Palestinian-Israeli “Co-Resistance” to Israel’s Colonization, Occupation & Apartheid

In his 2012 article Lighting a Torch Within, Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS), declares: “Under conditions of colonial oppression, genuine coexistence between the communities of oppressors and oppressed should entail co-resistance (that is Israeli alongside Palestinian resistance) to oppression.”

The Israeli co-resistance group Boycott From Within states:

“We, Palestinians, Jews, citizens of Israel, join the Palestinian call for a BDS campaign (boycott, divestment and sanctions) against Israel, inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid. We also call on others to do the same. We are devoted to the promotion of just peace and true democracy in this region…. We are deeply concerned about the potentially irreversible damage inflicted on Palestinians by Israel’s brutal occupation, systematic oppression of its Palestinian citizens and denial of the right of return of Palestinian refugees…. We stand against all forms of racism and oppression and support and encourage BDS actions as a legitimate political activity and a necessary means of non-violent resistance. We will act inside and outside Israel to promote awareness and support of BDS.”

The Israeli co-resistance group Who Profits is “an independent research center dedicated to exposing the role of the private sector in the Israeli occupation economy.”

International allies co-resist Israeli oppression by participating in BDS campaigns like that co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace and American Friends Service Committee to pressure Microsoft to divest from the Israeli company AnyVision. JVP’s 2020 news release Microsoft Drops AnyVision states:

“AnyVision’s facial recognition technology is used to enforce Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, and was funded by Microsoft. The #DropAnyVision campaign called on Microsoft to halt its funding, as investing in a company that field-tests its products on Palestinians at Israeli military checkpoints and through secret surveillance violates Microsoft’s… principles of lawful surveillance…. Granate Kim, Communications Director of JVP, stated: ‘In late January we went to Microsoft’s headquarters with over 75,000 petitions asking them to stop funding AnyVision. Yesterday they did.'”

On the ground in Palestine, Israeli Jews and internationals co-resist Israeli oppression by joining Palestinian demonstrations against the occupation. The IMEMC article Many Injured in Nabi Saleh Weekly Protest (2015) reports:

“Israeli soldiers attacked… the weekly nonviolent protest against the Israeli Annexation Wall and Settlements in Nabi Saleh… causing several injuries. The protesters, accompanied by Israeli and international peace activists, marched towards Palestinian orchards Israel illegally confiscated to expand its… illegal colonies, built on Palestinian lands. The army fired rubber-coated metal bullets and gas bombs at the protesters, causing scores to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation.”

In the 2021 article Settlers suspected of sabotaging Israeli activist’s car as West Bank attacks rise and the 2019 video activists-in-the-jordan-valley, American-Israeli Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Founder of Torat Tzedek and prior Exec. Dir. of Rabbis for Human Rights, and Palestinian and Jewish activists “co-resist” Israeli settlers and soldiers in an effort to prevent and/or document human rights violations against Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank.

In the article God’s Greatness is Concern for All, Rabbi Ascherman criticizes Israel’s 2018 Jewish Nation State Law, and in Local Christians Join Protests Against Israel’s New Nation-State Law, a Druze-Israeli declares:

“I am heartened that the majority of the demonstrators were Jews. I take this opportunity to appeal to officials to work to consolidate true democracy, because only a democratic system ensures a better future for the state of all its citizens.”

Warning of increased oppression due to Israel’s 2018 Jewish Nation State Law, Rabbi Ascherman wrote in 2019:

“The Israeli government intends to force (residents of the Bedouin village Umm Al Hiran) from the homes they forced them into in 1956, in order to build a new Jewish community on the rubble of their homes. Israel is now reneging on a second agreement, and attempting to impose on them a third. Not only are the villagers being forced into a township, but they stand to lose the ability to provide the homes for their children that they could have provided in Umm Al Hiran…. We in Torat Tzedek are not abandoning Umm Al Hiran…. (But) if our High Court appeal to strike down the ‘Nation-State Law’ fails, Israeli Arabs will be even more powerless.”

Supporting Palestinians, Israeli Jews and internationals nonviolently co-resisting Israel’s colonization, occupation and apartheid, we recognize our human equality, interdependence, and shared moral responsibility to:

~ care for those in need, called Zakat in Islamic tradition,
~ contribute to the healing/repair of the world, called Tikkun Olam in Jewish tradition,
~ and treat our neighbors as ourselves, as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount.

Solidarity among Palestinians and Israeli Jews co-resisting Israeli colonization and apartheid is essential to build a future based on justice and “sharing the Land of Canaan” — a future of equal rights for all throughout historic Palestine, and harmony and peaceful coexistence among Abrahamic faiths and Arabic and Hebrew cultures.