Please forward this to your own lists, groups, websites, Facebook and tweet about it--this kind of discussion, including
the note from Rabbi Lerner explaining the position of Tikkun magazine, is badly needed in Western socieites. And write a
letter to our editor about the points raised below--to RabbiLerner.tikkun@gmail.com. This article can be read online at:
Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions: Opposing Occupations Everywhere (NOT just Israel) by Stephen Zunes
Editor’s Note: Stephen Zunes is a Contributing Editor to Tikkun Magazine and professor of political science at the University of San
Francisco. His article comes very very close to articulating the position on BDS (Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions)
held by Tikkun Magazine. We differ only in the following respects:
1. We do not agree that the criterion of what counts as an “Occupation” should be determined in the legalistic way that
Zunes derives from international law. The Occupation of Tibet by China and of Chechnya by Russia should count, and there
may be other such (India in Kashmir perhaps?). Ethical considerations should be considered valid in determining what is
and is not an “Occupation” when considering BDS.
2. We believe that BDS is also appropriate against any country engaged in prolonged warfare (and hence occupation) in
some other country’s territory (the US in Iraq till this year, and in Afghanistan continuing; Sudan in Darfur? Syria in
Lebanon for many years, Israel in Lebanon for many years) unless it can make a credible case that failing such an
occupation their own country would face occupation by the other.
3. In the case of Israel (or any other country ruled by a group that has a long history of being victims of persecution
previous to having a state under its control), I have argued in my book that BDS has the potential negative consequence
of increasing the paranoia of that previously persecuted group, which in turn might lead to more oppressive behavior
rather than a lifting of the oppressive behavior, and that therefore it is a dangerous (though appropriately
non-violent) strategy that should be used very sparingly if at all, and then only in a very targeted way (so, in Israel,
I argued in my book Embracing Israel Palestine, activists should clearly not target all Israeli institutions, but only those specifically involved in enforcing the occupation, and products produced by
Israelis living in the West Bank, and firms such as Caterpillar that build equipment that is used to enforce the
Occupation and/or the displacement of Palestinians from their homes).
4. It is imperative that those who launch BDS campaigns make clear what it would take to stop the campaign. The reason
it is not enough of an answer to say "Stop the Occupation" is that in the case of Israel/Palestine, at least, and this
may well be the case in other contemporary or future occupation in other countries, the criterion is in doubt, with some
(like those of us at Tikkun) meaning the end of the Occupation of the West Bank and the boycotts and blockades of Gaza
by Israel, whereas other supporters of BDS think that the Occupation refers to Israel's very creation in 1948 and its
end would require the ending of Israel as a refuge state for Jews facing oppression elsewhere. One major reason why
Tikkun has not joined the BDS movement as a whole is that it seems to include both of these positions, and that makes it
very easy for the blind supporters of Israeli policy to claim that support for BDS is really support for an ending of
the State of Israel, since at least some parts of the BDS movement genuinely hold that view. We believe that in the case
of the State of Israel those who support BDS (ourselves included) need to continuously make clear that they also support
the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination in at least part of its ancient homeland in what became
Palestine after Jews were forcibly expelled by Roman imperialism roughly 1900 years ago.
Please do read Stephen Zunes important piece below which makes a strong argument for a switch in the way that the peace
movement could support BDS because in that major point we fully agree. –Rabbi Michael Lerner
RabbiLerner.tikkun@gmail.com
Divesting from All Occupations
By Stephen Zunes
Foreign Policy in Focus
In response to ongoing violations of international law and basic human rights by the rightist Israeli government of
Benyamin Netanyahu in the occupied West Bank and elsewhere, there has been a growing call for divestment of stocks in
corporations supporting the occupation.
Modeled after the largely successful divestment campaign in the 1980s against corporations doing business in apartheid
South Africa, the movement targets companies that support the Israeli occupation by providing weapons or other
instruments of repression to Israeli occupation forces, investing in or trading with enterprises in illegal Israeli
settlements, and in other ways. Although human rights activists recognize such tactics as a legitimate form of
nonviolent international solidarity with an oppressed people, right-wing groups supporting the occupation as well as
some more moderate organizations concerned about the strident anti-Israel tone of some divestment supporters have
denounced the movement.
Still, the campaign has scored notable successes. One target of the campaign has been the Caterpillar company, which has
provided Israeli occupation forces with bulldozers that have illegally demolished thousands of Palestinian homes. In
recent months, TIAA/CREF- the leading provider of retirement benefits for those in the academic, research, medical, and
cultural fields-has removed Caterpillar from its Social Choice Fund. The influential Morgan Stanley Capital
International has de-listed Caterpillar from its World Socially Responsible Index, and the Quaker Friends Fiduciary
Corporation has joined a growing list of groups which have divested stockholdings in the company. At the recent General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA, a resolution to divest from Caterpillar, along with Motorola and Hewlett
Packard, for their complicity in the occupation was defeated by the narrowest of margins.
At the Presbyterian gathering and elsewhere, many opponents of the divestment resolution acknowledged that the Israeli
government is engaged in serious human rights abuses in the occupied territories, but expressed concerned that the
divestment resolution unfairly “singles out Israel.” Indeed, there are a number of governments in the world that engage
in worse human rightsabuses than Israel, and violations of human rights should be opposed regardless if they take place
within a country’s internationally-recognized borders or in an illegally occupied territory. Given that Israel is the
world’s only Jewish state, there is understandably particular sensitivity if Israel alone is seen as being targeted,
however serious the government’s transgressions.
However, there is a much stronger legal case for opposing human rights abuses in territories recognized as under foreign
belligerent occupation. International law prohibits under most circumstances foreign companies from exploiting natural
resources within such territories. Similarly, there are a host of legal issues regarding the export of weapons and other
military resources to country’s that utilize them in suppressing the rights of those under occupation.
Indeed, these very issues were subjected to international debate during South Africa’s occupation of Namibia, Iraq’s
occupation of Kuwait, and Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor.
Today, there are only three countries that are engaged in what the United Nations and the international community
recognize as a foreign belligerent occupation: Israel, Morocco, and Armenia. (Although a moral case can be made for the
independence of Tibet, Chechnya, and West Papua (as well as a number of other territories that aspire to become
independent), the international community deems them as being within the internationally recognized borders of China,
Russia and Indonesia respectively, and are therefore not recognized as occupied territories.)
Virtually no major international companies support Armenia’s current occupation of the small strip of Azerbaijan
territory it controls. However, a number of companies support Morocco’s ongoing illegal occupation of the nation of
Western Sahara.
U.S.-based Kosmos Energy is the only oil company in the world licensed for offshore oil exploration in the territorial
waters of occupied Western Sahara. In 2002, a UN legal analysis determined that proceeding with such exploration
activities would be in violation of international law. Similarly, two U.S. fertilizer companies – PCS and Mosaic – are
major customers of Morocco’s illegal phosphate production in occupied Western Sahara. And, as is the case of the
Israeli- occupied territories, U.S.-based arms manufacturers have supplied Moroccan occupation forces engaged in what
independent human rights groups have described as gross and systematic human rights violations, including manufacturers
of the teargas that has been used to break up peaceful demonstrations calling for the right of self-determination.
Expanding the Boycott
The Palestinian solidarity struggle would be considerably strengthened if, instead of calling for divestment
specifically from companies supporting the Israeli occupation, the call was for divestment from companies supporting all
foreign belligerent occupations.
Since it would effectively mean just one additional country and only a small number of companies, it would not take much
attention away from the Israeli occupation and Western companies supporting the occupation. More importantly, it would
help move the debate away from a divisive pro-Israel vs. anti-Israel dichotomy, where people often end up just talking
past each other, to where the debate belongs: human rights and international law.
Morocco is a predominantly Arab Muslim country. By including Western Sahara along with Palestine, the movement would
avoid the accusation that it is unfairly singling out Israel. After all, it would be targeting all illegal occupations,
not just one.
Morocco, like Israel, is in violation of a series of United Nations Security Council resolutions and a landmark decision
of the International Court of Justice regarding their occupation. Morocco, like Israel, has illegally moved tens of
thousands of settlers into the occupied territory. Morocco, like Israel, engages in gross and systematic human rights
abuses in the occupied territories. Morocco, like Israel, has illegally built a separation wall through the occupied
territories. Morocco, like Israel, relies on the United States and other Western support to maintain the occupation by
rendering the UN powerless to enforce international law. Morocco, like Israel, is able to maintain the occupation in
part through the support of multinational corporations.
And just as Palestine is recognized by scores of countries and is a full member of the Arab League, Western Sahara is
recognized by scores of countries and is a full member of the African Union, thereby insuring international support.
Not only would including all occupations in the divestment campaign help protect the movement from spurious charges of
“anti-Semitism” and broaden its appeal, it would help bring attention to the little- known but important
self-determination struggle of the Sahrawi people against the illegal and oppressive Moroccan occupation of their
country, which was invaded by the U.S.-backed kingdom in 1975, eight years after the Israeli conquest of the West Bank
and other Arab territories. (For a summary of the Western Sahara struggle and its implications, see Western Sahara: The
Other Occupation)
Given the intense polarization, harsh polemics, and suspicions regarding Israel and Palestine, a campaign based more on
universal legal and moral principles against occupation, rather than targeting a particular country that has a strong
and influential domestic constituency, would be far more effective. Given the suffering of the Palestinian (and Sahrawi)
peoples and the complicity of the U.S. government and U.S. corporations in their oppression, they deserve nothing less.
ENDS