In correspondence addressed to state legislative appropriations leadership, the officers of the Georgia Green Party today urged that "the state of Georgia sever its economic ties with the Apartheid state of Israel", and called specifically for the end of Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange collaboration with Israeli police agencies (http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/QDC/Actions/GeorgiaBudgetWritersUrgedToDivestFromIsrael).
Under this program, Georgia State University facilitates international travel and training between Georgia police agencies and police agencies from Israel, who enforce the Apartheid conditions in occupied Palestine. The Party warns such training would involve the sort of 'counter-terrorism' tactics which could only cost Georgia taxpayers expensive settlements in wrongful death and civil rights violations.
This past week's report by a UN Commission on Human Rights has focused renewed attention on the daily atrocities which make the Israeli settlement of Palestine possible.
"Our state and federal tax dollars support Israeli's militarized occupation of Palestine. Our government's spending choices have made each of us complicit in the IDF's murder of six Free Gaza activists this past Summer. Israel is guilty of crimes against humanity in general and the Palestinian people in particular," said Adam Shapiro, a member of Atlanta's Congregation Bet Havrim and the Co-Chair of the Georgia Green Party. "I grew up believing that the state of Israel would serve as a safe haven for oppressed Jews. It is a sad irony then, that Israel is instead the oppressor. Those jews who choose to defend Israeli aggression do not speak for all of us. And our silent complicity with those who would justify these crimes is tantamount to our serving as the Good Germans of our time."
Oct 7, 2010
#BDS: Is boycotting Israel anti-Semitic?
, a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, responds to claims from supporters of Zionism that criticism of Israel--and in particular, the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against it--is "anti-Semitic."
ISRAEL'S SUPPORTERS wield the accusation that Palestine solidarity activists who support a boycott of Israel are guilty of anti-Semitism.
Because this charge is so repugnant to progressives, as Zionists are all too aware, it can have the effect of shutting down any debate about Israel's crimes. In particular, the charge is leveled at the global movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, which seeks a campaign until Israel "meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with international law," as stated in the BDS call to action.
The outlandish charges by Israel's defenders against pro-Palestine activists reach the heights of hysteria on Web sites like BoycottIsrael.org.uk, which falsely poses as "The official boycott Israel site" and is headlined, "The real Palestine story is just anti-Semitism re-branded--instigated and supported by the storm troopers of our time."
There you have it. According to them, support for a boycott of Israel, which acts in open defiance of international laws and any unbiased person's moral code, is nouveau-Nazism.
#BDS: Jordan, Palestinians pull out of cycling tour with Israel
Jordanians and Palestinians have pulled out of a cycling tour with Israelis to promote environmental awareness a week after Jordan's Islamist-dominated trade unions urged a boycott.
"We wanted to promote awareness about climate change problems in the region, but those who are against normalisation with Israel have turned the matter into a political issue," Abdelrahman Sultan, deputy director of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) in Jordan, told AFP on Wednesday.
"We understand that the event could provoke some people because of the Middle East peace crisis and Israeli settlement building. So we and the Palestinians decided to cancel our participation to avoid provocations."
The three-day "torch-run" event organised by FoEME was scheduled to start on October 8 in Jordan, going on to Israel and finishing in the Palestinian territories.
It was aimed at drawing attention to the threatening impacts of climate change on the lower Jordan River and the Dead Sea, which is shared by Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians.
"Our goal was not political and we did not seek normalisation with Israel. We just wanted to draw people's attention to environmental problems," Sultan said, adding that "the Israeli activists will go ahead with the event inside Israel."
On September 29, a Jordanian trade unions committee that opposes better ties with Israel accused FoEME of "working to impose normalisation with the Zionist enemy under cover of environmental activities."
#BDS: UEFA mulls banning Israel over treatment of Palestinian athletes
UEFA President Michel Platini reportedly pledged to exert his influence in removing Israel from European competition.
The head of European soccer's governing body told a senior Palestinian Authority official that Israel is in danger of eviction from UEFA if its government does not change its policies limiting the freedom of movement for Palestinian athletes, according to reports in Palestinian and Arab media outlets.
During a late September meeting in the West Bank with Palestinian Olympic Committee chairman Jibril Rajoub, UEFA President Michel Platini reportedly pledged to exert his influence in removing Israel from European competition over the authorities' refusal to permit members of the Palestinian national soccer team to attend games due to "security reasons."
"We accepted Israel into Europe and it must abide by the laws and regulations which require freedom of movement for players," Platini is said to have told Rajoub. "If Israel does not do this, it will bear the serious consequences and it is liable to be thrown out of Europe."
#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."
#BDS: Palestine boycott committee calls on US pension fund to divest from Israel
The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), on behalf of its constituent organizations and unions representing the majority of Palestinian civil society, calls upon the US non-profit pension fund TIAA-CREF to live up to its motto of providing "Financial Services for the Greater Good" by divesting its funds from companies that profit from Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and violation of Palestinian rights. As in the struggle to end South African apartheid, divestment from wrongdoing companies is not just a moral obligation; it is a time-honored, particularly effective, non-violent form of pressure that can significantly contribute to ending Israel's occupation, racial discrimination and denial of refugee rights.
The BNC strongly supports the fast-growing and inspiring campaign initiated byJewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and widely endorsed by US solidarity and just peace advocacy groups and coalitions, including the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and Adalah-NY, aimed at pressuring TIAA-CREF to divest from companies profiting from Israel's occupation and violation of international law. We urge all groups working on boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns in the US, especially on university campuses, to endorse this campaign and join it, whenever possible, to amplify its reach and impact across the US.
Investing in companies that profit from Israel's multi-tiered oppression of the Palestinian people is a form of complicity in this oppression. Israel is methodically and routinely violating international law and Palestinian rights as part of its system of apartheid, colonization and occupation. Israeli colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continue to grow relentlessly, destroying lives and livelihoods. These settlements are all illegal according to international law, as most recently confirmed by the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 2004. The construction of Israel's apartheid wall has isolated and put at risk of displacement over 250,000 Palestinians from over 75 communities. The immoral and illegal siege of Gaza continues, and the 2008-2009 military aggression campaign known as Operation Cast Lead has been condemned by a UN fact finding mission as constituting war crimes and possible crimes against humanity "in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population." Palestinian citizens of Israel face "institutional, legal and societal discrimination," condemned even in US State Department reports. Over six million Palestinian refugees, the majority of the Palestinian people, are denied their UN-sanctioned right to return to their homes and receive reparations.
Through its investments in companies complicit in Israel's violations of international law, TIAA-CREF directly profits from and is in turn accountable for these violations of international law:
The BNC strongly supports the fast-growing and inspiring campaign initiated byJewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and widely endorsed by US solidarity and just peace advocacy groups and coalitions, including the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and Adalah-NY, aimed at pressuring TIAA-CREF to divest from companies profiting from Israel's occupation and violation of international law. We urge all groups working on boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns in the US, especially on university campuses, to endorse this campaign and join it, whenever possible, to amplify its reach and impact across the US.
Investing in companies that profit from Israel's multi-tiered oppression of the Palestinian people is a form of complicity in this oppression. Israel is methodically and routinely violating international law and Palestinian rights as part of its system of apartheid, colonization and occupation. Israeli colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continue to grow relentlessly, destroying lives and livelihoods. These settlements are all illegal according to international law, as most recently confirmed by the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 2004. The construction of Israel's apartheid wall has isolated and put at risk of displacement over 250,000 Palestinians from over 75 communities. The immoral and illegal siege of Gaza continues, and the 2008-2009 military aggression campaign known as Operation Cast Lead has been condemned by a UN fact finding mission as constituting war crimes and possible crimes against humanity "in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population." Palestinian citizens of Israel face "institutional, legal and societal discrimination," condemned even in US State Department reports. Over six million Palestinian refugees, the majority of the Palestinian people, are denied their UN-sanctioned right to return to their homes and receive reparations.
Through its investments in companies complicit in Israel's violations of international law, TIAA-CREF directly profits from and is in turn accountable for these violations of international law:
- Holdings worth $19.24m in Veolia, a company that profits from the construction and expansion of illegal Jewish-only settlements by operating a landfill in the West Bank, collecting rubbish from illegal settlements and being a key partner in a light rail system linking West Jerusalem and illegal Israeli settlements, described by the UN Human Rights Council as a "clear violation of international law".
- Holdings worth $1.69m in Elbit Systems, Israel's largest arms manufacturer which provides unmanned aerial vehicles used in the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead and has been integral in the creation of the apartheid wall across the West Bank that has been ruled illegal by the ICJ.
- Holdings worth $91.75m in Motorola, a provider of equipment and components for military checkpoints, that serve a humiliating and integral part of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, and the Israeli occupation forces.
- Holdings worth $199.06m in Northrop Grumman, a vital supplier of military equipment to the Israeli occupation forces.
- Holdings worth $236.85m in Caterpillar, who supply bulldozers routinely used to demolish Palestinian homes and in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements and supply unmanned bulldozers specially designed for urban warfare that were used in Operation Cast Lead.
- Investments do not exist in isolation from the actions they fund. As holders of pension schemes with TIAA-CREF, over 3.5 million academic, medical, cultural and research practitioners throughout the United States are unwittingly profiting from violations of international law. Israeli impunity relies on the economic and political support gained by such investments; so did apartheid South Africa's impunity. The BNC was pleased to learn that TIAA-CREF no longer owns shares in Africa-Israel, a company heavily involved in settlement construction. However, the BNC urges TIAA-CREF to ensure that its actions consistently reflect its own public statements about its commitment to "influence positive social change" and to ensure it sells its holdings in all companies that profit from Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory and infringement of Palestinian rights.
In the face of the failure of the international community to hold Israel to account for its violations of international law and its denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, and in harmony with the 2005 BDS Call issued by the overwhelming majority in Palestinian civil society, individuals of conscience, trade union and diverse institutions have engaged in campaigns to boycott and divest from companies complicit in Israeli violations of international law.
TIAA-CREF is an institution of great significance and weight and must take its responsibilities seriously. An organization that professes to lead the field in ethical investment and hold progressive principles cannot bankroll and politically bolster Israeli aggression. Nor should individual pension scheme holders have their hard-earned savings ethically tarnished by their investment in Israeli violations of international law. The BNC looks forward to hearing that TIAA-CREF has ended its active complicity with Israeli contravention of Palestinian rights and calls upon board of TIAA-CREF to:
- Immediately divest its shares in all companies actively involved in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
- Take steps to ensure that such investments cannot be allowed to re-enter its portfolios.
- Inform all companies whose shares it holds that it will not tolerate involvement in Israeli aggression of any kind.
The BNC also calls upon individuals of conscience, international solidarity groups and academic, labour and student groups in particular to:
- Work closely with JVP, Adalah-NY and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation to support, enhance and ensure the success of the campaign against TIAA-CREF's unethical investments.
- Raise awareness of TIAA-CREF's investments in Israeli violations of international law in their communities, work places and educational establishments.
#BDS: Churches look at investments in context of Middle East conflict
Ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories with boycott and divestment would be like “snails confronting a tsunami,” David Wildman, executive secretary for Human Rights and Racial Justice, general board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church in the United States, said last week during the United Nations Advocacy Week organized by the World Council of Churches in Geneva.
Wildman made the comment while speaking in an Advocacy Week session on Israel-Palestine dealing with “Strategies for ending Israeli occupation”.
“Justice work means praying with our feet and raising our voices in public confrontation with unjust authorities,” he said, citing how the Presbyterian Church (USA) took on Caterpillar, Citigroup, ITTI Industries, Motorola and United Technologies concerning investment in Israel in June 2004.
But the statistics Wildman presented in his case for divestment were enormously challenging to the audience.
Ninety-nine percent of children killed in the Israel and Palestine conflict are Palestinians. They fell to US-supplied weapons, he said. “We, US tax payers, have invested in them.”
“So, indirectly, I am funding terrorist attacks on my siblings.”
Wildman also said Israel is using sophisticated machines made by Hewlett Packard (HP) for screening its gates, so “indirectly we are also supporting this systematic discrimination”.
#BDS: الاردن, عمان:الاعتصام التاسع والعشرون ضد وجود السفارة الصهيونية في عمان
من أجل أردن خالِ من الصهيونية، شارك بالاعتصام الأسبوعي (التاسع والعشرين) يوم الخميس الموافق في 7/10/2010 احتجاجاً على وجود السفارة الصهيونية في الرابية. إذن نراكم على رصيف جامع الكالوتي في الرابية في السادسة والنصف مساء الخميس.
احتجاجنا ضد وجود سفارة العدو الصهيوني في عمان ليس موسمياً ولا عارضاً، وليس ردة فعل ضد المجازر الصهيونية فحسب.
#BDS: Israeli Citizen Call: Do Not Attend OECD Conferences in Apartheid Jerusalem Until Israel Abides by International Law
Dear OECD Officials,
As Israeli citizens, we are concerned by the policies of the Israeli governments, policies which violate international law, violate the basic human rights of Palestinians under occupation and serve to instigate instability, violence and suffering in the Middle East. We are also concerned by the double standards applied by some countries in the international community, especially the developed countries, towards Israel’s violations. Such double standards imbue violent and blatantly illegal Israeli policies of land theft, torture and physical abuse of civilians with an aura of legitimacy.
We believe that only when the international community makes Israel accountable for its actions, can we hope to see a change in Israeli policies.
As Israeli citizens, we wish to emphasize our strong support of the calls of numerous Palestinian and international organizations addessed to OECD countries. Please note that these calls also refer to the racist policies towards, and discrimination against, those Palestinians who live under Israeli control in Jerusalem. For background info on this please see:
“Unsafe Space: The Israeli Authorities’ Failure to Protect Human Rights amid Settlements in East Jerusalem”"
“Human Rights in East Jerusalem: Facts and Figures 2010″
Rewarding Israel for severe human rights violations will neither bring peace nor justice !
In view of the above, we are asking you: Please Do Not Attend the OECD Conferences in Apartheid Jerusalem Until Israel Abides by International Law !
Sincerely
Rachel Giora
Ofer Neiman
Tal Shapira
On behalf of Boycott! supporting the Palestinian call for boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) from within
#BDS: Street Theater and Broadway Shows From Olympia BDS
It was a crowded and lively downtown last Friday night for the annual fall Artswalk. Olympia BDS had a presence outside Last Word books, and also periodically on the streets as our street theater filed through downtown.
The idea for the “Peace Talks on Broadway” display came from something Ali Abunimah said at the Olympia Center a couple of weeks ago: “The peace process is like one of these big Broadway shows they keep reviving and they just change the cast. Some of the cast members are original cast members and there are new cast members that come in. And it’s always the same script. We are always told that there will be a Palestinian state within two years. A Palestinian state has been two years away now for the past 10 to 15 years. There is very little expectation of this so called peace process.”
#BDS: Dundee City Council flies the flag for Palestinians
Campaigners are celebrating the decision to fly the Palestinian flag from one of the most prominent council buildings in the heart of Dundee.
The flag has been raised over the Caird Hall along with those of Dundee's other twin city nations after the local authority agreed to what Lord Provost John Letforddescribed as a "compromise" suggestion.
Members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign'sDundee Group and Tayside for Justice in Palestine had called for the council to raise the flag in the wake of the attack on a vessel carrying aid to Gaza in May.
More than 3000 people signed a petition backing the move and calling for Dundee City Council to support the next aid flotilla and to boycott Israeli goods and services.
#BDS: Turkey to join OECD meeting in Jerusalem shunned by Spain, Britain
Turkey is sending a delegation to an OECD conference later this month in east Jerusalem despite Spain and Britain's refusal to attend. Ankara's participation in the conference on sustainable tourism is seen as surprising amid the ongoing political tension between the two countries following the Gaza war and Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla with many Turks onboard
Turkey will be sending a high-level official to Israel for a biannual tourism conference this month despite Britain and Spain’s refusal to attend because the event will take place in east Jerusalem, ministry officials said Tuesday.
Culture and Tourism Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Özgür Özaslan will represent Turkey at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development conference on Oct. 20-22, officials told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.
The Israeli press has claimed that Palestinians are pressuring European countries to shun the October conference on sustainable tourism, which normally takes place in Paris.
“Nobody is able to attend this meeting from the British side. It is not a boycott; it is a bureaucratic issue, not a political one. We are opposed to any boycott against Israel,” a British diplomat told the Daily News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Britain will be participating in future OECD meetings in west Jerusalem,” the diplomat added.
#BDS: Anarchy über alles
Veteran German punk band Die Toten Hosen played their first-ever Tel Aviv gig.
On the 20th anniversary of German reunification, earlier this week, the country’s most successful German-singing band did not perform in Berlin, Hamburg or Munich. Die Toten Hosen instead chose to play in Israel for the first time in its 28-year career.
“It’s a special and unique moment, especially for us as a German band. It took us a long time to finally come, and while every time playing in a new country is something special, playing in Israel is really something else,” frontman Campino said to Haaretz. The punk group performed Sunday night at Tel Aviv’s Barby Club to an audience of several hundred that included an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor.
#BDS: Guns N' Roses scheduled to perform in Israel this winter
Ynet learned that legendary rock band Guns N' Roses has scheduled two performances in Israel in the upcoming winter, most likely to take place on Dec. 18 and 19 in Tel Aviv. (Or Barnea)
#BDS: Bieber-mania storms Israel
Seven producers compete to see who can bring teen idol Justin Bieber to Israel next summer. For anyone wondering whether he does bar-mitzvahs – he does. For $1 million
The 16-year-old teen pop idol who has taken the charts in the US is slated to perform in Israel next summer, according to reports of talks being held between Bieber's agents and producers in Israel.
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