New petition challenges Horowitz smear invoking Nazi holocaust to attack BDS

(Photo: Electronic Intifada)
 

Recently the David Horowitz Freedom Foundation published a dangerous and slanderous ad in the New York Times (right). The ad invokes the Nazi holocaust in order to attack supporters of BDS including several professors. Jews of conscience and others who share a similar commitment to justice must speak out in defense of justice for Palestinians and against such defilement and misuse of the holocaust.

David Horowitz and his money have been involved in attempts to undermine the Palestinian struggle and promote hatred against Muslims and Arabs throughout the country. Whether through funding the campaign to oppose the Park51 Islamic Community Center in Manhattan or through alleging that the Muslim Student Association is an extremist group, Horowitz took upon himself to foster the climate of intolerance and fear that leads to dehumanization and ends in persecution, apartheid and racism across history.

We are alarmed that New York Times, in breach of its own decency guidelines, would promote such open bigotry and character assassination.

This slanderous attack on proponents of BDS reveals that our movement is gaining strength, and that the opposition to BDS recognizes this.

Help us reach out to the broadest possible audience with a clear statement that draws the true moral lessons of the holocaust, “Never again for anyone!”, and asserts our commitment to justice for Palestinians and all targets of racism.

Text of Petition

In March 1933, after news of the early assaults on Jews following the electoral victory of the Nazi Party in Germany started to arrive, the US Jewish War Veterans association initiated a call for a consumer boycott of Nazi Germany. Through the pressure of a handful of committed activists, the boycott movement in the US grew to the point of worrying the Nazi establishment. One reason the boycott failed was the well-documented sabotage by Zionist parties (those that founded the State of Israel and today continue to organize political and economic support). The Zionist Federation of Germany together with the Jewish Agency in Palestine chose to collaborate with the Nazis by signing an agreement for the promotion of German exports in exchange for allowing wealthy German Jews to transfer some of their wealth to Palestine. We recall this history with sadness.

The word ‘Boycott’ originated with Charles Boycott, an Irish landlord’s agent whose mostly poor tenants struggled against his unjust evictions. Like the international boycott movement against Apartheid South Africa, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Indian boycott of British goods initiated by Gandhi, and many other similar actions, the Jewish boycott of Nazi Germany belongs to a long history of the use of the boycott as a progressive, grassroots, non-violent tool to put pressure on powerful and oppressive regimes.

In 2005, Palestinian civil society called for solidarity against Israeli occupation and oppression, asking people of conscience around the world to launch non-violent campaigns of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it fully complied with international law. As Jews of conscience, we see echoes of our history in this demand for liberation and solidarity against violence, oppression, dispossession and expulsion, and we cannot stand unmoved.

Israel refuses to negotiate peace in good faith, continues to extend and build settlements on Palestinian land, and maintains oppressive, discriminatory and illegal practices, all of which constitute war crimes against Palestinian civilians and crimes against humanity. Our own government aids and abets these crimes, finances them, and shields Israel from accountability to international law. Our media and politicians exploit the Jewish history of persecution and genocide in order to justify its collusion with Israel’s dehumanization of Palestinians.

We lend our full support and voice to the Palestinian boycott call, and urge our fellow citizens to join the boycott of Israel in order to put pressure on the government of Israel. This is the lesson we choose to take from our Jewish histories. For us “never again” means never again for anyone. When people are demonized and attacked, oppressed and treated unjustly, we must stand in their defense. As more and more people learn the facts, public support for the rights of Palestinians is rising globally. Together, let’s end our government’s support for apartheid in Palestine!

To sign the petition visit the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network here.