#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

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"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

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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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