Al-Haq has lodged a criminal complaint against a Dutch private rental company, Riwal, for its involvement in the construction of the Annexation Wall, ‘the Wall,’ and illegal settlements in the Occupied West Bank.
The complaint asserts that Riwal is complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity - offences contrary to Holland’s International Crimes Act - through its supply of mobile cranes and aerial platforms for the construction of settlements and the Wall in several locations in the Occupied West Bank. The complaint is currently being considered by the Prosecutor’s office.
On 13 October 2010, the Dutch National Crime Squad conducted a search of Riwal’s offices in the Dutch town of Dordrecht under their statutory powers of investigation. The Prosecutor has yet to make a decision as to whether to pursue the complaint further.
Riwal machines were used in the construction of the Wall in the villages of Hizma and Al-Khader and in a settlement near the village of Bruqin. Statements made by Riwal during the period suggest the company knew its equipment was being used in this way.
For more information, see the Al Haq website at http://www.alhaq.org/
Oct 15, 2010
#BDS: Action Alert! Amazon.com & Ahava products
Creative BDS tactics!
Nothing soothing about occupation! Boycott Apartheid Israel!
Take 2 minutes to write a comment on Ahava Dermud Cream page @ Amazon:
Nothing soothing about occupation! Boycott Apartheid Israel!
#BDS: نعم للمقاطعة، لا للتطبيع مع أكاديميا الاحتلال
فلسطين المحتلة-12 تشرين الأول 2010
لقد شكل النضال الوطني الفلسطيني ضد الاستعمار الصهيوني العنصري بوصلة أخلاقية لشعوب العالم على امتداد ستة عقود، ولا يزال كذلك على الرغم من بؤس الواقع السياسي العام، إذ إن تباشير ما وشمته فلسطين في الوعي الإنساني من قدرة على اجتراح الفعل المساند لقضيتنا العادلة تُشهد يوماً بعد آخر في أربعة رياح الأرض. وفي هذا السياق، فإن فواعل الوسط الثقافي الفلسطيني ترحب بقرار مجلس جامعة جوهانسبرغ، في قلب جنوب أفريقيا-صنونا في النضال الوطني ومكافحة العنصرية الاستعمارية، الصادر بتاريخ 29 أيلول 2010 والداعي إلى "عدم الاستمرار في علاقة طويلة الأمد مع جامعة بن غوريون (في بئر السبع) في شكلها الحالي" واشتراط "استمرار تلك العلاقة،" و"إعطاء جامعة بن غوريون مهلة ستة أشهر لإنهاء تواطئها مع جيش الاحتلال (الإسرائيلي) ووضع حد لسياسات التمييز العنصري ضد الفلسطينيين (الذي) يشكل خروجاً ملموساً عن موقف العلاقة المعتادة الذي حكم الاتفاقات بين هاتين المؤسستين حتى وقت قريب." وإننا إذ ننظر بعين الرضى إلى هذا
القرار، لنؤكد على ما يلي:
أولاً: نرحب بالقرار، ونحيي الحراك الفعَّال لحملات مقاطعة إسرائيل الذي نجح في تعبئة الرأي العام في جنوب أفريقا والعالم للوصول إلى هذه الدرجة من النضج، لكننا نهيب بجامعة جوهانسبرغ أن تكمل تحررها من الإرث العنصري بحسم قرارها، دون "مُهل" زمنية، أو اشتراطات تلطفية، لمقاطعة كافة الجامعات الإسرائيلية.
ثانياً: نؤكد أن مؤسسات الأكاديميا الإسرائيلية هي جزء من التكوين الاستعمار الصهيوني، وهي متورطة، كمؤسسات وأفراد، في توجيه سياسات التمييز العنصري لدولة الاحتلال، وتبريرها، وشرعنهتا على الساحة الدولية، وممارسة العنصرية بشكل سافر على الطلبة العرب فيها. ولذا، فالأكاديميا الإسرائيلية، بكافة مجاميعها، هي موضوع للمقاطعة المحلية والعالمية.
ثالثاً: نحيي التحرُّك المسؤول الذي قام به مجلس اتحاد نقابات الجامعات الفلسطينية، على كافة المستويات في الأكاديميا الفلسطينية، ونؤكد على أنه لا يعبر فقط عن موقف مجاميع الأكاديميا الفلسطينية، بل تتبناه مجاميع الوسط الثقافي الفلسطيني، وتدعمه، وتؤكد على فحواه الداعية إلى الالتزام الكامل بالقرارات الثابتة لمجلس الاتحاد ومجلس التعليم العالي بعدم التعاون أو الانخراط في أي مشاريع مشتركة مع الجامعات الإسرائيلية بشكل مباشر أو غير مباشر، بشكل فردي أو مؤسساتي.
رابعاً: نُشيد بالجهد اللافت والمثمر للحملة الفلسطينية للمقاطعة الأكاديمية والثقافية لإسرائيل، إحدى أهم الفواعل المحرِّكة للجنة الوطنية لمقاطعة إسرائيل وسحب الاستثمارات منها وفرض العقوبات عليها، والتي أسهمت، كذلك، في تشكيل بوصلة للحركة العالمية لمقاطعة إسرائيل وسحب الاستثمارات منها وفرض العقوبات عليها لأجل فلسطين، وقادت النضال العالمي في هذا السياق، وندعو كافة الأفراد والمؤسسات في الوسطين الثقافي والأكاديمي، وفي عموم فلسطين، إلى الالتزام بمعايير وقرارات هذه الحملة.
ومعاً على طريق نيل حقوقنا الوطنية: عودةً، ودولةً، وتقريراً للمصير،
الموقعون على البيان:
الاتحاد العام للأدباء والكتاب الفلسطينيين
بيت الشعر الفلسطيني
#BDS: BDS Victory: Veolia Sells Shares in Jerusalem Light Rail
Veolia has signed a principled agreement to sell its shares in the Jerusalem Light Rail to the Israeli transportation cooperative Egged, reportsTheMarker today (15 October). This sale marks a substantial victory for the Palestinian-led international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
According to the agreement, Veolia will receive NIS 45 million (approximately EURO 9 million) for its shares, which will be gradually transferred to Egged over a five year period from the first day of the light rail's operation. This gradual transfer ensures compliance with conditions of the initial tender, which mandate that the light rail operator must have a minimum of five years experience in operations. Egged will also pay increasing percentages of the sale as the light rail becomes increasingly profitable.
According to the agreement, Veolia will receive NIS 45 million (approximately EURO 9 million) for its shares, which will be gradually transferred to Egged over a five year period from the first day of the light rail's operation. This gradual transfer ensures compliance with conditions of the initial tender, which mandate that the light rail operator must have a minimum of five years experience in operations. Egged will also pay increasing percentages of the sale as the light rail becomes increasingly profitable.
The EUR 9 million to be received by Veolia is miniscule compared to the almost EUR 5 billion of contracts that Veolia has lost around the world due to the BDS movement in the past two years, most prominently a EUR 3 billion tender in Sweden.
Finalisation of the sale requires confirmation of various Israeli authorities and the other partners in the light rail. The biggest threat to finalization of the sale, however, was liable to come from Israel's anti-trust laws, as this sale would make Egged the monopoly holder of public transportation in Jerusalem. According to AIC economist Shir Hever, "It seems probable, however, that the Israeli Anti-Trust Authority signaled it would approve the sale, most likely due to Israeli concern over the detrimental impact of the BDS campaign on the rail's burgeoning costs and never-ending delays."
Veolia has been a target of the Palestinian-led international campaign for Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) against Israel until the latter recognizes Palestinian human and national rights and fulfills its obligations under international law. Veolia has been trying to find a buyer for two years already, as a result of the boycott pressure. This political pressure has caused numerous delays in operation of the rail, which was supposed to begin functioning in 2008 and now will not begin before 2011.
#BDS: Pro-Palestine initiative urges directors to return Israeli prizes
| The Initiative of Boycott against Israel for Palestine, a Turkish civil society organization that aims to raise international awareness of a long-running blockade on Gaza and the plight of Palestinian refugees, has called on Turkish filmmakers Semih Kaplanoğlu and Reha Erdem to return the awards they won at this year’s Haifa International Film Festival. | |
The group, in an open letter sent to media outlets on Wednesday, called on Kaplanoğlu, the director of the Golden Bear award-winning drama “Bal” (Honey), to return the distribution prize his film won in the 26th Haifa film festival in September. In another open letter posted on its website, www.boykotisrail.org, the group called on Erdem to return the best film prize his film “Kosmos” won at the festival’s Golden Anchor Competition for Mediterranean Cinema, which ran from Sept. 23-30 in Israel.
Kaplanoğlu’s “Bal,” billed by the Haifa festival’s judges as a “rare cinematic poem,” had won a distribution grant in the sum of 3,000 euros, funded by France’s TV5, which was awarded to the Israeli distributor of Kaplanoğlu’s film. The judges of the competition had also praised Erdem for “creating a unique cinematic world of ideas and emotions while using a brave and idiosyncratic cinematic language” in “Kosmos.”
#BDS: Unions want ACTU to endorse protest plan against Israeli settlements
AUSTRALIAN unions are signing up to an international campaign to boycott Israeli goods.
But a fight is brewing over a proposal for the Australian Council of Trade Unions to endorse the movement.
The broad-based divestment and boycott campaign is targeting companies that profit from the Israeli settlements.
The Electrical Trades Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Queensland branch of the Rail Tram and Bus Union and the Finance Sector Union have all passed a resolution supporting the international campaign of "boycott, divestment and sanctions" (BDS) against Israel.
Communications Electrical Plumbing Union national secretary Peter Tighe told The Australianthe electrical branch of his union had adopted the resolution and he would now take it to the broader CEPU, then the ACTU.
#BDS: Another Firm Boycotts Israeli Settlements
In case you need an introduction to the whole boycott thing against Israel, I’ll repost my prompt before I get to the new news:
If Israel refused to respect Palestinian rights and national aspirations when the world was offerings carrots in the forms of international recognition, then a new tactic was to now be adopted: using sticks in the form of international isolation.
This is what BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) is about. Giving Israel the legitimacy it craves only emboldened Israeli occupation, injustices and indulgences. Being nice failed. Now BDS is doing the opposite and it is simple: Make Israel pay for its occupation and crimes and maybe this tough approach will force an Israeli reevaluation of its cruel conduct and an eventual change in its policy which will bring about real peace. If Israel sees a setback for its standing, if it is made to face consequences instead of the past naive benefit of the doubt accorded to it, if Israel is actually made to pay a felt price it is more likely to cease its condemned acts.
And the BDS movement is recording new success nearly every week. European grocery chains are de-shelfing Israeli products, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund is divesting from Israeli firms tied to the occupation, musicians from around the world are refusing to play in Israel, and so on and so forth.
Israel’s supporters arrogantly dismiss BDS, but the public show of arrogance only betrays their inner insecurities and worries about the increasing well-deserved pariah state of their nation as even a right-wing Israeli “think tank” (Reut Institute) acknowledges that BDS is working.
#BDS: Jewish group makes ADL blacklist
Anti-Defamation League published list of top 10 groups responsible for slandering Israel in US
The Anti-Defamation League published a list Thursday evening of the ten leading organizations responsible for maligning Israel in the US. Among the names is a Jewish group that claims Israel is an apartheid state.
The league also listed Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), which last July organized a protest in Chicago attended by 1,000 people who burned flags emblazoned with Stars of David and swastikas. Protestors also called on the US to "stop funding Israeli apartheid".
In addition Al-Awda, which fights for the Palestinian right of return and is the largest pro-Palestinian organization in the US, was mentioned for its "electronic intifada" – or attempts to stop Israelis from going abroad. It has also called for boycotts against the state.
Friends of Sabeel in North America, a branch of the Jerusalem based Christian Arab movement by the same name, is also on the list, along with If Americans Knew, which accuses the media of pro-Israel bias.
Also on the list is the International Solidarity Movement, whose activists are frequent visitors of Israel and which started the Free Gaza Movement, responsible along with the Turkish IHH for the May 31 flotilla, which was raided by the IDF and resulted in nine deaths.
#BDS: French Consulate protest over France's political show-trials; Cases spectacularly thrown out!
Around 30 Palestine campaigners converged on the French Consulate in Edinburgh today to protest the political show trials of Palestine solidarity activists in France. See Video
French courts have charged the human rights campaigners with “incitement to racial hatred” for taking part in the non-violent campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) called for by Palestinians to help pressure Israel to end its crimes.
Today’s protest coincides with the trial of French Green Party Senator Alima Boumediene-Thiery, and Professor Omar Slaouti, a leading member of the NPA anticapitalist party. Thiery was charged for wearing one of the now-famous green “Free Palestine – Boycott Israel” t-shirts. As a result of the state’s attempt to criminalise her principled opposition to racism, the French Green Party today debated and decided to adopt BDS and support their victimised comrade. Other groups are also doing likewise.
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