I was recently in Israel and the Occupied territories:
I sit down with a Palestinian Quaker. We engage in small talk. She asks where in Boston I'm from. I tell her Somerville. "Tell me about the divestment campaign," she insists.
I sit down with an Israeli activist . . . "Tell me about the divestment campaign."
I sit down with a Lutheran pastor . . . "Tell me about the divestment campaign."
And so it goes in every conversation in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
. . .
So far, I've stayed out of the discussion in Somerville. I don't support divestment, but I don't care for most of the people on whose side that seems to place me. The rhetoric of the anti-divestment people in Somerville is nasty.
I don't support my town divesting from companies doing business in Israel primarily because divestment campaigns don't work. By which I mean that divestment isn't a strategy. By themselves, divestment campaigns have no discernable impact. I don't approve of spending either time or energy to have no impact.
South Africa in the 80s is the positive example of successful divestment, but the lessons learned from that campaign have been incomplete. In as much as divestment "worked" in South Africa, it was a part - but only a part - of a coherent strategy promoted by the ANC, the legitimate voice of South African resistance. Divestment was one element in a South African strategy, not a North American one.
At this time, there is no coherent Palestinian strategy. When there is, then divestment may become a part of it.
Posted by Martial