Two important voices reflecting on the defeat of a divestment resolution Wednesday by the general conference of the United Methodist Church. First, Ali Abunimah, followed by Rebecca Vilkomerson. Abunimah:
Perhaps, some may conclude, the battle is too tough and what worked against South Africa can never work against Israel.
This is a mistake. In hindsight, people forget just how long and tough the battle for divestment from apartheid South Africa was.
After today’s vote, I was reminded of this Associated Press headline from 12 July 1987 that I came across a few years ago: “Church of England rejects divestment from South Africa"....
From the perspective of 2012 it scarcely seems believable that there was even a debate about this.
Remember that Desmond Tutu was the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, yet even he could not sway the leaders of his church at that point. Tutu, who was on the right side of history, made the same arguments for divestment from Israel as he did in the 1980s in a recent Tampa Bay Times op-ed hoping to sway the United Methodist Church:
A quarter-century ago I barnstormed around the United States encouraging Americans, particularly students, to press for divestment from South Africa. Today, regrettably, the time has come for similar action to force an end to Israel’s long-standing occupation of Palestinian territory and refusal to extend equal rights to Palestinian citizens who suffer from some 35 discriminatory laws.
But didn’t everyone divest from South Africa? Wasn’t it a no-brainer? The article from 1987 reminds us that it wasn’t then and it isn’t now.
Tutu had to work hard to convince churches, universities and companies to do what was right. And many of the arguments made against divestment from Israel were made a generation ago to oppose measures to punish South Africa.
And here is a note that Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace sent out to her membership.
Hi everyone,
It's late on a long and frustrating day but i wanted to give you an update and some context about the Methodist vote today.
Today the Methodists voted against divestment. As you all know, we spent a great deal of time and energy in the hopes that this would be a breakthrough moment for divestment efforts in the U.S. JVP had an amazing team, led beautifully by Sydney Levy, that included rabbis, students, lawyers, and tweeters (can we call that a profession now?) on the ground in Tampa at the Methodist Conference, and so many of you who made calls, mailed postcards and otherwise worked to make this happen over the last several months. Anna Baltzer of the US Campaign to end the Occupation was there the entire time, and did an equally incredible job mobilizing members of her coalition. And of course, our partners within the church, the United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR), has been preparing for this vote for years and generously opened up space for us to join them as allies as they led the work in their church. It was an enormously effective partnership that involved a lot of others as well.
While it is undeniably disappointing, we also made huge strides. We worked with an incredible inter-faith, inter-ethnic alliance of people and organizations and learned an enormous amount in the process. The Methodists did pass a strongly worded condemnation of the settlements and call to boycott settlement products, and there is clearly a consensus in the church that the occupation is wrong and must end. The voice of Palestinian Christians, who represented all Palestinians under Occupation, was front and center.
In February at the Penn BDS conference I attended a session about the South African struggle against apartheid. We were reminded that the ANC was founded in 1912, and that boycott efforts started as early as the 1950s. As Ali Abunimah reminds us in this article (worth the click!), even as late as 1987 the Anglican Church in England declined to fully divest from Apartheid South Africa. Of course this time around, the Church of England has already divested itself from Caterpillar--in 2006!
The lesson is that there are a lot of defeats that come before the victories, and even defeats can bring us closer to the day when justice arrives. While the need to end Apartheid or to pass civil rights legislation now seems overwhelmingly obvious, in their times they were enormously contentious, and the same arguments used then against action were used today. I hope and believe that we are on the same trajectory!
For your reference, here is JVP's official statement on the vote.
The Presbyterians will be considering divestment at the end of June in Pittsburgh, and we have a lot of work to do before then! You can keep up with it all at www.rabbisletter.org, and we will most definitely be letting you know how you can be involved.
Enormous thanks to all the many many people who worked so hard on this. Onward!
A Snap! moment. I was just thinking the same thing and saw your headline appear.
These are enormously encouraging statements, even when confronted with so many what to us are egregious wrongs, sometimes a quick fix is not possible. Short of a war of course.
It was the extremely violent reaction of the South African army and police to the repeated massive public demonstrations that focused world attention on the malignity of apartheid and allowed BDS to take hold (as the same violence focused attention on the fight for civil fights in the South).
Given that large (peaceful) public demonstrations are required, how are the Palestinians ever going to mobilize the 50,ooo or 100,00-size crowds that would catch world attention in light of the Israeli system of checkpoints that would prevent such a mobilization?
Hmmm.. Good point. I just wonder though how much of the Israeli checkpoint system is psychological determent? A mass crowd could gather and overtake a few of them. Nablus is pretty contained by surrounding checkpoints, but the Ramallah, Hebron, and Bethlehem areas have less. Those ones are more strict. Hebron and Bethlehem have a good shot at it. If Bethlehem was involved in such a thing, it would definitely resonate around the world for obvious reasons. The third Intifada is inevitable at this point, IMHO.
Of course, such protests, even if non-violent, would be spun by the MSM to make it look like they were taking it out on the innocent Israelis just doing their jobs, maybe quote the old Hamas charter. But even in South Africa the resistance sang “Kill the Boer” and they still sing it.
“A quarter-century ago I barnstormed around the United States encouraging Americans, particularly students, to press for divestment from South Africa. ” Along with others I was “barnstorming” on many college campuses about divestment from South Africa 35 years ago. Been dropping off literature, talking with college groups about sanctions etc against Israel on numerous campuses in Ohio, Colorado and in New England over the last 2 decades. The huge difference is that campuses are much more sealed off than they were 35 years ago as well as having Professors, administrators who hold the reins on I/P discussions on campuses very very tight. Huge differences. But does seem to be taking off a bit the last several years
Over the next decade Israel will have settled all of the West Bank. The Palestinians do not have decades. Either does Israel
“The Palestinians do not have decades.”
Kathleen, you have to make a decision! What’s more important, saving the people of Palestine or redeeming the present generation of American Jews? Redemption takes time, and people don’t redeem very good if their feelings are hurt, poor darlings. And what if justice, or even mere survival for the Palastinians meant that Israelis couldn’t sunbathe in thongs, use steriods, or read racy magazines?
“The Palestinians do not have decades. Either does Israel”
Don’t you mean “Neither does Israel”?
yep
There were a million French settlers in Algeria, Kathleen
they made sense once.
There is no question of time running out for the Palestinians
Israel is destroying its society for a settler fantasy.
Don’t think it was just the radical settlers who have had and have this illegal fantasy
RE: “It took decades for South Africa boycott resolutions to gain traction” ~ Weiss
MY COMMENT: I recall going in the mid-1980s to our Methodist church in the fairly affluent “Buckhead” area of Atlanta on a Sunday when the pastor allowed a guest speaker from an international Methodist group to speak briefly to the congregation about the duty of Christians to oppose apartheid in South Africa. On the way out of church, I thanked the speaker and our pastor for addressing the issue of apartheid.
I heard a few weeks later from my mother that some members of the church were trying to have the pastor fired for inviting the speaker from the int’l Methodist group (who had disapproved of apartheid).
I have not been back to church since that time.
BTW , the history of apartheid South Africa in Namibia is quite instructive vis-a-vis the illegal Israeli occupation.
I read a lot about it this morning, and anyone who says that white people aren’t as smart as Jews is guilty of a blood libel as far as I’m concerned. What I read this morning convinced me they measure up in every way.
People have unrealistic expectations and foggy memories. The BDS movement did not prevent the creation of Bantustans in either South Africa or Namibia and it didn’t have the goal of creating a single unified state.
UN Security Council resolution 264 dealt with the establishment of illegal Bantustans in Namibia by the government of South Africa after the fact. Activists complained that it was too little too late: link to un.org
The South African BDS movement dealt with both territories. Many people think like Peter Beinart. They only advocate boycotting the settlements or companies doing business in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but not Israel or companies on Israel’s side of the Green Line. See Conference urges world-wide boycott of South African and Namibian goods.
The African liberation movements worked tirelessly to make apartheid an international crime and to establish a permanent international criminal tribunal that could apply penal sanctions. The Palestinian Solidarity Movement routinely discusses apartheid, but has failed to demand that their own government join the ICC and pursue criminal charges against Israeli officials as an urgent matter. The “S” in BDS includes criminal sanctions that are not being applied.
Has anybody read one of the following books about settler colonialism?
Joseph Massad’s 2005 – “The Persistence of the Palestinian Question”
Gabriel Piterberg – “The Returns of Zionism”
John Collins’s – “Global Palestine”
I have time to read only one of them. Any recommendation?
Have read only the Piterberg book – would recommend it, particularly for the light shed on Christian Zionism.
“The lesson is that there are a lot of defeats that come before the victories”
Israel and the bots have to devote more and more energy to what was once fluid and
frictionless.
Think of how the job of the Israeli ambassador to the US will change over the next decade.