The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement of Palestinian civil society coalition would be holding its ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ for the first time in the country starting from March 21.
It would travel across various cities to enlist support for its struggle for justice, freedom, equality and human rights in Palestine.
Maren Mantovani, member of the International Secretariat of the of the BDS National Committee, told
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The movement, which organises its annual global series of events in about 200 cities across, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its peaceful struggle that has garnered global attention.
The BDS movement drew its inspiration from the Indian freedom struggle. Non-violence and boycotts aided India’s independece movement from British rule. “The purpose of our Indian tour is to appeal to the people to join the global tide in boycotts to help Palestine free its lands from Israeli occupation and Apartheid,” she said.
The Israeli Apartheid Week would involve appealing to various sections of society from farmers, professionals, common people to industrialists against doing business with Israel or using its technology in India.
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Ms. Mantovani said Israeli money was being used to suppress people of Palestine and hence their appeal to people of various countries to boycott Israel and support human rights.
She said that Mahmoud Nawaja’a, the general coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, would visit Hyderabad on March 27 and March 28, after touring Mumbai, Kolkata and parts of Kerala.
The tour would conclude in Delhi, where the Farmers Congress of South Asia is expected to participate.
Ms. Mantovani said they had already been working with farmers’ movements across the country, including Telangana, advocating that State governments should use drip irrigation technology of Indian companies, which is most suitable for small holdings of the farmers. “We have been talking to farmers in Telangana and they agree with us. The Israeli drip irrigation experiment in Kuppam of Andhra Pradesh is a glaring example that the Israeli technology will not work in Indian conditions,” she said.
The Israeli technology is a capital intensive technology which would not work for India, but bring huge revenue to Israel, she said. Thanks to growing support to BDS, several international companies like French Veolia - a public transport company - had lost their investment, as Europe started putting restrictions on investments in Israeli settlement projects, she said.
The net sum of rising Indo-Israel ties`, including its high-end drip irrigation technology, defence technology and latest attempts to woo Bollywood industry to make films in Israel, would result in huge Indian capital and resources flowing to Israel, which would be used against Palestinians, she explained.