theSun | TUESDAY JANUARY 13 2009
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The morality
of consumer
boycotts
THE Gaza massacre and war
crimes by Israel against children,
women and civilians have entered
the 17th day. It is ethnic cleansing
against a captured people says
Clare Short, a British Member
of Parliament. It is genocide as
the world watches a binding
UN resolution being violated by
Israel as it intensifies its war on
the Palestinians. But the people of
Gaza remain steadfast and defiant
against Israeli aggression for the
liberation of all Palestinians.
While governments are pur-
suing diplomatic channels for a
ceasefire on the war on Gaza, civil
society is using multiple strategies
to end this barbaric and cruel in-
fliction on innocent children and
civilians. Last weekend saw world-
wide protests against the Israeli
war on Gaza.
In the Washington protest on
Jan 10, the keynote speaker was
Ralph Nader, the most well-known
consumer advocate of the 20th
century.
Among the strategies proposed
by civil society to stop the disap-
pearance of Palestine and the
shocking and brutal injuries to
children and civilians are consumer
boycotts of Israeli and American
products. The war on Gaza is only
possible with the sanction of the
United States which abstained
during the vote on the recent UN
resolution for ceasefire. The US
provides US$3 billion (RM10.7 bil-
lion) in aid and weapons to Israel.
The Muslim Consumers As-
sociation of Malaysia has initiated
a boycott of American products.
Canadian author Naomi Klein has
resurrected the Boycott, divest-
ment and sanctions against Israel
campaign of 2005 by a coalition of
Palestinian groups. This is similar
to the campaign against apartheid
Please stop bombing Gaza
Mr Ehud Olmert
Prime Minister of Israel
W E, the undersigned, repre-
senting more than 50,000
academics in various institutions
of higher education in Malaysia,
would like to record our sadness
and dissatisfaction in the way the
War of Gaza is being conducted.
We deplore any loss of human
lives whoever it may be, but
also find it deplorable that 100
Palestinians have to die for every
dead Israeli in this very one-sided
“war”. No amount of explana-
tions can justify the fact that the
Israelis, with their protector, the
United States, are killing innocent
civilians, including women and
children.
We are specifically saddened
with the news of the bombing
of the Islamic University of Gaza.
With the bombing, the already
minimal facilities for education
of thousands of students in Gaza,
has now come to an end. So too
the continued strangling of Gaza
15
in South Africa.
History is dotted with many
stories of how consumer power
can be used to bring social justice
to victims of harmful political and
corporate actions.
Consumption is a moral,
economic and political act. Moral
issues have remained “at the core
of any articulation of the rights and
duties associated with consump-
tion”, point out Martin Daunton
and Mathew Hilton in their book
The Politics of Consumption.
The consumer movement has
stressed in the last 30 years that
consumption must be based on
value for people, value for the
environment and value for money.
The government has adopted
these principles in its consumer
campaigns since it observed World
Consumer Rights Day in 1993.
Many of the civil and political
rights achieved by Americans
have been through organised
consumer boycotts of products
and services. There was a move
to boycott sugar in the 1790s in
protest against slave trade. Afri-
can Americans mobilised black
consumers in “Don’t shop where
you can’t work” campaigns as a
protest against job-discrimination
by white store owners.
More recently, consumer boy-
cotts have been organised against
corporations for their unethical
conduct particularly marketing
strategies, employee conditions
and environmental destruction.
Such campaigns have resulted in
improving business ethics.
A consumer boycott of Israeli
products is a non-violent tool to
bring justice and peace for the
Palestinians.
Josie M. Fernandez
Kuala Lumpur
will end the education of many
young Palestinians. This in turn
will affect the future develop-
ment of Palestine and Gaza in
particular.
To argue who is right and who
is wrong in the war would be a
never ending affair. However, we
demand that this war be fought
with full compliance of the Gene-
va Conventions. We demand that
all civilians and civilian buildings
(houses, mosques, hospitals) be
protected and not made targets
of your military aggressions. In
particular, we demand that you
and your government show re-
spect for the sanctity of academic
institutions such as universities
and schools. History has shown
many times that a civilisation
would start to decline when
schools and places of learning are
destroyed and books burned.
The letter is signed by repre-
sentatives of various academic
associations.