I do not support the settlements
I do not support the Occupation
I do not support the siege on Gaza
I do not support any of the actions taken by the government and the IDF to curtail basic human and civil rights
I further confess:
I agree with international law, that the settlements in the West Bank are illegal. Not some, not those that are deemed illegal outposts by the Israeli government, that in spite of them being categorized as such by the Israeli government still provide them with paved roads and lights and garbage removal and security, but ALL.
And so:
When I buy pretzels, I do not buy pretzels made in a certain place over a certain line that has a color name
When I buy cosmetics and lotions, I do not buy from a certain company that is not within this certain line that has a color name
When I undertake academic work, I do not consider collaboration with a certain institution that is in that area, over that line
As an Israeli citizen of a democratic country, I have the right to refrain from buying foods or cosmetics I want from certain manufacturers. I have the right to choose with whom to undertake research, and with whom not.
All you other Israeli citizens: YOU TOO HAVE THE RIGHT. This is called democracy.
I cannot take the credit for this wonderful ideology and form of governance called democracy. Great people who came before me came up with this idea that honors people and is based in human freedom and dignity.
For example, the founders of our country, who wrote and signed our Israeli Declaration of Independence declared the central and integral place that democracy and freedom would have in our state. I have included below some long excerpts from this binding declaration. [The text can be found on the official website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So for those wondering, our MFA knows what principles are country is based on, and even publishes this binding declaration on their website - for the full text, click here]:
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In the year 5657 (1897)... the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country. This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which... gave international sanction ... to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
The...massacre of millions of Jews in Europe was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the comity of nations... Jews...never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland...the Jewish community...contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations... On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly... call[ed] for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel... This recognition...of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable. This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.
ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL...DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL...THE STATE OF ISRAEL.
WE DECLARE... THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
...
WE APPEAL...to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions. WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people...The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
...WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE...ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY,1948).
| Daniel Auster Mordekhai Bentov Yitzchak Ben Zvi Eliyahu Berligne Fritz Bernstein Rabbi Wolf Gold Meir Grabovsky Yitzchak Gruenbaum Dr. Abraham Granovsky Eliyahu Dobkin Meir Wilner-Kovner Zerach Wahrhaftig Herzl Vardi | Rachel Cohen Rabbi Kalman Kahana Saadia Kobashi Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin Meir David Loewenstein Zvi Luria Golda Myerson Nachum Nir Zvi Segal Rabbi Yehuda Leib Hacohen Fishman | David Zvi Pinkas Aharon Zisling Moshe Kolodny Eliezer Kaplan Abraham Katznelson Felix Rosenblueth David Remez Berl Repetur Mordekhai Shattner Ben Zion Sternberg Bekhor Shitreet Moshe Shapira Moshe Shertok |
To all of my fellow Israelis living in this country that we have fought so hard to achieve and to keep - without democracy, human dignity, freedom, justice, we are nothing.
When we try to squelch non-violent dissent, we go against our Declaration of Independence
When we try to mandate political thought, ideology and conscience, we trample human rights.
No, No, No to the Boycott Law.
YES to freedom and democracy.
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