Many remember the victorious results of the world’s South Africa boycott movement of the 1980s. Ever-mounting pressure forced the apartheid leadership’s hand, leading to a national change of course, enabling it to find a way to achieve integrity for all, even to the extent of the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It brought hope to the majority of South Africans, no longer regarded as worthless inconveniences, better off dead or absent.

Now we face an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe throughout Palestine, slowly but surely causing such widespread civilian casualties that the World Court has judged Israel’s ruthless onslaught a “plausible” case of genocide.

Given this horrendous state of affairs, we must feverishly search for a way to end this “slaughter of the innocents” ( describing the seldom-referenced story of King Herod’s order to slay every boy-child in Bethlehem under the age of 2, thereby killing the newborn son of a Mary and Joseph we know of as Jesus of Nazareth, in today’s West Bank).

As we look about to see who can dissuade Herodian Netanyahu from advancing his indiscriminate, warring madness, we behold our own country, Israel’s closest, longstanding ally. So far, all we have been able to achieve are exhausting rounds of talks, but no show. Why? Because we ourselves are held hostage to a the bitter reality of a triumvirate of forces:

The mega influential American Israeli bloc, or AIPAC, which has donated, in this political cycle alone, $100 million to candidates of every stripes’ campaign coffers, effectively muting serious opposition to the present bloated allocation of weaponry and materiel, with $20 billion more waiting to be voted upon by Congress.

Then there’s Big Oil, unsurprisingly Shell and Exxon at the top, raising war profiteering to new heights, paid handsomely by the U.S. to supply the Israel Defense Forces, gladly adding fuel to the fires engulfing Gaza before spreading over the West Bank like wildfire.

All this horror show in tandem with the multifaceted military industry, which, with (muted) glee, welcomes stacks of contracts, keeping employees and stockholders humming along.

Not to mention our mainline media outlets suppressing the bitter reality of death hovering over Gaza like a sci-fi sized drone, turning Palestinians’ days into endless nights of continual angst.

Add this up and you readily can see that our last hope to substantively change Israel’s course is by way of a worldwide “Boycott Israel” movement, one that includes university divestment as well as sanctions (BDS, as it is called).

It remains our one bright light of hope, if only because of the efficacious results in South Africa. For our readers, a starting place begins with pressuring River Valley Market to de-shelve all made-in-Israel products.

Never more has this axiom been truer: There but for the grace of God go I. It doesn’t require much imagination to place ourselves and our extended family in a makeshift tent, having been forced to flee five times, only to find multi-ton bombs waiting to welcome you.

I applaud all students who have risen up to demand divestment, risking expulsion, and beg you, good reader, wherever and whoever you are, to join the movement, the only one left for everyday citizens to change the course of the vicious government of Israel’s assault on Palestinians. May it see its absolute need to relent, rebuild, and reconcile, for the benefit of the one human family.

The Rev. Peter Kakos of Northampton is co-founder of Leahy Fast for Palestine of W. Mass.