#BDS: Lebanese Dancer Johayna Fakhri with Israeli band at Belfast festival, #France

"Israeli metal band " Orphaned Land "continues to bridge the gap Israeli - Arab because of the music: after buying herself tens of thousands of fans the various Arab countries and appeared on the cover of the magazine in Iran , this week the band collaborated with an artist from Lebanon.

Festival "Belfast" in France, one of the world's biggest metal festivals, the band appeared on Sunday on the main stage alongside the Lebanese belly dancer Johanna Fakhri, who danced on stage while the band played. This has been a tradition of the band, belly dancers to its numerous performances abroad, but the first time they shared a stage with the Lebanese Fakhri. On stage and in front of tens of thousands of spectators, raising the band and Fakhri flags of Israel and Lebanon."

Read more

#BDS: Former Irish rugby star Hogan sets sail for #Gaza

"A year after Israeli commandos stormed the Freedom Flotilla bound for Gaza, leaving nine peace activists dead, one Irish rugby star has joined a new international gathering which will set sail at the end of the month in an attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade of the territory.

Tipperary man Trevor Hogan (31), who was capped three times for Ireland and played over 100 times for both Munster and Leinster before retiring earlier this year, will sail on the MV Saoirse as part of the Irish Ship to Gaza group. The 1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants of the coastal enclave have lived in what is often described as an “open-air prison” since Israel began a policy of isolating the strip in 2006."

Read more

#BDS: ... وسقطت شاكيرا في امتحان فلسطين

عكا | «لا تتنكّري لجذورك...وقفي مع شعبك»، نداء وجّهته مجموعة من النشطاء على الفايسبوك، لم يجد آذاناً صاغية عند شاكيرا، التي وصلت أمس إلى تل أبيب تزامناً مع صدور أغنية «الحريّة لفلسطين»، المناهضة للاحتلال والأبارتهايد الإسرائيلي، عملت عليها مجموعة من الفنانين الأجانب، الذين انضووا تحت اسم مجموعة One World، إذ تقدّم النجمة الكولومبية اللبنانية الأصل عدداً من الحفلات هناك، بعدما شاركت أمس في افتتاح مؤتمر «الرئيس 2011» برعاية شمعون بيريس، حيث ألقت كلمة تناولت فيها أهمية التعليم في تنمية الشعوب والأطفال، باعتبارها سفيرة اليونيسف للنوايا الحسنة.

إقرأ/ي المزيد

#BDS: BOYCOTT ISRAELI DATES CAMPAIGN

"London BDS are joining The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al Aqsa, Inminds, Palestinian Return Centre, Muslim Association of Britain and The Islamic Human Rights Commission to reach out to the wider Muslim community and make them aware of what DATES they are buying for RAMADAN.

Israel produces huge quantities of Medjoul dates which are grown in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jordan Valley.

Buying these dates will mean that your money is going towards supporting the theft of Palestinian land and the oppression of Palestinians."

Read more

#BDS: Video: #Shakira and boyfriend Gerard Pique with the terrorist Shimon Peres

#BDS: Apartheid is no place for #punk

"The confirmation from legendary punk musician Jello Biafra that he would be playing a show in Israel came as an angry shock to many of his fans and supporters.

The former singer for the Dead Kennedys and well known activist announced recently that, despite having been urged to do otherwise by several groups in the Palestine solidarity movement, he and his band, the Guantanamo School of Medicine, will be performing in Tel Aviv on July 2. This comes in blatant defiance of the 2005 call for an artistic boycott put forth by over 170 Palestinian civil society groups.

In response, an ad-hoc grouping of global punk fans came together to launch Punks Against Apartheid, whose first action was to launch a petition and statement urging Biafra to abide by the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and cancel the Tel Aviv gig. In a few days, the petition gathered over 1,000 signatures, from Berkeley to London, and Beirut to South Korea. Below, we reprint Punks Against Apartheid's open letter to Biafra."

Read more

#BDS: Israel is intimidated by a phone app: #Israel urges #Apple to remove pro-Palestinian app

We urge everybody to download this app!


"(CBS/AP) - The Israeli government on Tuesday appealed to Apple Inc. to remove an application called "ThirdIntifada" from its App Store, saying the program glorifies violence against the Jewish state.

Israel's information minister, Yuli Edelstein, sent the request in an email to Steve Jobs, the chief executive of the American iPhone maker.

"Intifadah" is the Arabic term for two violent uprisings against Israel over the past two decades. The free application encourages its followers to share opinions and organize protests against Israel."

Read more

#BDS: Knesset to Promote Anti-Boycott Bill to Second and Third Reading

"Monday, June 27, the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee will deliberate the “Damage to the State of Israel by Means of Boycott- 2011″ bill. The bill was proposed in the Knesset on July 2010 by head of the coalition, MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) and other MK’s. The bill is focused on preventing citizens of Israel from protesting against the occupation by means of initiating a boycott. The bill passed first reading in the Knesset plenum on March 7, 2011, despite severe criticism from governmental ministries and leading civil society organizations.

The bill defines a call for boycott as a tort, for which the court may rule compensation without obligation to prove damage. The bill further authorizes the Minister of Finance to limit the participation of companies that have committed themselves not to work within settlements beyond the “Green Line”, in state tenders. (‘Rawabi Clause’)"

Read more

Update your #BDS List: War Criminal Shimon Peres Greeting #Shakira

#BDS: Buying Israeli Goods is Funding Apartheid! Cartoon by @CarlosLatuff

Update your #BDS List: #Shakira Makes a Star Turn at an Israeli Conference

"JERUSALEM — When Israel’s octogenarian president, Shimon Peres, opened his Israeli Presidential Conference here on Tuesday, he chose an unlikely partner to stand by his side: Shakira, the Colombian pop star who is partly of Lebanese descent, performed last month in Beirut and was once (wrongly) accused in an Internet rumor of saying she would rather have pigs listen to her music than Israelis.

For Shakira, too, Jerusalem was probably not an obvious choice. By Tuesday, there were almost 2000 “likes” on a Facebook page urging her to stay away from Israel and comply with a pro-Palestiniancultural boycott."

Read more

#BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions - Book Review

"(Barghouti, Omar. BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. 2011. Haymarket Books, USA.)


"The BDS campaign is among the most important forms of such ‘resolute struggle’ by the great majority of Palestinians, who resist the colonization of their land and minds and demand nothing less than self-determination, freedom, justice and unmitigated equality..."


Barghouti is one of the new generation of Palestinian activists, grounded in the life of a people under siege and understanding the importance of social movements and global solidarity. He writes that Palestinians through social movements have surpassed their leadership and have developed their own resistance to occupation and domination by Israel.


The BDS Campaign and the Academic and Cultural Boycott Campaign - Barghouti is a founding member of both - are highly successful and visible strategies to isolate Israel economically and culturally. They also provide a focus for action by millions of supporters worldwide.  Not everyone can take a solidarity trip to Palestine or sail in a flotilla, but everyone of good conscience everywhere can boycott, divest their own funds and also call for secondary boycotts and divestment."

Read more

#BDS: #Facebook page urges #Shakira to nix #Israel visit

" A Facebook page established to convince pop star Shakira to stay away from an Israeli conference has received nearly 1,500 likes.

The Colombian singer, whose father is Lebanese, is scheduled to take part Tuesday in the third annual Israeli President's Conference. She will be appearing due to her position as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

The page, called "Shakira: Say NO to apartheid and YES to Freedom For Palestine," was established in recent days to endorse an open letter to the singer calling on her to boycott Israel written by members of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. The letter is signed by people with Hebrew- and Arabic-sounding names.

"If you attend the Presidential Conference, you will accept that a Palestinian fan of your work living under Israeli occupation will not be allowed by law -- and denied by an illegal wall built on annexed private Palestinian land, fences and military checkpoints -- the chance to attend it," the letter said in part."

Read more