#BDS: EU urged to re-think trade deals with Israeli settlements in West Bank #fuckIsrael

"The European Union imports around 15 times more produce from Israeli settlements in the West Bank than Palestinian products, despite its consistent condemnation of Israel's settlement policy as illegal under international law, according to a report.

Based on figures supplied by Israel to the World Bank, the estimated value of settlement imports to the EU is $300m (£187m) a year. The comparative figure for Palestinian produce is less than $20m. "With more than 4 million Palestinians and over 500,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied territory, this means the EU imports over 100 times more per settler than per Palestinian," says Trading Away Peace: How EuropeHelps Sustain Illegal Israeli Settlements, published by a consortium of 22 organisations across Europe."

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#BDS: Pro-Palestine campaigners celebrate #Veolia’s loss of £40million contract in Canterbury #UK #fuckIsrael

"Veolia Environment has failed in its bid to secure an 8-year, £40 million contract with Canterbury City Council in Britain. The council announced today that the current holder, Serco, was the successful bidder. This was despite Veolia’s website headline on November 10, 2010, that it had won a joint contract worth a total of £70 million awarded by Dover District Council, working in partnership with Shepway District Council and Kent County Council.

Veolia has been a target for human rights campaigners due to its involvement in Israeli projects in East Jerusalem and the West Bank which negatively impact on Palestinian human rights, including a transport infrastructure to illegal settlements and Israeli army bases in the West Bank."

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#BDS: Open Letter to Alanis Morissette: You oughta know it’s apartheid, don’t play Israel. #fuckIsrael

"Dear Alanis Morissette,

We are writing to you to ask that you not cross the Palestinian picket line by playing in Israel in December. As we write, the people of Gaza, who live in the world’s largest open-air prison,  are being subjected to nightly airstrikes by Israel, a few miles from where you would be playing to a segregated audience. Last week, humanitarian activists trying to break the illegal, immoral siege of Gaza were kidnapped in international waters, tasered and imprisoned in Israel. Their crime? Showing solidarity to the Palestinian people.

Last month the United Nations issued a report: “Gaza in 2020, a Liveable Place?” [1] focusing on Gaza’s precarious situation, particularly regarding power supply, water, education and employment. Gaza’s 1.6 million people, most of them refugees and over half of them children, are held in a tiny piece of land with their movements controlled by Israel and their basic human rights denied, they are also terrorised by drone planes and military incursions regularly. Can you imagine that human beings are being treated like this? Can you imagine playing for the state that does this? Amnesty International, an organisation that you have supported, has documented Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, as have many other NGOs. [2]"

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#BDS Victory: ANC backs Israel boycott #fuckIsrael

"An African National Congress (ANC) International Solidarity Conference has backed the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

The support for BDS follows an international statement presented by Dutch former anti-apartheid activist Adri Nieuwhof signed by 35 organisations from 19 countries.

In the statement, Ms Nieuwhof called for BDS against Israel as an expression of solidarity with Palestine’s “fight for freedom, justice and equality”.

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#BDS: U.N. Human Rights Council Calls for Boycott of U.S. Companies that do business in Israel #fuckIsrael

"A report soon to be released by the United Nations that calls for an international campaign of legal attacks and economic warfare on a group of American companies that do business in Israel, including Hewlett-Packard, Caterpillar Inc., and Motorola Solutions Inc.

The report attempts to instigate a campaign of boycott, divestment, sanctions, and legal action against a litany of international companies doing business in Israel. In addition to American companies, the U.N. targets include major European firms such as Veolia Environnement, Group 4 Security, the Dexia Group, the Volvo Group."

Read the full report here

A #BDS Movement That Works #fuckIsrael

"IN 2005, 173 Palestinian civil society organizations and 71 members of parliament, political parties, and unions in Jordan united to issue a powerful nongovernmental call for global nonviolent resistance to occupation through acts of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.(1) They had three goals: an end to occupation and return to the pre-1967 Green Line, equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and recognition of the Palestinian right of return.

The strongly united 2005 Palestinian civil society call for BDS electrified progressives around the world. European activists responded strongly, but in the United States, where the mainstream news media have tended to voluntarily censor undistorted news reports about Israel’s ever-widening theft of Palestinian lands, public consciousness was generally absent, while sympathy for the Jewish legacy of trauma from the Holocaust remained the dominant theme.

It’s time to reassess: Where is the U.S. BDS movement now? The answer is that, while it still lags behind the BDS movements in Europe, Australia and elsewhere, it’s catching up fast, on campuses across the country and in local communities, as a genuinely grassroots movement led by focused, smart, strategic young Arab Americans — with the generous, if unintended assistance of Bibi Netanyahu, whose unashamed racism and crudeness has stunned the world, leaving Israel’s defenders without a credible spin on his words and actions."

Read mohttp://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3720re

#BDS SA Welcomes ANC's Adoption of Israel Boycott #fuckIsrael

"Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions SA (BDS) welcomed the position adopted on Sunday by the ANC's International Solidarity Conference to support the international boycott against Israel.

There had been widespread support for the position from international delegates, with the exception of a delegate from Germany, who argued that Israel could not be compared to apartheid South Africa, BDS said.

"The ANC chairperson, Baleka Mbete, strongly responded, saying that she has been to Palestine herself and that the Israeli regime is not only comparable but 'far worse than apartheid South Africa'," BDS said."

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#BDS: Shaming the Natural History Museum About Its Choice of Veolia As Support #UK #fuckIsrael

"Today from 12 to 2 pm about 10  Palestine Solidarity Campaigners joined together in our weekly campaign against Veolia outside London’s Natural History Museum. We were not alone with our message of solidarity with Palestine. During the action, we reached out to more than 1,000 visitors and we were supported by literally hundreds of them.

Furthermore, we managed to gather more than 100 signatures for our petition against the Museum’s partnerships with Veolia."

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#BDS: Protests drive #Ahava out of Covent Garden #UK #fuckIsrael

"The UK branch of Israeli cosmetics store, Ahava, is moving from its central London shop after years of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Protesters claim that the products sold in the store are manufactured in a factory in Israeli settlement, Mitzpe Shalom in the West Bank but are "misleadingly" labelled as produced in Israel.

The owner of the shop, currently in Monmouth Street, Covent Garden, is looking for other sites after owners of neighbouring stores complained to the landlord following protests.

Supporters claim it has been "chased out" of its location by regular "noisy and intimidating" demonstrations."

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#BDS: Prominent #Bahrain Activist @MARYAMALKHAWAJA withdraws from UNESCO conference which is honouring Israeli President #fuckIsrael

"Maryam AlKhawaja has withdrawn from a UNESCO conference on human rights. In an open letter to the organisers, written in a personal capacity, Maryam explains that whilst she was "honoured" to be invited to participate in an event which will honour her father, Abdulhadi AlKhawaja, she is "utterly disappointed" that he is to be honoured alongside Shimon Peres. The letter, which has been reprinted on Electronic Intifada, also contains a list of human rights violations which Peres is allegedly responsible for."

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#BDS: #AHAVA expanding to 7 more countries #fuckIsrael

"Dead Sea products to be sold in Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Korea, Greece, Denmark and Cambodia. Company CEO expects 10% growth in sales in coming year

AHAVA Dead Sea Laboratories is expanding its international activity and has recently entered seven new markets: Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Korea, Greece, Denmark and Cambodia.

The company's activity currently spans over 35 countries through franchises, distributors and stores (in Berlin and Budapest)."

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#BDS Victory: Brighton Batsheva show cancelled to delight of Israel boycotters #fuckIsrael

"A performance by an Israeli dance group in Brighton next month has been cancelled amid security concerns, in a decision that anti-Israel campaigners are hailing as a victory.

The Batsheva Ensemble, the youth company of the internationally acclaimed Batsheva Dance Company, has been invited to perform Deca Dance in Bradford, Salford, Birmingham, Brighton, Plymouth, Leicester and London in a tour organised by Dance Consortium."

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#BDS: يسقط الإخوان عملاء الأمريكان #fuckIsrael

رسالة مرسي لرئيس إسرائيل تبدأ بـ«عزيزي بيريز» وتنتهي بـ«صديقكم الوفي»

سلم السفير المصري الجديد في تل أبيب، عاطف سالم، رسالة رسمية من الرئيس محمد مرسي إلى «صاحب الفخامة السيد شيمون بيريز رئيس دولة إسرائيل»، في المراسم الرسمية لقبوله سفيرًا لدى إسرائيل، الأربعاء، وتحمل الرسالة، التي استهلها مرسي بعبارة «عزيزي وصديقي العظيم»، توقيع الرئيس مرسي تحت عبارة «صديقكم الوفي»، وكذلك توقيعات رئيس ديوان رئيس الجمهورية ووزير الخارجية محمد كامل عمرو، بالإضافة إلى خاتم شعار الجمهورية بارزًا.

إقرأ/ي المزيد

#BDS: Minnesota basketball team urged to boycott #Israel #fuckIsrael

"Over 100 organizations sent an open letter to the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team Saturday, requesting that it boycott an exhibition game against the Israeli team Maccabi-Haifa scheduled to be played next Tuesday at the Target Center.

The organizations also signed onto a worldwide sports and cultural boycott of Israel, saying that efforts to present Israel as a normal' society should be banned until Israel complies with international law and ends its human rights abuses against Palestinians."

Source

#BDS: Baltzer: BDS Movement Strategic, Flexible, Diverse and Inclusive

"Has Norman Finkelstein, long reviled in the Jewish community as a vitriolic hater of the Jewish state, morphed into a defender of Israel’s legitimacy? And what does Finkelstein’s newfound “moderation” say about the current state of the anti-Israel left, exemplified by the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement?

Over the course of three decades, Finkelstein achieved superstar status on the anti-Zionist left by writing a myriad of books and articles in which he declared Israel to be “an insane state” and charged Elie Wiesel and other pro-Zionist Jews with exploiting the memory of the Holocaust as an “ideological weapon” in support of Israel."

Read more and check video of the event here

#BDS: G4S Securing Israeli Apartheid #fuckIsrael

Photo taken in London

#BDS: BIN UK Workshop: Rising to the Challenge of ‘Brand Israel’ #fuckIsrael

"Boycott Israel Network workshop: Rising to the Challenge of ‘Brand Israel

Location: Leicester
Date: Saturday November 17, 2012
Facebook: Event Page

G4S, Veolia, agricultural trade, culture and sport, armaments, diamonds, Eden Springs . . . . There is no shortage of targets for BDS action but if we are to be effective and build on our recent successes including: Habima, The Co-op, G4S & here and Batsheva, we need clear objectives, carefully considered priorities and a strategic plan to take us forward into the coming year."

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#BDS Video: Activists disrupt JNF fundraiser in Berlin, protest Israel’s “ethnic cleansing” #fuckIsrael

A group called Direct Action Berlin disrupted a fundraising event for the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in the German capital Berlin on 4 October, leading to scuffles with some of the attendees in the hall.

A video posted on YouTube shows the activists entering the hall where the fundraiser was taking place, shouting slogans, throwing leaflets and carrying banners condemning JNF complicity in “ethnic cleansing.”

One banner read “Stand with al-Araqib,” a reference to the Bedouin village whose land is being taken with the complicity of the JNF.

The video shows some attendees scuffling with protestors and knocking at least one to the ground.  Read more. 

#BDS Egypt media collective Mosireen boycotts Creative Time Summit 2012 over Israel partnership #fuckIsrael

Mosireen, an Egyptian media collective, has rejected an invitation to participate in the Creative Time Summit 2012, because of the summit’s “in-depth” partnership with an institution funded by the Israeli government.

On its website, Mosireen describes itself as a “non-profit media collective in Downtown Cairo born out of the explosion of citizen media and cultural activism in Egypt during the revolution.” The name Mosireen means “we are determined” in Arabic.

The Creative Time Summit, a festival of public art, speeches and forums, which runs on 12-13 October in New York City, lists numerous partners around the world, however, the Israeli Center for Digital Arts is only one of a handful of “in-depth partners” that includes the California College of Arts and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Among the Creative Time Summit’s funders are the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the state of New York, the Ford Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies.  Read more here. 

#BDS: World Social Forum “Free Palestine” 2012 #fuckIsrael

From November 28 to December 1 2012 the World Social Forum “Free Palestine” will be held in Porto Alegre (Brazil). This is a historic event that brings together solidarity, human rights and social justice movements and organizations from across the globe to develop and debate ideas, share experiences, network and plan strategies and campaigns to advance solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian liberation.  (For more information and the full call for the WSF “Free Palestine” see: www.wsfpalestine.net 

With only 4 months to go…the countdown is running. An enormous amount of efforts have already been undertaken to lay the basis for a powerful and effective WSF Free Palestine event. We ask you now to work together with us to step up mobilization!

1)     We ask you to build and strengthen regional and national task forces and/or join one of the sector groups that are formed to allow global coordination!

2)     In order to broaden the reach of the WSF Free Palestine and to deepen the discussion on a number of aspects, the mobilizing commission is facilitating the creation of "self-organizing spaces" of activists from different sectors or around different themes. 

We ask you to register in one of the self-organizing spaces (see below) and to reach out to your contacts that might be interested joining a sector group. Please mail us at: mobilizing@wsfpalestine.net (Deadline: September 10!)

Call for national and regional WSF Free Palestine task forces:

Many people have built plans, initiatives or task forces to mobilize and formulate and coordinate your contribution on the WSF Free Palestine. We ask you to join these efforts in your country or stimulate such a process in order to:

a) promote the WSF Free Palestine among activists and the wider public (maybe through public debates to promote the WSF Free Palestine and the issues you want bring on the agenda and discuss)

b) develop strategy discussions to define your activities at the WSF Free Palestine (registration for your events will open soon!)

c) organize delegation to the WSF Free Palestine in Porto Alegre.

Don’t forget to send us information about your discussions and events so that we can share this with other participants and can help you linking up globally.

Join the sector working groups:

In order to ensure that we reach out to a large spectrum of civil society around the globe and in order to facilitate discussions and coordination across the globe, the mobilizing commission has initiated and coordinated with working groups that are developing mobilization and contributions for the WSF Free Palestine in their specific self-organizing spaces within different sector groups or around specific themes.

If you want to build or suggest a new self-organizing space, please contact the Mobilizing Commission at: mobilizing@wsfpalestine.net

Please see below the list of existing self-organizing spaces and the contact details:

Academics:  academics@wsfpalestine.net

Anti-militarization: militaryembargo@wsfpalestine.net 

Christian faith-based groups: faithbased@wsfpalestine.net

Development NGOs devngos@wsfpalestine.net 

Economic studies:   economics@wsfpalestine.net

Environmental activists: environment@wsfpalestine.net

Hip Hop: hiphop@wsfpalestine.net

HR and legal organizations: HR@wsfpalestine.net

Indigenous movements: indigenous@wsfpalestine.net

Palestinian diaspora: diaspora@wsfpalestine.net

Political forces: politicalforces@wsfpalestine.net  

Queers: queers@wsfpalestine.net .

Social Justice movements: socialmovements@wsfpalestine.net

Sports: sports@wsfpalestine.net

Trade Unions: tu@wsfpalestine.net

Youth/Students: youth@wsfpalestine.net

#BDS campaigners meet in Adelaide for national conference #Australia #fuckIsrael

"The third Australia-wide gathering of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigners took place in Adelaide from September 21 to 23. The Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA) hosted the weekend of events.

A highlight of the three days was the appearance by London-based Israeli academic Ilan Pappe, who spoke twice. He spoke to 600 people at the annual Edward Said Memorial lecture, which is named for the late Palestinian academic."

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#BDS: New California legislation targets BDS movement as “anti-Semitic” #fuckIsrael

"The California State Assembly has passed a resolution declaring criticism of Israel to be anti-Semitic—in a clear attack on the boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) movement.

Passed by a bipartisan majority of Democrats and Republicans, the resolution—known as HR 35—specifically defines as anti-Semitic any speaker, film and event that describes Israel as “guilty of heinous crimes against humanity such as ethnic cleansing and genocide,” as well as “student- and faculty-sponsored boycott, divestment, and sanction campaigns against Israel.”

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Bringing #BDS to #Egypt #fuckIsrael

"

"CAIRO HELD its first official boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) event in Egypt at the independent media center Mosireen on August 27, a critical first step in challenging the government's continuing economic relations with Israel and building solidarity with Palestine.

BDS campaigns in Europe and the U.S. have grown considerably over the past seven years, but such campaigns have been slow to take off in the Arab world, where governments and the economic elite also profit from relations with Israel. Although popular hostility toward Israel is widespread among Egyptians, the Egyptian government is one of only two Arab countries, alongside Jordan, to maintain official trade relations with Israel."

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#BDS: Indonesian Foreign Minister Calls for the Boycott of Israel #fuckIsrael

"

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa is calling for nations to consider reviewing diplomatic ties with Israel and boycotting its products in solidarity with Palestine.

Marty acknowledged that the situation in the occupied territories had grown unfavorable following unilateral Israeli moves. 

“There is an unbalanced situation and Israel should bear responsibility for the failure of peace negotiations,” Marty said on the sidelines of the 67th UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday.

The foreign minister was commenting on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s pessimistic assessment of the peace process. “The door may be closing, for good, on a two-state solution,” Ban said in his speech to the assembly.

“We must break this dangerous impasse,” Ban added."

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#BDS Video: A message from Palestinian children to @FCBarcelona #fuckIsrael

#BDS: Palestinian groups back Mahmoud Sarsak, tell @FCBarcelona to reject "complicity with Israeli crimes" #fuckIsrael

"Palestinians have offered strong support to Palestine footballer and ex-prisonerMahmoud Sarsak in his refusal of an invitation by FC Barcelona to attend a match at the same time as an Israeli soldier.

In addition, a prisoners’ support group in Gaza has strongly condemned Palestinian Authority officials for accepting the invitation in the first place."

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