How can we not act when genocide is claiming lives?

 

We refer to P Gunasegaram’s articles dated Feb 13 and June 7.

It is a bit bewildering that the two could have been written by the one and same person.

While his February article displayed enough humanity to recognise that an atrocity of epic proportions, a genocide in fact, is taking place in Gaza, his June piece preaches that we Malaysians, both people and government, should not do the slightest thing to help put a stop to that ongoing atrocity – unless and until we are certain of two things.

First, the action must have an immediate and apparent impact on Israel and second, the action must cost us nothing. Since we will never be certain of either, basically, the writer is asking that we do not do anything at all.

To do anything would be “cutting our nose to spite our face” and “a needlessly self-destructive overreaction to a problem”, as he puts it.

This is a deplorable position to take in the face of the ongoing crime of crimes, genocide by the Zionists, which has already claimed the lives of almost 50,000 civilians in Gaza with about 70 percent of them children and women.

Gunasegaram in his June 7 article asks if friends of Israel should be our enemies. He presents arguments against positions which hardly anyone advocates.

US President Joe Biden and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu

There is no massive clamour for relations to be broken with the US or with other countries which have diplomatic relations with Israel. The first part of the said article appears to be more an exercise in being disingenuous than anything else.

On the matter of boycotts, Gunasegaram trots out the very tired old trope that people who boycott certain companies and brands are heartless towards the employees of those companies as they may lose their jobs if their companies go under because of the boycott.

We take this opportunity to inform Gunasegaram of the earth-shattering news that the party which has the primary responsibility for the well-being of employees are the owners of the company.

Reasonable demands

If the company is being boycotted, it may be a good idea for the owners to listen to the boycotters and find out the reasons for the boycott and act accordingly to accommodate their demands.

This will end the boycott, maintain or even boost sales and thus save the company and its employees. In practically all cases to do with Palestine-related boycotts, the demands are reasonable, very moral and in line with public sentiments all over the world.

We note too that the “employees may lose their jobs” or “employees as human shields” against boycotts argument is never put forth whenever a call is made to avoid certain products for health or dietary reasons. There appears to be no concern that the employees of companies making those products might lose their jobs.

However, when the boycott is Palestine-related, that argument is so readily used to smear it as a bad and self-defeating move. There seems to be a determination or attitude that trying to build up public pressure for genocide to stop is not a valid or acceptable reason for a boycott but boycotting for health or dietary reasons is.

This attitude has to go. It is double standards and smacks of racism that seem to say that one should not be angered by the loss of innocent Palestinian lives - simply because their lives are worth less.

‘Targeted boycott’

Still on boycotts but now related to Blackrock, Gunasegaram asks whether we should boycott Boeing simply because Blackrock has investments in the company.

He seems confused and unclear about the issue. We therefore take this opportunity to enlighten him that the BDS movement uses a strategy of “targeted boycott” whereby only a selected number of companies will be targeted for boycott campaigns based on several criteria and these include the level of complicity, availability of choice for consumers and probability of success.

Based on the above considerations, the global BDS movement is not calling for the boycott of Boeing or Apple products, WhatsApp, or Facebook even though BlackRock has investments in all those companies. We invite Gunasegaram to educate himself on how BDS boycott targets are chosen by visiting the section of the BDS movement website that explains the matter.

On the question of Blackrock, BDS Malaysia and other local NGOs have made their stand clear. The Malaysian government’s stand on the Palestine issue is commendable. Its support for the Palestinian struggle is clear and undeniable.

However, it must now be consistent with its declared policy and not allow a Zionist-supporting entity to have a foothold in the strategic assets of the nation.

Gunasegaram asks that we do not be blinkered by politics, religion and emotions. We could not agree more. People the world over, of all ethnicities, religions and creeds, have demonstrated through massive rallies and gatherings that all it takes to be outraged by what’s happening in Gaza is to be human.

Sadly, Gunasegaram, going by his call for people to not do anything, does not seem to share that outrage. Maybe he himself is still blinkered by politics, religion and emotions.

All in all, reading Gunasegaram’s June article brings to mind remarks made by economist KS Jomo in a recent forum about boycott campaigns.

“If there is no opposition to our efforts, it may indicate our efforts are not effective. And if there is opposition or retaliation, we must face the likelihood we will be hurt economically. But if we live a life based on economic benefits and costs or considerations, we lose our very humanity, what makes us different from economic animals.” - Mkini

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The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor,BDS Malaysia and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.