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| Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa, pictured above. |
August 28, 2019
By Faris K. Barhoum
The BDS or Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement was birthed in the 1980s. The BDS Movement was started to address the apartheid South African regimes racist and discriminatory tactics that effected black South Africans and other communities of color in South Africa. In an effort to exert pressure on the white-Afrikaner lead apartheid regime, many in academia, political activists, and those in the arts around the world pushed for divestment from companies, that did business with the apartheid lead white-Afrikaner government. In essence, the BDS Movement's main goal in South Africa, was to exert maximum pressure on entities that supported the apartheid lead government economically and militarily at the time.
The BDS Movement in South Africa was successful and saw an end to the apartheid era, & brought about reconciliation and a unity government that brought together South Africans of all backgrounds, colors, creeds, and religions. The fact of the matter is that non-violent and peaceful justice movements affect change and hold those in positions of power accountable for their crimes and misdeeds. Thirty-some-years-later, the Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement has gained worldwide traction in an effort to give Palestinians their civil and voting rights in Palestine. The BDS Movement in Palestine was started and inspired by "the Civil Rights Movement, and actions to end apartheid in South Africa" (Collins, 2).
Omar Barghouti, is a Palestinian human rights activist and he founded the BDS Movement, using South Africa as an example to follow. BDS was started 13-years-ago in effort to bring attention to Israels illegal military colonial occupation of historic Palestine. With the South African BDS Movement in mind, Mr. Barghouti and "170 Palestinian civil society groups," have been calling on the Jewish State to cease and desist from continuing the colonial military occupation of the "West Bank, East & West Jerusalem, [the Gaza Strip], and the Golan Heights," which Israel took over in the June 1967 War (Ibid, 2). The BDS Movement is also calling on the United Nations to enforce resolution 242, which calls on Israel to permanently "withdraw from territories occupied in recent conflict," i.e. the 1967 War (Ibid, 2).
As of late, Israel has claimed that BDS "delegitimizes the Jewish State," & "eventually [BDS] will eliminate [the Jewish State] altogether (Ibid, 2). Palestinians and supports of BDS, stress "that this movement is a non-violent approach to protesting Israel's [colonial] military rule over occupied territories" (Ibid, 2). As the conversation on BDS has grown and become louder, some in the Jewish community who support Israel, who are Zionist, are equating that those who support BDS are "anti-Semitic" or have ties to "terrorism." There are several prominent Jews and Israel's who are anti-Zionist who support BDS and want to see an end to apartheid in Israel-Palestine, & want a society that is a democracy for all, whether one is Palestinian or Israeli. Regardless of which side one stands on, one thing is clear: A conversation has started and it will be interesting to see where the conversation on BDS leads. Time will tell.
Article,
Collins, Terry. "What Is BDS? Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, Explained,
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