Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Last week there was a significant development in the international response to the Israeli occupation when the UN rapporteur for human rights in the occupied territories came out with a harsh report saying the world was too passive about the occupation. The "duration of this occupation is without precedent or parallel in today's world," the report said. Israel has "driven Gaza back to the dark ages" due to denial of water and electricity and freedom of movement. There is a "darkening stain" on the world's legal framework because other countries have treated the occupation as normal, and done nothing to resist Israel's "colonial ambition par excellence," which includes two sets of laws for Israelis and Palestinians.
At a press conference about his report, S. Michael Lynk, a Canadian professor of law and human rights expert, said it is time the international community reach into its "toolbox" of enforcement mechanisms, so as to "raise the stakes" against the occupation and change international "opinion" of Israel. The country had been worried by the Goldstone Report in 2009 and is today worried by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), Lynk said; so if the international community took "unified actions on an escalating basis" to declare the occupation illegal and demand Israel's withdrawal, Israel would respond. That means sanctions.
He got an immediate reaction. US ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley on Friday said that the U.S. was "deeply disturbed" by Lynk's report and by his support for "economic and academic boycott" of Israel. The Jerusalem Post turned on Lynk for seeking to turn Israel into a "pariah state" (don't worry, it's happening on its own).
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Mondoweiss
Last week there was a significant development in the international response to the Israeli occupation when the UN rapporteur for human rights in the occupied territories came out with a harsh report saying the world was too passive about the occupation. The "duration of this occupation is without precedent or parallel in today's world," the report said. Israel has "driven Gaza back to the dark ages" due to denial of water and electricity and freedom of movement. There is a "darkening stain" on the world's legal framework because other countries have treated the occupation as normal, and done nothing to resist Israel's "colonial ambition par excellence," which includes two sets of laws for Israelis and Palestinians.
At a press conference about his report, S. Michael Lynk, a Canadian professor of law and human rights expert, said it is time the international community reach into its "toolbox" of enforcement mechanisms, so as to "raise the stakes" against the occupation and change international "opinion" of Israel. The country had been worried by the Goldstone Report in 2009 and is today worried by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), Lynk said; so if the international community took "unified actions on an escalating basis" to declare the occupation illegal and demand Israel's withdrawal, Israel would respond. That means sanctions.
Israel is very dependent upon trade with the outside world, it's very dependent upon its market with the United States, it's very dependent upon its market with Europe. If there was an understanding that all of a sudden Israelis wanting to travel abroad needed to have visas, if all of a sudden Israel wasn't going to get preferential trading agreements with the EU. If all of a sudden, the many and multitude of forms of military or economic cooperation or academic cooperation with Israel were now going to come to an end as long as Israel continued that, I think you'd begin to see a sea-change in the attitude of ordinary Israelis and in the attitude of the Israeli government.... Every journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step."I didn't use the word boycott," Lynk said in the press conference, though he called for a refusal to purchase settlement goods.
He got an immediate reaction. US ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley on Friday said that the U.S. was "deeply disturbed" by Lynk's report and by his support for "economic and academic boycott" of Israel. The Jerusalem Post turned on Lynk for seeking to turn Israel into a "pariah state" (don't worry, it's happening on its own).
[...]
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