29 mar 2017
After the P5+1 nuclear deal made it difficult for the Israeli government to continue to appeal to the right-wing through casting Iran as the bogeyman, depicting BDS as a ‘delegitimization’ campaign became its next means of generating fear and paranoia among voters, says journalist Richard Silverstein.
TRNN transcript:
KIM BROWN: Welcome to The Real News Network in Baltimore. I’m Kim Brown.
One of the founders and best-known promoters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel has been arrested last week on charges of tax fraud. Omar Barghouti is one of the best-known Palestinian activists. His name is mentioned in countless articles about BDS and even Israel’s Minister of the Interior, Aryeh Deri, revealed private information about Omar publicly in order to smear him. The Interior Minister has also said that he considers revoking Omar’s residency status in Israel.
Back in May of 2016, Israeli authorities denied Barghouti the right to leave the country and last week Omar was arrested. He was granted bail but actually posted bail and yet he was held for five additional days before he was actually released. This is according to the Boycott National Committee. He was again denied the right to leave the country and is under a gag order precluded from discussing his case publicly.
Here is a clip of Omar Barghouti speaking to The Real News back in 2010 to our senior editor, Paul Jay. Let’s take a look.
TRNN transcript:
KIM BROWN: Welcome to The Real News Network in Baltimore. I’m Kim Brown.
One of the founders and best-known promoters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel has been arrested last week on charges of tax fraud. Omar Barghouti is one of the best-known Palestinian activists. His name is mentioned in countless articles about BDS and even Israel’s Minister of the Interior, Aryeh Deri, revealed private information about Omar publicly in order to smear him. The Interior Minister has also said that he considers revoking Omar’s residency status in Israel.
Back in May of 2016, Israeli authorities denied Barghouti the right to leave the country and last week Omar was arrested. He was granted bail but actually posted bail and yet he was held for five additional days before he was actually released. This is according to the Boycott National Committee. He was again denied the right to leave the country and is under a gag order precluded from discussing his case publicly.
Here is a clip of Omar Barghouti speaking to The Real News back in 2010 to our senior editor, Paul Jay. Let’s take a look.
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OMAR BARGOUTI: And, again, it’s blaming the victim rather than looking at the victimizer. Israel does not recognize Palestinian rights, period. Israel does not even recognize that it’s occupying the West Bank and Gaza. Up ’til now Israel does not recognize that it’s in occupation, let alone other injustices. So, it is a complete reversal of who’s not recognizing whom.
Second issue is, what do you recognize? Do you recognize Israel’s right to exist as a racist State? Is apartheid a regime that should be recognized? No, it shouldn’t. So not recognizing Israel’s political regime, it’s oppressive regime, does not mean that you do not recognize the right of Jewish persons, Jewish citizens to exist in this land. In Hamas’s program, in Fatah’s program, in the secular program, no one is questioning whether Jews should stay or not. |
This is not the issue. This is not being debated. It’s what’s the political regime that’s ruling this land? Currently, it’s an apartheid colonial regime.
KIM BROWN: Joining us today to discuss this is Richard Silverstein. He wrote about this arrest in his blog titled, “Tikun Olam” in which he breaks stories that are under gag order in the Israeli media. Richard is also the contributor to the Mint Press News and he also writes for other publications and media channels. Two book chapters by him were recently published in the book “A Time to Speak Out” by Verso, and in Israel and “Palestine: Alternate Perspectives on Statehood” by Rowman and Littlefield.
Richard joins us today from Seattle, Washington. Richard, we appreciate you being here.
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Thank you for having me. I appreciate that.
KIM BROWN: So, what is the connection between issues like paying taxes and the repression of activism and free speech? Because Omar was not arrested for his opinions, but on a financial issue. This sort of reminds me of when Marcus Garvey was arrested by U.S. Government officials on the trumped-up charge of mail fraud. Explain to us what’s happening here, Richard.
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Well, you mentioned, Aryeh Deri, trying to revoke his residency. I think they found that they couldn’t do that so they’re looking for an alternative to persecute Barghouti and to discredit him in the eyes of his followers and the rest of the world. So, they’ve chosen tax evasion. And it’s similar to what the FBI did in the case of Al Capone. Not that I’m comparing Barghouti to Capone. I’m comparing more of the methods that the government uses to attack its opponents.
Barghouti represents a serious threat to Israel, as it finds itself as a Jewish state. And because of that threat it has to use any means necessary to attack and undermine him.
KIM BROWN: So, how is this story similar, and how is it different than the charges against former Israeli Member of Parliament, Azmi Bishara, whom the police accused of financial irregularities as well as of espionage, but who has managed to escape before he was arrested?
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Very similar cases. In the case of Azmi Bishara, he was a really strong powerful representative for Israeli Palestinian Nationalism, and he was also deemed a threat by the Intelligence Services in Israel. And, they arrested him and questioned him on trumped up charges that he was funneling money to Hezbollah through moneychangers in Israel. And that he was spying on Israel on behalf of Hezbollah. There was no evidence or proof ever presented in any public forum about this. They did not, in his case, prevent him from travelling.
So, what he did was, he just bought an airline ticket, and traveled and left the country because he faced, you know, a possibility of a decade or more in jail if he had been convicted on the charges. And the intelligence apparatus has a huge level of success in these prosecutions. So, the outlook for him was very grim and now he’s in the Gulf States and he’s a journalist and helping with a media channel that one of the Gulf States operates.
KIM BROWN: So, this arrest was reported very widely, mainly on pro-Zionist sites, on the right-wing blogs, etcetera. And right-wing Israelis are gloating and celebrating this arrest. But, the BDS call was issued almost 12 years ago. So why was Omar not arrested before?
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: I think that the Israeli government has, over the past couple of years, been searching for an issue that it could cultivate and use to motivate its right-wing voters to instill a level of fear and paranoia. And for a while Iran was serving that role. And then when the U.S. and the P5 Plus 1 states came up with the nuclear deal, Israel no longer had such a kind of hysteria-provoking issue to rally its voters.
So, now it’s turned to what it calls “de-legitimization” which is related to BDS. De-legitimization is a term that they’ve invented which means anyone who is trying to delegitimize Israel. However, they broadened that definition and they say that a de-legitimizer, which includes BDS and related organizations, are really trying to destroy the state of Israel, which isn’t true at all.
But, that kind of sweeping definition does rally the troops on behalf of the far-right parties when there are elections. So, that’s why this has come to the fore.
KIM BROWN: And, what has changed now that made Israeli authorities change their minds and arrest Omar?
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Well, I think that last year there was a conference, and that was the one you were referring to Aryeh Deri’s statement about revoking his residency permit. So, they have started looking for ways to do this. They’ve also invested the Strategic Affairs Ministry with a really draconian and frightening mission, and that is to undermine BDS by any means necessary.
And, they’ve used the term “civil targeted assassination”, referring to BDS leaders and specifically to Omar. That is a term, without the word “civil” in front of it, which is used to describe targeted assassinations of Palestinian militants in Gaza and other places.
So, what they’re saying essentially is they’re going to use every possible means to destroy Omar Barghouti, and destroy anybody else who they view as a threat. So that has happened really in the last year or two and that is a reason why this arrest has happened.
KIM BROWN: So, this arrest also comes as the Israeli Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan, announces his plan to create a database of Israeli citizens who support BDS. And it is assumed that such a database already exists for non-Israelis.
So, Israel passed the new law, as I know you’re familiar with, Richard, to ban the entry of BDS supporters who are for Nationals. And we interviewed Hugh Lanning here at The Real News after he was denied entry and sent back to London. So, should we expect more punitive measures against BDS and its supporters?
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Yes. I think you can definitely expect that. This issue the Likud has found to be fertile ground and I think they will expand it. There was recently an article in Haaretz, which said that the government is spending tens of millions of dollars on the anti-BDS effort.
I wanted to add that Omar Barghouti is due to accept a peace prize from the Pursuing Peace NGO in Connecticut next month. And the government of Israel has refused to allow him to travel. So, the NGO has created a petition, which I’m hoping we can let your viewers know about, which protests his arrest and protests his inability to travel.
This kind of activity on the part of the government I liken to what happened in the U.S. in the 1950s. BDS in Israel has become like the “communist menace” that J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI fomented in America. We had the same kind of hysteria in America about communism, about a communist under every bed, and you had the movies about you know, “I know was a communist for the FBI” and all sorts of things like this. This kind of hysteria and paranoia is exactly the same as what is happening in Israel right now.
And, I would liken people like Gilad Erdan, we mentioned and his assistant, whose name is Sima Vaknin, to Roy Cohen and Joe McCarthy. And they’re performing the same role in Israel that those figures did in the United States. And it’s very chilling.
KIM BROWN: We’ve been speaking with Richard Silverstein. Richard wrote about the arrest of Omar Barghouti in Israel. And you can find it on Richard’s blog it’s called “Ticun Olam”, where Richard breaks stories there that are under gag under the Israeli media.
So, Richard, we certainly appreciate your coverage of this arrest. And we will keep track of what happens to Omar after this.
Thank you, Richard.
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Thank you.
KIM BROWN: And thank you for watching The Real News Network.
Richard Silverstein is an independent journalist who writes the Tikun Olam blog, which explores Jewish-Muslim relations and the Israeli-Arab conflict.
KIM BROWN: Joining us today to discuss this is Richard Silverstein. He wrote about this arrest in his blog titled, “Tikun Olam” in which he breaks stories that are under gag order in the Israeli media. Richard is also the contributor to the Mint Press News and he also writes for other publications and media channels. Two book chapters by him were recently published in the book “A Time to Speak Out” by Verso, and in Israel and “Palestine: Alternate Perspectives on Statehood” by Rowman and Littlefield.
Richard joins us today from Seattle, Washington. Richard, we appreciate you being here.
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Thank you for having me. I appreciate that.
KIM BROWN: So, what is the connection between issues like paying taxes and the repression of activism and free speech? Because Omar was not arrested for his opinions, but on a financial issue. This sort of reminds me of when Marcus Garvey was arrested by U.S. Government officials on the trumped-up charge of mail fraud. Explain to us what’s happening here, Richard.
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Well, you mentioned, Aryeh Deri, trying to revoke his residency. I think they found that they couldn’t do that so they’re looking for an alternative to persecute Barghouti and to discredit him in the eyes of his followers and the rest of the world. So, they’ve chosen tax evasion. And it’s similar to what the FBI did in the case of Al Capone. Not that I’m comparing Barghouti to Capone. I’m comparing more of the methods that the government uses to attack its opponents.
Barghouti represents a serious threat to Israel, as it finds itself as a Jewish state. And because of that threat it has to use any means necessary to attack and undermine him.
KIM BROWN: So, how is this story similar, and how is it different than the charges against former Israeli Member of Parliament, Azmi Bishara, whom the police accused of financial irregularities as well as of espionage, but who has managed to escape before he was arrested?
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Very similar cases. In the case of Azmi Bishara, he was a really strong powerful representative for Israeli Palestinian Nationalism, and he was also deemed a threat by the Intelligence Services in Israel. And, they arrested him and questioned him on trumped up charges that he was funneling money to Hezbollah through moneychangers in Israel. And that he was spying on Israel on behalf of Hezbollah. There was no evidence or proof ever presented in any public forum about this. They did not, in his case, prevent him from travelling.
So, what he did was, he just bought an airline ticket, and traveled and left the country because he faced, you know, a possibility of a decade or more in jail if he had been convicted on the charges. And the intelligence apparatus has a huge level of success in these prosecutions. So, the outlook for him was very grim and now he’s in the Gulf States and he’s a journalist and helping with a media channel that one of the Gulf States operates.
KIM BROWN: So, this arrest was reported very widely, mainly on pro-Zionist sites, on the right-wing blogs, etcetera. And right-wing Israelis are gloating and celebrating this arrest. But, the BDS call was issued almost 12 years ago. So why was Omar not arrested before?
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: I think that the Israeli government has, over the past couple of years, been searching for an issue that it could cultivate and use to motivate its right-wing voters to instill a level of fear and paranoia. And for a while Iran was serving that role. And then when the U.S. and the P5 Plus 1 states came up with the nuclear deal, Israel no longer had such a kind of hysteria-provoking issue to rally its voters.
So, now it’s turned to what it calls “de-legitimization” which is related to BDS. De-legitimization is a term that they’ve invented which means anyone who is trying to delegitimize Israel. However, they broadened that definition and they say that a de-legitimizer, which includes BDS and related organizations, are really trying to destroy the state of Israel, which isn’t true at all.
But, that kind of sweeping definition does rally the troops on behalf of the far-right parties when there are elections. So, that’s why this has come to the fore.
KIM BROWN: And, what has changed now that made Israeli authorities change their minds and arrest Omar?
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Well, I think that last year there was a conference, and that was the one you were referring to Aryeh Deri’s statement about revoking his residency permit. So, they have started looking for ways to do this. They’ve also invested the Strategic Affairs Ministry with a really draconian and frightening mission, and that is to undermine BDS by any means necessary.
And, they’ve used the term “civil targeted assassination”, referring to BDS leaders and specifically to Omar. That is a term, without the word “civil” in front of it, which is used to describe targeted assassinations of Palestinian militants in Gaza and other places.
So, what they’re saying essentially is they’re going to use every possible means to destroy Omar Barghouti, and destroy anybody else who they view as a threat. So that has happened really in the last year or two and that is a reason why this arrest has happened.
KIM BROWN: So, this arrest also comes as the Israeli Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan, announces his plan to create a database of Israeli citizens who support BDS. And it is assumed that such a database already exists for non-Israelis.
So, Israel passed the new law, as I know you’re familiar with, Richard, to ban the entry of BDS supporters who are for Nationals. And we interviewed Hugh Lanning here at The Real News after he was denied entry and sent back to London. So, should we expect more punitive measures against BDS and its supporters?
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Yes. I think you can definitely expect that. This issue the Likud has found to be fertile ground and I think they will expand it. There was recently an article in Haaretz, which said that the government is spending tens of millions of dollars on the anti-BDS effort.
I wanted to add that Omar Barghouti is due to accept a peace prize from the Pursuing Peace NGO in Connecticut next month. And the government of Israel has refused to allow him to travel. So, the NGO has created a petition, which I’m hoping we can let your viewers know about, which protests his arrest and protests his inability to travel.
This kind of activity on the part of the government I liken to what happened in the U.S. in the 1950s. BDS in Israel has become like the “communist menace” that J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI fomented in America. We had the same kind of hysteria in America about communism, about a communist under every bed, and you had the movies about you know, “I know was a communist for the FBI” and all sorts of things like this. This kind of hysteria and paranoia is exactly the same as what is happening in Israel right now.
And, I would liken people like Gilad Erdan, we mentioned and his assistant, whose name is Sima Vaknin, to Roy Cohen and Joe McCarthy. And they’re performing the same role in Israel that those figures did in the United States. And it’s very chilling.
KIM BROWN: We’ve been speaking with Richard Silverstein. Richard wrote about the arrest of Omar Barghouti in Israel. And you can find it on Richard’s blog it’s called “Ticun Olam”, where Richard breaks stories there that are under gag under the Israeli media.
So, Richard, we certainly appreciate your coverage of this arrest. And we will keep track of what happens to Omar after this.
Thank you, Richard.
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Thank you.
KIM BROWN: And thank you for watching The Real News Network.
Richard Silverstein is an independent journalist who writes the Tikun Olam blog, which explores Jewish-Muslim relations and the Israeli-Arab conflict.
28 mar 2017
It is now one week since the Israeli authorities arrested Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement in Palestine. His arrest follows years of intimidation and threats by various state agencies. If the purpose is to isolate and silence Barghouti, his arrest was, at best, short-sighted and counterproductive. BDS, meanwhile, is already a Palestinian-inspired global movement, which will be impossible to stop.
Although Israeli President Reuven Rivlin described the BDS movement in May 2015 as a “strategic threat”, when it was launched back in July 2005, officials dismissed the campaign as a poor attempt to imitate the international boycott which played a pivotal role in dismantling the criminal apartheid regime in South Africa. That disparaging belief no longer exists. The mere fact that the country is spending millions of dollars every month to collect data and counter BDS at home and abroad, is in itself a measure of how seriously the Israelis now view it.
Policies that deny basic freedoms and human rights are inherently repulsive to the sense of justice of reasonable human beings.
Today, those who support BDS are driven by values of equality and fairness, as well as recognition of a shared humanity. This is why they find the denial of full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel so repugnant; why they demand an end to the military occupation of Palestinian territories captured in 1967; and why they ask why the Palestinians who were expelled by Jewish militias in 1948 are not allowed to exercise their legal right of return to their homes. There is nothing conspiratorial or bigoted about this. The latter is, after all, a right that is recognised internationally.
If nothing else, it is the continued denial by Israel of all Palestinian rights that has fuelled the BDS movement. On every continent, minority and disadvantaged communities, churches, labour unions and human rights organisations are supporting this non-violent campaign because they are convinced it is part of their own self-preservation.
Gone are the days when celebrity A-listers, entertainers and sports personalities give their unqualified support to Israel. Today, such support is conditional; it will only be given when Israel respects the dignity of the Palestinian people. Under no circumstances can today’s celebrities be seen to endorse or legitimise discrimination openly, irrespective of the perpetrator. There is simply no moral or legal justification for discrimination of any kind, least of all the state-sanctioned manifestation that we see in Israel.
As cruel as it may sound, Omar Barghouti’s arrest was inevitable; not because of any criminal activity on his part, but because of the longstanding threats made against him. Last year, Amnesty International expressed concern for his safety and liberty after a number of Israeli ministers issued veiled threats against Barghouti at an anti-BDS conference in Jerusalem on 28 March.
BDS MovementOne threat which was especially grotesque was that made by Minister of Transport, Intelligence and Atomic Energy Yisrael Katz, who called on Israel to engage in “targeted civil eliminations” of BDS leaders with the help of its murderous intelligence agencies. Amnesty said that the term alluded to “targeted assassinations”, which is used to describe Israel’s policy of targeting members of armed Palestinian groups.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) has no doubt about the motive for the arrest of its co-founder; it is all about repression. The BNC pointed out that the current investigation, which includes a travel ban, was not coincidental, coming just weeks before Barghouti was scheduled to travel to the US to receive the Gandhi Peace Award jointly with Ralph Nader in a ceremony at Yale University.
Would the BDS movement collapse if Omar Barghouti is imprisoned or assassinated? Of course not. The legal, political and human rights similarities between the Palestinian reality and that which existed in apartheid South Africa are so blatant that they would not go unnoticed or unchallenged anywhere in the civilised world.
To date, none of the measures adopted by Israel to combat the BDS have succeeded. Whether it is the banning of activists from entering Palestine, the creation of special dirty tricks units to discredit activists, or their imprisonment, all are methods that were tried in South Africa where they proved to be wholly inadequate and inconsequential. On the contrary, they only succeeded in drawing ever more attention to the unjust and criminal nature of the apartheid system.
Rest assured that the results will be the same in Palestine, with or without the physical presence and great efforts of Omar Barghouti. By turning him into a cause célèbre, Israel has confirmed that the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions campaign is indeed a strategic threat.
- Dr. Daud Abdullah is the Director of MEMO website.
Although Israeli President Reuven Rivlin described the BDS movement in May 2015 as a “strategic threat”, when it was launched back in July 2005, officials dismissed the campaign as a poor attempt to imitate the international boycott which played a pivotal role in dismantling the criminal apartheid regime in South Africa. That disparaging belief no longer exists. The mere fact that the country is spending millions of dollars every month to collect data and counter BDS at home and abroad, is in itself a measure of how seriously the Israelis now view it.
Policies that deny basic freedoms and human rights are inherently repulsive to the sense of justice of reasonable human beings.
Today, those who support BDS are driven by values of equality and fairness, as well as recognition of a shared humanity. This is why they find the denial of full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel so repugnant; why they demand an end to the military occupation of Palestinian territories captured in 1967; and why they ask why the Palestinians who were expelled by Jewish militias in 1948 are not allowed to exercise their legal right of return to their homes. There is nothing conspiratorial or bigoted about this. The latter is, after all, a right that is recognised internationally.
If nothing else, it is the continued denial by Israel of all Palestinian rights that has fuelled the BDS movement. On every continent, minority and disadvantaged communities, churches, labour unions and human rights organisations are supporting this non-violent campaign because they are convinced it is part of their own self-preservation.
Gone are the days when celebrity A-listers, entertainers and sports personalities give their unqualified support to Israel. Today, such support is conditional; it will only be given when Israel respects the dignity of the Palestinian people. Under no circumstances can today’s celebrities be seen to endorse or legitimise discrimination openly, irrespective of the perpetrator. There is simply no moral or legal justification for discrimination of any kind, least of all the state-sanctioned manifestation that we see in Israel.
As cruel as it may sound, Omar Barghouti’s arrest was inevitable; not because of any criminal activity on his part, but because of the longstanding threats made against him. Last year, Amnesty International expressed concern for his safety and liberty after a number of Israeli ministers issued veiled threats against Barghouti at an anti-BDS conference in Jerusalem on 28 March.
BDS MovementOne threat which was especially grotesque was that made by Minister of Transport, Intelligence and Atomic Energy Yisrael Katz, who called on Israel to engage in “targeted civil eliminations” of BDS leaders with the help of its murderous intelligence agencies. Amnesty said that the term alluded to “targeted assassinations”, which is used to describe Israel’s policy of targeting members of armed Palestinian groups.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) has no doubt about the motive for the arrest of its co-founder; it is all about repression. The BNC pointed out that the current investigation, which includes a travel ban, was not coincidental, coming just weeks before Barghouti was scheduled to travel to the US to receive the Gandhi Peace Award jointly with Ralph Nader in a ceremony at Yale University.
Would the BDS movement collapse if Omar Barghouti is imprisoned or assassinated? Of course not. The legal, political and human rights similarities between the Palestinian reality and that which existed in apartheid South Africa are so blatant that they would not go unnoticed or unchallenged anywhere in the civilised world.
To date, none of the measures adopted by Israel to combat the BDS have succeeded. Whether it is the banning of activists from entering Palestine, the creation of special dirty tricks units to discredit activists, or their imprisonment, all are methods that were tried in South Africa where they proved to be wholly inadequate and inconsequential. On the contrary, they only succeeded in drawing ever more attention to the unjust and criminal nature of the apartheid system.
Rest assured that the results will be the same in Palestine, with or without the physical presence and great efforts of Omar Barghouti. By turning him into a cause célèbre, Israel has confirmed that the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions campaign is indeed a strategic threat.
- Dr. Daud Abdullah is the Director of MEMO website.
23 mar 2017
On March 21st, Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs, Gilad Erdan, announced that his ministry seeks to create a new database of Israeli citizens who support the grassroots Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to secure Palestinian human rights.
In response, Mahmoud Nawajaa, the General Coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), said:
This new database is consistent with the Israeli government’s ongoing efforts to suppress the BDS movement for Palestinian rights, precisely because support for the movement is growing both inside Israel and around the world. This new database targeting Israeli citizens who support BDS is in addition to another database that the Israeli government is already preparing, which targets BDS supporters from other countries, and which a recently-passed Israeli law seeks to use to bar international supporters of Palestinian rights from entering into Israel and occupied Palestinian Territory. It’s also in addition to a law passed in 2011 that allows civil suits to be filed against Israeli citizens who call for boycotts related to Israeli human rights abuses. Now, the Israeli government seeks to further repress Israeli citizens for their political thought and human rights work.
It is not at all surprising that Mr. Erdan and his government should spy on Israeli citizens, whether Jewish or Palestinian, or set up a database of those supporting BDS in order to target anyone working for the freedom, justice and equality of Palestinians. Support for the BDS movement has been growing around the globe in recent years, as more and more people recognize the brutal reality of Israel’s apartheid regime and nearly 50-year-old military occupation of Palestinian lands. Israel’s repressive efforts to suppress the BDS movement further illustrate the justice of our cause and will thus only strengthen worldwide support for our nonviolent struggle for our freedom and rights.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society that leads and supports the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
In response, Mahmoud Nawajaa, the General Coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), said:
This new database is consistent with the Israeli government’s ongoing efforts to suppress the BDS movement for Palestinian rights, precisely because support for the movement is growing both inside Israel and around the world. This new database targeting Israeli citizens who support BDS is in addition to another database that the Israeli government is already preparing, which targets BDS supporters from other countries, and which a recently-passed Israeli law seeks to use to bar international supporters of Palestinian rights from entering into Israel and occupied Palestinian Territory. It’s also in addition to a law passed in 2011 that allows civil suits to be filed against Israeli citizens who call for boycotts related to Israeli human rights abuses. Now, the Israeli government seeks to further repress Israeli citizens for their political thought and human rights work.
It is not at all surprising that Mr. Erdan and his government should spy on Israeli citizens, whether Jewish or Palestinian, or set up a database of those supporting BDS in order to target anyone working for the freedom, justice and equality of Palestinians. Support for the BDS movement has been growing around the globe in recent years, as more and more people recognize the brutal reality of Israel’s apartheid regime and nearly 50-year-old military occupation of Palestinian lands. Israel’s repressive efforts to suppress the BDS movement further illustrate the justice of our cause and will thus only strengthen worldwide support for our nonviolent struggle for our freedom and rights.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society that leads and supports the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
21 mar 2017
The co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel was arrested on Monday in Haifa, Israeli authorities declared on Tuesday.
According to Israeli media sources, Bargouthi is suspected of failing to report some $700,000 in income over the past decade, during which he served as the director of National Computing Resources in Ramallah.
The company specializes in the sale and maintenance of ATMs and related equipment within the Palestinian Authority, the sources added,
Barghouthi allegedly hid the income by depositing it in a Ramallah bank account.
He also deposited honorarium fees received for lectures he gave around the world in a US bank account, thereby hiding the revenue from Israeli tax authorities, Israeli police claimed.
A search of his residence at the time of the arrest found transaction documents and credit cards to support the suspicions, according to the Israeli police.
According to Israeli media sources, Bargouthi is suspected of failing to report some $700,000 in income over the past decade, during which he served as the director of National Computing Resources in Ramallah.
The company specializes in the sale and maintenance of ATMs and related equipment within the Palestinian Authority, the sources added,
Barghouthi allegedly hid the income by depositing it in a Ramallah bank account.
He also deposited honorarium fees received for lectures he gave around the world in a US bank account, thereby hiding the revenue from Israeli tax authorities, Israeli police claimed.
A search of his residence at the time of the arrest found transaction documents and credit cards to support the suspicions, according to the Israeli police.
19 mar 2017
A new UN report offers explicit backing for the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign to end Israeli apartheid and support a just peace.
The landmark report’s endorsement of boycotts, economic sanctions and other grassroots initiatives comes at a moment when Israel is desperately attempting to criminalize and suppress international support for Palestinian rights.
Published by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the report concludes that “Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole.”
Palestinians welcomed the landmark UN report. Meanwhile Israel and its US patron have reacted with rage.
A senior United Nations official has resigned, following pressure from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to withdraw the landmark report published earlier this week finding Israel guilty of apartheid.
The UN SG has also ordered the report to be removed from the UN website.
“The fact that a UN secretary general has bowed to threats and intimidation from the Trump administration to protect Israel from accountability, yet again, is hardly news,” the BNC said. “The real news is that this time round, Israel, with all its influence in Washington, cannot put the genie back into the bottle.”
The landmark report’s endorsement of boycotts, economic sanctions and other grassroots initiatives comes at a moment when Israel is desperately attempting to criminalize and suppress international support for Palestinian rights.
Published by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the report concludes that “Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole.”
Palestinians welcomed the landmark UN report. Meanwhile Israel and its US patron have reacted with rage.
A senior United Nations official has resigned, following pressure from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to withdraw the landmark report published earlier this week finding Israel guilty of apartheid.
The UN SG has also ordered the report to be removed from the UN website.
“The fact that a UN secretary general has bowed to threats and intimidation from the Trump administration to protect Israel from accountability, yet again, is hardly news,” the BNC said. “The real news is that this time round, Israel, with all its influence in Washington, cannot put the genie back into the bottle.”
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“They’re trying to conflate [BDS] with terrorism and antisemitism,” he concluded, “because they realise that it is a real threat.”
Born into a renowned Zionist family and raised on the Zionist ideal of a Jewish state, American-Israeli author Miko Peled’s family life took him on a journey that transformed him into a Palestinian human rights activist and an advocate of a one democratic state where Palestinians and Israelis would live as equal citizens. His father, Matti Peled, was a fervent Zionist ideologue and military man turned leading peace activist. Growing up in Jerusalem as the son of a prominent major general in the Israeli army was a big deal for Peled. “It was something that I would hear constantly: Oh, you’re Matti Peled’s son!” Peled told MEMO. “Many times it was positive but many times it was very negative.” When he retired, Matti Peled began meeting with members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and was one of the earliest proponents of the two-state solution. “That’s when being the son of Matti Peled suddenly became a bad thing,” he continued, “because he was ‘an Arab lover’.” Though his father spent his life promoting the idea of a two state-solution and convincing the PLO to give up the armed struggle and accept the two-state-solution, Peled’s journey led him to believe that this was not viable or just. “In hindsight, that was catastrophic for the Palestinians, because a lot of it has to do with why we are here today – the fact that they dropped the struggle.” “I think that he [Matti Peled] and his group were naive. They believed that you can restrain this settler colonialist project, but you cannot restrain colonialism. You can only overpower it with more power.” Peled relates his journey of transformation in his book, “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine”, which he published in 2012. “Geographically it’s a very short journey because Israel is Palestine, which many people don’t realise,” Peled told MEMO, “but the journey from the sphere of the privileged, the sphere where everything is clean and safe and the roads are paved, and you have plenty of water, and your rights are secure and you have no worries to the journey of the oppressed, the journey of the occupied, the journey of the dispossessed is an enormous journey – mentally, emotionally, politically.” Peled made the transition from being a “coloniser” to being “an immigrant” in Palestine. Coming as a coloniser gives you a sense of being better than the indigenous population and having rights, whereas coming as an immigrant makes you appreciate the land that you’ve come to, he explained. The longer the journey continues – and it still continues – the more I discover, the more I learn, the more I…gain understanding and appreciation for the Palestinian experience, for the Palestinian reality, for Palestine itself as a country, as a nation, as a culture. Settlements and the One State reality Peled says he finds the international community’s response to the settlements, reflected in the anti-settlement UN Security Council Resolution 2334 adopted last December and mounting calls by political leaders to stop settlement expansion, to be “the height of hypocrisy”. “Settlements didn’t begin yesterday,” he said. “Settlements in Palestine on stolen Palestinian land began in 1948.” “The settler-colonial project which is the State of Israel has been going on for seven decades, and now suddenly the international community discovers that there’s a problem?” he exclaimed. Peled is of the opinion that the widespread construction of Israeli settlements across what is known as the Occupied West Bank has in fact created a reality on the ground of a single state, particularly since Israel completed the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. That is the reality today, so is it one state or two states? The sheer stupidity of this argument – of this conversation – is sometimes shocking because it has been a single state; it’s been an apartheid state from the very beginning. “There is no West Bank,” he emphasised. “Everybody who is aware of the situation in Palestine knows that there hasn’t been a West Bank in a long time.” Peled argues that Israel began integrating the West Bank to the rest of the country – the land of Israel – before the 1967 war was even over. “Entire villages, entire towns, entire communities were destroyed by Israeli bulldozers and massive building began for Jews only in the West Bank just like everywhere else.” |
Apartheid State
“It has been a one state since then governed by a single government which is the State of Israel, albeit by dividing the population by different sets of laws,” Peled said.
“Whereas the laws that govern my life when I’m there are the laws of a liberal democracy as a Jew,” he explained, “the laws that govern the life of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens are a certain set of apartheid racist laws.”
“Jews in the West Bank – or what used to be the West Bank – are governed by the laws of Israel, civil law,” he continued, adding that Palestinians in the West Bank on the other hand are governed by military law, with subdivisions of Areas A, B and C.
As for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, often referred to as Israeli Arabs, Peled says that as far as Israel is concerned they “have no part in this vision of the land of Israel, of the State of Israel, the Jewish State. They have no distinct identity; they have no distinct connection to the land or anything like that.”
“Then sometimes it’s kind of quaint to say: Well, we have minorities,” he added, indicating that they are treated as second class citizens. As an example, Peled drew a contrast between the way in which the state deals with demolition orders, describing how the army would come in immediately and demolish Arab structures built without permits.
“Half…the people I know have homes and extensions to their homes which were done without permits,” he said. “It’s a reality because the bureaucracy is so complicated, but you wouldn’t dream of…armed guards coming in fully armed like combat soldiers and demolishing homes in a Jewish town.”
“It will take years through the courts before anybody even imagines to give me an order to take it down.”
In the case of Gaza, Peled says that Israel is faced with two choices; “Fix the problem, allow the refugees to return, rebuild or kill.” That is why, he says, from time to time Israel “has to escalate” and attack Gaza.
“There is a threat to Israel from Gaza,” he explained further, “but it’s not a military threat, it’s a threat to Israel’s legitimacy because this humanitarian disaster is a direct result of the creation of the State of Israel.”
“Israel can’t allow that,” he continued, voicing his frustration with the international community’s response.
I don’t know how the world, how anybody can be so gullible, so stupid to accept this massacre of innocent, unarmed, harmless civilians can be called self-defence.
Peled says that Israelis avoid any acknowledgment of Palestinian rights and claim to the land. To Israeli society, Israel in 1967 “completed the conquest or the return of our land to proper ownership, the Jews, and that’s the end of the story.”
“There is no Palestine; there are no Palestinians in Israeli consciousness. It’s the land of Israel,” he stressed. “As long as we kill more of them than they kill of us, we’re going to be fine. There is no vision beyond that.”
BDS ‘is how you bring about change’
A staunch supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Peled believes that it is going to be remembered as “one of the major forces that eventually [led to the liberation] of Palestine.”
“No racist regime has ever voluntarily gone up and left,” he argued, “and without consequences for their actions, they’re not going to change.”
Imposing boycott, divestment and sanctions on the State of Israel is morally the right thing to do…It is how you bring about change.
Recently, Israel’s parliament approved a controversial law banning anyone found to support the BDS movement from entering the country. “This shows how this regime is completely undemocratic,” Peled argued.
“It is like all other undemocratic regimes that spend their resources on the survival of the regime – not the rights and wellbeing of the people and not democracy,” he added, pointing out that the government now must investigate every person coming in, including Jewish visitors who until now were considered “safe” and were only subjected to limited questioning.
“They’re trying to conflate [BDS] with terrorism and antisemitism,” he concluded, “because they realise that it is a real threat.”
“That is of course nonsense,” he maintained, adding that the demands of BDS are “completely reasonable”. “The return of the refugees which the international community already accepted, the end of the military regime in the West Bank and Gaza and equal rights for the Palestinians who are, you know, [living within the Israeli borders of] 1948. What could be more reasonable than that?”
“Just like in the 60s people were judged by…Vietnam, and civil rights and then apartheid and so forth in the 80s,” Peled believes that “this entire generation that is alive today will be judged by our stance on Palestine.”
“I think we’ll all want to be in a place where when our children and our grandchildren ask us where we stood, we can say we stood on the side of justice.”
The transformation of a racist, colonialist, apartheid regime into a democracy is doable, and it is doable within a relatively short timeframe. We just need to act.
“It has been a one state since then governed by a single government which is the State of Israel, albeit by dividing the population by different sets of laws,” Peled said.
“Whereas the laws that govern my life when I’m there are the laws of a liberal democracy as a Jew,” he explained, “the laws that govern the life of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens are a certain set of apartheid racist laws.”
“Jews in the West Bank – or what used to be the West Bank – are governed by the laws of Israel, civil law,” he continued, adding that Palestinians in the West Bank on the other hand are governed by military law, with subdivisions of Areas A, B and C.
As for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, often referred to as Israeli Arabs, Peled says that as far as Israel is concerned they “have no part in this vision of the land of Israel, of the State of Israel, the Jewish State. They have no distinct identity; they have no distinct connection to the land or anything like that.”
“Then sometimes it’s kind of quaint to say: Well, we have minorities,” he added, indicating that they are treated as second class citizens. As an example, Peled drew a contrast between the way in which the state deals with demolition orders, describing how the army would come in immediately and demolish Arab structures built without permits.
“Half…the people I know have homes and extensions to their homes which were done without permits,” he said. “It’s a reality because the bureaucracy is so complicated, but you wouldn’t dream of…armed guards coming in fully armed like combat soldiers and demolishing homes in a Jewish town.”
“It will take years through the courts before anybody even imagines to give me an order to take it down.”
In the case of Gaza, Peled says that Israel is faced with two choices; “Fix the problem, allow the refugees to return, rebuild or kill.” That is why, he says, from time to time Israel “has to escalate” and attack Gaza.
“There is a threat to Israel from Gaza,” he explained further, “but it’s not a military threat, it’s a threat to Israel’s legitimacy because this humanitarian disaster is a direct result of the creation of the State of Israel.”
“Israel can’t allow that,” he continued, voicing his frustration with the international community’s response.
I don’t know how the world, how anybody can be so gullible, so stupid to accept this massacre of innocent, unarmed, harmless civilians can be called self-defence.
Peled says that Israelis avoid any acknowledgment of Palestinian rights and claim to the land. To Israeli society, Israel in 1967 “completed the conquest or the return of our land to proper ownership, the Jews, and that’s the end of the story.”
“There is no Palestine; there are no Palestinians in Israeli consciousness. It’s the land of Israel,” he stressed. “As long as we kill more of them than they kill of us, we’re going to be fine. There is no vision beyond that.”
BDS ‘is how you bring about change’
A staunch supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Peled believes that it is going to be remembered as “one of the major forces that eventually [led to the liberation] of Palestine.”
“No racist regime has ever voluntarily gone up and left,” he argued, “and without consequences for their actions, they’re not going to change.”
Imposing boycott, divestment and sanctions on the State of Israel is morally the right thing to do…It is how you bring about change.
Recently, Israel’s parliament approved a controversial law banning anyone found to support the BDS movement from entering the country. “This shows how this regime is completely undemocratic,” Peled argued.
“It is like all other undemocratic regimes that spend their resources on the survival of the regime – not the rights and wellbeing of the people and not democracy,” he added, pointing out that the government now must investigate every person coming in, including Jewish visitors who until now were considered “safe” and were only subjected to limited questioning.
“They’re trying to conflate [BDS] with terrorism and antisemitism,” he concluded, “because they realise that it is a real threat.”
“That is of course nonsense,” he maintained, adding that the demands of BDS are “completely reasonable”. “The return of the refugees which the international community already accepted, the end of the military regime in the West Bank and Gaza and equal rights for the Palestinians who are, you know, [living within the Israeli borders of] 1948. What could be more reasonable than that?”
“Just like in the 60s people were judged by…Vietnam, and civil rights and then apartheid and so forth in the 80s,” Peled believes that “this entire generation that is alive today will be judged by our stance on Palestine.”
“I think we’ll all want to be in a place where when our children and our grandchildren ask us where we stood, we can say we stood on the side of justice.”
The transformation of a racist, colonialist, apartheid regime into a democracy is doable, and it is doable within a relatively short timeframe. We just need to act.
