The case for boycott

George Bisharat invokes South Africa (again) for a justified boycott of Israel:

"Israel's defenders have protested that Israel is not the worst human-rights offender in the world, and singling it out is hypocrisy, or even anti-Semitism. Rhetorically, this shifts focus from Israel's human rights record to the imagined motives of its critics.

But "the worst first" has never been the rule for whom to boycott. Had it been, the Pol Pot regime, not apartheid South Africa, would have been targeted in the past. It was not - Cambodia's ties to the West were insufficient to make any embargo effective. Boycotting North Korea today would be similarly futile. Should every other quest for justice be put on hold as a result?

In contrast, the boycott of South Africa had grip. The opprobrium suffered by white South Africans unquestionably helped persuade them to yield to the just demands of the black majority. Israel, too, assiduously guards its public image. A dense web of economic and cultural relations also ties it to the West. That - and its irrefutably documented human-rights violations - render it ripe for boycott."

And questions when enough is enough, or when the international community can finally light a fire in their proverbial asshole to mobilise into something meaningful.

"What state actions should trigger a boycott? Expelling or intimidating into flight a country's majority population, then denying them internationally recognized rights to return to their homes? Israel has done that.
Seizing, without compensation, the properties of hundreds of thousands of refugees? Israel has done that.

Systematically torturing detainees, many held without trial? Israel has done that.

Assassinating its opponents, including those living in territories it occupies? Israel has done that.

Demolishing thousands of homes belonging to one national group, and settling its own people in another nation's land? Israel has done that. No country with such a record, whether first or 50th worst in the world, can credibly protest a boycott."

The perfect case:

"If boycotting apartheid South Africa was appropriate, it is equally fair to boycott Israel on a similar record."

Precedence is a peculiar thing.

"Israel has been singled out, but not as its defenders complain. Instead, Israel has been enveloped in a cocoon of impunity."

The state continues to bulldoze every public condemnation of its actions. Who can stop it? We know who can. Assholes down south, get a move on.