#BDS: Knesset to Promote Anti-Boycott Bill to Second and Third Reading

"Monday, June 27, the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee will deliberate the “Damage to the State of Israel by Means of Boycott- 2011″ bill. The bill was proposed in the Knesset on July 2010 by head of the coalition, MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) and other MK’s. The bill is focused on preventing citizens of Israel from protesting against the occupation by means of initiating a boycott. The bill passed first reading in the Knesset plenum on March 7, 2011, despite severe criticism from governmental ministries and leading civil society organizations.

The bill defines a call for boycott as a tort, for which the court may rule compensation without obligation to prove damage. The bill further authorizes the Minister of Finance to limit the participation of companies that have committed themselves not to work within settlements beyond the “Green Line”, in state tenders. (‘Rawabi Clause’)"

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Update your #BDS List: War Criminal Shimon Peres Greeting #Shakira

#BDS: Buying Israeli Goods is Funding Apartheid! Cartoon by @CarlosLatuff

Update your #BDS List: #Shakira Makes a Star Turn at an Israeli Conference

"JERUSALEM — When Israel’s octogenarian president, Shimon Peres, opened his Israeli Presidential Conference here on Tuesday, he chose an unlikely partner to stand by his side: Shakira, the Colombian pop star who is partly of Lebanese descent, performed last month in Beirut and was once (wrongly) accused in an Internet rumor of saying she would rather have pigs listen to her music than Israelis.

For Shakira, too, Jerusalem was probably not an obvious choice. By Tuesday, there were almost 2000 “likes” on a Facebook page urging her to stay away from Israel and comply with a pro-Palestiniancultural boycott."

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#BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions - Book Review

"(Barghouti, Omar. BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. 2011. Haymarket Books, USA.)


"The BDS campaign is among the most important forms of such ‘resolute struggle’ by the great majority of Palestinians, who resist the colonization of their land and minds and demand nothing less than self-determination, freedom, justice and unmitigated equality..."


Barghouti is one of the new generation of Palestinian activists, grounded in the life of a people under siege and understanding the importance of social movements and global solidarity. He writes that Palestinians through social movements have surpassed their leadership and have developed their own resistance to occupation and domination by Israel.


The BDS Campaign and the Academic and Cultural Boycott Campaign - Barghouti is a founding member of both - are highly successful and visible strategies to isolate Israel economically and culturally. They also provide a focus for action by millions of supporters worldwide.  Not everyone can take a solidarity trip to Palestine or sail in a flotilla, but everyone of good conscience everywhere can boycott, divest their own funds and also call for secondary boycotts and divestment."

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#BDS: #Facebook page urges #Shakira to nix #Israel visit

" A Facebook page established to convince pop star Shakira to stay away from an Israeli conference has received nearly 1,500 likes.

The Colombian singer, whose father is Lebanese, is scheduled to take part Tuesday in the third annual Israeli President's Conference. She will be appearing due to her position as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

The page, called "Shakira: Say NO to apartheid and YES to Freedom For Palestine," was established in recent days to endorse an open letter to the singer calling on her to boycott Israel written by members of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. The letter is signed by people with Hebrew- and Arabic-sounding names.

"If you attend the Presidential Conference, you will accept that a Palestinian fan of your work living under Israeli occupation will not be allowed by law -- and denied by an illegal wall built on annexed private Palestinian land, fences and military checkpoints -- the chance to attend it," the letter said in part."

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#BDS: #France prosecutes BDS activist

"One of the leaders of a pro-Palestinian group in Paris has been sued for racial hatred after she called for a boycott of Israeli products from the occupied Arab land.

On Friday, Olivia Zemor of the CAPJPO-EuroPalestine group was taken to court by pro-Israeli groups after she appeared in a video made back in 2009 at a supermarket in the French capital that called for the boycott of products made on the land occupied by Israel since 1967.

“The challenge today is to know what degree of independence is the foreign justice able to have related to the French government, how long will it go on with blackmailing people with the accusation of anti-Semitism,” Zemor told a Press TV correspondent. "


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#BDS: محاكمة فرنسية أيدت مقاطعة إسرائيل #France

انطلقت الخميس بباريس محاكمة الناشطة الفرنسية المناصرة للقضية الفلسطينية أوليفيا زمور المتهمة بنشر دعوة مقاطعة البضائع المستوردة من إسرائيل.
وتميزت الجلسة الأولى من المحاكمة بشهادات لشخصيات فرنسية مرموقة أجمعت على شجب قرار القضاء الفرنسي ملاحقة الداعين للامتناع عن اقتناء منتجات "الدولة الاستعمارية المارقة على القانون الدولي"، على حد وصفهم.

وطالبت تلك الشخصيات المحكمة بتبرئة ساحة زمور واحترام حقها في حرية التعبير من خلال الحكم الذي من المقرر الإعلان عنه في الثامن من الشهر المقبل.

وقالت زمور في تصريح للجزيرة نت إن مقاضاتها تأتي على خلفية نشرها على الموقع الإلكتروني لجمعية التضامن الأوروبي مع فلسطين شريط فيديو يظهر مناصرين للقضية الفلسطينية وهم يدعون رواد أحد المراكز التجارية بضاحية باريس للامتناع عن شراء السلع المستوردة من إسرائيل.


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#BDS Needed: #Shakira to visit #Israel next week

"Successful Colombian singer and founder of Barefoot Foundation to attend Presidential Conference, hold press conference with Shimon Peres and take part in panel alongside comedian Sarah Silverman

Sarah Silverman, you're not alone: Colombian singer Shakira is expected to arrive in Israel on Tuesday for the 2011 Israeli Presidential Conference."

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#BDS: مكرّم آخر مرفوض في «الأميركية» #Lebanon

مجموعة «شباب ضدّ التطبيع» كانت من أوائل المعترضين على تكريم السيد، وأعلنت على موقعها الإلكتروني أنّ «ما لم تفهمه «الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت» ـــــ أو ربما على العكس هي تدركه ـــــ أنّ تكريم مصطفى السيد لن يجري، تماماً كتكريم ولفنسون». وطلبت على موقعها من طلّاب الجامعة وأساتذتها، كما من الناشطين ضدّ التطبيع أن يتحرّكوا معهم لينظّموا معاً حملة «ناجحة» ضدّ السيد. تقول يارا حركة، الناشطة في «شباب ضدّ التطبيع»، إنّ المجموعة كانت قد قرّرت سابقاً أن تتحرك في 25 الجاري ضدّ بيان رئيس الجامعة بيتر دورمان، الذي دافع فيه عن ولفنسون، ولأنّ الجامعة نفسها رفضت أن تعتذر، لكنّ التطوّرات في قضيّة السيد، فرضت عليهم تغيير مخططاتهم أيضاً، إذ تتجّه المجموعة مع الجمعيات المدنيّة الأخرى الناشطة في هذا المجال إلى التصعيد بحسب حركة. تقصد الناشطة هنا أنّه «سيجري الاحتكام إلى القانون اللبناني بما أنّ الجامعة موجودة على أراض لبنانيّة، وما تفعله مخالف لقوانيننا. لذا سنبحث عن طريقة قانونيّة لمنع التكريم، كما سيكون لنا تحرّك على الأرض نحدّد شكله في الأيام القليلة المقبلة».

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#BDS: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar cancels trip to #Israel

"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's decision to cancel his appearance and showing of his film "On The Shoulder's Of Giants"  at the Jerusalem Film Festival comes as a welcome victory to thePACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel), as well as to scores of solidarity activists and humanitarians across the globe.  The legendary basketball player showed us what a giant person he really is when he chose justice and solidarity with the oppressed of Palestine.

On 19 April, 2011, "One Country Israel Palestine: Say "NO" to apartheid"  posted a story titled "BDS : Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Boycott Israel PACBI."  (link).  Since April, many changes in how solidarity for Palestine is viewed have occured.  OneWorld released "Freedom For Palestine" and it went viral on youtube and is still spreading around the globe.  Various young American Jewish activists have courageously stood before AIPAC, and even the US Congress, vocalizing support for Palestinian human rights.  Lupe Fiasco and LUSH cosmetics shared their great concern for the need for freedom for Palestinians.  Students held a Flash Mob at an "ethical" grocery store in Portland, Oregon, singing about the violations of human rights that many businesses actually make a profit from.  Each passing week, brought into question the "appropriateness" of public figures taking the side of the oppressor, in this case, the apartheid nation of Israel."

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#BDS: شـاكيرا في ضيافـة إسـرائيل: سـتحاضـر ... ولـن تغنـي

وأخيرا حققت إسرائيل حلما قديما لها. فبعدما نافست لبنان على أكبر صحني حمص وتبولة في العالم، تحاول منافستها على كسب ود شاكيرا التي تفاخرت بأنها من أصل لبناني. وقد أفلح الرئيس الإسرائيلي شمعون بيريز في اجتذاب المغنية العالمية شاكيرا لزيارة الدولة العبرية للمشاركة في «مؤتمر الرئيس» السنوي في القدس المحتلة الذي يفتتح يوم الثلاثاء المقبل.
وبحسب ما نشر في إسرائيل فإن شاكيرا سوف تشارك إلى جانب بيريز في المؤتمر الصحافي الذي يعلن افتتاح المؤتمر السنوي الذي يعقده الرئيس الإسرائيلي في القدس. وبعد ذلك ستشارك شاكيرا في المداولات الافتتاحية للمؤتمر حيث ستتحدث عن «أهمية تعليم الأطفال». ولم يتضح بعد برنامج زيارة شاكيرا لإسرائيل، ولكن تردد أنها ستحاضر فقط، ولن تؤدي أي حفلات. 

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#BDS: Big bad Wolfensohn? #Lebanon

(...)


Meanwhile, a civil society group named Youth Against Normalization is calling for a similar petition at AUB against honoring Mostafa A. El-Sayed, who obtained an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University in 1993. In addition, according to Al-Akhbar, some AUB professors are asking to be included in the process that decides on future candidates to be honored at the university.


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#BDS: London is turning into #Israel’s laboratory in preparation for 2012 summer #Olympics

"The current issue of muckraking journal Private Eye reports that Heathrow Airport will have shiny new equipment for screening passengers installed with the help of several Israeli firms as part of preparations for next year’s Olympic Games. The sporting event affords an opportunity to run a “live test” on the Total Airport Security System (TASS), a 14.5 million euro ($21 million) project mainly financed by the European Union.

As it happens, details of the project were announced almost exactly a year ago. In a June 2010 statement, the consortium behind TASS bragged that it had won formal EU authorisation for the scheme, which uses “real-time sensors” and various other tools to monitor aircraft, people, cargo, and restaurant areas in an airport separately and then blend all the resulting data in a “multisource labyrinth”.

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#BDS: Sign the petition! Tell Jello Biafra to cancel the gig in Tel Aviv!

"We, the undersigned, strongly urge Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine to cancel their gig in Tel Aviv. As people who have taken the music and words of Jello Biafra to heart, we believe that going forward and performing in Israel–in defiance of the Palestinian call for cultural boycott–would fly in the face of everything he has stood for."


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