#BDS: محاكمة 5 فرنسيين دعوا لمقاطعة البضائع الإسرائيلية

بدأت في مدينة ميلوز الفرنسية محاكمة خمسة فرنسيين دعوا إلى مقاطعة البضائع الإسرائيلية المنتجة في المستوطنات في أحد المحال التجارية بالمدينة. وقد رفعت منظمات مؤيدة لإسرائيل دعوى ضدهم بتهمة التحريض على العنف والتمييز العنصري. ويقول دعاة المقاطعة إن حملاتهم ترمي إلى الضغط على إسرائيل حتى تصدر منتجات الأرض المحتلة تحت اسم صنع في إسرائيل.

#BDS: اتحاد عمال بريطانيا يدعم مقاطعة بضائع المستوطنات عبر مؤتمره السنوي

بيت لحم- معا- أبرق الأمين العام لاتحاد نقابات العمال البريطاني (TUC) إلى الأمين العام لاتحاد نقابات عمال فلسطين شاهر سعد برقية أرسل له فيها قرار مؤتمر اتحاد نقابات عمال بريطانيا بدعم توجهات اتحاد نقابات عمال فلسطين بمقاطعة بضائع المستوطنات الإسرائيلية واعتبر المستوطنات في تلك المناطق "غير شرعية".

من جهته أعرب الأمين العام شاهر سعد عن شكره وامتنانه عبر رسالة وجهها للامين العام البريطاني(TUC) برندن باربر، لهذا القرار الداعم الذي اتخذه المؤتمر ودعا سعد الأمين العام لاتحاد نقابات عمال بريطانيا إلى زيارة فلسطين هو والوفد المرافق له للاحتفال بهذا القرار.

علما أن هذا المؤتمر يمثل أكثر من عشرة ملايين عامل بريطاني يجتمعون سنويا لاتخاذ قرارات تهم وتصب في مصلحة الحركة النقابية البريطانية.

يذكر أن اتحاد نقابات العمال في بريطانيا (TUC) رفض مشاركة نقابة عمال أصدقاء "إسرائيل" في مؤتمره السنوي، رغم الضمانات التي قدمها برفع الحظر الذي أقره العام الماضي.

#BDS: Israeli Dancer in a Palestinian Wedding!

Bethlehem – PNN/Exclusive – the Palestine News Network obtained on Wednesday a number of photos from a Palestinian wedding in Bethlehem city, southern West Bank. Most of them were normal wedding photos except two.

#BDS: Israeli official to talk before Co-op faces boycott decision Sept. 21

A representative of the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest will be in Port Townsend Sunday, two days before the Port Townsend Food Co-op board is set to decide on a proposed boycott of seven Israeli-made products.


Gideon Lustig of the Israeli consulate in San Francisco is set to speak at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19 at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, the same venue for the Food Co-op board meeting set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, at which the board is set to decide on a member-proposed boycott. 


The boycott’s purpose, say organizers, is to send Israel a message “due to social, political and environmental practices of the Israeli government,” particularly related to Palestinians.
“The consulate is very aware of the boycott movement and wants to make sure people have their perspective in addition to hearing from local advocates on both sides,” said Rob Jacobs of StandWithUs, an organization that promotes Israel’s image around the world.

#BDS: U.S. Boat to Gaza Activists Hit Fashion Week with Style

Q: When is a public sidewalk not public?

A: When it’s in front of Lincoln Center.

Activists organizing to send a U.S. boat to break the Israeli blockade and siege of Gaza took their case to the streets Sept. 14. Dressed in t-shirts featuring the ubiquitous “We Will Not Be Silent” slogan in various languages, including Arabic and Hebrew, plus a new design featuring the U.S. Boat to Gaza logo, they tried to hold a “fashion shoot” in front of Lincoln Center, site of New York’s Fashion Week. The plaza was filled with tourists and people with cameras taking pictures of the fashionistas coming and going from the event in Damrosch Park behind the arts center.

As soon as the activists pulled out their signs, however, a half-dozen police converged on them, saying they could not hold a demonstration on the plaza, which is private property. When the group offered to move to the sidewalk, they were told that there was a “designated area” across the street for protests.

#BDS: Israel pitches tech prowess to China

The head of a visiting Israeli trade delegation said his nation is seeking to further cooperate with China in the fields of water treatment, renewable energy, life sciences and medical devices.
China is currently Israel's second largest trading partner after the United States, and "the ministry has declared China a prime market," said Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Israeli Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, speaking at a press conference Tuesday.
Israeli entrepreneurs enjoy a strong market position globally in technologies involving telecommunications, new energy, software, medical devices and water treatment.
"First and foremost, cooperation should focus on technology research and development," said Sharon Kedmi, the ministry's director-general.
Two nations have a history of cooperation in the water treatment.

#BDS: Crowd gathers in downtown Louisville to protest pro-Israel fundraiser

Nearly 40 demonstrators gathered outside the 21c hotel downtown on Tuesday night to protest a fundraiser held inside by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying organization.

The protest, organized by Louisville Jewish Voice for Peace, held signs supporting Palestinians and spoke against what they see as an effort by the committee in support of attacking Iran to disrupt its nuclear program.

#BDS: Google acquires Israeli start-up Quiksee

Multinational corporation buys company developing interactive video mapping technologies based on user-filmed videos; deal estimated at several millions of dollars, Yedioth Ahronoth reports

Google has acquired Israel-based Quiksee, which develops interactive video mapping technologies based on user-filmed videos, the companies said on Tuesday, confirming media reports.

"We are delighted to announce that Quiksee has been acquired by Google," Quiksee's website said. "Both Google and Quiksee share the same innovative vision."

A spokeswoman for Google said it was a small deal. The Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported that the acquisition is estimated at several millions of dollars.

Quiksee was founded in 2007 by several entrepreneurs, including Gadi Royz, Rony Amira, Assaf Harel and Pavel Yosifovich. Upon its establishment, the company was part of the Naiot technological incubator owned by the Ofer group. Its investors include Docor International and private angels.

This is Google's second acquisition in Israel in six months. It acquired web gadgets provider LabPixies in April for an estimated $25 million.

#BDS: Linkin Park to perform in Tel Aviv

(Video) American rock band to hold single concert in Yarkon Park on November 15. Guitarist Brad Delson sends Israeli fans a personal invitation


After years of hopeful anticipation, American rock group Linkin Park has announced it would perform at Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park on November 15. Israeli producer Shuki Weiss and German producer Mark Lieberberg are responsible for bringing the band to Israel.

#BDS: Academic research collaboration emboldens Israeli apartheid

In July, Donna Shalala, the president of the University of Miami and former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration, joined a 13-member delegation of American university presidents to Israel. The delegation's main objective was to discuss opportunities for academic collaboration with Israeli universities and reciprocal exchange programs for student and faculty. The majority of these Israeli universities, if not all, have been implicated in war crimes and other human rights violations against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians ("Academic boycott against Israel? Umberto Eco misses the point," Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, 10 July 2010). Prior to the delegates' arrival in Israel, they drafted and sent individual letters to their executive counterparts at the Israeli universities, stating that they "clearly denounce[d] the boycott of Israeli academics" ("Shalala among delegation of university presidents to visit Israel," University of Miami news release, 2 July 2010).

The karmic twist to Shalala's visit to Israel was that in spite of her obsequious endorsement of the anti-boycott stance, she was not spared from a three-hour, humiliating interrogation and detainment upon her departure from the Ben Gurion Airport. Israel's Ynet News reported that she was detained because of her Arabic surname ("American VIP humiliated at airport," 6 August 2010). When later interviewed by the Miami Herald, Shalala dismissed the inconvenience of her detention as purely security protocol to ensure traveler safety. Leaving aside all speculations as to why Shalala, an Arab-American, did not speak out against the indignity of her treatment at the airport, the larger conversation should be the strategic marketing and funding of research partnerships between American and Israeli universities.

Research and development collaboration between higher education institutions amount to billions of dollars annually. In 2008, the federal government alone funded $31 billion for academic research and development expenditures of which $1.6 billion were passed through to other university sub-recipients, domestic and foreign (National Science Foundation). Apart from the steady growth of research collaborations with "Asian 8" countries, such as South Korea and Taiwan, the research partnerships between American and Israel universities have been consistently strong and significant.

#BDS: Think Before You Ink!

Hewlett Packard, an American multinational information technology corporation, sells the Basel System technology to the Israeli military, so BDS activists targeted stores in California, asking back to school shoppers not to buy HP products.

Here is a video documenting a recent action against Hewlett Packard in Emeryville.

#BDS: CEO of Israeli Cosmetic Firm Ahava Rattled by Growing Boycott

False Claims Put Out by Company Are Refuted by ‘Stolen Beauty’ Campaign

WASHINGTON - September 14 - In a recent, quietly circulated letter from the desk of Yaacov Ellis, CEO of Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories—a company at the center of a growing international boycott campaign—and directed at the company’s retail partners, Ellis deploys specious information about his own company’s business practices, contradictory claims about Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, and unfounded innuendo about boycott campaign supporters. This letter comes after a year of pressure, lead in the United States by the women’s peace group CODEPINK and their “Stolen Beauty” Ahava Boycott campaign, and total refusal by the CEO to respond to press queries about his company’s illegal business practices.

Background on Ahava’s illegal business practices

Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories is an Israeli cosmetics company that has its manufacturing plant and visitors center near the shores of the Dead Sea in the illegal Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank. Despite Ellis’s claim in the letter that “Mitzpe Shalem is not an illegal settlement,” all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. The company is 44% owned by Mitzpe Shalem and another settlement, Kalia, so that the company’s profits are subsidizing these illegal colonies. Although its goods are manufactured in the West Bank, Ahava labels them as “products of Israel,” a practice that is illegal under European Union law and is currently being investigated in the UK and Holland.

Nancy Kricorian, Stolen Beauty Campaign Manager, said, “Ahava makes beauty products, but there is nothing beautiful in occupation. Rather than openly defending his company’s dubious record, which would not stand up to public scrutiny, Ellis is sending out a private letter that is full of false claims.” Read the full letter here.

#BDS: Artists Fight Over Israel Boycott

Big-time Hollywood Jews sent a strong message last year to artists protesting Israel: Don't mess with Tel Aviv.

What's the buzz these days following the release of a sequel of sorts aimed at the West Bank Israeli settlement of Ariel?

The fight in September 2009 was over the decision of the Toronto International Film Festival to spotlight Tel Aviv. More than 1,000 prominent filmmakers, actors and academics -- including Jane Fonda, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Julie Christie and Alice Walker -- signed on to statement asserting that by showcasing movies from Tel Aviv, the festival, "whether intentionally or not, has become complicit in the Israeli propaganda machine."

In response, the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles put together a counter statement criticizing the protest and defending the film festival's focus on Tel Aviv. The pro-Israel statement was signed by a smaller but more prominent list of celebrities, including Jerry Seinfeld, Natalie Portman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lisa Kudrow, Jason Alexander and Lenny Kravitz.

#BDS: تحذير من بيع إسرائيل سياراتها بالمنطقة

حذرت لجنة مقاومة التطبيع في مجمع النقابات المهنية الأردنية من توجه إسرائيل لتصدير 50 ألف سيارة إلى السوقين الأردني والعراقي، وفقا لما نشرته صحيفة يديعوت أحرونوت مؤخرا.

وطالبت اللجنة في بيان أصدرته أمس الاثنين الحكومة الأردنية وتجار السيارات بعمل كل ما يلزم لإفشال قرار وزارة المواصلات الإسرائيلية تصدير سيارات مستعملة إلى الأردن والعراق.

وقالت اللجنة إن القرار الإسرائيلي يهدف إلى التخلص من السيارات الضارة بالبيئة وللتخفيف من حوادث السير في "الكيان الصهيوني" ونقل المشكلة إلى الدولتين العربيتين.

وبحسب خبر نشرته يديعوت أحرونوت مطلع الأسبوع الجاري، صادقت وزارة المواصلات الإسرائيلية على تصدير 50 ألف سيارة مستعملة من إسرائيل إلى الأردن والعراق "بهدف تقليص حجم سوق السيارات المستعملة في إسرائيل".

ونقلت عن وزير المواصلات الإسرائيلي يسرائيل كاتس أن القرار يهدف إلى بيع السيارات التي تشكل 10% من سوق السيارات المستعملة.

واعتبر أن هذا الإجراء "سيؤدي إلى شراء سيارات جديدة وأكثر أمانا في إسرائيل، وقد يقلص من أضرار حوادث السير".

من جهته قال رئيس لجنة مقاومة التطبيع بادي الرفايعة إن اللجنة تتابع ما ورد في وسائل الإعلام عن القرار الإسرائيلي.