#BDS: Berlin Jewish Museum event calls for Israel boycott #fuckIsrael

"The internationally renowned Jewish Museum in Berlin hosted a podium discussion on Saturday with US academic Judith Butler, who renewed her calls to boycott Israel. It appears to be the first anti-Israel event held in the Jewish museum since its opening in 2001 with the aim of exhibiting the 2,000- year history of Germany’s Jews. At least 700 people attended the event.

The German taxpayer-funded museum’s decision to showcase a speaker in the capital city, which during the Nazi period served as the launching pad for a boycott movement against German-Jewish businesses, has raised eyebrows about the management’s direction of the museum."

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#BDS: Frankfurt to Award Prestigious Honor to #Israel #Boycott Advocate

"The city of Frankfurt is set to award its prestigious Theodor Adorno prize to Professor Judith Butler, an avid proponent and supporter of boycotting Israeli products and cultural offerings.

The Adorno award, which is given for excellence in philosophy, music, film, and theater, is handed out every 3 years, and is named for a German-Jewish man who fled Nazi Germany but returned to the country after World War II to become a professor at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt."

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#BDS: 30. März: Globaler BDS Aktionstag 2012

"Im Gedenken an den Tag des Bodens lädt das Palästinensische Nationale BDS Komitee (BNC) Menschen mit Gewissen in aller Welt dazu ein, sich zu einem Globalen BDS Aktionstag am 30. März 2012 zusammenzuschließen in Solidarität mit dem Kampf des palästinensischen Volkes für Freiheit, Gerechtigkeit und Gleichheit und für Boykott, Desinvestition und Sanktionen gegen Israel, bis es seine Verpflichtungen gegenüber dem Völkerrecht vollständig erfüllt.

Lasst uns unsere BDS Erfolge durch kreative Aktionen und Medienarbeit präsentieren und zugleich für das Weltsozialforum Freies Palästina im November 2012 mobilisieren."

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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: انسحاب ألماني من خط قطارات إسرائيلي

عبرت النائبة في البرلمان الألماني هايكه هينزيل عن ترحيبها بقرار هيئة السكة الحديد الألمانية (دويتشه بان) الانسحاب من مشروع إسرائيلي لخط قطارات سريع يربط بين مدينة القدس وتل أبيب، بسبب مروره عبر أراض فلسطينية محتلة.

 

وأوضحت هينزيل -وهي عضوة في البوندستاغ عن حزب اليسار المعارض- في تصريح للجزيرة نت أن قرار "دويتشه بان" الانسحاب من هذا المشروع جاء نتيجة ضغوط مارستها 32 مجموعة تضم 90 شخصا من الحقوقيين والسياسيين الألمان والفلسطينيين ونشطاء السلام الإسرائيليين على الحكومة الألمانية وعلى مجلس التنسيق الألماني الإسرائيلي، بهدف عدم المشاركة في تنفيذ خط السكة الحديد الإسرائيلي.

 

ويعد خط القطارات الإسرائيلي الجديد تجديدا لخط قديم أقامته الدولة العثمانية عام 1904 ، ومر عبر أراض شرق الأردن إلى القدس المحتلة، وتبلغ تكلفة مشروع الخط 1.2 مليار يورو، ومن المفترض أن يخفض عند تشغيله عام 2017 زمن المسافة من القدس المحتلة إلى تل أبيب بـ28 دقيقة.

 

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#BDS: German Railway withdraws from project of new railway line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

"BERLIN – The German Railway (Deutsche Bahn) will no longer participate in building a new rail line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Because the route will pass through occupied Palestinian territory.

With this decision, the German railway bends under the pressure of a Group of German peace activists and a Palestinian initiative who had criticized the commitment of the DB since months.

According to a report of the german daily Der Spiegel, Federal Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer (CSU) had informed the DB CEO Ruediger Grube on the political delicacy of the project. Referring to the Deutsche Bahn the magazine reported, that the DB regarded the route under the “terms of international law” for “problematic”.

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#BDS: Palestinians, Israelis, Allies Oppose Exploitation of LGBT Rights at Berlin’s International Tourism Fair

"A broad coalition of queer, trans and straight Palestinian, Israeli and allied international activists are protesting the Israeli government’s “Tel Aviv Gay Vibe” promotional events at the International Tourist Fair in Berlin March 12-13. The activists are asking the fair organizers to refuse to allow the “Gay Vibe” stand at the fair.

Tel Aviv Gay Vibe Campaign in Berlin is sponsored by the Israeli government. Activists argue that this portrayal serves to distract the international community from Israel’s serious and ongoing human rights violations of Palestinians in Israel and the OccupiedPalestinian Territories (OPT). Additionally, Israel makes political use of homophobia in their portrayal of the surrounding Arab states.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanction National Committee is therefore calling for a tourism boycott: “Supporting Israeli tourism comes at the cost of further destruction to Palestinian communities, heritage and culture. Tourism is used by the occupation to promote a "progressive", "peaceful" and "multicultural" face to the world despite the daily crimes committed against the Palestinian people. In the campaign against tourism to Apartheid South Africa, activists sought out tourist exhibitions or agents promoting travel to the regime under the slogan "Apartheid is NO Holiday".”

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#BDS: German director shuns boycott call

Celebrated director Percy Adlon attends International film festival in Israel despite letter by Israeli group calling him to boycott event

Shortly before catching a flight to Israel, German director Percy Adlon received a letter from Israeli group Boycott! Support the Palestinian BDS Calls from Within, which advocates a boycott of Israeli institutions and events under their sponsorship.

In the letter, Adlon was asked to cancel his scheduled trip to theJewish state, due to its government's policy toward the Palestinians.

However, Adlon did not comply, and arrived in Israel in order to attend the EPOS International Art Film Festival, which opened Wednesday in cinematheques across the country.

#BDS: Israeli orchestra to perform at Wagner festival in Germany

Planned performance will challenge a long-standing Israeli taboo on the music of Richard Wagner, Adolf Hitler's favorite composer.

An Israeli orchestra will strike an emotional chord in Germany next year when it plays a work by Richard Wagner, Hitler's favorite composer, further challenging a long-standing taboo in Israel on his music.

Israeli ensembles hardly ever play Wagner, citing the feelings of Holocaust survivors.

But with the passage of time and the dwindling numbers of elderly survivors, vehement opposition in the Jewish state to the works of the anti-Semitic 19th-century composer is fading, Israel Chamber Orchestra (ICO) chairwoman Erela Talmi said.

#BDS: German firm helps Israel cement occupation with light rail

Last month, the German company TÜV NORD Group announced that it will test the technical safety of the first line of the controversial Jerusalem light rail project that critics say is being built in violation of Palestinian rights. The light rail project will connect West Jerusalem with several illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and is expected to enter into operation next spring.

The TÜV NORD Group is one of the world's largest technical service providers and employs nearly 10,000 workers in more than seventy countries. In a 15 September press release, the company expressed its enthusiasm about its involvement in the light rail project and that it hopes to test the safety of future lines ("TUeV NORD Group gets Jerusalem's trams on track").

TÜV NORD Group's involvement in the project will likely find it in hot water as has its French counterparts, the construction giants Veolia and Alstom. Activists and human rights observers say that the companies involved in the light rail project are directly implicated in maintaining Israel's occupation of and settlement infrastructure in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Israel's settlements in the occupied West Bank and its annexation of East Jerusalem are illegal under international law. This status has been affirmed by numerous UN resolutions and a 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.

#BDS: Israeli Chamber Orchestra to perform at German Wagner festival

The Israel Chamber Orchestra is to play at Germany's prestigious Bayreuth festival of Wagnerian music, in a rare breach of an Israeli taboo against performing the rabidly anti-Semitic composer's work.

"The orchestra will play at the opening of the festival," Erella Talmi, the chairwoman of the orchestra's board of directors, told Israeli army radio on Tuesday.

She said the decision to take part next summer was the result of an invitation from Wagner's great-granddaughter, Katerina Wagner to the Israeli ensemble's musical director, Austrian conductor Roberto Paternostro.

She said that Wagner was trying to shake up the event, traditionally attended by what she called an "elitist" audience.

"The decision was not to break a taboo," Talmi added. "The decision was to accept an invitation that showed a new openness."