#BDS Against the expansion of the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement

Tadamon! collective statement, February 2012. Photo: Israeli apartheid wall in Occupied Palestine. Last fall, the Conservative government announced plans to expand the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA), a set of policies that serves to further legitimize Israeli occupation and apartheid, and deepen Canadian corporate and state involvement in Israeli racism and colonialism.  Read more.

#BDS The Israel Lobby on campus in Illinois: A challenge for BDS

I only recently learned of Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s trip to Israel this past summer (2011) for a “week-long educational mission where he sealed two important agreements and received briefings from high-ranking Israeli officials, academic experts and business leaders on topics ranging from high-tech development (read Motorola), energy, water conservation and environmentalism (sic) to disaster preparedness, Iran, and U.S.-Israel relations.” This is reported on the website of Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. The reader is expected, of course, to find the high-minded and triumphant tone of this article to be unproblematic.  Read more.

#BDS Norcal Activists take on #Veolia

The North Coast Coalition for Palestine  in the San Francisco North Bay are preparing to present a letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors opposing the county's contract with Veolia. The French multinational company currently operates the county's bus system and has come under international pressure due to its involvement in a light rail line in Occupied East Jerusalem. Activists plans to collect signatures and present the letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Read more.

#BDS Peter Tatchell protests Israel's pinkwashing and endorses BDS

This is a bit of a turn up. Peter Tatchell has added his name to a letter supporting boycott, divestment and sanctions against the State of Israel and protesting Israel's PR tactic of "pinkwashing", ie, presenting itself as a progressive democratic state on account of supposedly gay-friendly policies. Here's the letter.  Source.

#BDS The 8th annual ‘Israeli Apartheid week’ is focused on BDS

The 8th annual Israeli Apartheid week is approaching, and it’s approaching fast. Israeli Apartheid Week is a week where Palestinian solidarity groups from around the globe mobilize events to spread awareness of the atrocities happening to the Palestinians because of Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid system. It also is a week where these solidarity organizations can answer the call of the Palestinian civil society and launch or continue their Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign.  Read more here.