Apr 7, 2011
#BDS: After Board of Governors Rally, Carleton One Step Closer to Divestment
"On March 29th, 2011 students, faculty, staff, alumni and community allies made a significant stride toward divestment at Carleton University in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) first launched our campus-based pension fund divestment campaign in January 2010. The student-led campaign was motivated by the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society “to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel… until it fully complies with the precepts of international law.”
After over a year of failed attempts to meet with Carleton’s Pension Fund Committee, SAIA submitted a formal request to present our motion to the Board of Governors (BOG) – the highest decision-making body of the university – to divest from four companies complicit in violations of international law in Palestine: BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Motorola and Tesco Supermarkets. These companies manufacture weapons and weapons components used by the Israeli military against Palestinians, and also facilitate the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank (for background see: http://carleton.saia.ca/pension-divestment-campaign.html). SAIA’s motion also called upon Carleton to implement a binding socially responsible investment policy, in full consultation with the Carleton community."
After over a year of failed attempts to meet with Carleton’s Pension Fund Committee, SAIA submitted a formal request to present our motion to the Board of Governors (BOG) – the highest decision-making body of the university – to divest from four companies complicit in violations of international law in Palestine: BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Motorola and Tesco Supermarkets. These companies manufacture weapons and weapons components used by the Israeli military against Palestinians, and also facilitate the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank (for background see: http://carleton.saia.ca/pension-divestment-campaign.html). SAIA’s motion also called upon Carleton to implement a binding socially responsible investment policy, in full consultation with the Carleton community."
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#BDS: Brussels: Pro-Palestinian groups stage anti-Israel street play
"Activists dressed as IDF soldiers 'kill' boy playing Palestinian; women cover 'body' with Palestinian flag as crowd chants 'boycott Israel.' Mayor: Freedom of expression
During the street play, one activist dressed as an IDF soldier "kicked" a Palestinian, and in another a man dressed as an Israeli soldier "shoots" a Palestinian boy and "humiliates" a "pregnant Palestinian woman".
In a particularly harsh scene, an activist playing a Palestinian woman is "forcibly separated" from her "children"."
Members of dozens of pro-Palestinian organizations held an anti-Israel exhibit on Brussel's main pedestrian-only street a few days ago, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Friday.
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#BDS: Univ. of Arizona student coalition builds massive mock wall to bring attention to the occupied territories and the US/Mexico border
"Students from the Arizona chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace at the University of Arizona (UA) collaborated with partners in the UA migrant rights group No Más Muertes/No More Deaths (NMM) to erect the largest mock apartheid wall in the country currently dividing the UA campus in Tucson. They aim to spotlight the lethal effects of U.S. policies in Arizona, the U.S. and Israeli-occupied Palestine.
Equipped with barbed-wire and stretching nearly four football fields’ length, the mock wall, entitled “Wall to Wall - Concrete Connections/Conexiones Concretas,” will stand for more than a week across the main traffic center of the more-than-50,000-person University of Arizona campus. Endorsed by numerous academic departments, as well as student and community groups, the JVP and NMM worked for nearly 8 months to bring the project to fruition."
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#BDS: Sacramento Co-Op Board Abandons Democratic Principles Won’t Let Members Vote On Proposed Israel Products Boycott
"What started out as a question of whether the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op should stop carrying certain products based on human rights considerations has now become a matter affecting the Co-op’s very democracy.
In an effort to prevent the Co-op’s members from voting on this issue, the Co-op Board has eliminated its long standing boycott policy, done away with Open comments at Board meetings, and is seeking to eviscerate member’s ability to put initiatives before a vote of the full membership as provided in the Co-op’s Bylaws. All of this while it discusses major policy changes at private meetings with no member input.
Almost forty years ago, the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op started as a buying club out of private homes, operating essentially as a direct democracy. Soon there was a store front, then a small store on Freeport Blvd. In 1989 the Co-op moved to its current location at Alhambra and S. As the Co-op grew, it incorporated and shifted to what might be viewed as a form of representative democracy, with a member-elected Board of Directors."
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#BDS: Elizabeth Taylor and Israel, a lasting love
"The world lost an icon Wednesday with the death of Elizabeth Taylor — and Israel lost one of its best friends in Hollywood.
Wednesday also brought the first bombing in Jerusalem in nearly four years, so the news of Taylor’s death was overshadowed there by the explosion and by escalating rocket fire from Gaza. But the actress’s passing represented the end of a relationship with the Jewish state that may have been the last of its kind.
American media coverage of Taylor’s life has understandably focused on her on- and offscreen dramas, as well as her pioneering AIDS activism. But she was also a supporter of Israel to a degree that largely went unmentioned this past week, bringing to the cause a commitment nearly unimaginable among Hollywood stars today. In a life famously shared with seven husbands, Taylor’s relationship with Israel was one of her longest."
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#BDS: LSE London Boycotts Israeli Company – Eden Springs
"Eden Springs, a major water supply company will not have its contract renewed by the London School of Economics. This development comes off the back of a lengthy, high profile and controversial campaign launched by the LSE Students' Union Palestine Society, which has drawn attention to Eden Springs' odious business dealings in the Illegally Occupied Golan Heights. The LSE joins a number of UK Universities, including Edinburgh and Strathyclyde, whom have successfully cut all ties with Eden Springs.
The student campaign has been supported by academics, with over 19 LSE Academics, signing a joint letter which calls upon the School to terminate its links with Eden Springs “forthwith”.
Zachariah Sammour, President of the LSE SU Palestine Society, said “I'm delighted with the incredible pace of progress on this campaign and the widespread support it’s received from the students and academics of the LSE. I believe the success of this campaign demonstrates the deep commitment of LSE staff and students to ethical investment and global justice."
The student campaign has been supported by academics, with over 19 LSE Academics, signing a joint letter which calls upon the School to terminate its links with Eden Springs “forthwith”.
Zachariah Sammour, President of the LSE SU Palestine Society, said “I'm delighted with the incredible pace of progress on this campaign and the widespread support it’s received from the students and academics of the LSE. I believe the success of this campaign demonstrates the deep commitment of LSE staff and students to ethical investment and global justice."
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#BDS: طلبة ينجحون بمنع تجديد عقد كلية لندن للاقتصاد مع شركة مياه إسرائيلية
لندن -معا- تمكن طلبة كلية لندن للاقتصاد العريقة في العاصمة البريطانية من النجاح في إقناع إدارتها بعدم تجديد عقدها مع شركة مياه إسرائيلية، وذلك نتاج حملة قامت بها جمعية فلسطين في الكلية.
وقالت الجمعية في بيان لها، إن الطلبة في كلية لندن للاقتصاد تمكنوا من تحقيق نصر أخر عبر قرار الجامعة بعدم تجديد عقدها مع شركة "ايدن" للمياه الإسرائيلية، وذلك فقط بعد أسابيع من استقالة رئيسها هوارد ديفيس على خلفية العلاقات مع ليبيا.
ولفتت إلى أن هذا القرار جاء نتاج حملة طويلة الأمد قامت بها الجمعية، منوهة إلى أن الشركة المذكورة تستخدم مياه مرتفعات الجولان السورية المحتلة.
إقرأ/ي المزيد
#BDS: الاتحاد العام للكتّاب والأدباء الفلسطينيين يدعو لمقاطعة مهرجان المغار
رام الله - تعقد جمعية نيسان مهرجاناً دولياً للشعر في قرية المغار في الجليل سنوياً كلّ نيسان، ويقوم عليه نعيم عرايدي، يدعى إليه شعراء من دول مثل روسيا وأوكرانيا وتركيا ورومانيا ومصر والأردن .
تموّل هذه المهرجانات من وزارة الخارجية الاحتلالية التي يقف على رأسها أفيغدور ليبرمان الذي يتشدّق دائماً بعنصرية يهودية ضدّ الشعب الفلسطيني، ويكون وراء كلّ القوانين العنصرية التي تتوالى من الكنيست، وكان آخرها قانون سحب الجنسية. ويقام المهرجان في قرية المغار الفلسطينية، في قاعة تملأ بالأعلام الإسرائيلية ويبرز فيها شعار وزارة ليبرمان بجلاء، بينما يغيب علم فلسطين عن سبق إصرار.
إنّ الاتحاد العام للكتّاب والأدباء الفلسطينيين يدين هذا المهرجان ويرفض أية تسويغات تحاول أن تبرر المشاركة فيه، من قبل بعض الكتّاب، لما في هذا المهرجان من خطورة واستهداف واستدخال للهزيمة، ولما فيه من تبرئة للاحتلال ومؤسساته واستطالاته من دم شعبنا .
إقرأ/ي المزيد
#BDS: General Union for Youth Entities endorses BDS call and joins PSCABI
" On 5th of April at a seminar entitled "The Jewish National Fund: Its mandate, its actions and the campaign to boycott it" the General Union for Youth Entities(GUYE) announced its endorsement of the 2005 BDS call and pledged to continue to encourage, support and participate in any events or actions that would build the BDScampaign against Israel.
The BDS call has been endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Palestinian parties, organizations, trade unions and movements representing the Palestinian people in the 1967 and 1948 territories and in the Diaspora. GUYE joins the call by demanding that the international community boycott, divest from and impose sanctions against Israel until the 3 criteria for the BDS are met, namely:
a. Israel ends its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and to dismantling the Separation Wall;
b. Israeli recognition of the fundamental right of the Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and for
c. Israeli respect, protection, and promotion of the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194"
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#BDS: فلسطينيون يطالبون مغنية اوبرا نيوزيلندية بإلغاء حفل في إسرائيل
ولينجتون ـ ذكر تقرير إخباري أن فلسطينيين محليين من محبي مغنية الأوبرا النيوزيلندية الشهيرة كيري تي كاناوا طالبوها بإلغاء خططها لإحياء حفل في إسرائيل.
وقال جون منتو المتحدث باسم جماعة السلام العالمي والعدالة بأوكلاند إن الجماعة وجهت رسالة إلى المغنية تطالبها بالانسحاب من مشاركتها في المهرجان الإسرائيلي المقرر له أيار/مايو المقبل.
ونقلت وكالة "نيوزيلندا برس اسوسيشن" عن منتو قوله إن الجماعة طالبت تي كاناوا بدعم حملة مقاطعة عالمية تستهدف إنهاء إنحاء الاحتلال الإسرائيلي ووقف بناء المستوطنات في الضفة الغربية والسماح للاجئين الفلسطينيين بالعودة إلى أراضيهم .
إقرأ/ي المزيد
#BDS: Doha media centre gets new director holding an Israeli passport
The Doha Centre for Media Freedom has been in the throes of controversy right from its inception.
The only Qatari on its 12-member board is its chairman, Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, who also heads the board of Al Jazeera Channel.
The board has all sorts of people, including novelists, writers and politicians as members, some of them pretty controversial. One of them being a former Indian junior minister and UN under-Secretary General for Communications, Shashi Tharoor.
Tharoor, a member of India’s parliament, had to quit Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet following allegations that he had misused his office to get shares in the India Premier League (Cricket) franchise of Cochin.
The Advisory Council of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, similarly, though headed by the Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage H E Dr Hamad Abdulaziz Al Kuwari) has only one Qatari as member. Nasser Al Othman, the highly-respected Qatari scribe is the only national on the 10-member Council of the Centre.
Shockingly, a man who holds an Israeli passport is on the Council and he is a musician, not a journalist. Sixty-nine year old, Daniel Barenboim is basically a pianist and conductor.
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#BDS: Brandeis University Students Protest Visit by Israeli Parliamentarians
"Members of Brandeis University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (BSJP) disrupted a university panel discussion of six visiting members of the Israeli Knesset, Monday evening (4 April), to alert the student community to the presence of a war criminal on campus.
The action at the predominantly Jewish university targeted MK Avi Dichter, a suspected international war criminal wanted for possible crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Convention."
#BDS: ‘Youtube’ silences a boycott video
"After receiving over 30,000 views in just two days, a video of New York human rights activists commemorating Palestinian Land Day by calling on Americans to boycott Israel was taken down on the evening of April 1st by YouTube. Today, Adalah-NY posted a silent version of the video on YouTube. In the video, originally posted on March 30, more than 30 dancers accompanied by the Rude Mechanical Orchestra surprised crowds at New York's bustling Grand Central Terminal with an unannounced song and dance."
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