by Rania Masri and Marcy Newman / March 30th, 2009

In remembering and commemorating Land Day, March 30, 1976, when six Palestinians were killed and almost 100 wounded by Israeli forces in Sakhnin during unarmed protests against the confiscation of Palestinian lands in Galilee; in remembering the December 2008 Israeli savagery against the Palestinians in Gaza; in recognizing the continuity of attacks against Palestinians; and in remembering the numerous and ongoing Israeli atrocities against Lebanese, let us stand in active support of a movement that has the strength and vital potential to significantly contribute to this struggle for liberty and self-determination in this fight against Zionism.

That movement is the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, and one of its main demands is the boycott of and divestment from Israeli corporations and international corporations that sustain Israeli apartheid and colonialism. We know from the South African example that a combined strategy of armed resistance with boycott, divestment, and sanctions led to the downfall of the apartheid regime, and thus can be successful. Focusing on economic resistance ties this movement to the roots of the Palestinian Resistance Movement which historically sought to liberate Palestine as well as the rest of the region from Western imperialism through its economic neocolonial policies.

We also know that we in Lebanon are not cleansed from Zionist products. From cosmetics to clothing, from bulldozers to coffee, we consume products that are produced by corporations that substantially support Israel – either by investing in Israel, or by supporting Israel financially or diplomatically. (While the removal of certain Zionist products, like Intel, is difficult, for the vast majority of products, such as Nestle and Estee Lauder, their removal from our market will actually invigorate our economy by increasing investment in local products and local businesses.)

In addition to the clear form of economic boycott (which, is too often incorrectly confused with censorship), there is the important avenue of academic and cultural boycott. An academic boycott involves refraining from participation in any form of academic or cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions, and thus ultimately works to promote pushing universities themselves to divest from any collaboration or cooperation with any Israeli institution. South African professors also called on their colleagues around the world to boycott them in order to delegitimize and isolate the apartheid regime. The boycott campaign in South Africa worked because of that isolation, which was coupled with an economic boycott, divestment, and eventually this led to the sanctions placed on the regime, which led to its demise.

The most powerful weapon of the academic boycott is the refusal to legitimize Zionism, the ideology upon which Israel was built, the ideology that allows for one group of people to steal, to kill, and to expel, an ideology that is fundamentally and wholly racist. It is Zionism that must be defeated.

The academic and cultural boycott of Israel is growing globally. It has been active in Canada and in the United Kingdom for a few years now. It has spread to Australia and the United States. The publicity surrounding this movement is as powerful a weapon as the movement itself as well as it further calls for a rethinking of Israel”s right to exist as a Jewish state. Indeed, the boycott movement is so strong now that Israeli colonists are paying $2 million to improve their global image.

Academics in Lebanon have added their voice to this growing movement. Faculty from the University of Balamand, the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese American University, Notre Dame University, Lebanese University, Beirut Arab University, USEK, Lebanese International University and Global University signed a statement calling for full academic boycott of Israel and Israeli institutions, and calling our colleagues, throughout the world, and most particularly those in the Arab world and those claiming to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians, to comprehensively and consistently boycott and divest from all Israeli academic and cultural institutions, and to refrain from normalization in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel”s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid. To add your signature, please refer to: www.boycottzionism.wordpress.com

Today, March 30, 2009, marks the Global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Day of Action. Let us stand together.

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Statement of Academics in Lebanon

In this latest onslaught against Palestinians, Israel has attacked a university, the Ministry of Education, schools across the Gaza Strip, and several UNRWA schools. Such attacks against learning centers are not unique for Israel. Most particularly since 1975, Israel has infringed upon the right of education for Palestinians by closing universities, schools and kindergartens, and by shelling, shooting at, and raiding hundreds of schools and several universities throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.
Nor have these attacks been limited against Palestinians. As academics in Lebanon, we are all too familiar with Israeli onslaughts against educational centers. In its latest assault, in 2006, for example, Israel destroyed over 50 schools throughout Lebanon, and particularly schools designed for the economically disadvantaged in the South.

We thus stand, as academics in Lebanon, in urging our colleagues, regionally and internationally, to oppose this ongoing scholasticide and to support the just demand for academic boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. Specifically, we ask our colleagues worldwide to support the call by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel to comprehensively and consistently boycott and disinvest from all Israeli academic and cultural institutions, and to refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joining projects with Israeli institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel”s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid.

We further call on the enforcement of Lebanese anti-normalization laws with Israel (including the 1955 law), and thus for the prosecution of individuals and institutions in Lebanon that violate those laws and conduct collaborations, associations or investments in Israel or with Israelis.

We salute the recent statement by the Scottish Committee for the Universities of Palestine calling for a boycott of Israel, the letter signed by 300 Canadian academics to Canadian Prime Minister Harper asking for sanctions against Israel, and the appeal by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee supporting a ban on collaborations between Canadian and Israeli universities.

Sawsan Abdulrahim
Sana Abidib
May Abboud
Michel Abou Ghantous
Dahna Abourahme
Mona Abu Rayyan
Mohamad Alameddine
Rayane Alamuddin
Falah Ali
Mahmoud El-Ali
Rayan El-Amine
Karma Bibi
Nabil Dajani
Nabil Fares
Nicolas Gabriel
Aline Germani
Sabah Ghandour
Rima Habib
Samer Habre
Nicolas Haddad
Hratch Hajetian
Roger Hajjar
Sari Hanafi
Sirene Harb
Diala Hawi
Ihad Hedroj
Sami Hermez
Ibrahim El-Hussari
Maha Issa
Samer Jabbour
Paul Jahshan
Fatme Al-Jamil
Maher Jarrar
Rasha Al-Jundi
Tamar Kabakian-Khasholian
Faysal El-Kak
Ghada Kalakesh
Rabih Kamleh
Samar Khalil
Nikola Kosmatopoulos
Michel Majdalani
Jean Said Makdisi
Judy Makhoul
Maya Mansour
Muzna Al-Masri
Rania Masri
Zéna Meskaoui
Cynthia Myntti
Aida Naaman
Omar Nashabe
Hoda Nasrallah
Youssef Nasser
Mike Orr
Hibah Osman
Gillian Piggott
Daniel F. Rivera
Joelle Rizk
Nada Saab
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb
Sofia Saadeh
Naim Salem
Nisreen Salti
Helen Samaha-Nuwayhid
Rima Sarraf
Richard Saumarez Smith
Rosemary Sayigh
Kirsten Scheid
Eugene Sensing-Dabbous
Rabih Sultan
Lyna Al Tabbal
Jihad Touma
Hanan Toukan
Nazek Yared
Marian Yazbek
Samar Zebian
Hussein Zeidan
Mohammed Zubeidi
Huda Zurayk
Rami Zurayk

Rania Masri (rania [at] ourwords.org) is an assistant professor of Environmental Science at the University of Balamand, Lebanon. You may follow her writings at Green Resistance. Marcy Newman (marcynewman [at] gmail.com)is an associate professor of English at An Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine. You may follow her writings at Body on the Line. Read other articles by Rania Masri.