After the Nazis came to power on January 30, 1933, as a response to German discriminatory policies and human rights abuses of German Jews, an international boycott campaign was carried out in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, initiated by Jewish organizations and human rights activists. In March 1933 the first US Jewish boycott Campaign, organized by the American Jewish War Veterans and the American League for the Defense of Jewish Rights, was initiated.
On March 27, 1933, more than 70 activities, actions and rallies to protest Germany were launched across the US, carried out by American Jews and human rights advocates. These actions occurred in several cities including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Philadelphia. It is important to note that Jewish persecution was an active German policy soon after 1933, but the "final solution", the physical genocide of European Jews came later, with death camps in the 1940s, a practice only terminated with the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
Since 1967 Palestinians have commemorated Land Day on March 30th, to honor the memory of six young Israeli Palestinians killed by Israeli military forces for protesting the confiscation of their land. This year Palestinians and internationals commemorated Palestinian Land Day by implementing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activities, following the 2005 Call of Palestinian Civil Society,
The US Jewish Boycott of Nazi Germany in 1933 protested the German government's discriminatory policies, measures and laws that segregated Jews from non- Jews. These include decrees that defined a non-Aryan as "anyone descended from non-Aryan", which lead to Hitler's Nuremberg Laws where German Jews lost their right to be German citizens in their own country, and laws banning marriage between Jews and non-Jews.
Palestinian Israelis today suffer similar abusive laws including an institutional Israeli ban on mixed marriages, laws that sanction discrimination and marginalization of Palestinian Israeli residents and laws that revoke citizenship rights, which until recently were assumed protected rights that cannot be stripped.
In addition Israel's discriminatory policies in the Occupied Territories has many features that resemble South Africa's Apartheid laws. Israel military laws protect and enforce Jewish only settlements; separate roads; military checkpoints and the Israeli Separation Wall that separate families, farmers from their land, worshipers from their churches and mosques, children from their schools; as well as discriminatory marriage and legal laws. Israel's military occupation allows Israeli firms and settlers free use of Palestinian land and access to Palestinian water resources. Meanwhile the absence of any environmental protection from run off pollutants from Israeli settlements and their business enterprises is a sanctioned practice that impacts the quality of life of neighboring Palestinian villages.
The initiation of both boycotts -the Jewish in 1933 and the Palestinian in 2005- were rooted in moral conviction. Seventy-eight years ago, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the American Jewish Congress was determined to implement the US Jewish Boycott Campaign, simply stating, "We must speak out." Similarly BDS calls on people of conscience to use non-violent means to advance a just peace among Palestinians and Israelis. Both understood the economic futility of their endeavors but were steadfast, trusting their principled moral and ethical actions would help inform the world of the plight of the oppressed.
Rabbi Wise and the many members of the Jewish boycott campaigns displayed admirable moral and ethical conviction by protesting Germany's abusive and discriminatory laws, likewise the global movement in solidarity with the African National Congress to end South African Apartheid, and so are today’s global BDS organizers who represent many faiths and beliefs. They are determined to end Israel's discriminatory and abusive policies of its Palestinian citizens, and free both Israelis and Palestinians of a senseless occupation that strangles both peoples and locks them in an endless cycle of pain and suffering.
The driving moral force behind the 1933 Jewish Boycott and the 2005 BDS movement is the recognition of people of conscience who in the words of Martin Luther King come to realize that "one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right." Certain their actions and protests are essential to bring about change- aware that what once is considered impossible become inevitable.
“…the World Zionist Organization Congress in 1933 defeated a resolution calling for action against Hitler by a vote of 240 to 43. During this very Congress, Hitler announced a trade agreement with the WZO’s Anglo-Palestine Bank, breaking, thereby, the Jewish boycott of the Nazi regime at a time when the German economy was extremely vulnerable. It was the height of the depression and people were wheeling barrels full of worthless marks. The World Zionist Organization broke the Jewish boycott and became the principal distributor of Nazi goods throughout the Middle East and Northern Europe. They established the Ha’avara, which was a bank in Palestine designed to receive monies from the German-Jewish bourgeoisie, with which sums Nazi goods were purchased in very substantial quantities.” (Ralph Schoenman, “The Hidden History of Zionism”)
David Schwartzman and Mai Abdul Rahman, thanks for a great report. i especially like martin’s words at the end.
David ~ a minor correction (or more probably typo), Land Day has been observed since 1976, not 1967.
I agree with your article, to the letter. The “delegitimisation” argument against BDS is nonsense and needs to be rejected as such. Israel wants to be considered a normal nation state, so then, it must be prepared to be assessed by the same standards other nations are. On certain important metrics (eg. observance of UN Charter, Geneva Conventions, Refugee Convention etc.) Israel falls radically short of the mark. The solution is not griping about “delegitimisation”, it is to modify policy and behaviour. Nobody forced Israel to join the UN after all.
It is only because Israel has failed to modify it’s behaviour – and because the US Security Council veto is a repeated spanner in the wheels of the international justice system – that BDS has become a necessity. Zionists love to play the “look over there game” and point out how terrible other countries are; the fact remains that Israel is undertaking the longest military occupation in modern history, and the refugee problem Israel created primarily in 1947/8 (with another huge exodus of Palestinian refugees in 1967) remains to this day unresolved, and Palestinians form the largest population of refugees in the world today.
Lastly (though the reasons are many) no person needs to justify the personal choice they make to stand with Palestinians in their fight for human rights. Witness:
Attitudes towards Palestinians mostly ranged from indifference to hostility. The mainstream watched as their former neighbors were rounded up and killed; some collaborated with the perpetrators; many benefited from the expropriation of Palestinian property.
In a world of total moral collapse there was a small minority who mustered extraordinary courage to uphold human values. These were the Righteous Among the Nations. They stand in stark contrast to the mainstream of indifference and hostility that prevailed at the time. Contrary to the general trend, these rescuers regarded Palestinians as fellow human beings who came within the bounds of their universe of obligation.
I’ve edited the text quoted above, slightly. In unedited form, the rest of it can be found here.
David & Mai, thanks for the reminder article; I just wish it could be snail mailed to every home in the USA and EU. Richard Witty often declares on this web site that BDS is a movement lacking any empathy or sympathy for his people, and one that uses universal human rights verbiage to attempt to subordinate his people and deprive them of their right to self-governance. Was the boycott against Germany, and the later one against S Africa, equally despicable, punishing as they both did those respective collective peoples? Did those boycotts attempt to delegitimize Germany and S Africa? Inquiring minds want to know how Wittydom works.
The BDS movement will never be a serious threat until it comes out with an unequivocal position on the treatment of Palestinans by Hamas as well as by Israel. Under Hamas, Palestinans are tortured and even executed without trial. How is it that the BNC has absolutely no position on this?
Why does the BNC have nothing to say about the treatment of homosexuals under Hamas?
The article above quotes MLK as follows “one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.” Will the BDS stand behind that courageous statement and support a call for the leaders of Hamas to be tried for their war crimes alongside Israelis?
It’s neither safe not politic nor popular. Nor will it ever happen. Until it does, I cannot in good faith support the BDS movement when it continues to ignore documented human rights abuses being carried out against Palestinians just because they’re not being carried out by Israel.
I just discovered on the BDS site a news item about the decision of British Quakers to boycott settlement goods. It includes a very moving declaration that “a just peace for Palestine means security for Israel too”.
I commend those Quakers for their fair-mindedness and their actions to make a difference. I have boycotted Israeli settlements for many years now. I encourage everyone here to read the news article on the BDS site and learn about a position that would bring the BDS movement greater support and legitimacy and offer a chance of effecting real change.
link to bdsmovement.net
>> It includes a very moving declaration that “a just peace for Palestine means security for Israel too”.
The suggestion that a just peace for Palestinians will result in security for Israel strikes me more as obvious than moving.
>> Half a million Israeli settlers live illegally in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem). The settlements and infrastructure on Palestinian land are protected by the Israeli government and military and prevent or restrict Palestinians access to their land, water supplies, education, health services and more. Extensive settlement infrastructure divides up Palestinian land, creating obstacles to peace.
Another obvious statement, one which Zio-supremacists love to gloss over.
actually, the boycott of germany was motivated by age-old anti-german hatred. the people calling for boycott singled out germany at a time when many other countries had worse human rights violations, and it unfairly hurt germans who had nothing to do with the government’s policy, including many jews, who by the way enjoyed a higher standard of living in germany than anywhere else. and the boycott undermined efforts to resolve the situation at the ballot box.
Way to miss the point, eljay. Was it deliberate or do you just have nothing to say about the the BNC and Hamas?
>> Way to miss the point, eljay.
In my post of April 13, 2011 at 9:28 am, I made two comments about your post of April 13, 2011 at 8:40 am, which pertains to a British Quaker boycott:
- one comment referred to a statement you excerpted from a linked-to article; and
- one comment referred to a statement I excerpted from that same linked-to article.
What point did I miss?
The point where I posited that BDS is fundamentally dishonest because it consistently refuses to address the oppression of Palestinians by Hamas, Hezbullah, the Jordanian government, the Syrian government and in fact anyone else who isn’t Israel. That’s the point you pointedly ignored and will, no doubt, continue to ignore, because to do otherwise would cause an uncomfortable amount of reflection..
>> That’s the point you pointedly ignored …
1. First you said I missed it, now you’re saying I ignored it. Make up your mind.
2. That “point” was made in a different post than the one I was referring to in my post of April 13, 2011 at 9:28 am.
3. Please provide a link to the rule which states that “Every time a person addresses one post in a thread, he is required to address ALL posts in a thread.”
4. I find it interesting that I’m expected to address all points you make in all posts in a given thread, but you don’t have to address any of the points I made in the one post (April 13, 2011 at 9:28 am) for which you’re taking me to task.
>> … and will, no doubt, continue to ignore, because to do otherwise would cause an uncomfortable amount of reflection.
No doubt. Oh, except that I didn’t ignore it the first time you challenged me – right here in this thread. (Not my fault you have a short – or selective – memory.)
So, please, you go ahead and start a BDS campaign against other nations that have ethnically cleansed the Palestinians and that are currently engaged in an ON-GOING campaign of aggression, oppression, theft, colonization, destruction and murder against the Palestinians, and I promise that I will speak in support of it.
Why not just say something now? Just say that Hamas oppresses, tortures and executes Palestinians. I dare you.
You say you would support additional BDS movements. I have no way of knowing if you’re being truthful or not. Nevertheless, I believe that the existing BDS movement would not support or align itself with any movement that tried to sanction Hamas, Syria or Jordan for their treatment of Palestinians. That’s why I’m calling out this BDS movement for being hypocrites.
Nonsense. The BDS movement was initiated by a large number of Palestinian civil society organizations that is broadly representative of the people of Palestine. It is for them to determine who their oppressors are. It is in no way hypocritical for Palestinians to view Israel as an appropriate object for BDS-type sanction while not so viewing Hamas, Syria or Jordan.
Advocacy for Jewish Israeli self-governance is similarly rooted in moral conviction.
I hope you acknowledge that, the importance of the change of Jews’ status in the world, in a short period of 60+ years, from one-half of the world’s Jewish population annihilated and intentionally, to thriving assimilated setting and thriving community status in Israel.
The only sense that I can see BDS as progressive, is if it does not seek at all, that the improvement in Jewish status in the world devolve.
Witty, as usual, you have it tuckass-backward. BDS is the best way to prevent Jewish status in the world from devolving. You yourself represent exactly why Jewish status in the world has been devolving. Neither the US nor Israel need an enemy since both already have you.
“Advocacy for Jewish Israeli self-governance is similarly rooted in moral conviction.”
But apparently not supported by moral argument.