Yonatan Shapira, 38, was fired from his job, has been verbally abused in public, subjected to death threats in newspaper talk-back comments, called a traitor by many Israelis, falsely charged with assaulting Israeli security forces, and interrogated by Israel's domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet.
While Israel often gets a lot of negative publicity for its brutal treatment of Palestinians and the inherent racism within its society, there is a growing core of Israeli human rights activists who are challenging government policy -- and paying a high price for their courage.
"Now I believe Israel is a racist state that brutalizes the Palestinians in the occupied territories and discriminates against [Palestinians] within Israel. My friends and I have come to the conclusion that the only way to save Israel from itself is through international support of the boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign against Israel," says Shapira.
"Israelis have two choices. To either admit to the injustices committed against the Palestinians and take responsibility for this or to continue to play the role of the victim and become more entrenched in racist behavior," says Shapira.
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