Where’s BDS? Israeli firms to secure World Cup

by on February 25, 2010 28
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For readers active in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement, here is an obvious target that has been overlooked. According to today's Jerusalem Post,

"Over 30 Israeli companies are set to help South Africa secure this summer's Soccer World Cup, via hi-tech security products ranging from rocket-proof shields to cameras that can climb up poles and broadcast panoramic pictures to control shelters.

Israeli companies are already playing a huge role in South Africa,” Marc Kahlberg, managing director of M.K. International Security Consulting, which represents several of the companies, said on Wednesday.

“They will help secure the stadiums, airport and parking lots, and their products will be used by private security firms and government in South Africa...”

Evidently, this fruitful relationship between the country that ended apartheid and the country accused by its own leaders of heading towards apartheid has been budding for several years,

"Kahlberg said the fruitful trade was underpinned by a relationship that began in 2007 between his own company; former South African ambassador to Israel Fumi Gjabi, a former general in the South African Defense Force; and Moshe Leder, head of Global Business Development for the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute, as well as Israel’s Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry."

Maybe BDS can get Nelson Mandela and the Congress of South African Trade Unions to use their influence.

About Bruce Wolman

Bruce Wolman is a citizen journalist who has lived in Norway and the Washington area.
Posted in BDS, Israel/Palestine

{ 28 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Oscar says:
    February 25, 2010 at 8:40 am

    Where’s Bishop Desmond Tutu on this situation? Also, sneding out the bat-signal for Bono.

  2. potsherd says:
    February 25, 2010 at 9:03 am

    Maybe they can bring back PW Botha to play for the national team.

  3. dalybean says:
    February 25, 2010 at 11:49 am

    The EU just ruled that Israel is not eligible for favorable trade status on any products from beyond the 67 borders.

    • aparisian says:
      February 25, 2010 at 12:23 pm

      what i read is that they will tax the Israeli products coming from beyond the 67 borders. I think the EU should take other measures against commercial ties with Israel using its jurisdiction on human rights.

  4. Gene says:
    February 25, 2010 at 11:52 am

    I don’t want to hijack this thread but I feel this is relevant information that may be of interest to the BDS people who come to this site. While there have been important developments in the boycott of the Israeli regime, there’s still very long way to go. It seems that those BDS successes have been mere crumbs thrown our way. Is it too far-fetched to surmise that the BDS movement may have been corrupted in a way that prevents it from seeing the forest for the trees? For example, many events are happening under the radar in Canada [Links provided below to avoid complications from Mondoweiss’ spam firewall]. The BDS movement has been totally silent on those (or may be I just missed their outcry? I can only hope.)

    We are swimming upstream in this struggle, as Gideon Spiro noted:

    The Palestinian armed resistance has been successfully suppressed by the iron fist of the Israeli Occupation; our health-care system is more advanced than that of the USA; the number of students relative to the population is among the highest in the Western world; our universities enjoy international prestige; the high-tech industry is advanced; first-rate international artists perform in Israel; Israeli artists are invited to cultural events all over the world; the Israeli currency is stable; despite the apartheid regime Israel is not being boycotted; so far all attempts to boycott Israeli exports have failed; all attempts to declare an academic boycott on Israel have failed; countries like Spain and Belgium have changed their laws in order to spare Israel the embarrassment of having its war criminals put on trial; the British foreign minister apologized to Israel for a British court’s issuance of a warrant for the arrest of Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister during the Gaza War, on suspicion of war crimes; hundreds of thousands of Israelis travel abroad every year and the Israeli passport today permits entry into over a hundred countries; generous foreign assistance from the USA and Europe continues to flow towards Israel, and Israel enjoys freedom of action to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. – LINK

    Right now, I’m rather inclined to agree with this: “What are you saying? That it’s in vain? I know it. But one does not fight in the hope of success. No. It is much more beautiful when it is in vain.” I guess we fight also because it allows us to overcome the urge to vomit when we look at ourselves in the mirror every day.

    • Gene says:
      February 25, 2010 at 11:52 am

      Comment cont’d: … For example, many events are happening under the radar in Canada [see here, here and here].

    • Taxi says:
      February 25, 2010 at 12:26 pm

      “We bury ourselves to the waist in mud
      To help those looking for lilies.”

      Federico Garcia Lorca

    • Julian says:
      February 25, 2010 at 4:16 pm

      Don’t forget Kairos has been defunded by the heroic Canadian government. Big, big loss for BDS.

      • Bravo says:
        February 25, 2010 at 5:59 pm

        I think that article touches on more of the reality of the situation then we let on here and other activist sites. I really wish BDS could work, but our highly globalized world and Israel’s competitive advantage in the marketplace makes it incredibly far fetched.

        But the irony is that Israel can act smug and indignant about the movement, but if and when BDS fails, the next stage will be full-scale war. Israelis think that they don’t have to worry about that because of their military superiority, but they’re a nation of 7 million people surrounded by a sea of enemies. The odds of lasting in that environment get slimmer everyday. As long as this conflict continues, Arabs and Muslims all over the world will work on figuring a way to take them down. So yes, Israel, enjoy your “hummus” and your Intel offices and your film festivals, while letting this conflict fester. As Benny Morris himself admitted during the Gaza offensive, the walls are closing in. BDS might be the last thing that could save them.

    • syvanen says:
      February 25, 2010 at 9:26 pm

      I can’t decide if Gene is extremely naive or a concern troll. Absolutely of course, the BDS is not having a major impact on the Israeli economy — it has only been in the last year that this movement has moved beyond a relatively narrow spectrum on the left in Europe and the US. What is notable, is that it is starting to move into the mainstream. Israel and its western backers remain extremely powerful and can fight back — if you didn’t know this before you signed on better recognize it now. Success in the first few years will be measured in really small steps. It would utterly unrealistic to try to measure progress in terms of currency exchange rates of GDP at this point. In fact, once those measures start to move, it will be close to game over.

  5. Queue says:
    February 25, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    I didn’t realize it, but the Presbyterean church wascoming close to sanctioning BDS. Here is an article from Pajamas Media, a neocon outlet, likening the Presbyterean church to Amalek, the eternal enemy of the Jews for endorsing BDS and for openly stating that Christians do not have a theological mandate to support Israel:

    Presbyterians Usher in the Jewish Holiday of Purim
    Divestment and the War Against the Jews, Part 2010.

    The Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUSA) is about to release a report which denounces Israel as a “racist” nation which has absolutely no historical, covenantal, or theological right to the Holy Land. The report calls for the United States to withhold financial and military aid to Israel and for boycotts and sanctions against Israel. That’s not all. The report also endorses a Palestinian “right of return” and “apologizes to Palestinians for even conceding that Israel has a right to exist.” According to the press release, it also states that Israel’s history begins only with the Holocaust and that Israel is “a nation mistakenly created by Western powers at the expense of the Palestinian people to solve the ‘Jewish problem’.”

    In addition, PCUSA has also resolved to divest in companies that supply military equipment to the American Army, e.g. Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, etc.

    In 2004, this Church became the first mainline Protestant denomination in America to “approve a policy of divestment from Israel.” This was rescinded, but in 2008 the Church “created a committee dominated by seven activists holding strong anti-Israel beliefs. The lone member sympathetic to Israel, quit in protest when he saw their radical agenda.”

    The Simon Wiesenthal Center notes that 46 members of the US Congress and Senate are Presbyterians and fears potentially “significant repercussions in the political domain” as well as a negative “impact on interfaith relations.” They urge us all to protest directly to the top leadership of the PCUSA “to stop this dangerous campaign which denies the legitimacy and security of Israel,” and to “reach out to your Presbyterian friends.”

    Rembrandt: Assuerus, Haman, and Esther, 1660
    Amalek (the eternal enemy of the Jews) has arrived, right on time for the Purim festival. The war against the Jews is precisely what Purim is about. We read the classic indictment against the Jews for the first time in full in the haunting story of Esther. Haman, the Persian King’s advisor, tells him this: “There exists a particular people, far-flung, widespread among the peoples in all the colonies of your realm. Their customs differ from those of all peoples, and they do not abide by his majesty’s bylaws; his majesty has nothing to gain by tolerating them.” Haman also points out that the Jews are wealthy and offers the King the lion’s share of the spoils.

    The Jews have been looked at suspiciously, murderously before — in Egypt for example, where their prosperity, fertility, and potential of becoming a fifth column greatly worried the new Pharaoh. But even Pharaoh did not propose what Haman (and Hitler after him) proposed: send the same edict everywhere, “to devastate, slaughter, and annihilate all the Jews (Yehudim), from the youngest to the oldest, children, women, in a single day…with their booty to be despoiled.”

    Esther, known for her grace and charm, as well as for her beauty, is the Queen. Esther was forcibly “taken,” and the King was “taken” with her; she did not freely choose to compete in the beauty contest to become the new Queen, especially since the King had killed her predecessor, Queen Vashti, for refusing to appear “naked” before her drunken husband and his drunken guests.

    The King does not know that Esther is a Jew; she has not told him. Upon hearing of this dreadful edict, her uncle, Mordechai, the leader of the Jews and the man who has raised her, dons sackcloth and ashes, fasts, mourns, and cries out at the King’s gate. At first, Esther does not want to get involved. She is afraid that she, too, might be killed for daring to approach the King when he has not called for her. But Mordechai says: “You had better not fantasize that in the royal palace you will escape the fate of all the other Jews. For, if you keep silent at this time, release and liberation will materialize for the Jews from some other source and you and your father’s lineage will perish.”

    Esther more than rises to the occasion. She says: “If I’m lost, I will be lost.” Paradoxically, Esther is lost, and precisely because of what she does. In saving the Jewish people from genocide she herself is lost to Jewish destiny in her own lifetime. She is the wife of a non-Jewish King. She will always live apart from her people in the women’s quarters of the palace. The rabbis do not believe that she had any children — but even if she did, they would not have been raised as Jews.

    Esther’s task, her existential choice, is the same one we each face at this time. Each Jew may fantasize that they can escape the genocidal edict — by assimilating, by being the first to criticize the Jewish state, by converting out, hiding out. And, God’s presence is veiled, hidden, in human history. We may never know in advance whether our brave act will succeed or whether we ourselves will be saved or sacrificed.

    Esther is sacrificed; she sacrifices herself to save her people. Haman/Amalek is defeated and in fact suffers the very fate he’d planned for Mordechai: death on the gallows.

    Scroll of Esther
    Of course, Esther’s memory is cherished; she herself insisted that her story be written down and entered into the Canon. The telling of her story each and every year is Esther’s legacy, her earthly immortality, her progeny.

    While I am not volunteering to marry the Reverend Bruce Reyes-Chow, the moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of America, I am certainly willing to talk with the committee. In Esther’s merit, perhaps I will contact them without being invited to do so. Perhaps we all should. You can find contact information for members of PCUSA’s Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment here.

    I believe that both Esther and Mordechai were right. The Jews will never be destroyed — and yet, God will always need human partners, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who are willing to risk everything in order to turn back the tide of genocidal hatred against the Jews.

    They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat, drink, and be merry. Happy Purim!