#BDS: Israel company recruiting Gadhafi mercenaries

"An Israeli company is recruiting mercenaries to support Moammar Gadhafi's efforts to suppress an uprising against his regime, an Israeli news site said Tuesday.

Citing Egyptian sources, the Hebrew-language news site Inyan Merkazi said the company was run by retired Israeli army commanders.

The report claims that many high-profile former Israeli officers have been illegally trading weapons in several African nations, and have faced interrogations over their activities in the past.

The news site said the head of the company recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli intelligence chief Aviv Cokhavi. It added that the officials all approved the company's recruitment of mercenaries to help Gadhafi. "

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#BDS: إسرائيل وراء مرتزقة القذافي

كشف مصدر إعلامي إسرائيلي عن وقوف مؤسسة أمنية إسرائيلية -وبتفويض من الحكومة الإسرائيلية- وراء إرسال مجموعات من المرتزقة الأفارقة إلى ليبيا للهجوم على الثوار الذين خرجوا منذ نحو أسبوعين في جل أنحاء البلاد مطالبين بإسقاط نظام العقيدمعمر القذافي.

وأضاف المصدر -وهو صحفي بجريدة يديعوت أحرونوت الإسرائيلية اشترط عدم كشف اسمه- أن تسريبات أمنية تؤكد أن إسرائيل تنظر إلى الثورة الليبية من منظور أمني إستراتيجي، وتعتبر أن سقوط نظام القذافي سيفتح الباب أمام "نظام إسلامي" في ليبيا.

وأفاد المصدر بأن رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو ووزير الدفاع إيهود باراكووزير الخارجية أفيغدور ليبرمان اتخذوا في 

اجتماع ثلاثي يوم 18 فبراير/شباط الماضي قرارا بتجنيد مرتزقة أفارقة يحاربون إلى جانب القذافي.

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#BDS: Lucy Liu breached the boycott call and visits Israel

"Hollywood actress arrives in Holy Land along with Israeli partner to attend his father's funeral

Hollywood actress Lucy Liu arrived in Israel last week with her partner, Israeli businessman Noam Gottesman.

The two are arrived in the country following the death of Noam's father, businessman and Israel Museum President Dov Gottesman."

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#BDS Event: 'Boycott Israel Conference: Will Scotland Lead The Way?'

"Organised by Scottish Friends of Palestine
Saturday 19 March 2011 10am to 5pm
Renfield St Stephen's Church Centre, Bath Street Glasgow
2011 is the year of election to the Scottish Parliament.
Can those parties vying to form the next Scottish government be persuaded of the case for action against the state of Israel?
Will Scotland be the first country to announce a boycott of Israel?
In this election year, we must make it known, loud and clear, all of us who support the rights of the Palestinian people, that we are not prepared to see our taxes spent supporting trade with Israel.
Israel's commercial, academic, sporting and cultural relations with other nations provide the state with a veneer of respectability, while it boycotts the rights and the livelihoods of the Palestinian people. The state of Israel must be boycotted.
The speakers at our conference will present the arguments for boycott, disinvestment and sanctions. Please show your support by participating, joining the debate, and spreading the word.
Boycott is an ambitious aim and, with your help, possible.
Book now Entry is by donation (£10 recommended for the waged)
By PAYPAL to info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org
By Cheque please contact info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org for details
Speakers
· Ali Abunimah Palestinian journalist, author (latest book: One country: a bold proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian impasse ) co-founder and executive director of Electronic Intifada
· Ramzy Baroud Palestinian journalist, author (latest book: My father was a Freedom Fighter)and former Al Jazeera producer"

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#BDS: Palestinian boycott call is part and parcel of the Arab spring that is sweeping the region

"The J Street conference in Washington staged a debate yesterday on the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions movement featuring Rebecca Vilkomerson ofJewish Voice for Peace; Bernard Avishai of the Hebrew University, the NY Times and The Hebrew Republic; Kenneth Bob of Ameinu; and Simone Zimmerman, a Berkeley sophomore who led opposition to BDS on that campus. Vilkomerson was the lone voice on the panel for BDS. We'll have more on the panel later, including the arguments against boycott and the inevitable one-state-two-state hopscotch. But here are her prepared remarks.

I just want to take a moment in appreciation of J Street for including this discussion at the conference. It is the most important conversation, in my mind, that we can have at this moment, and I thank you for having it.

I want to take a moment to make sure we all are clear about what BDS is. BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. It’s a Palestinian led, globally active, non-violent movement in support of equality and freedom for the Palestinian people."

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#BDS: AIDS, apartheid and boycotts

"When interviewing queer filmmakers, a common refrain is heard. Many will state quite emphatically that they don’t have an agenda. This no doubt comes in part from the largely mis­guided bit of perceived conventional wisdom: that audiences see message movies as passé.

That’s why it’s always refreshing to interview John Greyson. The Toronto-based activist and filmmaker has always said that those two vocations have been in lockstep. This week, Cinema Politica will host a night of Greyson screenings, in which the filmmaker will discuss the creation and reception of a number of his works, including Fig Trees, Proteus and Hey Elton. It’s a line­up that reflects a quarter century of serious shit-disturbing, exploring issues such as safer sex, gay penguins, Palestinian rights and apartheid (both in South Africa and Israel).

Greyson has always worked at making larger feature film projects, while maintaining his commitment to lower-budget experimental films. You can feel the urgency while watching his safer-sex videos from the ’80s, when gay men were facing widespread deaths in their ranks. His 1996 film Lilies won the Best Picture Genie, while his Zero Patience (1993) is an audacious musical about AIDS that celebrated street-level, agitprop activism. “I feel like the past decade of my work has been about reconnecting to grass-roots activism,” Greyson says."

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#BDS: 500 Artists Against Israeli Apartheid

"A call from Montreal artists to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid…
Today, a broad spectrum of Montreal artists are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and supporting the growing international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state. Last winter, the Israeli state launched a violent military assault on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, leaving over 1400 Palestinians dead, including over 300 children. Despite the official end of military operations, the blockade continues to this day, with devastating consequences for Gaza’s residents.
Over 60 years from the beginning of the ongoing Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from historic Palestine through Israel’s creation, Montreal artists are united in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice.

Montreal artists are now joining this international campaign to concretely protest the Israeli state’s ongoing denial of the inalienable rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties, as stipulated in and protected by international law, as well as Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonization of the West Bank (including Jerusalem) and Gaza, which also constitutes a violation of international law and multiple United Nations resolutions."


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#BDS: alQaws and Aswat Statement to the LGBT Center in NY

"We, Palestinian queer activists from alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society and Aswat Palestinian Gay Women, are writing to you to express our shock and dismay at your recent decision to cancel the "Party to End Apartheid" event and ban activists working for human rights in Israel/Palestine from the LGBT Center.

We have recently concluded a first of a kind  tour to the US, where we shared our personal, social and political struggle as Palestinian Queers living in Israel and Palestine with diverse audiences and activists in 6 cities, including New York city During those open discussions, we met with human rights activists, lawyers working at the forefront of LGBT rights campaigns, and LGBT people of color who organize on a grassroots level, and were greeted warmly and enthusiastically at every venue at which we spoke. The support and acknowledgment we encountered were both overwhelming and inspiring.

We wish that you could have attended one of our panels. Perhaps, instead of acquiescing to the demands of a neoconservative gay pornographer, you would have the courage and insight – like so many members of the LGBT community in the US – to conclude that the struggle for human rights in Israel/Palestine is a queer struggle.




Certainly, this connection is clear to us. As organizations that work with and for LGBTQ Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank, we are forced to deal with the server consequences of the Israeli occupation and its apartheid system on a daily bases. Israel' apartheid wall, army checkpoints and frequently imposed curfews on entire populations oblige us to deal with legal issues and face many challenges, including mobility. In addition, some of our members live in the US and have been relying on the Center for vital services and activities. They draw much inspiration from the Center’s history and the LGBTQ struggle in the US."

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