http://blog.endtheoccupation.org/2011/07/archbishop-tutu-in-editorial-tiaa-cref.html
I sent the following letter to the Charlotte Observer that they haven't chosen to post on their website/print.
Background for my statement of two legal systems for two peoples in the West Bank is on pg. 134 of Palestine Inside Out by Saree Makdisi.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu refers to some roads in the West Bank as racially segregated. Actually the roads are religiously segregated, not racially segregated, for Jews only.
Israel's defenders may try to justify the Jews-only roads in the West Bank as yet another security measure by tugging at peoples' heartstrings with anecdotes of settlers being shot at or stones thrown at their windshields. But settlers are not as innocent as they are described by Israel advocates. Their settlements violate international law and Israeli law if the settlers live in hilltop outposts that Israel's government has declared illegal. Israel occasionally demolishes them but doesn't follow up if settlers return to the same degree that demolition orders for non-Jewish homes are enforced.
But different levels of enforcement of demolition orders is only one sign that Israel's laws as applied to Jews and non-Jews is comparable to South African apartheid.
Within the West Bank, Jewish settlement residents are under the jurisdiction of the civil law of Israel's pre-1967 borders (Green Line) enforced by Israel police. West Bank Palestinians are under the jurisdiction of Israel's military regulations inherited from the pre-1948 British Mandate that are enforced by the IDF (Israeli army). Two legal systems and enforcement agencies for two peoples in the same politically defined land area, the West Bank, is apartheid.
I checked the Charlotte Observer site July 20 to see if my letter was printed and noticed the following column printed as a response.
Having strong concerns with the accuracy of some of the statements made I sent a letter in response.
Jeffrey Epstein, chair of the CRC of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte, quotes a group of student presidents of historically black colleges who condemn the use of the analogy of how South African blacks were treated under apartheid to how Israel currently treats Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and within Israel proper. The analogy is made in support of boycott, divestment and sanctions tactics against the Government of Israel in protest of its policies not the existence of a country.
The statement Epstein quotes comes from the Vanguard Leadership Group and was made in April 2011. On its web site the Vanguard Leadership Group takes credit, as one of its "Special Honors," successfully lobbying the City of Atlanta and DeKalb County, Georgia to divest pension funds from companies doing business in the Sudanese and Iranian energy sectors in protest of those regime's policies. The BDS campaign against Israel is specifically targeted at companies doing business with Israel's army in protest of the effects on Palestinians of the Government of Israel's security policies. By asking TIAA-CREF to divest its pension funds under management Israel's very existence as a sovereign state is delegitimized as much, or actually as little, as the existence of Sudan or Iran as sovereign states are delegitimized by boycott, divestment and sanctions.
For further reading that debunks the mythology that BDS tactics used in protest of GOI (Government of Israel) policies is morally equivalent to questioning Israel's 'right to exist' as a sovereign state read
"Who Delegitimized Sharon?" a letter printed January 1, 2004 (on page A24 in the print edition) Washington Post.
Abraham H. Foxman sees the overwhelmingly positive international response to the Geneva accord as serving to delegitimize the Ariel Sharon government [op-ed, Dec. 27]. In fact, the Sharon government has delegitimized itself. A government that is responsive to its people must have a long-term vision to deal with the fundamental problems facing the country. The Sharon government does not.
Only after the presentation of the Geneva accord did the Sharon government begin to present a plan of its own, albeit vague and probably ineffectual. Only then did Mr. Sharon and his deputy, Ehud Olmert, begin to seriously discuss demographic problems involving the number of Palestinians and Jews in Israel, as well as comprehensive dismantling of settlements in the West Bank.
Even now, the Sharon government seems to be dragging its feet. Mr. Sharon's recent plan for peace negotiations was vague and clouded by a threat of unilateral action. This is neither an effective nor legitimate method for Israeli citizens.
If Mr. Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League are interested in the existence of a legitimate Jewish state, they must join the fight to compel the Israeli government to act in the best long-term interests of its people.
Benjamin Bradlow
Potomac
It's one of the earliest responses to the coining of the term "delegitimize" or "delegitimization" initially to suppress a product of citizen diplomacy (or 'people peace' as AIPAC used to describe the lack of in the Israel-Egypt relationship), the Geneva Accord. Now the word 'delegitimize' is expanded from opposition to citizen diplomacy results to suppression of the use of BDS tactics to change GOI policy and make the tactics more known for controversy than for their content. The resulting controversy has the effect of intimidating people out of involving themselves with BDS actions out of fears for their economic (job, career, how will I 'pay bills') future.
