Mahmoud Abbas accused of being traitor over rejection of Israel boycott | World news | ... - 0 views
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Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has been accused of being a traitor by activists after publicly rejecting calls for a boycott of Israel.His unambiguous statement, made in the aftermath of Nelson Mandela's death, has fuelled a bitter debate on the legitimacy and efficacy of sanctions over Israel's treatment of Palestinians.However, Abbas distinguished between Israel's borders and its settlements in Palestinian territories. "We do not support the boycott of Israel. But we ask everyone to boycott the products of the settlements."His comments infuriated the boycott movement, which after Mandela's death has been boosted by comparisons with the anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa and the decision last week of the American Studies Association (ASA) to boycott Israeli academic institutions.The boycott movement claims it is on a roll, citing a recent EU prohibition against giving grants or funds to bodies with links to settlements, a warning by the British government that firms risk damaging their reputations if they have dealings with Israeli enterprises across the Green Line, and the decision by a Dutch company to sever links with the Israeli water company, Mekorot.
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The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, set up in 2005 by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organisations, expects next year "to cross even higher thresholds in its drive to isolate Israel, just as South Africa was isolated under apartheid", said Omar Barghouti, one of its founding members.The ASA's decision was "fresh evidence that the BDS movement may be reaching a tipping point on college campuses and among academic associations", he added. Two other US academic bodies – the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and the Association of American Asian Studies – have also backed the boycott movement.
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Samia Botmeh, a lecturer at Birzeit university in the West Bank and a leading member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, said restricting a boycott to settlements was to focus on the consequences, rather than the origins, of the occupation.
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The Palestinian Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment ("BSD") campaign breaks into mainstream media. For several years, I have subscribed to a daily digest of news on Israel-Palestine issues. Modeled on the successful South African BSD movement that ended the South African apartheid state, the Palestinian movement has had a long string of victories, with only a few of the most recent discussed in this article. The BSD movement, in my studied opinion, represents the best hope of finally resolving the Palestinian Question, resulting in a single non-sectarian state spanning both Israel and Palestine. Until that day, Israel's war crimes against Palestinians, extending from the forced expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians when Israel was first formed via terrorist paramilitary actions, will likely continue.