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18 August 2011

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ACTION FOR PALESTINE

Boycotting Israeli Goods a practical way to help end apartheid

Israel’s illegal ‘Apartheid Wall’

SINCE its establishment in 1948, the apartheid state of Israel has perpetrated crime after crime against the people of Palestine and neighbouring Arab countries and faced no real resistance from Western political elites.
Israel came into existence on the back of a campaign of terror, murder and ethnic cleansing which saw the forcible expulsion of over 750,000 indigenous Palestinians.
1967 saw Israel launch a war of territorial expansion, conquering the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which it occupies to this day. Palestinians in these territories have been subject to a system of apartheid, under which they are subject to a regime of discriminatory laws, checkpoints, curfews, closures, travel restrictions, land and water theft, detentions, torture, assassinations and frequent brutal military assaults on the civilian population. A staggering fact is that, since 2000, more than 6,490 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces.
It was against this backdrop that, in 2005, over 170 Palestinian civil society groups and trade unions issued the unified call for a South African-style international campaign of ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ (BDS) against Israel until it ends the occupation and abides by its obligations under international law.
In six short years, the BDS campaign has grown in strength and become, in the words of a think-tank closely linked to the Israeli government, a “strategic threat” to the apartheid state. The BDS campaign has scored many important victories in this time and Israel views it with such fear and loathing that its parliament recently criminalised BDS advocacy by Israeli citizens. So much for free speech in what is often called “the only democracy in the Middle East”.
BDS offers a practical and non-violent way for international civil society to both show solidarity with the Palestinian people, and to help bring economic, political and cultural pressure to bear on Israel’s apartheid regime.
Boycotting Israeli goods is also one of the easiest things for ordinary citizens to do.
When shopping, just be sure to always check labels for “Made in Israel” or the Israeli barcode which begins with 729.
In supermarkets, some of the most common goods are fruit (peppers, avocados, dates, grapefruit, grapes, figs, passion fruit), vegetables (potatoes, carrots) and herbs and spices (basil, dill, tarragon, chives, rosemary, sage, parsley).
In hardware stores, look out for Keter, Outstanding and Stanley plastic products.
Lots of beauty products also come from Israel, such as Nevo, Vivo, L’Oreal Israel, Dead Sea Spa, -417, Yes To Carrots and Ahava.
If you find a product that originates from Israel, don’t buy it — or better yet, complain in person and/or in writing to management. The more this happens, the more pressure there is on stores to stop stocking these products of apartheid.
There are also some targeted campaigns being run by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) that you might like to get involved in.
These include a campaign demanding that Irish construction multinational CRH divests from its Israeli subsidiary Mashav/Nesher, which supplies cement used to build the illegal ‘Apartheid Wall’, checkpoints and Jewish-only Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands.
Another campaign is aimed at Irish food giants Total Produce, who not only import Israeli produce but have applied to purchase the Israeli food producer Agrexco — a company partially-owned by the Israeli state, and deeply complicit in Israel’s occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands. Agrexco operates within illegal Israeli settlements and markets over 60% of the agricultural produce grown in these settlements. There is evidence of Agrexco being involved in the deliberate mislabelling of produce from the settlements and using water stolen from Palestinians. The IPSC is asking supporters of Palestinian rights to contact Total Produce and demand that they pull out of the tendering process.
Boycotting Israeli goods is a peaceful way to get Israel to end its military occupation of Palestine and obey international law. Palestine is suffering from relentless Israeli attacks and experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe. As with South African Apartheid, ordinary people have the power to help stop injustice. Do your bit — don’t buy Israeli products!

For more information see the IPSC website at www.ipsc.ie

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Contributions from key figures in the churches, academia and wider civic society as well as senior republican figures

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