Leading a Global Campaign
Gaza's New Youth Movement

By JOE CATRON
http://www.counterpunch.org/catron06142011.html
June 14, 2011

On a warm, sunny afternoon, I met Eman Sourani and Rana
Baker in an airy outdoor cafe several blocks from the port
of Gaza. Both are members of the Palestinian Students'
Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI).
Sourani, a 22-year-old English literature student at
Al-Aqsa University, cofounded the group after Operation
Cast Lead in January 2009, while Baker, a 19-year-old
blogger and a business administration student at the
Islamic University of Gaza, joined it during Israeli
Apartheid Week, a global event in March 2011.

PSCABI is the student arm of the Palestinian Campaign for
the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI),
itself part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions
(BDS) National Committee. Since its July 2005 founding by
Palestinian organizations from Israel, the occupied
Palestinian territories, and the diaspora, BDS has grown
into a formidable global movement with an impressive
record of victories.

In the last month alone, the University and College Union
(UCU) and the University of London Union (ULU),
respectively the largest academic labor union in the
United Kingdom and the largest student union in Europe,
voted to support it and sever their ties with Israeli
institutions; UK Prime Minister David Cameron quietly
resigned his post as Honorary Chairman of the Jewish
National Fund, implicated in the ethnic cleansing of
Palestinian lands; students at the United States' DePaul
University voted by a nearly 80% margin (although without
reaching the necessary quorum) to remove Sabra hummus,
linked to the Israeli military, from their campus; the
French-Belgian bank Dexia announced the impending sale of
its Israeli subsidiary, "even at a loss;" and musicians
Andy McKee and Marc Almond cancelled appearances in
Israel.

Although not all acknowledged the role of the campaign in
their decisions, each was a target of it. Meanwhile,
battles rage against the US pension fund TIAA-CREF;
Israeli national institutions like the Histadrut and State
of Israel Bonds; the Israeli produce exporter Carmel
Agrexco; the French construction firms Alstom and Derail
Veolia; the beauty suppliers Ahava, Estee Lauder, L'Oreal,
and Seacret Dead Sea; and dozens of other institutions
complicit in Israeli crimes, as well as performers like
Paul Simon and Jello Biafra, who plan to violate the
cultural boycott by playing Tel Aviv.

"Even some South Africans like Desmond Tutu have said that
what they did in thirty years, the Palestinians did in
three," Sourani told me over tea. "The boycott is a lesson
of the success of the South Africans. And why not? Nothing
is imposible. When people hear that Palestinians are doing
something like this, that we are taking action, they
believe in the idea and the issue much more."

Baker agreed with her about the importance of South
Africa. "We like to address apartheid," she said. "We like
to use this word, because it really emphasizes what is
happening. Of course we have the apartheid wall. We have
the checkpoints like they had in South Africa. What does
an apartheid wall represent but apartheid? What else do
checkpoints represent?"

"We think that BDS is a very effective way to resist
Israel," Baker continued. "Why? Because the pillars of BDS
represents all Palestinians. The core issues of the
Palestinian cause are the right to return, the ending of
the occupation, and equality between Palestinians and Jews
within the Israeli state or borders. So we think that
being a real Palestinian-led movement that represents all
Palestinians is very important. And this makes it able to
grow, makes it able to expand within each and every cause.
It represents every Palestinian in Gaza, in the West Bank,
in Israel, and in the diaspora. BDS is established on
those pillars. And the most important pillar, in my
opinion, is the right to return. This movement, the march
of return, is also a powerful campaign to make people
understand that we have not forgotten our right to return.
When Ben-Gurion said that old would die and the young
forget, he was totally mistaken! Of course the old will
die, but they have children, they have grandchildren, and
we will never forget. We are Palestinian."

"We have Palestinian identity, and Palestinian identity is
a great responsibility," Sourani added. "So we have to
act. We have to fight Zionism. We have to be aware of what
is going on, because being aware means that we are alive.
It gives meaning to our lives. I myself give the
definition that life is politics here in Gaza. It is all
of what we live."

How does PSCABI fight Zionism, I asked? "We as youth and
students address youth and students about the academic
boycott, and connect it with the cultural boycott,"
Sourani answered. "We make videos to send to universities
and have video conferences with them. We just tell people
that we are here. You should know about Gaza, and you
should know about Israel and the reality of its apartheid.
Some of our biggest successes are the University of
Johannesburg boycotting Ben Gurion University, or the
biggest student union in London refusing to deal with
Israel."

"We also write letters to celebrities who are going to
perform in Israel, asking them not to entertain apartheid,
and we are actually succeeding in this," said Baker.
"Many, many of them have been stopped from performing in
Israel, and some actually became BDS advocates."

How do they work with BDS activists elsewhere? "I think is
important that we talk with them, that we have a
discussion about BDS here and BDS there," said Baker." We
want to see what they do there and learn from them, and
they might also see what we do and learn from us. So we
can share our experiences in BDS, our stories, and they
can use our stories and spread them out to gain more
support for BDS."

"The young Palestinians nowadays are very creative, in
writing, blogging, video making; many, many things," said
Sourani. "I am very proud of my generation. They are so
creative, really. I meet and talk to anyone who does
anything: maybe blogging, a site, a Facebook account, a
Twitter. Youth everywhere are doing fantastic things. They
just need to be linked with Palestinians ourselves."

"We want more links with people outside," said Baker. "We
want more actions and more communication. The more you
communicate with people, the more the idea becomes big and
it grows. And BDS is growing. Citizens, and students, and
young, and old, are engaging themselves in BDS, outside
and inside and everywhere. It is actually, in its core, a
popular struggle, and it is civil resistance."

What do they ask of outsiders? "The important thing is
that they take action," Sourani replied. "This is what we
are looking for. We don't look for passion, we don't look
for tears, we don't look for romantic speech. We just look
for actions. Whatever small action you can take is
something beautiful. This is the basis of BDS, that we
don't wait for talk."

"Let's mention here the the recent action taken by people
in the United States diring the AIPAC speech," said Baker.
"I think this was really effective, when young students
stood up and spoke out for Palestine, students who had no
relation to Palestinian identity, except that they
understood the issue, they understood what is right and
what is wrong, and they took action. Even if they knew
that they might be harmed, or might get fired from
somewhere. We think that this is really important, and
this is a success for BDS."

"An important thing we do at the end of every video
conference is to give them a request: Come to Gaza," said
Sourani. "People will not act before understanding. You
can come, live with us, and see how students can't get get
books, how students can't get scholarships abroad, how
students would die to go, but have nightmares about Rafah
Border before going to London, for example. We can't go to
places in our own country! We can't study, for example, in
Bethlehem, in Ramallah, in Najah University. I actually
was planning for that, but of course it is imposible.

"This is about human rights and international law, how the
world Works," she added. "As you live there peacefully,
Palestinians have the right to live. The rights your
students have to move, to learn, to travel everywhere, to
get scholarships, we also need. So we need people to
understand, to study the issue, and to act. This is what
we are doing."

And other Palestinians? "I want all Palestinians, not only
us in BDS, to engage in boycotting Israel," Baker replied.
"I want all of them to become politically aware. And this
is also something we work on in BDS. We don't just discuss
BDS in the meetings of our core group. We talk about it in
our universities. We invite people to our events. In the
future, we really hope that each and every Palestinian
becomes aware of BDS, and implements BDS so that it
becomes a part of his or her life.

"We also like to participate in events that are held
worldwide, like Israeli Apartheid Week," she said. "We had
one here this year, and it was really successful. We try
talk to many academics and important activists, like Ilan
Pappe and Ramzy Baroud. It's really good how many people
here want to know about BDS. They really want to listen."

"The amazing thing about PSCABI is that all the political
blocs here support it and agree on the academic boycott,"
added Sourani.

What else, I asked in closing? "We want people to know
that we're not dying of hunger," said Baker. "We're not
begging. We're not shedding tears. We're taking action on
our own behalf. We're trying to raise awareness, to link
people, to make them understand and make them more
involved in independent political groups that are
peacefully resisting Israel and the occupation."

"BDS is a Palestinian voice," said Sourani. "This is what
people need to hear, to listen to everywhere. We refuse
occupation. I'm proud of doing this work. I'm a
Palestinian; I'm not silent. That is the idea.

"I don't want peace before justice. I'm looking for
justice. And justice means the end of apartheid, the end
of racism, and the end of occupation. So I need justice
first, and then, when we are all equal people, we will
look for peace."

-----------
Joe Catron is a resident of Brooklyn, New York and a
current member of the International Solidarity Movement -
Gaza Strip. He writes in a personal capacity.

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