“ICAHD was the first Israeli organization to endorse a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign and to formulate a statement, issued in January, 2005, calling on the international community to support it. Over the past decade and a half ICAHD has played a key role in expanding the BDS campaign and working with groups around the world in identifying effective targets.” So begins a revised statement released this month (Jan 2010) by ICAHD which “reaffirms ICAHDis support for BDS as an instrument of Palestinian liberation and brings our call into the framework of the Unified Palestinian Civil Society Call of 2005.”
This new statement includes clauses on ICAHD’s support of academic, sporting and cultural boycotts, which would include a boycott of such events as the scheduled Santana concert in Israel later this year.
This new statement is referred to in a new paper authored by Rachel Goria, Milestones in the history of the Israeli BDS movement: A brief chronology, to which ICAHD board member Shir Hever, our patron Ilan Pappe and ICAHD’s Jeff Halper have had input.
Goria quotes from mainstream Israeli journalists who bemoan the deteriorating standing of Israel in international perceptions and its vulnerability to a successful BDS campaign. Sever Plocker, on www.ynetnews.com, writes: Israelis image has hit a nadir; it is isolated, unwanted, and perceived as bad. The world is telling us that should we continue along the same contemptible path, we will lose our legitimacy. Yoav Karny, on the Globes business news website, writes : Israel will not continue to exist if the educated middle class of the West turns against it. The experience of South Africa has taught all the boycotters in the world that there isnit a more effective tool to weaken a society’s stamina than the withdrawal of foreign investmentsi.