Oct 19, 2010

#BDS: دعوات لمقاطعة قمة السياحة بالقدس


دعت السلطة الوطنية الفسلطينية إلى مقاطعة قمة السياحة التي تنظمها منظمة التعاون الاقتصادي والتنمية في القدس المحتلة هذا الأسبوع، في حين رحبت إسرائيل بقرار انعقاد القمة.
وطالب كبير المفاوضين الفلسطينيين صائب عريقات المجتمع الدولي بمقاطعة القمة، وقال إن إسرائيل تسعى من خلال تنظيمها إلى الحصول على اعتراف دولي بحكم الأمر الواقع لضمها غير المشروع للقدس الشرقية.
ودعا عريقات الدول المدعوة إلى "إلغاء مشاركتها والتبرؤ من أفعال إسرائيل غير القانونية، احتجاجا على احتلال القدس الشرقية".
وصدرت أيضا نفس الدعوة عن الجامعة العربية الأسبوع الماضي التي قالت إنها تنظر إلى قرار انعقاد القمة في القدس "بقلق شديد".
ترحيب إسرائيليأما الجانب الإسرائيلي فقد رحب بقرار منظمة التعاون الاقتصادي والتنمية اختيار القدس المحتلة مكانا لانعقاد القمة.
وقال وزير السياحة الإسرائيلي تاس ميسيجنيكوف للصحفيين إن هذا اللقاء الهام بين مسؤولي السياحة من مختلف دول العالم يجب أن يبقى بعيدا عن السياسة، وأضاف أن 28 وفدا أكدوا مشاركتهم حتى الآن.
وأضاف الوزير -الذي ينتمي إلى الحزب المتشدد "إسرائيل بيتنا"- أنه ليس لديه علم بمقاطعة أي دولة للقمة، ونأى بنفسه عن تصريحات سابقة له بشأن وضع القدس.
وأكد أنه لم يقل قط إن "هذه القمة تهدف إلى الاعتراف بالقدس عاصمة لإسرائيل"، غير أن قرار انعقادها في إسرائيل "يظهر أن المنظمة ترى أن البلد مهم على الصعيد الاقتصادي والسياحي".

#BDS: كندا تعلن مقاطعتها لمؤتمر السياحة المزمع عقده في القدس

بيت لحم- معا- اعلنت مفوضية العلاقات الدولية لحركة فتح, ان كندا قررت مقاطعة مؤتمر السياحة المستدامة الذي تعقده منظمة التعاون والتنمية الاقتصادية الدولية بالقدس في العشرين والحادي والعشرين من الشهر الحالي.

واوضحت المفوضية في بيان لها وصل "معا" نسخة عنه، "ان السفير الكندي قد بعث برسالة رد الى الدكتور نبيل شعث عضو اللجنة المركزية لحركة فتح مفوض العلاقات الدولية, اعلن فيها عدم مشاركة بلاده في مؤتمر السياحة بالقدس".

وقال السفير الكندي في رسالته إن "عقد المؤتمر في القدس لم يكن ليغير من موقف بلده شيئا" موضحا ان موقف كندا من القدس هو معروف ويبقى كما هو "لن تعترف كندا بالقدس كعاصمة لاسرائيل".

واكد السفير ان بلاده تعتبر الضفة الغربية والقدس الشرقية وقطاع غزة ومرتفعات الجولان مناطق محتلة, مشددا على ان الموقف الكندي يرى ان وضع القدس يجب ان يحل من خلال المفاوضات.

#BDS: 'Why Israel only' is tired and hypocritical

Robert Fine's piece "Blame Game won't lead us to peace" (October 8), commenting on the rather tepid University of Jo'burg senate resolution to the call by (now more than 270) South African academics, including the vice-chancellors of three South African universities to end its apartheid-era relationship with Ben Gurion University, raises some interesting points.

Desmond Tutu is indirectly, but not so subtly, accused of anti-Semitism because he warns that those who support the severance of ties may lose research funding and, at the same time, urges Jews not to forget their own past as victims of discrimination.

Tutu does not say who might withdraw research funding, so he is not trotting out some canard about "Jewish money power".

He is making the (clearly accurate) statement that opposition to Israeli policies is not popular among those who dole out research money (mostly in Europe and the United States) and that people critical of Israel can be, and often are, penalised. Those who do the penalising are not necessarily Jewish -- most are probably not.

And to ask Jews to remember their past is hardly anti-Semitic. Jewish activists do this all the time.

During apartheid, it was common for liberal Jews to say that their fellow Jews should empathise with the oppressed because Jews had the same experience: no one except the right-wing fringe accused them of being anti-Semitic or "self-hating".


#BDS: A Close Look at the Pro-Israeli Lobbies inside Britain

The US is considered by many as the backbone of Israel and the mother of many evils in Middle East. With the presence of various pro-Israeli lobbies and pressure groups rallying around the corridors of power in Washington to press their case, they have been highly successful not only in setting the agenda in favour of Israel, but also makes sure that the Palestine voice is not heard. Many believe that this is a typical phenomenon in Washington and hence an internal issue of the United States. But the pro-Israeli lobbies are a decisive factor in most European countries and its influence is felt manifold in Britain.

These pro-Israeli lobbies are a coalition of wealthy individuals and organizations who actively work to shape British foreign policy in a pro-Israeli direction. Though the percentage of British Jews who wholeheartedly support the pro-Israeli lobby in very minimal, they have been highly successful in portraying their cause to be of great concern to the majority of the Jewish community. The lobbies has got great influence and access to all major parties including the Labour and Conservative to the extent that they shape the foreign policy the United Kingdom, much as their counterparts in the United States.

Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) is one of the most active lobbying groups in UK with major stakes in the Conservative Party. In 2009, few months after Israel’s brutal Operation Cast Lead that saw more than 1200 Palestinians killed and many thousands injured, Conservative Friends of Israel held its Annual Lunch for its Conservative politicians and businessmen. David Cameroon who was star speaker for the day made no reference to the widespread killing of innocent civilians and massive destruction in Gaza that happened six months earlier. Instead he praised Israel and commented that Israel strives to protect innocent life. Thanks to the estimated £10 million bankrolled in the last eight years to the Conservative Party, Mr. Cameroon continued to say that ‘if I became Prime Minister, Israel has a friend who will never turn his back on Israel.’

#BDS: From Sharpeville to Gaza: 5 years since the Palestinian call for BDS

    080606-kimberley-gaza
    Friday October 22nd 7pmUniversité du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Salle Marie-Gérin-Lajoie405 st Catherine eastpavillion Judith-Jasmin(metro Berri-UQAM)
featuring
Omar Barghouti
founder Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel –
PACBI
representative Congress of South African Trade Unions – COSATU
Since 2005’s historic Palestinian call for a comprehensive, international movement for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid, we have seen many important victories for this movement in both Québec and Canada. Now is the time to reflect on the successes of the BDS movement in Quebec and Canada to date and to consolidate and intensify our efforts in solidarity with the people of Palestine, who continue to suffer under the brutal system of Israeli apartheid.

#BDS: OECD delegation to skip E. Jerusalem sites to avoid conflict

Tourism minister says he doesn't want this week's OECD conference to become political; Palestinians urge OECD members to boycott the meeting.

Under international pressure, Israel has decided not to take visiting tourism officials to Jerusalem's most famous holy sites because they are located in the disputed part of the city.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said he doesn't want this week's meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to become political.
That means his counterparts will miss the Dome of the Rock, Western Wall and other holy sites which are located in east Jerusalem - the section of the city Palestinians hope to make their capital.

#BDS: Erdogan to boycott Mediterranean conference if Netanyahu shows

Turkish PM slams Israel over IDF raid on a Gaza-bound ship in which nine Turkish activists were killed, says he doesn't want to talk to a PM who supports such actions.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not want to talk with his Israeli counterpart and will not attend a climate change conference in Athens on Friday if Benjamin Netanyahu is there, he told Greece's Skai TV on Monday.
Turkey, once a close ally of Israel, has become a sharp critic since nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound ship in May.

#BDS: A song of sorrow from Gaza dedicated to Guns N’ Roses

A song of sorrow from Gaza dedicated to Guns N’ Roses

Amira crawled on her hands and feet in the Tal el Hawa area of Gaza City after her house and family were bombed by F-16s during the last Israeli war against Palestinian civilians in Gaza. She remained without shelter for three days under the bombs before someone was capable of pulling her out. She was just in her early teens.

Nadia sat on the sand and dust that was once her house in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood. She grabbed the earth between her hands as she cried for justice for the killing of her mother and sister during the Israeli destruction of an entire neighbourhood, resulting in the wiping out of almost the entire Samouni extended family.

Nadia’s cousin, Farah, was sheltering with her family under the staircase of their house when Israeli soldiers broke into their home and ordered them to leave it, and when they did, those soldiers cold-bloodedly shot at them from atop the roof, killing Farah and injuring her family.

Adham was feeding his uncle’s pigeons on the roof of his house in Beit Lehiya on the afternoon of the 4th of January when Israeli troops stationed on top of a house in the Israa’ neighbourhood shot several bullets into his chest, neck and forehead.

314 children under the age of 18 were killed and 1,600 were injured. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), 924 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel since the outbreak of the Second Intifada, more than a quarter of that number is composed of the child casualties of the Gaza 2009 massacre. Each day an average of 13 children were shot, bombed, burnt by F-16s, F-35s, F-15s, Apache helicopters, Merkava tanks, Sniper surveillance planes, flechette shells, white phosphorous and naval gunboats to the point that they were no longer recognizable as children or human beings. Our homes were levelled, our schools and universities ruined, and our mosques and churches wilfully targeted.

There are 314 more children whose stories have been buried with what remained from their bodies. All you have heard about was a triple-digit number flashing in white
on a flat screened television. Or as you sang in Civil War, “For the Love of God and Human Rights, All these things are swept aside, By bloody hands time can’t deny… when [they are] fighting for their promised land.”

Your music has spread timelessly from one culture to the other, influencing, healing, and inspiring, and it was Nietzsche who said that life without music would be a mistake—for what could be more expressive of our humanity? When you go to Israel, and sing to the audience that will be mostly soldiers or previous soldiers that served in a terrorist army, will you tell them to

Look at the shoes [they’re] filling
Look at the blood [they’re] spilling
Look at the world [they’re] killing
The way [they]'ve always done before
?

We don’t need any more Israeli wars against humanity. We don’t want activists to be shot four times in the face as Israeli soldiers did to the Turkish American peace activist and student Furkan Dogan aboard the humanitarian aid ship Mavi Marmara last June. When Israel kills Palestinian civilians and the world does nothing, its people debase their humanity. The massacre that happened on that boat to Gaza is just a microcosm of what Palestinians face everyday in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, not to mention the third class citizenry of Israel, as it implements racist laws and carries out a continuous process of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians of 1948, in an apartheid process comparable to that which exited for decades in South Africa.

We want courageous, brave, conscientious artists, writers, intellectuals, and influential people to join us against the largest destructive nuclear power in the region, the continuation of the ideology of the racist, apartheid South African era.

We ask you to stand against the arrogance and vanity of this apartheid state, just like the audacious Elvis Costello, Gil Scot-Heron, the Klaxions and Gorillaz Sound System, the Pixies, Carlos Santana, and David Banhart did.

Do not entertain apartheid!

Besieged Gaza;
Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)