Last weekend, Ma'ariv daily published a news item headlined “An Unorganized Boycott of Israel in the United Kingdom.” According to its author Dadav Eyal, the boycott of Israelis, Israeli academics and firms is rapidly growing in Europe in general and in Britain in particular as a result of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, especially since the war on the Gaza Strip. Israel's ambassador to London Ron Prosor said, “There is a deterioration. The boycott is phenomenon that is growing and is not simply on the sidelines,” in an article published in Ma'ariv's weekend supplement on the same day. According to the news item, Ma'ariv got email messages exchanged between an Israeli researcher and a colleague of hers in northern Britain, both of whom work in cancer research. The Israeli researcher suggested to her British colleague cooperation in a joint project, but she was surprised at the reply she received and which goes as follows: “Please don't take it personally, but I really don't feel that at a time when the Israeli government is killing innocent civilians, many of them children, and bombing UN schools, and food storage sites, I can cooperate with you. When such atrocities cease, and peace and compensation are attained, I will be happy to reconsider it.” Instead of keeping silence, the Israeli researcher replied saying, “The British and American armies are responsible for far greater atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike the Israeli army, they do not warn civilians before their strikes in these areas, and cause far more civilian casualties. I believe that science must advance for the sake of mankind. This is particularly true when it comes to cancer.” The British researcher stuck to her position. What shall I say? The two researchers have told the truth. Israel perpetrates horrible crimes against civilians, whereas the US and Britain are perpetrating more horrible crimes against the Iraqis and the Afghans. While I salute the British researcher and give her a kiss on the hand in appreciation, I object to the words mentioned in the Israeli researcher's message. She is implying that Israel can kill 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza, half of whom are children and women, as long as the Americans and the British have killed hundreds of thousands. I think that she most likely did not mean it, but her words represent an attempt to justify Israeli crimes by referring to more serious ones perpetrated by other states. Then, there is the lie about warning civilians. Had the Israeli army really issued warnings, this large number of women and children would not have been killed. The second part of this lie has to do with Israeli news - probably believed by the researcher - according to which fighters are using children as shields. I tell her to wake up as no fighters - be they Palestinians, Israelis, or pure barbarians - use their children as shields. The Hamas men fought between their houses. A man is supposed to protect his children with his body rather than use them as shields. In addition, I do not believe that the woman who was killed along with five of her daughters had been warned of an imminent raid. Some Israelis are war criminals, many of whom are in the Israeli government, and I accuse some of being neo-Fascists and neo-Nazis. Then, the majority of the Israelis, the researcher probably being one of them, refuses to believe that the Israeli government, army, security forces, and settlers perpetrate war crimes sometimes tantamount to those committed by the Nazis against the Jews. If we take the second Intifada as a start, and consider September 28, 2000 and other incidents to date, we find out that Israel has killed over 1,300 Palestinian minors, i.e. people under 15, against 130 Israeli children, the rate being 10 to 1, a Nazi rate par excellence. The Israeli researcher does not need to believe what I am saying, but I demand that she review the B'Tselem figures then the UN official report on the Gaza war and Israel's crimes. The report clearly denounces Israel, with details of this report evoked in Israeli dailies, including Yedioth Ahronoth's May 5th issue. Hamas, Hezbollah, and all resistance factions were not established after the original occupation of Palestine, not even after the occupation of the rest of the territories in 1967; they were rather established twenty years later or so. The Israeli cabinets, which induced resistance, are responsible for killing the Israelis and the Palestinians; therefore boycott is the least they deserve. http://www.j-khazen.blogspot.com/
