#BDS: Bahrain's Ambassador to the U.S meets with senior representatives of AIPAC

"Feb 19, (collive) -- One a recent snowy evening, guests arrived at the Lubavitch Center in Washington, DC, home of American Friends of Lubavitch, which played host to a private dinnermeeting for a visiting foreign dignitary.

"Heading to dinner with a prominent JewishAmbassador to the United States - will say more after I see if it's on-the-record," William Daroff, Vice President for Public Policy for the Jewish Federations of North America, tweeted onhis account.

He was referring to Houda Nonoo, Bahrain's Ambassador to the U.S. - believed to be the Arab world's first Jewish envoy, who attends services at The Shul of the Nation's Capital at Lubavitch Center.

Joining him were senior representatives of AIPAC, American Jewish Committee, B'nai B'rith International, Anti-Defamation League and other prominent members of the Washington Jewish community."

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#BDS: شركة 'غلوبال' الأمنيّة الإسرائيليّة تؤهل قوات الأمن في عدد من دول الخليج

الناصرة ـ 'القدس العربي' كشفت صحيفة 'يديعوت أحرونوت' النقاب عن عمل شركة أمن إسرائيلية في إحدى دول الخليج لتدريب وتأهيل مقاتلين وحراس لآبار النفط ومواقع حساسة أمنياً . ونشرت الصحيفة صوراً لمدربين إسرائيليين تحت أسماء أوروبية وغربية مستعارة، خشية انكشاف هويتهم الإسرائيلية وتعريض حياتهم للخطر.

وقالت الصحيفة إن المدربين هم من خريجي الوحدات القتالية في جهاز الأمن العام (شاباك) ووحدات النخبة القتالية في الجيش الإسرائيلي وتبلغ أعمارهم حوالى الـ25 عاماً. وذكرت الصحيفة أن المدربين يصلون إلى إحدى دول الخليج العربية من مطار بن غوريون في اللد مروراً بعمان أو أنطاليا، لافتة إلى أنّ عمل الشركة كان بمعرفة ومصادقة وزارة الأمن الإسرائيلية.

وزادت الصحيفة قائلةً إنّ عمل الشركة الإسرائيليّة استمر على مدار عامين، من العام 2007 إلى العام 2009، وهدف إلى تأهيل وحدات عسكرية نخبوية ووحدات شرطية في إحدى دول الخليج العربية لحراسة آبار النفط. وانتهى التعاقد مع الشركة الإسرائيلية نهاية العام الحالي في ظل انتقادات شديدة لها خشية نقلها خبرات أجهزة الأمن الإسرائيلية إلى دول عربية مقابل مبالغ طائلة.

إقرأ/ي المزيد

#BDS: Global actions, backlash during Israeli Apartheid Week

"The 7th annual Israeli Apartheid Week launched this week, with more than 75 cities across six continents participating in educational events and direct actions in support of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

With events taking place from Boston to Zurich, Durban to Perth, and Montreal to Gaza City, on college campuses and in conference halls, thousands of activists, students and analysts are strengthening anti-apartheid solidarity networks while calling attention to the ongoing struggle for Palestinian liberation.

The Israeli Apartheid Week coordination website (http://apartheidweek.org/en) says that these annual events "have highlighted the role that could be played by people and governments across the world in providing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle by exerting urgent pressure on Israel to alter its current structure and practices as an apartheid state."

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#BDS: Palestinians, Israelis, Allies Oppose Exploitation of LGBT Rights at Berlin’s International Tourism Fair

"A broad coalition of queer, trans and straight Palestinian, Israeli and allied international activists are protesting the Israeli government’s “Tel Aviv Gay Vibe” promotional events at the International Tourist Fair in Berlin March 12-13. The activists are asking the fair organizers to refuse to allow the “Gay Vibe” stand at the fair.

Tel Aviv Gay Vibe Campaign in Berlin is sponsored by the Israeli government. Activists argue that this portrayal serves to distract the international community from Israel’s serious and ongoing human rights violations of Palestinians in Israel and the OccupiedPalestinian Territories (OPT). Additionally, Israel makes political use of homophobia in their portrayal of the surrounding Arab states.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanction National Committee is therefore calling for a tourism boycott: “Supporting Israeli tourism comes at the cost of further destruction to Palestinian communities, heritage and culture. Tourism is used by the occupation to promote a "progressive", "peaceful" and "multicultural" face to the world despite the daily crimes committed against the Palestinian people. In the campaign against tourism to Apartheid South Africa, activists sought out tourist exhibitions or agents promoting travel to the regime under the slogan "Apartheid is NO Holiday".”

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#BDS: Congress of South African Trade Unions Supports Call for Termination of U. Johannesburg Relations with Ben Gurion U.

"The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) fully supports its affiliate NEHAWU in calling on the University of Johannesburg (UJ) to terminate any relationship with the Israel’s Ben Gurion University (BGU).

NEHAWU, the biggest public sector union in South Africa, said, “The union, mindful of our own country`s history and the role that international solidarity played in ending South Africa`s apartheid regime, is convinced that all of us in this country have a particular responsibility to take seriously the struggles of others who face similar conditions of racial oppression and economic exploitation that we have known”.

COSATU supports the call from students, academics and numerous prominent individuals, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, for UJ to terminate its apartheid-era relationship with Israel`s BGU, a university that actively collaborates with the Israeli Defence Force in its enforcement of apartheid occupation against Palestinians, by offering special privileges and services to the army."

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#BDS: Security Company G4S to 'partially' cut ties with Israeli Apartheid

"The world’s largest security company G4S, has this morning announced that the company will end a number of its activities in the occupied West Bank. This happens after the independent Danish research center DanWatch has uncovered that G4S is supplying, among others, Israeli prisons and checkpoints, with security technology.

G4S writes in a statement today that their security services in the West Bank are not in compliance with the company’s ethical policies, even though their activities “are not discriminating or controversial”.

“We have concluded that we, in order to ensure that our business activities are in compliance with our ethical policy, will work to withdraw from a number of contracts in the area”, legal director Soren Lundsberg writes."

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#BDS: Israel's falafel food fight

What is the writer of this article trying to say? I really don't get it. I read the article over and over again and I still don't. It's about a project examining the 'Israelisation' of falafel that raises some "interesting" questions about the boycott movement.


"It is the 1960s and a systematic effort to create a collective 'Israeli' identity is at its peak. Falafel is nationalised into Israeli culture and used as a symbol of 'Israeliness' as part of its nation-building campaign. Popular songs claiming falafel as an exclusive Israeli provenance, like And We Have Falafel, are composed, while falafel restaurants - reconstructed in Arab street-vendor fashion - are mapped across the state.
Fifty-one years later, Israel's branding of falafel persists, both locally and internationally, from popular postcards labelling falafel "Israel's national snack" to McDonald's recently 'Israelised' menu that includes a kosher McFalafel sandwich.
In the short film Soup over Bethlehem, Palestinian artist and filmmaker Larissa Sansour chronicled the relationship between food and politics to tell the Palestinian narrative. Now, in Falafel Road, a project that stemmed from an art residency with the London-based Live Arts Development Agency, Sansour, in collaboration with Israeli artist Oreet Ashery, visits London eateries, recording what they call "the falafel experience"."

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