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hosh (hosh@hub.vikshepa.com)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2019 12:32:46 EDT hosh
This article was too long for me, but this morning I was reading through the guidelines of the BDS movement for academic and cultural boycott of Israel (see https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi/cultural-boycott-guidelines ) which is also a matter of urgent contemporary concern, vis a vis the position of bystanders - Israeli or international. Whereas the law (in democratic countries) assumes that we are "innocent unless proven guilty", the BDS campaign assumes that Israeli institutions, and perhaps also individuals, are basically "guilty unless proven innocent". In order to be considered "unboycottable" an institution must publicly acknowledge the comprehensive "inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law" and not engage in discriminatory practices, etc. In a situation in which Israelis are clearly enjoying the fruits of the occupation, even if they do not agree with the occupation, this is probably a correct approach. As citizens, of Israel or the world, we are guilty of complicity with evils unless we speak out and take action against them. It's interesting and important that for an Israeli institution to be considered "unboycottable" the BDS movement does not insist that it must agree with the strategy of the BDS movement, but only that it publicly acknowledges the rights of the Palestinian people.