By Doug Lorimer
After a rowdy three-hour meeting attended by about 70 banner-wielding observers,
the 12-member Marrickville municipal council in Sydney’s inner-west voted on
April 19 to rescind a motion originally adopted by 10-2 on December 14 to
support the international campaign to boycott, sanctions and disinvestment (BDS) of Israel. The council passed a motion ―
with the support of three Greens, four Labor and two independent councillors —that resolved not to pursue the BDS “in any form”.
Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid campaign of boycott and
disinvestment campaign, the BDS
campaign was initiated in 2005 by a broad range of Palestinian “civil society”
organisations as a non-violent means of putting pressure on Israel to end
its military occupation of the Palestinian territories. The international BDS campaign has gained support from an increasing
number of municipal governments in Europe.
On February 2, for example, Tower Hamlets council in London
became the sixth UK
local government authority to exclude the French-owned Veolia company from procurement contracts for its complicity in
Israeli violations of international law. Veolia is involved in the building and
operation of a new tramway linking illegal Israeli settlements in occupied
East Jerusalem with Israel.
Veolia also operates bus services for Israeli settlers in the occupied
West Bank, running between the illegal settlements and Israel.
On December 7, the NSW Greens state council unanimously approved a motion
calling “upon
all Australians and the Australian government to boycott Israeli goods, trading
and military arrangements, and
sporting, cultural and academic events as a contribution to the struggle to end
Israel’s
occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory”.
The Marrickville council’s pro-BDS motion was moved by Greens Marrickville mayor
Fiona Byrne, and was supported by the five Greens councilors, all four Labor councilors
and 1 independent. The motion committed the Marrickville municipal government
to examine “any links” it had “with organisations or companies that support or
profit from the Israeli military occupation of Palestine with a view to the
council divesting from such links and imposing a boycott on any future such
links or goods purchases”. A
subsequent report prepared by council staff claimed that implementation of this
policy would cost local ratepayers at least $3.7 million by requiring the
council to boycott Hewlett Packard computers, Holden
and Volvo cars, and telephones and other equipment from Motorola.
However, Palestine
solidarity activists refuted the argument that the adoption of the motion would
in any way financially burden Marrickville residents. In an April 18 letter to
Marrickville councilors the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) noted BDS
was “not a blunt instrument, but rather an adaptable, nuanced and creative
framework for action”. The BNC noted that supporting BDS “does not require the
implementation of an immediate, sweeping boycott of all companies that are
complicit in Israel’s violations of international law” pointing out that
councils which had already adopted BDS were implementing it in a nuanced way,
which was sensitive to the local political context and practical restraints. As
a result, “far from being expensive, implementing the boycott need not cost
much at all”.
Byrne observed during the April 19 debate that following its decision to
support the BDS campaign, the Marrickville
council had been smashed “like an egg” by a figurative sledgehammer. The
council’s pro-BDS decision was
subjected to a barrage of fierce attacks by the corporate media, led by the
Murdoch press, and by Labor and Coalition politicians, including foreign
minister Kevin Rudd, who described it as “nuts” and “dangerous”. On March 23,
Labor and Coalition senators united to pass a motion condemning the
Marrickville council’s support for the BDS
campaign. Then, on April 15 newly elected Coalition NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell
threatened to sack the elected Marrickville council and replace it with an
administrator, if it didn’t abandon its support for the BDS
campaign.
The NSW Greens’ support for the BDS
campaign was also criticised by federal Greens leader
Senator Bob Brown, who stated on April 1: “The NSW Greens have taken to having
their own shade of foreign policy — that's up to them. It was a mistake.” In an
April 2 interview with the ABC TV1’s Lateline program, Brown said it was his advice to the NSW
Greens that they leave “national matters to the national arena, and that
includes foreign policy”. Asked if he supported the NSW Greens pro-BDS policy, Brown answered, “No, I don’t”, and that
it had been “rejected by the Australian Greens council last year”. He said that
the Australian Greens recognised the right to
sovereignty of both Israel
and Palestinian territories.
Brown claimed that the NSW Greens’ support for the BDS
campaign was damaging to the Greens NSW March 24 election campaign
and “the hate media was able to play this issue up”. While it was widely
predicted that the Greens would win the lower house state seats of Marrickville
and Balmain, Fiona Byrne failed to win Marrickville. After
the distribution of preferences on April 2, the NSW electoral commission
declared that Jamie Parker, the Greens candidate and mayor of Leichhardt council had won Balmain,
and the Greens picked up the last upper house seat, denying it to Pauline
Hansen.
The attacks on Marrickville Council and the BDS campaign by the corporate media
and politicians, however, have also led to increased support for BDS at a
grassroots level in Sydney
and around the country with supporters of human rights and Palestinian
self-determination contacting the Marrickville councilors in support of the December
boycott motion. Marrickville Council also received letters of support from
Israeli activists from Boycott!, an Israeli campaign
which supports the Palestinian boycott call from within Israel.
Council members also received a letter of support, congratulating them for
passing the original December motion in support of BDS, signed by more than 21
prominent academic, political and cultural figures, including journalist John
Pilger, renowned film maker Ken Loach, Ronnie Kasrils,
a former South African government minister, Naomi Klein and Holocaust survivor,
Hedy Epstein. The letter was also signed by the South
African Municipal Workers Union and the Congress of South African Trade Unions
led Coalition for a Free Palestine. The letter from the prominent figures
pointed out that the smear campaign against Marrickville Council by “some
defenders of Israel’s occupation and racial discrimination system” and the
argument that it would be costly and difficult for the Council to implement its
BDS policy was “little more than a cynical diversion by those who wish to
protect Israel from being held accountable for its gross violations of
international law”.
