#BDS: Successful International Week Against the Apartheid Wall in The Netherlands

The 'Wall Caravan' for the International Action Week against the Apartheid Wall in the Netherlands collected 3,155 signatures in nine days, 9 – 17 november touring 29 cities all over the country!

The Wall Caravan was a co-project of the Netherlands Palestine Committee and 'Sloop de Muur' (Tear Down the Wall – SloopdeMur) with local support from activists across the country. At each stop signatures were collected for an action to force the Dutch Parliament to discuss the issue of sanctions against Israel, since it failed so far to seriously do so in spite of the ICJ verdict. The parliament is obliged to put any civic initiative on the agenda, if supported by at least 40,000 signatures. We are now more than halfway getting a firm boost this past actionweek.

#BDS: South African students action for the Week Against the Apartheid Wall

As part of the Johannesburg South Africa events for the 8th global Week against the Apartheid Wall, a student orientated initiative set up a few events. 

At the University of the Witwatersrand, students writing their end of year exams were handed fact sheets about the apartheid Wall. This information campaign gave many students new insight and aimed to improve awareness about the realities and illegality of the Wall. 

A very well received event was the screening of the documentary ‘Iron Wall’. The film was a good way to deepen knowledge about, and sparked great discussion on, the Wall, Israeli occupation as well as Boycott Divestment & Sanctions at many levels. The event allowed for a constructive and relaxed space where interested newcomers could engage and share ideas with some prominent emerging BDS activists in South Africa. 

#BDS: American roots artist makes his Palestine debut

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Grammy-nominated American roots musician Bill Kirchen made his Palestine debut Monday, in a special performance highlighting his week-long tour through the occupied West Bank. 

The guitarist, singer, and songwriter, who has performed for audiences in the US and around the world for more than 40 years, was in Bethlehem for a workshop in a refugee camp after a televised performance at Ma'an studio.

#BDS: The Fall - The Fall Gig Targeted By Protesters

British rockers THE FALL were targeted by protesters at their London show on Tuesday night (23Nov10) over their plans to play in Israel next year (11).

The post-punk band took to the stage at the Electric Ballroom but their performance was marred by a group of activists who gathered outside the venue waving banners and placards.

The protesters are angry about the band's decision to schedule a concert in Tel Aviv in January (11) and they are urging the group to scrap the show and boycott the country over unrest in the Gaza Strip.

The band's gig went ahead uninterrupted, according to NME.com.

#BDS: Tell Amazon shoppers it's not OK to buy apartheid products

Would you buy products tested on animals, or that you know to be environmentally destructive, or exploit child labor? If you know that a product harms others or violates international law, shouldn't you boycott it?

Below, please sign up to help us "save (the) amazon!" It's not good for the world's biggest online retailer to sell products that support inhumane policies.

By signing up, you agree to:

1. Search Amazon.com,

2. Identify a product that aids the Israeli occupation, or generates profit from it (examples are: Ahava skin cream, CAT boots, or Motorola walkie-talkies),

3. Use your own words to add a critical review of that product to Amazon.com,

4. Email us a link where we can see your review on Amazon. We'll collect and share the best ones in our upcoming media campaign to highlight the growing movement for boycotting Israeli occupation.

#BDS: Volvo equipment enabling torture, facilitating occupation

Volvo prides itself on being a byword for sturdiness, safety and reliability. After a careful examination of the vehicle-maker's investment in Israel, perhaps it should also become synonymous with enabling torture.

The Swedish company has a direct shareholding of 26.5 percent in the Israeli company Merkavim, manufacturer of the Mars Prisoner Bus. This bus has been specifically designed for use by the Israeli Prison Authority to transport Palestinians apprehended in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to facilities within Israel's internationally-recognized borders. The remainder of Merkavim is owned by Mayer's Cars and Trucks, which doubles up as the exclusive representative of Volvo in Israel. 

Evidence amassed by human rights monitors indicates that torture is widespread within Israeli detention centers. Although the country's high court ruled in 1999 that some interrogation methods should be outlawed, Israel continues to approve torture in cases where it is deemed "necessary," Amnesty International has found. An important loophole in the court's ruling indicated that torture is permissible in cases where Israeli security forces face an imminent threat. Israel's attorney general has been all-too-willing to invoke that loophole in order to approve the use of torture, despite how Israel has ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture. 

#BDS: Scandinavian funds divest from companies involved in occupation of Palestinian land

Activists with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (http://www.bdsmovement.net) claimed another victory on Wednesday as Swedish and Norwegian pension funds announced their divestment from companies doing business in Israeli settlements or with the Israeli military occupying Palestinian land.

This announcement is just the latest in a series of divestments from Israeli and foreign companies contracted with the Israeli military or settlements. The American Council of Churches has pushed for 'responsible investment' that excludes companies engaged in human rights abuses anywhere in the world.

#BDS: NY activists confront Hebron Fund director Yossi Baumol

#BDS: BDS Update: Anti-apartheid Hagues

Despite the stranglehold Israel lobbies have on Euro-parliaments and politicians, there have been some surprisingly plucky official moves to protest illegal Israeli settlements recently.

Israeli mayoral visits to Spain and the Netherlands were nixed in September because the delegation included leaders of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The visit of thirty Israeli mayors to the Netherlands was organised by the Israeli branch of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) after the Spanish municipal organisation cancelled a proposed visit in light of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

The Dutch conference was to be hosted by the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG), located in The Hague. The aim of the trip was purportedly to learn more about the Dutch system of local, regional and national authorities, though such official visits are really an Israeli ploy to provide de facto recognition of illegal settlements.

#BDS: Osem buys rest of Tivall for $129M

Israeli foodmaker says plans to purchase 42% of vegetarian and meat substitute producer it does not own from its kibbutz owners

Israeli foodmaker Osem Investments said on Tuesday it was to buy the 42% of Tivall its does not own for NIS 468.5 million (about $129 million) from its kibbutz owners.

Osem, itself 53.8% owned by Swiss food company Nestle, already held 58% of Tivall, a stake it bought from kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot.

Tivall makes vegetarian and meat substitute products.

A 2005 deal gave Osem the option to acquire full control of Tivall in 2013, but in March the kibbutz agreed to bring forward the date of the option.

"Raising the stake to 100% enables the Osem group to continue to realize its plans to expand in the meat substitute and salads markets in Israel, Europe and the United States and to fully benefit from the potential of this expansion," Osem said.

In January, Tivall bought US-based Foodtech International, also a maker of vegetarian food. 

#BDS: Berkeley, CA: Holiday Bazaar featuring Palestinian crafts

Sunday, December 5, 10:00am - 4:00pm

PLEASE NOTE NEW LOCATION!
Live Oak Park Recreation Center,
1301 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley
(at Berryman Street between Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street - Northeast Berkeley)

Come shop at this popular, annual sale for hundreds of beautifully crafted items including Tatriz (Palestinian Embroidery); Hand-blown Glassware from Hebron; Carved Olive wood; Painted Ceramics; Organic, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil; Olives; Olive Oil Soap; Scarves, Shawls, and other Textiles; Calendars and Cook Books; Honey; Jewelry; Children’s Clothing and Dolls from Gaza, and much more!

The sale takes place on this one day only at A NEW LOCATION Live Oak Park Recreation Center, 10 AM to 4 PM.

Stop by to find last year’s favorites as well as many new items!

And don’t miss the tasty homemade Palestinian food and Middle Eastern music too!

We will have a small souq (market area) featuring olive oil, olives, honey, special Middle Eastern spices and more.

This is a great opportunity to buy something quite special and make a humanitarian contribution at the same time. By promoting traditional handicrafts, you support the economic self-help efforts of those living in close to poverty level conditions in the West Bank and Gaza.

We hope that you can come and that you will invite your friends. This sale is a benefit for those craftspeople that have done the work. We spend an entire year collecting these goods from Palestine.

Thank you from the women of Joining Hands and the Middle East Children’s Alliance                            

 

For more information contact events@mecaforpeace.org

#BDS: Memo to Jewish college students: BDS is not your enemy

Ben Sales offers a reasoned and fair critique of BDS – namely, its sacrificing of longer-term practical goals for the sake of a (completely defensible and just) moral standpoint.  This is a tactical choice that the movement has made.  It’s one with which I disagree, but have no problem accepting as a valid and respectable form of activism.

Nevertheless, Jewish students are constantly being bombarded with propaganda claiming that BDS seeks the destruction of the Jewish people, and is intrinsically opposed to Jewish self-determination.  There are a couple things wrong with this picture.

First of all, it’s just not true.  While many BDSers do advocate for the dissolution of Israel (at least as a Jewish state), they’re not doing it because they believe Jews shouldn’t have the right to self-determination.  They’re doing it because, by their analysis of the situation, Jewish self-determination as embodied in the State of Israel has led to the suffering and occupation of Palestinians.  That’s an analysis with which you are free to disagree (I don’t), or from which you are free to draw different conclusions (I do), but BDSers shouldn’t be accused of being anti-Semitic because of it.

Second, even if (some) BDSers are intrinsically opposed to Jewish self-determination, they shouldn’t be demonized for it.  The reaction should be to engage in a substantive debate on the merits of Jewish self-determination (although I think it’s more constructive to have the larger conversation about the pros and cons of ethnic or religiously-defined states in general).  A smear campaign based on the premise that the goal of the BDS movement is to harm the Jewish people is just ridiculous.  Lots of Jews support BDS.  And please, please, please don’t tell me it’s because they’re self-hating.

On a practical level, Jewish organizations, especially campus-oriented ones, have been expending enormous amounts of time, effort, and money “combating” BDS.  I take issue with this on a theoretical level – I don’t believe Hillel should appoint itself the arbiter of what constitutes acceptable opinions regarding Israel – and a practical one: it obviously hasn’t worked.  BDS is gaining momentum.  Rather than viewing this as a threat, Jewish students should welcome the opportunity to recognize differences of opinions within and without the Jewish community, and to further explore the issues together.

While the BDS movement is certainly responsible for a good deal of the polarization that typically surrounds issues of Israel-Palestine, campus Jewish organizations are equally responsible, and while we hear over and over that BDS is polarizing and oversimplifying the issues, we don’t hear the same thing about Hillel.  That’s unfair.  Jewish students deserve organizations that treat them as intellectuals, not warriors for a pre-defined cause.  If the only way these organizations feel they can defend their positions is by stirring up hatred and anger towards the other side, they have completely lost the moral high ground.  And as a Jewish student, highly involved with community life, I expect more from them.

#BDS: Boycott: Put more pressure on Israel to change

As Israel increasingly ignores our government's objections to the expansion of settlements, its primary concern is with placating its own right-wing parliamentary coalition. And why should Israel be concerned with the protests of the Obama administration when U.S. military aid to Israel – now billions of dollars per year, paid by U.S. taxpayers at a time when they have no jobs and are losing their homes – continues unabated? 



Israel is increasingly a rogue nation under international legal standards. Decisions from the International Court of Justice declaring the separation wall illegal, United Nations reports detailing Israel's illegal actions during its invasion of Gaza (the Goldstone Report), and the recent U.N. Human Rights Council report criticizing Israel's attacks on the Gaza flotilla are bolstered by ongoing reports by groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch detailing Israel's illegal actions. In past generations, American policy has often led us to support dictatorships and overlook gross violations of human rights. The Obama administration promised a different path, but not in its unquestioned support for Israel as legal, ethical and moral concerns are readily tossed aside. 

#BDS: Boycotters Claim Hummus Brand Has Unsavory Ties

Many Georgetown students only know Sabra as their favorite variety of chickpea spread for sale at Vital Vittles. The popular hummus brand, however, has been the target of boycotts at some peer universities.

The undergraduate student government at Princeton University may vote as soon as Nov. 29 on a referendum requesting that Princeton Dining Services offer a brand of hummus other than Sabra, according to The Daily Princetonian.

The request comes following allegations that Sabra hummus has been sent in care packages to Israeli military units allegedly perpetrating human rights violations in the West Bank. The issue has grabbed the attention of some Georgetown student groups keeping an eye on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I find the company’s extensive support of Israeli occupation forces problematic, and I think anyone who buys Sabra should consider the implications of such a purchase,” said Jackson Perry (COL ’12), treasurer for Students for Justice in Palestine.

#BDS: [1] قائمة بشركات ومصانع تعمل بشكل كامل أو جزئي في المستوطنات

	الاسم بالعبرية	ينتج	العنوان	name of company	الاسم بالعبرية	اسم المصنع
.	תפירת ברזנטים	شوادر	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	A.MARHEV	א. מרחיב	أ مارحيف
.	מזון	غذاء	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	A.S. KOHEN MARKETING	א.ס. כהן שיווק	ا.س. كوهين للتسويق
.	בדים לא ארוגים	قماش	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	AVGOL	אבגול	ابيجول
.	גמור מתכנות	معادن	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	AVEG	אביג	أبيج
.	טקסטיל	قماش	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	AVER	אביר	ابير
.	מתכת	معادن	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	ADMETIK INDUST.	אדמטק תעשיות	ادمتيك للصناعات
.	צביעת מתכת	دهان معادن	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	AUR BARKAN	אור ברקן	أور براك
.	מערכות חימום	تدفئة	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	AURTAL	אורטל	اورطال
.	ייצור שקיות ניילון	أكياس نايلون	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	AUREN AREZOT	אורן אריזות	اورن للتغليف
.	חלבה טחינה	حلاوة وطحينة	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	AHVA AHDOT	אחוה אחדות	احفه أحدوت
.	מתכת	معادن	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	E.S.M	אי.אס.אמ.	أي.اس.ام
.	מוצרי גומי	جومي	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	E.R.B.C	אי.אר.פי.סי	أي.ار.بي.سي
.	רהיטים	اثاث	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	EVGI MORIS	איבגי מוריס	ايفجي موريس
.	חוטים סנטיים	اسلاك	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	AYELIT BARKAN	איילת ברקן	أييلت بركان
.	הנדסה טכנית	هندسة	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	INTELETICH	אינטליטק	اينتليتك
.	נגריה	منجرة	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	INTER AETS	אינטר עץ	اينتر اخشاب
.	מרפדיה	تنجيد	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	AEKO	איקו	ايكو
.	מזרונים ומטות נוער	فرشات	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	XMARKET	איקס מרקט	ايكس ماركيت
.	אחסון ואבזור ג'קוזי	منتجع	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	ELA SPA	אלה ספא	الا سبا
.	הדפסה על העץ	طباعة	المنطقة الصناعية بركان, א.ת. ברקן , BARKAN	EL AETS	אל עץ	ال أخشاب