Youth Against Normalization

May 30, 2011

#BDS: American comedian Sarah Silverman set to visit Israel

"The comedian and actress will participate in this year's Presidential Conference and will do one night of stand-up comedy in Tel Aviv.

Jewish comedian and actress Sarah Silverman will visit Israel next month to take part in the Israeli Presidential Conference, and plans to perform one night of stand-up comedy in Tel Aviv on June 25.

Silverman will host a performance of fellow comedian Todd Glass as part of the conference, the theme of which is "Facing Tomorrow".

#BDS: الهاشمية تتراجع عن المشروع التطبيعي مع جامعة بن غوريون والطلبة ينهون اعتصامهم

خاص- قررت جامعة الهاشمية قبل قليل التراجع عن المشروع التطبيعي مع جامعة بن غوريون ، فيما اقدم الطلبة على انهاء اعتصامهم الذي جاء بدعوة من كتلة التجديد العربية وطلاب الكرامة بالتعاون مع الاتجاه الإسلامي في الجامعة وبمشاركة القوى الطلابية المستقلة،حيث اعتصم العشرات من طلبة الجامعة الهاشمية ظهر اليوم احتجاجاً ورفضاً للمشروع لتطبيعي الذي باشرت الجامعة بعمله بالتنسيق مع جامعة بن غوريون الصهيونية وجامعة كولورادو الأمريكية.

إقرأ/ي المزيد

May 26, 2011

#BDS: First Israeli store to open in Dubai, #UAE

"Ml clothing chain, which specializes in large sizes, to open four stores in prestigious Dubai shopping areas

The ml men's clothing chain which specializes in large sizes will be opening a store in Dubai
in the near future, making it the first Israeli brand to reach the Arab emirate.

Opening the Dubai branch will bring the clothing brand back on the international scene, after other overseas stores have failed.

It was reported by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Thursday that ml signed a distribution agreement with a French company which specializes in marketing large-size fashion lines."

Read more

#BDS: Israeli Officials and History Affirm the Power of BDS

"Are boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) proving effective at isolating Israel as a form of pressure to end its violations of Palestinian rights? We at the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation think so, but you don’t have to take our word for it.

Two recent articles in The Jewish Daily Forward and the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretzhave affirmed the power of the growing BDS movement in placing a cost on Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies. The Forward’s piece, “Survey of Campus BDS Finds Few Serious Cases,” sets out to diminish concern over the recent surge in campus BDS campaigns, but ends up making the case as well as anyone could for how and why ongoing BDS campaigns—on-campus and off—are succeeding!"

#BDS: Peace Demands Challenging Israel's Exceptionalism

"Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation Leaguerepeats the mantra that by advocating comprehensive Palestinian rights, including full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel and the UN-sanctioned right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes from which they were forcibly displaced, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is "de-legitimizing" Israel and threatening its very "existence." This claim is frequently made by Israel lobby groups in an obvious attempt to muddy the waters and to push beyond the pale of legitimate debate the mere statement of facts about and analysis of Israel's occupation, denial of refugee rights, and institutionalizedsystem of racial discrimination, which basically fits theUN definition of apartheid.

Specifically, what is often objected to is the demand for full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel. One can only wonder, if equality ends Israel's "existence," what does that say about Israel? Did equality destroy South Africa? Did it "delegitimize" whites in the Southern states of the U.S. after segregation was outlawed? The only thing that equality, human rights and justice really destroy is a system of injustice, inequality and racial discrimination."

#BDS: Stolen Beauty boycott culture jam turns #Ahava’s online marketing contest into a social media

"On Wednesday, May 11 and Thursday, May 12, Ahava US, the U.S. arm of the Israeli cosmetics firm based in an illegal West Bank settlement, and @birchbox, an online cosmetics retailer, ran a marketing contest on the social media site Twitter using the hashtag #AhavaReborn, which is the slogan for Ahava’s current rebranding campaign. Members of the public were invited to submit beauty care questions with the lure of a prize of $300 worth of Ahava products for the best query.

US group CODEPINK Women for Peace, which manages the Stolen Beauty Ahava Boycott campaign, alerted other BDS activists about the marketing campaign and suggested using the opportunity for a culture jam to subvert Ahava’s rebranding effort.

What followed can only be described as a total disaster for Ahava. From early Wednesday European time and for the next 48 hours BDS campaigners flooded the twitter stream #AhavaReborn with hundreds of messages advocating the boycott of Ahava products. The BDS campaigners hailed from the US, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Singapore, Occupied Palestine and elsewhere, reflecting the international nature of the campaign against Ahava."

#BDS: Roxette: Don’t Entertain for Apartheid!

"Occupied Ramallah, 18 May 2011

Dear Roxette,

We have recently heard of your planned performance in Israel through our partners in the Palestine Solidarity Association in Sweden. They have informed us that they have already been in communication with you. Given that Israel is involved in grave violations of international law and human rights we urge you to cancel your performance until the time comes when Israel is in compliance with its obligations under international law and fully respects Palestinian rights. In what follows we want to explain the background of our movement and who we are, so that you will be better informed in making the right decision and hearing our call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to achieve our UN-sanctioned rights."

#BDS:جمعية الأخوة العراقية الفلسطينية تتبنى نداء المقاطعة الفلسطينية

غزة—21.5.2011

في لقاء ضم ممثلين عن جمعية الأخوة العراقية الفلسطينية و ممثلين عن حملة المقاطعة في قطاع غزة قررت جمعية الأخوة تبني وبشكل كامل نداء المقاطعة الفلسطينية لدولة إسرائيل الصادر عام 2005 والذي تبنته الأغلبية الساحقة من مؤسسات المجتمع المدني وهيئة العمل الوطني والإسلامي.

واتفق الطرفان على عقد لقاءات مشتركة خلال الفترة لزيادة التشبيك والتواصل في قضايا المقاطعة على الصعيد المحلي والعربي ,خاصة في العراق, والمشاركة بالفعاليات والأنشطة التي تعمل على توعية الجمهور الفلسطيني بأهمية المقاطعة بأشكالها المختلفة لإسرائيل.

#BDS: Lessons from Marrickville for BDS Activists

"On April 19th, the Marrickville Council in Sydney’s inner west, Australia, met to debate and eventually overturn its four months old motion supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Campaign against apartheid Israel. The experience of the Marrickville Council provides revealing insights into the state of the Palestine solidarity movement in Australia and important lessons for ongoing BDS campaigns locally and internationally.

The BDS motion initially passed in Marrickville reflected a genuine expression of support for the people of Palestine and was based on the experiences of a number of councillors who had recently visited the Occupied Territories, Israel and the Palestinian refugee camps in neighbouring countries. It also reflects many of the councillors’ sincere commitment to defending basic Palestinian human rights. Conversely, the strength and ferocity of the backlash reflected the decades old complicity of Australia’s political elite. Apartheid Israel is reportedly the most visited state by Australian politicians and trade groups such as the Australia – Israel Chamber of Commerce, which claims to be one of the most prestigious and active national business organisations in the country."

#BDS: Scottish First Minister supports sanctions against Israel

"First Minister Alex Salmond supported economic sanctions against Israel. He described Israel's massacre of nine Mavi Marmara passengers as an "atrocity on the high seas" and put Israel firmly beyond the pale. "This has implications for example in trading relationships—you can't have normal relationships if you believe another country has been involved in what Israel has been involved in."

#BDS: DePaul students vote by large margin to ban Sabra hummus

"Students at DePaul University in Chicago voted by a large margin in a referendum asking if they support ending sales of Sabra brand hummus on their campus. Due to a technicality, however, the result will not be binding. A note received by The Electronic Intifada from campus activists with Students for Justice in Palestine at the university announced today the results of voting that took place earlier this week:

Results of the referendum: 1127 voted in favor; 332 voted against ; 8 extraneous write ins. To be valid a referendum must have a turnout of no less than 1500 students. Although we had an amazing win, the referendum is not valid as we were 33 votes short. But this isn’t over. SJP will make a statement about what’s next for the campaign."

#BDS: eBook release – Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund’s Environmental Cover Up

"The book, Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund’s Environmental Cover Up, is available free on line. It documents evidence that the JNF is not an environmental organization but rather an instrument of ethnic cleansing and complicit in war crimes. Contributors are from the USA, UK, Canada and Palestine, with an afterward by American writer and environmental activist Joel Kovel. In the book, Akram Salhab describes the environmental disaster by the JNF’s draining of Lake Hula and Corey Balsam analyses the ideological role of tree planting. David Schwartzman makes the connection between the JNF, the siege of Gaza and climate security, while Coya White Hat-Artichoker, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, contributes a speech on First Nations-Palestinian solidarity.

One of the contributors, Eurig Scandrett of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh said:

“The book is a contribution to making people aware of the real nature of this organization, which plants trees and establishes nature parks and pretends to be environmental, but infact exists for more insidious purposes – to drive the Palestinians from their homes and prevent them from returning.”

#BDS: BDS update: 'I went because I needed to go'

"So said a Holocaust survivor and anti-apartheid activist about his trip to Jackson, Mississippi in 1961. The same impulse inspires BDS activists from all walks of life today.

International boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activities got a boost at the founding conference of the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS in Ramallah on 30 April. It called on trade unions around the world to sever all links with the Israel labour federation Histadrut. Histadrut protects illegal Israeli workers in the settlements and doesn’t protect the legal Palestinian workers there, having withheld almost $2.5 billion of their wages over the years, deducted for “social and other trade union benefits” that they have never received.

There was good and bad news on the political front in the past month. Scottish voters rejected the pro-war, pro-Israel Labour Party and elected the Scottish Nationalist Party, whose leader leader Alex Salmond supports sanctions against Israel."

Ethan and Joel Coen recieve the $1M Dan David Prize on May 15th 2011 at Tel Aviv University. ~ Photo by REUTERS/Amir Cohen

"On May 15th, while thousands of people were getting shot and gassed in the streets, the Coen Brothers (and many others) took a million dollars from Tel Aviv University, in the form of the Dan David Prize. I’m sure someone would have cared to protest, had over 15 people not been killed and hundreds injured, during the Nakba Day commemoration demonstrations, that same day."

#BDS: Show #Caterpillar it can run, but it can't hide

"For the past seven years, the US Campaign and many of our coalition member groups, including Chicagoans Against Apartheid in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, have dominated Caterpillar's annual Chicago-area shareholder meetings by organizing creative protests inside and outside the meetings, like these actions in 2009 and in 2010 (click to learn more).

Together, we've challenged the corporation for supplying Israel with D9 bulldozers -- which Israel misuses to demolish Palestinian homes, uproot olive trees, construct Jewish-only settlements and the Apartheid Wall, and kill and maim unarmed civilians -- at Caterpillar's most important annual gathering."