BDS: A Trojan horse? Occupying Minds

By AM Wednesday, August 6, 2014

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Guest writer Sean Bresnahan criticises some aspects of the BDS movement.

How great it is to see such a tremendous rise in awareness and activism on the ongoing situation in occupied Palestine this past few weeks. Due to the murderous assault on the defenceless people of Gaza over the course of the last month and more, social media has witnessed an unprecedented spike in Palestinian-related online-activism, complementing massive street protests in many, many parts of the world and calls for the isolation of the occupying Israeli state. This is inspiring to see but it also brings some subtle challenges in terms of how we relate to the struggle in Palestine.

We must be sure to remember that the primary weapon against the Zionist is the indigenous Palestinian resistance, without whom the occupation would long-since have achieved its immediate goals. Those who place unstinting faith in the BDS movement of Omar Barghouti should remember that boycott is only a tactic useful for ourselves coming from so-called liberal democratic societies where we can't contribute much more than that in practical terms, given our own restricted position in our own societies as virtual slaves to international capitalist power. We should not consider it the be-all and end-all for the wider world or indeed the Palestinians themselves and the people of the wider region. It certainly should not be considered a viable substitute for the legitimate resistance of the people, which we must continue to fully support.

I don't buy the line BDS is our best hope for a resolution in Palestine and have serious reservations about the agenda of this NGO. It seeks a form of recognition for the state of Israel, achieving this position without consultation with the Palestinian people themselves, and is funded by well-known liberal Zionists such as George Soros, who have an agenda of gaining acceptance for an Israeli 'right to exist' if it would only conform to certain standards of behaviour. No. The best hope is support for the continued physical resistance to Zionism and it's expansionist ambitions, be it in Palestine, the Lebanon, Syria or in Iran.

'Everyone, whoever has the means, especially in the Islamic world, they should do what they can to arm the Palestinian nation' - Ali Hosseini Khamenei (July 2014)

What has BDS achieved for the Palestinians in real terms over all the years of its existence in comparison with the incredible gains made by the resistance over the course of the last month alone (albeit at such a terrible cost, though a cost not of their making)? What if the Palestinians had placed all their faith in BDS rather than preparing in secret for the day they knew would soon come again when the Zionist attacked them without provocation and without mercy? Thank God they did not and thank God they were ready, or they would already be razed to the ground.

Instead we now have Zionism on the run, withdrawing unilaterally from the ground and seeking a way out. None of this would be possible without the armed resistance they met in the streets and towns of Gaza, a resistance so effective the supposed mighty armies of Israel were reduced to pummeling a defenceless population and massacring women and children from afar rather than stand toe-to-toe. We seen this before in Lebanon and we are seeing it yet again. Israel is weaker than a spider's web when physically confronted and will withdraw into barbarism rather than face an enemy capable of fighting back.

Boycott, sanction, divest by all means - who would suggest otherwise - but remember the only solution is the complete defeat and reversal of the Zionist project. BDS as an entity in itself is not committed to this end and works towards the decommissioning of the Palestinian physical resistance. And so we must be careful to separate the entity from the strategy, we must be careful that we don't allow our own restricted position in our own societies to frame what is and what is not the best route forward for the people in Palestine. We must be sure we don't allow liberal Zionism to occupy our minds and insert a Trojan horse into the rightful struggle of the Palestinians for complete freedom.

The bottom line is no state set up in the manner of Israel, that has carried out its heinous crimes, should ever be granted a right to exist within ANY borders. It's a frightening precedent if we allow it; the principle of 'right over might' is at stake here. The only long-lasting solution is the total decolonisation of all of Palestine, with all of Palestine returned to its rightful owners and a satisfactory and just way must be found of doing so. This is not the position of the BDS movement who, with its principle endorser 'Electronic Intifada', argues for a recognition of Israel if it can only be forced to concede equal rights to those residing within its borders, completely ignoring the central issue of occupation.

Zionist-envisaged map of 'Eretz Israel'

Because so long as Zionism is tolerated it will continue its relentless expansionism at the expense of the indigenous Palestinians and this we cannot allow. It's totally illegal, the entire Israeli state is totally illegal, devoid of legitimacy and has been so from the very beginning. It should not have been tolerated and nor should it be tolerated now.

The state of Israel has no desire to make peace and is totally bent on the annihilation of the Palestinian people. We know they are not even for stopping at that and have their eyes on a much larger territory they call 'Eretz Israel' stretching from the Nile delta to the banks of the Euphrates.

This is the cause of so much of the instability in other parts of the region, namely but not exclusively in Syria, the Sudan and Iraq. There is a Zionist hand at work here, as always tightly packed into the glove of the West. This has to be stopped or the world will tear itself apart. Israel needs to be totally dismantled by whatever means necessary and following that the forces of imperialism, for which it is agent, need confronted and defeated. The alternative is unthinkable and can conceivably result in the mass-extermination of the human race itself. Surely the 'right' for a violently racist, colonial entity such as the state of Israel to some form of existence is hardly worth all or any of that.

In an ever-changing world the cause of Palestine, as our own, has withstood the test of time and at this critical juncture in history we must continue to reach out to those who resist the evil machinations of imperialism. The cause of Palestine is the cause of Ireland. The artificial state of Israel is within Palestine's borders; every inch of Palestine - from the river to the sea - needs recovered just as here at home. The so-called 'right to exist' is a similar concept to the principle of consent here in the occupied six-counties, both being tools of the invader to maintain an illegitimate occupation that has no legal standing, having been founded on force. The only just settlement lies in the full retrieval of our national rights and those of our brothers and sisters in occupied Palestine. One struggle - one love: Our day will come.