[AktiviX-discuss] Big Plan

[Ian Gregory]

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 01:35:33PM +0100, ana wrote:

> The view of all Germans I have asked is that they would not support 
> groups advocating actions against the whole county (read people) of 
> Israel, like boycotts. This is because things like boycotts would 
> badly affect not just the government, but all people who live in 
> Israel.

That is a widely deployed argument against boycotts in general - that 
they hurt the people of a country not the rulers. In the case of a 
dictatorship the argument has more force because the people may well 
oppose the objectionable policies which the boycott aims to change.

To the extent that Israel is a democracy the people of Israel knowingly 
elected a government committed to policies which violate international 
law. Of course many Israelis oppose these policies, and some even 
support BDS[1] (though the Israeli government is trying to criminalise 
such support[2]).

As I said, the general argument would apply to a boycott of any country.  
The difference with Israel is that the Israeli government is trying to 
stave off BDS by falsely equating it with antisemitism, even to the 
extent of trying to persuade other countries to criminalise support for 
BDS on the grounds of antisemitism. So what about all the Jews around 
the world that support BDS - are they antisemitic? I see it as the duty 
of any progressive organisation to oppose such nonsense (though I accept 
that it may be difficult to do so in Germany for unique historical 
reasons).

Despite the justifications I have seen I am still disturbed by what has 
been revealed and am glad that it is now being discussed outside the 
aktivix core group. 

[1]: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/20/opinion/oe-gordon20
[2]: http://josephdana.com/2011/02/illegal-for-israelis-to-support-bds/

Ian

-- 
Ian Gregory
http://www.zenatode.org.uk/