Bringing #BDS to #Egypt #fuckIsrael

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"CAIRO HELD its first official boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) event in Egypt at the independent media center Mosireen on August 27, a critical first step in challenging the government's continuing economic relations with Israel and building solidarity with Palestine.

BDS campaigns in Europe and the U.S. have grown considerably over the past seven years, but such campaigns have been slow to take off in the Arab world, where governments and the economic elite also profit from relations with Israel. Although popular hostility toward Israel is widespread among Egyptians, the Egyptian government is one of only two Arab countries, alongside Jordan, to maintain official trade relations with Israel."

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#BDS: Indonesian Foreign Minister Calls for the Boycott of Israel #fuckIsrael

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Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa is calling for nations to consider reviewing diplomatic ties with Israel and boycotting its products in solidarity with Palestine.

Marty acknowledged that the situation in the occupied territories had grown unfavorable following unilateral Israeli moves. 

“There is an unbalanced situation and Israel should bear responsibility for the failure of peace negotiations,” Marty said on the sidelines of the 67th UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday.

The foreign minister was commenting on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s pessimistic assessment of the peace process. “The door may be closing, for good, on a two-state solution,” Ban said in his speech to the assembly.

“We must break this dangerous impasse,” Ban added."

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#BDS Video: A message from Palestinian children to @FCBarcelona #fuckIsrael

#BDS: Palestinian groups back Mahmoud Sarsak, tell @FCBarcelona to reject "complicity with Israeli crimes" #fuckIsrael

"Palestinians have offered strong support to Palestine footballer and ex-prisonerMahmoud Sarsak in his refusal of an invitation by FC Barcelona to attend a match at the same time as an Israeli soldier.

In addition, a prisoners’ support group in Gaza has strongly condemned Palestinian Authority officials for accepting the invitation in the first place."

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#BDS Norway: Organizations supporting settlements no longer tax-deductible #fuckIsrael

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Donations to a Norwegian organization that funds illegal Israeli settlements will no longer be tax-deductible following a decision by the Norwegian government.

The Norwegian Ministry of Finance announced the decision to remove Karmel-instituttet from the list of organizations eligible for tax-deductible donations on Thursday under pressure from Norwegian People's Aid and the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees, NPA said in a statement. 

"We are very pleased that the Ministry of Finance has made this decision, based on the fact that Karmel provides funds to the illegal Israeli settlements," said Liv Tørres, the secretary-general of NPA.

The Norwegian Ministry of Finance said they intended to ensure the system of tax deductions did not benefit organizations that actively support or contribute to acts that are in contravention of international law, NPA added.

According to the groups, Karmel-instittuttet had funded three study centers and around half the homes in the illegal Alonei Shilo settlement.

That settlement is illegal under both international and Israeli law. Source.

#BDS Quakers divest from HP and Veolia Environment #fuckIsrael

The Palestine Israel Action Group, a subcommittee of the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, issued the following press release:

September 24, 2012, Ann Arbor. Friends Fiduciary Corporation, the socially responsible investment firm serving over 300 Quaker institutions in the United States, has dropped its holdings in Hewlett Packard and Veolia Environment, multinational corporations that support Israel’s Occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
Hewlett Packard was removed from Friends Fiduciary’s investments because they provide information technology consulting services to the Israeli Navy, said Jeffery W. Perkins, the Executive Director of Friends Fiduciary. Veolia Environment, the world’s largest water privatization company, was removed because of “environmental and social concerns.” According to Global Exchange, Veolia provides segregated water services to Israeli settlers in the Palestinian Territories and runs a large landfill in the occupied Jordan River valley.
Friends’ Fiduciary’s decision to drop Hewlett Packard and Veolia follows on the heels of another important action, says Anne Remley of the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, which initiated the divestment requests. In April, 2012, Friends Fiduciary’s removed Caterpillar Corporation from their list of socially responsible corporations based on the 360-year old Quaker Peace Testimony, which disavows support for war.
Friends were concerned that Caterpillar sells bulldozers to the Israeli army to be weaponized and used in the systematic demolition of Palestinian homes and civilian infrastructure. When this concern was brought to Friends Fiduciary, says Perkins, [Caterpillar] “would neither confirm nor deny the extent or type of modifications to the equipment sold to the Israeli military.”
The action of Friends Fiduciary in dropping these three firms marks a major breakthrough in the global campaign to hold corporations accountable for profiting from Israel’s human rights and international law violations in the Palestinian Territories.

Source. 

#BDS: Has the @BDSMovement endorsed the two-state solution?

Without any prior notice to its endorsers, the BDS Movement has amended its statement from "end of occupation and colonization of all Arab lands" [http://www.bdsmovement.net/call#.UGClKpEaySN] to "end of occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967" [http://www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro#.UGClR5EaySN].

Has the BDS Movement officially endorsed the two-state solution? YAN demands clarification.

YAN is a BDS group that supports the full liberation of Palestine and the dismantlement of the Zionist entity. We support the one-state solution.

#BDS Alert: Call on @FCBarcelona to withdraw invitation to occupation soldier Gilat Shalit to the next clásico in Barcelona (7/Oct) #Clasico

More details soon.

#BDS: PACBI Thank You Letter to @mashrou3leila #fuckIsrael

" Dear Mashrou3 Leila,

 

We, at the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) wish to salute you for your principled decision not to perform with RHCP, a band that insists on entertaining apartheid and violating the cultural boycott of Israel. 

 

You have set a precedent and set the bar high for others to follow, and you have sent a message that bands who play in Israel should not be allowed to benefit from our markets.  Today you prioritized your principles and commitment to human rights over immediate personal gains for your band.  It is indeed rare to see this kind of altruistic commitment, and we thank you for it."  

 

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#BDS: Los Angeles activists put #Veolia’s complicity with Israel’s human rights violations in the spotlight #fuckIsrael

"Last week, activists with various Palestine solidarity and BDS groups under the umbrella of the Dump Veolia coalition came together in protest of the city of Los Angeles’ efforts to renew contracts worth $160 million with Veolia, a French multinational urban transportation and systems corporation, for the city’s transportation needs.

Because of its involvement in contracting with Israel to build a light rail system that will connect West Jerusalem with settlement colonies in East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, Veolia has been a longtime target of BDS campaigns, especially in Europe and Australia. The corporation has lost billions of dollars worth of contracts as a result of sustained pressure on local councils by boycott activists since 2008."

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#BDS Video: #Gaza, #Palestine youth send a message to student BDS activists #fuckIsrael

#BDS: Pro-Israel lobby in South Africa outplayed by BDS campaign #fuckIsrael

" The well-organized, well-funded anti-Israel lobby in South Africa, which presses primarily for boycott, disinvestment and sanctions (BDS ) is overpowering the local pro-Israel lobby, a veteran analyst of Israel-South African relations told Haaretz.

"The BDS campaign is very well run and seems to be well-funded. Maybe local Jewish leaders have relied for too long on their relations with ANC leaders who have in case moved on now - such as former president Nelson Mandela - and it's time for the Jewish leadership to do some hard strategizing," said attorney Howard Sackstein, founder and vice-chairman of Jews for Social Justice, the Jewish Anti-Apartheid movement."

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#BDS activists inject Middle East debate into L.A. bus contract discussion #fuckIsrael

"A group of activists affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, or B.D.S. movement, which seeks to pressure Israel in various ways, publicly opposed the renewal of a bus contract between the city of Los Angeles and a company whose corporate parent does business in the West Bank.

At a meeting of the Los Angeles City Council transportation committee on Sept. 12, members of the Dump Veolia LA Coalition urged the committee members to oppose renewal of a contract with Veolia Transportation to operate DASH shuttle bus services in the Downtown and Mid-City areas."

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#BDS Song: Ode to Boycott #fuckIsrael

#BDS: Berlin Jewish Museum event calls for Israel boycott #fuckIsrael

"The internationally renowned Jewish Museum in Berlin hosted a podium discussion on Saturday with US academic Judith Butler, who renewed her calls to boycott Israel. It appears to be the first anti-Israel event held in the Jewish museum since its opening in 2001 with the aim of exhibiting the 2,000- year history of Germany’s Jews. At least 700 people attended the event.

The German taxpayer-funded museum’s decision to showcase a speaker in the capital city, which during the Nazi period served as the launching pad for a boycott movement against German-Jewish businesses, has raised eyebrows about the management’s direction of the museum."

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