Oct 23, 2010
#BDS: AHAVA boycott campaign brings out protesters and counter-protesters in Brooklyn Heights highlighting the controversy around Israeli settlement products
NEW YORK CITY – On October 26th, Brooklyn For Peace, CODEPINK NYC, Adalah-NY, Jews Say No!, Jewish Voice for Peace, and other local groups will bring the Stolen Beauty Ahava boycott campaign to Brooklyn for a third time. Local activists, some dressed in spa attire, and others wearing monster masks to convey the message that Occupation is an Ugly business, will gather on Montague Street to tell Ricky’s NYC: No More Ahava Cosmetics. At last month’s demonstration, counter-protesters also gathered outside Ricky’s, some of them opposing the boycott with a “buycott” of Ahava goods, highlighting the controversy around Israeli settlement products.
Since August 2009, local activists have been trying to pressure Ricky’s NYC, a family-owned chain that sells cosmetics and sundries, to stop carrying products made by the Israeli cosmetics manufacturer Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories because of the Ahava’s illegal practices. In July 2010, Brooklyn for Peace organized the first Ahava protest in that borough outside Ricky’s on Montague Street. The July 9th and September 28th protests sparked great interest and controversy in the community, and there is expectation that the third demonstration will be even more of an event.
#BDS: Preview: NS interview with Mike Leigh
The director explains his refusal to visit Israel and says he received "exhortations not to go" from within the country.
Earlier this week, I interviewed the director Mike Leigh, whose new film Another Year is one of the main attractions at the current London Film Festival. The full interview will appear in a forthcoming issue of the NS, but here's an excerpt where Leigh explains his recently-publicised decision not to attend a film teaching event in Israel, in protest at the country's loyalty oath bill.ays that his decision was not taken lightly:
I was going to go and give workshops at the film school [the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem]. I agreed to go with great misgivings, for all the obvious reasons, but there is a very committed guy who runs the school. He persuaded me, I allowed myself to be persuaded [to go] in solidarity with what undoubtedly are very committed film-makers. But the truth is that just after I agreed to do that, there was the flotilla, then [settlement] building began again on the West Bank and then we have the loyalty oath.
I have become increasingly uncomfortable, I really felt that I simply had to join [the cultural boycott]. I have been a signatory to Jews for Justice in Palestine and various other things for a number of years. In the end you can go and indulge in comfortable cultural activity but just less distance from that activity then we are from the centre of Guilford, probably nearer [the interview took place in central London], it's hell on earth in Gaza and it's not acceptable. And that's the bottom line.
#BDS: Dutch Company Face Criminal Charges For Building Separation Wall
Human rights group Al-Haq have initiated criminal proceedings against a Dutch construction company for supplying equipment used to build the Separation wall and settlements. A complaint has been lodged with the state prosecutor, who pending the results of a police raid on Riwal’s headquarters in Holland, may pursue criminal convictions.
Al-Haq hold video and photographic evidence of Riwal machinery being used to construct sections of Israel’s Separation Wall and a building inside the settlement of Ariel. They claim to have sworn witness statements for these sightings.
Such construction would violate the International Criminal Court of Justice statute of 2004, ruling that the Wall is illegal. All settlements in the West Bank, of which is Ariel is the largest, are also illegal under international law. The Dutch Ministry of Justice have forbidden companies from involvement, making Riwal liable to punitive measures. Riwal have been under investigation since 2006.
#BDS: Tell Georgia State University to end its relationship with the Israeli police force
US Campaign member group Movement to End Israeli Apartheid-Georgia (MEIAG)needs your help to demand Georgia State University shut down its Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program.
The GILEE program facilitates training exchanges between Georgia police departments and others around the world, their strongest relationship with the Israeli police force. High ranking police officials (and other public employees) from across Georgia partake in annual delegations to Israel to learn "counter-terrorism" techniques from the International Institute for Counter Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel. Likewise, Israeli police travel to Georgia to learn drug enforcement tactics.
See below for MEIAG's call to action, and to learn how you can tell Georgia State University to end its implicit relationship with Israel.
The GILEE program facilitates training exchanges between Georgia police departments and others around the world, their strongest relationship with the Israeli police force. High ranking police officials (and other public employees) from across Georgia partake in annual delegations to Israel to learn "counter-terrorism" techniques from the International Institute for Counter Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel. Likewise, Israeli police travel to Georgia to learn drug enforcement tactics.
See below for MEIAG's call to action, and to learn how you can tell Georgia State University to end its implicit relationship with Israel.
#BDS: Harvard student government condemns Peretz fund and calls for an investigation on the decision to honor him
Harvard’s Undergraduate Council voted overwhelmingly yesterday in favor of a bill calling on President Drew Faust “to establish a commission of concerned faculty, students and administrators to investigate” the decision to honor Martin Peretz. The Undergraduate Council is the representative body of Harvard’s more than 6,700 undergraduate students.
The “Student Response to Peretz Fund Act,” passed by a vote of 26-7-4, was presented to the student government by the Harvard Islamic Society, the Black Students Association, Latinas Unidas, the Society of Arab Students and the Progressive Jewish Alliance.
Leaders of these groups met with Harvard President Drew Faust earlier this month, and requested that the administration investigate the decision to honor Peretz. When Faust made clear that she was not willing to investigate the decision, student leaders decided to bring the matter to the Undergraduate Council.
The “Student Response to Peretz Fund Act,” passed by a vote of 26-7-4, was presented to the student government by the Harvard Islamic Society, the Black Students Association, Latinas Unidas, the Society of Arab Students and the Progressive Jewish Alliance.
Leaders of these groups met with Harvard President Drew Faust earlier this month, and requested that the administration investigate the decision to honor Peretz. When Faust made clear that she was not willing to investigate the decision, student leaders decided to bring the matter to the Undergraduate Council.
#BDS: 8 countries absent from OECD tourism conference
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) Norway, Canada, Ireland, the UK, Sweden, Iceland, Turkey and South Africa will not be present at the OECD tourism conference to be held in Jerusalem this month despite objections from the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian civil society groups said Thursday.
The controversy comes amid attempts by Israel to use the conference to further its territorial claims on Jerusalem and in response to concerns raised by Palestinian and international civil society, as well as Palestinian officials, that the conference would serve to whitewash Israel's violations of international law.
Some of the eight countries have explained their withdrawals were political in nature.
Norway and Turkey condemned comments made by Israeli politicians in the run-up to the conference. The Swedish delegation to the OECD referred campaigners to EU policy on the status of Jerusalem and hinted their stance was an attempt to assert the policy.
In a blow to the credibility of the conference at which officials were to discuss tourism policy, a majority of invited countries did not send tourism ministers but sent low-ranking officials instead.
The Greek delegation to the OECD told campaigners during telephone calls that no officials from Athens would make the trip and that Greece would merely be represented by a staff member from the Greek tourist information center in Tel Aviv. The Czech Republic is the only EU country to send political representation.
The controversy comes amid attempts by Israel to use the conference to further its territorial claims on Jerusalem and in response to concerns raised by Palestinian and international civil society, as well as Palestinian officials, that the conference would serve to whitewash Israel's violations of international law.
Some of the eight countries have explained their withdrawals were political in nature.
Norway and Turkey condemned comments made by Israeli politicians in the run-up to the conference. The Swedish delegation to the OECD referred campaigners to EU policy on the status of Jerusalem and hinted their stance was an attempt to assert the policy.
In a blow to the credibility of the conference at which officials were to discuss tourism policy, a majority of invited countries did not send tourism ministers but sent low-ranking officials instead.
The Greek delegation to the OECD told campaigners during telephone calls that no officials from Athens would make the trip and that Greece would merely be represented by a staff member from the Greek tourist information center in Tel Aviv. The Czech Republic is the only EU country to send political representation.
#BDS: Settlement-produced paper seized in Hebron
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Printing paper produced in a settlement were seized from Hebron on Thursday.
Sources said the paper was produced in the illegal Atarot settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, and was held in a warehouse in Ar-Ram in Jerusalem, before being transferred to Hebron to be sold. The sources added that the owner would be prosecuted.
The Palestinian Authority announced a settlement boycott in early 2010, which includes a ban on working in settlements and trading in settlement-made goods. Shortly after President Mahmoud Abbas approved a new law that would punish traders with up to five years in prison and hefty fines for selling settlement products.
Sources said the paper was produced in the illegal Atarot settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, and was held in a warehouse in Ar-Ram in Jerusalem, before being transferred to Hebron to be sold. The sources added that the owner would be prosecuted.
The Palestinian Authority announced a settlement boycott in early 2010, which includes a ban on working in settlements and trading in settlement-made goods. Shortly after President Mahmoud Abbas approved a new law that would punish traders with up to five years in prison and hefty fines for selling settlement products.
#BDS: Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel promoted at Montreal conference
Palestine solidarity organizations from communities and movements across Quebec and elsewhere in Canada will be meeting in Montreal for a historic conference this weekend, Friday October 22 to Sunday October 24.
Carrying Forward the Moment Against Isreali Apartheid will map the future of the growing anti-Israeli apartheid movement by bringing together activists from across the country, as well as from the U.K., France, the U.S., and, most significantly, South Africa and Palestine. The intention is to assess and advance the global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of the Israeli State until there is full justice, equality, and dignity for all Palestinians.
This international campaign is based on the July 2005 call put forth by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, which demands that Israel respect the right of return for all Palestinian refugees, that Israel dismantle the wall and put an end to its colonization of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, and that Israel grant full equality to Palestinian citizens of Israel. The aim is to assess and advance a comprehensive global campaign for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions until there is full justice, equality and dignity for all Palestinians.
The conference opens on Friday evening with a panel titled "From Sharpeville to Gaza: five years since the Palestinian call for BDS," in which the Steve Faulkner, Omar Barghouti, and Areej Ja'afari will compare the experiences of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement in South Africa and Palestine.
The conference opens on Friday evening with a panel titled "From Sharpeville to Gaza: five years since the Palestinian call for BDS," in which the Steve Faulkner, Omar Barghouti, and Areej Ja'afari will compare the experiences of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement in South Africa and Palestine.
#BDS: Univ. of Michigan students protest IDF speakers
This video was just posted from a silent protest yesterday during a presentation from two IDF soldiers at the University of Michigan. They certainly know how to clear out a room. The students are wearing the names of Palestinians killed by the IDF:
#BDS: Ardent Zionist turns boycott advocate
Occupied East Jerusalem (IPS) - A former captain in the Israeli Air Force, previously an ardent Zionist who lost many members of his family in the Holocaust, has been labeled a psychopath and denounced by many Israelis for the moral stand he has taken against the Israeli occupation.
Yonatan Shapira, 38, was fired from his job, has been verbally abused in public, subjected to death threats in newspaper talk-back comments, called a traitor by many Israelis, falsely charged with assaulting Israeli security forces, and interrogated by Israel's domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet.
While Israel often gets a lot of negative publicity for its brutal treatment of Palestinians and the inherent racism within its society, there is a growing core of Israeli human rights activists who are challenging government policy -- and paying a high price for their courage.
Shapira made international headlines recently while on board the Irene, a boat sent by Jews for Justice in an effort to break the siege of Gaza but which was intercepted by Israeli commandos. On board the small boat were a number of Israelis and several Holocaust survivors.
Yonatan Shapira, 38, was fired from his job, has been verbally abused in public, subjected to death threats in newspaper talk-back comments, called a traitor by many Israelis, falsely charged with assaulting Israeli security forces, and interrogated by Israel's domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet.
While Israel often gets a lot of negative publicity for its brutal treatment of Palestinians and the inherent racism within its society, there is a growing core of Israeli human rights activists who are challenging government policy -- and paying a high price for their courage.
Shapira made international headlines recently while on board the Irene, a boat sent by Jews for Justice in an effort to break the siege of Gaza but which was intercepted by Israeli commandos. On board the small boat were a number of Israelis and several Holocaust survivors.
Oct 20, 2010
#BDS: حركة احتجاجية على قمع من يؤيد مقاطعة المستوطنات...تبرئة برلمانية فرنسية من تهمة الحض على كراهية إسرائيل
خيب قاضي محكمة بونتواز الفرنسية آمال مناصري إسرائيل، وبرأ عضو مجلس الشيوخ الفرنسي عليمة بومدين تيري، والناشط في «الحزب الجديد المناهض لليبرالية» عمر سلوطي من تهمة «الحض على الكراهية والعنصرية والتمييز والعنف»، ضد إسرائيل.
فدعوة بومدين وسلوطي إلى مقاطعة منتجات المستوطنات الإسرائيلية لا يمنح -برأي القاضي- المدافعين عن صورة إسرائيل في فرنسا «الحق الشخصي» بملاحقة من يدعو إلى مقاطعة إسرائيل.وهكذا سقطت الدعوى التي رفعها سامي غزلان رئيس «المكتب الوطني لرصد الأعمال المعادية للسامية» بالتعاون مع منظمة «محامين بلا حدود» و«غرفة التجارة الفرنسية- الإسرائيلية»، بناء على قانون يعود إلى عام 1881، ضد أعمال التحريض لأن «القانون وضع للدفاع عن حقوق الأفراد وليس الدول».. لكن تبقى أكثر من ثمانين دعوى مشابهة وزعها مؤيدو إسرائيل أمام محاكم فرنسية في مدن مختلفة، ضد شخصيات أيدت الحملة الفرنسية لـ«المقاطعة وسحب الاستثمارات والعقوبات»، التي أطلقتها جمعيات مدنية ويؤيدها معظم القوى السياسية الواقفة على يسار الحزب الاشتراكي. ويأمل مؤيدو إسرائيل في إدانة أي شخص منهم لتسجيل سابقة تدين الحملة بأكمله.
#BDS: Canada, Israel to look at expanding free trade
Two-way merchandise trade has more than doubled since implementation of Free Trade Agreement between two countries, Canadian minister says during visit to Israel
Canadian Minister of International Trade Peter Van Loan visited Israel for two days last week with the purpose of promoting closer commercial ties, promoting trade, investment and innovation, and beginning negotiations to expand the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
“The Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement has been tremendously beneficial for our two countries. Two-way merchandise trade has more than doubled since its implementation,” said Minister Van Loan.
“Canada’s ties to Israel are very deep, and our friendship is important. Our government is building on these ties and looking at opportunities to expand our trade relationship. We are committed to creating new sources of jobs, growth and prosperity for both of our countries in the years ahead.”
During the trip, Van Loan held a meeting with Israel’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Labour, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, in Tel Aviv. The purpose of the talk was to discuss ways to expand the FTA. The meeting concluded with an agreement that will see officials from both countries begin dialogue to “significantly expand (the FTA's) application.”
#BDS: 25th Israel Film Festival opens in LA
Special Honorees Richard Dreyfuss, Ryan Kavanaugh, Jon Landau and Avi Lerner to receive awards at gala dinner
Enriching the American vision of Israeli life and culture through the powerful medium of film, the Israel Film Festival has definitively become the largest showcase of Israeli films in the United States.
The year 2010 marks the 25th anniversary of this much acclaimed Israeli showcase that celebrates a quarter-century of Israeli cinema in the United States, and today the film festival announced its most dynamic program since its founding.
Encompassing over 30 titles, including award winning features, documentaries and television programs, the Festival runs from October 20 to November 4 in Los Angeles.
The opening night film is the West Coast premiere of Avi Nesher’s "The Matchmaker" (previously titled as "Once I Was"), which just recently won two Ophir Awards from the Israeli Film and Television Academy (the Israeli Oscars) for Best Actor and Best Actress by Adir Miller and Maya Dagan, respectively, as announced by Meir Fenigstein, the Founder/Executive Director of the Israel Film Festival.
The 2010 Israel Film Festival will begin its milestone anniversary year with a Gala Awards Dinner, honoring Richard Dreyfuss with the Career Achievement Award; Ryan Kavanaugh with the Outstanding Achievement in Film Award; Jon Landau with the Visionary Award; and Avi Lerner with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
#BDS: Norway artist angry as works withdrawn from Syria show
DAMASCUS — Two paintings by Norway's Haakon Gullvaag that show an Israeli flag have been withdrawn from an exhibition at the French Cultural Centre in the Syrian capital, the artist said on Monday.
His "Terra Sancta" exhibition contains works about the Israeli offensive against the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009.
Two of the works in which the Israeli flag features were removed from the show on Saturday, an angry Gullvaag told AFP by phone from Oslo, adding the French embassy in Damascus "explained to us that it was their decision.
"This was done without contacting the artist, the curator or the Norwegian embassy. I have never experienced something similar in my entire life."
The artist said the French embassy said it had concerns about a hotel near the cultural centre which normally has many Iranian guests.
"They were afraid that the Iranians would misunderstand the motifs as being Israel-friendly. Then the cultural centre claimed that some students have complained about showing the Israeli flag at all," Gullvaag said.
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