Handbook on Israeli Apartheid - by Stephen Lendman
Israel is a colonialist, apartheid repressive state.
In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations created the global BDS movement - for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights" for Occupied Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees.
Since 1948, dozens of UN resolutions condemned Israel's colonial occupation, decades of discriminatory policies, illegal land seizures, settlements, international law violations, and harsh oppression. They called for remedial action.
Nothing so far worked. Palestine remains occupied. Its people keep suffering. Their human rights are denied. Gaza's suffocating under siege. Abuses this extreme can't be tolerated.
In solidarity, people of conscience demand justice and "call upon international civil society organizations and (supporters everywhere) to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to (apartheid) South Africa."Pressure's needed for "embargoes and sanctions....for the sake of justice and genuine peace."
Corporate Watch recently published a volume titled, "Targeting Israeli Apartheid: A Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Handbook."
Calling it a "guide many of us in the movement have been waiting for," it "demystif(ies) and expose(s) the daily reproduction of the occupation of Palestine."Clear forensic evidence shows how colonization continues. The guide lists "names, addresses, profit margins, and zones of activity of the corporate web that sustains this injustice."
Through understanding comes better ways to intervene. Activists are given detailed information in nearly 400 pages. The material exposes the anti-Semitism canard. Occupation, repression and exploitation have no religion or ethnicity.
Decades of colonization continue because it's profitable. The guide frames it as "an international economic and cultural dynamic that we can identify in our own countries, on our streets and in our own homes."
Nonetheless, resistance offers hope and change. "(I)nformation is action." Grassroots solidarity can end Israeli apartheid, militarism, occupation and repression. BDS activism unites global civil societies to do it collectively. It explains:
"The key lesson learned from South Africa is that, in order for world governments to end their complicity with Israel's grave and persistent violation of human rights and international law, they must be compelled to do so through mass, well organized grassroots pressure by social movements and other components of civil society."
