Opinion: BDS promises a just peace, unlike current US strategy

Mondoweiss- - The US initiated and brokered Palestinian-Israeli negotiations have failed to resolve this festering conflict with grave human rights implications for more than forty years. It has become crystal clear that US led peace negotiations will likely fail for the foreseeable future unless other political tools are employed to help spur a different political paradigm. US impotence was clearly displayed during President Obama's first years in office. In spite of his publicly articulated plan and declared intention to end the expansion of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the US has failed to deliver any substantive progress. Recent symbolic gestures to publicly recognize Palestinian sovereignty by a growing number of nations, particularly in Latin America, signal worldwide frustration with the US continued unproductive role as a peace broker.

The US Congress’ record of unconditional support for Israel’s pro-settlement government along with the aggressive campaigns by the powerful Israeli Lobby in the US have served to obstruct any meaningful US role in bringing about an end of the occupation and realizing justice for the Palestinian people. Faced with this reality, a growing number of concerned citizens in the US are turning to creative new approaches to bring an end to the Israeli occupation and Apartheid-Israeli style.

In July 2005, Palestinian civil society launched a “call to international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel, similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era, until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with international law."......
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