Israel / South Africa

OhNoYouDidn't

There has been a number of commentators recently arguing that we in the west should treat Israel like we did apartheid South Africa and enforce change via cultural (sporting, academic) and economic sanctions.

I think the parrallels between zionism and apartheid cannot be ignored and we need to treat Isreal like the pariah state they have become.

Discuss.

Deedsie

It would take America to lead that charge though. Can you see them doing so? Id be proud of the Irish Government if they stood up over an issue like this.

OhNoYouDidn't

Deedsie wrote: »

It would take America to lead that charge though. Can you see them doing so? Id be proud of the Irish Government if they stood up over an issue like this.

No, but the EU or UN getting the ball rolling would at least open a debate within Israel and the US about how they are viewed.

Serenity Now!

OhNoYouDidn't wrote: »

There has been a number of commentators recently arguing that we in the west should treat Israel like we did apartheid South Africa and enforce change via cultural (sporting, academic) and economic sanctions.

I think the parrallels between zionism and apartheid cannot be ignored and we need to treat Isreal like the pariah state they have become.

Discuss.

It will never happen. Like all conflicts in the Middle East (actually just all conflicts, come to think of it) it will be forgotten over time and all the sanctimonium will have passed like a dose of salts until the next cause...

The Saint

Since the EU is by far the largest importer of Israeli goods my approach would be for the EU to suspend any preferential trade agreeements with Israel. After that I would have the EU impose tariffs on imports equal to the amount being spent by Israel on settlements. After a period of non-compliance (assuming there is no compliance) the EU should impose tariffs retrospectively each year for the amount spent on previous settlement over the years. So it it would be something like this:

2008 - money spent on settlements in 2008
2009 - " 2009 & 2007
2010 - " 2010 & 2006
etc..

It would probably be necessary to incrementally increase tariffs on top of this. Tariffs should be targetted on sensitive areas of employment such as agriculture and all settlement products should be banned outright.

That's the stick, what about the carrot. For Israel complying with international law and withdrawing to its 1967 borders EU should be allowed join the European Economic Area and have completely free trade between the EU. There could also be the offer of future full membership of the EU on the cards.

Mena

To be fair, the sanctions applied to South Africa were ineffectual and to a degree, simply strengthened the countries home grown industries.

The overall impact of the economic sanctions was said to be around 0.5% of GNP. Not very big at all.

There were many, many factors that finally brought an end to apartheid and sanctions played a small role in those.

I'm not convinced at all that sanctions against Israel would be in any way effective, especially considering that the USA would never follow suite.

Besides, are we going to apply sanctions to Hamas as well, to get them to stop lobbing rockets across the border?

The Saint

The world today is different to the one in the apartheid era. Israel relies heavily on export led growth and the EU accounts for 41% of their exports (2000 figures, probably higher now). If the EU put the squeeze on employment sensitive industries this would hit a lot of people hard. A lot of Israelis are against settlements and if they are affected monitarily die to Israeli settlement policy it will make it politically difficult for the government to maintain such settlement policies. The US doesn't need to follow suit. Acounting for 41% of Israeli imports the EU has plenty of economic leverage. Also the offer of membership of the EEA would show that the removal of settlements would have great economic benifits to the country.

As for Hamas; there are already full EU sanctions on them. The EU doesn't give them anything and therefore has little leverage over them. If you have any suggestions let me know.

Mena wrote: »

To be fair, the sanctions applied to South Africa were ineffectual and to a degree, simply strengthened the countries home grown industries.

The overall impact of the economic sanctions was said to be around 0.5% of GNP. Not very big at all.

There were many, many factors that finally brought an end to apartheid and sanctions played a small role in those.

I'm not convinced at all that sanctions against Israel would be in any way effective, especially considering that the USA would never follow suite.

Besides, are we going to apply sanctions to Hamas as well, to get them to stop lobbing rockets across the border?

ejmaztec

Sanctions against South Africa didn't stop people dealing with them on the quiet, Denis Thatcher for one. The same would no doubt apply to dealings with Israel in similar circumstances (excluding the now dead Denis of course).