Should we boycott Israel?
Crossposted and expanded from European Tribune.
That is the question up here in Norway, where the Socialist Left – the pop-radical maverick among three coalition partners – calls for a consumer boycott of Israel over its continuing occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in defiance of international law. (If the timing seems off, note that it was launched before Sharon fell ill.)
Last week, finance minister Kristin Halvorsen caused a diplomatic incident by backing the boycott in her capacity as party leader. This prompted the prime minister and the foreign minister, both from Labor, to stress that boycotting Israel “is not and will never be” government policy. Halvorsen was forced to retract, but her party continues its boycott campaign without her endorsement.
Now, most Norwegians will ignore the boycott. But should they – and others – join it? A tricky question.
First of all, any consumer boycott of Israel would be largely symbolic. The mainstay of Israeli exports isn’t oranges these days: look inside your computer for the stuff that is. One would have to eschew so many electronics, software, and hardware brands as to make an effective boycott unfeasible. But setting this aside, is it ethically sound to boycott Israel?
Per se, I don’t see why not. There is a catch, however. Where are the calls to boycott products from:
- China, for its continuing occupation of Tibet and oppression of the Uighurs?
- Russia, for its massive human rights violations in Chechnya?
- India, for persistently flaunting its promise of referendum in Kashmir?
- The US, the UK, Poland, Italy, & co, for aggressive warfare in breach of the UN Charter?
These are just the big guys; the list could go on for half a page. Is Israel worse than all these, and so deserving to be singled out?
The advocates of boycotting Israel point to a precedent: in the 1980s, South Africa was considered so beyond the pale as to be singled out in precisely this way. A case can be made for the analogy. Here is Ronnie Kasrils, a South African minister and a former commander in the ANC, writing with the journalist Victoria Brittain in a Guardian op-ed last year:
The desire for an ethnic-religious majority of Israeli Jews has seeped across from the occupied territories to permeate the Israeli “national” agenda, which increasingly views Palestinian citizens of Israel as a “demographic threat”, as former prime minster Binyamin Netanyahu phrased it. The Palestinian minority in Israel has for decades been denied basic equality in health, education, housing and land possession, solely because it is not Jewish. The fact that this minority is allowed to vote hardly redresses the rampant injustice in all other basic human rights. They are excluded from the very definition of the “Jewish state”, and have virtually no influence on the laws, or political, social and economic policies. Hence their similarity to the black South Africans.
In addition, and related to the demographic question, Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees, who were ethnically cleansed during the 1948 war, their right to return to their lands and properties. Israel bases its position, which is contrary to fundamental human rights provisions and international law, on its right to preserve its Jewish ethnic-religious supremacy. No other country in the world today dares to claim any similar right.
Persuasive? To some. The county parliament of Sør-Trøndelag, in mid Norway, has just adopted a boycott of Israeli products based on the supposed equivalence in question. But even aside from the historical context of the desire for a Jewish state, there are disanalogies. Although subject to de facto discrimination, the Palestinian Israeli minority is unquestionably better off than was the black South African majority.
That is not obviously so with the Palestinians of the occupied territories. Then again, these are not, nor do they wish to be, Israeli citizens. Most dispute Israel’s right to exist and many, probably most, support violent action against Israeli civilians. This by no means justifies the segregationist policies, but is a somewhat mitigating factor.
On the other hand, much of the anger would dissipate were said policies lifted following a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied land in accordance with UNSC Resolution 242 and its countless follow-ups.
In conclusion, I don’t find Israel quite as bad as apartheid South Africa. I do, however, find it bad enough to be singled out in a consumer boycott.
