Towards an Australian BDS campaign
On March 12, the new Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd moved a motion calling on the Australian House of Representatives to “celebrate and commend the achievements of the State of Israel in the 60 years since its inception” and to reaffirm Canberra's support for “Israel's right to exist” and a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.1 In moving the opposition-supported motion, Rudd made it perfectly clear that despite the 11 year conservative Howard government being swept from power, there would be no change in Australia's policy in relation to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
For the past decade, the former Prime Minister, John Howard and
his Liberal party government have been among the strongest
supporters of the Zionist state of Israel. Howard had visited
Israel at least three times and was often described in both the
Australian and Israeli media as “a longstanding friend of
Israel.”2 In June 2007, when Howard was
still Prime Minister of Australia, but clearly fighting a losing
battle to stay in power, the Jerusalem Post sang his praises,
describing him as “Israel's greatest champion amongst world
statesmen” and praising his “courageous support for
Israel.”3 The Jerusalem Post article,
which was written by Isi Leibler, a former veteran leader of the
Australian Jewish community who had immigrated to Israel, went on
to point out that while Howard was an exceptional champion, this
was “not to suggest that Howard's predecessors were unfriendly.
Since the creation of our state, Australia has been led by a
succession of governments from both sides of the political spectrum
that were supportive of Israel. The solitary exception was Gough
Whitlam (1972-1975), whose hostility against Israel during the Yom
Kippur war is regarded as a historical aberration.”
The support by successive Australian governments, including the
current Rudd government, for Israel's colonialism and dispossession
comes as no surprise, especially given Australia's own record of
historical and ongoing colonialist policies and practices.
Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, like the
Palestinian people, have suffered under the brutal heal of
invasion, dispossession and colonialism, having their land stolen
and their human and civil rights systematically violated.
While Rudd won international and national acclaim in February, for
moving a motion of apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander children who were systematically and involuntarily
separated from their families and the traditional lands as a result
of the colonial policies of successive Federal and State
governments (known in Australia as the “Stolen Generations”) and
acknowledging the historical mistreatment, injustice and suffering
of Indigenous Australians saying that “decency, human decency,
universal human decency demands that the nation now step forward to
right a historical wrong,” his government has in practice continued
to implement racist and colonial policies.4
Like Palestinians, Indigenous Australians today, continue to be the
victims of government sponsored racism, discrimination, restriction
of movement and land control, as the draconian legislation
introduced in 2007 by the Howard government reveal. This
legislation saw the Federal government seize control of more than
60 Indigenous communities' lands and resources, the invasion of
police and military units into these communities and excessive
restrictions or “welfare quarantining” imposed on Indigenous
welfare recipients. However, far from repealing the laws, the new
Rudd government is now planning to expand many of the legislative
measures to other states beyond the Northern Territory where it was
first introduced.
While Rudd's motion of apology to the Stolen Generations has
succeeded in somewhat disguising the fact that his government
continues to uphold and implement racist and discriminatory
policies, his government's motion in support of the Israeli state's
60th birthday could not have revealed more starkly the Rudd
government's lack of “decency, human decency, universal decency”
and its refusal to help “right historical wrongs.” Instead, in
moving the motion in support of the Israeli state, ignoring
completely the plight of the Palestinian people and the human
rights abuses they are suffering at the hands of the Zionist state,
the Rudd government confirmed that in reality it is little
different from the ousted conservative Howard government.
In response to Rudd's motion in support of Israel, supporters of
Palestinian rights mobilised around the country to demonstrate that
many Australians opposed his government's uncritical support for
Israel. In addition to organizing a variety of actions around the
country, Palestine solidarity activists also took out a half page
advertisement in the country's only national newspaper, The
Australian. The advertisement text stated that “we, as informed and
concerned Australians, choose to disassociate ourselves from a
celebration of the triumph of racism and ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians since the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948.” It went on to
say: “Australia and Australians should not give the Israeli people
the impression that Australia supports them in their dispossession
of the Palestinian people” and that “rather than celebrate the
creation of the State of Israel, we should be recognizing the
people of Palestine, those who were dispossessed, those who lived
and died as refugees, those who continue to live and die at the
hands of the State of Israel, and those who will continue to suffer
and die in the future until justice is done.”5
The “Improper motion” campaign, as it became known, was led by
Melbourne based solidarity groups, Australians for Palestine, Women
for Palestine and the Adelaide based Australian Friends of
Palestine Association. In less than a week, the advertisement
garnered more than 400 individual signatories, plus support from 37
civil society organizations, including a number of Australian
unions. Several dozen more individual signatories were not included
in the advertisement as they came in after the advertisement went
to print. The campaign was a success not only because it succeeded
in involving those not normally involved in activism for Palestine
but also because it stirred up considerable media debate and
coverage.
The other success of the improper motion campaign was that it
demonstrated once again the willingness of solidarity groups and
activists around Australia to work together in support of
Palestine. Australia, while having only a small population of 21
million people, is a geographically massive country. Our population
is located primarily along the eastern seaboard but we also have
sparse population centers distributed along the southern and
western seaboards. As a result, Palestine solidarity groups are
separated by vast geographical distances. However, modern
communication technology has enabled us to keep in touch with each
other and work together on a range of collaborative projects.
In general, the various Palestine solidarity groups around
Australia have campaigned around the key demands put forward by the
Palestinian people themselves: an end to the 1967 Israeli
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the right of return for
Palestinian refugees, as well as campaigning in support of the
Palestinian citizens of Israel who struggle to retain what is left
of their land within the Zionist state and for equal economic,
social and political rights. Over the years, while keeping these
demands at the forefront of their campaigning, Australian Palestine
solidarity groups have also campaigned around the partial demands
of dismantling the apartheid wall and for the end of the siege of
Gaza and sought to bring a halt to unconditional Australian support
for Israel's policies of colonialism, apartheid and population
transfer.
Despite these campaigns and the willingness of Palestine solidarity
activists to work together, there has not in recent years, been a
single tactical campaign that has united all the Palestine
solidarity groups. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
campaign, however, has the potential to provide this. While the
campaign has begun to gain momentum in countries such as Canada,
the UK, Ireland and South Africa, it has not yet been able to gain
any significant hold in Australia. The primary reason for this is
not necessarily a lack of interest in the campaign, but as of yet a
lack of concentrated focus on the campaign in order to get it off
the ground.
Like in many Western countries already engaged in the BDS campaign,
an Australian campaign should also focus around the various planks
of the campaign: (1) a boycott campaign focused around consumer
academic and cultural normalization; (2) a divestment campaign to
encourage Australian businesses and shareholders to divest from
Israel as well as to ensure that Israeli companies are not welcome
in Australia; and (3) a campaign which seeks to pressure the
Australian government to implement sanctions against the Israeli
state rather then continuing its commercial, military and
diplomatic relationship with it as long as Israel continues to
violate international law and the human rights of the Palestinian
people.
Over the last decade, there has been a significant increase in
trade relations and military ties between Australia and Israel. In
2003, Australian merchandise exports to Israel, which included
coal, live animals, aluminium, machinery components, were worth
around US$198 million whilst imports from Israel, including
telecommunications equipment, fertilisers, agricultural technology
and pearls and gems, are valued at around US$463 million. According
to the Australian Trade Commission, in 2006-2007, the annual
bilateral trade between Australia and Israel totalled around A$750
million, with a trade deficit favouring Israel. The major Israeli
exports to Australia included IT/telecommunication equipment,
metals, plastics and medical/optical equipment, as well as precious
stones.6
The Israel Trade Commission (ITC) website notes that there are
currently 58 Israeli companies with local offices in Australia.
These include companies such as Soda Club, based in Ma'ale Addumim,
the largest of Israel's illegal Jerusalem settlements, as well as
Israel's largest financial institution, Bank Hapoalim, and other
financial institutes such as Bank Leumi.7
The ITC also notes that currently leading food and retail chains in
Australia, such as Coles, Woolworths and Franklins are also
stocking a range of Israeli food and wine products, including those
produced in the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied West
Bank. In 2007, Australian retail giant Big W, with its over 200
stores around the country, signed a 3 year contract with Beigel and
Beigel, an Israeli sweets and pretzel distributor based in the
illegal Israeli industrial settlement of Barkan in the Salfit
governorate of the occupied West Bank. Currently, Beigel and Beigel
is the second largest supplier of pretzels to Australia, holding
20% of the market, with the pretzels being marketed by the
Australian company Trialia Foods.8
On the export side of the equation, the Israeli company, Guild
Enterprise Ltd (whose Australian HQ is based in Queensland) has
become the primary exporter of Australian products to Israel, such
as Sanitarium health foods and Arnott's biscuits, including Tim
Tams. According to the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade)
website, “many young Israelis come to Australia after their
national service to study or relax, and they have come to develop a
taste for the Tim Tam and spread the word back in Israel and in the
Palestinian Territories.”9
Subsidiaries of international companies which invest heavily in
Israeli companies and occupation infrastructure, are also operating
in Australia. For example, Connex, which is the name used by the
French based Veolia Environment for their transport operations in
Australia, in 2002 won the tender, along with Alstrom, to build the
light rail which will service many of the illegal Israeli
settlements surrounding East Jerusalem. The system will also
operate feeder stations for settler traffic from Ma'ale Adumin to
the Jordan Valley. As the Stop the Wall campaign notes “the light
rail project plays a key role in sustaining the settlements and
ensuring they become a permanent fixture upon Palestinian
land.”10
In Australia, Connex operates the entire Melbourne suburban train
work and also runs Sydney's light rail/monorail system under
contract from Metro Transport and has a large bus network which it
runs in Sydney's southern suburbs. In Perth, Connex also operates
the Southern Coast Transit bus line, while in Brisbane it runs
buses using the former National Bus Company's fleet. While
Palestine solidarity activists in Melbourne have previously run an
awareness-raising campaign around the role of Connex in sustaining
the Israeli occupation, the campaign has not been a comprehensive
or systematic one.
The bilateral commercial relations between Australia and Israel are
set to increase in 2008. According to a September 2007 report in
the The Australian, an expected Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between
Australia and Israel will likely result in a “surge in Israeli
hi-tech investment and the transfer of world-leading military
technology.”11 According to the
newspaper, Australian imports of classified defence technology were
valued at around A$14 million in 2006, but with the FTA set to be
signed in 2008, this will increase with a “closer defence relation
between the two countries involving high-end robotic technology,
smart missiles and unmanned aerial drones - military areas in which
Israel is a world leader.” The bilateral defence agreement between
the Australian and Israeli government will also involve “training
exchanges involving Australian defence personnel and its Israeli
counterpart.”
In addition to the boycott of Israeli consumer goods and divestment
from Israeli companies and attempts to break trade and military
ties with Israel and place sanctions on the Zionist state for its
apartheid policies, we will also need to work towards developing
the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. This academic and
cultural boycott, which has been gaining international momentum
over the last two years, also has the potential to flourish in
Australia. The key component in the development of this campaign is
gaining the support of progressive unions around Australia.
Involving progressive Australian unions, however, will take time
and well-planned work. It will require us to systematically
approach the various unions and to patiently explain the situation
in Palestine, not only in terms of the impact that Israel's
apartheid and occupation policies have on Palestinian workers and
their families, but the impact that these policies have on the
human and civil rights of all the Palestinian people.
In Australia, as the campaign will be starting almost from scratch,
we will need to present the labor movement with not only relevant
facts and information, but we will need to pace ourselves. As the
campaign will be in its infancy, the first step for Palestine
solidarity activists will be simply to get unions to begin to
consider discussing this issue and campaign inside their unions.
While we do not want to rush the campaign, we should however not be
shy in highlighting the brutality of the Israeli occupation and the
human suffering of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza,
as well as the systematic racist and apartheid nature of Israeli
policies on both sides of Green Line and the illegal denial of
refugee return.
A final plank of the BDS campaign will also be to gain the support
of Indigenous Australians for the struggle of a fellow indigenous
people. In Australia, in the past, there has been collaboration at
a range of levels between Aboriginals and Indigenous Rights
campaigners and Palestinians and Palestine solidarity activists.
This, however, has not been consistent or widespread. An important
part of the Palestine solidarity campaign over the next years in
Australia should be to foster and develop this joint solidarity.
Developing the indigenous relationship between both our peoples
will be an important advance for both Palestinians and Indigenous
Australians in our joint struggle against dispossession and ongoing
colonialism of our lands.
Endnotes
1. Australian Jewish News, 12 March, 2008 http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=5102
2. Goldberg, D., 25 September, 2007, YNet, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3307969,00.html
3. Leibler, I., 6 June 2007, The Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1180960626413&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
4. Full Text of Kevin Rudd’s “Sorry” address, 13 February, 2008, The Age http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pms-sorry-address/2008/02/12/1202760291188.html
5. Improper Motion campaign http://1948.com.au/2008events/national/improper-motion.html
6. Harcourt, T., (2004) Tim Tams to Tel Aviv: the Australian –Israel trade relationship, Australian Trade Commission http://www.austrade.gov.au/Tim-Tams-to-Tel-Aviv-the-Australian-Israel-trade-relationship/default.aspx
7. Israeli Trade Commission, Australia http://www.israeltrade.org.au
8. Israeli Trade Commission http://israeltrade.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/05307E0E-4F04-46A3-B3F2-6514928C2A3D/0/CommercialNewsfromIsraelMay07.doc
9. Harcourt, T.
10. Connex and Alstrom Fact Sheet http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/ConexEN.pdf
11. Dodd, M., September 26, 2007. The Australian, Israeli deal to boost defence
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22483470-15084,00.html