Activism

Santa Cruz church becomes first US congregation to boycott HP for role in Israeli occupation

Last night the congregation of Peace United Church of Christ in Santa Cruz, CA voted to refrain from buying Hewlett-Packard (HP) products including printers, computers, and ink cartridges until HP companies cease to profit from Israel’s violation of Palestinian human rights. Peace United Church of Christ joins the Presbyterian Church, Unitarian Universalists, United Church of Christ, Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation, and the Alliance of Baptists, which have all divested from HP companies at the denominational level. These organizations represent over 15,000 U.S. congregations and the potential for millions of dollars in buying power.

Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) initiated the campaign, HP-Free Churches, in coordination with the Global Week of Action Against HP that saw over 150 actions take place in dozens of countries across six continents. “Many individual congregations are unaware that their denominations have divested from companies that profit off the Israeli occupation or that their purchases contradict their denominations’ divestments. We aim to fix that,” said Rochelle Gause, FOSNA’s national organizer.

HP companies supply Israel with the Biometric ID Card System used to restrict Palestinians’ freedom of movement; provide servers for Israeli prisons where Palestinian children and political prisoners are held and torture is widespread; and manage the communications centers, information security, and user support of the Israeli navy as it collectively punishes the civilian population of Gaza through blockade. Similar to the way Polaroid was boycotted for providing the technology for the apartheid South Africa’s racist passbooks, HP companies were selected for their integral role in Israel’s notorious checkpoints and segregated ID system. After immense pressure, Polaroid ended its involvement with the South African regime in 1977.

“Thanks to FOSNA, we have a campaign that is easy for United Methodists to support locally at their churches and in their conferences. Participating in the HP-Free Churches campaign provides another way to help us educate church members about the horrific human rights abuses suffered by Palestinians as we take concrete action to help curb those abuses,” says Lisa Bender, chair of the Boycott & Divestment Committee for United Methodists for Kairos Response.

“Many of my colleagues are intimidated and have been told that once you take a step toward Palestinian liberation through ending our own complicity with boycotts like this, you can no longer be a strong and protective presence in your own community regarding anti-Semitism. I think that’s wrong. We can do both, and we have to do both,” remarked Dave Grishaw-Jones, a senior pastor at Peace United Church of Christ. The widespread success of the Global Week of Action Against HP is a testament to the fact that many local communities are responding to the Palestinian call to join the nonviolent Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement.

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Has it occured to MW that awareness of Palestinian suffering has been around since ’47, and that not a single thing has been accomplished through boycotts? Not one penny in a Palestinian’s pocket, not one right earned, not one dunam of land returned. Arguably, Palestinian suffering increases by the day, and all you do is encourage symbolic, useless boycotts that have been ignored by the people who should care the most: fellow Muslims and Arabs.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-prosecutor-flotilla-case-against-israel-ended.aspx?pageID=238&nID=106814&NewsCatID=341

And back here in the West, it really doesn’t make sense to argue against Israel and global capitalism from behind computers that support them both.

Refusing to buy from HP is clearly antisemitic. I am tired of the abuse of Palestinians. I am tired of the abuse of decent people all over the world who speak out about moral issues. I tired of the abuse of English.

Zionism is racism. Zionism is built on a foundation of abuse. It has no moral basis and is actually built on the same immoral ideology as white supremacism. Not surprisingly formulated during the same dark period of han history. We have sidelined similar ideologies. We must do the same for thus racist set of beliefs.

I just overheard an Israeli in a bus queue a long way from Shangri-la LA say she was worried about BDS. And in the bus opposite her a woman said hamdullillah. Zionism is going to die. Kida ya’ni

Well, since everyone is shifting around in their seats uncomfortably, trying to give something more than a weak response to my post, I’ll point out what you don’t want to admit in public.

MW and the BDS movement was thrilled to hear that Israeli commandos killed Turkish activists in the Gaza flotilla. They clucked and crowed, and that this would be (yet again) the nail in Israel’s coffin. That, dear Annie, is the link you are so desperately trying not to see between this article and my post.

The Arab Muslim world will shriek and howl, but it’s been an open secret that they engage in business deals with Israel regardless. No one twists their arm, they simply give lip service to the Palestinian cause. This detente between Israel and Turkey is the beginning of a deal to exploit the Leviathan field for natural gas. Other countries in the Middle East will step into the line for their own deals. And no amount of tut-tutting from MW or a church or anyone else will knock Israel’s economy off the rails from this point onward, except the stupidity of the Likudniks, and I don’t doubt it for a minute that they could shoot themselves in the foot.

And your question, dear Annie, is just another duck and dodge regarding my post. But since you ask: it reminds me of Y2K. In the end, it was a non-event. But in the run-up to it, and I was very much a part of the run-up, the preparation and the blame and the doom-saying was feverish. The Israeli gov’t and it’s allies are preparing feverishly, because to do nothing and hope it all fixes itself is unwise. That’s all. One doesn’t sit quietly while one’s enemies spread lies, especially in the days of the internet. I don’t favor Likud, and I don’t like how they oppress Palestinians, but let’s not pretend they’re unintelligent.

I really don’t have a dog in the Zionist or anti-Zionist fight. Israel will stand or fall on the strength of it’s own diplomacy and economic strategy, just like any other country. But I do view boycotting Israel, at heart, as Jew-bashing. So I stand against it. And as someone who had Palestinian friends if only briefly during my two years living there, and has helped put money in Palestinians pockets (which even if it were one penny, is 100% more than any of you have ever helped) I find your guise of being pro-Palestinian to be ludicrous at best and harmful to Palestinians at worst. Their situation grows worse by the day, and you think that awful pictures of suffering will change things for the better. They haven’t so far, what makes anyone think more of the same is the solution? Feel free to pick apart my logic while completely missing the point as you always do, but my question is the one you can’t seem to answer for yourself. Why do you respond to a call by BDS that lets you engage in activity that you know only hurts Palestinians at large and only enables their addiction to victimhood?

I used HP products most of my life, as matter of fact presently still have a printer, copierer and fax monster, although around 10 years old. Is it OK if I keep it even if I will have problems to sleep after reading this acticle? I wonder what will HP do?

A long time ago I learned the following: you cannot learn anything from yourself, regardless how smart you are. From those who always agree with you the chances to learn something new is also slim, you can only learn from those who disagree with you and have other ideas, whatever they may be.