The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement--part of the effort to eliminate Israel by non-military means--has opened a new front:
Chris Yatooma, a 45-year-old Arab-American in Sacramento, has introduced a ballot initiative to force California's state pension funds to divest from companies doing business in Israel. He will need to collect approximately 434,000 signatures by mid-July to put the proposed law on the November election ballot.
In an interview, Yatooma said that he is a former aide to then-Senator Joe Biden and other members of Congress. He was on the White House lawn in 1993 when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat shook hands. But it's 2010 and there's still no Palestinian state, and it must be Israel's fault. So Yatooma is taking advantage of the right of Californians to write their own laws and to try to persuade their fellow Californians to enact them by popular vote.
The initiative was submitted under the name of the "Israel Divestiture Forum," but Yatooma allowed that at the moment the Israel Divestiture Forum consists entirely of Chris Yatooma. However, he's hopeful that he'll soon put together a board of directors, a website, and other such trimmings. The initials of the Israel Divestiture Forum, IDF, are more commonly connected with the Israel Defense Forces. This is no coincidence--"that's just me having some fun." One hopes that the signature gathering will not be misleading; it would be wrong for proponents of the initiative to ask voters, "Would you like to support the IDF?"
The proposed law contains the following "findings":
"(a) It has been determined that business activities in foreign states such as Israel, which conduct state sponsored terrorism against Palestinians living in territory occupied by Israel since 1949, may materially harm the share value of foreign companies. Shares in these foreign companies may be held in the portfolio of public retirement systems in this state.
"(b) Public retirement systems in this state currently invest on behalf of the citizens of California in publicly traded foreign companies that may be at risk due to business ties with foreign states such as Israel.
"(c) Excluding companies with business activities in foreign states such as Israel and divesting from public portfolios will help send a clear message that the people of California do not wish to profit from companies that conduct business with Israel.
"(d) It is unconscionable for the state of California to invest in foreign companies with business activities benefiting foreign countries such as Israel, which has:
"1. Committed egregious violations of human rights against Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
"2. Violated International Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel is a signatory to, with regard to the transfer and settlement of its own people in land occupied as a result of the 1967 war and which includes the Palestinian West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights.
"3. Ignored numerous United Nation [sic] Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions demanding Israel remove its settlements and end its occupation of Palestine.
"4. Maintained a brutal military occupation in Palestine.
"5. Sponsored numerous acts of terror against Palestinians and other citizens of the region.
"6. Recognized a Jewish right of return to historic Palestine but denies millions of Palestinian Arabs a similar right of return to historic Palestine."
It goes on to ask the federal government to suspend foreign aid to Israel, then continues: "It is the intent of this act to employ the same divestiture and boycott approach used to help bring down the Apartheid Government in South Africa."
The object of the initiative, according to Yatooma, is to drive companies out of Israel, which will economically pressure Israel to remove Jewish settlements from the West Bank, and sign a peace treaty creating a Palestinian state.
A few observations:
- Despite the misleading language of "foreign states such as Israel," the proposed law concerns no country but Israel.
- The proposal dates the occupation of Palestine to 1949, i.e., the founding of the Jewish state. The plain implication is that Israel itself, not its borders or policies, is illegitimate.
- Accusations of Israeli terrorism are sprinkled liberally throughout, but Palestinian terrorism and the Arab wars against Israel apparently do not exist.
- The claim that Israel denies Palestinian Arabs a "right of return" is false. Israel is committed to a two-state solution (and, it bears emphasizing, has been for the most part since the 1947 UN Partition Plan) in which the Palestinian Arab state would be free to enact its own "law of return." What Israel will not permit is to let itself be overwhelmed demographically by millions of Arabs, which would be the death of Israel as a Jewish state.
Yatooma's current plan is to get Arab-American organizations to support his efforts with endorsements, money and signature-gatherers. He also expects support from "progressives"--universities, African-American and Latino groups, even Jewish "peace" organizations, mentioning Tikkun, Peace Now, maybe the Reform movement. While he doesn't imagine that the Democratic Party will endorse his initiative, he hopes that "progressives" within the party will. Yatooma wants the California Legislature to hold hearings on his initiative.
Comments
Since overt anti-Semitism fell out of vogue in civilized circles, anti-Semites must now rally around the flag of so-called anti-Zionism, which is really just the same old anti-Semitism in its new guise. Say — here's a silver lining. Remember the brouhaha over whether or not the signers of the Prop 8, anti-gay marriage petition, could be publicly listed? If the courts rule that petition-signers are considered legislators, then we'll have a public list of all these current local anti-Semites.
I can hardly get my bearings from the hyperventilating in this column and by the commentator above. I'm Jewish, but if this is the best intellectual work our "community" has to offer, all I can say is oy oy oy.
The idea that there is some sort of "new" anti-Semitism lurking around every corner is not born by any scientifically based research. And the idea that the BDS campaign is another way to "eliminate" Israel as if Israel would be wiped off the map if it would go home to Israel and leave what is left of historical Palestine to the Palestinians is part of the bizarro world of diasporic Jewry that is slowly but surely being overcome by more rational adults who get that you can be critical of Israeli occupation and even the entire Zionist enterprise without being anti-Semitic. Please grow up.
I look forward to being approached to sign this petition. That way I can look into the eyes of at best a naive fool, or at worst, a true hater of the Jewish people.
"Thats just me having fun"
No, thats just dishonesty and fraud- just the same way Paul Larudee of the International Solidarity movement created a new anti-Israel non-profit with the acronyn "AIPAC"- Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees. Fundemental dishonesty is a hallmark of the anti-Israel crowd. Its all they've got- they certainly don't have truth of history
Gee - where to begin - bomb belt bombings? Rockets being fired from Jew-Free Gaza nearly everyday? Honor killings? Yet the world screams that the people are starving - as per the photos I've seen on many media circuses (using that term purposely) they are very healthy until the Ham-Ass leaders and their henchmen move into the area. What about those who say NO to Ham-Ass? What about the Christians - why are they being murdered or beaten? Why do they have to pay a Jizya (tax) for protection (theme of the Godfather here); oh let's see - how are people who are Gay treated in Gaza? Yet in Israel they have freedom. Israel is not 100% perfect but then again it is MUCH better than any of its neighbors to live and work in. If you want to divest - then first thing - get off the cell phone, get rid of the computer, do not take anti-inflammatory medication, do not take many psychotropic medications, never go for an MRI, and by all means - do not fly any commercial airlines as they use Israeli Tech
Hey Debbie: First thanks for mentioning "up front" you are Jewish but did you think it gives you a pass on either truth or holding morally bankrupt notions? Second regarding evidence of "new anti-Semitism" you might want to peruse through this report: hxxx://www.state.gov/documents/organization/102301.pdf
And finally you are kidding yourself if you think BDS movement isn't a campaign to bring Israel to it's end. Let's see what J-Street (of all people) says: "The BDS movement, whose dogmatic, counterproductive approach underlies “Israel Apartheid Week,” aims to delegitimize Israel’s very existence – making no distinction between West Bank settlements and Israel proper, and refusing to support a two-state solution that results in a viable Palestinian state and a secure, democratic Israel that is a homeland for the Jewish people, living side by side in peace and security."
I am going to make sure that if I meet someone who shows me this "Israel Divestment Act" petition in California, I'll simply state, "No, thank you. USA and Israel value Democracy, Freedom, and Human Rights. Chris Yatooma is NOT really an Israeli Defense Force director. No IDF would do this to the State of Israel. Take care!" AS IF Hamas and the other Islamic extremist terrorists would want to live in a Democracy LIKE CALIFORNIA, anyways. If this gets on the California voters ballot I'll make sure I vote "NO!" this 2010, and persuade my family and friends to do the same; and this is a social cause for the dissenting side of the proposition I might donate to. Time will tell.
I support you Israel, God bless!
For those who want to gather signatures, please go to Campaign to End Israeli Aparthied dot org for downloads and event dates and locations, or sign onto CEIA-SC yahoogroups.
There is nothing anti-Semitic or anti-Israel about this initiative and it goals. In fact, the initiative and the action that it urges is in the best interests of all Semites, all Jews, and ultimately will help bring security, true democracy, and sustainability to Israel. If this initiative is anti-something, it is anti-imperialist, the policy of theft and exploitation in which everyone eventually loses. By the early 1990s, a two-thirds majority in the United States were already in favor of Israel giving back the land it seized from Palestinians, Syria, and Egypt and in their 1967 illegal war of conquest. This initiative is about doing the very least that must eventually be done for Israel and Palestine if we are to live in a safe, sane, and secure world.
Most of the comments I have read mention that this proposition is in a way "anti-Semitic." They claim that anti-Zionism is the same as anti-Semitism. These people are greatly mistaken, that is just another form of Israeli propaganda, they have for so long accused people against the state of Israel of being anti-Semitic, that the masses have started to believe this nonsense. Anti-Semitism is against the Jewish fate (in popular opinion though the word has a different literal meaning). Anti-Zionists are those against the creation of the state of Israel in the country of Palestine. Orthodox Jews are openly against Zionism and a large portion of those Jews living in Israel (left-wingers) are anti-Zionists. It is stated in the Torah that the Jewish people would have no land and would live in host countries, just as they did in Europe and the Middle East for hundreds of years. In which case, those who practice the Jewish faith are in fact, anti-Zionists, so how could they be anti-Semitic, when they themselves are Jewish? Accusing anti-Zionists of being anti-Semitic is nonsense, anybody who can think logically would realize this (no insult to those with previous comments as I know your intentions on pretending as though your arguments were true).
Now that I've cleared that up, lets move on to the Palestine/Israel struggle (least to say). Before the Zionist occupation of Palestine, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Palestinians lived in peace in their homeland. When the Zionists started to take control of the region, ironically Arab Palestinians began to disappear. Over a million of them were slaughtered or forced into exile. Today, this continues, the Israeli right-wing government continues to impose greater restrictions on Palestinian freedom, they go into the West Bank, take land (without re-conception) from the Palestinians living there, and build settlements. They murder innocent children for picking up a rock, fire rubber bullets into crowds of Palestinians who are desperate for freedom and on top of that, call them the "terrorists." Terrorism is define as; the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear. This sounds an awful lot like what the Israeli government is doing to the Palestinian people. But of course! That's preposterous, how can a Jew be a terrorist? Terrorists are Arab, not Jewish. This my friends, is the problem with our society. When we think "terrorist" we assume Arab or Muslim, we disregard the fact that terrorism has no racial or religious affiliation, it is ingrained in our thought process; that terrorists must be Arab and so we believe it.
I would be biased if I were not to mention Palestinian attacks on Israel. Besides the rock throwing in the West Bank (which in reality does no harm, but is a symbol of the Palestinian resistance and is often retaliated with rubber, or occasionally, real bullets), there are rockets launched into Israel by Hammas (a militant group of Gaza) on occasions. This organization has nothing to do with the Palestinian self-government (PLO) and are opponents of it. Hammas is in a way provoked by the Israeli government, as they have cut food and medical aid to Gaza and regardless of how little damage these rockets do to Israel, it is understood by the PLO that it is wrong and they DO NOT agree with them in any way or form. If Israel were serious about this peace agreement, it would have happened already. The ball is in their court and has been since 1948, it's Israel's move, and 62 years later, still no peace. Unless the left-wingers of Israel take control of their government, it will remain this way until the end of days.
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