Apr 2, 2011
#BDS: New Zealand's Opera Diva Dame Kiri asked to boycott Israel
"New Zealand’s iconic opera diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, has ignored a request to cancel an upcoming visit to Israel.
Global Peace and Justice Auckland have called on the star to abandon plans to sing at the Israel Festival in late May.
The call has been made in support of the growing international BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign against Israeli apartheid."
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#BDS: Students at Carleton University call on the university to divest pension funds from companies doing business with Israel
"Carleton University administrators were forced Tuesday to abandon a meeting of the board of governors when approximately 200 students, yelling, chanting and shouting slogans about democracy, blocked access to the meeting room.
The students effectively occupied the atrium of Robertston Hall, preventing several board members from attending a meeting that included, among other agenda items, consideration of the university's operating budget. While campus safety staff were much in evidence, they were unable to ensure access to the meeting for arriving board members.
"Unfortunately, the student demonstrators would not allow a number of the board members to get through (the crowd) to attend the meeting," university spokesman Jason MacDonald said. That, he said, forced the administration to cancel.
The students claimed to be protesting the administration's decision to prevent them from attending the board meeting and to debate a motion calling on the university to divest pension funds from companies doing business with Israel.
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The students effectively occupied the atrium of Robertston Hall, preventing several board members from attending a meeting that included, among other agenda items, consideration of the university's operating budget. While campus safety staff were much in evidence, they were unable to ensure access to the meeting for arriving board members.
"Unfortunately, the student demonstrators would not allow a number of the board members to get through (the crowd) to attend the meeting," university spokesman Jason MacDonald said. That, he said, forced the administration to cancel.
The students claimed to be protesting the administration's decision to prevent them from attending the board meeting and to debate a motion calling on the university to divest pension funds from companies doing business with Israel.
Read more
#BDS: Rawabi remains settler-colonial sub-contractor
"On 30 March, Palestinians will celebrate the 35th anniversary of Land Day, commemorating the death of six Palestinian Arabs (five of whom were citizens of Israel) who actively resisted the decision of the Israeli Government in the 1970s to intensify the confiscation of Arab lands for settlements designated for “Jews” only.
Also in March, the 81st issue of PYALARA’s Youth Times was printed, featuring Raniya Atallah’s splendid investigative report on the development of the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, nine kilometers north of Ramallah with a panoramic view of the Mediterranean, project of national importance and the symbol of the Palestinian right to build.
On 8 February 2011, I published the summary of my research on Rawabi, and its acceptance of a large donation of pine trees from the Zionist charity the Jewish National Fund (JNF)."
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#BDS: Israeli Settlement on Evergreen's Campus
"On March 28th, 2011, students and alumni at The Evergreen State College began a 62 hour Vigil for Human Rights by erecting an Israeli settlement. This is meant to demonstrate support for divestment from companies profiting off of the illegal occupation of Palestine, such as Caterpillar Inc. Former Evergreen student Rachel Corrie was run over and killed by an Israeli Army Caterpillar bulldozer while protecting a Palestinian home in Rafah, Palestine in 2003. The Corrie family is suing the Israeli government for damages in a civil trial commencing on April 3rd in Haifa District Court.
The Vigil for Human Rights follows a landslide electoral victory, in which divestment passed with 79% of the vote and a resolution to ban the use of Caterpillar Inc. equipment on campus passed with 71%. Both resolutions received unanimous support from the student union. The 62 hour vigil will continue through Wednesday, March 30th to commemorate Palestinian Land Day. Each hour represents a year since Palestinians first lost their rights to their ancestral homeland. Land Day recognizes Israel’s continued theft of indigenous Palestinian land. In the past 20 years settlements have doubled in size, while the US has blocked actions meant to cease this expansion. On February 18, 2011, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution, supported unanimously by the council’s 14 other members, calling Israeli settlements illegal."
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#BDS: Action Alert: Sign the Petition and Tell Bed Bath & Beyond to Stop Carrying Illegal Settlement Products
"Big box retailer Bed Bath & Beyond carries two products that are manufactured in illegal Israeli settlements: Ahava cosmetics and SodaStream home beverage carbonating devices. Sign this petition to tell Bed Bath & Beyond to stop selling these products which violate international law.
On The Palestinian Land Day, this Wednesday, March 30, 2011, activists will deliver copies of the letter below and petition signatures to Bed Bath & Beyond stores that carry these products around the US and will fax the letter and signatures to the corporate headquarters and to CEO Steven Temares."
On The Palestinian Land Day, this Wednesday, March 30, 2011, activists will deliver copies of the letter below and petition signatures to Bed Bath & Beyond stores that carry these products around the US and will fax the letter and signatures to the corporate headquarters and to CEO Steven Temares."
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#BDS: BDS Day of Action: Veolia HQ
"In an action organised by West London PSC this afternoon in commemoration of Land Day, 27 protestors visited Veolia’s head office on Pentonville Road, near London’s King Cross along with a letter demanding that Veolia cease providing services to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in occupied East Jerusalem.
The security operative at the reception desk angrily demanded that protestors cease taking photographs and leave the building. After explaining their presence, those present vowed to stay until the letter was accepted – despite threats to call the police if they did not leave. In fact, the police did arrive shortly afterward, but took no action aside from asking for more information about the campaign."
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#BDS: NLG endorses international BDS call to "Stop the JNF!"
"The National Lawyers Guild has endorsed the international call to Stop the Jewish National Fund, a campaign that will launch on Land Day, March 30, 2011. The JNF is a key pillar of the colonization of Palestine - from the founding of the State of Israel to the present. The JNF enjoys charity status in over 50 countries. This is despite its role in the on-going displacement of indigenous Palestinians from their land, the theft of their property, the funding of historic and present-day colonies, and the destruction of the natural environment.
The Jewish National Fund (JNF) [1] was instrumental in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in the 1948 Nakba [2], 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."
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#BDS: University of Johannesburg Makes History: UJ Senate Decides to Sever Links with Israeli Apartheid
"The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), representing a wide spectrum in the Palestinian academy, salutes our South African colleagues at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) for their principled support for the cause of justice in Palestine by upholding the 29 September 2010 UJ Senate resolution to sever its links with BGU [1]. The UJ press release notes that:
In a protracted and spirited debate, the Senate of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) today voted to allow its formal relationship with Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in Israel to lapse on 1 April 2011. [2]
The Senate’s decision is a commendable step in the direction of ending relations with Israeli institutions implicated in apartheid policies and in supporting the occupation. This decision is guaranteed to resound around the globe! The real victory also lies in the intensive mobilization and awareness-raising effort by key activists and academics in South Africa that indicated beyond any doubt the groundswell of support for Palestinian rights in the country and that played a key role in the UJ Senate vote."
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#BDS: CU grad lobbying university to pull investments from Israel Read more: CU grad lobbying university to pull investments from Israel
"A University of Colorado graduate is lobbying the school to pull its investments from Israel.
Activist Michael Rabb has started a grassroots movement and has submitted a proposed resolution to the Board of Regents, asking CU to examine its investments and endowments and divest from companies that he says support "immoral occupation and apartheid in Palestine."
"Some of these companies provide weapons and covert surveillance supplies that maintain the occupation by force," says the petition he's circulating at CU. "Others take or exploit Palestinian resources, including scarce water and even the land itself."
But Jewish organizations say Rabb's proposal would divide the university. And so far, the regents haven't taken up the matter.
"For us to get involved in the politics of Palestine and Israel isn't practical," said Regent Steve Bosley, R-Broomfield.
In the past, CU has divested from Sudan and South Africa.
CU system spokesman Ken McConnellogue said CU hasn't researched what investments would be affected by the activists' proposed divestment from Israel, but officials believe it's "minimal." The regents have not requested the university to report that information to them.
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Activist Michael Rabb has started a grassroots movement and has submitted a proposed resolution to the Board of Regents, asking CU to examine its investments and endowments and divest from companies that he says support "immoral occupation and apartheid in Palestine."
"Some of these companies provide weapons and covert surveillance supplies that maintain the occupation by force," says the petition he's circulating at CU. "Others take or exploit Palestinian resources, including scarce water and even the land itself."
But Jewish organizations say Rabb's proposal would divide the university. And so far, the regents haven't taken up the matter.
"For us to get involved in the politics of Palestine and Israel isn't practical," said Regent Steve Bosley, R-Broomfield.
In the past, CU has divested from Sudan and South Africa.
CU system spokesman Ken McConnellogue said CU hasn't researched what investments would be affected by the activists' proposed divestment from Israel, but officials believe it's "minimal." The regents have not requested the university to report that information to them.
Read more
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