I've been getting many calls and emails from people outraged by this week's scheduled trade mission that Scottish Development International are organising to Israel.
I share the strength of feeling that exists, the timing coincides one year on from when Israeli bombs were raining down on Gaza. Of all the things that the mission could focus on too, it is ironically life sciences. I understand this trip was meant to go last year a month or two after the carnage, but was cancelled due to the situation. I don't see how anything in Gaza has moved on since then. There may be more safety and security in Israel, but that state is denying the same to another people.
The feedback I've been receiving has been quick to make party political points about the trade mission. Given the nature of SDI, I doubt very much doubt this was discussed at the top of government beforehand. Cancelling at this late stage might sound like a good shout, but it's not clear how this could have been done in practice. The participants are paying for their own flights and hotels, and how the government could stop them going now would have to be explained.
My guess about the origination of this trip is that some business types thought an Israel visit would be a jolly good idea, and did not take into account any ethical considerations whatsoever. Business sees itself very much like sport when it comes to these matters.
SDI's work does not receive much popular attention so it is worth stating that a trade mission is not an unusual thing. In 2009 alone SDI made trips to Tunisia, USA, Brazil, Turkey, France, Russia, South Korea, India, China, UAE, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Nor is this the first time that SDI have gone to Israel - the last time was in 2006 and there have been more. This is a lowprofile action which is signified by the fact it has just come to the attention of activists now, despite it featuring in the press in November.
This doesn't then mark a watershed moment. For someone somewhere to have stepped in and stopped this at an early stage, the Scottish Government would have had to have a policy of boycotting Israel - which they don't. The STUC recently significantly endorsed the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign. It still has some way to go before it permeates through the rest of society.
The SNP government gave £400,000 to aid agencies working in Gaza after the offensive last year. They also offered to open up Scottish hospitals to injured civilians if the means to get them over the borders could be found by any of the agencies working there. These actions were in response to calls for them and show how effective engagement can yield results. There is no discussion whatsoever of the BDS campaign in mainstream politics. Campaigners will have to step up efforts if it is to happen, to be a wider engagement than finding out about a trip and complaining about it one week before it is set to leave.
The principle of boycott and sanctions is clear though and well understood in the West. The Quartet enforced sanctions on Palestine after Hamas were elected in 2006 and a crippling siege is still maintained on Gaza till now. This is because of the Hamas stance on the peace process, yet the ruling Likud party of Israel has a policy of not accepting a Palestinian state and sees its own eastern border at the River Jordan. Palestine is never to be on the map. Their prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considered weak by many despite backing Israeli colonial outposts in the West Bank and claiming all of Jerusalem is Israel's, in controvention of internationally recognised 1967 borders. It is believed that enforcement of international law will only happen - essential to peace - when Israel is pressured by economic action. Right now though, Israel is emboldened enough to bomb a region to smithereens and sit back while the international community tiptoes around the small matter of war crimes and helping its victims. And trade bodies carry on like nothing's happening.
Just for the record RuT
I hope you don't mind if I post a link to the Zenpolitics blog post which I have already refered to elsewhere (this internet has so many gadgets and dooferbobs, it's difficult to keep track) -
Scottish trade visit to Israel: an exchange with SDI
Zenpolitics
09 Jan 2010
http://johnhilley.blogspot.com/2010/01/scottish-trade-visit-to-israel-exchange.html
I was just mentioning to the excellent Margaret Pacetta (of the Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign) that the sentiments of Anne McColl of the SDI, regarding helping to work towards a 2-state solution to the Israel-Palestine problem, is very fine and noble indeed except the Prime Minster of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, doesn't share them -
Netanyahu: Israel will never share Jerusalem with Palestinians
Haaretz
12 Jan 2010
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142048.html
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday that Israel would never cede control of united Jerusalem nor retreat to the 1967 borders, according to a bureau statement.
The thing is, when Hamas declares the same in public, that the 2-state solution is dead, it is used as proof that Israel has no partner for peace, and other such similar tosh, and used as weapon to keep Palestinians isolated from the rest of the international community. In fact what Netanyahu is saying is that Israel is wiping Palestine off the map.
All the best OS and keep up the great work!
Posted by: joe90 kane | 13 January 2010 at 10:19 AM