Why we must not to do business with Israel

JADE LENNON WRITES:It was with great sorrow that we learned that Israeli forces had killed 40 peaceful Palestinian protestors. Since the beginning of March Israel has killed more than 80 unarmed protestors and wounded some 2 000 people. Surely the world cannot watch in silence and allow these atrocities to continue.Yet last week we learned that Erongo Governor Cleophas Mutjavikua had announced in his state of the region address that the authorities are in negotiation with Israeli investors to build a desalination plant near Swakopmund. He said the desalination project is being coordinated by the President's Office. While we can all agree that addressing Namibia's water needs is a priority, this particular proposal deserves close scrutiny, given that Namibia has repeatedly pledged its support for the rights of the Palestinian people, both in its stated foreign policy and at the UN General Assembly. AS IT STANDSFor 70 years the atrocity of ethnic cleansing, known as the Nakba, has been unfolding. On 26 April Namibia's ambassador to the UN, Neville Gertze, spoke admirably in defense of the right to return of the expelled Palestinians and criticised the ongoing construction of illegal Israeli settlements and the rampant destruction of Palestinian homes, which he said is an impediment to peace. Gertze noted that electricity supplies to Gaza are cut for up to 20 hours per day and said Namibia rejects the “excessive and disproportionate use of force” by Israel against peaceful protestors and supports the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Although the local media has generally done a dismal job in keeping the public informed of the daily discrimination and countless atrocities committed against Palestinians by Israel in the occupied territories of the West Bank and in Gaza – which has been under blockade and siege by Israeli for a decade – readers with access to the internet will be aware of the scale of the human rights violations perpetrated daily against the Palestinians.The Namibian people know what it is like to live under apartheid, to be at the mercy of racist settlers and a brutal military occupation, but the situation in Palestine is indeed worse than anything we ever faced here or in South Africa.There is not space enough here to detail the brutalities meted out on a daily basis against the native people for it would fill many volumes, but suffice to mention that Palestinians are subject to arbitrary arrest, to their homes being demolished, their crops uprooted, their neighbourhoods flooded with sewage, their schools bombed and their homes being set on fire by settlers – with the occupants still inside. Women and children are dragged from their homes and arrested by soldiers every single night. Many children suffer severe trauma as a result.More than 7 million Palestinians have been forced from their homes since 1948, and indeed there are no less than 60 UN resolutions condemning Israel's military occupation and illegal settlements. The question of the illegal seizure of Palestinian lands, of forced removals and the illegal settlements established by settlers is a matter with which the UN has been seized for many decades, but about which it has done very little. WRONG SIGNALSIt is imperative that Namibia sends the right signals to the wider world: that we do not tolerate such abuse; that we do not support apartheid or colonial chauvinism; that we do not condone ethnic cleansing or settler violence – and above all, that we support the rights of the Palestinian people to live in peace and dignity in their homeland.For too long the world has tolerated the atrocities committed by Israel against the natives; for too long we turned a blind eye, but we can no longer do so without becoming accomplices to the ongoing crime of genocide.To give effect to our foreign policy and to advance the cause of world peace, Namibia has to take a clear stand on this issue. In taking a principled stance in world affairs, we do not aim to undermine the dignity of either Jewish or Palestinian people, but we must reject without ambiguity the temptation to do business with apartheid.Therefore, we should not allow the said Israeli investors to set up business here or to cash in on the water crisis in this country. We cannot make ourselves dependent on technologies controlled by belligerent countries, nor can we allow our hard-earned dollars to enrich those who do not respect the rights of our Palestinian brothers and sisters.If the Israeli investors have genuine humanitarian concerns, let them first built a desalination plant in Gaza to improve the lives of their Palestinian neighbours, who live in the most deplorable conditions without regular access to safe drinking water. OTHER OPTIONSThere are many countries that have the capacity to build desalination plants that we can invite to submit proposals for such a project, so let us not be led blindly into a situation that makes us accomplices to the crime by funding the Israeli corporations that benefit from land theft, racist laws and the day to day injustices and mindless violence meted out against our Palestinian friends.We may be a small country, but let us not be blackmailed or driven by desperation into committing a grave moral error by embracing the colonial overlords, who have benefitted from the countless atrocities against our brothers and sisters in Palestine.It is well-known that even when the whole world placed sanctions on apartheid South Africa in the 1980s for its abhorrent racist policies, Israel continued to do business with and to arm the apartheid government, in defiance of world opinion.Just as during the time of South African apartheid, the Namibian cause was strengthened by countries that refused to do business with South Africa until that government changed its racist policies, so too it is imperative that we put word to deed and give effect to Namibia's foreign policy and the will of its people by supporting the worldwide boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign (BDS) against Israeli firms.Sound moral judgment and basic human decency require that we refuse to do business with the representatives and the beneficiaries of Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism, or else betray everything our people have fought for. We cannot turn a blind eye and close our eyes and ears to the cries and desperate suffering of millions of displaced and brutalised people.It is never too late to do the right thing. And the right thing to do is to defend the oppressed Palestinians.Alas, our policymakers should have no doubt that doing business with apartheid Israel will bring them into direct conflict with the Namibian people. Already there is talk in the townships of calling for the resignation of Governor Mutjavikua if he should proceed any further in doing business with the beneficiaries of Israeli apartheid. And should he persist, we will surely not hesitate to mobilise the masses to the demand that he immediately withdraw this plan or else stand down from that high office.(Letter abridged. - Editor)

Why we must not to do business with Israel

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Why we must not to do business with Israel

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