Resistance at the Grassroots: Israeli Apartheid Week

by JONATHAN WOODROW MARTIN

Israeli Apartheid Week has been taking place over the last month at different locations across the world. Over 154 events have taken place in this period from Montreal to Auckland to Oxford University to Jordan and Palestine itself. Here follows an interview with a Palestinian Law student, Juman A., who is studying at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. The following interview is based on Jumans involvement in founding Students for Palestine (Southampton) and being part of the organising group of IAW in the UK.

We have recently seen Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) taking place throughout the world for the 10th consecutive year, could you explain to our readers what this event was trying to achieve?

Juman: IAW is a series of events staged to highlight Israel’s apartheid policies that systematically discriminate against Palestinians. In addition to raising awareness about Israeli Apartheid, the initiative aims to strengthen and engage students and activists in the Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) . IAW and BDS are grassroots civil society movements stemming from the heart of the Palestinian struggle. Both had been initiated and are organised independently and hence receive no support or funding from any government. Even though the BDS campaign is a means of nonviolent resistance against Zionist colonisation and Israeli Apartheid, BDS has not been supported by the Palestinian Authority.

What reaction did you receive from the university and those who attended your events?

Juman: The University of Southampton was non-partisan to the event and do not get involved other than giving us permission, as a society affiliated to the Students’ Union, to hold the events. In regards to the reaction of people who engaged with us we found an overwhelmingly positive reaction from university students and staff, including academics who were fully recognised that Israeli policies towards Palestinians has created a de facto apartheid. We had a handful of students who either refused to acknowledge the Palestinians rights to struggle against Israel and/or did not agree that Israel’s discriminatory policies amounted to apartheid. They were invited to attend the events we have organised during the week and indeed very few turned up to some of our lectures, such as the talk titled Overcoming Apartheid by Salim Vally, a veteran anti-apartheid activist and South African academic, and Ben White, who is a freelance journalist, author and activist specialising in Palestine and Israeli Apartheid. We are an open society, we welcome people from all walks of life and try to reach out to everyone.

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http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/04/israeli-apartheid-week/