Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Palestinians protest
the separation barrier
19
in the West Bank
city of Tulkarem,
May 31, 2014.
The Nation.
Those dedicated to the Palestinian cause should think carefully about the tactics they choose.
by NOAM CHOMSKY
he misery caused by israels actions in the
occupied territories has elicited serious concern
among at least some Israelis. One of the most outspoken, for many years, has been Gideon Levy,
a columnist for Haaretz, who writes that Israel
should be condemned and punished for creating insufferable life under occupation, [and] for the fact that a country
that claims to be among the enlightened nations continues
abusing an entire people, day and night.
He is surely correct, and we should add something
more: the United States should also be condemned and
punished for providing the decisive military, economic,
diplomatic and even ideological support for these crimes.
So long as it continues to do so, there is little reason to
Noam Chomsky,
Institute Professor
emeritus at MIT,
has written many
books and articles
on international
affairs, in particular on Israel
and Palestine.
stop undermining the international consensus, which favors a two-state settlement along the internationally recognized border (the Green Line established in the 1949
ceasere agreements), with guarantees for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of
all states in the area and their right to live in peace within
secure and recognized boundaries. That was the wording of a resolution brought to the UN Security Council
in January 1976 by Egypt, Syria and Jordan, supported by
the Arab statesand vetoed by the United States.
This was not the rst time Washington had barred a
peaceful diplomatic settlement. The prize for that goes
to Henry Kissinger, who supported Israels 1971 decision
to reject a settlement offered by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, choosing expansion over securitya course
that Israel has followed with US support ever since.
Sometimes Washingtons position becomes almost comical, as in February 2011, when the Obama administration vetoed a UN resolution that supported ofcial US
policy: opposition to Israels settlement expansion, which
continues (also with US support) despite some whispers
of disapproval.
It is not expansion of the huge settlement and infrastructure program (including the separation wall) that is
the issue, but rather its very existenceall of it illegal, as
determined by the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice, and recognized as such by virtually the entire world apart from Israel and the United
States since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who downgraded illegal to an obstacle to peace.
One way to punish Israel for its egregious crimes
was initiated by the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom in
1997: a boycott of settlement products. Such initiatives
have been considerably expanded since then. In June,
the Presbyterian Church resolved to divest from three
US-based multinationals involved in the occupation.
The most far-reaching success is the policy directive of
the European Union that forbids funding, cooperation,
research awards or any similar relationship with any
Israeli entity that has direct or indirect links to the
occupied territories, where all settlements are illegal,
as the EU declaration reiterates. Britain had already di-
The Nation.
Failed
initiatives
harm the
victims by
shifting
attention to
irrelevant
issues and
by wasting
opportunities
to do
something
meaningful.
The Presbyterian
Church divested from
Caterpillar because its
products contribute
to the Israeli
occupation.
rected retailers to distinguish between goods originating from Palestinian producers and goods originating
from illegal Israeli settlements.
Four years ago, Human Rights Watch called on Israel
to abide by its international legal obligation to remove
the settlements and to end its blatantly discriminatory
practices in the occupied territories. HRW also called
on the United States to suspend nancing to Israel in an
amount equivalent to the costs of Israels spending in support of settlements, and to verify that tax exemptions for
organizations contributing to Israel are consistent with
U.S. obligations to ensure respect for international law,
including prohibitions against discrimination.
There have been a great many other boycott and divestment initiatives in the past decade, occasionallybut
not sufcientlyreaching to the crucial matter of US
support for Israeli crimes. Meanwhile, a BDS movement
(calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions) has
been formed, often citing South African models; more
accurately, the abbreviation should be BD, since sanctions, or state actions, are not on the horizonone of
the many signicant differences from South Africa.
he opening call of the bds movement, by a
group of Palestinian intellectuals in 2005, demanded that Israel fully comply with international law
by (1) Ending its occupation and colonization of
all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall; (2) Recognizing the fundamental rights of
the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
(3) Respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of
Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
This call received considerable attention, and deservedly so. But if were concerned about the fate of the victims, BD and other tactics have to be carefully thought
through and evaluated in terms of their likely consequences. The pursuit of (1) in the above list makes good
sense: it has a clear objective and is readily understood by
its target audience in the West, which is why the many initiatives guided by (1) have been quite successfulnot only
in punishing Israel, but also in stimulating other forms
of opposition to the occupation and US support for it.
However, this is not the case for (3). While there is
near-universal international support for (1), there is virtually no meaningful support for (3) beyond the BDS
movement itself. Nor is (3) dictated by international
law. The text of UN General Assembly Resolution 194
is conditional, and in any event it is a recommendation,
without the legal force of the Security Council resolutions that Israel regularly violates. Insistence on (3) is a
virtual guarantee of failure.
The only slim hope for realizing (3) in more than
token numbers is if longer-term developments lead to
the erosion of the imperial borders imposed by France
and Britain after World War I, which, like similar borders, have no legitimacy. This could lead to a no-state
solutionthe optimal one, in my view, and in the real
world no less plausible than the one-state solution that
is commonly, but mistakenly, discussed as an alternative
to the international consensus.
JUSTIN MCINTOSH
20
21
The Nation.
Years earlierby 1960global investors had already abandoned South Africa to such an extent that its nancial reserves
were halved; although there was some recovery, the handwriting was on the wall. In contrast, US investment is owing into
Israel. When Warren Buffett bought an Israeli tool-making rm
for $2 billion last year, he described Israel as the most promising
country for investors outside the United States itself.
While there is, nally, a growing domestic opposition in the
United States to Israeli crimes, it does not remotely compare with
the South African case. The necessary educational work has not
been done. Spokespeople for the BDS movement may believe they
have attained their South African moment, but that is far from
accurate. And if tactics are to be effective, they must be based on a
realistic assessment of actual circumstances.
Much the same is true of the invocation of apartheid. Within
Israel, discrimination against non-Jews is severe; the land laws are
just the most extreme example. But it is not South Africanstyle
apartheid. In the occupied territories, the situation is far worse
than it was in South Africa, where the white nationalists needed
the black population: it was the countrys workforce, and as grotesque as the bantustans were, the nationalist government devoted
resources to sustaining and seeking international recognition for
them. In sharp contrast, Israel wants to rid itself of the Palestinian
burden. The road ahead is not toward South Africa, as commonly
alleged, but toward something much worse.
Where that road leads is unfolding before our eyes. As Sternhell observes, Israel will continue its current policies. It will maintain a vicious siege of Gaza, separating it from the West Bank,
as the United States and Israel have been doing ever since they
THE ECONOMICS
OF SUSTAINABILITY
Emerging Models for a Healthy Planet
Our challenge is to bring forth a transformation of cultural and economic
relationships so that environmental sustainability, social justice, and
economic democracy become our way of life.
OCTOBER 6 9, 2014
FORT M A SON,
SA N FR A NCISCO, CA
For details and to register, please visit
our website: www.praxispeace.org
or call 707-939-2973
accepted the Oslo Accords in 1993. Although Oslo declared Palestine to be a single territorial unit, in ofcial
Israeli parlance the West Bank and Gaza have become
two separate and different areas. As usual, there are security pretexts, which collapse quickly upon examination.
In the West Bank, Israel will continue to take whatever it nds valuableland, water, resourcesdispersing the limited Palestinian population while integrating
these acquisitions within a Greater Israel. This includes
the vastly expanded Jerusalem that Israel annexed in
violation of Security Council orders; everything on the
Israeli side of the illegal separation wall; corridors to
the east creating unviable Palestinian cantons; the Jordan Valley, where Palestinians are being systematically
expelled and Jewish settlements established; and huge
infrastructure projects linking all these acquisitions to
Israel proper.
The road ahead leads not to South Africa, but rather
to an increase in the proportion of Jews in the Greater
Israel that is being constructed. This is the realistic alternative to a two-state settlement. There is no reason
to expect Israel to accept a Palestinian population it does
not want.
John Kerry was bitterly condemned when he repeated
the lamentcommon inside Israelthat unless the Israelis accept some kind of two-state solution, their country will become an apartheid state, ruling over a territory
with an oppressed Palestinian majority and facing the
dreaded demographic problem: too many non-Jews in
a Jewish state. The proper criticism is that this common
belief is a mirage. As long as the United States supports
Israels expansionist policies, there is no reason to expect
them to cease. Tactics have to be designed accordingly.
However, there is one comparison to South Africa that
is realisticand signicant. In 1958, South Africas foreign minister informed the US ambassador that it didnt
much matter if South Africa became a pariah state. The
UN may harshly condemn South Africa, he said, but, as
the ambassador put it, what mattered perhaps more than
all other votes put together was that of [the] U.S. in view
of its predominant position of leadership in [the] Western
world. For forty years, ever since it chose expansion over
security, Israel has made essentially the same judgment.
For South Africa, the calculation was fairly successful
The Nation.
The road
ahead is not
toward South
Africa, as
commonly
alleged,
but toward
something
much worse.
Israels relentless
settlement expansion
continues with US
support, despite
some whispers of
disapproval.
BERNAT ARMANGUE/AP
22
Copyright of Nation is the property of Nation Company, L. P. and its content may not be
copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's
express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for
individual use.