The human rights and Palestine solidarity organisation, BDS South Africa, condemns the racism by Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef who during his recent weekly sermon compared African people to monkeys. In footage aired by the Israeli media house, Ynet news, Yosef (who is one of two Israeli state-elected rabbis) can be seen referring to black people by the word “kushi,” which in modern Hebrew has derogatory connotations, and comparing Africans to “monkeys.” This is not the first time that Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yosef has used his position to justify and legitimize discrimination. In a sermon delivered in May 2017, he suggested that secular woman behave like animals because of the way they dress. In March 2016 Yosef declared that non-Jews should not live in Israel.
Israeli racism against African people is on the rise and is a view not only of the broader Israeli public, but also of the Israeli government and its officials. Currently Israel is considering expelling thousands of Africans and portraying non-Jewish Africans as a threat to Israel’s Jewish character by calling them “infiltrators.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly called for their expulsion saying that Africans “threaten the social fabric of society”. Israel’s Minister of Interior, Eli Yishai, has said that African immigrants “think the country doesn’t belong to us, the white man.” The Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport, Miri Regev, has compared Africans to “a cancer”. In 2013 Israel admitted to have forcibly sterilised African women without their consent. Israeli racism against Palestinians as well as Africans in particular was the focus of this year’s #IsraeliApartheidWeek campaign.
BDS has joined the United Nations calling on all nations to impose an arms boycott against Israel. The BDS National Committee welcomes the recent resolution of the UN Human Rights Council calling on states to ensure respect of international law, among others by preventing arms trade with Israel. We reiterate our call on people of conscience across the world to:
- Mainstream the demand for all private and public entities in your country to end all cooperation and/or trade with the Israeli military and “security sector.”
- Join military embargo campaigns targeting Israeli military companies and other companies involved in Israel’s military and security sector. Examples include the campaign against Elbit Systems, which tests its weapons on Palestinians;
- Intensify the campaign against the security company G4S, which trains Israeli police in enforcing Israeli apartheid;
- Pressure the Hewlett Packard (HP) group to end provision of vital technology to the Israeli checkpoint system and the Israeli military imposing the siege on Gaza.
- Join or build campaigns against cooperation between Israeli police and police forces abroad, through which Israel’s tested doctrines and techniques of brutal repression of peaceful protests are exported to the world. An example is the Jewish Voice for Peace-led “Deadly Exchange” campaign.
- Join or build campaigns to end all transactions with Israeli banks and pressure international banks and investment funds, like HSBC and Axa to end their complicity in Israel’s human rights violations.