#BDS University of Regina Students Union joins the global movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions!

Students Against Israeli Apartheid – Regina (SAIA) is pleased to announce that a motion was passed at the University of Regina Student Union AGM to support the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) as a means of pressuring Israel to comply with international and human rights law. This resolution is a huge first step towards the full divestment of the University of Regina from companies complicit with the human rights violations currently taking place in Palestine. Plans are already in motion for SAIA, together with the University of Regina Student Union (URSU) and other members of the community, to begin investigating URSU’s portfolio for companies that support or profit from Israeli war crimes, as well as collectively launching an education campaign on campus about the issue.

SAIA would like to thank everyone who came out to vote for the resolution and all those who have been supporting and organizing around this issue within the community. There will be a lot of work to do before the end of the school year – if anyone is interested in joining the group please feel free to contact us at saiauofr@gmail.com. Thanks for all the support!

Source

#BDS: #LGBT and Human Rights Advocates Speak Out Against Israeli Pinkwashing

"As Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month gets underway in the UK, human rights advocates are adding their voices to the global responses to Israel's attempt to 'pinkwash' its oppressive nature by portraying itself as progressive and liberal with regard to gay rights. In a letter to the press today, veterans of the Gay Liberation Front, Stop Clause 28, Outrage!, other campaigns and their allies express concern over the hi-jacking of LGBT rights as a propaganda smokescreen to divert attention from Israel's persecution of the Palestinians.

Pointing out that the gay rights movement originated at the time of civil rights, anti-apartheid and Women's Liberation movements, and drew inspiration from people striving for freedom from colonialism, they say it would be 'ironic if, in an attempt to gain a veneer of respectability by promoting itself as a liberal, tolerant haven for gay people and a prime gay holiday destination, a regime routinely violating human rights, practising institutional racism and dispossessing an indigenous population' tried to co-opt their hard-won progress."

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#BDS Action: Protest Batsheva Dance Company's 2012 performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

"Join Adalah-NY to protest a performance by Batsheva, "Israel’s leading cultural ambassador".
In an exchange of letters with Adalah-NY, Batsheva's host, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, tried the excuse that Batsheva's performance won't "further a political agenda", but there's no denying it's part of the "Brand Israel" propaganda campaign. 

In solidarity with the Palestinian call for cultural boycott, don't let Israel use dance to whitewash apartheid!

Click here to check the event

#BDS: #UK helps the water thieves #Israel

"(LONDON) - There are few crimes more despicable then stealing your neighbour’s water.and polluting what’s left, then watching him and his children suffer thirst, disease and ruin.

Most of us would want nothing to do with the perpetrators of such evil.

British Water describes itself as the voice of the water industry. It talks about best practice and corporate responsibility, and lobbies governments and regulators on behalf of its members. No doubt it does a good job.

It also has international ambitions including in the Middle East. So presumably it knows what's going on water-wise in the Holy Land.

British Water should know, for example, that the 400-miles long structure known worldwide as Israel's Apartheid Wall bites deep into the Palestinian West Bank dividing and isolating communities and stealing their lands and water."

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#BDS: Heartless Israeli fans beg PM to hold off #Iran attack over #Madonna show

"In a newly launched Facebook page, Israeli fans of U.S. pop megastar Madonna are pleading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off any such plans to strike Iran until the Queen of Pop's planned show in Tel Aviv on May 29.

The group, simply and directly enough, is named: "Bibi don't start a war with Iran until after Madonna's show on May 29."

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#BDS Report: #EU Trade with Israeli Settlements

"1. Background information on Israeli settlements in the OPT
Israeli settlements are areas in which Israeli and Jewish civilians have
established homes, communities and new towns on occupied Palestinian land.
There are over 200 Israeli settlements and settlement outposts in the West
Bank and East Jerusalem with a combined population of half a million people.
1
200,000 of these settlers are living in East Jerusalem.
2
The total area
controlled by settlements is around 43 per cent of the West Bank (See Appendix
B).
3
Settlement construction first began in 1967 and, despite their illegality and
international condemnation, settlements have grown and prospered over the
past 50 years, significantly changing the facts on the ground. The annual
growth rate of the settler population in the West Bank is significantly higher
than population growth inside Israel at 3.7 per cent
4
and as these new towns
grow, more of the land falls under Israeli control. There are different
motivations for Israelis to move to the occupied territories. Some move for
economic reasons while others are ideological settlers, who make up the
majority of settlement outposts. "

Read the full report

#BDS: الرجوب: لن نسمح بالتطبيع الذي تحاول بعض الجهات تمريره للساحة الرياضية

جدد رئيس اللجنة الاولمبية الفلسطينية، رئيس اتحاد كرة القدم، اللواء جبريل الرجوب، اليوم السبت، رفضه للتطبيع بكافة أشكاله بما في ذلك التطبيع الرياضي الذي تحاول بعض الجهات تمريره على الساحة الرياضية.

وقال الرجوب في اللقاء التثقيفي الذي نظمته لجنة الرياضة والبيئة التابعة للجنة الاولمبية الفلسطينية، في مقر الاولمبية في مدينة البيرة، بمشاركة ممثلين عن الأندية وبعض الاتحادات الرياضية، 'لن يكون هناك تطبيع ولن نطبع مع الإسرائيليين لأننا تحت الاحتلال كما أن الإسرائيليين لا يعترفون بالكيان الرياضي الفلسطيني'.

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#BDS: Israeli Tennis Player to Participate in #Qatar Total Open 2012

نشرت اللاعبة الإسرائيلية (شاهار بير) بالأمس خبر مشاركتها في بطولة التنس المفتوحة للسيدات في الدوحة على حسابها في تويتر.

shahar peer (@shaharpeer) 2/12/12 1:57 AM Shahar will play this week in the Qatar Total Open and in the 1st round she will meet Nadia Lalami (339) from...fb.me/1tdJdhXzt

 نذكر هذه ليست بالمرة الأولى تشارك (بير) في هذه البطولة، ويمكنكم تصفح أرشيف المدونة للمزيد من المعلومات.

نتمنى من الجميع التعبير عن رفضهم لهذا النوع من التطبيع المستمر وارسال تعليق لحساب الإتحاد القطري للتنس 

وايضاً لحساب اللاعبة (شاهار بير).

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#BDS: #Qatar Airways Flights to Tel Aviv #Israel

Please check this post for update

#BDS Against the expansion of the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement

Tadamon! collective statement, February 2012. Photo: Israeli apartheid wall in Occupied Palestine. Last fall, the Conservative government announced plans to expand the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA), a set of policies that serves to further legitimize Israeli occupation and apartheid, and deepen Canadian corporate and state involvement in Israeli racism and colonialism.  Read more.

#BDS The Israel Lobby on campus in Illinois: A challenge for BDS

I only recently learned of Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s trip to Israel this past summer (2011) for a “week-long educational mission where he sealed two important agreements and received briefings from high-ranking Israeli officials, academic experts and business leaders on topics ranging from high-tech development (read Motorola), energy, water conservation and environmentalism (sic) to disaster preparedness, Iran, and U.S.-Israel relations.” This is reported on the website of Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. The reader is expected, of course, to find the high-minded and triumphant tone of this article to be unproblematic.  Read more.

#BDS Norcal Activists take on #Veolia

The North Coast Coalition for Palestine  in the San Francisco North Bay are preparing to present a letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors opposing the county's contract with Veolia. The French multinational company currently operates the county's bus system and has come under international pressure due to its involvement in a light rail line in Occupied East Jerusalem. Activists plans to collect signatures and present the letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Read more.

#BDS Peter Tatchell protests Israel's pinkwashing and endorses BDS

This is a bit of a turn up. Peter Tatchell has added his name to a letter supporting boycott, divestment and sanctions against the State of Israel and protesting Israel's PR tactic of "pinkwashing", ie, presenting itself as a progressive democratic state on account of supposedly gay-friendly policies. Here's the letter.  Source.

#BDS The 8th annual ‘Israeli Apartheid week’ is focused on BDS

The 8th annual Israeli Apartheid week is approaching, and it’s approaching fast. Israeli Apartheid Week is a week where Palestinian solidarity groups from around the globe mobilize events to spread awareness of the atrocities happening to the Palestinians because of Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid system. It also is a week where these solidarity organizations can answer the call of the Palestinian civil society and launch or continue their Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign.  Read more here. 

#BDS: مقاطعة إسرائيل ومقاطعة «إم.تي.في.»

تمادى محطة «إم.تي.في.» في استفزاز قسم كبير من الشعب اللبناني (والعربي). تتمادى كثيراً. هي تتمرّس في التعامل مع الجمهور على أنه مناصر لجيش لحد، وما يحمله من عقائد وسياسات وأغراض. تتعامل المحطة مع المواضيع بمنطق طائفي، كأنّ كل الشعب في مسخ الوطن، لبنان، يوافق على سياساتها، باستثناء الرعاع الشيعة من أنصار حزب الله (وهذا هو منطق حزب الكتائب أيضاً وحتى عائلة الحريري. وكأنّ الشيعة في لبنان، أو حتى أنصار حزب الله من الطائفة، يشكّلون تفصيلاً صغيراً يسهل كنسه متى نُزع سلاح المقاومة في لبنان). لا يعني ذلك أنّه ليس للمحطة معجبون ومؤيّدون (ومؤيّدات): لا شك أنّ الخط الصهيوني الصريح للمحطة، زائد هوسها بنيل إعجاب الرجل الأبيض ـــــ أيّ رجل أبيض، ولو كان عابراً للسبيل ـــــ يتوافق مع توجّهات عدد لا بأس به من اللبنانيّين. إنّ استطلاعات رأي عام عربيّ وعالميّ في لبنان، تثبت أنّ هناك فئة تناصر إسرائيل، وأنّ نحو ربع اللبنانيّين مثلاً (وفق استطلاع أجري في 2004 من قبل الجامعة الأردنيّة) يعتبر أي عمل عسكري ضد قوّات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي عملاً «إرهابيّاً». كما أنّ حرب تموز كانت مثالاً على حقيقة بشعة: ليس كلّ اللبنانيّين متوافقين على دعم مقاومة إسرائيل. هناك فريق عريض من اللبنانيّين (هم الأكثرية عدديّاً من دون شكّ) ممن قاوم مقاومة إسرائيل منذ 1982 (هل هناك من ينسى أنّ جريدة «النهار» عارضت مقاومة إسرائيل منذ 1982 ـــــ إن لم يكن قبل ـــــ حتى الساعة، أي قبل سنوات من الانسحاب المُذلّ لجيش العدوّ في 2000). وهناك فريق ممن اعتبر نفسه متفرّجاً على مقاومة إسرائيل (كان الحزب التقدمي الاشتراكي متفرّجاً على مقاومة إسرائيل ولسنوات طوال قبل أن يعاديها).

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