#BDS: A BIG Thank You To All #Starbucks Customers

"First and foremost I want to thank you for making Starbucks the $6.4 billion global company it is today, this year alone our profits have tripled, we now have with more than 90,000 employees, 9,700 stores, and 33 million weekly customers. Every latte and macchiato you drink at Starbucks is a contribution to the close alliance between the United States and Israel, in fact it is – as I was assured when being honored with the “Israel 50th Anniversary Friend of Zion Tribute Award” – key to Israel’s long-term PR success. Your daily Chocolate Chips Frappucino helps paying for student projects in North America and Israel, presenting them with the badly needed Israeli perspective of the Intifada."

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#BDS: Pro-Palestinian group in the Netherlands calls for boycott of Israeli bus company

"Egged wins a public tender to run bus services in Waterland region, north of Amsterdam; Action group ‘Working Together for Palestine’ says Egged 'makes money from trampling on the rights of Palestinians.'

A Dutch pro-Palestinian group has expressed its opposition to Israel’s Egged bus company, after it won a public tender to operate bus services in Holland. 

The action group ‘Working Together for Palestine’ opposes Egged running bus services in the Waterland region, north of Amsterdam, because they say the company supports Israel’s settlements policy, according to a report by Radio Netherlands Worldwide."

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#BDS: Tutu: TIAA-CREF should hear us, divest from #Israel

"From Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009:

As shareholders with the retirement giant TIAA-CREF head to Charlotte this week for their national meeting, there is one issue they will find conspicuously absent from the agenda: divestment from the Israeli Occupation. Despite pleas from shareholders, including medical professionals, students and academics from universities across the United States, the pension fund refused to allow a vote on a resolution that would have compelled TIAA-CREF to consider divestment from companies such as Caterpillar or Elbit. These are companies that profit substantially from the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land."

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#BDS: #US trade unionists support Palestinian call for military sanctions on #Israel

"Following last week’s call by Palestinians for immediate military sanctions on Israel, “similar to that imposed against apartheid South Africa in the past,” US trade union members released a statement on 13 July announcing full support of the call, the BDSmovement, and inalienable rights for Palestinians such as the right of return.

Days ago, the European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT) also came out in support of the call for a military embargo against Israel and BDS as well. "

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#BDS: Israeli propaganda festival finds few fans in Milan

"For ten days in June, Milan was the site of a promotional event aimed at presenting “the other side of Israel,” in the words of the Israeli Ambassador to Italy Gideon Meir. Known as “Unexpected Israel,” the event was sponsored by both the Italian and Israeli governments, along with local city and provincial authorities.

When details of the event were first announced in December 2010, it was projected to cost 2.5 million euros ($3.6 million US) and to include a 900-square-meter plexiglass pavilion featuring Israeli technological and cultural wonders in Piazza Duomo, Milan’s main square. In the end, Piazza Duomo hosted nothing more than a small multimedia installation: 15 amplified pedestals spouting classics of Israeli hasbara (propaganda) to the few visitors who dared enter the fenced-off, heavily guarded area."

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#BDS: 'Why Boycott Culture' Debate Audio

Listen to the audio here.

#BDS: #Israel Understands the Power of Boycotting, British Muslims Don’t

"‘The Knesset voted 47-38 in favor after a stormy debate, during which opposition members accused the government of passing an anti-democratic law.

Under the terms of the bill it will be a civil offence to back an anti-Israel boycott, be it consumer, academic or cultural; and initiators of a boycott will be subject to litigation. The law also prevents the government doing business with any company that initiates or complies with boycotts.

So why would the terrorist state of Israel do anything further to prove its non-democratic status, by passing this bill?

Quite simply because boycotting is a powerful tool and Israel understands the damage it can cause.

Try explaining this to some Muslims who repeatedly shun the ‘Blood Dates Campaign’, in which MPACUK annually remind Muslims in Ramadhan to not buy Israeli dates."

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Open letter to the German left on #BDS

"A little over a month ago, the Die Linke – the Left – delegates in the German Bundestag adopted a resolution stating that they would not take part in any Middle East peace initiatives calling for a “one-state solution” nor in “calls to boycott Israeli products.” Their statement also disavowed German participation in the Freedom flotilla, and concluded with the injunction that “We expect our personal staff and the staff of the parliamentary group to support these positions, as well.” The preambular statement justified Die Linke’s opposition to Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions with respect to the history of German antisemitism, thereby linking meaningful opposition to Israeli denial of Palestinian rights with the German Judeocide."

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#BDS: Non-violence will hurt #Isreal

"Palestinians have been fighting for their freedom for many decades but so far they have failed to defeat the Israeli military on the field of battle, and the diplomatic efforts to gather recognition for an independent Palestinian state have been blocked by the US, which is likely to veto the Palestinian statehood bid in September.

A third form of struggle has emerged: non-violent popular resistance. The determination of the popular committees in West Bank villages, of Palestinian families in Gaza who march to the buffer zone to protest the siege and of growing protest among Palestinian citizens of Israel are a greater challenge to the Israeli authorities than rockets or tanks."

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#BDS: عمر البرغوثي: قانون المقاطعة هو أفضل شهادة على نجاح حملة المقاطعة

يحمل إقرار الكنيست الإسرائيلي لاقتراح قانون "المقاطعة"، الذي بادر إليه رئيس الائتلاف الحكومي من حزب "الليكود" زئيف إلكين، دلائل سياسية لنجاح وتأثير حملات المقاطعة الاقتصادية والثقافية لإسرائيل فلسطينيًا وعالميًا كأحد أهمّ طرق النضال السلمي ضد الاحتلال والأبرتهايد الإسرائيلي، غير أنه في الوقت ذاته يفضح الوجه الحقيقي للفاشية الإسرائيلية المتصاعدة التي تمارس بأدوات "ديمقراطية" وازدياد سطوة اليمين المتطرف، إلى جانب كونه حلقة في سلسلة القوانين العنصرية التي تهدف إلى تجريم العمل السياسي الخارج عن الإجماع الصهيوني والمسّ بالحريات الديمقراطية الأساسية، واستمرار لسياسات تكريس وشرعنة الاستيطان الإسرائيلي الكولنيالي في الضفة الغربية وضمّ أراضيها، والتي تهدف بالأساس إلى تقويض أية فرصة لتسوية مستقبلية.

بعد إقرار القانون التقت صحيفة "فصل المقال" مع عمر البرغوثي أحد قادة الحملة الفلسطينية للمقاطعة الأكاديمية والثقافية لإسرائيل، وهو أسير سابق ومناضل فلسطيني معروف، عضو مؤسس في حملة المجتمع المدني الفلسطيني لمقاطعة إسرائيل وسحب الاستثمارات منها وفرض العقوبات عليها وفي الحملة الفلسطينية للمقاطعة الأكاديمية والثقافية لإسرائيل. وهو مؤلف لكتاب صدر بالإنجليزية (2011) وبالفرنسية (2010) بعنوان، مقاطعة، سحب استثمارات، عقوبات: النضال الكوني من أجل الحقوق الفلسطينية.

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#BDS: تنامي مقاطعة المنتجات الإسرائيلية في العالم

الناصرة ـ 'القدس العربي': نشرت صحيفة 'دي ماركر' الاقتصادية الإسرائيليّة، أمس الخميس تقريرا مطولاً عن تنامي المقاطعة التجاريّة والاقتصاديّة في العالم للمنتجات المصنعة في المستوطنات اليهودية في الضفة الغربيّة المحتلة، لافتةً إلى أنّ الحملة بدأت تأخذ منحى جديا للغاية، خصوصًا مع اقتراب أيلول (سبتمبر) القادم، حيث من المقرر أنْ يتوجه الفلسطينيون إلى الأمم المتحدة بطلب الإعلان عن الدولة الفلسطينية في حدود ما قبل عدوان 1967. وأشارت الصحيفة إلى أنّه في جميع أرجاء العالم تُنظم حملات مكثّفة لمقاطعة منتجات المستوطنات، ونقلت عن أحد النشطاء الأمريكيين قوله إنّ العديد من مؤيدي الدولة العبريّة يشاركون في هذه الحملة لأنّهم يعارضون الاحتلال، وهنا تمكن المعضلة، على حد تعبيره، لافتًا إلى أنّ الشركات الإسرائيليّة تستغل الاحتلال من أجل كسب الأموال الطائلة.

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Interview with Omar Barghouti on #BDS

#BDS: A Palestinian Woman's Response to President of the New Israel Fund

By Samah Sabawi

"Naomi Chazan, the President of the New Israel Fund (NIF) gave a talk in Marrickville NSW during her recent Australian tour offering a critique of the
 Palestinian Civil Society call for Boycotts Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

Although she presented herself as a veteran Israeli peace activist, Chazan’s mission here in Australia was ostensibly to promote NIF. This is important
because everything she said about BDS must be understood within the context of her mission – to gather funds and support and to convince Jews in Australia of the need to continue to invest in Israel through NIF. This clear conflict of interest makes Chazan’s criticism of BDS far less credible.

Chazan named six reasons why she believed BDS was harmful:

BDS is not effective because Israel has a very strong economy: South Africa’s economy was also booming when the boycott movement against that regime began in the late 1950s. Decades later the movement succeeded in bringing down the South African apartheid regime."

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