#BDS: Israel company recruiting Gadhafi mercenaries

"An Israeli company is recruiting mercenaries to support Moammar Gadhafi's efforts to suppress an uprising against his regime, an Israeli news site said Tuesday.

Citing Egyptian sources, the Hebrew-language news site Inyan Merkazi said the company was run by retired Israeli army commanders.

The report claims that many high-profile former Israeli officers have been illegally trading weapons in several African nations, and have faced interrogations over their activities in the past.

The news site said the head of the company recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli intelligence chief Aviv Cokhavi. It added that the officials all approved the company's recruitment of mercenaries to help Gadhafi. "

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#BDS: إسرائيل وراء مرتزقة القذافي

كشف مصدر إعلامي إسرائيلي عن وقوف مؤسسة أمنية إسرائيلية -وبتفويض من الحكومة الإسرائيلية- وراء إرسال مجموعات من المرتزقة الأفارقة إلى ليبيا للهجوم على الثوار الذين خرجوا منذ نحو أسبوعين في جل أنحاء البلاد مطالبين بإسقاط نظام العقيدمعمر القذافي.

وأضاف المصدر -وهو صحفي بجريدة يديعوت أحرونوت الإسرائيلية اشترط عدم كشف اسمه- أن تسريبات أمنية تؤكد أن إسرائيل تنظر إلى الثورة الليبية من منظور أمني إستراتيجي، وتعتبر أن سقوط نظام القذافي سيفتح الباب أمام "نظام إسلامي" في ليبيا.

وأفاد المصدر بأن رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو ووزير الدفاع إيهود باراكووزير الخارجية أفيغدور ليبرمان اتخذوا في 

اجتماع ثلاثي يوم 18 فبراير/شباط الماضي قرارا بتجنيد مرتزقة أفارقة يحاربون إلى جانب القذافي.

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#BDS: Lucy Liu breached the boycott call and visits Israel

"Hollywood actress arrives in Holy Land along with Israeli partner to attend his father's funeral

Hollywood actress Lucy Liu arrived in Israel last week with her partner, Israeli businessman Noam Gottesman.

The two are arrived in the country following the death of Noam's father, businessman and Israel Museum President Dov Gottesman."

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#BDS Event: 'Boycott Israel Conference: Will Scotland Lead The Way?'

"Organised by Scottish Friends of Palestine
Saturday 19 March 2011 10am to 5pm
Renfield St Stephen's Church Centre, Bath Street Glasgow
2011 is the year of election to the Scottish Parliament.
Can those parties vying to form the next Scottish government be persuaded of the case for action against the state of Israel?
Will Scotland be the first country to announce a boycott of Israel?
In this election year, we must make it known, loud and clear, all of us who support the rights of the Palestinian people, that we are not prepared to see our taxes spent supporting trade with Israel.
Israel's commercial, academic, sporting and cultural relations with other nations provide the state with a veneer of respectability, while it boycotts the rights and the livelihoods of the Palestinian people. The state of Israel must be boycotted.
The speakers at our conference will present the arguments for boycott, disinvestment and sanctions. Please show your support by participating, joining the debate, and spreading the word.
Boycott is an ambitious aim and, with your help, possible.
Book now Entry is by donation (£10 recommended for the waged)
By PAYPAL to info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org
By Cheque please contact info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org for details
Speakers
· Ali Abunimah Palestinian journalist, author (latest book: One country: a bold proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian impasse ) co-founder and executive director of Electronic Intifada
· Ramzy Baroud Palestinian journalist, author (latest book: My father was a Freedom Fighter)and former Al Jazeera producer"

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#BDS: Palestinian boycott call is part and parcel of the Arab spring that is sweeping the region

"The J Street conference in Washington staged a debate yesterday on the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions movement featuring Rebecca Vilkomerson ofJewish Voice for Peace; Bernard Avishai of the Hebrew University, the NY Times and The Hebrew Republic; Kenneth Bob of Ameinu; and Simone Zimmerman, a Berkeley sophomore who led opposition to BDS on that campus. Vilkomerson was the lone voice on the panel for BDS. We'll have more on the panel later, including the arguments against boycott and the inevitable one-state-two-state hopscotch. But here are her prepared remarks.

I just want to take a moment in appreciation of J Street for including this discussion at the conference. It is the most important conversation, in my mind, that we can have at this moment, and I thank you for having it.

I want to take a moment to make sure we all are clear about what BDS is. BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. It’s a Palestinian led, globally active, non-violent movement in support of equality and freedom for the Palestinian people."

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#BDS: AIDS, apartheid and boycotts

"When interviewing queer filmmakers, a common refrain is heard. Many will state quite emphatically that they don’t have an agenda. This no doubt comes in part from the largely mis­guided bit of perceived conventional wisdom: that audiences see message movies as passé.

That’s why it’s always refreshing to interview John Greyson. The Toronto-based activist and filmmaker has always said that those two vocations have been in lockstep. This week, Cinema Politica will host a night of Greyson screenings, in which the filmmaker will discuss the creation and reception of a number of his works, including Fig Trees, Proteus and Hey Elton. It’s a line­up that reflects a quarter century of serious shit-disturbing, exploring issues such as safer sex, gay penguins, Palestinian rights and apartheid (both in South Africa and Israel).

Greyson has always worked at making larger feature film projects, while maintaining his commitment to lower-budget experimental films. You can feel the urgency while watching his safer-sex videos from the ’80s, when gay men were facing widespread deaths in their ranks. His 1996 film Lilies won the Best Picture Genie, while his Zero Patience (1993) is an audacious musical about AIDS that celebrated street-level, agitprop activism. “I feel like the past decade of my work has been about reconnecting to grass-roots activism,” Greyson says."

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#BDS: 500 Artists Against Israeli Apartheid

"A call from Montreal artists to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid…
Today, a broad spectrum of Montreal artists are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and supporting the growing international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state. Last winter, the Israeli state launched a violent military assault on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, leaving over 1400 Palestinians dead, including over 300 children. Despite the official end of military operations, the blockade continues to this day, with devastating consequences for Gaza’s residents.
Over 60 years from the beginning of the ongoing Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from historic Palestine through Israel’s creation, Montreal artists are united in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice.

Montreal artists are now joining this international campaign to concretely protest the Israeli state’s ongoing denial of the inalienable rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties, as stipulated in and protected by international law, as well as Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonization of the West Bank (including Jerusalem) and Gaza, which also constitutes a violation of international law and multiple United Nations resolutions."


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#BDS: alQaws and Aswat Statement to the LGBT Center in NY

"We, Palestinian queer activists from alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society and Aswat Palestinian Gay Women, are writing to you to express our shock and dismay at your recent decision to cancel the "Party to End Apartheid" event and ban activists working for human rights in Israel/Palestine from the LGBT Center.

We have recently concluded a first of a kind  tour to the US, where we shared our personal, social and political struggle as Palestinian Queers living in Israel and Palestine with diverse audiences and activists in 6 cities, including New York city During those open discussions, we met with human rights activists, lawyers working at the forefront of LGBT rights campaigns, and LGBT people of color who organize on a grassroots level, and were greeted warmly and enthusiastically at every venue at which we spoke. The support and acknowledgment we encountered were both overwhelming and inspiring.

We wish that you could have attended one of our panels. Perhaps, instead of acquiescing to the demands of a neoconservative gay pornographer, you would have the courage and insight – like so many members of the LGBT community in the US – to conclude that the struggle for human rights in Israel/Palestine is a queer struggle.




Certainly, this connection is clear to us. As organizations that work with and for LGBTQ Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank, we are forced to deal with the server consequences of the Israeli occupation and its apartheid system on a daily bases. Israel' apartheid wall, army checkpoints and frequently imposed curfews on entire populations oblige us to deal with legal issues and face many challenges, including mobility. In addition, some of our members live in the US and have been relying on the Center for vital services and activities. They draw much inspiration from the Center’s history and the LGBTQ struggle in the US."

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#BDS: Report on Seattle protest of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

"This report is from the Palestine Solidarity Committee of Seattle, a US Campaign member group, about just one of multiple planned protests in U.S. cities where the Israel Philharmonic is performing.


About thirty protestors demonstrated outside Benaoya Hall last night during the IPO's appearance, holding a banner and signs that read, "Don't Harmonize with Occupation" and "Israel Fiddles while Palestine Burns." The protest was organized by Palestine Solidarity Committee - Seattle, and Voices of Palestine.

In 30-degree F. weather the demonstrators were accompanied by the Anti-Fascist Marching Band, a local street band that played "Caravan," Misirlou," Masters of War," Oseh Shalom/Khaveynu Sholem Aleichem," and other appropriate numbers. Demonstrators handed out a leaflet designed by PSC with one side detailing the ills of the occupation and noting the IPO's role in the "Brand Israel" campaign, and the other side explaining the goals and specifics of the academic and cultural boycott."


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#BDS: Israel recruits citizen advocates in Europe

"Israel has instructed its embassies in 10 European countries, including the UK, each to recruit 1,000 members of the public to act as advocates for its policies in a new public relations offensive.

A cable from the foreign affairs ministry was sent to embassies last week, with instructions from Avigdor Lieberman, the controversial and extreme right-wing foreign minister, to adopt a range of measures aimed at improving Israel's standing in Europe.

The most unusual was the order to identify up to 1,000 people by mid-January to act as "allies" to Israel. One source described them as "friends who are willing not just to receive messages but to actively promote these messages". These individuals – likely to be drawn from Jewish or Christian activists, academics, journalists and students – will be briefed regularly by Israeli officials and encouraged to speak up for Israel at public meetings or write letters or articles for the press.

Five European capitals have also been identified for a more conventional PR push. Israeli embassies in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Rome will receive funds to hire professional PR firms and lobbyists."

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#BDS: Greek PM: Zionism and the IMF’s Last Best Friend

"In the midst of the Arab uprisings throughout the Middle East, at a time when even the European (EU) has publically condemned Israel’s blockade of Gaza and its illegal land seizures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou promised a visiting delegation of American Jewish leaders, that he would do everything possible to undermine EU opposition and promote Israeli economic, diplomatic and political interests in Europe. US Zionists, recently returned from a visit to Athens described Papandreou as by far the most amenable (‘servile’) European leader they have met in recent memory. Papandreou’s slavish submission to Israeli interests includes his promise, to a delegation of U.S. zionist notables, to use his influence to pressure the new Egyptian military junta to continue to uphold the Mubarak agreements with Israel.¹ These include the continued blockade of Gaza and support of Israel’s military assaults on Lebanon, Syria and Palestinians. In other words Papandreou is openly supportive of Egypt’s past collaboration with Israeli clandestine assassinations and kidnapping of Arab militants.

Papandreou demonstrates a greater interest in promoting Israel’s exports to the European market, than the country he ostensibly represents. He promised a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations “to integrate Israel into the European market”¹ while he shrinks the Greeks economy by 10% between 2009-11 and doubles unemployment from 8% to 16%. Papandreou’s gross servility to Israel and the American Zionist power structure is manifested in his cordial reception and recent agreements with Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and his foreign minister, the notorious Zionist-fascist Avigdor Lieberman – the same Lieberman who advocates wholesale expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank. No Greek Prime Minister, since the Zionist state was founded, has exhibited such a bizarre display of active collaboration with Israel’s colonial claims in the Middle East. No European leader has so eagerly anticipated and implemented the demands of American Zionist organizations with such zeal."

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#BDS: Israel should be given the South African treatment

"“I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, the description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would be a description of what is happening in South Africa”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, New York 1989

When Desmond Tutu made this comment, the South African apartheid regime was still in power. In 1994, after 45 years of racial segregation, the apartheid era was officially over. When watershed moments like this occur, multiple factors can be attributed. But history is clear that one of the many reasons this tyranny finally succumbed was an international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign – BDS.

There is no doubt the decision taken by Sydney’s Marrickville council last December to heed the 2005 call for BDS by virtually all of Palestinian civil society was going to be controversial; so was the international movement against apartheid South Africa.

With a New South Wales state election just around the corner, and other local councils considering similar BDS proposals across Australia, this issue is generating predictable heat. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Gerard Henderson last week condemned the Greens for ignoring “democratic” Israel. A prominent mural in inner Sydney, normally aimed at attacking Muslim women who wear the burqa, was changed to attack Marrickville mayor and leading Greens candidate Fiona Byrne for supporting BDS. Even DFAT Secretary Dennis Richardson has entered the debate, calling BDS “wacko stuff”. "

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#BDS: شركة امبال: استئناف إمدادات الغاز المصري لاسرائيل بحلول 4 مارس

قالت شركة "امبال-أمريكان إسرائيل كورب" اليوم الأحد إن من المتوقع استئناف إمدادات الغاز المصري إلى شركة شرق المتوسط للغاز وعملائها في إسرائيل بحلول الرابع من مارس. 

وقالت امبال التي تمتلك 12.5 % من شرق المتوسط للغاز إن الشركة الوطنية للغاز المصرية قالت إن أعمال الإصلاح مستمرة في خط أنابيب تضرر من انفجار تلاه حريق في وقت سابق هذا الشهر، وكان استئناف إمدادات الغاز متوقعا في السابق نحو يوم 17 فبراير. 

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#BDS: IAW in NYC Coordinating Committee statement on the cancellation of our “Party to End Apartheid” by the LGBT Community Center

"As organizers of New York City’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), we are dismayed to learn that New York’s LGBT Center has canceled the scheduled March 5 “Party to End Apartheid” that was to take place there.  We are equally dismayed that the Center also has banned one of the organizers of this event, and a member of our coalition, the Siegebusters Working Group, from holding its regular meeting at the Center. Israeli Apartheid Week, now entering its seventh year internationally and its fifth year in New York City, is a series of events designed to educate people about Israel’s apartheid nature and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns in concordance with the just demands of Palestinian civil society.

In 2008, The LGBT Center hosted an Israeli Apartheid Week event discussing the boycott campaign against Israeli billionaire, diamond manufacturer, and settlement builder Lev Leviev.  This year’s IAW in New York includes conversations about BDS as a tactic, discussions of recent protests and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, a book release party for NY spoken word artist Remi Kanazi, and a discussion with queer theorist Judith Butler and filmmaker John Greyson. These events will be taking place in many venues across the city, including university campuses and churches.

On Tuesday, February 22, 2011, gay adult film producer and right-wing columnist Michael Lucas issued a press release threatening to boycott the LGBT Center for allowing local IAW organizers to meet and plan an event there.  Lucas denounced IAW as a “hate group” and called us “anti-Semitic.”  This is an ill-informed mischaracterization. IAW is not actually a group, but it is a part of the global BDS movement, which strongly opposes all forms of racism, including racism against Jews.

As anti-racists, IAW organizers – who are Palestinian, Jewish, queer, straight, and much more – denounce Lucas’ false accusations and are shocked that the Center has caved in to his threats.  The Center’s brief statement, issued without any input from the event organizers mere hours after Lucas made his threats public, declared that the Center is a “safe haven for LGBT groups and individuals.”  Yet the cancellation of this event and the banning of the organizing group from the Center send a clear message to LGBT people that we are not welcome if we are Arab or Muslim, or if we advocate human rights for Palestinians."

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#BDS: 'Doors' Members Breach the Palestinians BDS Call

"Keyboardist Manzarek, guitarist Krieger to perform legendary band's greatest hits at Hanger 11 two days after anniversary of Morrison's death; vocalist will be Grand Funk Railroad's Mark Farner

 Two of the original members of the legendary rock band The Doors are scheduled to perform in Israel on July 5, two days after the 40th anniversary of lead singer Jim Morrison's death.

During a special concert at Tel Aviv's Hanger 11, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger's will perform some of The Doors' most popular hits along with Grand Funk Railroad's lead singer Mark Farner."


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