A Moral Campaign to end the Occupation

A MORAL CAMPAIGN TO END THE OCCUPATION 

By Desmond Tutu *

June 18, 2002, The Jordan Times 

THE END of apartheid stands as one of the crowning
accomplishments of the last century, but we would not have
succeeded without the help of international pressure. There is no
greater testament to the basic dignity of ordinary people
everywhere than the divestment movement of the 1980s. A similar
movement has taken shape recently, this time aiming at an end to
the Israeli occupation. We should hope that average citizens
again rise to the occasion, since the obstacles to a renewed
movement are surpassed only by its moral urgency.

Divestment from apartheid South Africa was fought at the
grassroots. Faith-based leaders informed their followers, union
members pressured their stockholders, and consumers questioned
their store-owners. Students played an especially important role
by compelling universities to change their portfolios.
Eventually, institutions pulled the financial plug, and the South
African government thought twice about its policies.

Moral and financial pressure is again being mustered one person
at a time. In the United States, students at over 40 campuses are
demanding a review of university investments. Europe faces
efforts ranging from consumer boycotts to arms embargoes.

These tactics are not the only parallels to the struggle against
apartheid South Africa. Yesterday's township dwellers can tell
you about today's life in the occupied territories. To travel
only blocks in his own homeland, an elderly grandfather waits to
beg for the whim of a teenage soldier. More than an emergency is
required to get to a hospital; less than a crime earns a trip to
jail. The lucky ones have a permit to leave their squalor to work
in the cities, but luck runs out when security closes all
checkpoints, paralysing an entire people. The indignities,
dependence and anger are all too familiar.

I am not the first South African to recognise the chilly reminder
of what we just left. Ronnie Kasrils and Max Ozinsky, two Jewish
heroes of the anti-apartheid struggle, recently published a
letter titled "Not in My Name". Signed by several hundred other
prominent Jewish South Africans, the letter drew explicit analogy
between apartheid and current Israeli policies. Mark Mathabane
and Nelson Mandela have also pointed out the relevance of the
South African experience to the current conflict.

To criticise the occupation is not to overlook Israel's unique
strengths, just as protesting the Vietnam war did not imply
ignoring the distinct freedoms and humanitarian accomplishments
of the United States. In a region where repressive governments
and unjust policies are the norm, Israel is certainly more
democratic than most of its neighbours. This does not make
dismantling the settlements any less of a priority.

Divestment from apartheid South Africa was certainly no less
justified even though there was repression elsewhere on the
African continent. Aggression is no more palatable at the hands
of a democratic power. Territorial ambition is equally illegal
whether it occurs in slow motion, as with the Israeli settlers in
the occupied territories, or in blitzkrieg fashion, as with the
Iraqi tanks in Kuwait.

Almost instinctively, the Jewish people have always been on the
side of the voiceless. In their history, there is painful memory
of massive round-ups, house demolitions and collective
punishment. In their scripture, there is acute empathy for the
disenfranchised. The occupation represents a dangerous and
selective amnesia of the persecution from which these traditions
were born.

Not everyone has forgotten, including some within the military.
The growing Israeli refusenik movement evokes the small anti-
conscription drive which helped turn the tide in apartheid South
Africa. Several hundred decorated Israeli officers have refused
to perform military service in the occupied territories. Those
individuals not already in prison have taken their message on the
road to US synagogues and campuses, rightly arguing that Israel
needs security, but it will never have it as an occupying power.

Over 35 new settlements have been constructed this year. Each one
is a step away from the safety deserved by the Israelis, and two
steps away from the justice owed to the Palestinians.

If apartheid ended, so can the occupation, but the moral force
and international pressure will have to be just as determined.
The current divestment effort is the first, though certainly not
the only, necessary move in that direction.

[* Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his
work against apartheid, wrote this article in collaboration with
Ian Urbina, associate editor of the Middle East Report in
Washington DC.]

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