Why our boycott campaign against Israel makes sense #BDS

[blake 10]

why are you, Halibut, so concerned, about the post 1948 refugees in today's Israel and former Palestine?

 

if you actually cared about the Arabs, you would be much more concerned about current Arab refugees that have become refugees because of other Arabs, and not Israel.

[firemanbob 10]

why are you, Halibut, so concerned, about the post 1948 refugees in today's Israel and former Palestine?

 

if you actually cared about the Arabs, you would be much more concerned about current Arab refugees that have become refugees because of other Arabs, and not Israel.

 

They also forget this.

 

Although much is heard about the plight of the Palestinian refugees from the aftermath of the 1948 Israeli War of Independence and the 1967 Six Day War, little is said about the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were forced to flee from Arab states before and after the creation of Israel. In fact, these refugees were largely forgotten because they were assimilated into their new homes, most in Israel, and neither the United Nations nor any other international agency took up their cause or demanded restitution for the property and money taken from them.

 

In 1945, roughly 1 million Jews lived peacefully in the various Arab states of the Middle East, many of them in communities that had existed for thousands of years. After the Arabs rejected the United Nations decision to partition Palestine and create a Jewish state, the Jews of the Arab lands became targets of their own governments’ anti-Zionist fervor.

 

As Egypt’s delegate to the UN in 1947 chillingly told the General Assembly: “The lives of one million Jews in Muslim countries will be jeopardized by partition.” The dire warning quickly became the brutal reality.

 

The value of Jewish property left behind and confiscated by the Arab governments is estimated to be at least 50 percent higher than the total value of assets lost by the Palestinian refugees.

 

To date, more than 100 UN resolutions have been passed referring explicitly to the fate of the Palestinian refugees. Not one has specifically addressed Jewish refugees. Additionally, the United Nations created a organization, UNRWA, to solely handle Palestinian refugees while all other refugees are handled collectively by UNHRC. The UN even defines Palestinian refugees differently than every other refugee population, setting distinctions that have allowed their numbers to grow exponentially so that nearly 5 million are now considered refugees despite the fact that the number estimated to have fled their homes is only approximately 400-700,000, which is lower than the number of Jews expelled from Arab countries.

Edited August 27, 2014 by firemanbob

[Mozilla 10]

Belgian activist group took to Liege airport to condemn airport authorities for supplying arms to #Israel. #Gaza

 

https://twitter.com/RachelMicheleG/status/504727347225165824/photo/1

 

---------- Post added 27-08-2014 at 23:35 ----------

 

40 Holocaust Survivors Condemn Gaza Assault Call for Boycott of

Israel

 

In a letter published today in The New York Times as an advertisement, 40 survivors of Nazi genocide and hundreds of their children are publicly deploring "the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza," Israel's ongoing occupation and the troubling rise of systemic racism.

 

As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world.

We are alarmed by the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society, which has reached a fever-pitch. In Israel, politicians and pundits in The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post have called openly for genocide of Palestinians and right-wing Israelis are adopting Neo-Nazi insignia.

 

Furthermore, we are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children. Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water.

 

We must raise our voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people. We call for an immediate end to the siege against and blockade of Gaza. We call for the full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. “Never again” must mean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!

 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/23/1324061/-40-Holocaust-Survivors-Condemn-Gaza-Assault-Call-for-Boycott-of-Israel

Edited August 27, 2014 by Mozilla

[donkey 10]

Belgian activist group took to Liege airport to condemn airport authorities for supplying arms to #Israel. #Gaza

 

https://twitter.com/RachelMicheleG/status/504727347225165824/photo/1

 

---------- Post added 27-08-2014 at 23:35 ----------

 

40 Holocaust Survivors Condemn Gaza Assault Call for Boycott of

Israel

 

In a letter published today in The New York Times as an advertisement, 40 survivors of Nazi genocide and hundreds of their children are publicly deploring "the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza," Israel's ongoing occupation and the troubling rise of systemic racism.

 

As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world.

We are alarmed by the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society, which has reached a fever-pitch. In Israel, politicians and pundits in The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post have called openly for genocide of Palestinians and right-wing Israelis are adopting Neo-Nazi insignia.

 

Furthermore, we are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable: Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and the murder of more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many hundreds of children. Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water.

 

We must raise our voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people. We call for an immediate end to the siege against and blockade of Gaza. We call for the full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. “Never again” must mean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!

 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/23/1324061/-40-Holocaust-Survivors-Condemn-Gaza-Assault-Call-for-Boycott-of-Israel

 

 

Being that anyone whose view differs from the Zionist propagandists is apparently an antisemite, these must surely be antisemitic holocaust surviviors, no?

[firemanbob 10]

CAIRO — Battling Palestinian militants in Gaza two years ago, Israel found itself pressed from all sides by unfriendly Arab neighbors to end the fighting.

 

Not this time.

 

After the military ouster of the Islamist government in Cairo last year, Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. That, in turn, may have contributed to the failure of the antagonists to reach a negotiated cease-fire even after more than three weeks of bloodshed.

 

“The Arab states’ loathing and fear of political Islam is so strong that it outweighs their allergy to Benjamin Netanyahu,” the prime minister of Israel, said Aaron David Miller, a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington and a former Middle East negotiator under several presidents.

 

---------- Post added 28-08-2014 at 07:37 ----------

 

Caution needed with Gaza casualty figures

 

The media focuses on Gazan casualties but relies on reports provided by Hamas. Now the terror group has been caught in the act, reporting the death of a terrorist as a civilian.

 

When IDF forces target terrorists in Gaza, Hamas leaders often conceal the deaths of its operatives. In many of these cases, the terrorist organization reports militant deaths as civilian casualties. This tactic has an obvious purpose: to attract international sympathy for Hamas while intensifying condemnation of Israel.

 

Hamas used this deceptive strategy on Saturday after the IDF targeted Mahmoud Osama Abbas. Hamas’ interior ministry Facebook page presented Osama Abbas as a civilian, but a bit of research reveals that he was a senior terrorist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization in Gaza. Images of Osama Abbas are publicly available on the organization’s website, which refers to him as a ground commander who directed several attacks against Israel.

 

Its recent report said that as of 10 August, 1,948 Palestinians had been killed and 66 Israelis and one Thai national since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July.

 

Of those Palestinians, the status of 320 could not be identified, at least 1,402 were civilians, including 456 children and 237 women, the UN body reported.

 

So there were 226 members of armed groups killed, and another 709 men who were civilians. Among civilians, three times as many men were killed as women, while three times as many civilian men were killed as fighters.

 

The UN report carries a caveat with its figures: "Data on fatalities and destruction of property is consolidated by the Protection and Shelter clusters based on preliminary information, and is subject to change based on further verifications."

 

There has been some research suggesting that men in general are more likely to die in conflict than women, although no typical ratio is given.

 

Nonetheless, the proportion of civilian men over 18 killed seems high and it is not immediately obvious why.

[Tommo68 10]

A truly cowardly and pathetic attempt to avoid answering the question.

Have you no moral integrity whatsoever?

 

 

Took me 5 minutes to stop laughing at the hipocrisy.

 

Talk about the pot calling the kettle *****

 

As for the bit about moral integrity .. don't even get me started.

 

Your style of responding to but not answering questions, that you don't actually ignore, is catching on it seems.

I imagine you are very proud.

.

.......................................................................................................................................................

 

 

 

---------- Post added 28-08-2014 at 14:06 ----------

 

 

 

............if you

or anyone

actually cared about the Arabs, you would be much more concerned about current Arab refugees that have become refugees because of other Arabs, and not Israel.

 

hamas and israel between them have succeeded in sacrificing about 2000 civilians in gaza, in return for which the citizens of gaza may expect to see some changes to their circumstances possibly even some improvements.

 

It appears that no-one is going to benefit at all from the fact that isis have already displaced and or kidnapped thousands and according to the UN are responsible for the deaths of about 5500 people many of which were tortured first and many were publicly beheaded. Many were lined up by trenches and machinegunned, nazi death squad style. They have stolen and looted their way through the middle east as they expand the land they control and have not finished yet.

 

Where is the condemnation for this from the israel haters?

 

When they are finished in the middle east isis have expressed or implied an intention to divert their attention on the west, specifically the UK and USA.

 

So far they have not declared that they will be having a policy of sparing israeli haters when they come here.

 

 

BTW isis have stolen over $400 and extract in protection fees ..er sorry taxes, roughly $8 a month from businesses. Yet some of their minions have said on social media that anyone joining isis can buy an AK47 for about $100 and body armour for about $60. Considering this equipment was in all probablity captured or looted from the dead just what are their leadership doing with this new found wealth.

 

Probably not living in tents and using a hole in the ground for a toilet as those that are comitting murder for them are.

.

.

.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Tommo68

[clinteastwoo 10]

The only ones talking about ISIS are you and Firemanbob. I was refering to the actions of Israel. Yet, in your mind, my being opposed to the actions of one bunch of tyrants automatically means I must support a different bunch of tyrants, to be randomly named by you??? Stirling logic Sherlock. I'd keep quiet about that low IQ thing...you know, people in glass houses. Although your accusations are so bizzarre I think it must actually go beyond mere stupidity.

 

The rantings of a fanatical lunatic

 

A deflective ploy, right out of the Israeli propaganda hand book.

 

Meanwhile its good to know that several large Union are joining the Boycott here as well as world wide, a student Union in Canada joined the last I heard.

 

As long as the momentum is maintained then lots more will join and even if the world leaders won't act in bringing Israel to account for war crimes at least the peoples of the world can do what they can and Boycott certain Israeli goods to show disdain of these murders.

 

---------- Post added 28-08-2014 at 20:40 ----------

 

Such vitriol. You really can't stand people having a different opinion to you, can you? That is because your position can't be defended with logic and reason, so all you have is insults, hysterical accusations and bile.

 

All I've done is voiced my opposition to the slaughter of nearly 2,000 civilians by Israel - in the past few weeks alone - and debunked the myth that Israel is merely 'defending' itself by pointing out that, as we speak, the Israeli armed forces are complicit in a campaign to drive Palestinians from their land in an ongoing campaign of colonisation in the West Bank.

 

It is an inconvenient fact, but when you are engaged in a campaign of forced dis-placement and colonisation, you are engaged in aggression, which is different from 'defending' yourself.

 

Pointing these facts out does not make me an 'antisemite' and the fact that you think it does only shows you are unable to debate this issue in a rational way.

Well said. But it won't sink in with these people.

At least its only a few fruit cakes that have to resort to lies and abuse to try and smudge the issue, most folk will read what you have said and will agree totally.

Edited August 28, 2014 by clinteastwoo
My spelling is poor, there I said it first !

[firemanbob 10]

A deflective ploy, right out of the Israeli propaganda hand book.

 

 

Denial of the terrorist atrocities that Israel is fighting, straight out of the terrorist handbook, you don't condemn that which you support.

 

The ultimate goal of the BDS movement is the end of the State of Israel.

Edited August 28, 2014 by firemanbob

[donkey 10]

Denial of the terrorist atrocities that Israel is fighting, straight out of the terrorist handbook, you don't condemn that which you support.

 

The ultimate goal of the BDS movement is the end of the State of Israel.

 

He is absolutely right. I don't even think you believe the things you are saying. And why not play the old 'antisemites' card again while you are at it. It must be afew posts now since anyone has done that.

Edited August 28, 2014 by donkey

[firemanbob 10]

He is absolutely right. I don't even think you believe the things you are saying. And why not play the old 'antisemites' card again while you are at it. It must be afew posts now since anyone has done that.

 

Isis are operating in Gaza, Hamas want the destruction of Israel as does the BDS movement which was set up by Palestinians for the sole purpose of ending the Jewish state.

 

Institutions of higher learning need dialogue and discussion, honest intellectual discourse, and open-minded problem solving. What they don’t need is BDS.

 

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement currently attempting to work its way onto campuses throughout the country marks a regressive leap in the journey for peace in the Middle East. Veiling its ultimate goal for the destruction of the State of Israel, BDS hides behind the façade of an initiative in pursuit of Palestinian rights. The premises it presupposes make negotiation and peace impossible. The false classification of Israel as an apartheid state is discriminatory extremism, which has no place in any university’s learning environment.

 

On a superficial level, boycotting Israeli products is impractical and unrealistic. Israeli contributions to society include cellphones, voicemail, AIM, SMS, Microsoft Windows OS, Microsoft Windows 7, Xbox 360, and Intel laptops to name just a few. Not only do these products fundamentally shape our lifestyle, they are indispensable to the way college students nationwide conduct our learning. Forget that consumer boycotts are ineffective and in no way further the peace process, realistically they just will never happen.

 

Boycotts are divisive. Blaming a single party accomplishes no further goal. It promotes inflexibility, precludes peace, and fails to consider additional factors behind the ultimate problem. If those behind BDS truly shared university ideals of education and progress, they would proportionately target every nation convicted of injustice toward Palestinians. Not the only democracy in the Middle East, where Arabs vote, are represented in parliament, sit on the Supreme Court, serve in the Cabinet, and own a disproportionately high amount of property.

 

We have to be honest, and I loathe the disingenuousness. They [bDS Movement] don’t want Israel. They think they’re being very clever, they call it their three tier – we want the end of the occupation, we want the right of return, and we want equal rights for Arabs in Israel. And they think they’re very clever because they know the result of implementing all three is what? What’s the result? You know and I know, what’s the result? There’s no Israel… there’s no Israel, full stop…”

 

If stopping violations of international and human rights law is the BDS movement’s primary concern, then why aren’t they advocating against Ahmadinejad’s Iran, Bashir’s Sudan, Hamas’ Gaza, Lebanon, Turkey, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Cuba? If the activists care about Arab oppression then why don’t they target Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Yemen? Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon each boast various levels of Palestinian oppression, from denying them basic human rights to openly expelling them. But here the BDS movement is deafeningly silent. Curiously absent is the protesting of any of these governments, making BDS’ ulterior motive all the more obvious. They want to delegitimize the state of Israel, and we need to delegitimize their blatant lies.

Edited August 28, 2014 by firemanbob

[blake 10]

Isis are operating in Gaza

 

wouldn't be surprised. They are not like Hizbullah are they, they are Sunni. Previously Hamas were pretty ruthless with Sunni Al Quieda, and they did not want them around but they may be getting more desperate meaning they will accept people they would not accept before.

[clinteastwoo 10]

Isis are operating in Gaza, Hamas want the destruction of Israel as does the BDS movement which was set up by Palestinians for the sole purpose of ending the Jewish state.

 

Institutions of higher learning need dialogue and discussion, honest intellectual discourse, and open-minded problem solving. What they don’t need is BDS.

 

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement currently attempting to work its way onto campuses throughout the country marks a regressive leap in the journey for peace in the Middle East. Veiling its ultimate goal for the destruction of the State of Israel, BDS hides behind the façade of an initiative in pursuit of Palestinian rights. The premises it presupposes make negotiation and peace impossible. The false classification of Israel as an apartheid state is discriminatory extremism, which has no place in any university’s learning environment.

 

On a superficial level, boycotting Israeli products is impractical and unrealistic. Israeli contributions to society include cellphones, voicemail, AIM, SMS, Microsoft Windows OS, Microsoft Windows 7, Xbox 360, and Intel laptops to name just a few. Not only do these products fundamentally shape our lifestyle, they are indispensable to the way college students nationwide conduct our learning. Forget that consumer boycotts are ineffective and in no way further the peace process, realistically they just will never happen.

 

Boycotts are divisive. Blaming a single party accomplishes no further goal. It promotes inflexibility, precludes peace, and fails to consider additional factors behind the ultimate problem. If those behind BDS truly shared university ideals of education and progress, they would proportionately target every nation convicted of injustice toward Palestinians. Not the only democracy in the Middle East, where Arabs vote, are represented in parliament, sit on the Supreme Court, serve in the Cabinet, and own a disproportionately high amount of property.

 

We have to be honest, and I loathe the disingenuousness. They [bDS Movement] don’t want Israel. They think they’re being very clever, they call it their three tier – we want the end of the occupation, we want the right of return, and we want equal rights for Arabs in Israel. And they think they’re very clever because they know the result of implementing all three is what? What’s the result? You know and I know, what’s the result? There’s no Israel… there’s no Israel, full stop…”

 

If stopping violations of international and human rights law is the BDS movement’s primary concern, then why aren’t they advocating against Ahmadinejad’s Iran, Bashir’s Sudan, Hamas’ Gaza, Lebanon, Turkey, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Cuba? If the activists care about Arab oppression then why don’t they target Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Yemen? Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon each boast various levels of Palestinian oppression, from denying them basic human rights to openly expelling them. But here the BDS movement is deafeningly silent. Curiously absent is the protesting of any of these governments, making BDS’ ulterior motive all the more obvious. They want to delegitimize the state of Israel, and we need to delegitimize their blatant lies.

 

Man you don't half talk some right excrement.