- That the crime against humanity in the form of apartheid is being committed by Israel is beyond dispute. The 280-page report is very detailed in its exposition of the apartheid system in place against Palestinians in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Israeli answer to the report consists of the usual tired old trope of antisemitism against anyone who dares to criticise it, instead of a line-by-line rebuttal. Accusation of antisemitism against all and sundry critics cheapens it and can plausibly be described as a demand that critics stop being racist towards Israel so that it can be left in peace to conduct its own racist activities against Palestinians. To reiterate, Israel has no intellectual or moral argument to rebut the charge that it is committing apartheid.
- If previous reports by the UN Economic and Social Commission on West Asia (ESCWA), B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch on Israeli apartheid system did not demolish once and for all the misperception that the conflict is between two parties of equal strength and capability, the Amnesty International (AI) report should. All talk about a ‘peace process’ so beloved by American and Europeans politicians and the ensuing implication that both parties, Israeli and Palestinian, are in the position to make concessions should be put to rest forever for the nonsense it really is. There is no balance of power or strength. One party is the oppressor and victimiser, the other the oppressed and victimised. Asking the victim to make concessions is a sign of either mental or moral deficiency. For a peaceful resolution to be achieved, the oppressor must first cease and desist his oppression. Israel must therefore be pressured by all means necessary to dismantle its apartheid system.
- How many human rights reports on Israeli apartheid does it take for the US and major European powers to finally recognise that their own actions and inactions have been instrumental in perpetuating a crime against humanity on the Palestinians these past seven decades? With the AI report, there is no longer any conscionable excuse for the US and European governments to provide material and significant aid to a country that is a practitioner of apartheid. Guilt over the holocaust cannot and should not be absolved by enabling the Israelis to treat Palestinians in ways similar to how the Nazis did to European Jews.
- The ‘Recommendations’ section of the AI report, including those calling for governmental action, has been made presumably with the full knowledge that the pro-Israeli apartheid lobby in the US, Europe, Canada and Australia is very powerful. How else could a crime against humanity be perpetuated for over 70 years? Politicians apparently are impotent in the face of the lobby. What the recommendation implies is that mass education and awareness activities and pressure campaigns at the grassroot level are extremely crucial to force politicians away from the Israeli lobby and governments to take meaningful actions to stop Israeli apartheid.
- The above taken together with one of the AI recommendations for governments to ‘publicly recognize that international crimes, including the crime of apartheid, are being committed in Israel and the OPT’ are nothing short of an endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a viable means to pressure Israel to dismantle its apartheid policies against Palestinians. The public in the US and Europe should be enlightened to see that anti-BDS laws make no sense and are nothing more than a way to lend support to Israeli apartheid. Boycott of the Israeli apartheid state is a legitimate political freedom and expression, just as it was when used against apartheid South Africa. To impugn antisemitic motives for the boycott is to fall for Israeli propaganda.
- For the American public especially, the AI report, together with reports of other human rights bodies on Israeli apartheid, should be seen as a triumph against the brainwashing by the pro-Israeli propaganda machinery. That machinery, formidable and well financed as it is, does have its limitations. And that should encourage the intensification of the campaign to make the public in the US and beyond be more aware about the issue and start questioning their governments’ blind support for a country that practices apartheid. For example, why are billions being given to the only country in the world that puts children before military courts and imprisons them? Why is diplomatic support still provided for a country that has blatantly disregarded countless UN resolutions? Why are laws so unconstitutional in nature allowed to be passed to protect a foreign country? Above all, it is high time that Israel be treated in the American psyche as just any other foreign country.
- The AI recommendation for governments is to ‘publicly recognize that international crimes, including the crime of apartheid, are being committed in Israel and the OPT’. In other words, to have normal relations with Israel is to normalise and lend respectability to apartheid. This is a vindication for governments, such as Malaysia, which have chosen to show their opposition to Israeli apartheid by not recognising and having any ties with it, including any sporting links. The decisions to bar Israel from participating in the swimming paralympics and the world squash championship which were to be hosted by Malaysia, are perfectly in concurrence with the AI recommendation. The AI report should be required reading for the chairman of the Malaysian National Olympic Committee who apparently entertained fears that Malaysia would be victimised for its sports boycott of Israel and also for the president of the Malaysian Squash Association. It is no longer a question of mixing sports with politics. It is a question of mixing sports with crime against humanity.
From the river to the sea
Palestine will be free
Washington, London, Paris and Berlin, can’t you see?
You’re on the wrong side of history
Tajuddin Hashim
BDS Malaysia
