Do not tolerate what Israel is doing to the Palestinians

Ilian Pappe is Israeli historian and philosopher. Address given at the Bil'in conference on Nonviolent Resistance to the occupation (2008). (Article ceded by the Bil'in Popular Committee).

We are still talking about a two-state solution where we should be talking about a one-state solution in which both communities can live together. We are still talking about how to convince refugees to give up their right of return, when we should fight to allow the refugees to return. And we are still talking about partial agreements, when we should start talks about an all-round solution for the Palestine question.

We are doing all these things because some of us would think that this is the most practical, realistic and sensible stance that would advance the chances of peace, as if anything that happened in the last twenty years indicates that this is the right way forward. Instead, we should talk in a different language, we should establish different objectives, and we should start doing it today before it is too late.

No deep-down analysis is necessary to vouch that Israel is playing an undemocratic game. Its sole aim is to enforce the final chapters of a strategy to make Palestine a Jewish state inhabited by some Palestinians. If we accept this to be the ideological infrastructure of the Jewish state, the Zionist ideological infrastructure, what we are legitimising are the ethnic cleansing policies against the Palestinians. We should not talk about dialogue with the Jewish state. We should not talk about a Roadmap. We should not talk about the Geneva Initiative. We should talk about how to defeat this ideological regime by exerting the same pressure that we exerted on another despicable ideological regime, that of South Africa. Back then, the differences between apartheid radicals and those who supported it to a certain extent were eradicated.  Rightly so, there is no distinction between soft apartheid people and hardcore apartheid people. There should be no distinction between soft Zionists and hardcore Zionists. They all map out the same future.

It is time for the world to send a message: in the 21st century, a state that subscribes to a racist ideology cannot be accepted as a member in the community of civilized nations. There are so many nonviolent ways to send this message strongly and forcefully to the State of Israel. Let me advocate boycotts, divestment, and sanctions as the best means of sending Israel the message that we do not accept its ideological infrastructure. I recognise that breaking the links between Israel and the USA and the UK is no mean feat. But there are already very strong undercurrents from many people - who do not necessarily belong to the political classes - who say “enough is enough”. They are willing to start recruiting forces, from a humanistic point of view, to boycott Israel. Just as they fought against South Africa, Argentina, Chile, and the United States when these countries pursued policies and ideologies we did not accept.

I know that the history of the Jews in Europe is an obstacle that could stand between the implementation of a boycott. Many important organisations and individuals fear being depicted as anti-Semitic because of such an action. Fear is an extremely efficient tool. I think it’s high time that we left behind this fear. I would particularly like to speak to the Germans, as unintentional sons of the dictatorship that inflicted the Holocaust: you should be at the forefront of a boycott of Israel. I want to hear the moral voices in Germany say “We cannot tolerate what Israel is doing to the Palestinians”. It is a shameful legacy to allow the Israeli government to do the very same to the Palestinians as the Nazis did to the Jews. It is disgraceful to witness what is happening on Palestinian soil and to turn a blind eye.

I could quite easily direct a similar accusation against European society as a whole. As an Israeli, I firmly believe I have to encourage Europeans to understand that they can no longer tolerate what is happening in Palestine. Believe me, I was born in this country and I know the situation inside out. Believe me, the Israelis will not allow a two-state solution, they will not stop the occupation, they will not allow four million Palestinians to return home. They will do none of these things if you leave it to Israeli government. But if you join the boycott campaign, just as we boycotted South Africa, then we will force a change. In turn, the people in this country will change and finally we will all live in peace and reconciliation within this Holy Land.