Youth Against Normalization

Apr 22, 2011

#BDS: بطل كرة السلة الأمريكي كريم عبد الجبار ينوي زيارة الكيان الصهيوني

أعلن لاعب كرة السلة المعتزل كريم عبد الجبار نيته زيارة الكيان الصهيوني قريباً والإلتقاء بأحد الحاخامت الصهاينة في سياق قيامه بالتجهيز لفيلم عن الحرب العالمية الثانية. وتأتي هذه الزيارة في ظل إزدياد عزلة العدو الإسرائيلي وإزداياد حالات المقاطعة الفنية له. وتستنكر مجموعة شباب ضد التطبيع هذه الزيارة المزمعة وتدعو عبد الجبار لإلغاءها وعدم الإنسياق خلف الدعاية الصهيونية التي تجعل من معاناة اليهود الأبرياء في الحرب العالمية الثانية مبرراً لإحتلال فلسطين وأراضي سورية ولبنانية إلى اليوم، ناهيك عن سياسات القمع والفصل العنصري وسرقة المياه والثروات الطبيعية والإعتقالات التعسفية والتعذيب وسياسات الإغتيال والحصار.

#BDS: Moby - Please Don't Play for Apartheid Israel!

"Moby is sceduled to play for the Pic.nic Festival in apartheid Israel. His concert is for July 12, in Tel-Aviv-Yafo. We ask Moby to stand for the Palestian call for the cultural boycott of Israel until it abides by international law and stops its brutal occupation of the Palestinian people. Following the lead of other artists such as Roger Waters, Pete Seeger, Massive Attack, Klaxons, Gorillaz Sound System, Carlos Santana, Elvis Costello, Devendra Banhart, Faithless, Gil Scott-Heron, The Pixies, Snoop Dogg (Snoop was quoted as telling Palestinian-American hip hop producer Fredwreck “Why they building a wall around y’alls people’s shit. That’s fucked up, cuz.’)

One way to contact moby is to call the cafe that he owns directly and leave a message, that # in nyc is 212-475-9190 see https://www.teany.com/cafe"

Also check the facebook event

#BDS: Southern African Christians call for BDS

"The Palestine Kairos Document was launched in South Africa on Monday evening 4 April 2011, at a meeting of Kairos Southern Africa in Bredell near Johannesburg. The document is called: A moment of truth – A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of the Palestian suffering.

The notion of a Palestine Kairos Document was inspired by the South African Kairos Document as a Christian testimony of faith during the dark and last days of apartheid. Palestinian lay people, theologians and church leaders came together to express a testimony of faith in relation to their experience under the occupation of Palestine by Israel.

In response to the message of the Palestine Kairos Document, Christians from South Africa and countries in Southern Africa gathering at the conference decided to state the following:"

#BDS: Understanding the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Movement Against Israel

"In the last few years, Palestinians and the solidarity movements in support of Palestinian rights have been successful in drawing attention to Israel as an apartheid state deserving of the same treatment as apartheid South Africa. Prominent individuals such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Richard Falk and many others, have used the term apartheid at various moments to refer to Israel’s regime of gross violations of international law. But what is apartheid and exactly why is Israel an apartheid state? Most importantly, why should conscientious people across the world join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which has been growing over the last six years?

What Is Apartheid?

Apartheid is an Afrikaans term meaning separation or apartness. While it was first used in the South African context and took the form of clear institutionalized and legalized segregation by white settlers over the rest of the population, apartheid later took on an international legal dimension. As a result, the “crime of apartheid” no longer exists as a crime limited to a South African-style apartheid context. Rather, the crime has come to hold a specific legal definition that was adopted by the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and that has its basis in the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

Under the Convention, the crime of apartheid is defined as “a crime against humanity . . . inhuman acts resulting from the policies and practices of apartheid and similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination, as defined in article II of the Convention, are crimes violating the principles of international law.” Article II of the Convention defines the crime as “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them,” and also includes “similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practiced in southern Africa.” While South African style apartheid is one benchmark, the real determinant of the crime of apartheid is whether or not policies and practices of oppression fall under the list of violations included in Article II of the Convention.

Of particular significance, the crime speaks in terms of oppressor and oppressed (not majorities and minorities), and prohibits the institutionalization of racist discrimination and oppression in which racism is legally enshrined through state institutions. Racial discrimination is defined in international law as any distinction based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin."

#BDS: Politics and Sports Definitely Don't Mix: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to visit Israel

"Former NBA star, who is making film about WWII, to meet Rabbi Lau whom his father liberated from Nazi concentration camp

American basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will visit Israel in July and meet with Rabbi Israel Meir Lau to discuss a film that he is making about World War II, the rabbi said recently.

The film is based on the book "Brothers in Arms", which Abdul-Jabbar co-authored and deals with the American troops who liberated Nazi concentration camps in the end of World War II. Abdul-Jabbar's own father served on the 761st Tank Battalion, which liberated the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany."

#BDS: BDS means freedom, justice and self-determination

"Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz’s ill-informed and manifestly misleading attack on the Palestinian-led, global movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel contained several misrepresentations and some outright fabrications. The historical account given by Meyerowitz-Katz is not only skewed; it is a typical attempt to obscure or omit altogether the basic facts about BDS.

An overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society issued the BDS Call on July 9, 2005 as an effective, non-violent strategy to end Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian rights. This civil, peaceful and inclusive struggle, largely inspired by the successful South African anti-apartheid movement, is based on international law and universal principles of human rights."

#BDS: Omar Barghouti - BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions book launch

#BDS: Bahrain's secret Mossad ties revealed?

"New Wikileaks cables expose classified documents that include evidence of alleged cooperation between Persian Gulf state and Israeli intelligence agency

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange released additional classified documents about Israel and the Middle East: Britain's Guardian newspaper stated that the sensitive documents expose, among other things, Israeli criticism of the man who is the de facto head of state in Egypt, Hussein Tantawi Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

The diplomatic cables were transferred to Yedioth Ahronoth and some have been published on Friday."

#BDS: Academic sanctions and global solidarity for Palestinian liberation

"Academic sanctions and global solidarity for Palestinian liberation: A view from South Africa on the need to unfriend Israeli universities

By Patrick Bond
Presented to the Association of American Geographers Annual Meetings- Seattle, Washington -[12_04_11]

This panel is not only devoted to considering arguments about implementing the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, but also about broader problems of progressive political positioning and backlash in the academy. Although I do not deal with the April 2 case of Richard Goldstone’s unprincipled U-turn on the findings of the United Commissions commission into Israel’s 2008-09 Gaza invasion, the incident suggests the extent to which South African commentary on the oppression of Palestinians has become acutely politicized. For if Goldstone’s return to his Zionist past – recalling, too, his past as a minor apartheid-era judge (hence as a human rights ally, his zig-zag unreliability, reliability and now unreliability) – serves any purpose aside from empowering Israeli militarists, it will be to compel us to use South Africa as a base from which critical inquiry into the condition of Palestine must now be intensified.

Fortunately, just such an opportunity arises in the case of the University of Johannesburg faculty Senate’s decision on March 23 to support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) struggle by breaking ties with Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Recall that in the most extreme black-and-white case, fighting to end apartheid, scholar-activists played a useful role that has relevance to the Palestinian situation. To be sure, academic boycotts of the apartheid regime were nowhere near as successful as the sports, cultural and economic sanctions that hit South African elites from the late 1960s, which were decisive in undermining the racist state and dividing/conquering the white population, especially from 1985. These experiences bear consideration as a site for ongoing Palestinian solidarity, and they point to a trajectory by which social consciousness can be ratcheted up into more sustained commitments. "

#BDS: Picket Echo & Bunnymen to play in Apartheid Israel

"By playing Tel Aviv, "The implicit message is that the country is liberal and progressive. Music fans can dance, drink and pop pills long into the night, blissfully distracted from the immeasurable suffering endured by Palestinians living just 40km down the road in Gaza." [Faithless guitarist Dave Randall]

We are asking Ian McCulloch from Echo and the Bunnymen to cancel their scheduled performance in Israel:

Please don't breach the boycott picket line;
Respect the Palestinian call for Boycott of Israel;
Postpone until Israel respects human rights and abides by international law.

We'll hand out leaflets to the fans and if lucky to Ian McCulloch.
We'll hold banners, calling EATB to cancel.
Make your own banner with your personal message."

Link to event

#BDS: World Cup winning former France star Thuram visits Palestine

"World Cup winning former France star Lilian Thuram visited young Palestinians in a West Bank refugee camp in Qalandia, near Jerusalem.

The former Barcelona, Juventus and Parma defender, who won the World Cup in 1998, is spending four days in the Palestinian territories as part of his work for the Lilian Thuram anti-racism education foundation."

#BDS: Arab station broadcasting from Qatar ask to interview Israeli singer

"Dana International, Israel's representative to the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, is expected to give an interview to a radio station broadcasting from Doha, Qatar.

In recent weeks Dana's managers have been receiving numerous requests for interviews ahead of her performance in Düsseldorf next month, including one from the Arab station."

#BDS: Australian City Faces Attacks for Supporting BDS

"The city of Marrickville is the first municipality in Australia to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. The city is now under attack, following the publication of a report saying that support for BDS could end up costing taxpayers $4 million.

In December 2010 the local council in the Australian city of Marrickville became the first municipality in Australia to support the Palestinian initiated Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and “boycott all goods made in Israel and any sporting, institutional academic, government or institutional cultural exchanges.”

The city is now under attack, following the publication of a report saying that support for BDS could end up costing taxpayers $4 million. Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne has denied that would be the case."

#BDS: No surprise Bob Dylan is visiting the ‘neighborhood bully’

"You may have seen the recent letter by the Israeli peace and justice group "Boycott From Within" (BfW) asking Bob Dylan to heed the Palestinian call for BDS and therefore not perform in Israel. The letter follows reports of Dylan's 2011 summer tour, during which he will perform at Ramat Gan Stadium on June 20th.

The BfW letter hits all the right notes and speaks truth. It asks Dylan "not to perform in Israel until it respects Palestinian human rights," explaining that "a performance in Israel, today, is a vote of support for its policies of oppression." The letter speaks of ethnic cleansing, land theft, martial law, air strikes, and massacres. It beseeches the folk legend, who has "been part of a civil rights movement," to stand with the oppressed against the aggressor. BfW writes that "BDS is a powerful and united civil initiative in the face of a brutal military occupation and apartheid. It’s a nonviolent alternative to a waning armed struggle and it has reaped many successes and instilled much hope, in the past six years."