The recent brouhaha of the Para Olympic swimming event to be hosted by
Malaysia caused a stir in the political sphere. A total of 32 U.N. member
states do not recognise the state of Israel and that includes Malaysia. Then
there is Israel’s blacklist of organisations supporting a boycott campaign
against it. These are about 200 groups which back the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions
(“BDS”) Movement.
The whole gamut of reasons to boycott Israel will begin with their
treatment of Palestinians displaced from their homes/lands. It is an age-old
controversy from Old Testament times. The Promised Land stretches from the Red
Sea to Lebanon and from the Mediterranean to Jordan (Numbers 34). That’s a lot
of land. So the West Bank belongs to Israel if we follow the Hebrew Bible.
Hence, there is no 2-state solution in sight. That’s politics. If we condemn
Israel for its actions, we also need to condemn the U.S., Europe, Syria, Saudi
Arabia, Iran and many more for their violations of human rights. And are we
without sin?
The amazing thing of this small state is its scientific achievements from
the cell phones, Windows, Intel and Pentium, internet voicemail, Waze and a
whole lot of other useful inventions. Israel produces more scientific papers
per capita than any other nations – 109 per 10,000 people and one of the higher
per capita rates of patents filed. Many U.S. corporations have their R&D
centres in Israel. The number of scientists and technicians in the workforce is
145 per 10,000 compared to 85 in the U.S. and 70 in Japan.
We may not agree on Israeli methods to solve the Palestinian problem but
we may need to find ways to cooperate on scientific, commercial and cultural
levels. There are things we could learn. And hopefully, bring them around to
see a better way (Malaysia and ASEAN did that with Myanmar). We need bridges of
goodwill not walls of discord!
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