Sanctioning Apartheid: Comparing the South African and Palestinian Campaigns for Boycotts, Disinvestment, and Sanctions

Jones, Lee

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-94872-0_11

Lee Jones³

Part of the book series: Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism ((PCSAR))

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4 Citations

Abstract

This chapter critically compares the campaigns for boycotts, disinvestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel and South Africa. While the South Africa analogy is frequently invoked to justify BDS against Israel, the political economy and social conflict dynamics in both cases are radically different, making it unlikely that ‘success’ can simply be replicated. In South Africa, BDS were used to supplement an active liberation struggle; in Palestine, they are expected, unrealistically, to create one. Furthermore, only the existence of mass struggle allowed BDS to ‘bite’ in South Africa. Finally, the Palestinian BDS campaign lacks the South African opposition’s clarity over goals and the mechanism by which BDS should advance these. BDS supporters must beware simplistic analogies and think more strategically.

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Notes

1.
Omar Barghouti, Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights (Chicago, 2011), 240.
2.
Ibid., 63.
3.
Karl Marx, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” Die Revolution (1852), ch. 1, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm
4.
Yuen Foong Khong, Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 (Princeton, 1992).
5.
Morten B. Pedersen, Promoting Human Rights in Burma: A Critique of Western Sanctions Policy (Lanham, 2008), 33, 49–50.
6.
Free Burma Coalition (FBC), The Free Burma Coalition Manual: How You Can Help Burma’s Struggle for Freedom (Madison, 1997).
7.
Marx, “18th Brumaire”.
8.
Ibid.
9.
ANC, “The Nature of the South African Ruling Class,” Document of the National Preparatory Committee, ANC National Consultative Conference, Kabwe, Zambia, June 1985, http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/anc/1985/nature-ruling-class.htm
10.
ANC, “Strategy and Tactics of the ANC,” Morogoro Conference, Tanzania, April 25–May 1, 1969; http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/anc/1969/strategy-tactics.htm
11.
Mac Maharaj, ANC senior official, interview with author, September 8, 2011.
12.
Starnberger Institute, The Impact of Economic Sanctions Against South Africa (Harare, 1989), 49–50; Joseph Hanlon and Roger Omond, The Sanctions Handbook (Harmondsworth, 1987), 26.
13.
Tom Lodge, ‘State of Exile: The African National Congress of South Africa, 1976–86’, in: State, Resistance and Change in South Africa, eds. Philip Frankel, Noam Pines, and Mark Swilling, (London, 1988), 250–251.
14.
Alec Erwin, former Congress of South African Trade Unions senior official, interview with author, September 12, 2011.
15.
Allan Boesak, former United Democratic Front (UDF) patron, interview with author, September 12, 2011.
16.
Maharaj, interview.
17.
Davies, cited in Koos van Wyck, ‘State Elites and South Africa’s International Isolation: A Longitudinal Comparison of Perception,’ Politikon, vol. 15, no. 1, (1988), 64–65.
18.
Erwin, interview.
19.
Tom Lodge, ‘Sanctions and Black Political Organisations’, in: Sanctions Against Apartheid, ed. Mark Orkin, (New York, 1989), 38–39.
20.
Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (GPAAWC), “Towards a Global Movement: A Framework A For Today’s Anti-Apartheid Activism,” June 2007, 129, http://bdsmovement.net/files/bds%20report%20small.pdf
21.
Lee Jones, Societies Under Siege: Exploring How International Economic Sanctions (Do Not) Work (Oxford, 2015), ch.2.
22.
Barend Du Plessis, former South African Finance Minister, interview with author, September 5, 2011.
23.
Jones, Societies Under Siege, ch.2.
24.
Neve Gordon, ‘Boycott Israel’, in: The Case for Sanctions Against Israel, ed. Audrea Lim, (London, 2012), 191.
25.
Paul T. Chamberlin, The Global Offensive: The United States, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and the Making of the Post-Cold War Order (Oxford, 2012).
26.
Edward W. Said, The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After, 2nd ed. (London, 2002). See also Tariq Dana, “The Prolonged Decay of the Palestinian National Movement,” National Identities, early online (2017).
27.
Ramzy Baroud, ‘Palestine’s Global Battle that Must be Won’, in: Generation Palestine: Voices from the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions Movement, ed. Rich Wiles, (London, 2013), 11.
28.
Barghouti, BDS, 56.
29.
Said, Peace Process, 22.
30.
Omar Barghouti, ‘Palestine’s South Africa Moment has Finally Arrived’, in: Generation Palestine, ed. Wiles, 217.
31.
Said, Peace Process, 344.
32.
GPAAWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 133–134.
33.
Mustafa Barghouthi, ‘Freedom in Our Lifetime’, in: The Case for Sanctions, ed. Lim, 10.
34.
Said, Peace Process, 18–19, 291.
35.
Karma Nabulsi, ‘Lament for the Revolution,’ London Review of Books, vol. 32, no. 20, (2010), 34–35.
36.
Said, Peace Process, 194–195.
37.
Barghouthi, “Freedom in Our Lifetime”, 6.
38.
GPAAWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 159, 162.
39.
Barghouti, BDS, 193.
40.
Ibid., 51–52, 218.
41.
Noura Erakat, ‘BDS in the USA, 2001–2010’, in: The Case for Sanctions, ed. Lim, 88.
42.
GPAAWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 135.
43.
Barghouti, BDS, 56–57; Erakat, “BDS”, 89.
44.
Barghouti, BDS, 64.
45.
GPAAWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 119, 123–124, 132.
46.
Jihan Abdalla, “A Palestinian Contradiction: Working in Israeli Settlements,” Al-Monitor, February 18, 2014.
47.
Jones, Societies Under Siege, ch.4.
48.
Ibid., ch.3.
49.
Barghouti, BDS, 51–52.
50.
Erakat, “BDS”, 89.
51.
Neta C. Crawford and Audie Klotz, ‘How Sanctions Work: A Framework for Analysis’, in: How Sanctions Work: Lessons from South Africa, eds. idem, (London, 1999).
52.
Erakat, “BDS”, 95; Barghouti, BDS, 15–16; Global Exchange, Divesting from Israel: A Handbook (San Francisco, 2003), 6; GPAAWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 4–5, 62.
53.
Richard Falk, ‘International Law, Apartheid and Israeli Responses to BDS’, in: Generation Palestine, ed. Wiles, 97.
54.
Chamberlin, Global Offensive, 262.
55.
See US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USCEIO), “Divest Now! A Handbook for Student Disinvestment Campaigns,” September 16, 2010, 9, http://www.bdsmovement.net/2009/divest-now-handbook-5144; GPAWWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 54–55; Erakat, “BDS”, 96.
56.
Falk, “International Law”, 88; Banks, cited in Barghouti, BDS, 212; Ilan Pappe, ‘Colonialism, the Peace Process and the Academic Boycott’, in: Generation Palestine, ed. Wiles, 136.
57.
Lisa Taraki and Mark LeVine, ‘Why Boycott Israel?’, in: The Case for Sanctions, ed. Lim, 165.
58.
Dalit Baum and Merav Amir, ‘Economic Activism Against the Occupation: Working From Within’, in: The Case for Sanctions, ed. Lim, 41; see also Barghouti, BDS, 18, 25, 207.
59.
Shir Hever, ‘BDS: Perspectives of an Israeli Economist’, in: Generation Palestine, ed. Wiles, 115–116.
60.
GPAWWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 70–73.
61.
Nadia Ella, ‘The Brain of the Monster’, in: The Case for Sanctions, ed. Lim, 53–55.
62.
GPAWWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 53–54.
63.
For example, Barghouti, BDS, 50, 209, 232; Taraki and LeVine, “Why Boycott Israel?”, 169; GPAWWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 42, 52.
64.
Anna Ahronheim, “Israeli Military Exports Rise to $6.5 Billion,” Jerusalem Post, March 30, 2017.
65.
Barghouti, BDS, 222–223.
66.
GPAWWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 53; Greenstein, cited in Atallah Hanna, ‘Towards a Just and Lasting Peace: Kairos Palestine and the Lead of the Palestinian Church’, in: Generation Palestine, ed. Wiles, 103; USCEIO, “Divest Now!”, 10.
67.
Said, Peace Process, 284, 329, 296–297.
68.
Michael Warschawski, ‘Yes to BDS! An Answer to Uri Avnery’, in: The Case for Sanctions, ed. Lim, 195–197.
69.
Taraki and LeVine, “Why Boycott Israel?”, 174, 170.
70.
Falk, “International Law”, 87.
71.
Pappe, “Colonialism”, 133.
72.
Barghouti, BDS, 32, 60.
73.
Ra’anan Alexandrowicz and Rebecca Vilkomerson, ‘An Effective Way of Supporting the Struggle’, in: The Case for Sanctions, ed. Lim, 205.
74.
L. Schlemmer, ‘External Pressures and Local Attitudes and Interests’, in: International Pressures and Political Change in South Africa, ed. F. McA. Clifford-Vaughan, (Cape Town, 1978).
75.
Robin Cohen, Endgame in South Africa? The Changing Structures and Ideology of Apartheid (London, 1986), 10–13.
76.
Kate Manzo and Pat McGowan, ‘Afrikaner Fears and the Politics of Despair: Understanding Change in South Africa,’ International Studies Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 1, (1992).
77.
Van Wyck, “State Elites.”
78.
Investor Responsibility Research Centre (IRRC), The Impact of Sanctions on South Africa: Part II, Whites’ Political Attitudes (Washington, DC, 1990), 11, 14, 17.
79.
Ibid., 12, 14.
80.
Merle Lipton, “The Challenge of Sanctions,” Discussion Paper 1, Centre for the Study of the South African Economy and International Finance, London School of Economics, 1990, 38.
81.
Jones, Societies Under Siege, 81–90.
82.
Hever, “BDS”, 112–115.
83.
Barghouti, BDS, 61, 217.
84.
Global Exchange, Divesting, 7.
85.
Barghouti, BDS, 219.
86.
USCEIO, “Divest Now!”, 16.
87.
Baum and Amir, “Economic Activism”, 43.
88.
Hever, “BDS”, 112.
89.
Hanna, “Towards a Just and Lasting Peace”, 102.
90.
“Divest Now!”, 16.
91.
For example, Hind Awwad, ‘Six Years of BDS: Success!’, in: The Case for Sanctions, ed. Lim, 180–184; Rafeef Ziadah, ‘Worker-to-Worker Solidarity: BDS in the Trade Union Movement’, in: Generation Palestine, ed. Wiles, 180–184; Australians for Palestine, BDS: Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions – A Global Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (Melbourne, 2010), 41–46.
92.
Omar Barghouti, ‘The Cultural Boycott: Israel vs. South Africa’, in: The Case for Sanctions, ed. Lim, 30.
93.
Raji Sourani, ‘Why Palestinians Called for BDS’, in: Generation Palestine, ed. Wiles, 66.
94.
Hever, “BDS”, 119.
95.
GPAWWC, “Towards a Global Movement”, 137.
96.
Baum and Amir, “Economic Activism”, 39.
97.
Pappe, “Colonialism”, 134.
98.
Yifa Yaakov, “Most Israelis Support Peace Talks Freeze, Poll Shows,” Times of Israel, May 7, 2014.

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Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
Lee Jones

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Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck College – University of London, London, UK
David Feldman

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Jones, L. (2019). Sanctioning Apartheid: Comparing the South African and Palestinian Campaigns for Boycotts, Disinvestment, and Sanctions. In: Feldman, D. (eds) Boycotts Past and Present. Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94872-0_11

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94872-0_11
Published: 30 December 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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