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Palestine’s Diplomatic Intifada
Despite recent rockets flying across the Arab-Israeli border, Palestinians prefer to speak of “diplomatic intifada” against the blockade of the peace negotiations led by Netanyahu’s extremist coalition government. The Israelis complain, however, that attempts to delegitimize the Jewish state threaten its survival and that such initiatives are an example of anti-Semitism. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) plan, promoted by Palestinian activists for a decade, began to gain notoriety after the last war against Gaza last summer. Now, the diplomatic war is one of the top concerns for Israel, whose parliament met Wednesday in an extraordinary emergency debate to deal with the increasing pressures issued by the BDS movement. Israeli television showed Friday as president of the Palestinian Football Federation dared to show a red card to Israel at the FIFA congress before withdrawing its proposed suspension against the Jewish State. State President, Reuven Rivlin, expressed concern last week about the considerable reduction in the financing from foreign companies which is normally used for applied research projects on college campuses. The decision of the British Union of Students to join the BDS on Tuesday finally sounded the alarms. “As it is not politically correct to be anti-Semitic, now many are disguised as anti-Israel,” said Ayelet Shaked, to the deputies of the Knesset Minister of Justice. Mr. Shaked is a rising star of Israeli nationalism. “The BDS campaign is opposed to Israel as a Jewish state, to denigrate and destroy it,” he argued, “it criminalizes the Jews and our state. So we’re going to boycott those who boycott us.” The Labour opposition warned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if it does not act on the diplomatic front, the Palestinians will try to repeat history with Israel as it happened with the apartheid in South Africa, which began by expelling that country from the International Federation of Soccer Associations (FIFA). “It seems as if anyone who criticizes the occupation of Palestinian territories is an anti-Semite,” replied Zehava Gal-On, spokesman for the peace party Meretz. “But it is Netanyahu’s policy that encourages those who boycott us,” he added. Shortly before the debate developed, Netanyahu had stated before the Canadian Foreign Minister, Robert Nicholson, on official visit to Jerusalem, that one must remember that “Israel has an exemplary democracy with freedom of the press, academic freedom and human rights”. Last night, Israeli Channel 2 broadcast a wide televised interview with President Barack Obama, in which he recalled previous statements by Prime Minister Netanyahu. “His words contain many caveats, so many conditions, it is unrealistic to think that they can be fulfilled in the near future,” said Obama, referring to the peace process with the Palestinians. “The present danger is that Israel, as a whole, ends up losing credibility,” the president said during the interview. “The international community does not believe that Israel is serious about its commitment to the two-state solution,” added Obama, referring to the promise issued by Netanyahu that he would not allow the creation of a Palestinian state if it was re-elected. For the Israeli political analyst Eran Shayshon, “you cannot qualify everything that moves around the BDS campaign as anti-semitic.” This expert in the movement to boycott Israel makes the difference between criticism centered on the occupation of Palestinian territories launched by so-called left-wing organizations in Western countries and those from “Islamic fundamentalist groups” seeking to delegitimize Israel. Omar Barghouti, one of the founders of the campaign, has said that Israel “has failed to hinder the rapid growth of the BDS”. Palestinian activists described the movement as “anti-racist, based on human rights and non-violent challenges to oppression”. Read the rest below at the source link
Source: http://real-agenda.com/palestines-diplomatic-intifada/
