MICHAEL ALBERT interviews NOAM CHOMSKY
The noted political commentator Noam Chomsky for teleSUR English on the campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel for
Broadly, what is BDS – its aims, its means?
As far as I can reconstruct the history, the first organized call for boycott of products of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories was in 1997 by the Israeli peace organization Gush Shalom, whose most prominent figure is the courageous and honorable long-time militant Uri Avnery. A number of boycott and divestment actions followed, but the next organized step was in 2004, when – to quote its website (http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=868) – “The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel [PACBI] was launched in Ramallah in April 2004 by a group of Palestinian academics and intellectuals to join the growing international boycott movement,” following a number of earlier statements by Palestinian academics and intellectuals.
According to the BDS movement website (http://www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro), the next major step was in July 2005, when a broad group of Palestinian organizations issued a call urging “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law by:
Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall;
Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.”
Telesur for more