Boycotting Israel: Quaker action is justified
Stuart Yates affirms the boycott
Meeting for Sufferings’ decision to boycott goods made by Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories is welcome and the least we should do in view of Israel’s continuing oppression. The West Bank is divided into three areas. The Palestinian Authority has limited powers over Areas A and B, thirty-nine per cent of the total land, but even here ultimate power is wielded by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF): ‘IDF soldiers raided the International Solidarity Movement’s Ramallah office Wednesday for the second time this week, confiscating computers, T-shirts and bracelets engraved with the word “Palestine”.’ (Haaretz, Feb 2010) Ramallah is in Area A, theoretically autonomous. Sixty-one per cent of Area C, the only contiguous area, is wholly under military rule. Settlement enlargement is specifically approved by successive Israeli governments who have defied for over thirty years UN Security Council Resolution 465, March 1980, passed unanimously, requiring them to ‘dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem’.
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