By Judi McLeod
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
It's the 'Day of the Flower' each Valentine's Day. As usual, young men will be spotted making last-minute dashes through subway car doors, carrying paper cones of flowers.
But on this Valentine's Day in Britain, consumers are being asked to boycott flowers if they happen to come from flower-producing Israel.
Being against flowers on any day of the year is a peculiar cause.
"'We are against all Israeli flowers'. Yes, that's the word from the spokesperson from Britain's Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign, justifying his group's publicity stunt for the oxymoronically named "Israel Apartheid Week," reports www.adloyada.com.
For "Israel Apartheid Week" activists chained themselves to the fence outside Carmel-Agrexco, the wholesaler which distributes the bulk of the million-pound plus worth of Israeli flowers imported by the UK.
"Ironically, the goods they tried to blockade included strawberries grown by Palestinian producers in Gaza. But in the spokesperson's own words: 'We are the Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign, so we are against all Israeli flowers.'
"Hayes said his group was against Agrexco for several reasons: It is partially owned by the Israeli government, it operates farms on settlements in the Jordan Valley "at the Palestinians' expense," and it "profits from the apartheid."
"He said he based his information on a recent visit to Israel in which he met with workers in the Jordan Valley.
But only 1%-2% of the flowers grown in the Jordan Valley were exported," says Adloyada. Most of the flowers from the Jordan Valley are sold in local markets.
"Jordan Valley Regional Council head Dubi Tail said although Palestinians needed permission to enter the area, they were free to work wherever they want. There were 'no complaints from outside (organizations) or the Palestinian side,' he said. Palestinians were free to establish farms in the valley.
"So far, it seems the campaign against Israeli flowers is having limited success. According to the BIG spokesperson: 'No stores have agreed to the boycott yet, Hayes told the Jerusalem Post in a telephone interview. But his group remained in contact with several stores, he added.
Irshad Manji has quite a different perspective on whether there's apartheid in Israel:
"'Would the vast majority of Arab Israeli citizens turn out to vote in national elections, as they've usually done? Would an apartheid state have several Arab political parties, as Israel does? In recent Israeli elections, two Arab parties found themselves disqualified for expressly supporting terrorism against the Jewish state. However, Israel's Supreme Court, exercising its independence, overturned both disqualifications. Under any system of apartheid, would the judiciary be free of political interference?'
'Would an apartheid state award its top literary prize to an Arab? Israel honoured Emile Habibi in 1986, before the intifada might have made such a choice politically shrewd. Would an apartheid state encourage Hebrew-speaking school children to learn Arabic? Would road signs throughout the land appear in both languages? Even my country, the proudly bilingual Canada, doesn't meet that standard.
'Would an apartheid state be home to universities where Arabs and Jews mingle at will, or apartment blocks where they live side by side? Would an apartheid state bestow benefits and legal protections on Palestinians who live outside of Israel but work inside its borders? Would human rights organizations operate openly in an apartheid state? They do in Israel...
'Above all, would media debate the most basic building blocks of the nation? Would a Hebrew newspaper in an apartheid state run an article by an Arab Israeli about why the Zionist adventure has been a total failure. Would it run that article on Israel's independence day? Would an apartheid state ensure conditions for the freest Arabic press in the Middle East, a press so free that it can demonstrably abuse its liberties and keep on rolling? To this day, the East Jerusalem daily Al-Quds hasn't retracted an anti-Israel letter supposedly penned by Nelson Mandela but proven to have been written by an Arab living in the Netherlands.
"Still, if you see your politics as being against all Israeli flowers, you're not likely to be moved by arguments like that.'"
Meanwhile, trying to force people to be against all Israeli posies is somewhat akin to trying to force people to believe in an apartheid that just doesn't exist.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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