Build Moral Pressure To End The Israeli Occupation Of The Palestinian Lands
Bishop Desmond Tutu
WASHINGTON: The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments
of the last century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international
pressure. There is no greater testament to the basic dignity of ordinary people
everywhere than the divestment movement of the 1980s.
A similar movement has taken shape recently, this time aiming at an end to
the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. We should hope that average
citizens again rise to the occasion, since the obstacles to a renewed movement
are surpassed only by its moral urgency.
Divestment from apartheid South Africa was fought at the grass roots. Religious
leaders informed their followers, union members pressured their stockholders
and consumers questioned their store-owners. Students played an especially
important role by compelling universities to change their portfolios. Eventually,
institutions pulled the financial plug, and the South African government thought
twice about its policies.
Moral and financial pressure is again being mustered one person at a time.
In the United States, students at more than 40 campuses are demanding a review
of university investments. Europe faces efforts ranging from consumer boycotts
to arms embargoes.
These tactics are not the only parallels to the struggle against apartheid
South Africa. Yesterday's township dwellers can tell you about today's life
in the occupied Palestinian territories. To travel only a few blocks in his
own homeland, an elderly grandfather waits to beg for the whim of a teenage
soldier. More than an emergency is required to get to a hospital; less than
a crime earns a trip to jail.
The lucky ones have a permit to leave their squalor to work in the cities,
but luck runs out when security closes all checkpoints, paralyzing an entire
people. The indignities, dependence and anger are all too familiar.
I am not the first South African to recognize the chilly reminder of what
we just left. Ronnie Kasrils and Max Ozinsky, two Jewish heroes of the anti-apartheid
struggle, recently published a letter titled "Not in My Name." Signed
by several hundred other prominent Jewish South Africans, the letter drew
an explicit analogy between apartheid and current Israeli policies. The writer
Mark Mathabane and former President Nelson Mandela have also pointed out the
relevance of the South African experience to the current conflict.
To criticize the occupation is not to overlook Israel's unique strengths,
just as protesting the Vietnam War did not imply ignoring the distinct freedoms
and humanitarian accomplishments of the United States. In a region where repressive
governments and unjust policies are the norm, Israel is certainly more democratic
than most of its neighbors. This does not make dismantling the settlements
any less of a priority.
Divestment from apartheid South Africa was certainly no less justified even
though there was repression elsewhere on the African continent. Aggression
is no more palatable at the hands of a democratic power. Territorial ambition
is equally illegal whether it occurs in slow motion, as with the Israeli settlers
in the occupied territories, or in blitzkrieg fashion, as with the Iraqi tanks
in Kuwait.
Almost instinctively, the Jewish people have always been on the side of the
voiceless. In their history, there is painful memory of massive round-ups,
house demolitions and collective punishment. In their scripture, there is
acute empathy for the disenfranchised. The occupation represents a dangerous
and selective amnesia of the persecution from which these traditions were
born.
Not everyone has forgotten, including some within the military. The growing
Israeli refusenik movement evokes the small anti-conscription drive which
helped turn the tide in apartheid South Africa. Several hundred decorated
Israeli officers have refused to perform military service in the occupied
territories. Those individuals not already in prison have taken their message
on the road to U.S. synagogues and campuses, rightly arguing that Israel needs
security, but it will never have it as an occupying power.
More than 35 new settlements have been constructed this year. Each one is
a step away from the safety deserved by the Israelis, and two steps away from
the justice owed to the Palestinians.
If apartheid ended, so can the occupation, but the moral force and international
pressure will have to be just as determined. The current divestment effort
is the first, though certainly not the only, necessary move in that direction.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984
for his work against apartheid, contributed this comment to the International
Herald Tribune. It was written in collaboration with Ian Urbina, associate
editor of the Middle East Report, Washington. to top
(Originally published in the Internation Herald Tribune, July 14, 2002)