Publicity:

Residents of a funky inner-city Australian suburb strolling down their ethnically-diverse main street recently, might have been surprised to see the Arab-Israeli conflict playing out - shrill and strident – just outside a popular chocolate shop. A furious protest was in full flight with the two camps hurling abuse at one another. On the one side were supporters of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) the controversial movement rallying against businesses based in or linked to Israel. On the other side were equally passionate defenders of businesses who think targeting shops in Australia is inflammatory, provocative and wrong-headed.

Sounds like both sides are as entrenched and divided as those at the centre of the bitter territorial dispute that continues to defeat some of the most powerful persuaders and diplomatic forces the world can muster. The promoters of BDS are utterly convinced of the merits of their campaign, opponents are conversely convinced of its unfairness.

Reporter Eric Campbell travels to the heart of the dispute to assess the impact of the global campaign and discovers - like so much about the Arab/Israeli issue – it’s complicated. While some Israeli businesses are being stung by the boycotts there are some unintended consequences.

For example, there are many Palestinians employed by Israeli companies who could find themselves out of work if the worldwide boycott succeeds.

"I think it’s from ignorance or hatred of Israel. It’s not from love of the Palestinian people because I’m the one who loves the Palestinian people, I’m taking care of them". Daniel Birnbaum, Israeli businessman

Still there are many Palestinians supporting the BDS who say the only way to change the stalemate in the stalled peace process is to hit Israelis where it hurts - their hip pockets. They point to the dramatic effects of anti-apartheid boycotts on South Africa and say boycotts can also work to change Israel’s position.

"It comes down to the dollar at the end of the day, it really does." Cairo Arafat, Palestinian resident of the West Bank.

Since Israel wrested the West Bank from Jordan, successive Israeli governments have supported the development of a series of Jewish settlements in the territory to the protest and outrage of Palestinians. With peace talks going nowhere, Palestinians say they’ve lost patience in the process and they want to try a new, non-violent tactic to force Israel off their land.

To complicate matters, the Israeli parliament has recently passed a law making it illegal to call for a boycott. Some Israelis oppose this on grounds of civil liberties and are defying their government. A well known Israeli actor says he’s boycotting settlements in the West Bank, and he’s proud of it.

“It’s a stupid law. I would be proud to be prosecuted on this law”. Rami Heuberger, actor

Jerusalem general views

Music

00:00

It’s a city that’s sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims and they’ve all been fighting over it for centuries.

00:08

Birnbaums at Wailing Wall

Today, Daniel Birnbaum and his family can worship at Judaism’s holiest site, the Wailing Wall, but it took a war and a military occupation to get them here.

00:19

DANIEL BIRNBAUM:  “To be able to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah at the wall is a real emotional experience for us, for the family, very touching”.

00:37

CAMPBELL:  In 1967 Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan and restored Jewish access.  It was a joyous victory for Jews around the world and when Daniel was seven years  old his family left New York for the Promised Land. 

00:46

DANIEL BIRNBAUM:  “It’s magical especially for me.  I’m the son of a Holocaust survivor so I grew up hearing the stories of survival in the death camps, the Nazi death camps.  It was always a dream for my parents to be able to live in Israel

01:12

Daniel Birnbaum

and here they are raising not only me and my generation but my children in Israel”.

01:26

Flags flying outside factory

CAMPBELL:  But now Daniel Birnbaum feels under threat.  He owns a factory in the West Bank, part of the land Israel captured in the 1967 war.

01:36

Inside Sodastream factory

So activists are trying to boycott the business.

01:48

Daniel walks with Campbell inside factory

DANIEL BIRNBAUM: “They want me to transfer my production to China. That’s what

01:56

Daniel. Super:
Daniel Birnbaum
CEO Sodastream

I’m hearing from these European customers and countries, and I think that they’re ignorant and they’re doing it out of hate for Israel more than out of love for the Palestinians and that’s a great shame”.

02:00

Factory interior

CAMPBELL:  Under the previous owner, this factory made munitions.  Now it makes carbonation devices for making soft drink at home.  Sodastream sells to more than 40 countries, but wherever it goes, the boycott can follow.

DANIEL BIRNBAUM:  “Some folks, I’d say ignorant folks,

02:12

Daniel

believe that any product that’s manufactured in the West Bank is contaminated, so to speak, and should not be manufactured or purchased”.

02:34

Protest

Music

02:42

PROTESTORS:  “We want justice, we want peace!”

02:45

Cairo Arafat

CAIRO ARAFAT:  “East Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinians and we’re going to struggle and resist occupation until we achieve our capital and a two state solution”.

02:51

Cairo at protest

CAMPBELL:  Cairo Arafat is one of millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem living under Israeli occupation.  Like Daniel, she was born in the US and moved here to raise her family in what she sees as her homeland.  She’s glad companies like Sodastream are facing boycotts.

03:00

Cairo Arafat. Super:
Cairo Arafat
Palestinian activist

CAIRO ARAFAT: “I think most people in Palestine support it because we believe that part of occupation is colonisation and we’ve been exploited all along, so we totally support that we need to boycott and internationally they must boycott”.

03:24

Palestinians at crossing

CAMPBELL:  These days it’s Palestinians on the occupied West Bank who have trouble worshipping in Jerusalem.  Unlike Jews, they need a permit to go there.

03:44

Protest at checkpoint

Every week they stage protests at Israeli security checkpoints.  Today’s follows the usual pattern. Within moments we’re caught in the toxic fallout.

03:55

Campbell at checkpoint. Super:
Eric Campbell

“Well I’ve worked all over the world and this is the first time I have ever been tear gassed and it is horrible.  And what is extraordinary about this is it’s not even an unusual event.  It happens almost every Friday”.

04:14

This is what has become normal in the occupied territories.

04:27

Palestinian women cover faces against tear gas

CAIRO ARAFAT:  “They simply wanted to go to Jerusalem to pray, to see the Holy Land and then they were met with tear gas and a few people collapsed and were taken to the hospital. 

04:36

Cairo Arafat

For forty years now always the same thing. That’s why we’re going to the UN and we want our two state solution”.

04:48

Cairo at home preparing meal

CAMPBELL:  Cairo Arafat lives in the city of Ramallah, just a 20 minute drive from Jerusalem.  She hasn’t been able to make that journey for years. 

CAIRO ARAFAT:  “I think it’s very difficult,

05:05

Cairo

for people who don’t live in this situation, it’s very difficult to really understand the complexities of it and what the manifestations of occupation are. I mean I can’t drive 12 miles any which way without being checked, stopped, having to have a permit, being told to travel on this road, not that road”.

05:19

Campbell joins family for dinner

CAMPBELL:  Cairo is no relation to Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader, but she’s one of many trying to break the status quo. 

05:43

She doesn’t want her daughters Tammy and Semma to spend decades more under Israeli occupation and she hopes a peaceful boycott might succeed where violence failed.

CAIRO ARAFAT:  “I think that in the long run

05:51

Cairo Arafat

we need to severe any kinds of ties that we have with Israel that they perceive that this occupier/occupation, ah occupier relationship has benefits from that. They need to see us as equal partners, not as in a captive market, or as a group of people that they can exploit”.

06:08

Traffic jam at checkpoint

CAMPBELL:  Most of the West Bank is now nominally self-governing under the Palestinian Authority, but the heavy hand of Israel is never far away.  It may be checkpoints that block traffic for hours each day or Israeli military commanders who decide whether houses and schools should be built or demolished.

06:27

CAIRO ARAFAT:  “Occupation is humiliation.  There’s, I mean the whole idea of another people telling you how to live, where you can live, what you can do, it permeates every aspect of our life”.

06:57

Ramallah town centre

Music

07:10

CAMPBELL:  The boycott pushes come from Palestinian community groups, frustrated with the failure of their leaders to achieve progress in peace talks.  It’s called BDS – Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions.  Its priority is to target Israeli and foreign companies operating in the West Bank, but it also supports boycotting any Israeli business, cultural group or university. 

07:14

Music

07:43

Ahava billboard and shop

CAMPBELL:  In Europe, supermarket chains have been pressured to stop selling products like Ahava, cosmetics made from Dead Sea mud in the West Bank.

07:48

Protest against Max Brenner business. Super:
September 10, 2011

In Australia, the chain of Max Brenner chocolate stores has been targeted because its parent company gives care packages to Israeli soldiers who activists accuse of atrocities.

07:58

Protestor

PROTESTOR:  “Free Palestine, boycott Israel.  This is genocide what Israel is doing, expanding the settlements.  And it’s got to stop”.

08:14

CAMPBELL:  “What is Max Brenner doing?”

08:21

PROTESTOR:  “Max Brenner is financially and morally supporting the Israeli defence forces, particularly two brigades – the Golani and the Givati”.

08:23

Graham Weinberg

GRAHAM WEINBERG:  “It’s a chocolate shop.  Are we making weapons in here?  Are we making bombs in here?  It’s a chocolate shop!”

08:33

Protest at shop

Music

08:39

CAMPBELL:  At this recent protest in Sydney, they were out-numbered by counter protestors – the two sides kept apart by dozens of police.

08:43

Graham Weinberg

GRAHAM WEINBERG:   “I’m Jewish and I don’t like to see Jewish businesses boycotted.  The last people that boycotted Jewish businesses were called Nazis and if we don’t stop and stand up, that’s exactly what’s going to happen here”.

08:52

Protest at shop

PROTESTOR SHOUTING:  “Zionists are the new Nazis!  Zionists are the new Nazis!”

09:04

GROUP CHANTING:  “Nazi, Nazi”.

09:09

Sodastream factory

CAMPBELL:  So far the impact has been more symbolic than economic, but it still makes Daniel Birnbaum angry.  If he were forced to close this West Bank factory, he’d have to sack 450 Palestinian workers.

09:28

Daniel with Campbell in factor

DANIEL BIRNBAUM:  “It’s not from love of the Palestinian people, because I’m the one who loves the Palestinian people.  I’m taking care of them.  I’m making sure that we don’t have to let them go and I’m very proud that we’ve been operating this factory despite the pressure for the boycott coming from places like Sweden and other places, mostly in Europe”.

09:46

Factory exterior

CAMPBELL:  The factory is on one of ten large Israeli industrial estates in occupied Palestinian territories. 

10:07

Factory interior

For decades, Israel offered financial incentives for businesses to come here. They rushed in to take advantage of cheap rents and to exploit cheat Palestinian labour.  But Daniel Birnbaum says his company’s not like that.

10:14

Daniel in factor

DANIEL BIRNBAUM:  “These workers get paid about four and a half times more than they would get paid in a Palestinian Authority across the street which is an unbelievable wage.  They get overtime up to 245 per cent. They get transportation, they get subsidised lunches,

10:32

Palestinian workers at factory

they get medical insurance for their family, holiday pay – a lot of benefits that they wouldn’t dream of getting if they were working in a Palestinian Authority where there is unemployment of more than 30 per cent”.

10:45

Workers at banquet

CAMPBELL:  The company invited us to a banquet it threw to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. 

10:57

MAN AT FUNCTION:  “I wish you a happy feast and ask God to grant us more happiness in the coming years. 

11:08

Workers dancing

Music

11:18

CAMPBELL:  By the end of the evening, the Palestinian workers weren’t just celebrating with their Jewish bosses, they were carrying them on their shoulders. 

11:24

It did feel slightly played up for the benefit of our camera, but Daniel Birnbaum insists the goodwill is genuine.

11:35

DANIEL BIRNBAUM:  “The best I can is to offer employment to the civilians who live in this area, whether they’re Bedouins or Palestinians or Arabs from Jerusalem or Israeli Arabs or Ethiopians or Darfurian refugees who we have here – we have them all –

11:46

Daniel. Super:
Daniel Birnbaum
CEO Sodastream

and I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to not only give them employment, but also give them the opportunity to work together and know each other and see each other as human beings. It’s a great thing.  We call it ‘the island of peace’ and I’m preserving this as much as I can”.

12:02

Arafat family meal

CAMPBELL:  Back in Ramallah, Cairo Arafat and her daughters are less impressed with such efforts.

CAIRO ARAFAT:  “He has all his rights

12:27

Cairo. Super:
Cairo Arafat
Palestinian activist

and you go back to your life where you’re living in occupation and it’s not equal, it’s not fair”. 

12:33

Semma

SEMMA:  “We’re suffering from way more severe issues and the BDS movement seems to be the only movement that has recently applied the right type of pressure on different institutes and governments outside of Palestine”.

12:39

Checkpoint/ Semma on street

Music

12:59

CAMPBELL:  Semma, who’s 22, hasn’t seen much evidence of Jews and Palestinians being united..

13:05

Wall

For eight years she’s watched a giant wall divide them. It’s intended to be a 760 kilometre barrier to stop terrorist attacks.  It will enclose 13% of the West Bank – much of it in solid concrete.*
[*clarification of actual voice over]

13:13

Semma and Campbell walk by wall

“So what do you call the security fence on this side?”

SEMMA:  “It’s the apartheid wall”.

CAMPBELL:  “That’s how you see it?”

SEMMA:  “Yes of course.  Ten feet tall,

13:39

it’s quite thick and after every so often you’ll find a tower with security soldiers aiming their guns down at the civilians and there’s also for each part of Palestinian territory that is enclosed by the wall as well, you will find one gate that opens at certain hours for a few hours and then shuts down, so the people within there can only leave and enter of course at the time set by the occupiers”.

13:46

CAMPBELL:  “Right so it’s split the neighbourhood”.

SEMMA:  “Hm mm”.

14:13

CAMPBELL:  “So you see it as a land grab?”

SEMMA:  “Exactly”.

CAMPBELL:  “It is big isn’t it?”

SEMMA:  “It’s huge”.

14:16

Shot of wall

14:23

Tel Aviv beach

14:27

CAMPBELL:  The BDS has almost no support inside Israel but some Jews, particularly in more liberal cities like Tel Aviv, believe something must be done to help the Palestinians.

14:31

Rami on stage

Rami Heuberger is a famous Israeli actor and director at the national theatre company, Habima.  He’s joined many artists in staging their own boycott, declaring they won’t perform in the West Bank until the occupation ends.

14:43

RAMI HEUBERGER:  “I want to perform in the West Bank after they put this wonderful ink in my passport, as a tourist”.

CAMPBELL:  “Saying independent state”.

RAMI HEUBERGER:  “Independent state, of course”.

15:05

Rami interview

CAMPBELL:  “So you’re against the occupation?”

15:19

RAMI HEUBERGER:  “Yes I’m against the occupation, yes, yes”.

CAMPBELL:  “So are you anti-Zionist?”

RAMI HEUBERGER:  “No”.

CAMPBELL:  “Are you anti-Semitic?”

15:22

RAMI HEUBERGER: “Anti myself you mean?  No, no, no.

15:31

Arabs and Jews on street

I don’t think that Palestinians get up in the morning and tell to themselves okay how many Jews are we going to kill today?  I need to kill a Jew.  I don’t think they are waking up like this. I think they are waking up like me. They think

15:38

Rami. Super:
Rami Heuberger
Habima National Theatre

will they make money today?  Will they have food for their children and will they sleep good tonight and maybe where they will go with the children, either to the beach or to a good restaurant. I think that’s what every person in the world thinks in the morning”.

15:57

Jerusalem

[call to prayer]

16:18

CAMPBELL:  Such sentiments have raised the ire of hard line nationalists. 

16:22

Alex going into Knesset

Alex Miller, a member of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, has pushed through a law banning Israelis from supporting any boycotts.

16:29

ALEX MILLER:  “I very much hope that this will be a good lesson

16:40

Alex

to all those people who are trying to shoot these economic bullets in order to kill this area”.

16:44

Rami

RAMI HEUBERGER:  “It’s a stupid law. We are still a democratic country and you can say everything, even that you are making boycott on black coffee. You can say it.  It’s okay”.

CAMPBELL:  “You sure?”

RAMI HEUBERGER:  “Yes although I like black coffee”.

16:53

CAMPBELL:  “But you’re not worried you might be prosecuted, you might be sued because of your statement?”

RAMI HEUBERGER:  “I would be proud to be prosecuted on this law”.

17:11

Inside Knesset

17:19

CAMPBELL:  So far Alex Miller hasn’t prosecuted him, but he has vowed to sue an Arab Israeli politician, Ahmad Tibi, who supports BDS.

17:21

Alex addresses Knesset

ALEX MILLER:  [addressing the Knesset]  “Look at what we’ve become, Knesset members with Knesset member Ahmad Tibi standing at the fore, leading them from his podium, waving the flag of democracy and calling to break a law that was legislated here in this parliament. What chutzpah!”

17:31

DR AHMAD TIBI:  “It doesn’t obligate me”. 

17:46

Ahmad Tibi

DR AHMAD TIBI:  “I am saying that violating the new law I am challenging the Israeli authority to prosecute me”.

17:52

CAMPBELL:  “Do you think they will?”

17:58

Super:
Dr. Ahmad Tibi
Ta’al Party MP

DR AHMAD TIBI:   “He said he’s going to prosecute me.  I’m not afraid from that.  I think what’s good for South Africa for decades, is good for Israel”.

18:00

General views. West Banks

CAMPBELL:  Israelis and Palestinians have been holding face to face talks for almost two decades, but they’re hardly any closer to peace or agreement on future borders. 

18:1

Checkpoint

The negotiations are supposed to lead to an independent Palestinian state based on the frontiers before the occupation, but both sides have very different visions of what that means.

18:27

Campbell to camera

“If Israel were to go back to the boundaries of 1967, it would end here in what’s now the middle of Jerusalem. That was one of the armistice lines from the war of independence and everything on that side, East Jerusalem, the old city, all the land as far as the River Jordan was run by Jordan.   But when Israel seized all that territory in the 1967 war, it decided to change the map forever. It not only annexed East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as their future capital, it settled hundreds of thousands of Jews across the land Palestinians want as their future state”.

18:45

Travelling to Ariel

Music

19:22

CAMPBELL:  Alex Miller lives deep inside the West Bank in the city of Ariel. It’s one of the largest Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

19:31

Swimming pool

It’s home to eighteen thousand Jews, most of them from Russia.

ALEX MILLER:  “Great weather… a wonderful place… very warm people –

19:43

Alex

and I think if we look at the essence of the state of Israel as a state of settlement I have no doubt that this is one of the nicer places that we have in the state”.

19:57

Alex in car

Music

20:12

CAMPBELL:  He has big plans for Ariel, believing it could grow to as many as 60,000 people.  It already has a university and that theatre so many artists are boycotting. 

20:19

ALEX MILLER: “This is the cultural centre.  See?”

CAMPBELL:  “This is the theatre”.

20:36

And he’s not worried that almost every other country views these settlements as illegal.

20:42

Music

20:48

City of Ariel

ALEX MILLER:  “Of course this is the territory of the Jewish people.  We can argue about history – who was here first –

20:59

Alex

but ultimately we arrived with a clear goal to establish a Jewish state here. 

21:09

Alex on balcony

One of the aims of the people who came here was the intention to settle.  They will ultimately remain and will be part of the state of Israel”.

21:18

Soldiers/ Kids on streets

CAMPBELL:  Israel’s justification for the occupation is security.  In the streets of the West Bank, children play games of Martyrs versus Settlers, imitating the violence they’ve grown up with.

21:39

Even if a Palestinian state is formed, Israel insists it will need to control security for any remaining settlers.  Many want the maps re-drawn to put them inside Israel.

21:58

Alex

ALEX MILLER:  “I think the best and smartest solution is for the communities with a Jewish majority to be part of Israel, and for those with an Arab majority to be part of the future Palestinian state – with agreement of course”. 

22:18

Palestinian women on street/ Jewish men on street

SEMMA:  “It is going to be difficult to get things to the point that both, both people, both nations get to live an equal standing of living, an equal life.

22:37

Semma

Two states will not work. Two states would just be a phase into Palestine being wiped off the map, into creating a one state that is an Israeli state”.

22:51

Soldiers at checkpoint.

CAMPBELL:  And so the conflict drags on as Palestinians give up on talks for protests and boycotts. 

23:03

Daniel and workers in Sodastream factory

Daniel Birnbaum believes compromise is still possible, even if it means factories like his must one day move.

DANIEL BIRNBAUM:  “I know that the people want peace.

23:18

Daniel

The people in Israel want peace and they’re willing to make sacrifices for it.  Certainly I am and everyone I know, okay? There’s only a very small extreme group that is really willing to continue to deal with the situation as it is, to preserve the land.  But by far, probably 95% of Israelis want peace and will give back the territories completely, okay, and Jerusalem will probably be an international city”.

23:33

Jerusalem

CAMPBELL:  But for now the fight seems as eternal as Jerusalem itself.

24:01

Credits:

Reporter: Eric Campbell

Camera:    David Martin

                       Bryan Milliss

Research: Orly Halpern

                       Yoav Appel

Editor:       Nick Brenner

Producer: Vivien Altman

24:20