*579 Senator McKenzie : To move—That the Senate—
(a) notes statements of support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, including the Victoria Trades Hall Council’s recent reiteration of its support for the BDS strategy; and
(b) denounces such support as anti-Semitic, ill-informed, simplistic, inflammatory and having no place in our society.
Suggested actions
1. Write against support of the motion.
Senator Bridget McKenzie (Victoria - Nationals)
Parliamentary office phone: (02) 6277 3200
Electorate office, Bendigo ph. (03) 5441 4251
Twitter: @senbmckenzie
senator.mckenzie@aph.gov.au
1. Acknowledge
- We must oppose all forms of racism and prejudice including anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia, Christianiphobia, anti-Palestinianism are
- The Shoah (Holocaust) “the genocide of the Jewish people was unprecedented in its totality: in the Nazis‟ attempt to murder every last Jewish man, woman and child” . The Holocaust is “often called the paradigmatic genocide" was a result of centuries of anti-Semitism in Europe.
- Characterising BDS as anti-Semitic is false
- Security concerns of all parties
- Rights to self-determination for all parties
- Indefinite and perpetual occupation of the Palestinian people i.e. nearly fifty years
- Discriminatory laws in the occupied Palestinian territories i.e. military law for Palestinians and civilian law for Israelis
- Asymmetric power struggle as exemplified by the use of force by Israel on Gaza in July-August 2014 and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine.
2. Call for:
- Fundamental human rights to be realised for all people
- Opposition to the motion by Senator McKenzie.
- Support for the following motion: http://palestineisraelaustralianparliament.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/private-member-motion-international.html
References
Antony Loewenstein, ’To support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is not antisemitic’, The Guardian, 2013 http://www.bdsmovement.net/2013/guardian-loewenstein-response-11392#sthash.GCB9rrmv.dpuf
Jewish Voice for Peace Statement on BDS, 24 January 2012
Chomsky backs tactics opposing Israeli policies, The Australian, 15 December 2012
“I WAS surprised to read a letter to the editor of The Australian claiming that I regard the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement’s tactics targeting Israel as “pure anti-Semitism, aimed at the destruction of Israel” and that I said BDS efforts are “inimical to the interests of and lacking any genuine support from the Palestinian people” (Letters, 14/12).
These tactics have enormous support among Palestinians, and the charge of anti-Semitism should be dismissed with disdain."
Peter Slezak, 'BDS and its critics', Independent Australian Jewish Voices, September 22, 2014
There has been a shameless tendency to exploit the memory of the Holocaust to silence criticism of Israel. By playing on deep sensitivity to the vast tragedy of European Jews, criticism of the Jewish State is regularly characterised as the new form of anti-Semitism. Following such remarks by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and other politicians, now Dyrenfurth (The Saturday Paper April 19) joins the chorus by using the Nazi slur against supporters of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS). BDS is a rights-based movement explicitly against anti-Semitism and racism in all its forms. Conceivably, one might disagree with the widely employed tactic without descending to such vile and obviously inappropriate comparisons. To do so is to dishonour the memory of Holocaust victims and to cheapen the horrors of Nazi atrocities against Jews and others...
Alex Salmond - Scottish First Minister supports sanctions against Israel, 7 May 2014
BDS key to a “just peace,” says Palestinian Christian boycott activist, 8 October 2012
Nobel Peace Laureate calls for boycott of Israel, 6 March 2014
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, called on the International community to be brave and support B.D.S. Campaign until the Israeli Government recognizes Palestinian Human Rights.
Mairead Maguire said:
‘The Palestinian narrative is a story of a prolonged occupation by Israel based on policies of Apartheid and racism, ongoing building on Palestinian land of Israeli settlements, house demolitions, and the continued denial by Israel of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people. Gaza, the largest open air prison in the world, of which Israel is its jailer as it holds the keys and totally controls all aspects of life of the people of Gaza. One and a half million people in Gaza, mostly under 2l years of age, continue in the words of Israeli Professor and Academic, Jeff Halper, to be ‘warehoused’ by Israel with all rights being violated by Israel. The Gaza port has been closed for over 40 years, their airport destroyed and crossing into West Bank blocked. The people of Gaza do not have the basic right to travel into the West Bank to visit relatives without passes from Israel, and students in Gaza are forbidden to travel to study outside Gaza. These conditions mean that Gaza is still under occupation.
US Efforts to Curb Freedom of Speech on Israel and Palestine are of Grave Concern
Statement from Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on 2 April 2014
The BDS movement emanates from a call for justice put out by the Palestinian people themselves. It is a Palestinian-led, international non-violent movement that seeks to force theIsraeli government to comply with international law in respect to its treatment of the Palestinian people.
I have supported this movement because it exerts pressure without violence on the State of Israel to create lasting peace for the citizens of Israel and Palestine, peace which most citizens crave. I have witnessed the systematic violence against and humiliation of Palestinian men, women and children by members of the Israeli security forces. Their humiliation and pain is all too familiar to us South Africans.
In South Africa, we could not have achieved our democracy without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime. My conscience compels me to stand with the Palestinians as they seek to use the same tactics of non-violence to further their efforts to end the oppression associated with the Israeli Occupation.
The legislations being proposed in the United States would have made participation in a movement like the one that ended Apartheid in South Africa extremely difficult.
I am also deeply troubled by the rhetoric associated with the promulgation of these bills which I understand, in the instance of Maryland, included testimony comparing the boycott to the actions of the Nazis in Germany. The Nazi Holocaust which resulted in the extermination of millions of Jews is a crime of monstrous proportions. To imply that it is in any way comparable to a nonviolent initiative diminishes the horrific nature of that genocidal and tragic era in our world history.
Whether used in South Africa, the US South, or India, boycotts have resulted in a transformative change that not only brought freedom and justice to the victims but also peace and reconciliation for the oppressors. I strongly oppose any piece of legislation meant to punish or deter individuals from pursuing this transformative aspiration. And I remain forever hopeful that, like the nonviolent efforts that have preceded it, the BDS movement will ultimately become a catalyst for honest peace and reconciliation for all our brothers and sisters, both Palestinian and Israeli, in the Holy Land.
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