From September 7-10 of this year, nearly a hundred delegates from across the USA gathered at George Mason University (GMU) in Arlington, Virginia to build on the US Campaign to End the Occupations previous 2006 National Organizers Conference in Dearborn, Michigan.

 

 In Dearborn, the 200 plus member organizations of the US Campaign voted to approve an ‘apartheid framework’ for their solidarity work and to endorse the call by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations to pursue a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) strategy until Israeli apartheid in Palestine is dismantled. This year’s conference was meant to put these decisions into practice and three exciting new proposals were adopted by the delegates.

 

Anti-Apartheid Speaking Tour

 

The first proposal submitted to the conference was presented by Adam Horowitz of the American Friends’ Services Committee’s (AFSC) National Middle East Peacebuilding Program. The proposal called on the US Campaign to endorse a US speaking tour entitled “Equal Rights for All - The struggle to end apartheid in South Africa and Israel/Palestine”.

 

 According to the original proposal, the goals of the speaking tour would be: “(1) to educate audiences in the United States about the realities in Israel/Palestine; (2) to draw comparisons and contrasts to apartheid in South Africa; (3) to share lessons learned from the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa for the current movement to end apartheid in Israel/Palestine; (4) to raise the issue of apartheid in Israel/Palestine and the connections to Apartheid South Africa in the U.S. media; and (5) to provide people in the United States with organizing strategies and resources to promote campaigns in their communities.”

 

 One of the novel ways in which the AFSC has taken the initiative in promoting discussion of the apartheid framework has been to develop a “Palestine: Peace not Apartheid – Discussion Guide and Resources” (http://afsc.org/carter-discussion) as a critical/indispensable companion to former US president Jimmy Carter’s book. The US Campaign itself has also prepared a number of fact-sheets and poser on the links between Israeli and South African apartheid regimes, including an analysis of the

application of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1976).

 

 While it was generally agreed that the speaking tour would offer a novel opportunity to promote a deeper understanding of the apartheid framework, considerable disagreement plagued the discussion over a proposal to add an analysis of apartheid realities in the USA to the content of the tour. While the amendment did receive a majority from the floor, it did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority to pass.

As one frustrated participant put it, “How do we expect the US government to respect the rights of Palestinians when it continues to deny fundamental human rights to immigrant communities, indigenous peoples, and racialized segments of its own population?”

 

 In the end the proposal passed with an understanding that speakers would also address and make linkages to the United States own legacy of genocide and racial segregation (although the link wouldn’t be made explicit in the title of the tour). The anti-apartheid speaking tour is scheduled to take place in selected cities sometime in January/February 2008.

 

Hanging up on Motorola: A New Boycott Target

A special US Campaign committee was struck last year to investigate potential targets for a consumer boycott. The proposal by the Memphis chapter of SUSTAIN (Stop US Tax-funded Aid to Israel Now!) garnered the most support, by calling on the US Campaign to endorse a “Hang up on Motorola” strategy to push a consumer boycott.

 

 The rationale for the campaign is compelling. According to the original proposal: “MOTOROLA (NYSE:MOT) is engaged in a 400 million NIS ($93 million) project to provide radar systems for enhancing security at illegal West Bank settlements deep inside Palestinian territory. Motorola also has a $90-million contract to provide the Israeli army with an advanced ‘Mountain Rose’ cell phone communications system. Its wholly owned subsidiary in Israel has a contract to develop encrypted wireless communications featuring vehicle-mounted antenna that will enable military use in the occupied territories and other remote areas. Motorola has operations in the Jordan Valley on occupied land.”

 

 The advocates of this motion, stressed some important considerations regarding the selection of Motorola as a boycott target:

 

Commemorating the Nakba in 2008

(1) the company is involved in direct violations of Palestinian human rights; (2) mobile phones account for 2/3 of the company’s sales; (3) there are many alternatives to Motorola that consumers can use; (4) Motorola has shown

 

sensitivity to consumer boycott campaigns in the past, pulling out of Burma in the 1990s in the face of a similar campaign.

 

 The proposal was adopted overwhelmingly from the floor, although with an amendment that urged the US Campaign to study the Motorola boycott in depth before officially launching the campaign. The purpose of this delay would be to develop a clear strategy on implementing a consumer boycott and the optimal means of launching and sustaining such a movement.

 

The final proposal was introduced by Al-Awda Connecticut and called on the US Campaign to work with other organizations in the US to make 2008 a year of commemoration and action around the Nakba. As most readers of the NECEF report are already aware, 2008 marks the 60^th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and the destruction of over 430 Palestinian villages by the nascent Israeli state.

 

 In fact, it can be argued that no analysis of Israeli apartheid is complete without taking into account the profound importance of the denial of the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in sustaining the apartheid state of Israeli society. The proposal thus encourages member organizations to organize events and actions that will educate the broader public on the realities of the refugee situation and a build a sustained campaign to debunk

 common myths used to deny the fulfillment of the fundamental rights of Palestinian refugees.

 

The proposal calls for the explicit linking of these activities – to be organized around significant dates related to the Nakba or the Palestinian struggle, as well as other important dates (like International Refugee Day) – to the BDS movement and existing campaigns (most notably the Caterpillar boycott). Other organizations likely to participate in this campaign include the Wheels of Justice Network, the Middle East Crisis Committee, Academics For Justice, and the Palestinian American Congress.

US Campaign to End the Occupation

NECEF Report Fall 2007

By Kole Kilibarda

Photograph by Aya Abou-Taha