#BDS: Omar Barghouti - BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions book launch

#BDS: Bahrain's secret Mossad ties revealed?

"New Wikileaks cables expose classified documents that include evidence of alleged cooperation between Persian Gulf state and Israeli intelligence agency

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange released additional classified documents about Israel and the Middle East: Britain's Guardian newspaper stated that the sensitive documents expose, among other things, Israeli criticism of the man who is the de facto head of state in Egypt, Hussein Tantawi Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

The diplomatic cables were transferred to Yedioth Ahronoth and some have been published on Friday."

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#BDS: Academic sanctions and global solidarity for Palestinian liberation

"Academic sanctions and global solidarity for Palestinian liberation: A view from South Africa on the need to unfriend Israeli universities 

By Patrick Bond
Presented to the Association of American Geographers Annual Meetings- Seattle, Washington -[12_04_11] 
 

This panel is not only devoted to considering arguments about implementing the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, but also about broader problems of progressive political positioning and backlash in the academy. Although I do not deal with the April 2 case of Richard Goldstone’s unprincipled U-turn on the findings of the United Commissions commission into Israel’s 2008-09 Gaza invasion, the incident suggests the extent to which South African commentary on the oppression of Palestinians has become acutely politicized. For if Goldstone’s return to his Zionist past – recalling, too, his past as a minor apartheid-era judge (hence as a human rights ally, his zig-zag unreliability, reliability and now unreliability) – serves any purpose aside from empowering Israeli militarists, it will be to compel us to use South Africa as a base from which critical inquiry into the condition of Palestine must now be intensified.
 

Fortunately, just such an opportunity arises in the case of the University of Johannesburg faculty Senate’s decision on March 23 to support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) struggle by breaking ties with Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Recall that in the most extreme black-and-white case, fighting to end apartheid, scholar-activists played a useful role that has relevance to the Palestinian situation. To be sure, academic boycotts of the apartheid regime were nowhere near as successful as the sports, cultural and economic sanctions that hit South African elites from the late 1960s, which were decisive in undermining the racist state and dividing/conquering the white population, especially from 1985. These experiences bear consideration as a site for ongoing Palestinian solidarity, and they point to a trajectory by which social consciousness can be ratcheted up into more sustained commitments. "

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#BDS: Picket Echo & Bunnymen to play in Apartheid Israel

"By playing Tel Aviv, "The implicit message is that the country is liberal and progressive. Music fans can dance, drink and pop pills long into the night, blissfully distracted from the immeasurable suffering endured by Palestinians living just 40km down the road in Gaza." [Faithless guitarist Dave Randall]

We are asking Ian McCulloch from Echo and the Bunnymen to cancel their scheduled performance in Israel:

Please don't breach the boycott picket line;
Respect the Palestinian call for Boycott of Israel;
Postpone until Israel respects human rights and abides by international law.

We'll hand out leaflets to the fans and if lucky to Ian McCulloch.
We'll hold banners, calling EATB to cancel.
Make your own banner with your personal message."

Link to event

#BDS: World Cup winning former France star Thuram visits Palestine

"World Cup winning former France star Lilian Thuram visited young Palestinians in a West Bank refugee camp in Qalandia, near Jerusalem.

The former Barcelona, Juventus and Parma defender, who won the World Cup in 1998, is spending four days in the Palestinian territories as part of his work for the Lilian Thuram anti-racism education foundation."

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#BDS: Arab station broadcasting from Qatar ask to interview Israeli singer

"Dana International, Israel's representative to the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, is expected to give an interview to a radio station broadcasting from Doha, Qatar.

In recent weeks Dana's managers have been receiving numerous requests for interviews ahead of her performance in Düsseldorf next month, including one from the Arab station."

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#BDS: Australian City Faces Attacks for Supporting BDS

"The city of Marrickville is the first municipality in Australia to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. The city is now under attack, following the publication of a report saying that support for BDS could end up costing taxpayers $4 million.

In December 2010 the local council in the Australian city of Marrickville became the first municipality in Australia to support the Palestinian initiated Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and “boycott all goods made in Israel and any sporting, institutional academic, government or institutional cultural exchanges.”

The city is now under attack, following the publication of a report saying that support for BDS could end up costing taxpayers $4 million. Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne has denied that would be the case."

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#BDS: No surprise Bob Dylan is visiting the ‘neighborhood bully’

"You may have seen the recent letter by the Israeli peace and justice group "Boycott From Within" (BfW) asking Bob Dylan to heed the Palestinian call for BDS and therefore not perform in Israel.  The letter follows reports of Dylan's 2011 summer tour, during which he will perform at Ramat Gan Stadium on June 20th.

 

The BfW letter hits all the right notes and speaks truth.  It asks Dylan "not to perform in Israel until it respects Palestinian human rights," explaining that "a performance in Israel, today, is a vote of support for its policies of oppression."  The letter speaks of ethnic cleansing, land theft, martial law, air strikes, and massacres.  It beseeches the folk legend, who has "been part of a civil rights movement," to stand with the oppressed against the aggressor.  BfW writes that "BDS is a powerful and united civil initiative in the face of a brutal military occupation and apartheid. It’s a nonviolent alternative to a waning armed struggle and it has reaped many successes and instilled much hope, in the past six years."

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