The decision to engage in a boycott as a means of correcting injustice is rarely an easy one. Yet it is one of the most potent strategies in any social movement’s toolkit. Such campaigns can expect fierce opposition, and so it is not often a strategy of first resort. Boycotts, like civil disobedience, are a form of activism not undertaken lightly, and usually after many other means of addressing an intractable problem have been attempted. With this in mind, this issue of the ACTivist examines the emerging global boycott of Israel.

CUPE Ontario’s visionary resolution to “Support the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination” will likely be looked back upon historically as a watershed moment in the movement against Israeli Apartheid. But don't just take my word for it. Read the letter of support sent to CUPE Ontario from COSATU, South Africa's trade union federation, on page 29. As a Jew, I cannot stress enough that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. As scholar Norman Finkelstein points out, it is the not the critique of the actions of the government of Israel, but the actions themselves, which breed anti-Semitism. The so-called leadership in Israel continues to act with impunity, in flagrant violation of the very same international laws which were designed to prevent another Holocaust.

As we go to print, the struggle for Palestinian human rights is at a crossroads and Gaza is experiencing a humanitarian crisis brought on by Israel's latest war crimes. The kidnapping of an Israeli soldier has been used as a pretext for the arrest of over 60 elected Palestinian officials. An all out assault on the civilian population has begun, including air raids, and the severing of access to water and electricity for over a million Gazans who have no route of escape, as well as frequent low flight sonic booms explicitly meant to prevent the civilian population from sleeping at night. What the Israeli government is inflicting on the Palestinians in Gaza approaches closer to genocide by the day, as it deprives a captive population of over 1 million people of the food and water they need to survive. In light of this, the need for an international campaign of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel is all the more urgent. A kidnapping cannot justify making war on a civilian population, and we must not remain silent in the face of this crisis. Israel ’s increasing attacks on Palestinians and incursions into Lebanon should remove any remaining doubt about whether a boycott is justified.

At the same time, the constructive and courageous acts of solidarity also highlighted in this issue paint an equally important picture of Palestinians and Israelis working together for peace and reconciliation. The parallel paths of the international boycott and the reconciliation and resistancefrom within are critical to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. To paraphrase Nelson Mandela, the struggle against Apartheid is the struggle to assert our common humanity.

It is critical to recognize that Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people violate international law. According to article 51 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Palestinian people have the right to return. Moreover, they have the right to resist. In particular, to those Canadian Parliamentarians who somehow think that being part of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Friendship Group can be justified, especially in light of Israel’s escalating attacks on Palestinian civilians and the people of Lebanon, we must say that friends don’t let friends commit war crimes. International law is clear on this point: silence in the face of war crimes is complicity. Now, more than ever before, it is time to boycott Israel.

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Dylan Penner,
Editor