#BDS: Click here to download "Consumer Boycott" flyer for the US

#BDS: Why the Cape Opera is wrong to tour Israel

The reaction by Zionists to the appeal by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu for the Cape Town Opera to reconsider its proposed tour of Israel with Porgy and Bess echoes, unsurprisingly, what we used to hear from the apartheid regime when confronted with the cultural boycott of South Africa. His point is that it would be "unconscionable" for Cape Town Opera to perform in Israel while millions of people living there are denied access to culture and education.


Tutu said: "The Tel Aviv Opera House is state sponsored. By luring international artists to perform there, it advances Israel's fallacious claim to being a 'civilised democracy'. Yet, every day, millions of citizens are denied the right to educational and cultural opportunities in Israel and the Palestinian territories it occupies." He drew attention to the fact that people living in an occupied West Bank village 30 minutes from Tel Aviv cannot go there, while their Jewish neighbours from an illegal settlement on occupied Palestinian territory are free to do so.


Israel's reaction is the same angry defiance of world opinion which was shown by apartheid South Africa. Now it is Israel which depicts itself as the unfairly and malevolently-selected and misunderstood victim, with the added twist that the malevolence is said to be driven by anti-Semitism. Evidence of the unfairness, it is claimed, is the fact that there are other states - especially in the Middle East - with worse human rights records.


But what has Archbishop Tutu got wrong? For exclusively Jewish occupation of land, Israel has driven Palestinians from their ancestral homes. They cannot travel at will to the theatre where the Cape Town Opera plans to perform. As in the apartheid years in South Africa, they might as well live on another planet and not just down the road from the cultural life that others enjoy.

#BDS: Euromed canceled again due to Arab threat to boycott over Israel

Some 50 presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers were due to attend the summit, which now has been canceled for the third time.

An international summit of Mediterranean leaders has been canceled for the third time because Arab states threatened to boycott if Israel was invited.

French national security adviser Jean-David Levitte told his Israeli counterpart, Uzi Arad, on Tuesday that the Union for the Mediterranean conference had been called off. Arad was in the United States with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The summit was planned for November 21, in Barcelona.The foreign ministers of France, Spain and Egypt are expected to issue a formal announcement today of the cancelation.

#BDS: Israeli TV shows making it big in Hollywood

Actress Noa Tishby, senior executives in American TV industry discuss on-screen Israel-US relations

The wave of adaptations of Israeli shows for the international markets has inundated the world, bringing a much needed boost to the Israeli television and film industry. Only last week, Israeli channel 10 announced the sale of successful TV show "The Naked Truth" to HBO, and the show "Tall and Greenbaum" which hasn't even aired in Israel, received the green light to produce a pilot for the ABC network. The next US television season will also include an adaptation of the Israeli show "Ramzor", which will be known as "Mixed Signals".

Last week, Israeli animated series for adults, Middletown which is being developed by media giant Technicolor joined the ranks of shows purchased for US television and like Israeli show Naor's friends it will be adapted to suit American audiences through Israeli-American company Operating Room, which represents Israeli screenwriters in the US market, helping them to develop American formats of Israeli shows.

#BDS: Study: Israeli innovation contributes $2.4B to Massachusetts economy

Economic minister to North America says, 'When Israeli entrepreneurs look to globalize, they seek out places where there is an abundant workforce with higher education degrees'

A groundbreaking study released recently at the New England-Israel Business Council’s 2010 Life Sciences Summit at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts revealed the scope and impact of Israeli related businesses on the Massachusetts economy.

The new study, “The Massachusetts-Israel Economic Relationship,” conducted by Stax Inc., an independent global strategy consulting firm, shows the impact of Israeli innovation and entrepreneurship on the Commonwealth’s economy, and underscores the importance of Israeli relations to the state, especially in the area of life sciences and high-tech.

Highlights of the study include:

• Nearly 100 companies in Massachusetts are founded by Israelis or offer products based on Israeli technology.

• These businesses generated $2.4 billion in direct revenue in Massachusetts in 2009.

• In total, the direct and indirect revenue impact on the Massachusetts economy was $7.8 billion.

• From an employment perspective, these businesses directly generated 5,920 jobs in Massachusetts.

• Some 50% of these businesses focus on information technology, 29% are in life sciences, and the remainder in other industries.