TEHRAN (FNA)- It is now 15 years since the International Court of Justice ruled that the apartheid wall built by Israel in the occupied West Bank contravenes fundamental norms of international law and must be removed.
The usurper regime continues to mark this anniversary with renewed attacks on the besieged people of Gaza, and punish the Palestinians for resisting the illegal occupation of their land. Sadly, the apartheid wall is still there, making any kind of normal life for Palestinians an impossibility, as well as stealing their land. It is several decades since Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem Al-Quds and the Golan Heights, thus extending the process (begun in 1948) of ethnically cleansing the indigenous population and then installing illegal settlers. These illegal settlers have been doing business and trade with the western world ever since.
All this trade is illegal under international law, which has been flouted by Israel, aided by the complicity of western governments. The media too, especially the BBC, CNN and Fox News must bear some responsibility with their grotesquely biased reporting which portrays Israel as an innocent victim, exempt from any norms of behavior and international accountability. Worse still, western governments refuse to hold Israel accountable, and for that reason and no other, the international civil society has a responsibility to do so, especially through the civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).
To that end, the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions movement must be enabled globally, and that includes reaching even American campuses, as to how to reinforce it, and encourage both western and American corporations to stop working with Israeli firms in occupied Palestine and/or opening up regional branches there.
This could work at the United Nations as well, as BDS is fully backed by Palestinian civil society and a growing number of Israelis. In this difficult period for progressive politics and international solidarity, the BDS movement must build across the globe and take its deliberations into the United Nations headquarters in New York.
This is both important and legal, as in the United States new legislation passed in the Senate seeks to legalize the right of individual state governments to force American companies to certify they won’t engage in economic boycotts of Israel as a condition for receiving government contracts. The "Combating BDS Act of 2019" is embedded as Title IV within the ‘‘Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019’’ (S.1). If signed into law, S.1 would allow states to withhold government funding from entities unwilling to certify they will not boycott Israel. Most existing state anti-BDS measures require pledge forms that contractors must sign as a condition for winning or renewing contracts.
But, just like the rest of the international civil society only 22.5% of American adults favor anti-boycott measures. A new representative poll conducted through Google Surveys finds that 74.9% of Americans oppose forcing government contractors to forswear boycotts. This is while at least 25 states – many quietly lobbied by Israel advocacy organizations – have now passed their own laws or started enforcing executive orders prohibiting the flow of state contracts to any business unwilling to sign pledges not to boycott Israel. They further ban compliant contractors from transferring state funding on to subcontractors unwilling to sign such pledges. But some are beginning to fight for their right to boycott as speech protected by the 1st Amendment.
Whatever this is, the officials and entities that favor anti-boycott measures are not the true representatives of the American public or the greater international society. They should keep in mind that their decision to protect Israel and its cult of occupation is not what over 70% of Americans want. The intense public or behind-the-scenes support for unpopular anti-BDS measures have put some Israel advocacy organizations and pro-Israel officials on the Capitol Hill under an uncomfortable spotlight. A broad coalition of human rights organizations back the BDS as a grassroots movement. They are also calling for a cutoff in all funding to Israel, any loan guarantees and Israeli access to prepositioned stockpiles of US weapons Israel can use against the besieged population in Gaza and the West Bank, or attack its neighbors.
In summation, the BDS is in no way “the new anti-semitism” movement. The desperate attempts by the governments in the United States or in Canada to echo the Israeli regime’s smear before the United Nations General Assembly will go nowhere. They are shameless in their opportunism and they have Palestinian blood on their hands.
Indeed, boycotting Israel bodes well with the fundamental norms of international law, international humanitarian law and UN Charter. BDS is not an all-or-nothing tactic. If western governments don't want to boycott anything, let them come up with a better idea for transforming the status quo in occupied Palestine, or just any idea that hasn't already failed.
The road ahead is clear: Boycott Israel and Tel Aviv's illegal occupation policy will come under pressure to make way for the Palestinian right to freedom and self-determination. At the same time, a surge of international support for the Palestinian right to freedom and self-determination will add a new dimension to the Holy Land politics, where all marginalized Palestinians, Christians, Jews and Muslims will have a say in a nationwide referendum to determine their future government and state.
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