Charles M. Abelsohn – Real Palestinian Civil Society Says BDS No; Normalization and Coexistence Yes.
In 2005, anti-Israel activists issued the “Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS against Israel” in an effort to create the false impression that BDS is endorsed by all Palestinians. In this Letter, we will show, despite the tensions between Palestinian Arabs and Israelis, a great deal of dialogue and cooperation, normalization and coexistence, has been ongoing.
Supporters of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement claim that BDS is about a two-state solution and bettering the lives of the Palestinian people. But for BDS founder Omar Barghouti (Born in Qatar, moved to Israel in 1993), peaceful coexistence is the last thing BDS is about. He said: “Most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine,” adding that “Palestinians and Arabs in general have never, and will never, recognize Israel as a Jewish state.”
We read continuously about calls by “Palestinian civil society” and others, almost all unsuccessful, to boycott Israel culturally, academically, sport events, tourism, investing and the like.
This letter will take a short look at two aspects of this “call”: who is this “Palestinian civil society” and do Palestinians themselves follow the call to boycott Israel. As for the other objectives mentioned above: Tourism to Israel is at an all time high, investing in Israel is at an all-time high (Israeli entity Mellanox was bought by USA entity Nvidia this month for US$6.9 billion. Which other country outside the USA has billion dollar buy outs?), Israelis recently won gold medals in a judo competition in an Arab country, Abu Dhabi followed by the playing of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, in an Arab country and the old timers amongst us look forward to Tom Jones`s next visit to Israel. Did I forget to mention that the next Eurovision context will take place in Tel Aviv?
Truth be Told
First Question: Who is “BDS”?
This story “BDS Is Linked To Terrorism” was written by Peter Lerner
Lieutenant Colonel (Reserves) Peter Lerner is a Communications and Strategy Consultant, Israel Advocate, and a former IDF Spokesperson.
For years, we have heard various claims from Israeli officials positing that the global movement to boycott Israel, known as the BDS Movement, is tainted and controlled by extreme anti-Israel individuals who are unconcerned with the human rights of Palestinians which they claim to champion.
However, until recently, no incriminating evidence had ever been provided.
All that changed when a report by Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs provided conclusive evidence that the energy of terrorists and their organizations has infiltrated, and is even driving, the BDS activities.
The report reveals direct ties between numerous boycott groups and US, Canada, and EU-designated terror organizations such as Hamas and the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
“Hamas and PFLP operatives have infiltrated and adopted seemingly benign NGOs in the Palestinian Authority, Europe, North America and South Africa, for the purpose of advancing their ideological goal: the elimination of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” reads the report. “Convicted terrorist operatives who have served prison sentences currently hold senior positions in NGOs which delegitimize and promote the BDS campaign against Israel. In these positions, they recruit fellow terrorist operatives to their NGOs. Israeli courts have determined that some of the terrorist operatives listed in this report pose a concrete security threat.”
Until I read this report, I (Peter Lerner) have always remained a moderate voice. I have advocated listening to criticism of Israel and its policies, even when uncomfortable for us. But as for BDS, it looks like we’ve all been duped.
The BDS National Committee (BNC), controls the official websites and social media accounts belonging to what is known as the “BDS Movement.”
The only question now is whether anyone will be willing to further investigate the disturbing evidence that has surfaced in the latest report and put an end to this charade.
I for one feel duped. And I will not stop demanding that this terror organization masked as a non-violent movement be seen for what it is.”
The Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy (MSA) released its “Terrorists in Suits” report recently, revealing over 100 links shared between the internationally-designated terrorist organizations Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) with at least 13 anti-Israel BDS promoting NGOs. The report reveals how Hamas and the PFLP are utilizing a network of NGOs promoting boycotts against Israel as an additional tactic in their ultimate goal of dismantling the State of Israel. These organizations have successfully placed over 30 of their members, 20 of which have served time, including for murder, in senior positions within BDS-promoting NGOs. The report documents how boycott organizations and terrorist designated organizations raise finances together, share the same personnel, and showcases that contrary to popular belief, these officials have not abandoned their support for terrorism, but instead, continue to maintain organizational, financial, and active ties with terrorist groups.
The Israel-boycott organizations in question were also shown to have received millions of euros in funding from European countries and philanthropic foundations, while gaining access to additional funds through financial, crowdfunding and banking systems.
So, who is “BDS”? The BDS National Committee (BNC), is Ramallah-based and provides the leadership of the global boycott movement toward Israel. The BNC consists of 28 Palestinian boycott groups. The lead member of this coalition is the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces (PNIF), which includes five internationally-designated terrorist organizations including Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Over the past year, and following MSA activities to expose NGO terror ties, several European countries have announced the reexamination and decrease in funding granted to organizations which promote boycotts against the State of Israel.
The report also showed how operatives in terrorist-organizations operate under the guise of “boycott activists” to gain access, and meet with, senior Western government officials and exert pressure to release convicted terrorists held in Israeli prisons.
The report released recently aims to decidedly remove the “mask” of NGOs promoting BDS by exposing in an in-depth study the true nature of this scheme.
In short, the “Palestinian civil society” calling for BDS are no more than organizations that even sympathetic European governments have declared to be terrorists. In this Letter, I refer to them as the BDS “Palestinian civil society”
Second Question: Does the Palestinian “man or women in the street”, the Real “Palestinian civil society”, boycott Israel or Israeli products?
I will do my best to keep the answer short but it is not really difficult: No.
So why should anyone else boycott Israel or Israeli products? Below are several articles relating to business ties, medical services, employment and even the availability of Israeli products in…..gulp…Gaza!
Let`s start by looking at a grassroots-led partnership of Israeli and the Real “Palestinian civil society” in the West Bank: Palestinian business leaders.
A grassroots-led partnership of Israeli and Palestinian business leaders, the Judea Samaria Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JSC) seeks to advance economic opportunities in the Judea Samaria/West Bank for both populations alike.
“The more we compound our efforts with a shared trajectory, the more we create new opportunities,” said Avi Zimmerman, president and co-founder of the JSC.
“We worked with Israeli business partners from 1967 through 1993, until the implementation of the Oslo Accords,” Ashraf Jabari, a Hebron-based Palestinian businessman and co-founder of JSC, told the Jerusalem Post.
“Every day, 200,000 Palestinian workers enter Israel, and there’s NIS 3 billion worth of trade per month across the Green Line,” he added.
“We are continuing to strengthen the chamber of commerce and to bring Israeli and Palestinian businessmen to work together.”
“We are only considering how to improve quality of life. Economic development, companies working together and activities carried out together create links and confidence in one another. Sadly, there are people who are unaware of this.”
What is possible in the West Bank today? It’s possible to go directly to the people. A grassroots movement has been formed, with the staging ground of the JSC. It’s co-founded by Palestinians and Israelis, and they’re doing joint business together. Relationships have been formalized and given opportunities to grow and develop.
Conclusion: Real “Palestinian civil society” even in the West Bank/Samaria and Judea demands cooperation and coexistence with Israelis, normalization and working together, not BDS.
Who is next on the list to assist Real “Palestinian civil society” who in turn gladly accepts this assistance? No less than… the IDF, yes, the Israeli Defence Force.
Here is an example of cooperation and coexistence that may come as a major surprise to folk living abroad but as no surprise to Israelis. The “oppressive” IDF provides a Door to Door Project, which streamlines the process of transferring Arab merchandise for sale in Israel.
The Door to Door Project assists Arab business people to transfer their merchandise from Judea and Samaria to other areas in Israel directly and quickly and at a low cost.
Until the project’s launch, the “Door to Door” procedure for transfer of Arab goods for sale in to Israel required that an Arab businessperson deliver the goods to a crossing on an Arab-owned truck, where the merchandise would be unloaded, checked, and reloaded onto an Israeli truck that would bring the merchandise to its destination.
What is this “Door to Door”? Five Arab production plants in Judea transfer their merchandise via the Tarqumiya Crossing, south of Hebron, to other areas in Israel using an Israeli truck that left the Arab production plant in an area under the control of the Palestinian Authority, underwent a security check and continued directly to its destination in Israel.
By using an Israeli truck rather than an Arab truck which would be subject to a stringent security inspection and delay, the five Arab companies have already increased their profits by more than NIS 100,000 monthly.
The increased profits have led to the addition of 180 new workers to the Arab workforce. Accordingly, the Israeli Civil Administration is working on expanding the project to the Samaria area in order to facilitate the development of the local Arab economy and help the various production plants throughout Judea and Samaria.
Conclusion: Real Palestinian industrial and commercial civil society demand cooperation and coexistence with Israelis, normalization and working together, not BDS.
“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”
The former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, once said, “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” – the exact opposite of BDS.
Yehuda Cohen, CEO of Lipskin Company, located in the Barkan Industrial Park, in the West Bank/Samaria recited those words recently while explaining that he employs 100 people in his West Bank plastic factory – 70 Palestinians and 30 Israelis.
“I give my Palestinian workers hope that can build their homes, hope they can send their children to university, hope they can live a normal life,” said Cohen, noting that these employees make higher salaries in Israel than in the Palestinian territories. His factory, he added, “is a bridge for peace.” “I believe that work brings hope and the BDS boycott brings suffering.”
The best model for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence can be found in industrial areas in Judea and Samaria/West Bank. Here, Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze all work together in mutual respect and harmony, yet these areas are the main target of the policy that calls to distinguish between Israel, and Judea and Samaria. Nothing could be more counter-productive to peace.
This was true in October 2015, when some 500 Palestinians lost their jobs when the SodaStream headquarters moved from its location in Mishor Adumim industrial park in Samaria/the West Bank to a new facility in Lehavim, within the Green Line, due to pressure from the BDS movement. “There was no great elation for the BDS movement because it quickly discovered that hundreds of Palestinians lost their jobs,” What BDS supporters don’t understand is that its outcome is worse for the Palestinians. “For us [the Israelis] it might be unpleasant, but we are way stronger and more financially stable,” he said. To celebrate the mass unemployment and lost hope of these Palestinian workers, the terrorists in suits and other BDS officials no doubt awarded themselves a bonus.
Some 5,000 Palestinians are employed in Israeli-owned businesses in the Barken industrial area.
Conclusion: Real “Palestinian civil society” as represented by Palestinian workers in the Barkan industrial area demand cooperation and coexistence with Israelis, normalization and working together, not BDS.
Let`s move on to the total employment of Palestinians by Israelis.
The number of Palestinian Arabs who work in “settlements” (Israeli towns and villages in areas which under the Oslo Accords are under Israeli administration in Area C) has increased over the years, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Some 20,000 Palestinians now work in the “settlements” (despite threats to such people by the PA years ago) and over 105,000 more work legally for Israelis within the Green Line. Another unknown number, which could be up to 75,000 if the estimate (above) by the Palestinian Ashraf Jabari of 200,000 workers daily is correct, enter Israel daily illegally.
Let`s put this number in perspective. There are about 2 million Palestinians in Samaria and Judea/the West Bank. There are about 5 Palestinians to a family unit. If 200,000 workers are supporting one million Palestinians, it means that 50% of the economy of the Palestinian Authority is directly dependent on the income of Palestinian workers in “the settlements” and in Israel. If BDS is even partially successful, the Palestinian Authority will simply disintegrate.
There are 14 industrial areas in Judea and Samaria where Jewish Israelis and Arab Palestinians work alongside each other. And with jobs, these 20,000 Arabs alone add NIS 4.5 billion to the PA economy and can enjoy a normal and fruitful life giving both hope and a future to their families.
An interesting feature is that the number of Arab employees working for Israeli employers in the settlements and Israel has been steadily increasing while the number of workers for Arab employees has been going down. This constitutes an anti-BDS vote by the average Palestinian.
The wage gap between Arab workers for Israelis compared to working in the West Bank for other Arabs has dramatically increased. The daily wage rate was 107.9 shekels in the West Bank and 62.6 shekels in the Gaza Strip in the second quarter of 2018 – but those working in Israel and the settlements make a daily average wage of 247.9 shekels.
You decide: Does BDS have the right to send her home and cause her to be unemployed?
Conclusion: Real “Palestinian civil society” as represented by Palestinian workers in the settlements and in Israel demand cooperation and coexistence with Israelis, normalization and working together and a better future, not BDS.
If BDS is serious about boycotting everything Israeli, then BDS must call upon Palestinians to avoid Israeli medical services. Otherwise, dear BDS, you are just yet another bunch of hypocrites.
Certainly, Palestinians in need of Israeli medical services ignore BDS. Sorry, BDS. You cannot pick and choose. Why haven`t you called upon “Palestinian civil society” to boycott Israeli medical assistance? BDS, you know the answer. Real “Palestinian civil society”, has neither time nor patience for you.
Let`s have a look at the extent to which Real “Palestinian civil society” ignores BDS when Israeli medical services are required.
In 2018, more than 20,000 permits (about 55 a day) were granted to Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria/the West Bank to enter Israel and receive treatment or support a patient who was receiving treatment in the Jewish state, according to numbers released by the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories Unit (COGAT).
That number is up by nearly 3,000 from 2017.
Medical coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has been ongoing since 1995 and continues to increase each year, despite ebbs and flows on the security and diplomatic fronts.
Palestinian doctors are trained in Israel, helping to improve their capacity to treat patients in the West Bank. Palestinian doctors are paired with professionals from Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem and they become colleagues and friends.
When doctors in the West Bank don’t have the skills or the facilities to provide needed care, Palestinian patients are taken for treatment in Israel.
Israeli-Arab residents of east Jerusalem work with the health coordinator to volunteer support, bring warm meals to the families who travel to Israel to support their loved ones, and sometimes even provide them with a place to stay and sleep.
Treatments vary, but cancer is among the most frequently treated diseases. Of the 6,000 Palestinian cancer patients from Judea and Samaria, 1,200 were treated in a hospital in Israel – including in east Jerusalem – according to COGAT.
Additionally, in 2018, more than 200 patients from Judea and Samaria – including 112 children – received bone marrow transplants in Israeli hospitals. Some 18 patients received eye neoplasms, and 103 received cornea transplants with treatment at St. John’s Ophthalmic Hospital in Jerusalem.
Throughout 2016, over 30,000 people from the Gaza Strip received medical treatment in Israel. Over 7,000 tons of medical supplies were transferred to hospitals and clinics in the Gaza Strip. There are emergency ambulances that are on-call 24 hours, 7 days a week at Erez Crossing.
But it is not just about health. The program has also built invaluable ties between Israelis and Palestinians that are often not reported by the media. Doctors become friends and colleagues and consult with one another often. The medical program is first about health, but also about cooperation.
Does BDS really want to boycott Israeli medical services? Let`s have a peep at how Palestinian leaders “BDS” Israeli medical services.
Israel’s health care is so good that even Israel’s most uncompromising enemies set aside their enmity for the sake of getting family members the help they need.
Who else ignores BDS? Leaders of Hamas, who spend their time devising terror attacks against Israel and are committed to its destruction, look to Israel when their families are sick. For example, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh‘s brother-in-law was treated for a cardiac problem, his mother-in-law went to Jerusalem for treatment and one of his daughters was admitted to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. One of Haniyeh‘s granddaughters has also been treated in Israel. The sister of another senior Hamas leader, Mousa Abu Marzouk, was also treated in Israel for cancer.
Also, leaders of the Palestinian Authority, who spend their time trying to isolate Israel in international forums, ignore BDS when their personal needs are at stake. Abbas is the President of the Palestinian Authority. Abbas’ brother-in-law received life-saving heart surgery at the Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv. Abbas’ wife, Amina, underwent surgery there. Abbas’ Qatar-based brother, Abu Lawi, was treated for cancer at the Assuta Medical Center in Tel Aviv. Most recently, in May 2018, Abbas himself was treated by an Israeli specialist, who joined a foreign team of doctors caring for him in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Ramallah, in the Palestinian Authority.
And what about the cooperation to save….a parrot! Very recently, a Gazan parrot underwent a life-saving operation at Israeli checkpoint. The Gazan bird’s owner was told his African grey, “Cookie,” which suffered severe burns, needed to be put down, since no veterinarian in the Strip knew how to help; in a desperate Facebook post he reached out to an Israeli wildlife NGO, “For The Wildlife,” which quickly organized the surgery, which was performed by Dr. Shlomit Levy, the only veterinarian in Israel solely dedicated to the care of birds and parrots.
Conclusion: Real “Palestinian civil society”, including their leaders, represented by Palestinians requiring medical services demand cooperation and coexistence with Israelis, normalization and working together, good health, not bad BDS.
When Real “Palestinian civil society” has an option, does it select Israeli products or prefer BDS?
No doubt, dear reader, you will be thinking that all my examples relate to areas either under Israeli control, or where Palestinian options are limited. So, to test my thesis of ongoing coexistence and cooperation, and since BDS specifically calls to boycott Israeli products, let`s have a look at an area that Israel does not control in any way and where Palestinians have other options -yes, the availability of, and demand for, Israeli products in Gaza.
My first evidence is an article from the Jerusalem Post. There is no need to add to, or elaborate on, the headline.
WHY ARE ISRAELI FOOD PRODUCTS SO POPULAR IN GAZA?
According to the Gaza Economy Ministry, Israeli products account for 65% of all items imported into Gaza.
BY LAYLA ABD AL-NUR FEbruary 13, 2019 17:25
ON GAZAN supermarket shelves (clockwise from top left): Pudding cups; Israeli Tnuva ‘shoko’ (chocolate milk); (photo credit: Courtesy)
Difficulties in the Gaza Strip are being exploited by a number of special interest groups inside Gaza that are doing everything in their power to deceive the vulnerable residents there. The latest scandal deals with food. It began when Gaza’s government food inspectors filed a lawsuit against Badri & Hania Co. The inspectors had seized four tons of coffee, spices and raw materials whose expiration had passed, just before they were to be distributed to stores across the Gaza Strip.
As happens after each new crisis in the food industry in Gaza, consumers began the inevitable comparisons between food items that are produced in Gaza with products brought in from Israel.
Angry responses to the latest swindle soon began appearing on local residents’ Facebook pages. These included calls to buy Israeli-made products as long as Palestinian-made products do not meet the high standards the Palestinian government has committed itself to following.
In fact, recently, Rola Ravi, 37, strolled into a large supermarket in the center of Gaza, whose shelves hold a large variety of Israeli products. She happily purchased a jar of Israeli Elite coffee. When asked why she bought an Israeli-made product, she responded by saying she prefers Israeli products because of their higher quality, and because she feels secure in knowing they meet certain standards.
Another consumer, Suheil Moyad, 65, asked why he purchased Israeli-made milk for his nine-month-old grandson, said, “I prefer buying the Israeli milk for my grandson because I think it’s more sterile and safer to use. I don’t buy locally made food products because I’m always hearing about how Palestinian companies cut corners and ignore safety standards. There’s no supervision or quality control in local factories and this harms quality.”
Some 20 years ago, Moyad worked as a mechanic at a garage in Tel Aviv. “When I was working in Israel, I saw that factories there uphold certain standards,” he said. “Israeli products are higher quality, cleaner and safer. They also taste good. People want to buy quality products.”
Alaa Shorab, who owns a supermarket, said people buy more Israeli products than they do locally made items, despite their being more expensive. Shorab claimed that wealthier customers buy Israeli products only, and he has a hard time keeping the shelves stocked with those products. Customers especially like Israeli coffee, ice cream, potato chips and dairy products, he said.
The chief reason for the large discrepancy in prices is that stiff tariffs are imposed by the Gaza Economy Ministry on all Israeli products entering Gaza. It is part of an effort to promote the sale of locally made products. Yet despite the tariffs and despite BDS, Gazan consumers, supposedly even at war with Israel, prefer Israeli products.
According to the Gaza Economy Ministry, Israeli products account for 65% of all items imported into Gaza. These items are transported into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the only place commercial vehicles are allowed access to and from Gaza. Today, virtually all products are available in the Gaza Strip, except for materials that have double usage and could be used for military purposes. As a result, more than 1,000 trucks pass through the crossing every day (not counting fuel tankers).
That’s Gil, a yogurt made by Israeli company Tnuva being fed by Ismail Haniyah, the Hamas leader in Gaza. It seems to be a favorite of Palestinian Arabs.
Israeli products in Hebrew and English in the Metro supermarket, Gaza. Only the price is in Arabic
A meeting of Hamas local leaders in Gaza. The Prigat juice is Israeli.
Conclusion: Real Palestinian civil society, including their leaders, represented by Palestinians willingly purchasing more expensive Israeli products even when both local and other imported products as well as cheaper, are available, demand cooperation and coexistence with Israelis, normalization and working together, not BDS.
My second evidence is another headline, this time from the Times of Israel. Arabs both own and shop in a mall which is between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The Atarot Mall is a new, two-floor, NIS 200 million ($54 million) mall built by Israeli supermarket king Rami Levy on the seam between Arab and Jewish Jerusalem.
The Palestinian leadership called anyone who shops at a new mall – where 35% of stores are Arab owned – a traitor
About one-third of the 50 planned stores are already open for business. “I’ve waited for this for many years,” said Levy, whose supermarket chain, Rami Levy Shivuk Hashikma Ltd., is behind this project. “I remember going to Ramallah with my father when I was 12, when we used to go there easily. And as the years went on and things got worse, I had a dream that we’d be able to do this, here.”
Rami-Levy-Atarot-mall-courtesy-of-Margolin-Bros-Engineering
“Here” is Atarot, the location of one of the largest industrial parks in the Jerusalem area. It’s at the northern end of Jerusalem, where Palestinian and Jewish neighborhoods brush up against one another. Totally ignoring BDS, some 35 percent of the store owners in the mall are Palestinian and some of the branches of Israeli chain stores are owned by Palestinian franchisees.
Customers, a mix of Palestinians and Israelis, drink coffee and eat pastries at already opened Cafe Neeman, a bakery chain, and wander in and out of the stores that were open.
Betty Mansour, the Palestinian manager at Golf & Co., has worked for 14 years at Golf, and was the manager at the Talpiot branch. She jumped at the opportunity to work at the new mall after 14 years at Golf and after having served as manager of a branch in the Talpiot neighborhood, despite a longer commute from her home in Gilo at the southern end of Jerusalem. “I liked the idea of coexistence at the mall,” she said. “People will need to get used to it, of course. But why not?” It’s the first time that a store like Golf has come to Beit Hanina, said Mansour. “A lot of Arab customers come to us because they love Golf, and they’ve been waiting for this,” she said. “Our products are very well-liked by Arab customers.”
Fahmi Jbouh, owner of women’s clothing boutique Neeva, lives in Beit Hanina, and has stocked his new store with their inventory of women’s wear imported from Turkey.
“It’s really my wife’s store,” he said. “We decided to open because there will be more business here. It’s a better location in a mall. We wanted to grow our business.”
The Cafe Neeman chain opened its 56th outlet in the mall, said Yaniv Neeman, scion of the family, who was working the sandwich counter one morning recently. The manager is a Palestinian, Amjad Awadalla, who franchised this branch. “That’s how we always do things,” said Neeman. “Jews and Arabs always work together at every Cafe Neeman.” BDS???
Peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs. Isn’t that what everyone wants? Not Fatah, a fanatical anti-Israel Palestinian group. Fatah called on the Palestinian people to boycott the “colonial markets and shops of Rami Levy,” saying that “buying, renting or shopping is a betrayal of the homeland.” In 2010, Fatah called on Palestinians to boycott Rami Levy supermarkets. It threatened anyone who shopped there and took photos of shoppers and license plates. Palestinians all ignored the threats and shop there all the time, side by side with Jews, and there are very few problems (sometimes terrorists will target the stores).
Each month, hundreds of Palestinians visit the shopping centers owned by Israeli businessman Rami Levy in the settlements of Kfar Etzion in Hebron and Ma’alie Mikhmas near Ramallah, in search of the cheapest prices and offers.
Mother of five, Dalal al-Kuwaiti, told Al-Monitor in Ramallah, “The first time I went to shop from Rami Levy four years ago, it felt strange for me to be in an Israeli settlement mingling with settlers, but I got used to it.” Kuwaiti shops at Rami Levy twice a month, spending 1,000 shekels [$280], or one-third of her husband’s salary, who is a Palestinian Authority employee. “I would need at least twice that amount if I were to shop at the local Palestinian market. There are always offers and sales on food items, which is unheard of in local markets.”
Despite the Palestinian National Dignity Fund publishing censored photographs of car license plates and Palestinian shopper’s faces to deter them from shopping at Rami Levy, they continued to do so.
Who else is not boycotting Israel? Well, you cannot find a better example of “Palestinian civil society” than an official ministry of the Palestinian Authority. Recently a post from the official Facebook page of the PA Ministry of Employment regarding a meeting held in the ministry’s building – during which refreshments were served that included bottles of Israeli Tapuzina juice – was shared on social media.
[Amad, independent Palestinian news website, Jan. 22, 2019]
We have come to the end of our journey through real “Palestinian civil society” and sadly, we must confess failure. We found no trace of BDS in real “Palestinian civil society”. Instead, we found grassroot partnerships, the Israeli Defence Force using its own trucks to enable Palestinian goods to move freely to Israel, Palestinians specifically working in Israeli settlements, Palestinians working in Israel generally, Palestinians in both the West Bank/Judea and Samaria and Gaza using Israeli medical services, Palestinians buying and indeed preferring Israeli products in Gaza, Palestinians owning shops and shopping in Israeli malls and….gasp….using Israeli products in official Palestinian government meetings.
Our journey has revealed normalization and coexistence, higher wages for Palestinian workers, hope for a better future for family members, superior medical services for Palestinian civilians, enjoyable and apparently sought after and less expensive shopping experiences for the Palestinian customer.
There was only one experience we did not find: a desire of Real “Palestinian civil society” to boycott Israel, its products and services. We end with this one question: By what right and authority has anyone outside the area of the Palestinian Authority to demand that Israel, its products and services be boycotted, when clearly Real “Palestinian civil society” acts totally differently, even when alternatives and other options are available. BDS may bark, but Real “Palestinian civil society” moves forward, cooperating and coexisting with Israel and Israelis, wanting a normal life with hope for themselves and their children, deaf to BDS`s calls.
For years, critics of Israel refer to Gaza as the world`s biggest prison. So let`s have a look at one of the prison`s “cafeterias”. A general view of the Metro Supermarket Gaza, referred to above. I don`t think any further comment is required.
The cheese counter at an upscale supermarket in Gaza City. Although the Egyptian military’s crackdown on trade through smuggling tunnels has significantly affected construction and transportation workers, the U.N. says there’s no humanitarian crisis. Many consumer goods are allowed in via Israel.
