Israeli theater actors refuse to perform at new West Bank cultural center

The Haaretz's Wednesday report that major Israeli theaters will travel across the Green Line for the first time to perform at a new theater at Ariel has sparked some stormy reactions: Two actors from the national theater, Habima, Yousef Sweid and Rami Heuberger, have already announced that they will not appear in any plays in Ariel.

Sweid, who is currently appearing in "A Railway to Damascus" at Habima, told a Channel 1 television talk show yesterday that "I would be glad to perform in settlements in several shows that have messages I'd like to deliver in many communities. But settlers and settlements are not something that entertains me, and I don't want to entertain them."

No plays that Heuberger acts in are currently slated to be performed in Ariel, but he said that "if I am asked, I believe I would have a problem with performing there. As a stage actor it is a very, very problematic issue, and I think that so long as settlements are a controversial issue that will be discussed in any negotiations [with the Palestinians], I should not be there."

Open Letter to Jeff Beck: Don’t Condone Israeli Apartheid!!

Occupied Ramallah, 26 August 2010

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is deeply troubled to learn that a highly respected musician such as yourself is scheduled to perform in Israel on October 5^th, in violation of the Palestinian call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). Israel is oppressing the Palestinian people through overlapping systems of military occupation, colonialism and apartheid. Inspired by the cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa, we urge you, as we have appealed to all international artists, not to perform in apartheid Israel.

Although you seem to have ignored an appeal sent to you last month by our Israeli partners, Boycott from Within!, to cancel your performance in Israel, we hope you shall think again about this especially problematic gig.

As a prominent artist you would be inadvertently supporting the official “Brand Israel” campaign, aimed at whitewashing Israel’s violations of international law and projecting a false image of normalcy and civility. You would be sending a message of support to Israel, at a time when it is facing growing international isolation over its systematic and gross violations of Palestinian human rights. Since the shocking flotilla massacre, when Israel attacked a humanitarian ship bound for Gaza and killed nine Turkish activists, a number of influential international artists have refused to conduct 'business as usual’ with a state that has placed itself above international law and is violently oppressing the Palestinian people. In the wake of the Flotilla attack, Klaxons, Gorillaz Sound System, the Pixies and Faithless all cancelled their scheduled concerts in Israel, and Hollywood superstars Meg Ryan and Dustin Hoffman cancelled their attendance at the 2010 Jerusalem Film Festival. Explaining his band’s decision, Faithless frontman Maxi Jazz brings into focus why it is morally imperative for artists to refuse to entertain apartheid Israel:

While human beings are being willfully denied not just their rights but their NEEDS for their children and grandparents and themselves, I feel deeply that I should not be sending even tacit signals that this is either 'normal' or 'ok'. It's neither and I cannot support it.

In other words, your performance in Israel would not be a neutral act. It would constitute a form of complicity with Israeli policies, in which you would be condoning the suffering and subjugation of an entire people and sending a message to the world that everything is 'normal’ in Israel. We call on you not to lend such support to a colonial regime that is denying the Palestinian people their freedom. 

For over 60 years Israel has unabatedly pursued colonial and apartheid designs to dispossess and ultimately ethnically cleanse the people of Palestine from their homeland. The state of Israel was established in 1948 by forcibly displacing the overwhelming majority of Palestine’s indigenous Arab population from their homes and lands. Today, these Palestinian refugees are prevented from returning to their homes from which they were expelled. In contrast, any person who claims Jewish descent from anywhere in the world may become an Israeli citizen and national under the so-called Law of Return.

In the Israeli occupied West Bank, Palestinians live under a brutal military occupation and are subject to daily humiliation, intimidation, house demolitions, illegal confiscation of their land, incarceration and military violence. Israel’s apartheid wall locks Palestinians into a system of isolated Bantustans and prisons, surrounded by exclusive Jewish colonies. Palestinian movement in and out of their cantons is completely controlled by Israeli checkpoints and its closure regime. Many villages are completely encircled by the wall that dispossesses villagers, cutting them off from their land, resources and markets.

In Gaza, Israel has imposed a life endangering siege. In January 2009, Israel carried out a criminal military assault against the occupied Gaza Strip during which it killed more than 1,440 Palestinians, of whom 431 were children, and injured another 5380. Israel subjected the besieged population of Gaza to three weeks of unrelenting state terror, systematically targeting civilian areas through indiscriminate aerial bombardments and missile strikes. The UN Fact Finding Mission, led by Judge Richard Goldstone, described the attacks as deliberately “designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population” and called for investigations of "war crimes and possible crimes against humanity."

You may be particularly interested to know that, as part of its illegal and unethical siege of Gaza, Israel has prevented not only various types of medicines, candles, books, crayons, clothing, shoes, blankets, pasta, tea, coffee and chocolate, but also musical instruments from reaching the 1.5 million Palestinians incarcerated in the world’s largest open-air prison. Can you entertain such a state with a clear conscience?

Inspired by the struggle against apartheid South Africa, we believe that the growing international BDS movement is the most effective way to pressure Israel to recognize and uphold the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights. Many prominent artists including Bono, Gil Scott-Heron and Elvis Costello have heeded our call and refused to perform in Israel. Major cultural figures such as John Berger, Ken Loach, Naomi Klein, Iain Banks, Alice Walker and many others endorse our boycott against Israel. Most recently, 150 Irish artists, including some of the most prominent, issued a pledge to support the cultural boycott of Israel until it complies with international law. Earlier this year, 500 artists in Montreal had announced their support for the boycott. We hope you will do the same and join the people of conscience throughout the world, who are saying enough is enough! Palestinians have been silenced, ignored, denied their freedom and brutally subjugated for far too long.

We ask you to heed our call for BDS. We hope that you will not turn a blind eye to colonial oppression, but instead will choose to use your musical talents to support the pursuit of freedom, justice, and equal human rights for all.

PACBI

www.PACBI.org

pacbi@pacbi.org

The Politics of economics: The boycott on Israel is expanding

The decision made on Monday by the Norwegian oil fund to divest from Africa Israel and Danya Cebus on the grounds that they are involved in illegal construction in the territories, is only the latest in a long series of decisions by governmental and private companies in Europe to boycott Israeli companies for political reasons.

In most cases, the argument is that the products were manufactured over the Green Line, and are therefore in the “occupied territories.”  At times, this refers to a political protest against Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians, for example, in response to the flotilla events.  One thing is not in question: In recent months, there has been an escalation in the boycott of Israeli brands for political reasons.

“Since the Palestinians announced a boycott on products from the territories, I have had a 40% drop in production in recent months,” said yesterday Avi Ben-Zvi, owner of Plastco, a glass plant in Ariel, “exports to Europe have completely stopped, and traders in the territories have stopped working with us.  The damage is huge.”

Haifa University students prepare to rally against leftist teachers

Students at Haifa University reportedly prepared a list of "Pro-Palestinian" professors and a group of activists were preparing a boycott campaign targeting their classes and lectures. 
Israel's Hebrew Language daily newspaper Ma'ariv said a campaign began on Tuesday, targeting 20 lecturers from the sociology and political science departments who they said "participate in demonstrations against Israeli troops and the Israeli government" or who have publicly spoken out against them. 
"We won’t choose courses of these lecturers and we won’t attend their lectures. It is unthinkable that at a time when our friends are fighting or receiving blows from activists on a ship that calls itself a peace ship that these lecturers stand up and demonstrate and speak out against these soldiers," one student was quoted as saying. 
"What is taking place here is fascism," another student told the paper, "this is the beginning of a repulsive attempt to shut people up who think differently. If the lecturers make statements that try to make historic justice, they deserve praise."
The University issued a statement to the paper, saying "Haifa University takes a serious view of any attempt to carry out an academic boycott or an attempt to harm academic freedom."

Aviv Geffen to open for U2

Israeli rock musician chosen to warm up legendary Irish band during mega concert in Athens' Olympic stadium

Israeli musician Aviv Geffen will be the opening act for legendary Irish rock band U2, which will perform at the Olympic stadium in Athens, Greece on September 3.

Geffen will join forces with acclaimed band SnowPatrol, and the two acts will warm up the crowd before Bono and his friends take the stage.

On Thursday, Geffen published a confirmation on his MySpace page. "We are proud to announce Aviv Geffen will open for U2 on September 3, 2010 on their '360' Tour at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece! 

Church boycott calls ring louder

The world's churches have long been one of the battlegrounds of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. With the strengthening of the BDS movement, a number of churches across the globe have seen the boycott of Israeli and Israeli settlement goods hotting up, and recent weeks have witnessed some notable victories. 

BUST ELBIT: Stop bankrolling Israeli wars and ghettos

I. Introduction
The call to divest from Elbit Systems Ltd. has become a key element of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement aimed at ending Israeli occupation, colonialism and apartheid against the Palestinian people.

One and a half years after Stop the Wall Campaign initiated campaigning efforts within the framework of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) to pressure international investors and public authorities across the world to divest from the Israeli corporation, victories for the Bust Elbit campaign are beginning to mount rapidly. The Bust Elbit campaign is part of the wider BDS efforts which seek to hold Israel and its supporters accountable by pressuring Israel on all fronts - politically, culturally, and economically.

Founded in 1967, the Israeli company has become one of the world’s premiere “security and defence,” firms, specializing in military electronics, surveillance systems, Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs or “drones”), and security systems. It is a symbol for the Israeli economy, which essentially thrives on and fuels war, repression and control in Palestine and around the globe.

Elbit Systems is built on the expertise of the Israeli Ministry of Defense Research Institute and has profited greatly from supplying the Israeli military with a variety of equipment used to sustain Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people. It produces the drones used in the wars and attacks against Gaza and Lebanon and provides equipment for the Israeli Merkava tanks. The Israeli Apartheid Wall, which is crippling Palestinian communities by isolating them in walled-in ghettos, has provided a massive source of revenue for Elbit. Elbit Systems provides “intrusion detection systems” for the Wall, in particular around Jerusalem1. Subsidiaries Elbit Electro-Optics (El-Op) and Elbit Security Systems supplied and incorporated LORROS surveillance cameras in the Ariel settlement section as well as around Ar Ram2. One product made by Elbit Systems, “Torch”, is manufactured specifically for use on the Wall3.

Elbit offers its experience in ghettoizing and killing Palestinians to repress other people. In 2006 its American subsidiary Kollsman Inc. won a contract to participate in the creation of the US – Mexico border wall, dubbed by activists the ‘Wall of Death’4.

On Local Boycott and Deception

By Khalil Nakhleh
Like many thousands of Palestinians in Ramallah, I feel utterly confused by the dishonesty of being railroaded concerning local boycott of 'settlements' products. Because we—my wife and I—are committed to the principle and act of boycott, as a means of resistance, I decided to clarify the primary issues involved, in order to minimize, as much as possible, daily contradictions.  I embarked on sorting out, systematically, methodically and with clarity, related major issues.
Enemies and Friends
The distinction is not as clear as it sounds. The Ramallah “Government”, its ministries, agencies, and commissions, repeat one line, and want to ram it down our throats. This line can be simplified as follows:
“Our primary enemy, at this historical juncture, is the illegal settlements in the West Bank. Therefore, and in order to punish these settlements, and force them out, we, and our international ‘friends’, must boycott their products.”
The words used do not reflect conviction, on the part of the “Government”, that: these are Zionist settler colonies; and having been established on stolen Palestinian lands in the West Bank, since 1967, is only another phase of the Zionist settler-colonial project that started in the rest of Palestine, since much earlier than 1948; and this is not, necessarily, the final phase of this onslaught. But we are “dooped” into thinking that this is so.

Israeli ships not welcome in Vancouver

Vancouver – Locally-based activists, called out by the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Coalition (BIAC), are mounting a picket line at the Port of Vancouver’s Delta Port facility at Roberts Bank, south of Vancouver, as part of a mounting international campaign to put pressure on the government of Israel.
The Israeli ship Djibouti, owned by Zim, one of the ten largest shipping companies in the world, is scheduled to land at Delta Port at 7:00 a.m. this morning.

“The behaviour of the Israeli government has been going from bad to worse,” explained BIAC spokesperson Gordon Murray. “We are going to be out there today to tell Zim and other Israeli companies that their business won’t be allowed to continue normally as long as Israel’s blockade on Gaza continues,” he said.
“Israel has been behaving as a rogue government,” said Mike Krebs, the other BIAC spokesperson for the demonstration. “People from Vancouver are coming out to emulate actions that have already been taken in South Africa, Scandinavia, India and Oakland, California, where Israeli ships have been prevented from unloading their cargo in a normal manner.”
“Israel has been violating international law and acting with impunity for far too long,” Murray said. “It’s obvious to us that they won’t change their behaviour unless their forced to,” he concluded.

Protester Arrested In Chicago While Challenging Israeli Segregation

In a demonstration organized by the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago on 23 August, more than two dozen activists converged on downtown Millennium Park to call on city leaders to sever ties with Israel and drop Petach Tikva, Israel from the Chicago Sister Cities program. During the annual Chicago Sister Cities' International Festival, protesters rallied outside -- and later, inside -- the venue. One activist was arrested and released later that day.

"Petach Tikva -- an officially segregated city, the first Jewish-only settlement in historic Palestine and the site of the primary detention center where Israeli forces abuse and torture Palestinian political prisoners -- has been dubbed by rights group Amnesty International as 'Israel's Guantanamo,'" PSG stated in a press release.

"Upholding the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions measures on apartheid Israel, PSG and its allies object to business-as-usual with Israel. Under the false premise of promoting culture and education, Petach Tikva's inclusion in Chicago Sister Cities promotes Israel-US business ties while it whitewashes Israel's occupation and human rights abuses," the statement added.

During the protest activists entered the festival venue and chanted "Drop Petach Tikva!" Activists reported that a pianist who was performing in the hall at the time "stood at attention out of respect once he heard the protesters' message."

"The PSG and allies were compelled to bring the message directly into the festival because for the last year and a half, the Chicago Sister Cities International has refused to meet with PSG and members of the community to hear about Petach Tikva's special role in Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people," PSG stated.

The group said it plans to keep up the pressure on city officials until the Chicago's Sister Cities program drops its partnership with Petach Tikva.

Scientists want inquiry into absence of Israelis at Jordan chemistry conference

The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities has asked an international chemistry association to examine whether organizers of an upcoming conference in Jordan deliberately excluded Israeli researchers from the list of invited speakers.

The request followed a call by Roald Hoffman, a Nobel laureate in chemistry at Cornell University, to boycott the event, whose 110 speakers do not include a single Israeli.

The 11th Eurasia Conference on Chemical Sciences, scheduled for October 6-8 at a conference center on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea, is aimed at exposing young scientists from developing countries to some of the world's leading researchers. The biennial event has previously been hosted in countries as varied as Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Waging Peace From Afar: Divestment And Israeli Occupation

When Israeli commandos launched their assault on the unarmed flotilla of ships carrying hundreds of humanitarian aid workers and 10,000 tons of supplies for the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least nine activists and injuring scores more, part of the operation was “Made in the USA.”

Decades of uncritical U.S. financial, military, and diplomatic support has ensured that Israel’s military power—nuclear and conventional—remains unchallengeable. A U.S. pattern of using UN Security Council vetoes to protect Israel from accountability has ensured that Israel can essentially do whatever it likes with those U.S.-provided weapons, regardless of what U.S. or international laws may be broken.

Israel has long relied on the numerous U.S.-made and U.S.-financed Apache and Blackhawk war helicopters in its arsenal—it’s a good bet those were in use in the May 31st assault in international waters. Use of U.S.-provided weapons is severely limited by our own laws: The Arms Export Control Act (AECA) prohibits any recipient from using U.S. weapons except for security within its own borders, or for direct self-defense. And no amount of Israeli spin can make us believe that an attack by heavily-armed commandos jumping onto the decks of an unarmed civilian ship in international waters has anything to do with self-defense.

So yes—our tax dollars and our politicians’ decisions play a huge part in enabling not only the flotilla attack but Israel’s violations of human rights overall. But increasingly, across the country, people and organizations are standing up to say no to U.S. support for those policies of occupation and apartheid.

The main strategy is known as “BDS”—boycott, divestment, and sanctions. Based on the lessons of theSouth African anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s, BDS brings non-violent economic pressure to bear in order to end Israeli violations of international law. In 2005, a coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations issued a call for a global campaign of BDS. The call was based on the understanding that the Palestinian struggle for human rights, equality, and the enforcement of international law needed international support—and civil society organizations would have to step in, given that the traditional Palestinian leadership hadn’t created a strategy for mobilizing such support.

الصندوق السيادي النرويجي يستبعد مجموعتين اسرائيليتين بسبب الاستيطان

اوسلو ـ ا ف ب: اعلنت الحكومة النرويجية الاثنين ان الصندوق العام النرويجي للمعاشات الذي يعد من اكبر الصناديق السيادية في العالم، استبعد لاسباباخلاقية مجموعتين اسرائيليتين متهمتين بالمساهمة في استيطان الاراضي الفلسطينية.وقالت وزارة المالية ان الصندوق الذي تودع فيه الدولة كامل عائداتها النفطية تقريبا، باع كل اسهمه في شركة 'افريكا اسرائيل انفستمنتس' التي تملك غالبية اسهم 'دانيا سيبوس' وهي مجموعة للبناء والاشغال العامة ناشطة في 'الاراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة'. وقال الوزير سيغبورن جونسن 'ان قرارات عدة لمجلس الامن الدولي ورأي محكمة العدل الدولية خلصت الى ان بناء المستوطنات الاسرائيلية في الاراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة محظور بموجب اتفاقية' جنيف.

واضاف في بيان 'لذلك استبعدت افريكا اسرائيل انفستمنتس ودانيا سيبوس من محفظة استثمارات الصندوق'. وباع الصندوق النرويجي جميع اسهمه في افريكا اسرائيل انفستمنتس التي تقدر بـ 7.2 مليون كورون (حوالي مليون يورو) في اواخر العام 2009، كما رفض الاستثمار في فرعها. واستبعد الصندوق ايضا الشركة الماليزية ساملينغ غلوبال ردا على 'انتهاكات واسعة ومتكررة' للقانون في نشاطاتها المؤذية للغابات في ولاية سرواك في ماليزيا وغويانا.

واوضح جونسن 'ان مجلس الاخلاق (الذي يعطي توصيات لوزارة المالية) تفحص (نشاطات) ساملينغ غلوبال واستنتج ان نشاطات الشركة في الغابات المدارية في سرواك وغويانا اسهمت في القضاء على الغابات بشكل غير مشروع والتسبب باضرار بيئية خطيرة'. وفي اواخر 2009 كان الصندوق النرويجي يملك اسهما تقدر بـ 8.1 مليون كورون في ساملينغ غلوبال وقد بيعت امس. وكان الصندوق النفطي النرويجي - كما هو معروف عموما - الذي يعتبر اول مستثمر في البورصات الاوروبية، يملك اسهما وسندات دولية بـ 2792 مليار كورون (353.2 مليار يورو) في اواخر حزيران (يونيو).

وتخضع ادارته لمعايير اخلاقية صارمة جدا بحيث تستبعد شركات صناعة الاسلحة 'اللانسانية بشكل خاص'، وصناعة التبغ والمجموعات المدانة بانتهاكات حقوق الانسان والفساد او بالحاق اضرار خطيرة بالبيئة. وباتت نحو خمسين شركة عالمية مدرجة على لائحتها السوداء بينها بوينغ ووال مارت والمجموعة الاوروبية للصناعات الجوية والدفاعية (اي ايه دي اس) ومجموعة سافران وبي ايه اي سيستمز.

Heineken Music Conference, Tel Aviv

By Carlos Lattuf

Israel tells schools not to teach nakba

NAZARETH // Government officials warned Israeli teachers last week not to cooperate with a civic group that seeks to educate Israelis about how the Palestinians view the loss of their homeland and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

Israel’s education ministry issued the advisory after Zochrot – a Jewish group that seeks to raise awareness among Israeli Jews of the events of 1948, referred to as the “nakba” by Palestinians – organised a workshop for primary school teachers.
The ministry said the course had not been approved and told teachers not to participate in Zochrot-sponsored activities during the coming school year.
In a letter to the education ministry protesting against Zochrot’s activities, the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, an advocacy group for Jewish settlers, had called the group’s educational materials “part of a criminal vision to wipe Israel off the face of the earth”.

It was unclear whether participants in the workshop for primary school teachers would be punished, but a teacher identified as a trainer for the seminar might be investigated by the education ministry, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The warning is the latest move by the education ministry, headed by Gideon Saar, a member of the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, to use school curricula to advance a more strident Zionist agenda.

In March, for instance, the ministry banned Israeli schools from distributing a booklet for children about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Critics had objected to parts of the declaration that refer to freedom of religion and protection of asylum-seekers.
The ministry’s latest move involves the controversies that still swirl over the events that led to the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 - what Israelis describe as their “War of Independence” and what Palestinians call the nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe”.

Eitan Bronstein, Zochrot’s director, said the ministry was trying to “frighten off” teachers from learning about a period in Israel’s history that until now, he said, had been presented in schools only from a “triumphalist perspective”.
The group, which was founded eight years ago and whose Hebrew name means “remembering”, has provoked controversy by organising visits to some of the hundreds of Palestinian villages destroyed by the Israeli army during and after the 1948 war.

Zochrot members place signposts at the former villages using their original Arabic names, and bring Palestinian refugees back on visits, upsetting Jewish residents who live in communities built on those lands.