sherri, i would start posting elsewherw.

I found each time I was challenged to restate what he was saying, and not being allowed to quote him because of censors, I found myself understanding more of what he was saying and getting more out of his words and doing a better job of getting to the essence of his words in that letter.

I want to share here my statement of what he is saying in that letter and what I said about BDS, when I was challenged to put his letter into my own words.

What else did Desmond Tutu say in the letter he wrote to the students at Berkeley, that I did not discuss in my last post, that is so important to addressing the true nature of BDS?

Desmond Tutu has been to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and he tells the students he has been there and he tells them what he has witnessed in the OPT, which is racially segregated roads and housing that reminds him so much of the same conditions he had experienced personally before in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid in South Africa that he lived under there.

He tells the students of Berkeley that he has witnessed the humiliation of the Palestinian people, the humiliation of men, women, and children made to wait routinely at Israeli checkpoints for hours trying to just make basic trips, to visit relatives, to attend schools, to attend colleges , and he tells them that that humiliation is familiar to him, too, as well as many black South Africans under Apartheid in South Africa, who were regularly corralled, and who were regularly insulted by Apartheid South African security forces.

He tells the students of Berkeley that in South Africa, without the help of the global international community, they would never have achieved freedom from Apartheid and they never would have achieved a just peace.

And that right there is why BDS is so important today, why people of conscience everywhere should embrace it, so that the people of Palestine can be freed from their Occupation and their own Apartheid situation. BDS freed South Africa from Apartheid, and it will free Palestine of Apartheid.

Desmond Tutu addresses in his letter to the students of Berkeley, the nature of BDS, it is using non violent means, such as boycotts and divestments, to encourage corporations and governments to withdraw their support from the Apartheid regime.

BDS is people of conscience all over our world joining together, in solidarity, and using and embracing nonviolent methods to bring to an end an unjust Occupation of men, women, and children in Palestine.

And the global community will never stop morally embracing BDS and standing against the Occupation until it ceases and all people in Palestine are free.

oh jesus. more maudlin posturing.

Secondarily, when Mandela came to power in 1994, Mugabe hadn’t been found out. He was still a darling to the international crowd, seen as strict and heavy-handed, but a darling nonetheless. It was only when Britain discovered the farms that were taken over was going to his inner circle, not the populace as promised that the money stopped flowing to him. M’beki no more confronted him than Livni is confronting Netanyahu publicly over what he’s doing with the settlements now. But Mandela did, publicly two years ago. Called Mugabe a colossal failure and a tragic leader who destroyed the country.

link to normanfinkelstein.com

I know racist, pro-apartheid, Jewish supremacists like eee and BSD/UNIX would like to advocate all sorts of archaic, draconian practices, like slavery for instance – I mean, the US kept slaves for a long time. You’re all antisemitic for criticizing Israel for keeping slaves! Why do you single Israel out for keeping slaves? Clearly, you hate Jews!