Irish and Dutch governments join Sweden in
speaking out for right to call for BDS
Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
- Dutch foreign minister says BDS “protected by the freedom of expression”
- Irish foreign minister says BDS is a “legitimate political viewpoint” and that his department is monitoring Israel’s repression of BDS movement co-founder Omar Barghouti
- 352 European bodies call on the EU to support right to boycott
- 23,000 people appeal to UN on the #RightToBoycott
The Dutch and Irish governments have
publicly stated that calls for a boycott of Israel are legitimate, with the
Dutch foreign minister saying that advocating and campaigning for Palestinian
rights through the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement
against Israel are “protected by the freedom of expression”.
The statements dealt a serious blow to
Israel’s relentless war of repression that has led governments in the UK, France, Canada and state
legislatures across the US to introduce anti-democratic legislation and taking other repressive
measures to undermine the BDS movement. Israel has also admitted that it is
using its intelligence services to spy on BDS activists overseas.
Irish foreign minister Charles Flanagan
responded to a parliamentary question by Deputy Paul Murphy on Israel’s attacks
on the movement saying that BDS is not supported by the Irish government
but that it is a “a legitimate political viewpoint”.
In response to a question regarding
Israel’s travel ban and attempts to revoke the residency of BDS movement
co-founder and human rights defender Omar Barghouti, Flanagan said that the Irish foreign ministry “will monitor the
ongoing developments” and that “I do not agree with attempts to demonise those
who advocate this [BDS] policy”. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions had called on the Irish
government to pressure Israel to respect the rights of Palestinian human rights
defenders.
Israel has imposed a travel ban on Omar Barghouti, who lives in Acre in
present day Israel with his family, and seems intent on revoking his residency
to punish him for his BDS advocacy.
In response to a similar question by Green
Left MP Rik Grashoff, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bert
Koenders, said that “Statements or meetings concerning BDS are
protected by the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, as
enshrined in the Dutch Constitution and the European Convention on Human
Rights”.
Revealing that Israel regularly raises the
topic of BDS in bilateral meetings with the Dutch government, Koenders
reiterated his government’s opposition to the boycott of Israel but insisted
that “endorsing BDS falls under freedom of expression”.
Riya Hassan, Europe coordinator for
the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the broadest coalition in
Palestinian civil society that is leading the global BDS movement,
said:
“With the Netherlands and Ireland joining
Sweden in defending the right to advocate and campaign for Palestinian rights
under international law through BDS, Israel’s attempt to get BDS outlawed in
Europe and to bully its supporters into silence have been dealt a serious
blow”.
In March 2016, the Swedish foreign ministry reaffirmed basic democratic
principles by stating that BDS “is a civil society movement” and that
“governments should not interfere in civil society organization
views”.
More than 350 European human rights organizations, trade unions, church
groups and political parties, some of whom do not yet endorse BDS, have called
on the European Union to support the right to boycott Israel in
response to its occupation and violations of Palestinian rights. Similar
statements have been made by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Riya Hassan added:
“Israel’s attacks on our movement appear
to be backfiring as they have led to European governments and some of the
world’s most famous human rights organisations and political organisations
across Europe and the world speaking out in defence of our right to advocate
BDS”.
“Across European civil society, there is a
fast spreading recognition of the BDS movement as a legitimate form of
nonviolent, grassroots human rights advocacy for the UN-stipulated rights of the
Palestinian people”.
More than 23,000 people have signed
an appeal urging the UN to take measures to uphold and
protect the rights of Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights
defenders who campaign nonviolently for Palestinian rights, including through
the BDS movement. The appeal will be sent to the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights in the coming few days.
Hassan added: “We’re hugely grateful to
each of the 23,000 people who signed our appeal urging the UN to protect our
right to campaign for Palestinian rights, and we’re more optimistic than
ever that Israel’s desperate legal, spying and propaganda war on
our human rights movement will ultimately fail”.
The impressive growth in recent years of support for the BDS
movement in mainstream trade unions, churches and pension funds, as well as
among student governments, academic associations, anti-racist movements, LGBTQ
groups and artists across the world, has prompted the Israeli establishment to
admit the strategic impact of BDS.
The fact that large European companies
such as Veolia, Orange and G4S are abandoning or announcing plans to leave the
Israeli market following BDS campaigns is also particularly worrying for
Israel.
Israeli-induced attacks on free speech and
civil rights in Europe, the US and Canada, among others, are seen by BDS
campaigners as fostering an “ominous environment of bullying, intimidation and
repression that has all the hallmarks of the era of McCarthyism in the US and the worst days of the apartheid
regime in South Africa”.
Fatin Al Tamimi, chairperson of the
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign welcomed the government statement. Ms.
Tamimi said:
“At a time when our colleagues are being
attacked in Britain, France, the US and elsewhere via anti-democratic
legislation, it is refreshing that the BDS campaign has been recognised by the
Irish Government as a legitimate and democratic movement for justice in
Palestine.
“It is, of course, disappointing that the
government itself doesn’t actively support the BDS campaign at the moment, but
nevertheless we will continue campaigning for sanctions, including an arms
embargo, to be imposed on Israel until it complies with its intentional law and
human rights obligations”.
More information: bdsmovement.net/righttoboycott
BACKGROUND
- The
Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) affirmed in February
2016 “the right of all individuals to participate in and advocate for boycott,
divestment, and sanction actions”, calling on states and businesses to “uphold
their related legal responsibilities”.
- Amnesty International has condemned threats by Israeli
ministers against BDS activists, expressing concern for their "safety and
liberty" and upholding their right as human rights defenders to campaign "to
hold Israel accountable for human rights and other international law violations
and advocates for the use of non-violent means in doing so”.
- Glenn Greenwald has described the repressive measures taken in
the US and Europe against BDS human rights defenders as the “greatest threat to
free speech in the West”.
- The American Civil Liberties Union has condemned these
anti-democratic legislative attempts to suppress BDS.
- Human Rights Watch has condemned the effective travel ban
imposed by Israel on Palestinian human rights defender and co-founder of the BDS
movement Omar Barghouti stating: "Israel’s refusal to renew Barghouti’s travel
document appears to be an effort to punish him for exercising his right to
engage in peaceful, political activism, using its arsenal of bureaucratic
control over Palestinian lives.”
- The International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) affirms the right to hold opinions without interference
and the right to freedom of expression, as well as other interrelated rights
such as the rights to freedom of assembly and association. While freedom of
expression may be subject to restriction, the call for BDS does not fall within
the narrow limitation outlined in the ICCPR. In 2014, the UN Human Rights
Committee reviewing Israel’s implementation of the ICCPR has criticized the
Israeli anti-boycott law in its report (paragraph 22) for this
reason.
- In 2012, the UN Special Rapporteur on
the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression confirmed in his report on Israel and the OPT (paragraph 34)
that “Calling for or participating in a boycott is a form of expression that is
peaceful, legitimate and internationally accepted.” The Palestinian Human Rights
Organizations Council (PHROC) has called on states to respect the right to BDS on this
basis.
- The right to freedom of expression is
widely incorporated into the domestic legislation of states, and in practice,
governments have in general accepted the right of their citizens to practice
domestic and international boycotts as a means to end violations of human
rights, including child and labor rights and environmental abuses. In some
occasions, governments and public institutions have also provided at least
partial support to such civil society campaigns, the most famous historical
examples being the international boycott campaign against apartheid in South
Africa and the Civil Rights movement in the United States.
- Legal protection of the right of
citizens to boycott is particularly robust in states in which free speech is a
constitutional right, such as in the United States. In light of the increasing
willingness of US lawmakers to craft anti-BDS legislation explicitly tailored to
protect Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law and human rights
of the Palestinian people, civil rights organizations such as the New York
branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have already made clear that:
“To uphold the right to engage in a
boycott is not necessarily to support its aims or objectives – just as to uphold
freedom of speech is not to endorse the ideas expressed. However, when advancing
a bill that addresses the scope of politically motivated speech, assembly,
association and expression, lawmakers are bound by certain first principles of a
constitutional democracy. These principles compel government to promote, and to
protect, the robust contest of ideas. The proposed legislation would violate
these constitutional principles.”
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