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Israel’s Anti-BDS Conference |
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By
Stephen Lendman |
| Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activism is the most effective
way to confront rogue Israeli lawlessness, hitting a rogue state where
it hurts most, economically with political fallout - why regime officials
are frantic about countering it. On March 28, they held a Stop the Boycott conference in Jerusalem - featuring state-sponsored misinformation and Big Lies, including outrageously accusing BDS of opposing Israel’s right to exist. It opposes its illegal occupation, apartheid worse than South Africa’s, persecution amounting to barbarism, longstanding slow-motion genocide. Stop the Boycott is part of Israel’s greater initiative to attack truth-tellers exposing regime high crimes, demanding accountability not forthcoming. EU ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen participated in its Stop the Boycott conference, despite BDS activists urging him to stay away. On the one hand, he called settlements “illegal under international law.” On the other, he stressed EU engagement with Israel, ignoring its high crimes. Saying “(w)e are Israel’s largest trading partner, and…most important international partner in science, technology, and the list goes on” - including allying militarily, partnering in high crimes. Faaborg-Andersen opposes boycotting illegal settlement products, produced on stolen Palestinian land, supports their labeling alone, a toothless, meaningless, ineffective policy substituting for responsible action. Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) spokesman Mahmoud Nawajaa blasted Faaborg-Andersen saying “settlement products are welcome on the EU market.” “The European Union has once again abandoned its own policies that consider Israel’s settlements illegal,” Nawajaa explained. “By failing to vote at the UN Human Rights Council for establishing a UN registry of companies implicated in Israel’s occupation regime and by joining the far-right Israeli government’s fight against BDS, the largest nonviolent Palestinian-led human rights movement, the EU is underlining its already well-known hypocrisy and declaring its disregard for human rights.” “This shameless EU complicity in protecting and maintaining Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid confirms the need to intensify grassroots and civil society BDS campaigns against this regime as well as against corporations and institutions that are implicated in its human rights violations.” “As was the case in the struggle against apartheid South Africa, when governments fail to uphold justice, citizens must act.” “Europe is complicit in Israel’s serious violations of international law, including war crimes, by continuing its thriving military trade and joint military research with Israel and its import of settlement products that result from Israel’s theft of Palestinian land and resources, a policy the EU says it opposes.” “The EU has even refused to suspend the EU-Israeli free trade agreement despite Israel’s persistent violation of its human rights clause.” Nawajaa criticized Faaborg-Andersen’s irresponsible participation in Israel’s anti-BDS conference - showing support for apartheid viciousness, daily brutality against Palestinians amounting to barbarism, longstanding slow-motion genocide. The EU is complicit with “fanatic Israeli leaders,” he said. Instead of combating injustice, it supports it. Instead of endorsing BDS activism, it’s against it. Instead of upholding rule of law principles, it violates them. Instead of helping millions of long-suffering Palestinians, it spurns them - supporting Israeli ruthlessness. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. |
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