Posts tagged ‘boycott’

May 1

The backlash against the UK National Union of Journalists’ boycott motion

There’s nothing quite like a boycott to test the limits of the mainstream ‘liberal’ critique of Israel. This has been demonstrated once again by the reaction to a motion at the recent UK National Union of Journalists (NUJ) conference that gave the union’s support to the campaign to boycott Israeli goods.

An official statement described the successful vote as a “decision of NUJ members as trade unionists and as citizens to try to help put pressure on the Israeli government” to stop the “continued occupation”, as well as referencing the specific issues of Israel’s withholding of PA money, and the refusal to recognise internationally-accredited Palestinian journalists. Read more

Apr 23

Peace plan – minus the Palestinians

Another Israel/Palestine ‘peace plan’ has been added to the long list of diplomatic dances that have come and gone in recent years, and this time it is a reheated version of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. At an Arab League summit in Riyadh in March, the organisation’s members unanimously offered Israel peaceful, normalised relations, should the land occupied since 1967 be returned.

Yet despite all the fanfare, and self-congratulatory talk of an “historic moment”, this proposal shares the same flaw as those that have come before – it is being offered on behalf of those at the root of the conflict, the Palestinians. The Palestinians, who, from the refugees exiled since 1948 to those living in the Occupied Territories, are still not ‘permitted’ to speak for themselves. Read more

Dec 1

Movement for Academic Boycott of Israel Alive, Well—and Growing

For those in Britain and around the world following the various attempts to pressurize Israel through boycotts and sanctions, recent months have offered signs that an academic boycott, though currently on the backburner, remains a “live” issue—and may well score more successes in the near future.

A quick recap takes us back to April 2005, when the UK’s Association of University Teachers (AUT) voted in favor of a boycott of two specific Israeli universities, in a decision that provoked a storm of debate, and eventually led to the motion being overturned the following month. Despite this apparent defeat, the pro-boycott union members had succeeded in thrusting the issue into the public arena, and for many it felt like the genie now was well and truly out of the bottle. Read more