#BDS: عشرات الفنانين الأميركيين يؤيدون مقاطعة المستوطنات

أعلنت مجموعة يهودية في الولايات المتحدة، أمس، أنّ أكثر من 150 فناناً مسرحياً وسينمائياً أميركياً وقعوا على عريضة أعربوا فيها عن تأييدهم لقرار زملائهم الإسرائيليين مقاطعة المستوطنات اليهودية في الضفة الغربية.

وجاء في العريضة «إننا، كممثلين ومخرجين وكتاب مسرحيين ونقاد أميركيين، نحيّي موقف نظرائنا الإسرائيليين في قرارهم الشجاع... ومن المدهش أن نرى هؤلاء المسرحيين الإسرائيليين يرفضون استخدام أعمالهم كأداة لتشجيع احتلال وحشي ينتهك القانون الدولي».

(«السفير»، أب)

#BDS: نائبتان أوروبيتان تدعمان فرنسيين دعوا لمقاطعة منتجات إسـرائيل

أعلنت نائبتان أوروبيتان، أمس، دعمهما لخمسة ناشطين فرنسيين مؤيدين للفلسطينيين سيمثلون الاثنين المقبل أمام محكمة فرنسية لدعوتهم داخل متجر كبير إلى مقاطعة السلع المستوردة من إسرائيل.

وقالت النائب الأوروبية الشيوعية الفرنسية جاكي اينان، في مؤتمر صحافي في استراسبورغ، «في هذه القضية، يتم استخدام القضاء لأغراض سياسية»، فيما علقت زميلتها نيكون كيل نيلسن من حزب الخضر «يبدو أن وزيرة (العدل) الفرنسية ميشيل اليو ماري زودت النيابات تعليمات بانتهاج الشدة».

وسيمثل الناشطون الخمسة أمام محكمة الجنح في ميلوز شرقي فرنسا بتهمة «الحض على التمييز والكراهية والعنف». واتهموا بأنهم شاركوا في أيلول العام 2009 في تظاهرة داخل أجنحة متجر كبير قرب ميلوز دعوا خلالها إلى مقاطعة السلع المستوردة من إسرائيل.

وينتمي الناشطون إلى حملة «بي دي اس» الدولية (مقاطعة، وقف الاستثمار، عقوبات) ويرفضون أن تصدر إسرائيل سلعا مصدرها المستوطنات في الضفة الغربية وإظهارها على أنها منتجات مصدرها المناطق الأخرى، الأمر الذي يمنحها التسهيلات الجمركية نفسها التي تتمتع بها السلع الإسرائيلية.

وأثار تحركهم «غير العنفي» استياء المكتب الوطني لرصد مناهضة السامية الذي تقدم بشكوى. وقال رئيس المكتب سامي غزلان «في المجموع، تقدمنا بأكثر من 80 شكوى تتصل بوقائع مماثلة، في كل أنحاء فرنسا». وأفضت إحدى هذه الشكاوى في شباط الماضي إلى تغريم ناشطة في رابطة حقوق الإنسان في بوردو بألف يورو للصقها شعار «قاطعوا التمييز العنصري الإسرائيلي» على علب عصير. (أ ف ب)

#BDS: One Nation Working Together

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is proud to endorse "The Peace Table," the peace and anti-war voice of the "One Nation Working Together" October 2 march on Washington, DC "for a future of justice at home and peace abroad, where we create good jobs for all of us and take on the great challenges we face as a nation." This march will bring together hundreds of thousands of people from trade unions, faith-based organizations, and activists for economic and racial justice, environmentalists, and the peace and justice movement. We'll be there to support demands for jobs and economic justice by calling for the United States to end military aid to Israel and redirect that money to unmet needs here at home. We'll have signs, banners, fliers, and petitions, but we need you and your organization to help us organize and make the demand for ending U.S. military aid to Israel front and center at this year's most important Washington, DC peace and justice rally! Join the US Campaign to form an "End U.S. Military Aid to Israel" contingent, and help us organize march participants to redirect $30 billion in military aid to Israel to unmet needs here at home. Learn more below.

Call to Action Find out why you should join.

Sign Up to Organize for the March Help us organize marchers to redirect $30 billion in military aid to Israel to unmet needs in our communities.

Organize Locally to End Military Aid to Israel Sign up as a local volunteer organizer to challenge U.S. military aid to Israel and take part in local coalition-building efforts to redirect our country's economic priorities.

Learn More about the Cost of Military Aid to Israel Click here to find out how much money your community gives in military aid to Israel, and what that money could be used for instead to meet the needs of people in your community.

#BDS: US Campaign endorses push for divestment at TIAA-CREF

The US Campaign has endorsed an exciting petition at Jewish Voice for Peace (a US Campaign member organization), pushing US financial services giant TIAA-CREF toward divestment from companies involved in Israel's theft of land and abuse of human rights. Check out JVP's campaign page, sign the petition and get resources to join this promising effort!

#BDS: The reasons the BDS movement is ‘gaining speed’

On September 5, 2010 the Israel newspaper Haaretz published an article the headline of which read "Anti-Israel Economic Boycotts are Gaining Speed." The subtitle went on to state that "the sums involved are not large, but their international significance is huge." Actually, what seems to have triggered the piece was not international. Rather, it was the decision of a "few dozen theater people" to boycott "a new cultural center in Ariel," an illegally settled town in the Occupied Territories. This action drew public support from 150 academics in Israel. The response from the Israeli right, which presently controls the government and much of Israel’s information environment, was loud and hateful.

Though this affair was domestic, it provided a jumping off point for Haaretz to go on and examine the larger international boycott of Israel which is indeed "gaining speed." It noted that Chile had recently pledged to boycott products from the Israeli settlements and Norway’s state pension plan had divested itself of companies involved in construction in the Occupied Territories. The Haaretz article pointed out that these incidents (and there are others that can be named in such countries as Ireland and Venezuela) are signs that the boycott movement –so long the province civil society– is now finding resonance at the level of national governments. The Israeli paper declared that "the world is changing before our eyes. Five years ago the anti-Israel movement may have been marginal. Now it is growing into an economic problem."

The article puts forth two explanations for this turn of events one of which is problematic, and the other incomplete. Let’s take a look at them.

#BDS: Refusing to Normalize a Cruel Occupation: A PACBI Open Letter to American and British Artists Supporting the Cultural Boycott of Israeli Colonies

Occupied Ramallah, 9 September 2010 -- The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) warmly salutes the tens of American and British theater, film and TV artists for their recently published statement [1] supporting the spreading cultural boycott of Ariel and the rest of Israel's colonial settlements illegally built on occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) due to their violation of international law.[2]  We also express our gratitude to Jewish Voice for Peace for its crucial role in bringing this statement to the light.  We view your courageous collective condemnation of Israel's settlements and "ugly occupation," your expression of "hope for a just and lasting peace" [emphasis added] in our region, and your endorsement of the logic of boycott to end injustice as a groundbreaking, precedent-setting initiative that will significantly contribute to ending Israel's impunity and status as a state above the law of nations in the United States, the United Kingdom and far beyond.

PACBI hopes that your position, which reflects a growing sentiment in the Western mainstream, particularly among cultural figures, will be consistently upheld against all institutions in Israel and elsewhere that are in violation of international law or complicit in covering up and whitewashing this violation.  We sincerely hope that this step will usher in further, more effective and bolder steps leading to a comprehensive cultural boycott of Israel -- and its complicit institutions – similar to that imposed on apartheid South Africa.  As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.”[3] 

#BDS: Divestment: from the campus to the streets

Following a sharp increase in divestment efforts across North American college campuses last spring, this academic year promises an even greater number of initiatives. The success and near-success of efforts at several campuses last year, coupled with Israel's attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla this summer, has inspired new efforts among peace and justice activists to target companies that profit from and abet Israel's apartheid regime.

Perhaps the largest divestment initiative is taking shape in California. The California Israel Divestment initiative is seeking to put a ballot measure to California voters that requires the state pension funds, the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), to divest from companies enabling or profiting from Israeli occupation and systematic violations of Palestinians' human rights. Although not a university-based effort, it is being led in large part by faculty members and students. Their goal is clear: faced by stonewalling from university administrations, the case is being taken directly to California voters.

Students from the University of California (UC) and California State (CSU) campuses are coordinating a major drive to collect the 440,000 signatures required for the ballot initiative, and the list of volunteers keeps growing. The initiative has already received the support of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Professor Noam Chomsky, a number of other public and religious figures, and CalPERS and CalSTRS members.

#BDS: Boycott the 26th Haifa International Film Festival

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) urges filmmakers and cultural workers to boycott the 26^thHaifa International Film Festival (HIFF) running from September 23 to 30, 2010. PACBI believes that this festival, as with similar cultural initiatives supported by Israeli state institutions, is designed to whitewash the crimes of Israeli apartheid. The festival boasts on its website "the support of the City of Haifa, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport - the Israeli Film Council, and the European Union."^[1]

As celebrities congregate in Haifa to enjoy "the activities of the festival, including the outdoor events, screenings, workshops and more," a few kilometres away the Gaza Strip faces electricity cuts and a suffocating economic siege; the West Bank remains under military occupation and intensifying colonization; occupied Jerusalem as well as the Naqab (Negev) are facing gradual ethnic cleansing, and the construction of the illegal apartheid wall is near completion.

The policy of using culture to whitewash Israeli violations of international law was openly confirmed by the Israeli government with the launch of a global 'Brand Israel’ campaign. According to an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson, the objective of this rebranding campaign, which "could include organizing film festivals," is to convey the message that "a better image for Israel and a better performance of that image is part and parcel [of] Israel’s national security. Contrary to popular belief, national security is not just based on military power, it’s also a strong economy and a strong image."^[2] This language reveals – as did similar endeavours by the South African Apartheid regime – a cynical and systematic attempt at manipulating world opinion. It aims to obfuscate the real nature of Israel’s military occupation and apartheid and to divert attention from its ongoing war crimes by portraying it as a vibrant, cultural and artistic hub.

PACBI takes the opportunity to reiterate the call to filmmakers, artists and cultural workers for a boycott of all cultural initiatives that have sponsorship from Israeli state organs or institutions, whether the events take place in Israel or abroad.^[3] The boycott also extends to any brand-Israel effort or organization because their aim is to help the state’s propaganda or “rebranding” efforts aimed at diluting, justifying, whitewashing or otherwise diverting attention from the Israeli occupation and other violations of Palestinian rights and international law.

There is precedent for a boycott of the Haifa International Film Festival, on August 1^st 2006, when the administrative council of the Greek Cinematography Center (GCC) decided to withdraw all the Greek films from HIFF, arguing that "under the current circumstances the specific cultural event has lost its meaning". Also, Ken Loach announced in 2006 that he would not take part in the "Haifa Film Festival or any other such occasions," as an acknowledgment of the fact that "Palestinians are driven to call for this boycott after forty years of the occupation of their land, destruction of their homes and the kidnapping and murder of their civilians."[4] Further, in 2002, Gaslight, the producers of the British documentary Sunday withdrew their film form HIFF. In their withdrawal letter to the festival, Gaslight wrote:

"... of the many lessons that flow from the story of Bloody Sunday, key among them is the ethical political and long-term military folly of governments attempting to impose military solutions on civil and human rights problems. We take this action in support of the Palestinian people and in solidarity with Palestinian artists and filmmakers. It is also done in solidarity with those within Israel (both Israelis and Arabs) who are speaking out and acting (e.g. refuseniks) against the government's murderous policies against the Palestinian people."^[5]

PACBI contends that Israeli state institutions’ funding of international film festivals is a key aspect of the rebranding effort, an effort to cover up the escalating agenda of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and violence against the Palestinian people, the last of which were the deadly assault on the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008-2009 and the lethal attack on humanitarian aid workers aboard the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla in May 2010, which resulted in the murder of nine Turkish relief workers and human rights activists. Shunning film festivals by international filmmakers and artists with such sponsorship deprives Israel of the chance to use art and culture as a tool in beautifying its apartheid reality.

Lately, there have been cases of film festivals issuing last minute announcements of sponsorship from Israeli state institutions, denying participants who heed the boycott call a chance to withdraw their films (one such case occurred at the Melbourne International Film Festival with the film Son of Babylon).^[6] This in many ways is due to the success of the cultural boycott in film festival circles; after a series of protests against Brand Israel at the Toronto, Edinburgh and Melbourne Film Festivals it is clear that accepting funding from Israeli state institutions does have repercussions and that the ''business as usual'' attitude regarding Israel in the cultural community is coming to an end. Film festivals will try to avoid controversy by not boasting these sponsorships or announcing them late. This does mean that the BDS movement and artists concerned with upholding the call for the cultural boycott must be proactive in seeking information regarding Brand Israel at all international events.

With Israel's continued disregard for international law and the basic rights of the Palestinian people, the kind of solidarity we expect from people of conscience around the world is to heed the Palestinian civil society call for a boycott of Israel and its complicit institutions, as they did in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

　

[1] http://www.haifaff.co.il/Info.php?id=doc_about

[2] http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/346848

[3] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=333

[4] http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5615.shtml

[5] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=99

[6] For the entire exchange between the film makers of Son of Babylon and the Melbourne International Film Festival see: http://blogs.crikey.com.au/cinetology/2010/07/30/leaked-filmmakers-demand-son-of-babylon-to-be-withdrawn-from-the-2010-miff-program/

#BDS: Letter: From Gaza with love; support a boycott

I am in besieged Gaza for the fifth time as I write this letter. The Israeli occupation/siege/imprisonment continues despite UN condemnation, international outcry and violation of international law.


As citizens of the world we should all be outraged by the atrocious human rights violations occurring here and in the West Bank. The cattle herding of Palestinians through the one border and the trickle of "supplies" (food, no building materials), purporting to be Israel's "relaxing" of the grasp on all borders (only due to flotilla pressure), is an obscenely small gesture in light of the slow strangulation of the people here in Gaza.


What are stocked shelves and shiny new motorcycles when the freedom of 1.5 million humans is restricted to an area the size of the Quimper Peninsula with poor water, over 50 percent unemployment, thousands of displaced/imprisoned families, education and medical care severely compromised, farms and fishing curtailed, and continual attacks by Israel? Americans must understand we are complicit in this human rights violation, as we give Israel $3 billion annually in an arms deal to buy back our F-16s, white phosphorous gas and rockets, which are then used on the Palestinian population.

#BDS: Boycott grows as Stephen Sondheim, Mira Nair and Julianne Moore join call against settlement theater; Palestinian activists say keep focus on the big picture

Jewish Voice for Peace's campaign to support 60 leading Israeli actors and playwrights who are refusing to play a new theater in Ariel continues to grow. Newnotable figures are joining by the day. Ed Asner explains his support, "It is always amazing when actors turn down jobs.To have the actors of Israel say they will not work in those venues is truly an act of courage.. I applaud them and would live to instill the actors of America with that courage." And Corey Fischer, co-founder of the Traveling Jewish Theater (now Jewish Theater San Francisco), expressed his admiration in the spirit of the season, “It seems to me that, as often happens in our times, these artists are taking on what was traditionally the task of the Hebrew Prophets: speaking truth to power. I hope someone is listening.”

But some questions are being raised in Palestine about the Israeli actors' protest. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has issued a statement in response the Israeli actors' boycott [Editor's note: Just to clarify this statement is in response to just the Israeli actors' boycott, not the letter from US artists]. While PACBI is clear they "welcome acts of protest against any manifestation of Israel’s regime of colonialism and apartheid," they do raise some important questions about the boycott, and what the protesters might be ignoring.

From the PACBI statement Boycotting Ariel: Missing the Forest for the Trees.

#BDS: UK, London: Ahava Protest, 11th September

#BDS: US artists’ support for settlement boycott spreading fast

NEW YORK – Over 150 American artists, including actresses Julianne Moore and Cynthia Nixon, playwright Tony Kushner and writer Wallace Shawn, have signed a letter in support of Israeli actors who refuse to perform in the West Bank.

Backed by the San Francisco-based Jewish Voice for Peace, the letter states that the settlement in Ariel is “clearly illegal,” and that any performance in the West Bank city’s new cultural center would have the effect, intentional or otherwise, of legitimizing Israel’s claim to what they refer to as occupied territory.

“It’s thrilling to think that these Israeli theatre artists have refused to allow their work to be used to normalize a cruel occupation which they know to be wrong, which violates international law and which is impeding the hope for a just and lasting peace for Israelis an [sic] Palestinians alike,” the letter reads.

“They’ve made a wonderful decision, and they deserve the respect of people everywhere who dream of justice. We stand with them.”

The letter’s signatories include actors Ed Asner and Mandy Patimkin, actress Vanessa Redgrave, playwright Eve Ensler and director Harold Prince.

The idea to write the letter came from Israeli artists, Jewish Voice for Peace director Rebecca Vilkomerson told The Jerusalem Post.

#BDS: CARE Board Member Takes Leave of Absence over Employer’s Support for Israeli Settlements

A member of the board of directors of the leading international

humanitarian aid organization CARE USA has taken a voluntary

leave of absence from CARE's board due to the involvement of his

employer, Africa Israel, in Israeli settlement activities. The move

last week came after a July 12 letter to the Atlanta-based non-profit

by the rights group Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott

of Israel that outlined Africa Israel's settlement ties, followed by letters

from Jews Say No, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and CODEPINK, and

meetings and discussions between representatives from CARE and

Adalah-NY and JVP.

Riham Barghouti from Adalah-NY explained, "We thank CARE USA for

acting swiftly to appropriately address this issue once it was brought

to their attention. Representatives from CARE USA told us that they

have approved the Board member's request for an indefinite leave of

absence while he remains in any way affiliated with Africa Israel. While

on leave, we have been assured that the member in question will not

attend or vote at Board meetings, receive Board information, or play any

other role on the CARE USA Board."

#BDS: “DIVEST FROM ISRAEL” CALIFORNIA BALLOT INITIATIVE LAUNCHES IN LA

VISUALS: Giant petition to be signed by speakers; Posters of campaign logo

LOS ANGELES, CA (Sept.7) --Californians committed to peace and justice for Palestine-Israel will launch the statewide campaign of California ballot Initiative 10-0020 with a signing ceremony in front of the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles on Wednesday, September 8, 2010.  Although California has adopted policies requiring divestment from Sudan, Iran and other nations, this is the first ballot measure in the nation aimed at changing Israeli policies through divestment by State agencies. It directs California’s large public employee and teacher pension funds to be consistent with their responsible investing policies and to divest from companies that violate the human rights of Palestinians. The description provided by the office of the Attorney General when it approved the measure for circulation says that the initiative “prohibits state retirement funds from investing in companies engaged in certain business activities in Israel.”

WHEN: NOON, Wednesday, September 8, 2010

WHERE: In front of the Israeli Consulate, 6380 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048

WHY:  Launch Ballot Initiative Drive to Require Public Employee Retirement Systems to Divest from Certain Business Activities in Israel

WHO: Shakeel Syed, Executive Director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California;  Rev. Dr. DarELL T. Weist retired, Senior Minister United Methodist Church of Los Angeles; Yael Korin, Israeli-American researcher; Mahmood Ibrahim, Palestinian-American Professor of History, California State Polytechnic University Pomona; Rosie Martinez, labor activist, Latino Caucus, SEIU 721; and Andy Griggs, retired teacher LAUSD, STRS members, United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) activist. 

#BDS: For a morally consistent boycott of Israel

Provoked by the recent announcement of the inauguration of a cultural center in Ariel, the fourth largest Jewish colony in the occupied Palestinian territory, 150 prominent Israeli academics, writers and cultural figures have declared that they "will not take part in any kind of cultural activity beyond the Green Line, take part in discussions and seminars, or lecture in any kind of academic setting in these settlements" ("150 academics, artists back actors' boycott of settlement arts center," Haaretz, 31 August 2010). A few protestors went as far as reiterating the fact that all Israeli colonies built on occupied Palestinian land are in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and thus constitute a war crime.

This position by tens of Israeli academics and artists has generated a great deal of controversy within the Israeli public sphere, attracting rebuke from across the political spectrum and especially from the academic and cultural establishment. All major theaters were quick to declare their refusal to boycott Ariel under the pretense of serving "all Israelis;" university administrations echoed this position or resorted to silence, continuing business as usual with Ariel and other settlements. The terms of the discourse, however, raise a number of issues for supporters of Palestinian rights. While we welcome acts of protest against any manifestation of Israel's regime of colonialism and apartheid, we believe that these acts must be both morally consistent and anchored in international law and universal human rights.