[News] Co-Existence With Apartheid?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

November 5, 2015


  Co-Existence With Apartheid?
  <http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/11/05/co-existence-with-apartheid/>

by Ramzy Baroud <http://www.counterpunch.org/author/ramzy-baroud/>
*http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/11/05/co-existence-with-apartheid/*

There is a possibility that you have heard of the famed British author, 
J K Rowling, writer of the popular fantasy series ‘Harry Potter’. While 
I knew of her books –through my teenage kids – I knew little about the 
author herself, until recently.

Under an oblique title, “Israel needs cultural bridges, not boycotts”, 
Rowling, along with a few celebrity writers, argued against growing 
calls for an academic boycott of Israel.

Using generalized, ambiguous terminology that offered little by way of 
compelling Israel to end its ongoing Occupation in Jerusalem and the 
West Bank, genocide and siege in Gaza and protracted institutional 
discrimination against Arabs and other minorities in Israel, she argued 
for ‘cultural engagement’, instead. Such engagement, her letter reads, 
“builds bridges, nurtures freedom and positive movement for change. We 
wholly endorse encouraging such a powerful tool for change, rather than 
boycotting its use.”

The author seems disconnected from the reality of life under Israeli 
Occupation. On the day of writing this article, I spoke to Ismail Abu 
Aitah, a young man from Gaza who lost both his parents, his brothers, 
and one of his nephews when Israel blew up their house in the 2014 
summer war. He, too, was badly injured, together with almost every 
surviving member of his family.

“I am sorry Ramzy, I cannot give you exact dates and times to what has 
befallen my family,” he messaged me on Skype. “After July 24, 2014, I 
lost interest in life and stopped paying attention to the passing of time.”

How is one to console Ismail? How is one to console the families of over 
2,200 Palestinians killed in the last war; the over 400 in the previous 
war and over 1,430 in the one before that, in addition to the tens of 
thousands of wounded and maimed? Not forgetting the many killed in the 
West Bank this October alone, some executed point blank?

Will J K Rowling’s call for engagement suffice?

For her, even non-violent acts of encountering Israel’s ongoing 
massacres in Gaza and the military occupation in the West Bank are 
excessive. “Cultural boycotts singling out Israel are divisive and 
discriminatory, and will not further peace,” reads the letter she signed.

Amnesty International said Israel’s violent response to a burgeoning 
uprising in Occupied Palestine appears to have “ripped up the rulebook 
and resorted to extreme and unlawful measures.” But with scores of UN 
resolutions never respected, Geneva Conventions never honored, and 
humanitarian laws never valued, Israel has never followed a rulebook, to 
begin with.

Racism in Israel is so rife that being dark skinned in that country can 
be a terrifying experience. When a mainstream American newspaper like 
the Washington Post headlines a news report with “Israeli government to 
refugees: Go back to Africa or go to prison”, this is an indicator that 
Israel has a serious problem.

If J K Rowling and her peers do not see an urgency in standing up for 
millions of Palestinians who are enduring daily deaths and 
discrimination (as they have for 67 years), what is their reaction to 
the violence against Africans and dark-skinned people, who are beaten by 
mobs, and abused by police and discriminated against by the government 
itself?

Imagine life being a thousand-fold worse for Palestinians, a nation that 
is forced to choose between two terrible fates: permanent destitution 
and exile on the one hand, or a perpetual war and occupation on the other.

“We will be seeking to inform and encourage dialogue about Israel and 
the Palestinians in the wider cultural and creative community,” J K 
Rowling’s letter reads. Can those ‘creative’ elites possibly be any more 
disconnected from reality to the extent that they perceive a nation that 
stands accused of violating human rights with such impunity for nearly 
seven decades as one that simply needs a nudge to dialogue?

To expect dialogue with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who 
has just dehumanized Palestinians further by accusing them of concocting 
the Holocaust is not just impractical, but is the very definition of 
insanity – seeking dialogue with a belligerent occupier, over and over 
again, and expecting different results.

Fortunately, J K Rowling’s last-minute intervention and her barely 
concealed defense of Israel arrives belatedly. A defining moment is 
imminent, as hundreds of scholars in her own country have just enlisted 
their support for the academic boycott, to be added to the 100 artists 
who joined the cultural boycott last February and hundreds of 
universities and academicians in the US who did so last August. These 
are just a few examples of a massive, non-violent campaign that targets 
Israeli academic and cultural institutions – not individuals – who 
contribute directly, or otherwise, to the injustice that is meted out 
against Palestinians daily.

The scholars from the UK, exceeding 300 and the last to join the boycott 
campaign were, like thousands more, guided by the spirit of the struggle 
against the former Apartheid South African government. The latter was 
overcome largely because of the struggle and steadfastness of the South 
African people and also aided by morally-guided actions of boycotters 
all around the world, which included J K Rowling’s country.

Had the famed author achieved her current status during the height of 
South Africa’s Apartheid, would she have issued a similar call, 
declaring her “support for the launch and aims of Culture for 
Co-existence”, rather than demanding an end to Apartheid, even if it 
meant severing ties with Apartheid government institutions? At this 
point, the answer is uncertain.

Last February, the letter from the British artistes read, in part: 
“During South African apartheid, musicians announced they weren’t going 
to ‘play Sun City’. Now we are saying, in Tel Aviv, Netanya, Ashkelon or 
Ariel, we won’t play music, accept awards, attend exhibitions, festivals 
or conferences, run masterclasses or workshops, until Israel respects 
international law and ends its colonial oppression of the Palestinians.”

What is appropriate for South Africa should be appropriate for 
Palestine, too, even if J K Rowling and her respected peers find that 
too objectionable.

/*Dr. Ramzy Baroud* has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 
years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media 
consultant, an author of several books and the founder of 
PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom 
Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London). His website is: 
ramzybaroud.net/

-- 
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