Monday sees the beginning of ‘Buy Israeli Goods Week’, an initiative supported by the Fair Play Campaign Group, StandWithUs UK and the Zionist Federation. As well as buying goods, it is suggested that customers might want to express your appreciation (to store managers or the head office) that Israeli produce is stocked – or your (polite) disappointment if this is not the case. Sainsburys is a particular focus, as they will apparently soon be the target of a BDS campaign. Here’s a link to a flyer with more information.
Left Foot Forward published a good piece about this last week by Alex Bjarnason, in which he analyses the way BDS activists seek to delegitimize Israel and turn her into a pariah state. He concludes:
Their support derives from compassion for Palestinians who face severe hardships and anger at the policies of an Israeli government who appear harsh and cruel, with the BDS activists excelling in presenting information with a cynical mix of half-truth and spin that pushes sensible trade unionists into agreeing with less-progressive, hard-line positions.
The challenge in the future is to reach out more effectively to moderates who recognise the right of both Palestinian and Israelis to live in peace as part of a two-state solution, and find a more productive way to channel their anger that can help improve the lives of Palestinians and make peaceful co-existence between the two people become a reality.
In particular, we need to work on building stronger links between moderates in the UK and progressives in Israel and Palestine who recognise the urgency of supporting the peace process and realise a better-future will be based on friendship, tolerance and co-existence.
Another very welcome post, also published in Left Foot Forward, focuses on anti-Israel activism in the trade union movement. This is the transcript of a speech Emine Ibrahim gave to Unison recently, arguing against a proposed boycott motion. Here are some key paragraphs:
I speak against this motion because it omits to mention or support unions which organise under the umbrella of the Histadrut. It is such a shame that a great union like Unison is continuing to pursue the boycott of the Israeli TUC and these non-constructive efforts which are damaging progressive forces in Israel. It is not right or fair that sister organisations are not supported in their common struggle for Labour rights.
It is also an irony that the Histadrut is now being ignored when it has a history of achieving free democratic trade unionism and last year alone it negotiated a seven per cent pay rise for all public sector workers over two years. I repeat conference seven per cent! Not the derisory one per cent we have on the table. The Israeli trade unions have also managed to secure recognition and bargaining rights at IKEA and McDonald’s, notorious anti-trade union multinationals.
We should be learning lessons – they have something to offer us and we have something to offer them. This must include playing a constructive and facilitative role in bringing together Palestinian and Israeli workers in the spirit of workers solidarity.
Over on Engage, in response to a post I wrote about a recent piece in the HuffPo which links antisemitism with the actions of Israel, Lynne T notes the role played in this process by negative, sometimes false, media coverage of Israel.
With this observation in mind, here’s some information passed on by Stephen Hoffman from the ZF about a course, to be held on 21 July, designed to hone the writing skills of Israel advocates. It will be led by the current Director of Research and Content for the Israel Project, David Harris, and aims to train delegates ‘how best to write and submit op-eds, top tips for blogging, letter writing and effective use of social media, in particular facebook and twitter.’ Do get in touch with www.zionist.org.uk if this is of interest to you.
