Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Black Lives Matter Take Note: Apartheid Israel Targeting Everyone that Questions Its 'Legitimacy'
24 Feb 2016
🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

It is a given that the U.S. national security state is engaged in surveillance, infiltration and disruption of the emerging Black Lives Matter movement, but they have doubtless been joined by the Israelis, who have launched a global digital war against supporters of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement. "The Israelis have already targeted, and made to disappear, web pages that are linked to BDS websites."

Black Lives Matter Take Note: Apartheid Israel Targeting Everyone that Questions Its “Legitimacy”

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

“In addition to the dirty tricks and hyper-surveillance of the U.S. national security state, activists are also in the crosshairs of the Israeli secret services.”

The Israeli government is pouring $26 million and tasking many of its secret service scientists and dirty tricks operatives to wage a digital war against BDS – the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement. An Associated Press article, picked up by AlterNet, reports the Israelis have already targeted, and made to disappear, web pages that are linked to BDS websites. An Israeli corporate executive said the mission is to dismantle the digital infrastructure of groups in Europe, the United States and South America that Tel Aviv considers to be anti-Semitic. The Israeli government position is that everyone that supports the BDS movement is anti-Semitic, because they want to “delegitimize” the Zionist state.

Hillary Clinton agrees with Israel. In a letter to a billionaire fundraiser, Clinton said, “I know you agree that we need to make countering BDS a priority,” and she promised to help “fight back against further attempts to isolate and delegitimize Israel.” Clinton has collaborated in Israeli cyber wars before. She was Secretary of State in 2010 when the Stuxnet program, a joint U.S. and Israeli digital assault against Iranian centrifuges, was discovered. This time around, the cyber war will not be targeting Iran, or the Chinese, but Americans, Europeans and anyone else that challenges the “legitimacy” of the world’s sole surviving colonial apartheid state. American supporters of the BDS movement cannot expect that their rights to free speech and association will be protected by Democrats or Republicans in Washington – not when it comes to the "legitimacy" of Israel.

Decent Humankind vs. Israeli Apartheid

The emerging movement that goes under the heading of Black Lives Matter should take note. In addition to the dirty tricks and hyper-surveillance of the U.S. national security state, activists are also in the crosshairs of the Israeli secret services. Israel was white-ruled South Africa’s closest military ally for the simple reason that they were both white settler, apartheid states rooted in an ideology of ethnic supremacy. In 1975, the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv offered to sell the white regime in Pretoria nuclear weapons “in three sizes.” The Israelis feared that, should white minority rule collapse in South Africa, Israel would be the only apartheid regime left standing on the planet. They could no longer claim to be, at least, not quite as bad as South Africa. But, as Bishop Desmond Tutu and others have concluded, apartheid Israel is actually worse than apartheid South Africa, both in its genocidal policies against the Palestinians, and as a constant threat to the survival of the planet.

The term “illegitimate” doesn’t comes close to describing a state that is an affront, an insult, to the very notion of civilization. All decent people must oppose Israeli apartheid. Unfortunately, Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez and Lisa Keys are not decent people; they have no problem performing in Israel. The Congressional Black Caucus is not composed of decent people; their junkets to Israel are must-attend events, and they joined with all the other members of Congress in a Resolution in support of Israel at the moment the apartheid regime was slaughtering thousands of Palestinians in Gaza. But, a Black Lives Matter movement must be decent – and internationalist. And, to that extent, its activists will be targeted by the world’s last apartheid state.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20160224_gf_IsraelTargetsBDS.mp3

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio February 28, 2025
    28 Feb 2025
    In this week’s segment, we learn about the continuing violence against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, despite the ceasefire. But first, we discuss the NYPD gang database, which ensnares…
  • NYPD gang database
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    NYPD Gang Database Targets Young Black and Latino Men
    28 Feb 2025
    Proposed legislation in the New York City Council, Intro 798, seeks to dismantle the NYPD’s Gang Database, ensuring that individuals unjustly labeled as “gang members” receive notice and access to…
  • Gaza
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Gaza and the West Bank Under Attack After the Ceasefire
    28 Feb 2025
    The ceasefire in Gaza has not ended the suffering of the people there or in the West Bank. The violent occupation against Palestinians continues.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Ukraine, War Propaganda, and the Return of Russiagate
    26 Feb 2025
    We must be able to acknowledge that Donald Trump has created a serious constitutional crisis while also recognizing that changing the U.S. relationship with Russia is groundbreaking and a necessity.
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Who Protects the People from the Human Rights Protectors?
    26 Feb 2025
    Can Palestinians get a little Humanitarian Intervention?
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us