As the Gaza crisis deepens, boycotts can raise the price of Israel’s impunity
Gaza
has been under Israeli siege for seven years. Fishermen are shot when
they go out to sea. Trade is blocked. Travel is nearly impossible. Water
is contaminated. Hospital supplies are lacking. The economy is kept in
controlled collapse, just short of catastrophe. Israel is rationing everything that enters Gaza, from calories to world literature.
After
21 days of bombing, Israel still refuses a comprehensive ceasefire that
meets the minimal, unified demand of all Palestinians – to let people
lead normal lives. This is not a war, let alone one of self-defence, but
a punitive expedition aimed at maintaining the siege and illegal
military occupation. Civilians, hospitals and residential blocks bear
the brunt of the attack because the only “military” aim of onslaught is
to cower Palestinians into complete submission.
The
attack on Gaza is not a war between two equal sides. It is an onslaught
by a powerful military state, armed and supported by the west, against
an impoverished, besieged and displaced people. The talk of governments
is cheap. As long as talk is all there is, the life of our children
remains even cheaper. We must step up our boycott, divestment and
sanctions, campaigning internationally to end Israel’s impunity.
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