop selling products from Israel in its two grocery stores. A board member of the co-op said concerning the boycott that "any product that is made (...) to improve the conditions of the Palestinians will be exempted."

Disinvestments

• 14 Belgian municipalities left the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, which was financing Israeli settlements in the occupied territories through its Israeli subsidiary.
• The French conglomerate Alstom was excluded from Sweden’s AP7 national pension fund portfolio in 2009, due to company's involvement in the occupation of the West Bank..
• A Norwegian government pension fund sold its shares in Elbit Systems due to its role in building the West Bank barrier.
• Assa Abloy, a Swedish electromechanical security systems firm, has resolved to move one of its factories out of the West Bank.
• Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank, sold its holdings in Elbit Systems in 2010. International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Pax Christi, two groups critical of Elbit's involvement in the West Bank Separation fence, issued a joint statement attributing the action to their advocacy and calling their divestiture campaign "a major success."
• The Norwegian government announced in August 2010 that based on advice from the Norwegian Council on Ethics, it had excluded two Israeli companies from a government pension fund. According to the government, the firms Africa Israel Investments and Danya Cebus were involved in developing settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, which is prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Academic boycotts

Main article: Academic boycotts of Israel

In 2006, two of Britain's lecturers' unions, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education and the Association of University Teachers, voted to support an academic boycott against Israel. The AUT ban was overturned by members at an Emergency General Meeting a few weeks later, while the NATFHE boycott expired when a merger with AUT to form the University and College Union came into effect. In May, 2007, the UCU congress passed Motion 30, which called on the members to circulate information and consider a boycott request by Palestinian trade unions.

In 2009, Spanish organizers of an international solar power design competition excluded a team from the Israeli Ariel University Center. The stated reason was that the Ariel university is located in the West Bank, a Spanish official was quoted saying that "Spain acted in line with European Union policy of opposing Israel's occupation of Palestinian land".

Artistic boycotts

See also: Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

• The cultural boycott of Israel has received the support of famous artists such as musician Roger Waters,, writers Eduardo Galeano and Arundhati Roy, filmmakers Ken Loach and Jean-Luc Godard.

• In Ireland, support for boycotting Israel has been voiced since September 2006 . The Irish Times has published an open letter in January 2009 with 300 signatures, including deputies, senators, political leaders (including Gerry Adams and Tony Benn), union leaders, professors and artists. In August 2010, 150 Irish artists launched a cultural boycott of Israel, declaring that they would not perform or exhibit in Israel, "until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights". Organizers explained the boycott was motivated by what they saw as abuse of Palestinian human rights by Israel.

• The Yes Men pulled out of a film festival in 2009 in Israel.

• Guitarist Carlos Santana canceled a performance in Israel in 2010 following pressure from groups critical of Israel.

• Rocker Elvis Costello called off planned gigs in Israel in 2010, citing what he called the "intimidation" and "humiliation" of Palestinians.

• Rap artist Gil Scott Heron canceled a planned performance in Tel Aviv in 2010, saying he "hated war".

• British bands The Klaxons and the Gorillaz Sound System, as well as the American band Pixies, cancelled performances in Israel in June 2010 in apparent response to the Gaza flotilla raid.

• American actress Meg Ryan pulled out of a movie festival held in Jerusalem in July 2010 due to the flotilla raids.

• In February 2010, 500 artists from the city of Montreal joined the cultural boycott of Israel, saying that Palestinians "face an entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation, resembling the defeated apartheid system in South Africa."

Other

In June 2010, a delegation of gay residents of Tel Aviv was banned from joining a gay pride march in Madrid in response to an Israeli actions on a humanitarian ship convoy headed to the Gaza Strip. Organizers of the Madrid event said that it would have been "barbaric" to allow the Israelis to take part.

Support

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called on the international community to treat Israel as it treated apartheid South Africa and supports the divestment campaign against Israel.

Swedish archbishop K. G. Hammar, ambassador Carl Tham and a list of 71 others have supported a boycott of products from the occupied areas.

A joint open letter by hundreds of UK academics was published in the Guardian 16 January 2009. The letter called on the British government and the British people to take all feasible steps to oblige Israel to stop its "military aggression and colonial occupation" of the Palestinian land and its "criminal use of force", Suggesting to start with a programme of boycott, divestment and sanctions .

In 2008 British Member of Parliament Sir Gerald Kaufman claimed, "It is time for our government to make clear to the Israeli government that its conduct and policies are unacceptable and to impose a total arms ban on Israel.”

Criticism

The Anti-Defamation League have claimed that singling out Israel is "outrageous and biased" as well as "deplorable and offensive." and heads of several major U.S. Jewish organizations have referred to them as "lop-sided" and "unbalanced".

Some opponents of a boycott claim similarities with the Nazi boycotts of Jews of the 1930s and claim this is a form of anti-Semitism.

Boycott calls have also been called "profoundly unjust" and relying on a "false" analogy with South Africa. One critical statement has alleged that the boycotters apply "different standards" to Israel than other countries, that the boycott is "counterproductive and retrograde" and that the campaign is antisemitic and comparable to Nazi boycotts of Jewish shops in the 1930s.

The Economist contends that the boycott is "flimsy" and ineffective, that "blaming Israel alone for the impasse in the occupied territories will continue to strike many outsiders as unfair," and points out that the Palestinian leadership does not support the boycott.

See also

• Israeli passport
• Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
• Constructive engagement
• Buycott

External links

• BYTOPIC: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions at The Electronic Intifada
• CUPE boycott of Israel won't help cause of peace
• Report: Port firm's parent boycotts Israel at UPI (accessed March 1, 2006)
• U.S. urges UAE to end its boycott of Israel By David R. Sands and Shaun Waterman at The Washington Times March 2, 2006