Rolling out the big guns

Over the past few months several UK organizations have been in various stages of approving and implementing boycotts of Israel because of their human rights record during the 40 year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. These organizations include UNISON, a 1.3 million member trade union, Britain's National Union of Journalists and the University and College Union. Although some of the boycotts are largely symbolic some, particularly the UNISON boycott, have the potential to make a difference. The British may being leading on this issue because they can more readily see the parallels between the situation in Israel/Palestine and the situation in apartheid South Africa. A British religious leader who was traveling with me in Israel/Palestine and who was involved in efforts to change the white South African regime commented "This is my first time here. Everything that I saw in South Africa I am seeing here". The Jewish/Israeli lobby appears to see the potential that this activity has to create a problem for them and they "rolling out the big guns". A coalition has been formed to make the case that these boycotts are a product of antisemitism and bias against Israel. (To see a story on this click here) Leaders in this effort include not only the usual suspects like Harvard professor Allan Dershowitz, but also respected opinion leaders like NY Times columnist Tom Friedman. (For his column entitled "A Boycott Built on Bias" click here) Mr. Friedman makes the point that is wrong to boycott a university, Hebrew University, that is a leader in Israel in providing equal education opportunities to Jews and Arabs alike. He is right in saying that Hebrew University is a leader in this area, but what he either doesn't know or chooses to ignore is that some Arabs are more equal than others. The kind of behavior that the boycott organizers are critical of allows the Israeli Army to make decisions based on "security concerns" that prevent the "less equal" Arabs from taking advantage of this opportunity. (To see stories on this click here and here) The Anti Defamation League has implemented a major ad campaign to fight the boycotts. (To see this click here) They make the point that the boycott organizers are singling out Israel and ignoring the human rights behavior of such countries as Zimbabwe, Sudan, Iran and Venezuela. It seems to me a little odd that an organization supportive of Israel would include Israel in this list of pillars of the human rights community. I guess politics makes strange bed fellows.