Boycott Israel movement nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Leader of the Red, Bjørnar Moxnes, has nominated the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) protest movement for the Nobel Peace Prize. Originally a Palestinian grassroots movement, now an international solidarity movement – the BDS movement works for economic, cultural and academic boycotts of Israel, with the aim of "subjecting the occupying power to pressure until they respect international law, human rights and adopted UN conventions".

"We believe the BDS movement is a worthy candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize and of course hope that BDS receives the Peace Prize. In addition, a bit of the point of making such a nomination is to shed light on a case. In this case, the Palestinian cause, which has been overshadowed by the bloody chaos that has plagued the rest of the region following the catastrophic regime change wars against Iraq and Libya. The BDS movement has had a startling success in reviving solidarity with Palestine in the international community, and in pressuring international actors to contribute to Israel's illegal occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people, "Moxnes wrote in an email to Ny Time.

BDS movement requirements. BDS requires Israel to end the occupation and colonization of Palestinian territories, return land and demolish the separation wall in the West Bank; equates Palestinian and Jewish citizens in Israel and recognizes the fundamental rights of Palestinians; recognizes and respects the Palestinian refugees' right of return, as enshrined in UN Resolution 194. Moxnes and Rood support the demands BDS promotes, and believes the movement should be supported "without reservation", by all people and states with respect for democracy and human rights. "The world community must respond more strongly to Israel's daily violations of international law and international law if there is to be hope for lasting peace in the Middle East," Moxnes said. "Boycotts, divestments and sanctions are democratic and non-violent means that can help push Israel to end the illegal occupation."

"The Norwegian government is completely double-moral in its dealings with sanctions."
Bjørnar Moxnes

The nomination has made headlines worldwide. "There have been front-page articles and press releases about our nomination in several of the Middle East's most important media and an international support campaign, at the initiative of the Jewish Voice for Peace, received over 15 signatures in the first days after launch. At a time when the extremist Israeli regime and its close allies in the United States are trying to criminalize BDS, a global campaign is now underway, not only in defense of BDS, but also to give them the Nobel Peace Prize. The reception that this nomination has received from those who fight daily against a military, economic and political supremacy, indicates that it really means something to the fight for the rights of the Palestinians ", writes Moxnes. At the same time, many argue that the movement contributes to more conflict between the parties, and accuse the BDS of both anti-Semitism and double standards.

Accusations of anti-Semitism. The movement's demands are perceived by many to be a direct threat to Israel as a Jewish state, in particular the demand for the right of return for between 6 and 7 million Palestinian refugees is controversial. "Large parts of the BDS movement support political demands that will put an end to the world's only Jewish state. When you know how much the state of Israel means for Jewish life, not only in Israel, but also in the diaspora, their activity will at least have an anti-Semitic effect, if that is not the intention ", says Conrad Myrland, editor in chief of the website With Israel for Peace. Associate professor at OsloMet and board member of BDS Norway, Lars Gule, explains: “From an Israeli-Zionist point of view, return is impossible. It would repeal the Zionist project – Israel as a Jewish state – in favor of a state with equal rights for all citizens. Of course, the established parties in Israel oppose this, and probably also most Jews in the country. Gule rejects the accusations of anti-Semitism: "The propaganda that the BDS movement is anti-Semitic is ridiculous. Criticism of ethnic cleansing, illegal occupation, war crimes, systematic discrimination, apartheid, thoroughly documented abuses Israel has committed – and still commits – is, of course, not anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is discriminatory attitudes towards and hatred of Jews, because they allegedly belong to a "dangerous race" seeking world domination. Criticism of Israel is a critique of an ideology and a state policy, which is racist precisely because it says that Jews have a greater right to Palestinian territory than the Palestinians themselves. The accusations that the BDS movement is anti-Semitic turn racism on its head in a grotesque way. "

The nomination of the BDS movement for the Nobel Peace Prize coincides with the authorities in several countries taking action to criminalize the movement.

The right to exist. "Neither Rødt nor BDS believe that Israel should cease to exist," writes Moxnes, "but we do not accept the racist premise that Arabs beyond a certain number must be expelled or expelled from their own homes for Israel to exist as" Jewish state ». It is our view that Palestinians who were expelled in Israeli purges in violation of international law are in principle entitled to return, and that Israel must recognize this right. "Exactly how this is to happen – how many can actually return home and how many may be offered fair compensation for the homes they lost – must be decided through future negotiations between the parties, on which international law is based."

Nikos Tavridis-Hansen, chairman of the board of BDS Norway, is also critical of the argument about the right to a Jewish state: "I am not in favor of Norway being an exclusively Christian state, a" Norway for Norwegians ". The same goes for Israel. I can understand that Israelis and Jews, as a minority in an Arab region, have their concerns – their own history taken into account, and based on the treatment of other minorities in the region. If it is the case that Israelis or other minorities in the Middle East are oppressed, then I will stand by their side. But in itself I think this is not a good argument, you have no claim to a distinctive Jewish state. "

Double Moral? Tybring-Gjedde, FrP politician and 2nd deputy chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, believes the BDS movement is double-minded in its focus on Israel. "Human rights are grossly violated by totalitarian regimes such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, and not least by the Palestinian Authority and by the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the only country that Red wants to boycott, among others, is Israel. " He believes the movement contributes to the opposite of peace and brotherhood between the parties. "The movement is not about pressuring the country's authorities to change political direction, but about stigmatizing and isolating an entire people." Moxnes disagrees with the criticism: "There are many regimes that violate human rights, but there are not so many regimes that in addition to violating human rights also violates international law, and maintains and expands an illegal occupation in violation of a wide range of UN resolutions over many decades. It is the brutal occupation, the openly discriminatory laws and the oppression that stigmatize Israel, not the BDS movement's demand that Israel comply with international law. "

BDS is also accused of double standards in its "rights-based" approach to the conflict. BDS does not take a position on what status Israel will have in a future solution – despite the fact that Israel is recognized as a legitimate state in the same international law that BDS uses to justify its claims. When asked about the BDS movement's view of Israel, Tavridis-Hansen answers the following: «There are two different things here: is there a legal state or is it one legitimate state? There is no doubt that Israel is a legal entity that must be dealt with. It's a state. But does Israel have borders? If so, I'm very interested in seeing a map with those boundaries. At least Israel does not relate to these… I think Israel is not a legitimate state, as long as it is founded on racism and ethnic cleansing. The aggressiveness of the state is not a thing of the past – it is still going on. " Red, for its part, recognizes Israel's 1967 borders as legitimate: “Our position is largely based on international law. Then, of course, one must consider that Israel has de facto expanded these borders in violation of international law. "

BDS banned? The nomination of the BDS movement for the Nobel Peace Prize coincides with the authorities in several countries taking action to criminalize the movement. The French Supreme Court has ruled that "BDS is discriminatory" and sentenced individuals to call for a boycott of Israel. In the United States, several states have banned state aid to BDS. We see the same tendency in Norway: the government has publicly opposed the boycott of Israel, despite the fact that it is willing to impose similar punitive measures on other states. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' proposal for the state budget for 2018 states that it is not "in line with Norwegian policy to support organizations that have expressed the main purpose of promoting the BDS campaign."

"The Norwegian government is completely double-minded in its handling of sanctions," writes Moxnes. "The Solberg government has joined extensive economic sanctions against Syria, which according to the UN goes far beyond an already crisis-stricken civilian population. At the same time, it is not even willing to stop arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the other Islamist dictatorships – which in addition to oppressing their own people are also waging a brutal war against Yemen and have triggered one of the world's greatest humanitarian disasters. The blue-blues sanction Russia for violations of international law, but support violations of international law when committed by the United States and its allies. As for Israel, it is a country in a class of its own in terms of the number of violations of UN resolutions and the duration of a brutal occupation, which the Palestinians suffer from. While the government is protecting this oppressive occupation, Red wants to contribute to a peaceful solution in line with international law, by supporting a movement that fights for Palestinian rights by legal, peaceful means. "

Contributes to fraternization. Despite the fact that the BDS movement is accused of creating more, rather than less, conflict, both Moxnes, Gule and Tavridis-Hansen believe that the movement contributes to fraternization between the parties – as a worthy Peace Prize winner should.

Gule points to the fact that «… fraternization between peoples, which Nobel was concerned with, does not happen as soon as someone talks to each other or as a result of a peace agreement. Brotherhood is something that grows over time. And the chances of such a process are far greater if peace and justice are achieved without great suffering and bloodshed. That is precisely why the BDS movement's non-violent line is helping to lay the foundations for fraternization.

"No peace without freedom", says Tavridis-Hansen, and continues: "No one demanded that the Norwegian resistance movement had to stop campaigning or sabotage, and rather become friends with the Nazis, and then everything would work out – without comparison otherwise. . You have the right to fight for what you are deprived of, for your own basic human rights, and then I think a non-violence campaign like BDS is after all a better alternative than anything else. What is needed is a major movement in Palestine for independence, which is also based on the non-violence line. This is something the Palestinians themselves must do. But one does not exclude the other. "

"Lasting peace and brotherhood in the Middle East is obviously impossible as long as Israel continues the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the brutal oppression of the Palestinian people," Moxnes wrote. "Unfortunately, a number of UN resolutions, which require Israel to comply with international law and respect the human rights of the Palestinians, have not materialized. Nor has there been an armed struggle against Israeli military superiority. On the other hand, we see that BDS has already achieved an effect. A campaign that consistently adheres to legal and non-violent methods to achieve a just and peaceful solution to one of the world's oldest and most heated conflicts, as the BDS movement does, is probably the best the world community can support, if the goal is peace and fraternization. "