The Green Party’s spring conference controversially adopted a policy of boycott, sanctions and divestment with regard to Israel. Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas describes the background to this decision. You can visit Jewish Socialist magazine online here.

No green light for occupiers

The Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories is causing untold suffering across the region, but nowhere more so than in Gaza. The humanitarian situation is worse now than it’s been at any time since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967, with ever rising poverty and unemployment, hospitals suffering 12 hour a day power cuts, and water and sewage system close to collapse. This was the verdict of a report published last month by a coalition of leading humanitarian and human rights organisations, including Oxfam and Amnesty International.

But this suffering is not happening by accident. It is a direct result, as the report acknowledges, of Israel’s blockade of Gaza. The report concludes that not only is the Israeli government’s policy of blockade an illegal act of collective punishment of the entire Gazan civilian population of 1.5 million people, it is also failing to deliver security for Palestinians and Israelis alike. As one of the report’s authors says, "Unless the blockade ends now, it will be impossible to pull Gaza back from the brink of this disaster, and any hopes for peace in the region will be dashed."

Yet this stark warning is just the latest in a series of warnings about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Occupied Territories. When I visited Gaza a year ago, the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency was already speaking in stark terms about the scale of the crisis: "This year has seen an unprecedented social, political and economic decline in the OPT. ‘Decline’ is not even the word; a ‘terrifying free fall is a more accurate description", she said.

This is the context in which the Green Party has been discussing its policy on the Middle East. In the light of the fact that previous strategies of engagement have signally failed to bring about an end to the occupation, our recent Spring Conference adopted a resolution which supports the call for a strategy of boycott, divestment and sanctions made by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organisations and community groups.

Unsurprisingly, we have attracted both support and criticism following the policy decision; in an inclusive and progressive political organisation like the Green Party, opposition to certain aspects of Party policy is to be expected.

Such disagreements can be important for sparking debate and for initiating attempts to reach consensus over complex and emotive issues. If there were an easy answer to this particular issue, then the conflict between Israel and Palestine that has for so long defined politics in the Middle East, would already have been resolved.

The Green Party is, like the majority of Israelis and Palestinians, united in a desire for a peaceful solution to the complex set of conflicts in the region, and we call for an end to violence by both sides. We recognise that in any political or diplomatic endeavour, there will be disagreement about specific means, but the desired end - a just peace - is undisputed.

Sanctions should be recognised as an instrument targeted against specific policies of the present government of Israel; this is not a policy which attacks Israel’s right to exist within its 1967 boundaries, nor does it target a particular religious faith or culture. Such a policy would send out a clear signal that international forces stand for justice for Palestine, and could encourage Israel to end the occupation that is undermining its relations with its fellow nations around the world.

My work as a Member of the European Parliament has focused on the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which gives preferential access to Israeli exports. This Agreement contains a human rights clause in Article 2, which clearly states that the Agreement can be suspended in the light of human rights abuses. Since the ongoing occupation of Palestine is continuing to lead to major abuses of human rights, the suspension of this Agreement is long overdue.

There are more than 200 settlements in the Occupied Territories, all of them illegal under international law. And even after Annapolis, substantial evidence has shown that Israel is continuing to expand its settlements. Peace negotiations are of course the preferred medium for diplomacy, yet it is impossible to trust in them when there is no good faith shown on the ground. The Settlement Watch team at Peace Now reported in March, four months after an agreement was made at Annapolis to freeze construction, that construction took place in 101 settlements, and not a single project was frozen. And despite the ruling of the International Court of Justice that it is illegal, Israel continues to build its ‘security wall’, effectively creating Palestinian ghettoes devoid of community, security or resources.

Suspending the trade agreement and attaching the necessary conditions to any future trade policy with Israel would allow the EU an opportunity to play a significant role in bringing peace and stability to the Middle East. It would also communicate hope to the beleaguered population of Gaza and the West Bank – and peace can only flourish in a climate of hope.

Some have opposed a boycott by defending Israeli policies to develop environmentally friendly technologies. These development are interesting and, of course, to be encouraged. Yet human rights cannot be traded or "offset" in this manner. And how could these policies possibly benefit those in the Occupied Territories – where trees are regularly uprooted, clean water supplies are cut off, and badly damaged waste systems pollute rivers and streams?

Financial and moral support from the United States means that Israel has been able to act with relative immunity, hiding behind its incendiary claim that all who criticise its policies are anti Semitic. This does a great disservice to the many Jewish people who support the principle of universal human rights, and who oppose the current policies of the Israeli state.

A just peace settlement with Palestine which translates into real justice for Palestinians, which listens to the many progressive Jewish voices in Israel and elsewhere, and thus seeks an end to the violence perpetrated by both sides, will be the key to establishing a long lasting peace in the region – and a safer, more stable world for all.

ENDS