Why opposition to Israel has nothing to do with Israel.
Why opposition to Israel has nothing to do with Israel.

Supporting « Palestine » or opposing Israel has nothing to do with « Palestine » or Israel and is actually only a reflection of local politics.

Take the case - already exposed - of the designation by the US administration of Israel’s presence in Samaria and Judea as «occupation» and it’s presented meaning in local US politics, a meaning quite disconnected from any reality on the ground.

Take also for example the Celtics for Palestine, recently come in the news for waving the so-called « Palestinian » flag (which in reality is the flag of the Hejaz province in Arabia, but more on this in a separate text). On their Facebook page, they openly express the intrinsically local nature of the political statement of « supporting Palestine ». They say:

« Celtic fans have always had a radical history with support for Irish resistance to British rule and it is from there that support for Palestine stems. »

Likewise, opposition to Israel and downright boycott of its products or cultural institutions has nothing to do with what actually takes place on the ground: a significant amount of the produce is actually economically supporting Arab communities and the academia in Israel is possibly the left-most radical bunch of Israelis. To boycott these makes no sense to furthering the interest of Arab rights in Israel.

On the contrary, the opposition to Israel and the calls for boycott are often if not always an opposition by a self-defined « grass-roots » movement (that in reality is often cunningly maneuvered by politicians) to the state institution (and it’s perceived support for Israel - even if support means only political recognition.)

Take also for example the issue of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) endorsement of the boycott of Israel: it has nothing to do with their actual campaign, goes against the very founders of the civil rights movement that included prominent Jewish and Zionist members while King himself was an unapologetic supporter of the right of the Jewish people’s return to their homeland, and has no actual relationship to advancing Arab rights in Israel.

The BLM movement rather, seems a Democratic Party ruse to stage one more attack on the Republican candidate Donald Trump, in an attempt to rally support from the non-white ethnic groups in the US.

In other words, disenfranchised groups use the Israel / Palestine issue to rally unity amongst otherwise rudely disparate platforms and against their own state, in a purely local game of politicking.

Often too, opposition parties - like the Labour in the UK - use (and abuse) the largely self-inflicted pain of the Arab communities in Israel to rally support for their political campaign against the ruling party. It is surprising then to note that the memory of the professed pro-« Palestinian » groups is often all too short to recollect that as soon as a party assumes power, it more or less immediately drops the « support for Palestine » issue as incompatible with actual, evidence-based and pragmatic international affairs.

All too often then, the opposition to Israel or the wolfish support for « Palestine » is only a local political maneuver, often a side-effort in the main campaign for votes and quickly relegated to a minor policy position once elections have settled.