Feb 28, 2011

#BDS: Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has role in Israel's apartheid

"Pro-Palestinian advocacy group calls for boycott, protests of Israeli orchestra's tour, saying ensemble 'diverts attention from Israel's oppression of Palestinians'

Pro-Palestinian attempts to disrupt the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra's annual US tour have caused the ensemble to reinforce its security measures, Ynet has learned.

Blog posts and e-mail messages circulated the web over the past few weeks, calling American music lovers to boycott the orchestra's performances.  

Adalah-NY, an organization advocating for the rights of Palestinians, has announced that demonstrations are to be staged by its supporters in front of the orchestra's concert venues across the United States."

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#BDS: Another BDS Success: Folk Music Legend Pete Seeger Endorses Boycott of Israel

"Folk music legend Pete Seeger has come out in support of the growing Palestinian movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel as a program for justice for Palestinians and a route to peace in the Middle East.

Seeger, 92, participated in last November’s online virtual rally “With Earth and Each Other,” sponsored by the Arava Institute, an Israeli environmental organization, and by the Friends of the Arava Institute. The Arava Institute counts among its close partners and major funders the Jewish National Fund, responsible since 1901 for securing land in Palestine for the use of Jews only while dispossessing Palestinians. Although groups in the worldwide BDS movement had requested he quit the event, Seeger felt that he could make a strong statement for peace and justice during the event."

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#BDS: Israel and Cultural Normalization



  • American filmmakers Joel and Ethan Cohen to receive Dan David Prize on behalf of Tel Aviv University.


  • Actor Verne Troyer of 'Austin Powers' concludes five-day trip to Israel with visit to Jerusalem holy site.






#BDS: Once again, Israel uses sports to whitewash it's crimes


  • Israeli president visits Real Madrid players during training session, receives shirt with his name on it from captain Iker Casillas.



  • In effort to strengthen relations with Indian expats, ambassador announces cricket tournament just like one in Israeli movie. 'There is nothing quite like a game of cricket to bring people together,' says embassy spokesman.


  • Israel will play host to two international cycling competitions this spring, showcasing the unique and diverse terrain of this small Mediterranean nation.





Feb 27, 2011

#BDS: مصر: وزير البترول الجديد عضو مجلس إدارة شركة توريد الغاز لإسرائيل


حصلت «المصري اليوم» على وثيقة جديدة تتعلق بشركة شرق المتوسط للغاز EMG، وهى الشركة التي أسسها «حسين سالم» المليونير المصري، صديق الرئيس السابق «مبارك»، لتزويد إسرائيل بالغاز الطبيعي المصري في صفقة أثارت – ولا تزال تثير- الكثير من الجدل.
تكشف هذه الوثيقة آخر تشكيل لمجلس إدارة شركة EMG، وهو التشكيل الذي تم اعتماده اعتباراً من بداية عام 2008 بعد قيام «سالم» ببيع أجزاء من حصته في الشركة لمستثمر أمريكي وجزء آخر لشركةPPTالتايلاندية، حيث أصبحت ملكية الشركة موزعة بين حسين سالم والشركة التايلاندية، و«سام زيل» الأمريكى، والقابضة للغاز المصرية و«يوسي ميمان» وشركة ميرهاف الإسرائيلية.
أولى المفاجآت التي تكشف عنها الوثيقة هي وجود المهندس «محمود لطيف» في مجلس إدارة شركة EMG، وهو الرجل الذي تولى مسؤولية وزارة البترول منذ أيام خلفاً للمهندس سامح فهمي، ويتواجد «لطيف» فى المجلس ممثلاً للهيئة العامة للبترول والشركة القابضة للغازات.
أما المفاجأة الثانية فهي أن رئيس مجلس إدارة الشركة التي تورد الغاز لإسرائيل هو المهندس محمد إبراهيم الطويلة، ووجه المفارقة أن «الطويلة» كان المدير التنفيذي للهيئة العامة للبترول، الذي قام بتوقيع العقد الأساسي من الجانب المصري، وبعدها خرج من منصبه ليعمل في الشركة التي منحها التعاقد في وضع به تعارض واضح للمصلحة، لينضم هذا اللغز إلى باقي الألغاز التي تحيط بعقد توريد الغاز إلى إسرائيل.
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#BDS: Palestinian Queers for BDS: It Is Your Business


#BDS: Boycott roundup: Palestinians protest Canada's ties with JNF


"As part of a regular feature, The Electronic Intifada reports on the latest developments of the Palestinian-led global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli violations of human rights and policies of apartheid. 

This week, a campaign was expanded in Europe against grocery items made in Israeli settlements; the Israel Philharmonic's tour in the US is dogged by protests; and Palestinian queer activists are imploring international queer artists and academics to take a stand in solidarity.

Palestinians protest Canada's relationship with JNF

Palestinians held a vigil outside the Canadian representative offices in Ramallah on Monday, 21 February, protesting Canada's ongoing relationship with the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The protesters urged the Canadian government to break ties with the Israeli land institution, which has been a driving force behind the continued expulsion of Palestinians from their lands since 1948.

Ma'an News Agency reported that the demonstration included members of families exiled from villages in the Latrun area near Jerusalem, which were ethnically cleansed in 1967 by the Israeli army at the onset of its military occupation of the West Bank. The JNF, which has charitable status in Canada, built Canada Park on the villages' lands ("Latrun villagers protest Canada-Jewish National Fund relations," 21 February 2011)."

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#BDS: The Israeli Occupation and Sports

Those who believe that sports and politics do not mix cannot see beyond their noses. Israel uses culture, academy, art, music, sports, [you name it!] to whitewash its brutal crimes against the Palestinian people. When it comes to to Israel, everything has to do with politics.


"Players like Ma'ly Kawre' and Balatah starlet Abdelhamid Abuhabeeb have been refused travel permits more than once in the past six months. Gaza, a hotbed of footballing talent hasn't been able to contribute new players to the national team setup for nearly four years. The Gazans that do make it out end up not being able to travel back to Gaza to see their families. Suleiman Obeid's mother died this past October and he hadn't been able to see her for over a year due to travel restrictions. These are all incidents that occurred within the calendar year. If you want to go back a couple of years Israel has been responsible for canceling an Asian Cup qualifier and a World Cup qualifier with their travel restrictions. We couldn't compete in the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008 due to travel restrictions. The list goes on and on.


Pe'er was allowed to compete in the Dubai Open and the Qatar Open this year probably due to all the bad press it suffered in 2009. But it's hard to demand things from other Arab sporting bodies when your own is so intent on shooting itself in the foot.

Instead of bringing to light the problems our athletes face, FA and Olympic President Jibril Rajoub was busy schmoozing with his Israeli counterpart. In the midst of his athletes being refused travel by Israel, Rajoub gave Israel the perfect PR opportunity to whitewash its discriminatory policies. (note: All this was happening WHILE Palestinian athletes were being denied the right to travel).

For some reason the outside world thinks that Pe'er playing in Qatar or Dubai is seen as some step towards peace. Which is perhaps the most myopic observation in the history of mankind. How can an athlete be expected to bridge the divide when while she is lobbing tennis balls Israel is killing Palestinians with little or no recourse? How can this be a step towards positive, equitable, and normal relations between two people when the athlete is forced to hide out in her hotel room all day?

These sort of "sports brings people together" moments happen only AFTER peace and justice are secured. There are many examples: South Africa's 1995 Rugby Team, Germany's 1990 World Cup Team, and Vlade Divac (a Serb) visiting the grave of his former FYR Yugoslavia teammate Drazen Petrovic (a Croat) in the documentary Once Brothers."

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Feb 26, 2011

#BDS: Why Faithless are giving Israel a miss

"In December 2010 British electronic group Faithless’s lead singer Maxi Jazz wrote a note on his website to “family and friends of the band in Israel”. 

He said: “We’ve been asked to do some shows this summer in your country and, with the heaviest of hearts, I have regretfully declined the invitation. While human beings are being willfully denied not just their rights but their needs for their children and grandparents and themselves, I feel deeply that I should not be sending even tacit signals that this is either ‘normal’ or ‘ok’.”

This adds Faithless to a lengthening list of artists, including Elvis Costello, the Pixies and the Gorillaz, who have refused to perform in Israel while it occupies parts of the Palestinian territories.

But the decision was not unanimous, said guitarist Dave Randall, in an interview with the Mail & Guardian. “Not everyone agreed that it was the right time to boycott Israel,” he said.

“Some of the views expressed were that our fans were from the more progressive part of larger society. But, no matter how progressive your fans are, a concert on that scale goes beyond those people. You are in effect saying it’s quite acceptable for business to continue as usual, which it is not.

“The other key reason for the boycott is that the Palestinian people on the oppressed end have themselves called for a boycott.”

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#BDS: أسبوع مقاومة الأبارتهايد الإسرائيلي


للسنة السابعة على التوالي، تحي مجموعات مختلفة في أنحاء العالم فعاليات أسبوع مقاومة الأبارتهايد الإسرائيلي، للتثقيف حول سياسات وممارسات إسرائيل العنصرية والتي تؤثر على الشعب الفلسطيني بمكوناته الثلاثة– في أراضي الـ67 والـ48 والشتات، ولدعم الحملة العالمية لمقاطعة إسرائيل والتي تستند لنداء المجتمع المدني الفلسطيني لمقاطعة إسرائيل وسحب الإستثمارات منها وفرض العقوبات عليها (BDS). 
لقد لاقت فعاليات الأسبوع نجاحاً واهتماماً واسعين في السنوات السابقة، حيث شاركت فيها أكثر من 60 مدينة من جميع أنحاء العالم خلال العام المنصرم. كما أصبح أسبوع مقاومة الأبارتهايد الإسرائيلي مرجعية للإبداع والتجديد وتوحيد النضال من أجل كافة الحقوق الفلسطينية، حيث تعددت و تنوعت نشاطات الأسبوع لتشمل عرض الأفلام والمحاضرات والنشاطات الثقافية والمظاهرات وكتابة العرائض والبيانات

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Feb 25, 2011

#BDS: Apartheid: From South Africa to Israel





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#BDS: BDS Day of Action – March 30, 2011

"Commemorate Land Day 2011 by Joining the Global BDS Day of Action

30 March 2011
The BDS National Committee (BNC) is calling on you to unite in your different capacities and struggles to join the Global BDS Day of Action on Land Day, 30 March 2011, in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s right to self determination on their ancestral land.
Inspired and buoyed by the popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia and their unique manifestation of courage, dignity, civility and determination, we stand resolutely with worldwide struggles for self determination, freedom, democracy, social justice and equality, and we call for intensifying BDS actions globally as the main form of solidarity with Palestinian rights.

The Palestinian Land Day commemorates the day in 1976 when Israeli military forces shot and killed six young Palestinian citizens of Israel. These brave youth were among thousands protesting the Israeli government’s expropriation of Palestinian land to build new Jewish-only colonies and expand existing ones. Today, Land Day symbolizes Palestinian resistance to Israel’s ongoing land expropriation, colonization, occupation and apartheid. We salute and stand with the similarly popular and determined Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings, confirming that struggles for freedom, justice and equal rights everywhere are one. To the people of Tunisia and Egypt we say: “Your struggle is ours, as ours is yours. Your freedom is ours, as ours is yours.”

At this time, we are also reminded of the 20th anniversary of the failed attempts that started in Madrid in 1991 to make peacewithout justice and human rights. The recently revealed “Palestine Papers” have confirmed beyond any doubt what has already been known to many: Israel refuses to comply with international law and rejects all forms of just peace, regardless of any steep concessions offered by unelected and unrepresentative Palestinian officials. As in the heroic struggle for freedom and against apartheid in South Africa, it is evident today that only sustained, effective and morally consistent international pressure — especially in the form of creative, context-sensitive BDS campaigns — can compel Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and respect Palestinian rights, foremost among which is our right to self determination and freedom.

Inspired by a century of Palestinian civil resistance, the South African anti-apartheid movement, and the intifada of the Egyptian and Tunisian peoples, the BNC calls on people of conscience all over the world to join the global BDS Day of Action through engaging in effective, creative and visible actions. We specifically call on you to:
1. Launch and support divestment initiatives to encourage and pressure individuals, pension funds, institutions and corporations to shed their investments in Israel in order to feed and profit from Israel’s war, occupation and apartheid economy;
2.      Take initiatives to boycott products and services of Israeli and international corporations that sustain Israel’s apartheid, colonialism and occupation;
3.      Pursue legal action towards ending Israel’s impunity, including by investigating and prosecuting  in national courts and international tribunals Israeli war criminals and corporations that are complicit in Israeli violations of international law.
4.      Urge artists to join the spectacularly growing cultural boycott of Israel by refusing to provide a cultural fig leaf for Israeli apartheid. Artists and cultural figures in South Africa, Ireland, the UK, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, India, Australia, the U.S., Brazil, Norway, Sweden, among others, have heeded the PACBI-led and internationally endorsed call for a cultural boycott, thus sending a clear message to Israel that its occupation and discrimination against Palestinians are unacceptable. Far from being “above politics,” many in the cultural world now recognize, Israeli cultural institutions play a key role in the “Brand Israel” campaign of the Israeli foreign ministry, aimed at diverting attention from and whitewashing Israel’s colonial policies and war crimes;
5.      Initiate and promote incremental academic boycott initiatives leading to termination of all institutional links with Israeli universities: including petitions, statements and awareness raising campaigns to highlight the role played by these academic institutions in planning, justifying and perpetuating the state’s colonial and apartheid policies."
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#BDS: Madrid protests Israeli visit, urge ban

"Hundreds of demonstrators in Spain have protested a visit by Israeli President Shimon Peres, calling for the immediate lifing of the siege on Gaza by the Tel Aviv regime.


Human rights associations and Palestinian living in Madrid were among the protesters gathered in front of the ministry of foreign affairs on Thursday, calling on the EU to impose sanctions on the regime and to boycott Israeli companies.

Protesters also demanded that Peres testify in court and be held accountable for last May's deadly Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound freedom Flotilla and its massive violations of human rights against the Palestinian people, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Spain's Prime Minister Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told Peres that his country was ready to expand strategic ties with Israel beyond issues regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Demonstrators were chanting slogans such as “Peres the murderer,” “free Palestine” and “Zapatero accomplice of a criminal.” 

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#BDS: Action Alert: NY LGBT Center Cancels Israel Apartheid Week Event

Courtesy of Pinkwatching Israel:


"The New York LGBT Center caved to pressure mounted by “genocide pornographer” Michael Lucas to cancel an event by Israel Apartheid Week organizers originally scheduled for March 5th. Lucas vowed to target the center’s donors to force them to cancel. This tactic, unfortunately, worked.


What Michael Lucas and the NY LGBT Center don’t know is that there is a growing movement of progressive queers who understand how and why queerness is directly implicated in Israel’s PR strategy to shift attention away from its brutal occupation of Palestine and its continuing annexation of Palestinian land. The Center should take note of what happened during Toronto Pride 2009, when organizers also attempted to silence Queer anti-apartheid activists and prevent them from participating in the march. They lost – because people refuse to be silenced, because people refuse to buy Israel’s insulting lies any longer.


It is time to fight back again and let the NY LGBT Center know that their decision is ill-informed and discriminatory. Sign the petition here."

#BDS: McEwan's criticism appears hypocritical

"After rejecting the Palestinian call to boycott the state-sponsored Jerusalem PrizeIan McEwan has massaged his conscience by demonstrating against home demolitions in East Jerusalem, criticisingIsrael in his acceptance speech, and donating his prize money to an Israeli-Palestinian peace group (Report, February 20). Should his detractors, as your correspondent David Halpin (Letters, February 22) suggests, now "eat their words"? We think not. Had McEwan refused the prize, protested in Jerusalem at his own expense, and attacked not Israel's "nihilism" but its colonialist zeal, his own words of condemnation would have had integrity and bite.
As it is, McEwan has given Mayor Nir Barkat a golden platform for his outrageous views. Jerusalem is not a city where all may "express themselves in a free way". Activists are arrested and deported, while racist internal laws allow the municipality to flout the Geneva convention by creating illegal settlements – a policy designed to prevent East Jerusalem from becoming the capital of a Palestinian state. To criticise these settlements while accepting the laurels of those who build them appears rank hypocrisy. Likewise, McEwan declares it is "urgent to keep talking" (Report, February 18), yet after his one official defence of his position (Letters, January 26), he has ignored all public and private requests to continue this debate. So much for courtesy, dialogue and engagement."
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#BDS: McEwan's lousy acceptance speech, and reasons to be be cautiously optimistic

"Ian McEwan went to Jerusalem, shook the hands of apartheid officers, hobnobbed with war criminals, and gave a lousyacceptance speech, though I must admit not as lousy as the petulant and self-indulgent comic relief delivered last year by Margaret Atwood and Amitav Gosh after they collected their tainted million dollar. As you'll remember, Atwood and Gosh dedicated their acceptance speech to criticizing those who dared interfere with their sacred right to be given money, and compared their predicament to that of writers tortured and imprisoned for their writings. McEwan, while clearly unhappy about being so inconvenienced, calibrated his speech to appease the criticism and at least tried to prove he was not, as he was in fact, mollycoddling apartheid.

McEwan is an imperial liberal who believes passionately in the supremacy of European culture. Of course, perish the thought that he would define it that way. He would rather call it "secularism", or "rationalism", or whatever. But it is what it is. He is not therefore the first person one would turn to for supporting an anti-colonial struggle. Just listen to how he describes, in Jerusalem, the uprising in Egypt:
When Egyptians decide en masse to reform their society and think constructively, and take responsibility for their nation into their own hands, they will be less inclined to blame outsiders for all their misfortunes.
Because of course, Egyptian misfortunes have nothing to do with outsiders. Nobody poured billions of dollars into Egypt each year for forty years to maintain a brutal and tyrannical regime. Nobody feted and embraced Mubarak for the way he starved his people for the benefit of global neoliberal accumulation. It was all the fault of Egyptians who failed the test of maturity administered by the white man. They did not "take responsibility" for their fate. They were not "constructive." Maybe, of course that is exactly what McEwan implies in this formulation, they deserved tyranny."

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#BDS: What if we all cared enough to free Palestine?

WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE




Feb 24, 2011

#BDS: Call for an international campaign to Stop the Jewish National Fund

[العربية -- Español -- Français]


"The Jewish National Fund (JNF)[1] was instrumental in the ethnic cleansing[2] of Palestine in the 1948 Nakba, and continues to play a central role in maintaining Israel's regime of apartheid.[3] The JNF provided political, financial and intelligence[4] support for the Zionist forces in their conquest, massacres and ethnic cleansing operations that characterized the 1948-49 war and the Palestinian Nakba. Today, the JNF controls vast properties belonging to millions of Palestinians, developing them exclusively for persons of “Jewish nationality,” a concept established and promoted in the JNF’s charter to exclude all others.
The JNF was created in 1901 to acquire land and property rights in Palestine and beyond for exclusive Jewish settlement. While indigenous Palestinians are barred from leasing[5], building on, managing or working their own land, the JNF holds the land in trust for “those of Jewish race or descendency” living anywhere in the world to “promote the interests of Jews in the prescribed region.”[6]
To ensure such racist control over the majority of confiscated Palestinian lands, Israel adopted the JNF model of discriminatory land management as official state policy. In 1953, the Israeli Knesset legislated special status for JNF, enabling it to carry out governmental functions as a Zionist institution (“for Jews only”). The JNF continues to operate as a state-chartered organization[7] under Israeli law with direct control over some thirteen percent of the land in pre-1967 Israel. Further, the JNF appoints six out of thirteen members of the governing board of the Israel Lands Authority (ILA), which manages the JNF’s thirteen percent, in addition to another eighty percent of all land in Israel. It is through this relationship with the JNF that Israel, while portraying itself as the only democracy in the Middle East, in fact, outsources the land-management functions of the state to this discriminatory state-chartered organization.
After the 1948 Nakba and the expulsion of approximately two-thirds of the Palestinian population from their homeland, the JNF was repackaged as an environmentalist organization carrying out forestation activities. The JNF's forests, parks and recreational facilities, planted and built on the ruins of hundreds of destroyed and depopulated Palestinian villages, have critically served to veil from public view the continuing official Israeli attempts to erase the traces of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The JNF is thus fundamentally complicit in the denial of displaced Palestinians' rights to return, restitution and compensation, and in green-washing Israel's regime of apartheid, colonization and occupation."
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#BDS: Chilean miners: Don't allow Israel to exploit your suffering

"Representatives of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, the official host of the eight day visit by the Chilean miners who survived a record 69 days underground following an August 2010 cave-in at the San Jose copper-gold mine, refused entry to to Connie Hackbarth, Executive Director of the Alternative Information Center (AIC). Officials told her that only journalists formally recognized by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) were permitted to attend the press conference, and then only if they had received invitations via the GPO and confirmed their attendance. Hackbarth’s comments about the crucial importance of independent journalists, as clearly seen recently in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya, were ignored and she was told not to be “ideological” and “to stop wasting (our) time”.

Despite Israeli government assurances that the visit by the Chilean miners would not be a “circus”, the massive presence of “official” journalists at the press conference and the planned conduct of a private party for Castellano-language journalists on 24 February clearly demonstrate Israeli intentions: to derive the maximum public relations benefit from the visit.

Chile is home to the largest Palestinian community outside of the Middle East, numbered at some 300,000.

Numerous Palestinian civil society organizations requested the miners not to accept Israel’s invitation to visit, or to combine it with a visit to the occupied Palestinian Territory with Palestinian guides."

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#BDS: Israel organizes a speaking tour in the US to counter Apartheid Week

I wonder how much these 'volunteers' are paid:


"Group of young Israelis, chosen by Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs to go on a speaking tour of the US.

As Israeli Apartheid Week nears, the government on Monday unveiled its latest initiative aimed at debunking the 'analogy' made by Palestinian supporters between the Jewish state and minority rule in South Africa.

At a reception at the Knesset, the Public Diplomacy Ministry presented a diverse group of about 20 volunteer speakers consisting of Arabs, gay rights activists, Ethiopian Jews and a former MTV presenter who will tour campuses in North America later this month highlighting Israeli society’s pluralism.

Yuli Edelstein (Likud), the minister of public diplomacy and Diaspora affairs, said the aim was not to defend the government’s policies per se, but rather to demonstrate the country’s democratic and egalitarian values."

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#BDS: BART Riders say no to racist doublespeak in our subway stations


Culture jammers target ads, like the one above, blaming Palestinians for violence in the Palestine-Israel region.


More photos here



#BDS: Protesters picket Portland event launching an Oregon-Israel business alliance

photo2.jpg

"About 20 protesters demanding rights for Palestinians picketed Tuesday outside the Portland launch of an organization formed to boost business between Oregon and Israel.
Former Gov. Ted Kulongoski spoke to more than twice that number at theOregon-Israel Business Alliancekickoff inside the University of Oregon White Stag Building in Old Town. Kulongoski, who led a trade mission to Israel last year near the end of his term, favors increased dealings with Israel.
Outside, protester Steve Kerpen held a sign that said "Stop funding Israeli apartheid." Kerpen, of Portland, said he saw Israelis mistreating Palestinians during a visit to the West Bank in May. "I'm Jewish, but I've seen what's happening," Kerpen said. "It just seems a horrible thing to support a country that does this to its citizens."
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#BDS: An open letter to Queer academics, artists, and activists

"Dear queers, academics, artists and activists,
Some of you might be planning a visit to Israel to participate, and maybe even support, queer, cultural or academic events. Some of you might be visiting for religious or personal reasons, or perhaps simply out of curiosity. While an invitation to Israel might seem flattering and exciting, we hope that – before taking a stand and booking that flight – you read the following open letter, written by Palestinian queers, activists, academics and artists, to queers, activists, academics and artists around the world.
We are determined to inform every person wishing to travel to Israel on the political and social realities of life in Israel/Palestine. “Occupation,” “Palestinians,” “Gaza,” “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” “boycott,” and “refugees” are not terms you would come across in flyers, itineraries, and travel brochures promoting Israel; yet, these words define the daily lives of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. As Palestinians and as queers, these words have shaped our history and continue to determine our future.
Some of you might feel that boycotting Israel would be too one-sided for such a complex conflict. You might think that it is too controversial. Some of you are probably wondering whether this boycott movement is actually effective. To start the conversation, we put together background information on BDS and Israel/Palestine; and we also encourage you to get in touch and explore with us any questions or issues you might have with BDS. Our aim is for every person to have a historically-informed understanding of Israel/Palestine, and for every queer, academic, artist, and activist to support the Palestinian civil society’s call for BDS."
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