#BDS: Czech public figures call on Václav Havel: “Do not use your name to whitewash Israeli war crimes, human rights violations and ap

[ISM Czech Republic] - In response to news about Václav Havel’s support for an international campaign to fight so-called ’delegitimisation’ of Israel and to fight against the worldwide boycott movement against Israelinitiated by the former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, ISM Czech Republic and Friends of Palestine Czech Republic issued an open letter signed by a dozen public, political and cultural figures.

Václav Havel, the first democratically elected president of the Czech Republic after the fall of the Berlin Wall, former Czech dissident and political prisoner, is internationally renowned for his struggle for freedom, democracy, freedom of speech and human rights, criticizing the abuse of power by the powerful and writing as a dissident in support of the ‘power of the powerless’, as he entitled one of his most influential essays of that time. He has received several prestigious awards, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Czech personalities and public figures such as Petr Uhl (journalist), Jan Kavan (former President of the UN General Assembly), Milan Daniel (journalist), Milan Kozelka (performer and author), Milan Kohout (performer and university lecturer) and others joined the appeal:

”The worldwide boycott movement (BDS), opposed by the former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar and his initiative, came out of the unified call of Palestinian civil society and is in a direct response to the failure of Israeli and world governments to honour their commitments to international law.

#BDS: PROTEST CALL: oppose the OECD’s Tourism Conference in Jerusalem October 20-22nd

The International Solidarity Movement is calling on activists to protest in Jerusalem in the third week of October against the annual tourism conference of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) which should not be held in the occupied capital of an apartheid state in violation of a plethora of international laws.

>>>>> ISRAEL IN THE OECD:

Despite Israel’s persistent violation of human rights as protected by the law, the OECD – whose member countries include most of the rich countries of the world – granted Israel membership on May 27th this year. This not only symbolized diplomatic approval of Israel’s policies on the part of the most powerful countries in the international community, but also brought many potential economic benefits to Israel.

>>>>> ABOUT THE CONFERENCE & JERUSALEM:

The conference consists of 2 parts, in total lasting three days (Oct 20th-22nd). According to theofficial website the war criminal Shimon Peres will be attending, along with representatives from each of the powerful OECD nations. Its stated aim is to discuss how to make the tourism industry ‘greener’.

Having disgracefully admitted Israel to the OECD, this conference represents a further instance of the international community deliberately turning a blind eye to the slow and insidious ongoing process of ethnic cleansing taking place in Jerusalem in which Israel is clearly working to ‘Judaize’ all areas of Jerusalem, employing numerous means to this end, including: evictions of Palestinians from their homes, house demolitions, residency permit revocation, settler takeovers of Palestinian houses, illegal settlement construction, land confiscation, discriminatory allocation of municipal resources, police persecution combined with impunity for settlers, restrictions on freedom of movement, permit systems and legal discrimination against Palestinians. This is occurring everywhere inside Israel but is perhaps most acutely felt in Palestinian East Jerusalem neighbourhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.

#BDS: Leviev opens diamond boutique in Singapore

Diamond jewelry chain owned by Israeli business tycoon expanding to Asia, launches first flagship store in continent in lobby of Marina Bay Sands luxury hotel

The Leviev diamond jewelry chain, owned by Israeli business tycoon Lev Leviev, is expanding to Asia and has launched its first flagship store in the continent in Singapore.

The boutique store is located in the lobby of Singapore's new luxury hotel Marina Bay Sands, joining the chain's stores in London, New York, Dubai and Moscow.

Marina Bay Sands is the new hotel of the Las Vegas Sands casino resort company owned by billionaire Sheldon Edelson. The store will offer prestigious jewelry embedded with thousands of carats of diamonds, including rare white diamonds and diamond jewelry in unique colors: Pink, blue, green and red.

#BDS: New app makes boycotting West Bank settlements a touch easier

Ahead of settlement freeze expiration, Israeli bloggers release 'Buy no Evil' Android application to raise consumer awareness.

Israeli bloggers have recently released a new Android application geared toward informing users whether or not their potential purchases were manufactured in one of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The bloggers behind the new application are Noam Rotem, Itamar Shaltiel, and Boris Boltianski, who run the "Activism is an Open-Source Code," blog, recently released the settlement-boycotting app, naming it "Buy no Evil."

In a message posted on the blog ahead of the app's release, Shaltiel wrote that Buy no Evil was "developed as part of the Activismos.com open-source project, and allows the insertion of a detailed product list, thus allowing consumers to deicide whether or not they wished to support this or that product."

#BDS: 200 prominent South Africans sign BGU boycott petition

Pro-boycott petition letter circulated ahead of University of Johannesburg vote on whether to end ties with Ben-Gurion University set for Sept. 29.

Two hundred prominent South Africans have publicly called for the University of Johannesburg to end its relationship with Ben-Gurion University as part of an ongoing global boycott campaign against Israeli institutions, a group organizing the boycott petition announced on Friday.

Ahead of a vote on the issue by the University of Johannesburg's Senate scheduled to occur on Wednesday, September 29 at the school's Soweto campus, boycott advocates are trying to raise support from academics as well as prominent South Africans.

The most prominent supporters of the boycott petition are the regular, strident Israel critic former Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former government minister Ronnie Kasrils, but the petition has also been signed by members of South Africa's academic community, including Professors John Dugard, Breyten Breytenbach and Mahmood Mamdani.