#BDS: JAILED PALESTINIAN FOOTBALLER MAHMOUD SARSAK FREED, CAMPAIGN CONTINUES FOR OTHERS DETAINED

"Now that Mahmoud Sarsak is free, please keep up the pressure on UEFA to remove the honour from Israel of hosting the 2013 Under-21 Championships by sharing the Red Card Israeli Apartheid petition  on Facebook, Twitter and email.

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#BDS: لا للتطبيع في #الكويت

أقامت لجنة ” كويتيون لأجل القدس – وهي لجنة مشتركة بين جمعية الخريجين والجمعية الثقافية الإجتماعية النسائية  – بمشاركة حركة المقاطعة BDS الكويت, يوم الاحد الموافق 8/7/2012 امسية بعنوان لا للتطبيع مع اسرائيل لمساندة وتكريم اللاعبين الكويتيين عوض الحربي (لاعب تنس طاولة) وعلي المرشاد (لاعب تايكوندو) لرفضهم مواجهة لاعبين اسرائليين في الدور نصف النهائي لبطولة رومانيا الدولية المفتوحة لتنس الطاولة للمعاقين و في الدور قبل النهائي لبطولة العالم للتايكوندو والمقامة في النمسا. كما تم أيضا الترحيب بالحكمين “فرج المعتوق” و “يحي رشوان” اللذين رفضا تحكيم مباريات للاعبين اسرائليين.

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#BDS: BDS roundup: The BDS movement, 7 years on, "stronger, more effective and more diverse than ever"

"This week on the BDS roundup: Highlighting the spectacular growth and victories of the 7-year-old BDS movement; Palestinian civil society commends author Alice Walker for her refusal to have her book published by an Israeli publisher; Palestine solidarity activists protest pinkwashing at San Francisco LGBT International Film Festival; and boycott activists take to the roof of G4S headquarters to demand an end to cooperation with the Israeli government."


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#BDS: Each Massacre Breeds New Boycotts: Boycotting Apartheid Israel

"You may have noticed that Israel is getting hit with more boycott campaigns, not less.

It started on April 17, 2003.

That night, the Wayne State University Student Council approved a resolution against all university investment in “companies doing business in Israel”.

More divestment resolutions were approved by the University of Michigan-Dearborn Student Government Senate, and by the faculty senate at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

Then, on July 9, 2005, Palestinian Civil Society itself called for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons, but they can’t blow this humanitarian campaign off the map. After every Israeli massacre, more boycotts are launched against Israel."

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#BDS: #France Penalizes Boycott of #Israel-i Products

"Last May, the Cour de Cassation, the Supreme Court of France, ruled that calls for a boycott of Israeli products constitute discrimination and as such are illegal under French law.

The verdict was the final ruling in a legal battle that went on for years. On 9 July 2005, exactly seven years ago, the Palestinian Authority called for a worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign against the Jewish State. In February 2009, following the Gaza War in the winter of 2008-2009, several leftist and pro-Palestinian organizations in France convened to organize a French BDS campaign. The activists target French and international corporations that do business in Israel, French branches of Israeli companies, and supermarkets selling Israeli products."

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#BDS: London Shopkeepers Embrace 'Boycott #Israel-i Dates Campaign'

"With Ramadan just a week away and this years 'Boycott Israeli Dates Campaign' in full flow, the capitals shopkeepers have wholeheartedly embraced the campaign with dozens of shops in London already displaying the campaign posters in their shop windows and stocking bundles of leaflets to give out to their customers.

Customers have reacted very positively to this act of solidarity by shopkeepers with the Palestinian people suffering this Ramadan under brutal Israeli military occupation: "I feel if this shop has gone to the trouble to put up this poster for the benefit of its customers.. for my benefit, to inform me which brands of dates to avoid and thereby not contribute to the crimes being committed against my brothers and sisters in Palestine, then it shows they care for their customers and I am very please to shop here.."

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#BDS at 7! – Celebrating, reflecting and further mainstreaming

"Seven years after the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel was launched, the global BDS campaign has become stronger, more widespread, more effective and certainly more diverse than ever—a true cause for celebration by all those groups and conscientious citizens of the world who contributed to this success. However, Israel’s intensifying violations of international law and basic Palestinian rights, the direct threat Israel poses to the freedom of peoples across the region, and the impunity that Israel still enjoys are cause for reflection and the continuous fine-tuning of our strategies to further spread BDS and further isolate Israel as a world pariah, just as South Africa was under apartheid.

Thanks to the BDS movement, the struggle for the basic rights of the entire Palestinian people has taken a major leap during these last seven years, reaching wide audiences and achieving concrete achievements in major European countries, South Africa, Latin America, India, the Arab world, Australia, New Zealand and even North America. Following on from a similar round up published to mark five years of BDS, the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the broad Palestinian civil society coalition, has put together the following selection of highlights gives a taste of the spectacular growth of BDS over the last two years."

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Stop the Wall: #G4S, #Allianz, and the global #BDS movement

"G4S, Allianz, and the global BDS movement

We are therefore launching a new campaign targeting the German insurance company Today in Palestine the struggle of the people is at a crucial stage. More than ever it is clear to all that Israel leaves us no other alternative than a life in impoverished prisons under constant control and repression by military and security forces. Urgent action is needed.

The recent announcement by Israeli ‘defense’ minister Ehud Barack that Israel should plan for ‘unilateral withdrawal’ accompanied with Israeli announcements last year that Israel intents to ‘relocate’ Palestinian population from area C is an open announcement of an existing ethnic cleansing plan that in these years is being implemented."

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#BDS: مستشار لحكومات أوروبية: لا مانع من مقاطعة منتجات المستوطنات الإسرائيلية

قال مستشار للحكومة البريطانية ولحكومات أخرى بالاتحاد الأوروبى إنه لا مانع قانونيا من أن تقدم بلدان أوروبية على حظر المتاجرة بمنتجات مصدرها المستوطنات الإسرائيلية.

ونقلت الإذاعة الإسرائيلية عن جيمس كروفرد، الخبير القانونى، أنه لا يوجد قانون لدى دول الاتحاد الأوروبى يحظر مقاطعة منتجات المستوطنات لأسباب تتعلق بالسياسة العامة.

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#BDS: #CAAM: End sponsorship of #Israel-#China film festival

"The following letter was sent to Stephen Gong, the Executive Director of the Center for Asian American Media, to protest the Israel-China Film Festival, on June 26-28 at the San Francisco Public Library, a partnership with the Israeli Consulate. This letter was initiated by USACBI and endorsed by numerous organizations and individuals, listed below.

Stephen Gong
Executive Director
Center for Asian American Media

Dear Mr. Gong:
The US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), and the undersigned groups and individuals, are deeply dismayed and disappointed that CAAM is sponsoring the Israel China film festival on June 26-28 at the San Francisco Public Library, as part of the Israel-China Festival this year."

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#BDS Action Alert: Campaign against #Israel hosting #UEFA championship continues

"It took three months of hunger strike and the near death of a Palestinian footballer, held for three years without charge or trial under the 'Unlawful Combatants Law' which is itself illegal under international law, for the Israeli authorities to agree to a release deal. While we cautiously welcome the deal that should see Mahmoud Sarsak released on 10 July 2012, we are alarmed that Olympic squad goalkeeper Omar Abu Rois and Ramallah player Mohammed Nimr are also being held by Israel without charge. We maintain that a state which holds sportsmen as political prisoners is unfit to host an international sporting event. We, therefore, call on UEFA to withdraw the honour of hosting the 2013 European Under-21 championship from Israel."


Click here to sign the petition

#BDS: Norman #Finkelstein’s disinformation about BDS

"Norman Finkelstein continues to spread disinformation about BDS. In a new interview [1], by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, Finkelstein repeated the accusation that "BDS is a cult," this time in a measured and composed way, not as an "outburst". Parenthetically, the interview itself, in its structure and the kind of questions asked and not asked, suggests that Finkelstein himself is  fashioning his own persona as a cult leader. But let's get back to the specific accusation. Finkelstein claims that "[t]he movement is riddled with flagrant hypocrisy." He offers three examples:

"a) a leader calls for the boycott of all Israeli universities while he himself studies at Tel Aviv University, (b) a leader claims that BDS doesn’t target individuals or an individual’s beliefs, only institutions, but he then calls for a ban on Daniel Barenboim, because Barenboim is a “Zionist,” c) BDS did not call for a ban on [the film] Five Broken Cameras although it was produced in conjunction with an official Israeli film society."

None of these three examples represent any shred of hypocrisy."

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#BDS: Presbyterian Church Opposes Divestment But Backs Settlement Boycott

"Hours after it narrowly rejected divestment from some companies that do business with Israel, the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to endorse a boycott of products made in the occupied West Bank.

The church’s general assembly also cleared the way for a vote in 2014 to establish an Israel occupation-free “conscience plan” for participants in its pension plan."

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#BDS: This #Ramadan, 'Boycott Israeli Dates'

"With Ramadan rapidly approaching we need your help to get the message out to our people - Do Not Buy Israeli Dates. We need your help to distribute 'Boycott Israeli Dates' leaflets in your Mosques, your campuses, and your communities.

Its simple - you don't need to join any organisations or facebook groups, just get a couple of friends together and order your leaflets. The leaflets are sent free of charge, just let us know how many you can distribute and we will send them.

This Ramadan don't just think of the Palestinians, but act!"

Click here to check out the leaflets

#BDS: التطبيع مع الكيان الصهيوني يجر "معهد أماديوس" إلى القضاء #المغرب

تنظر المحكمة الابتدائية بمدينة الرباط، صباح غد الجمعة 6 يوليوز 2012، في الدعوى القضائية التي رفعها ناشطون ضد التطبيع مع الكيان الصهيوني، من أجل حل جمعية إبراهيم الفاسي الفهري، نجل وزير الخارجية السابق، والمعروفة باسم "معهد أماديوس". وقالت مصادر مطلعة، إن الجلسة ستعرف مرافعات من المنتظر أن يحضرها بكثافة عدد من الناشطين في مجال مقاومة التطبيع، مضيفة أن دفاع المعهد، تقدم إلى رئيس الجلسة بمذكرة جوابية في الموضوع.

ويستند محامو المدعين، وهم ناشطون في مجموعة العمل الوطنية لمساندة العراق وفلسطين في طلبهم لحل "معهد أماديوس"، كون هذا الأخير خرج عن مقتضيات القانون المنظم للجمعيات ومس بالأمن النفسي والأخلاقي للمغاربة، باستدعائه لمتطرفين شاركوا في العدوان على الشعب الفلسطيني، كما تقوم الدعوى على حقيقة أن المغرب عضو في الجامعة العربية التي أسست المكتب المركزي المناهض للتطبيع، وأن "اسرائيل" دولة عدوانية خارجة على الشرعية الدولية وتحتل أراضي عربية.

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