It’s not a surprise that some of the 20 organizations on an Israeli blacklist preventing prominent members of their organizations and supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement from entering Israel have criticized the Israeli policy.
But Asad Rehman, the executive director of War on Want, however, demonstrates exactly why his organization is on the blacklist with a hate-filled missive in The Guardian.
Taking apart Rehman’s anti-Israel charges point by point is barely worthy of the attention but there is a tangible theme running through the piece.
This repressive move is borrowed straight from the playbook of South Africa’s apartheid regime, which had the same aim of silencing critics. …
This isn’t War on Want’s first encounter with a blacklist from an apartheid state. …
That’s why we are calling on the British government not only to condemn this crackdown, but to stop arming Israel – and to hold its government to account for the apartheid policies that made BDS a necessity in the first place.
It’s not only BDS that Rehman says he is proud to support.
This year we remember that it is 70 years since more than 800,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes; they are still denied their right to return by Israel.
The so-called right of return would effectively flood Israel with Palestinians destroying Israel as a Jewish state. Not to mention that Rehman’s issue with Israel clearly isn’t about the consequences of 1967 but 1948 when Israel was created.
Ultimately, while War on Want claims to be a human rights charity, its primary motivation is political.
NGO Monitor provides a detailed summary of War on Want’s anti-Israel activities, which are ample reason for Israel adding it to its blacklist. Here are some of the “highlights”:
- A leader and mobilizer of anti-Israel BDS (boycotts, divestments, and sanctions) campaigns.
- Due to its highly inflammatory activities against Israel, Jewish Human Rights Watch filed a formal complaint with the Charity Commission, claiming that there is “reason to believe that [War on Want] is working with terrorist organizations” and carrying out a campaign of “demonization of the state of Israel – that has no bearings on the objects of the charity.”
- In June 2016, War on Want announced that Executive Director John Hilary would be stepping down.
- According to the Sunday Times, the UK Charity Commission will publish an “operational case report” about the charity, a rare procedure that is carried out only when there is “significant public interest in the issues involved” or “lessons that other charities can learn”.
- Regularly erases the context of Palestinian terror and utilizes demonizing rhetoric, accusing Israel of “war crimes,” “collective punishment,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “apartheid.”
- Maintains that the “illegal occupation of Palestine and oppression of the Palestinian people is one of the outstanding moral outrages of our day.”
- Published a “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” resource, “expos[ing] the companies that are profiting from the Occupation and call[ing] on ordinary people around the world to take action.”
- Claims that, “Through supporting the movement for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) we are building a global force to combat Israeli Apartheid.”
- War on Want co-sponsored two events during Israeli Apartheid Week 2017. It explains that “IAW 2017 marks 100 years of Palestinian resistance against settler-colonialism, since the inception of the Balfour Declaration.”
- During a wave of terrorism that began in October 2015, War On Want erased the context of terrorism and condemned Israel for the alleged “systematic violence Palestinians are subjected to under Israel’s apartheid regime.”
- Advances false comparisons to apartheid South Africa, as well as a so-called Palestinian “right of return,” which would effectually mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state.
- Partners with highly politicized NGOs including Civic Coalition for Jerusalem, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, Stop the Wall, and Al-Zytouna “to coordinate international pressure” against Israel.
- Promotes the allegation that “In Palestine, the Apartheid Wall is cutting Palestinian communities off from their water resources and fertile land, and imprisoning the population of the Occupied Palestinian West Bank,” ignoring evidence that not only does Israel provide Palestinians in the West Bank with more water than required under the Oslo framework, but that thieves are responsible for stealing up to 50% of supplies in some areas.
#Israel’s #BDSBlacklist for human rights NGOs is from the same playbook used by the apartheid regime in South Africa. The bans didn’t stop us then and they won’t stop us now! https://t.co/dvYmDbt9Ro #BDS pic.twitter.com/yVCNgnIYEK
— War on Want (@WarOnWant) January 8, 2018
Asad Rehman’s screed merely adds to the substantial evidence that demonstrates how WoW is anything but a human rights organization.
War on Want has clearly decided to launch a full frontal assault on Israel.
Whether you agree with the blacklist or not, WoW’s place on it is evidently well deserved.
You can find out about the real aims of BDS and more at HonestReporting’s dedicated BDS resources page.
