#BDS: No change in Iran over sports-boycott with Isreal

 Tehran - An initiative for revising Iran's sports competition boycott with Israeli athletes has failed, apparently due to political pressure, Tehran press reported Monday.

Although the news on was reported on state-television, the office of sports chief Ali Saeidlou categorically denied to have sent a letter on the issue to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The denial by the sports organization, which acts under the supervision of the presidential office, is believed to be made due to political pressure and following harsh reactions to the initiative of Saeidlou who is close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran's sports organization sought new guidelines how to proceed in competing with Israeli athletes at international events, the ISNA news agency reported earlier Monday.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran does not acknowledgeIsrael as a sovereign state and even refrains to call it its name. The official term for Israel in Iran is "Zionist regime."

Due to the official stance in Tehran, Iranian athletes have thereafter not competed against Israelis at international competitions as a sign of solidarity with the Palestinians.

#BDS: Linkin Park to Play Tel Aviv, Israel November 15

Linkin Park has added a show in Tel Aviv, Israel at HaYarkon Park on November 15.

#BDS: Setting the Record Straight

In a letter from Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories President and CEO Yaakov Ellis that is being circulated to cosmetics retailers, Elllis deploys specious information about his own company's business practices, contradictory claims about Israel's occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, and unfounded innuendo about boycott campaign supporters.

Below are the Stolen Beauty Campaign's responses to some of these claims:

1. On the legality of our boycott campaign in the United States.
"These organizations are orchestrating a political boycott of the Ahava® products, and through it cause damage to the State of Israel. As you know, such boycotts are not only abhorrent, but illegal in the United States."

Ahava is telling its retail customers that our boycott campaign is illegal under U.S. law. This is not true. The National Lawyers Guild has advised us that activists are completely within the law to engage in a political campaign using the time-honored tactic of economic boycott to press Israel to comply with international human rights laws and end its abusive occupation of the West Bank and its blockade of Gaza. Our boycott campaign targets Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories because of the company's violations of international law. This campaign is protected by the First Amendment, as free speech and association. Boycotts were integral to the success of the anti-apartheid movement against South Africa, the civil rights movement in the southern United States in the 1960s and 1970s, the movement to force California grape growers to recognize their workers' union, and many other similarly honorable nonviolent struggles for human rights that Ahava would not dare to condemn now, in hindsight.

#BDS: IKEA, Don't Buy Into Occupation!

Statement from IKEA on 23 August 2010

IKEA® is for the many, respecting individuals with different views and opinions. IKEA® stands neutral on political, religious or ethnical views. It is unthinkable for us to exclude any individual or group of individuals from being an IKEA® customer. We welcome all people to the IKEA® stores, independent of religion, ethnic background or where they live.

Inter IKEA Systems B.V. is the worldwide franchisor of the IKEA Concept and the owner of the IKEA brand. IKEA operations are today carried out in 314 IKEA Stores in 38 countries including Israel and a number of Arabic countries. All IKEA operations are carried out under franchise from Inter IKEA Systems B.V. and focus on serving the customers irrespective of religion and ethnicity. This is also valid for our local franchisee in Israel – Northern Birch Ltd – which is an independent company operating the two IKEA Stores in Israel.

The IKEA Concept is the same all over the world. It is a retail concept for selling furniture and home furnishings from an IKEA store, i.e. it is not a mail order or e-commerce concept. One of the fundamentals of the IKEA Concept is immediate take away and cash and carry. An essential part is that the customers themselves bring home the products they bought in the store. IKEA customers who have purchased IKEA products and cannot bring them home themselves can turn to a local Israeli transport company to have their purchased products delivered to their home.

#BDS: Professors support Israeli artists’ boycott

Five professors from the Yale School of Drama joined 150 American theater and film professionals last week in signing a statement in support of the Israeli artists who are boycotting the controversial new theaters in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

In late August, more than 50 prominent Israeli actors, directors and playwrights issued a petition declaring their refusal to perform in the state-financed theaters in Ariel because they say the settlement violates international law and hinders the Israel-Palestine peace process.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Parliament members responded with swift condemnation, the protesters gained endorsement from American artists, including celebrities such as Julianne Moore, Theodore Bikel, Vanessa Redgrave and Tony Kushner. Five members of Yale School of Drama — Dean James Bundy DRA ’95 and professors Elizabeth Diamond, Elinor Fuchs, Gordon Rogoff ’52 and Paula Vogel — as well as Divinity School visiting professor David Michalek also registered their support.

“In signing the letter, I was voicing my support for artists whose moral choice is not to provide their services in the settlements,” Bundy said in an e-mail. “It seems to me that their stance is based on reasonable and honorable perspectives they have expressed both about international law and about their contractual obligations.”

#BDS: Unions launch international anti-settlement campaign

SALFIT (Ma’an) - The General Federation of Trade Unions in Palestine announced Thursday the launch of an international campaign to support the decision to boycott the goods of Israeli settlements in global markets.
The campaign is in coordination and cooperation with various trade unions and international trade union organizations in solidarity with the Palestinians, as well as a number of socialist parties in European countries.
Secretary-General Shaher Saed said that the federation was raising funds to collect signatures in support of the union's position and its efforts to stop dealing with the goods and products of settlements.

#BDS: Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) endorses BDS campaign 10Sep10

“Having received reports from the officers, the VTHC Executive Council notes with concern and disappointment the lack of meaningful progress between Israeli and Palestinian representatives in establishing a lasting peace.  It is further noted that the situation seems to be worsening with detrimental consequences for working people and their families.

Council welcomes recent reports that negotiations will resume under the auspices of the United States.

In response to this crisis there has been a request from Palestinian unions and other progressive organisations for an international “Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Campaign” (BDS).  The campaign was launched in 2005 and has had increasing international support.

The campaign demands are that the Israeli Government recognise the rights of the Palestinian people to self determination and that it comply with international law and United Nations resolutions.

In considering the situation the VTHC Executive Council believes that the “Global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions” campaign is one way the international community can contribute toward a peaceful resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Therefore, the VTHC Executive Council determines to support this campaign, and as a first step, it will endorse and send representatives to the BDS Conference to be held in Melbourne on 29-31 October 2010.

Further, the VTHC Executive Council determines that the VTHC will:

• promote this campaign within the community, work with unions and other organisations that support the campaign to maximise its effectiveness; and
• provide reports to Executive Council at 6 monthly intervals and will include information on the effectiveness of the campaign (Sis Halfpenny and Bro Cragg will be the responsible officers).

In addition, the VTHC Executive Council affirms the important role that should be played in the peace process by Israeli and Palestinian unions and pledges whatever support we can to encourage meaningful dialogue between workers’ organisations.

The VTHC Executive Council further determines that this resolution will be conveyed to the Federal and State Parliamentary Labor Party, the Israeli Consulate and the Palestinian diplomatic mission, with an invitation for further discussions.

#BDS: Israel Divestment Petitions, Press Conference–You can help!

The campaign to divest from Israel has begun! Please join us in changing California’s law by helping us circulate a petition measure that would require the state’s two largest pension funds, PERS and STRS, to divest from companies that contribute to the construction of Israeli settlements or provide military equipment to Israel.

If you can help gather signatures in your area, please email your closest regional/county contact at one of the email addresses below or email us back at this address. We will get you copies of the petition and the petition circulating instructions. If you know someone else who may be interested in gathering signatures, please forward this email to that person. You can also find this and other information about the campaign at our website at: http://israeldivestmentcampaign.org/

#BDS: Folk Music Legend Pete Seeger Urged to Abandon Israeli Event

NEW YORK, September 11, 2010 (WAFA)- Folk music icon Pete Seeger has been urged by over 40 organizations, along with musicians close to him, to cancel his participation in a November internet event organized by the Israeli groups the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and others.

The organizations called on Seeger to support the Palestinian-led movement for a cultural boycott of Israel, modeled on the artists’ boycott that helped end Apartheid in South Africa.

The event, “With Earth and Each Other: A Virtual Rally for a Better Middle East,” is presented as a support effort for Arava, which claims to carry out environmental projects in the Negev desert in Israel. Arava has said and done nothing about the destruction – four times – of the Bedouin village Al-Araqib in the Negev by Israeli forces this summer to make way for a forest to be planted by the Jewish National Fund. The destruction of Al-Araqib is part of a larger Israeli government strategy of dislocating Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel, to facilitate the expansion of communities for Israeli Jews.

The Jewish National Fund (JNF), a major partner in the event, promotes Jewish land ownership and settlement on land from which Palestinians have been displaced, according to reports by human rights groups like Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and Human Rights Watch.

#BDS: Activists to Disrupt Leftist Lecturers

After last week's disruption of a play at the Camari theater, rightwing activists have named their next target for disruption: Lectures given by professors and academics who have advocated boycotting Israel. In a recent meeting, activists drew up lists of academics and said they would attend lectures and point out the anti-Israel positions held by them. Disruption of theatrical performances, especially those featuring those who declared they would not perform at the Ariel Arts Center, would continue.

The activists say they have received a great deal of positive feedback on the protest at the Camari, led by MK Michael Ben-Ari, over the declaration by artists that they would boycott the new Ariel Arts Center.

#BDS: Israel must support human rights

I attended Ali Abunimah’s lecture for peace in Israel/Palestine, and I laud him for his erudite, articulate, impassioned voice of reason.

Olympians have clouded reason with emotion and lost sight of the fact that the boycott of Israel is part of a struggle for universal human rights, not an anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic effort.

Abunimah reminded me that Israel practices its own form of apartheid against non-Jews, just as white South Africans did against non-whites.

Why was it wrong in South Africa and yet right now in the Middle East? We who support peace, justice and universal human rights also support the growing movement for BDS — boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning Israel until Israel actively supports universal human rights. There is nothing controversial about either this movement or supporting human dignity and human rights.

#BDS: Activists Target Hewlett Packard: “Shoppers, don’t support Israeli Apartheid!”

On Labor Day, September 6, 2010, about 40 local activists took part in the growing consumer boycott of Israeli goods with lively “back to school” actions at Best Buy and Office Depot in Emeryville. The actions focused on Hewlett Packard (HP), a multinational corporation based in Palo Alto, whose Enterprise Services “Basel System” technology is utilized by the Israeli state at military checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza. The checkpoints restrict Palestinian freedom of movement; they keep students from getting to school, prevent workers from reaching their places of employment, restrict farmers’ access to their land, enforce separations between families, and often make it impossible for Palestinians to access necessary medical care.

Activists performed a choreographed dance to Aretha Franklin’s song “Think” – with a rewritten set of lyrics and distributed flyers with the theme “Think Before You Ink”. They interacted with back-to-school shoppers about HP’s “Basel System”, letting HP’s customers know that HP profits from Israeli apartheid with the sale of this technology to Israel. They also said that HP’s ‘socially responsible’ rhetoric will not hide the blood that is on their hands.

#BDS: Los Angeles Launches Nation’s First Israel Divestment Campaign

On April 1, 2010, in a no-holds-barred interview with the Christian Science Monitor, Israeli peacemaker Jonathan Ben Artzi, a PhD candidate at Brown University and nephew to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, made clear his belief that equality and social justice will prevail in Israel when the government and people of the United States adopt a no-tolerance stance toward Israel’s abuse of Palestinians. Ben Artzi, whose family has lived in the region for nine generations, and who’s seen a lifetime of Israel’s abuse of Palestinians, declared:

“Sometimes it takes a good friend to tell you when enough is enough. As they did with South Africa two decades ago, concerned citizens across the US can make a difference by encouraging Washington to get the message to Israel that this cannot continue.”

#BDS: DC Statehood Greens Endorse Israel Boycott

At a monthly membership meeting of the DC Statehood Green Party on Sept 2 the membership unanimously endorsed a BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions for Israel) campaign by human rights activists in Washington, DC.

The Green Party of the United States endorsed a BDS resolution several years ago in protest of the Israeli government’s denial of human rights to Palestinians and the US government’s support (whether Democrats or Republicans control the White House & Congress) for Israel’s illegal occupation, brutal treatment, & displacement of Palestinians, including the settlements and last year’s invasion of Gaza.

Below is some information that was sent to us about the boycott, divestment, sanctions campaign written by Mai Abdul Rahman:

#BDS: Palestinian federation launches campaign against settlement products

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian federation of Laborers on Saturday launched an international campaign to boycott the products of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.

Shaher Sa'ad, Secretary-General of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), told Arab News that his federation lunched the international campaign to boycott the products of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.

Sa'ad added that the federation launched the campaign in coordination with the international unions and federations to "end the marketing of settlements products in international markets."

He added that the federation also contacted international peace activists and members of solidarity movements with Palestinian people to "gather as much as support for the initiative."

The official added the initiative came in "response to the crimes Jewish occupiers commit against the Palestinian people."