Jan 8, 2011

#BDS: Israel giving lessons in oppression to China

"Israeli army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu recently returned from a trip to China where he met with his Chinese counterparts and other officials. The goal was to deepen Sino-Israeli ties on political, security and military levels. This is only the latest in a burgeoning security relationship between Israel and China that includes drone technology, crowd control training, surveillance, intelligence gathering and more. This raises the question of how China's official support for Palestinian self-determination will coincide with its ongoing procurement of the tools of Palestinian pacification. Similarly, how does it threaten the rights of Uighurs, Tibetans, and others under the control of the Chinese state by bringing Israel's apparatuses of occupation and apartheid?

China, in recent years, has faced growing rebellions in Tibet, East Turkestan, and most prominently in the ongoing labor unrest focused in China's south where strikes and protests are occurring at an unprecedented rate. Despite attempts at controlling what information comes and goes, the Chinese government has learned that complete suppression is impossible. Its political relationships with Uighurs, Tibetans and especially workers are different than that of Israel to Palestinians. Tibetans and Uighurs have certain protected statuses and rights both as minorities and as Chinese citizens, and the state, since 2008, has been supportive to a degree of improving workplace conditions and reducing the income gap in favor of the protesting working class."



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#BDS: Activists push for ‘BDS’ in Boston

Activists in Boston. Photo: Activestills.org

"Dozens of American, Israeli and Palestinian protesters gathered Friday in front of the Israeli consulate in Boston to mark the death of Jawaher Abu Rahmah. Jawaher was killed by American made tear gas fired by the IDF on New Years Eve during a weekly unarmed demonstration in the West Bank village of Bil’in.

The Boston demonstrators marched through the snow and frigid cold weather demanding an end to US military aid to Israel. The demonstration is a natural extension of the one held in front of the US ambassador home in a northern Tel Aviv suburb last Saturday night. Israeli activists ‘returned’ empty tear gas canisters to the ambassador. Twelve people were arrested and jailed for three days."

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#BDS: StandWithUs to place ads at BART stations saying ‘Stop Palestinian terrorism, teach peace’

I cannot believe that these ads have been approved while those marking the 2nd anniversary of the war on Gaza haven't! 

standwithus_ad_1000

"The pro-Israel national organization StandWithUs announced Jan. 6 that it is launching a new ad campaign, placing posters in six BART stations.
The posters have received BART approval and will go up in the Berkeley, 12th Street/Oakland, MacArthur, Civic Center, Balboa Park and Embarcadero BART stations starting Jan. 17, a StandWitUs spokesperson said.
Dubbed "Say Yes to Peace," the campaign has been launched, organizers said, to counter a recent poster campaign co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace, a group often critical of the government and military of Israel. Those posters, still on display at three BART stations (according to the StandWithUs release), depicted Palestinian and Israel fathers with their young children, along with the headings "Be on our side: We are on the side of peace and justice" and "End U.S. military aid to Israel."
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#BDS: Tell Combined Systems Inc. to Stop Providing Tear Gas that Israel Uses to Kill and Maim Protesters


On January 1, 2011, 36-year-old Palestinian Jawaher Abu Rahmah from the West Bank village of Bil’in died at a hospital from the effects of tear gas inhalation suffered at a protest the previous day against Israel’s construction of a wall and settlements on Bil’in’s land. Jawaher is only the most recent protester killed or seriously injured by tear gas fired by the Israeli military. For example, Jawaher’s brother Bassem, was killed almost two years ago, and two US citizens, Tristan Anderson and Emily Henochowicz were injured in 2009-2010.
Much of Israel’s tear gas is provided by the US company Combined Systems Inc. (CSI) located in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. The letters CSI, or CTS, a CSI brand name, are marked on many of tear gas canisters that litter Palestinian villages after they protest. The Israeli military is using CSI’s tear gas as a weapon as it tries to crush the growing movement of unarmed protest against Israel’s illegal confiscation of Palestinian land for Israeli settlements. Even more disturbing, you as a US taxpayer are paying for at least some of the tear gas that Israel is shooting at Palestinian, Israeli and international protesters. For example, in 2007 and 2008, the US State Department provided $1.85 million worth of "tear gasses and riot control agents" to Israel as part of the US's $3 billion in annual military aid to Israel.
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#BDS: 'It's not politics – it's just business'

Bashar Masri's plan to purchase Israeli real estate firm plagued by debt is rocking the business sector, right-wing elements. This may be the first time a Palestinian takes over an Israeli public company - Digal Investments & Holdings, which is building luxury apartments for Jews in east Jerusalem. Proposed deal emerges as micro-cosmos of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but Masri insists: 'It's just business'

RAMALLAH - Bashar Masri is trying to to calm the panic. "I'm not interested in Israeli real estate or any Israeli company, not in Tel Aviv and not in Netanya," he stresses, "but in a residential project in Jabel Mukaber, a Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem. I'm not a politician but a national Palestinian businessman who knows his work, and if my business serves my people – I feel better."

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#BDS: La Fédération télécoms du syndicat SUD proteste contre la collaboration entre France-Télécom/Orange et Islam

La Fédération télécoms du syndicat SUD proteste, dans un communiqué, contre la honteuse collaboration entretenue par le groupe France-Télécom/Orange avec l’occupation des territoires israéliens par Israël. Lire ci-dessous le communiqué du syndicat.

SUD-PTT Fédération syndicale des activités postales et de télécommunications 25/27 rue des Envierges 75020 Paris www.sudptt.org sudptt@sudptt.fr
Les entreprises de communication cellulaire israéliennes sont commercialement impliquées dans l’occupation de la Cisjordanie et du Golan. Elles construisent des infrastructures, entretiennent des biens et équipements dans les colonies israéliennes illégales, la plupart étant érigés sur des propriétés privées palestiniennes. Ces entreprises fournissent des services à l’armée israélienne et à tous les colons israéliens.
Elles utilisent le contrôle israélien sur les territoires palestiniens afin d’exploiter les fréquences palestiniennes et imposer leurs services sur le marché captif palestinien.
Aujourd’hui de nombreuses filiales de France-Télécom travaillent aussi avec des sociétés informatiques israéliennes.
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#BDS: Security firm G4S confirms involvement in Israel's occupation

The Danish-British security firm G4S recently confirmed in a letter its involvement in the Israeli occupation and violations of international law --reported on last month by The Electronic Intifada.

After the publication of The Electronic Intifada's report on 15 December 2010, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre asked G4S to respond to the investigation as well as a 28 November 2010 article published by Press TV ("'Firm sold torture instruments'").

Within a week G4S replied, confirming that it had withdrawn from contracts providing security officers to residential settlements in the West Bank in 2002. "However, we continue to serve major commercial customers, for instance supermarket chains, whose operations include the West Bank," the company stated (the letter can be downloaded from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre's website).

G4S claims in its letter that the commercial clients in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank serve the general public. The company wrote that contracts include the provision of security officers to protect the premises of "commercial clients who serve the general public" in the occupied West Bank. However, G4S fails to address that Israeli settlements serve an exclusively Jewish population and are built illegally on occupied Palestinian land.



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