on bds from new zealand
I first heard of BDS while attending the 2018 Kairos conference in Bethlehem. From what I gather, BDS is a call to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine in the following ways: 1) boycotting Israeli goods, including universities and its cultural institutions; 2) divesting from companies that provide essential gear to the Israeli military; 3) asking countries to impose sanctions on Israel.
I have come across like minded people in the Methodist Church of New Zealand (MCNZ) who are interested in exploring and taking up the issues of BDS with the Methodist Conference (national governing body). I am also in contact with the Ethics Committee of the MCNZ who are open to discussing the matter. It’s a slow progress but there is hope—it seems.
The BDS movement, in my view, is a critique of capitalist practices of exploitation. Capitalism is colonial, or to be more precise imperialist. The system of colonial exploitation works through unequal exchange where the exchange of manufactured products is sold rather expensively in the colonies by commercial monopolies supported by the State. The plundering of the resources of the peripheries, the oppression of colonized peoples, their direct or indirect exploitation by capital, remain the common characteristics of the phenomenon of Israeli colonialism. I believe the BDS movement offers a distinct vantage point to read and understand Israeli colonialism, not as cultural struggle, but as a form of capitalist exploitation (or class struggle).
Faith communities can bring awareness to the issues of injustice within their own context by simply speaking about it and by standing with those who speak against such ill. They can develop and offer relevant educational resources related to the BDS movement and become active advocates for BDS by drawing attention to, and implementing resolutions to boycott goods made in Israeli settlements or manufactured on occupied Palestinian lands in violation of international law.
In our context it would help to relate Israeli colonialism to the oppression of the Maori people in New Zealand, especially in relation to land confiscation by the European settlers. The New Zealand Wars ended nearly 150 years ago, but their impact continues to be felt today. Quite recently, the construction of Auckland airport and nearby sewage works caused more harm to those Maori who had returned to settle on a small fraction of their former lands. The struggle of indigenous people in New Zealand is a struggle against the neo-colonial forces of free market capitalism.
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I believe the BDS movement offers a distinct vantage point to read and understand Israeli colonialism, not as cultural struggle, but as a form of capitalist exploitation (or class struggle)....
In our context it would help to relate Israeli colonialism to the oppression of the Maori people in New Zealand, especially in relation to land confiscation by the European settlers. The New Zealand Wars ended nearly 150 years ago, but their impact continues to be felt today.