Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

"The only ethical solution is a (single) democratic, secular and civic state in historical Palestine" ... "By definition, Jews will be a minority."
Omar Barghouti,  leader, Boycott-Sanctions-Divestment (Israel) movement

"[Zionism] dehumanizes its victims, denies their history and has a cult-like worship of ethno-racial purity", for which the "one-state solution" is called for, and for which "coercion is necessary".
Ali Abunimah, boycott leader

The use of targeted boycotts against Israel is not only useful, but necessary to destroy its detestable presence within the Middle East. The language couldn't be plainer, although language used by these two completely inverts the situation. It is the desire to destroy, to terrorize, to viciously compel through innuendo, coercion, slander and indignity that divests its victim of humanity in the opinion of those who support boycotts such as those supported unequivocally by trade unions, academics and the socialist left.

What Barghouti calls for is the elimination of Israel as an ethical solution to the inalienable right the Palestinians feel of their entitlement to the land upon which the Jewish state sits. A return to a single democratic, secular and civic state in historical Palestine, he says will cleanse the geography of all its tensions. Historical Palestine, in fact, was the homeland of the Jews, the original 'Palestinians'. The Palestine of which Barghouti speaks was never democratic, never secular, never civil.

As for dehumanizing victims, is this not what the constant call to arms does on the part of the Palestinian Authority with its code-words of 'resistance'? With its school curricula, television cartoons and summer camps that teach young Palestinians the 'history' that perverts truth and glorifies martyrdom, as a future aspiration for the young? Teaching young children not only to hate Jews, but how to handle weapons that will restore all of "Palestine" to Palestinian Arabs as their birthright.

And this is what groups like Oxfam, one of the most powerful, influential humanitarian delivery aid groups in the world, has launched itself into. Feeling as it does, powerfully entitled to add one-sided politics to its humanitarian delivery agenda. Oxfam purports to bring hope and assistance through food, medicine, and sympathetic assistance to the world's vulnerable, its neglected, its poor and malnourished, suffering disease and conflict.

That seems like a fairly busy agenda. So it seems peculiar that it chooses to use the charitable dollars that trusting contributors send to fatten their coffers for this alternate purpose. To provide funding to enable boycott enthusiasts in their attacks on Israeli companies. Singling out Israeli officials within the demonization of Israel process. Oxfam Novig in Holland funded "The Impunity and Prosecution of Israeli war criminals" event in Cairo.

The charity so well known world-wide has gone out of its way to distort the analyses of economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, blaming Israeli policy -- presumably its need to protect itself from ongoing violence from the 'resisters' bent on bloodshed and mayhem -- for the lack of Palestinian development. Nor have they ever, it appears, stated how averse they are morally to mass-terror attacks on Israel; events to be overlooked as trivial.

Oxfam International's director, Jeremy Hobbs criticized Israel for creating "the world's largest prison", after it left Gaza, and the result was ongoing bombing from Gaza into Israel. Israel stands accused of being responsible for the policy of Hamas to divert humanitarian resources to fund weapons acquisition, aiding the terrorism file.

In this Sept. 3, 2013 file photo, actress Scarlett Johansson poses for photographers on the red carpet for the screening of the film "Under The Skin" at the 70th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy.   (Andrew Medichini/AP)

 

Details of a pathological imbalance in values and perceptions that gave offence to Scarlett Johansson, to the point where she no longer saw any need for her presence, to represent Oxfam's charitable humanitarian work as an Oxfam ambassador.