mrg666
06-17-2007, 03:26 PM
To boycott or not - the new Israeli question
Pressure for sanctions on Israeli goods is widening. Forty years after the Six-Day War, unions, academics and journalists are locked in furious debate about the tactic. Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor, reports
Every Friday Gila Svirsky is to be found dressed in black jeans and T-shirt at one of Israel's major road junctions, in a silent vigil, carrying a placard that says simply: 'Stop the occupation.'
Those in her group - Women in Black - have been abused, sometimes violently, since they began their protests almost 20 years ago. Her activism against the occupation touches all areas of her life. She does not drink wine or buy food or other goods produced by Jewish settlers on land under Israeli occupation.
'I went to buy a sofa recently,' she says. 'I didn't think about it at first. But then when I had my credit card out, I thought, maybe there is possibility that it was made in the Territories. So I thought, I better ask. And the salesman said: "Oh! It was made in this wonderful settlement called Barkan." I said: "No sale". He looked really shocked.'
Svirsky believes in boycotting the Israeli occupation. But she cannot support proposed boycotts of Israeli academics by Britain's University and College Teachers' Union, or of Israeli goods by the National Union of Journalists.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world...099497,00.html
Pressure for sanctions on Israeli goods is widening. Forty years after the Six-Day War, unions, academics and journalists are locked in furious debate about the tactic. Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor, reports
Every Friday Gila Svirsky is to be found dressed in black jeans and T-shirt at one of Israel's major road junctions, in a silent vigil, carrying a placard that says simply: 'Stop the occupation.'
Those in her group - Women in Black - have been abused, sometimes violently, since they began their protests almost 20 years ago. Her activism against the occupation touches all areas of her life. She does not drink wine or buy food or other goods produced by Jewish settlers on land under Israeli occupation.
'I went to buy a sofa recently,' she says. 'I didn't think about it at first. But then when I had my credit card out, I thought, maybe there is possibility that it was made in the Territories. So I thought, I better ask. And the salesman said: "Oh! It was made in this wonderful settlement called Barkan." I said: "No sale". He looked really shocked.'
Svirsky believes in boycotting the Israeli occupation. But she cannot support proposed boycotts of Israeli academics by Britain's University and College Teachers' Union, or of Israeli goods by the National Union of Journalists.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world...099497,00.html