BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Malaysia, an NGO that calls for boycott of Israel and complicit companies, had recently called for Malaysia's foreign policy towards Israel to be aligned with its economic activities. This is in the wake of more than thirty-six thousand Palestinians having lost their lives in the bloody Hamas-Israel war in Gaza since October last year.
As was reported by news website Sinar Daily recently, the NGO has also asserted that ministries and government-linked companies must forthwith cease all engagements with Israel-related businesses, including weapons manufacturers.
It cited the recent NATSEC Asia 2024 held at MITEC and the participation of arms manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems. Both these companies were said to be complicit in the manufacturing of arms used in the atrocities against Palestinians, including the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Furthermore, according to them the government must launch a comprehensive public awareness and education initiative to inform Malaysian citizens about the reasons behind Malaysia's non-recognition policy towards Israel, the implications of economic engagement with Israel, and the importance of supporting the Palestinian cause.
They also added that this campaign could include amongst others, social media campaigns and educational materials distributed in schools and universities.
Incidentally, a “Palestine Solidarity Week” was held in schools last year but the involvement of the education ministry in the matter drew flak from several parties, especially non-Muslims, many of whom view the Palestinian issue more as a geopolitical-cum-humanitarian crisis as opposed to the Muslims here who seem to view it through “religious lens”; this is because those in Gaza are predominantly Muslims. Would things be the same if it was otherwise?
The NGO has also ambitiously called on the government to promote a more systematic and strategic approach by leveraging the “Asean bloc” platform. But wouldn't that be a risky and potentially divisive move given that some key countries in the regional grouping such as Singapore maintain full-fledged diplomatic and business ties with the Jewish state?
BDS has also called for a more comprehensive prohibition on all direct and indirect trade with Israel. The truth is, according to the United Nations Comtrade data spanning the past 29 years, Malaysia's imports had peaked at USD 304 million in 2018, while Israel's exports to Malaysia had reached a high point in 2013 at USD 1.46 billion! This is despite Malaysia having cut off all ties with the country since 1974! Mind-boggling?
Meanwhile, it had also noted with some concern that recently a delegation from the country had met with tech behemoths Google and Microsoft in San Francisco to discuss strategic collaborations and investment plans in Malaysia. Apparently, both are believed to support Israel.
In fact, as recently as 23 April 2024, Al Jazeera had reported that Google and Amazon had signed a joint contract in 2021 which aims to provide cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology services to the Israeli government and its military.
Meanwhile, another news portal the Middle East Monitor had recently reported that Israel may be using Meta’s Whatsapp to kill Palestinians in Gaza through its AI-aided system called “Lavender” which allegedly is able to identify and target suspects in air strikes by tracking their Whatsapp contacts. So if a person is in a Whatsapp group containing another suspected militant then he could become a target, together with other civilians in the group - including family members!
However, Whatsapp has denied the claims saying, “We have no information that these reports are accurate.” Whatsapp’s parent company is of course Meta - formerly known as Facebook. But ironically, aren't all these also the same platforms widely used by the proponents of anti-Israeli boycott themselves?
Moreover, amidst the paradox and other revelations another contentious point often raised is - is it ethical, in the first place, for boycott proponents to indulge in selective boycotts? Won't that be akin to “selective prosecution - or even bullying?” Is it morally right to arbitrarily select whom and what to boycott based on one's own convenience and fancy?
But what is more worrisome though is, how many more “local” businesses will become targets of the boycott as the crisis wears on? In that context, the question that springs to mind is: shouldn't the goal of a concerted boycott or sanctions campaign be “to hurt the Israelis where it really hurts” instead of hurting local businesses that only have indirect links with the nation?
As for all the highly-charged, emotion-fueled actions in the name of “solidarity” - for how long can it go on? And with the rising number of vandalism and harassment cases - where will it all end - riots and anarchy?
The bottom line is, with a stubborn Israel bent on decimating the heavily armed Hamas, isn’t there an urgent need now to tone down some of the symbolic, self-harming actions and pivot to a more aggressive push towards a “final, lasting solution”, that is - statehood for the displaced Palestinian civilians?
JK Joseph is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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