#BDS: Bahrain-based Saudi-financed "Islamic" bank Arcapita doing rich business with Israel military

This blog reported on 9 October that American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) Board Member Marwan M. Atalla and his investment firm NEST U.S.A. Inc. are shareholders in Cirrus Design Corporation, an aircraft manufacturing firm which does millions in business with Israeli military contractors closely tied to the Israeli military establishment. (See "Board member of Ziad Asali's ATFP does millions in business with Israeli military firm" )

As the earlier post explains, Cirrus has a long history of working with Israeli companies and recently chose an Israeli military contractor called TAT Technologies to supply $10 million worth of aircraft parts. TAT Technologies is run by Israeli military officers, including a former commander of Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon, and its factory is built on the land of the ethnically-cleansed Palestinian village of Yasur.

Since publishing that post, I have received new information from a former employee who is also a current minority shareholder at Cirrus. According to this individual Atalla was an active board member of Cirrus until 2001, but was forced to resign along with other independent board members when another investor, the First Islamic Investment Bank of Bahrain took a majority stake in Cirrus. Atalla and his firm NEST U.S.A. Inc. remain shareholders of Cirrus as of this time, according to NEST's own website.

In 2005, the First Islamic Investment Bank of Bahrain changed its name to Arcapita. Arcapita is financed by investors in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and is well-connected to those countries' ruling families.

The Arcapita website states on its current corporate investments page that it acquired a stake in "Cirrus Design Corporation" in 2001, but does not say how big the stake is. A 2007 report on aviation industry website AVweb, put Arcapita's stake at a controlling 58 percent.

While the AVweb report mentions that Arcapita was seeking to divest from Cirrus, in fact it has become more deeply involved. An April 2009 press release from Cirrus stated that Arcapita had pumped even more money into the company during the global financial crisis.

As an Islamic investment bank, all of Arcapita's investments are screened by its Shariah Supervisory Board which currently includes a religious scholar and former judge from the Supreme Court in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, as well as religious scholars from Pakistan and Bahrain. Such advisory boards are supposed to screen investments to make sure they comply with Islamic banking standards -- typically avoiding interest, or investments in alcohol or pornography.

But for Arcapita, at least, there seems to be nothing un-Islamic about profiting from deals with the Israeli military establishment -- the same military that has slaughtered more than nine thousand Muslims, Christians and others and injured and permanently maimed tens of thousands more in Palestine and Lebanon in the past decade alone in what numerous international investigations have termed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Needless to say, Arcapita-controlled Cirrus' business with the Israeli military establishment is a gross violation of the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel.

#BDS: Jazza for Gaza: Music against Oppression

By Gilad Atzmon

Sarah Gillespie, myself and at least 40 other leading artists from UK and Palestine are trying to achieve the impossible next week.
We are promoting and playing together in a massive music festival for Palestine. We are flying musicians to London, we are mixing jazz with folk with hip hop and roots music. We all believe one thing - that artists who support Palestine must say so loudly and proudly using our notes and our voices. Jazza Festival is serious but is also a big party and we want you to join in.
Jazza Music Festival 12 & 13 October 2010 @ THE SCALA
275 Pentonville Road, London
www.scala-london.co.uk
For lineup: click here.
From 7.30 pm
The funds raised in these 2 nights will help Free Palestine Movement deliver more and more humanitarian aid to Palestine.
I am also proud and delighted to announce that Shadia Mansour, the Palestinian Hip Hop queen also joined the Jazza Festival line up.
You can listen to the amazing Shadia and mind blowing Stormtrap (ex- Ramallah Underground) singing together on a track I produced recently together with Robert Wyatt and Ros Stephen.
Where Are They Now (Wyatt, Atzmon, Mansur, Stormtrap) by Gilad Atzmon 
Please circulate this message as far as you can
Book Tickets on line for Tuesday, October 12
Book Tickets on line for Wednesday, October 13
You can also send us donations
We need your support. Palestine needs your support.
Music against oppression.
- Gilad Atzmon is a writer and jazz musician living in London. He is the author of several books. His latest CD is In Loving Memory of America. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: www.gilad.co.uk.

#BDS: Yahoo buys Israeli startup for $50M

Dapper's offices to remain in Israel, company expected to grow, founder says

Internet powerhouse Yahoo has decided to acquire Israeli startup company Dapper for about $50 million.

Following the deal, Dapper's Tel Aviv offices will turn into a new Yahoo development center in Israel, on top of Yahoo's research center in Haifa.

Dapper was established in 2006 by Eran Shir and Jon Aizen. To date, the company raised $10 million from various investors.

The company developed technology for automatic identification of content on websites, allowing developers to build various applications that match the content.

At this time, Dapper employees 35 employees, a number that is expected to grow according to Shir.

"I believe that we will have a wonderful journey with Yahoo," he said. "In the first phase we'll stay at the same offices, until we find a larger space that would be commensurate with the growth we are planning."

"Dapper's activities will continue to be based in Israel," he said.

#BDS: Annie Lennox: I have no interest in going to Israel

Ex-Eurythmics singer and human rights activist tells The Observer she is in no way anti-Semitic, but coming to Israel would be 'too volatile.'

Legendary singer and social activist Annie Lennox said in an interview in the British daily The Observer on Sunday that she had no interest in visiting Israel, yet she stressed that she is far from being anti-Semitic.

"I don't have any interest to go to Israel," Lennox told The Observer, adding that "I don't think I'd ever have a cause to go. It would be too volatile [to perform], I think, because people get carried away and they twist what you say."

The gifted singer and ex-Eurhythmics soloist was among the leaders of the international protest against Israel's Gaza offensive in 2009. In an interview in England at the time, she described the IDF's actions in Gaza as "pornography of destruction." She also marched at the head of an anti-war and anti-Israel demonstration in London attended by tens of thousands.

#BDS: Messi to be in Gaza July 2011

(Pal Telegraph) Fox Sports Argentina Channel said on its website that the star of Argentina's Barcelona soccer club, Lionel Messi, was invited by UNICEF to be an ambassador in both Gaza and the Pakistan as an ambassador of goodwill.

According to the website, the UNICEF is planning to assign Messi as their goodwill ambassador in Gaza, which was subjected to vicious Israeli war that affected all walks of life, as well as Pakistan, which recently suffered violent floods that werent seen in the country since a long time, leaving more than a thousand people dead and thousands more homeless.

The website also reported that "the UNICEF assigned and declared the date of the visit, which will be in mid-July next year, since there will be no tournaments on the European continent, and away from the fatigue of playing football as a profession. "

#BDS: Guns and Roses likely to perform in Israel

Axl Rose due to arrive this year after ceaseless shuffling of band members since last show in 1993

Guns and Roses are coming to Israel, the latest in a steady stream of aging rock musicians most recently represented by Rod Stewart, Elton John, and the ensemble Blondie.

Ynet has learned that the band plans to perform twice, on December 18 and 19, at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv.

Producers have been trying to secure a performance by the group for two years now. Last year rumors abounded regarding their possible arrival, but they remained unconfirmed until now – though Israeli producers have yet to release an official statement.

Guns and Roses last performed in Israel 17 years ago, at Hayarkon Park, but the band has since altered drastically, with Axl Rose the only remaining link to its golden past. Since its breakup in the mid-90's, members have been sacked and replaced unceasingly.

#BDS: Pamela Anderson dances her way to Israel

Actress and Playboy model will dance and sit on judge panel of new season of Israel's version of 'Dancing with the Stars'

American actress and model Pamela Anderson will be on the new season of the Israeli version of the popular television show, "Dancing with the Stars," Yedioth Ahronoth learned from sources at Reshet, one of Channel 2's broadcast concessionaires.

Anderson is slated for a number of episodes as a judge and as a guest dancer, but will not be one of the competitors. She will be paid thousands of dollars for her participation.

Anderson, 43, is well acquainted with the "Dancing with the Stars" format as she was recently a contestant on the American version of the show.

The agreement securing her participation on the Israeli show was recently signed between her representatives and Reshet. According to the agreement, she will be a guest judge on a number of episodes alongside the regular panel of Hanna Laszlo, Claude Dadia, and Eli Mizrahi. Anderson will also perform a few dance numbers on the show.

#BDS: Ireland urged to join boycott of OECD tourism conference in Israel

London, (IRNA): The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) is urging the Irish government to join Britain and Spain in boycotting an OECD tourism conference that is due to be held in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem later this month. 

In a letter to Irish Foreign Minister Martin, IPSC national chair Freda Hughes called on the government to follow the examples of its European partners to decline Israel’s invitation to attend the three-day conference, starting on October 20. 

“Israel’s membership of the OECD was approved recently in spite of warnings by human rights activists that such a move would risk legitimising Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law,” Hughes said. 

“Now it has become clear that the Israeli government intends to make use of its membership in order to consolidate the illegal occupation of Palestinian land,” she warned in a copy of the letter obtained by IRNA. 

“East Jerusalem is part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and has been illegally annexed by Israel, a move that has never been recognised by the international community,” Martins was told. 

The OECD tourism conference, which was due to be chaired by Britain, is only the second to be held outside Paris in the history of the organisation of largely high income economies. 

#BDS: Israeli Artists, Intellectuals Protest Against New Israeli Bill

Shortly after the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu based a bill on Sunday requiring all non-Jewish citizens to pledge allegiance to Israel not only as a state but as a “Jewish and democratic state”, hundreds of Israeli intellectuals and artists held a protest in Tel Aviv to challenge the new bill.

Speaking to the Rally, Professor Yaron Ezrachi said that “Israel is deteriorating to the level of a fascist state and that “the children of Israel will either leave the country, be imprisoned or just fight in the streets”.

Professor Gabi Solomon stated that with this new bill, “Israel is burying its declaration of independence”, and ironically added that “the Arabs will stab us in the back, the reason they did not do so since Israel’s establishment 62 years ago is irrelevant”.

The new bill passed by 22 to 8. It still needs to be approved by the Knesset in which the right wing Likud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, enjoys a vast majority.

The ministers who voted against the bill are Ehud Barak and all of the ministers of his Labor Party, and Likud party ministers, Dan Meridor, Michael Etan and Beni Begen.

Head of the National Democratic Assembly, Arab member of Knesset, Dr. Jamal Zahalka, called for an international campaign to protect the Arabs and Palestinians in Israel from what he called “Israeli racism”.

#BDS: اعتصام احتجاجي على استمرار استيراد الخضار والفواكه الاسرائيلية

نظمت النقابات المهنية امام سوق الخضار المركزي في منطقة جويدة شرقي عمان السبت اعتصاما احتجاجيا على الاستمرار في استيراد المنتجات الزراعية الاسرائيلية من خضار وفواكه . وهتف المعتصمون بعبارات "التطبيع مع الصهاينة خيانة" و "لا لاستيراد الفواكه والخضار الصهيونية" و"التطبيع الزراعي طعنة في خاصرة الشعب الفلسطيني"، واحرقوا العلم الاسرائيلي وسط هتافات تدعو الى مقاطعة منتجات اسرائيل كما احرقوا صناديق تعبأ فيها بعضا من هذه المنتجات ". ورفع المعتصمون لافتات كتب عليها "التطبيع مع الصهاينة خيانة" و "لا لاستيراد الفواكه والخضار الصهيونية" و"التطبيع الزراعي طعنة في خاصرة الشعب الفلسطيني". وقام المعتصمون الغاضبون باحراق العلم الاسرائيلي وسط هتافات تدعو الى مقاطعة منتجاته كما احرقوا صناديق تعبأ فيها بعضا من هذه المنتجات. ونددت النقابات المهنية في بيان "بسماح الحكومة لبعض التجار باستيراد بعض أنواع الخضار والفواكه من الكيان الصهيوني مثل العنب والمانغو والافوكادو والكاكا والجزر والفلفل الملون وبيعها في الاردن دون ان يعرف الناس مصدرها". كما دانت النقابات "قيام بعض التجار وهم قلة بالتعامل مع المستوطنين الصهاينة وتسويق منتجاتهم للمستهلكين في الاردن او تصديرها لبعض الدول العربية وهي منتجات من مزارع مقامة على ارض مغتصبة بالقوة من اصحابها الحقيقيين".

#BDS: فتح ترحب بقرار تركيا عدم المشاركة في قمة السياحة بالقدس

رام الله-معا- رحبت مفوضية العلاقات الدولية لحركة فتح بقرار تركيا عدم المشاركة في قمة السياحة المستدامة التي تنظمها منظمة التعاون والتنمية الاقتصادية في القدس في العشرين من الشهر الحالي , وبالتالي انضمت تركيا الى بريطانيا واسبانيا في موقفها الرافض للنوايا الاسرائيلية بتشريع احتلالها وضمها الغير قانوني للقدس الشرقية كما جاء على لسان وزير السياحة الاسرائيلي .

وقال شعث عضو اللجنة المركزية لحركة فتح مفوض العلاقات الدولية ان موقف الدول المقاطعة تمثل دفاعا عن الشرعية الدولية والاجماع الدولي الذي لا يعترف بالقدس كعاصمة لاسرائيل وطالب الدول الاعضاء في المنظمة بعدم المشاركة في المؤتمر , لتداعياته الخطيرة على الجهود الدولية المبذولة لاحلال السلام وحل الصراع .

واشارت المفوضية الى ان تحركها ومطالبتها بمقاطعة المؤتمر بدات تؤتي ثمارها , وان هناك تنامي وازدياد واضح لجهة مقاطعة قمة السياحة المستدامة في القدس , لانها تمثل مخالفة وانتهاك للقوانين الدولية وقرارات الشرعية الدولية .

#BDS: Ford Foundation Funds Anti-Israel Event

The Ford Foundation is paying to send at least eight anti-Israeli scholars to a conference at an Italian villa.

A total of 21 scholars will meet in the villa in Bellagio, on the banks of Lake Como, to discuss academic boycotts and their relation to academic freedom.

More than a third of the participants publicly support boycotts of Israeli universities out of opposition to the Jewish state, according to the New York Sun.

The foundation is contributing $70,000 to fund the meeting and publish the conference’s proceedings.

The move comes less than three years after reports of Ford Foundation funding of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel activity led to an international uproar. In November 2003, The foundation apologized for some of its funding and announced policies requiring grant recipients not to engage in bigotry.

#BDS: Alvin Ailey: Don't Dance Around Israeli Apartheid

OCCUPIED RAMALLAH, 9 October 2010 – The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is deeply disturbed by news reports that your company plans to participate, later this month, in the fourth annual Tel Aviv Dance Festival, an initiative sponsored by the Tel Aviv Municipality and cultural institutions that are complicit in maintaining Israel's system of colonial oppression.[2] PACBI, supported by an overwhelming majority in Palestinian civil society and, in particular, by almost the entire community of Palestinian dance artists and other cultural workers,[3] views the participation of any international cultural group in this, or any similarly objectionable festival, as a form of complicity in whitewashing Israel's occupation, apartheid and war crimes. We ask you to cancel your participation and to join the growing ranks of prominent international artists and arts groups who have refused to cross our boycott picket line [4] and have thus evoked the most noble traditions of international solidarity that was manifest in the South African anti-apartheid struggle.

Palestinian artists and boycott activists were particularly disheartened by Alvin Ailey's plans to partake in this festival, given your group's record of standing up for human rights and against racist oppression.

In 2008, when you first ignored our pleas and participated in Israel's "re-branding" propaganda efforts by performing in Tel Aviv, you yourself fell target to Israel's institutionalized and prevailing racism. Israeli security officers at Tel-Aviv's Airport forced Alvin Ailey dancer, Abdur-Rahim Jackson, your only African-American member with a Muslim/Arab sounding name, to perform twice for them in order to prove he was a dancer before letting him enter the country with the rest of the company, as reported by the Associated Press then.[5] While still officially illegal in the U.S., ethnic profiling, considered racist by human rights groups, is widespread in Israel. It is seen in such places as entrances to malls, public and private buildings, airports, etc. Israeli citizens and permanent residents with Arab names -- or often just "Arab accents" -- are commonly singled out for rough, intrusive and glaringly humiliating "security" checks.[6] Even after Mr. Jackson had complied, one of the Israeli officers suggested that he change his name, leaving him humiliated and "deeply saddened," as your own spokesperson confirmed at the time. In response to your humiliation, you did nothing.

At a time when the Israeli state is besieging and denying basic rights and needs to 1.5 million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip and committing a gradual ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the Naqab (Negev), dancing in Tel Aviv is all that more morally repulsive. You shall be dancing at a festival primarily sponsored by the Tel Aviv Municipality, an official Israeli body notorious for its apartheid policies against the indigenous Palestinians. As the seat of Israel's political and economic power, Tel Aviv houses the institutions that mastermind and oversee the implementation of Israel’s longstanding policies of ethnic cleansing, racial discrimination and military subjugation. It is hence more emblematic of apartheid and colonial rule than any other Israeli city. Tel Aviv is a city in colonial denial. Its very existence and expansion are products of the Zionist project of erasing the physical presence of the Palestinians, their culture, heritage and memory. The adjacent Palestinian city of Jaffa and numerous villages were emptied of their indigenous inhabitants to make way for the "White City." Performing in Tel Aviv today is therefore equivalent to, if not worse than, performing in Sun City under apartheid South Africa, in violation of the call for boycott supported by the oppressed black majority then.

#BDS: جنوب أفريقيا تقاطع إسرائيل بسبب عنصريتها

كانت المقاطعة الدولية قد ساعدت في إنهاء نظام الفصل العنصري في جنوب إفريقيا.. والآن، يقود الافريقيون الجنوبيون معارضة العالم للعنصرية في إسرائيل.

روني كاسريلز – (الغارديان) 29/9/2010

ترجمة: عبد الرحمن الحسيني

كان تطوراً بارزاً عندما اتصل أول رئيس لحزب المؤتمر الوطني الافريقي، وأول فائز بجائزة نوبل للسلام في جنوب إفريقيا، ألبرت لوثولي، بالمجموعة الدولية طالباً منها دعم مقاطعة النظام العنصري في بلاده في العام 1958، فكان الرد تحركاً راسخاً وواسع النطاق، والذي لعب دوراً كبيراً في إنهاء نظام الفصل العنصري "الأبارتيد". ووسط المقاطعات الرياضية والتعهدات التي قطعها كاتبو المسرحيات والفنانون، والإضرابات التي قام بها العمال لوقف سلع جنوب إفريقيا من دخول الأسواق المحلية، والضغط الثابت على الدول لسحب دعمها لنظام جنوب إفريقيا، جاء دور الأكاديميين في الصدارة.

وقد جاء التحرك الكبير في شكل القرار الذي اتخذه نحو 150 أكاديمياً أيرلندياً بعدم قبول أي مناصب أكاديمية أو تعيينات في نظام الأبارتيد في جنوب إفريقيا. وفي العام 1971، اتخذ مجلس كلية ترينيتي في دبلن قراراً بعدم تملك أي حصص في أي شركة تتاجر مع، أو لها فروع تتعامل تجارياً مع نظام الفصل في الجمهورية. وخلص المجلس لاحقاً إلى أن الجامعة لن تحتفظ بأي روابط رسمية أو مؤسساتية مع أي مؤسسة أكاديمية أو حكومية في جنوب إفريقيا.

وبعد أربعة عقود تقريباً، نرى الحملة لفرض مقاطعة وسحب الاستثمار وفرض عقوبات، وهي تكسب أرضية مرة أخرى في جنوب إفريقيا، ولكن هذه المرة ضد نظام الأبارتيد الإسرائيلي.

ففي وقت سابق من الشهر الماضي، تعهد أكثر من 100 أكاديمي في عموم جنوب إفريقيا، من أكثر من 13 جامعة، بتقديم دعمهم لمبادرة جامعة جوهانسبيرغ الداعية إلى وضع حد للتعاون مع الاحتلال الإسرائيلي. ومنذئذ، نمت الحملة لتشمل 200 جهة داعمة. وفي الغضون، استقطبت المناشدة الأكاديمية التي عمّت البلاد والداعية إلى إلغاء اتفاقية بين جامعة جوهانسبيرغ وجامعة بن غوريون الإسرائيلية، لإجراء أبحاث في صحراء النقب اهتماماً واسع النطاق. وبمصادقة بعض الأصوات القيادية في جنوب إفريقيا، مثل كادر أسمال، وبريتين بريتنباتش، وانتيي كروغ، ومحمود مامداني، وبارني بتيانا، وديزموند توتو، يؤكد البيان قوة الدعوة للمقاطعة في جنوب إفريقيا:

#BDS: Stand by your man: Demi Moore clings to Ashton Kutcher as they head to Israel to renew wedding vows

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher continued to put up a united front yesterday following recent allegations of infidelity.

The couple, who both follow Kabbalah, were en route to Israel to renew their wedding vows.

And it looks like Demi, 47, is determined to keep hold of her man at any cost.

The Ghost star latched on to Ashton's left arm as they made their way through the airport, staying as close to him as possible.

But Ashton seemed lost in his own thoughts, with his head down and both hands in his pockets.

The couple recently celebrated their five-year wedding anniversary, posting a picture on Twitter of them in bed together.