NAKBA APARTHEID AND BDS

Daniel Mabsout,
 

The BDS campaign and company and other NGOs that endorse the BDS should not be investigated only regarding their boycott policy and its effectiveness on the ground and repercussions on the cause , but should be investigated primarily regarding their motives , plans and consequences concerning Palestine and the Palestinians . The fact that they start from recognizing Isra…el’s right to Historic Palestine and whatever land Israel usurped before 1967 makes them in favor of Israel rather than of Arabs and Palestinians and this by giving Israel an underserved legality and legitimacy . The policy of boycott followed by BDS calls for boycott on the ground of recognizing and normalizing with Israel . It boycotts the part in favor of the whole .

The fact that BDS does not impose the right to return to their homeland to all Palestinians as a precondition to any solution, makes their approach even more dubious and ridiculous . In case Palestinians do not return , the lifting – by Israel – of the so called Apartheid policies will only benefit the Arab Palestinians inside Israel who represent but a portion of the Palestinians and a minority group in occupied Palestine who might see their condition improve at the detriment of the cause itself and at the expense of the majority of Palestinians who will have to suffer endless exile and homelessness . This will also have for effect to boost Israel’s image as a democratic country and a model country in the region and hide its real usurping assaulting nature.

The approach of the BDS regarding Palestine is extremely controversial and some of their endorsers- mainly Ali Abunima of the Electronic Intifada – have reached the point of asking Israel to annex the West Bank and grant its inhabitants equal rights with Israelis and solve thus the Palestinian problem.
If these projects and suggestions of the BDS movement do not serve Israel then whom do they serve ? And why the BDS and its endorsers have totally overlooked the alternative of armed struggle not even mentioning the armed Resistance of HAMAS or that of Hizbullah that has reaped success- especially in Lebanon- and defeated Israel- by the testimony of Israelis themselves- and liberated the south after 18 years of occupation without any concessions given to the enemy? Instead of being acclaimed and saluted for its achievements, such Resistance is shunned and ignored on behalf of Palestinians whose land has been occupied for more than 60 years and who could have employed this achievement of the Resistance to improve their condition regarding Israel if not to get inspiration for any future endeavor.
Whom does the shunning of the armed Resistance serve? Does it serve Israelis or Palestinians?? All this shows that BDS – and its endorsers- play in Israel’s hands and are monitored and manipulated and intimidated by Israeli s and by Jews living abroad who have been lately almost ordering them around .

The great chaos that the Palestinian issue is going through , the successive failures and shortcomings of the different organizations and the lack of self criticism and absence of true assessment and evaluation of the situation, and the sectarian alignment that overtook HAMAS , much more than Israel’s so called might or assumed superiority, is responsible for the emptiness that allowed organizations with Jewish and Israeli affiliations -like BDS – to speak for Palestinians and draw the line of action of the cause .

Mind you , this BDS suffers from the same ailment the other Palestinians organizations suffer from , it lacks real evaluation and assessment of its role since it started its action more than eight years ago, and it is not about to admit the fact that all its actions and endeavors have very slightly – if not at all- affected the Palestinian situation . The truth is that the Palestinian situation has degenerated- lately- from bad to worse and will degenerate more and disintegrate more- at all levels – whether at the level of prisoners or settlements or Jerusalem or Gaza or Holy Sites or military assaults , nothing whatsoever has been achieved while organizations- like BDS- who monitor most functions in the occupied land- remain in a limbo situation giving Israel enough time to recover from its successive military defeats and plan carefully for the next period and resume its policies of expansion and occupation.

Is fool whoever thinks that Israel will give up such plans or give Palestinians anything that Palestinians will not get except through Resistance and struggle as the Lebanese example shows. Palestinians and Arabs from the four quarters are required to awaken to this reality and to assess the whole Palestinian and Arab situation and to determine their choices and define their line of action and recover their unity and solidarity defeating the schemes of division and partition and quarrel and refusing the recognition of the usurped State – as an Apartheid State or any state – whether via BDS or any other Palestinian organization .River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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