Anti-boycott call rings hollow as village awaits demolition

June 9, 2015

At the start of the Israeli Cabinet meeting June 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “As far as those pushing the boycotts are concerned, the settlements in Judea and Samaria are not the focus of the conflict, but our settling in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Beersheba, Haifa and — of course — Jerusalem.” Minister Ofir Akunis, a former Netanyahu spokesman, followed suit with firm determination: “If anyone thinks this is an argument about Judea and Samaria, they’re wrong.” The duo’s claims, which reflect the official government line, are based on many of those “pushing the boycott,” in Netanyahu’s words, encouraging economic, cultural and academic sanctions against Israel, not just the settlements.

At a meeting several years ago in Brussels with boycott, divestment and sanctions activists, I asked why they didn't limit themselves to abstaining from buying settlement products, as I myself do, and were instead demanding that I be boycotted too. They answered, “Because the taxes that you pay fund the occupation, your children guard the settlers and your political and legal systems encourage the theft of Palestinian lands.”

The Palestinian village of Susiya — where delegations of the European Union and United Nations agencies met June 8 with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah — is not located in Tel Aviv, Haifa or Jerusalem. The small village, which has been a recent focal point of the conflict between Israeli and Palestinians, sits in the southern Hebron Hills, outside Israeli territory, in the West Bank. The story of the village embodies Israel’s conduct on the West Bank in general and in particular in Area C, where the Oslo Accord gives Israel security and administrative control. It is an especially grating example of what EU representatives meant at the start of 2012 when they wrote that the result of Israeli policy in Area C, which constitutes 62% of West Bank territory, has been the "forced transfer of the native population."

Susiya is located in desert terrain, part of which still retains a biblical character. Its Palestinian agricultural communities, which maintain a traditional way of life, live in caves and tents. The village has been inhabited for hundreds of years. Documentation of habitation in the region dates back to 1839, and the village is included on 1917 maps, from the British Mandate. Even Plia Albeck, the “Mother of the Settlements,” wrote from the state prosecutor’s office in 1982 that the village lands are the residents’ private property. None of this, however, has made a difference.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/06/israel-europe-boycott-settlement-policy-susiya-tel-aviv.html#ixzz3cfW2iBiW