The Malaysian government must be congratulated on its principled stand in barring sportsmen from apartheid Israel participating in sports events here. It’s a courageous stand, well appreciated by the Palestinians and all those who believe in democracy, human rights and justice.

In Gaza, Malaysian flags were flown at the Yarmouk football stadium along with Palestinian flags and the fans shouted slogans praising Malaysia and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed.

Malaysia’s example will, it is hoped, force other leaders, particularly from the Arab and Muslim countries, to take a firm stand against Israel for the atrocities it is committing against the Palestinians.

Anyone with a conscience cannot remain silent to Israel’s crimes. As Martin Luther King said when breaking his silence on Vietnam, “A time has come when silence is betrayal and that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.” For the international community, the time has come when it cannot remain silent on Palestine.

Palestinians are now facing an existential threat. Israel has made it clear that it will not stop its criminal activities — land expropriations, illegal building of Jewish settlements and the Separation Wall, humiliating checkpoints, house demolitions, bombardments and assassinations, transfers, arrests, imprisonment and isolation of people from Palestinian communities. The international community is unable to make Israel accountable for its crimes because it is protected by the United States.

Former UN Rapporteur and international law expert Richard Falk described Israel’s treatment of the entire population in Gaza as its enemy as “genocidal and risks destroying an entire Palestinian community” and warned of “a Palestinian holocaust in the making” which “should remind the world of the famous post-Nazi pledge ‘never again’”.

The International Court of Justice, in 2004, delivered an advisory opinion that the construction of the wall being built by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated régime, are contrary to international law.

It stated that Israel is under an obligation to stop further construction and pull down the wall in the occupied territories. Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention are under an obligation to ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law, as embodied in that Convention.

The court declared that the General Assembly and the Security Council should consider what further action is required to bring to an end the situation created from the construction of the wall.

The Goldstone report on the investigation into violations of international humanitarian law during the 2008 Gaza War concluded that Israeli forces had wilfully targeted civilians, and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The report was commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council. Israel contemptuously rejected the report and nothing has been done to put an end to its illegal actions and crimes.

On March 15, 2017, the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) released a report entitled “Israeli practices towards the Palestinian people and the question of apartheid”.

The report was authored by two respected international law experts Prof Richard Falk and Prof Virginia Tilley. On the basis of their investigation, they concluded “that available evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel is guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid, as legally defined in instruments of international law”.

The report states that apartheid ranks second, after genocide, in the hierarchy of criminality, and states have a separate and collective duty in bringing apartheid regimes to an end. Our foreign ministry should study the report, popularise it and work with other states to implement its recommendations.

Under the UN Charter, the Security Council has the responsibility for enforcing international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and maintaining international peace and security. It is unable to act because of the United States’ use, or threat to use, of its veto power.

The Security Council’s failure to make Israel accountable for its violation of UN resolutions and international law has inevitably led to more violence, armed conflicts, terrorism and war.

The Palestinian people have been resisting Jewish settler-colonialism for scores of years. Their resistance continues unabated despite the international community betraying them. The land of Palestine is scattered with the bones of martyrs who gave their lives fighting British imperialism and Zionism.

Frustrated by the failure of Arab and Muslim governments to move the international community to do justice to the Palestinians, 13 years ago, Palestinian civil society launched the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign as a weapon to dismantle the apartheid state erected on historic Palestine territory.

It is modelled on the South African experience in ending apartheid there. Civil society organisations in Europe and the United States have been very successful in the campaign. Churches have divested from companies that sustain the apartheid system, and prominent scientists and artistes have refused to participate in events in Israel.

The famous physicist Stephen Hawking boycotted the Israeli president’s conference in protest against the treatment of Palestinians. The latest victory in the BDS campaign is Ireland’s senate approving a landmark bill that criminalises the import and trade of goods and services from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The BDS campaign is also contributing to an increasing change in US public opinion, with support for Israel decreasing among young liberals, including Jews. In October last year, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that recent polls corroborate the notion of steady erosion in the number of Americans who are willing to express strong support for Israel.

In 2015, 47% of Americans described Israel as “an ally”. In 2017, the number was down to 41%. In the most recent poll, the figure is even lower, at 37% alone. The election of two pro-Palestinian Muslim women to the US Congress last year confirms the poll’s finding.

The effectiveness of the BDS campaign can be seen from the Israeli government’s response to it. Israel’s strategic affairs ministry has set up a public benefit corporation, comprising generals and former diplomats, to engage in what it calls “mass awareness activities” as part of “the struggle against the delegitimisation campaign” against Israel, led by the BDS internationally.

The shareholders and directors include former ministry director-general Yossi Kuperwasser and former UN ambassador Dore Gold. The government had allocated US$37 million (RM150 million) to the initiative and an equal amount is to come from private donors around the world.

As Mahathir wrote in his blog recently, “a proper strategy is needed to bring justice to the Palestinians”. The promotion and intensification of the BDS campaign globally is the key to dismantling the apartheid regime in historic Palestine.

Malaysia’s bold and moral move to prohibit Israeli sportsmen participating in sports events here is a move in the right direction.

Malaysia should convene a roundtable meeting of experts, including civil society activists, to formulate a strategic plan of action to dismantle the apartheid regime in Israel.

The collapse of the UN-supported two-state solution to the conflict and the formalisation of the apartheid regime in Tel Aviv by the Israeli Parliament enacting the Nation-State Law, which declares Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, require fresh strategic thinking.

Our Parliament should be convened to pass a resolution commemorating the Palestinian Nakba, which falls on May 15, 2019, and endorsing and supporting the international BDS movement.

SM Mohamed Idris is the president of Consumers’ Association of Penang

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.