13 aug 2016
Israeli news site Yedioth Ahronoth (Ynet) reports that Beyonce fans in Israel will be disappointed to learn that the singer’s representatives have announced a round of performance cancellations that were supposed to include two concerts in Israel:
“Beyonce’s performances, which were supposed to take place in Hayarkon Park in October, will not be happening. Bluestone offices were notified in the last few hours,” the Israeli production company announced.
“In the announcement we received from the singer’s representatives, they decided not to extend the tour and finish according to schedule. The singer will not reach the region, including Israel.”
Since her controversial Superbowl performance, during which her back-up dancers wore Black Panther-inspired costumes, the performer has been under fire by civil rights groups for planning to perform two concerts in Tel-aviv, this summer.
Performances in Dubai and South Africa were also cancelled, and reasoning was not clear as to whether or not the high profile revocation stemmed from political considerations, or as a result of the pressures of the BDS movement.
“Beyonce’s performances, which were supposed to take place in Hayarkon Park in October, will not be happening. Bluestone offices were notified in the last few hours,” the Israeli production company announced.
“In the announcement we received from the singer’s representatives, they decided not to extend the tour and finish according to schedule. The singer will not reach the region, including Israel.”
Since her controversial Superbowl performance, during which her back-up dancers wore Black Panther-inspired costumes, the performer has been under fire by civil rights groups for planning to perform two concerts in Tel-aviv, this summer.
Performances in Dubai and South Africa were also cancelled, and reasoning was not clear as to whether or not the high profile revocation stemmed from political considerations, or as a result of the pressures of the BDS movement.
12 aug 2016
Lev B'Olam call center
Jerusalem-based BDS watchdog call center takes the fight to anti-Israel activities by providing activists' information reported by civilians to Interior Ministry; group seeks deportation of activsts or barring their entry into Israel.
In a small office situated in the heart of Jerusalem a telephone center has been established which allows people in Israel to call and report Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions movement (BDS) activities inside the country designed to harm its international standing.
In recent years, the influential watchdog center against the BDS movement, ‘Lev B’Olam’ (Heart of the World), has taken on itself the struggle against the pernicious phenomenon by relying on civilians to bring it to their attention.
When a caller alerts the organization, a representative completes a complaint form and asks a series of questions to gather as much information as possible such as how many BDS activists are involved in a given incident, what they are doing, whether they are using cameras etc. As much pedigree information is compiled about the individuals in question including their names, their places of residence and whether the activists belong to any specific organization.
The accumulated information is then added to a special file and transferred to the Ministry of Interior and Internal Security.
The initiative, which has already been around for some three years, was intensified following the Israeli deportation of Rita Faye, a BDS activists known to the IDF for her activities at checkpoints and harassment of Israeli soldiers.
Faye, from Switzerland, had visited Israel several times in pursuit of her efforts to document alleged Israeli wrongdoing. However, she was deported in accordance with a deportation order from Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) at the end of July after being taken in for questioning upon arrival in Ben Gurion Airport.
In addition to Faye’s deportation, Deri and Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan established a team dedicated to deporting, or preventing the entry of, activists bent on promoting boycotts against the State of Israel.
According to Nati Rom, the general manager of ‘Lev B’Olam’, “The watchdog is the answer to the calls by Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan. This is a civilian initiative whose aim is to locate the activists arriving in Israel under the guise of a tourist and trying to sabotage the Zionist enterprise in Israel. We are here in order to receive as much information about them as possible.”
‘Lev B’Olam’ has already been operating for three years and has been undertaking efforts to combat BDS activities designed to delegitimize Israel. As part of its efforts, the organization engages in PR activities by sending its representatives to European capitals and to BDS hotspots.
The center operates from Sunday to Thursday between the hours of 9am and 4pm and has both Hebrew and English speakers. Callers are also able to send relevant footage, photographs and documents via email.
The ‘Lev B’Olam’ watchdog center can be contacted on: 074-7290757
Jerusalem-based BDS watchdog call center takes the fight to anti-Israel activities by providing activists' information reported by civilians to Interior Ministry; group seeks deportation of activsts or barring their entry into Israel.
In a small office situated in the heart of Jerusalem a telephone center has been established which allows people in Israel to call and report Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions movement (BDS) activities inside the country designed to harm its international standing.
In recent years, the influential watchdog center against the BDS movement, ‘Lev B’Olam’ (Heart of the World), has taken on itself the struggle against the pernicious phenomenon by relying on civilians to bring it to their attention.
When a caller alerts the organization, a representative completes a complaint form and asks a series of questions to gather as much information as possible such as how many BDS activists are involved in a given incident, what they are doing, whether they are using cameras etc. As much pedigree information is compiled about the individuals in question including their names, their places of residence and whether the activists belong to any specific organization.
The accumulated information is then added to a special file and transferred to the Ministry of Interior and Internal Security.
The initiative, which has already been around for some three years, was intensified following the Israeli deportation of Rita Faye, a BDS activists known to the IDF for her activities at checkpoints and harassment of Israeli soldiers.
Faye, from Switzerland, had visited Israel several times in pursuit of her efforts to document alleged Israeli wrongdoing. However, she was deported in accordance with a deportation order from Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) at the end of July after being taken in for questioning upon arrival in Ben Gurion Airport.
In addition to Faye’s deportation, Deri and Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan established a team dedicated to deporting, or preventing the entry of, activists bent on promoting boycotts against the State of Israel.
According to Nati Rom, the general manager of ‘Lev B’Olam’, “The watchdog is the answer to the calls by Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan. This is a civilian initiative whose aim is to locate the activists arriving in Israel under the guise of a tourist and trying to sabotage the Zionist enterprise in Israel. We are here in order to receive as much information about them as possible.”
‘Lev B’Olam’ has already been operating for three years and has been undertaking efforts to combat BDS activities designed to delegitimize Israel. As part of its efforts, the organization engages in PR activities by sending its representatives to European capitals and to BDS hotspots.
The center operates from Sunday to Thursday between the hours of 9am and 4pm and has both Hebrew and English speakers. Callers are also able to send relevant footage, photographs and documents via email.
The ‘Lev B’Olam’ watchdog center can be contacted on: 074-7290757
9 aug 2016
Black Lives Matter and The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 50 organizations representing African Americans, published a comprehensive platform, Friday of last week, which addresses the systemic racism, violence, oppression and discrimination faced by black communities in the United States.
Along with calling for ‘an end to the war against black people, the policy platform has unambiguously declared its solidarity with the Palestinian people, as it calls Israel an ‘apartheid state’ and endorses Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of the Israeli state.
This is a major development in Black-Palestine solidarity in the United States, and a boost for BDS worldwide. Black and Palestinian activists, in the United States and Palestine, have been intensively forging deeper bonds since the Summer of 2014, with Israel’s brutal military assault on Gaza.
When activists in the U.S. were protesting Israel’s war on Gaza, Missouri police murdered Michael Brown, leaving his body on the ground for more than four hours, and sparked the Ferguson rebellion which gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Since then, PNN reports, many black activists, artists and intellectuals have visited Palestine on delegations to see, learn and exchange ideas of struggle and resistance and to express solidarity. This led to the 2015 release of the Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine, signed by over 1,000 prominent black activists, artists and intellectuals, followed by an the video, ‘When I See Them, I See Us.’
This last move cemented the bond between the black and Palestinian liberation movements to challenge white supremacy and political Zionism. In turn, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society that leads the global BDS movement, has endorsed the inspiring and liberating policy platform, issued last week by the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), with concrete policy demands for Black power, freedom and justice:
“We pledge to firmly and consistently stand in solidarity with our black sisters and brothers in the United States and around the world by supporting the demands and policy proposals in this platform.
The BDS movement is deeply inspired by the US Civil Rights Movement and the many struggles by Blacks and other people of color for racial and economic justice. Your refusal to stay silent in the face of massive and systemic state violence targeting black bodies and your resistance against repression and disenfranchisement in black communities are a source of inspiration to our own struggle against Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.
From Florida to Ferguson to New York to Baltimore to Los Angeles to Minneapolis and beyond the unapologetic cry of “Black Lives Matter!” has shaken the system of racism and white supremacy that allows police to gun down black people with impunity, to cage black people in obscene numbers, and to systematically impoverish and degrade the black community as a whole.
The BNC has been honored to have met in Palestine with multiple solidarity delegations of leaders from Black Lives Matter, the Dream Defenders and other organizations within the Movement for Black Lives and has learned much from these interactions. The 2015 Black for Palestine statement shed a brilliant light on the organic relationship between the US’s domestic racial oppression and its racialized imperial oppression against people of color worldwide while sending a powerful message to all Palestinians about this movement’s commitment to solidarity with Palestinians and all oppressed people around the world.
We cannot thank the Movement for Black Lives enough for the powerful words of solidarity in the invest-divest section of the platform specifically endorsing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) measures against Israel’s occupation and apartheid in line with the 2005 Palestinian civil society call until all Palestinian human rights are respected.
We warmly welcome the Platform’s call for an end to US military aid to Israel and for the billions of dollars in military aid that currently enable Israel’s endless wars of aggression and what the prominent Israeli historian Ilan Pappe calls ‘incremental genocide in the Gaza ghetto,’ to be reinvested in education, health, employment, social programs, and the economic uplifting of communities of color in the U.S.
While the fastest growing Jewish group in the U.S., Jewish Voice for Peace, has endorsed the M4BL Platform in its entirety, predictably, anti-Palestinian groups in the U.S. that work to protect Israel’s regime of colonial oppression by ensuring the unconditional flow of billions in US taxpayers money denounced it loudly. The latter feel that the growing joint struggle between Blacks and Palestinians, which is evolving through sustained and long-term intersectional grassroots efforts among our two communities and supported by progressive Jewish communities, may threaten US support for Israeli apartheid.
This thinly-veiled racism of the ‘white moderate’ reminds us of what Malcolm X once said:
‘I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation.’
We in the BNC are honored to be listed as a resource in the Platform and will provide whatever support we can to the Movement for Black Lives. We will work with our partners in the U.S. and around the world to ensure stronger ties of solidarity between our movements and to mobilize the Palestine solidarity community in support of actions and policy recommendations of the Movement for Black Lives. We will work against anti-blackness wherever we find it, including within our own movement. And we will continue to say loudly and proudly those three words that in a just world would be completely uncontroversial but in the unjust world we live in have inspired a movement: Black Lives Matter!
Stephen Biko, the South African liberation leader who founded the Black Consciousness Movement wrote, ‘The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.’ This M4BL Platform is an empowering policy platform that shows how to liberate the minds of the oppressed to achieve justice and liberation.”
Edited for continuity by Chris Carlson, imemc.org
Along with calling for ‘an end to the war against black people, the policy platform has unambiguously declared its solidarity with the Palestinian people, as it calls Israel an ‘apartheid state’ and endorses Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of the Israeli state.
This is a major development in Black-Palestine solidarity in the United States, and a boost for BDS worldwide. Black and Palestinian activists, in the United States and Palestine, have been intensively forging deeper bonds since the Summer of 2014, with Israel’s brutal military assault on Gaza.
When activists in the U.S. were protesting Israel’s war on Gaza, Missouri police murdered Michael Brown, leaving his body on the ground for more than four hours, and sparked the Ferguson rebellion which gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Since then, PNN reports, many black activists, artists and intellectuals have visited Palestine on delegations to see, learn and exchange ideas of struggle and resistance and to express solidarity. This led to the 2015 release of the Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine, signed by over 1,000 prominent black activists, artists and intellectuals, followed by an the video, ‘When I See Them, I See Us.’
This last move cemented the bond between the black and Palestinian liberation movements to challenge white supremacy and political Zionism. In turn, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society that leads the global BDS movement, has endorsed the inspiring and liberating policy platform, issued last week by the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), with concrete policy demands for Black power, freedom and justice:
“We pledge to firmly and consistently stand in solidarity with our black sisters and brothers in the United States and around the world by supporting the demands and policy proposals in this platform.
The BDS movement is deeply inspired by the US Civil Rights Movement and the many struggles by Blacks and other people of color for racial and economic justice. Your refusal to stay silent in the face of massive and systemic state violence targeting black bodies and your resistance against repression and disenfranchisement in black communities are a source of inspiration to our own struggle against Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.
From Florida to Ferguson to New York to Baltimore to Los Angeles to Minneapolis and beyond the unapologetic cry of “Black Lives Matter!” has shaken the system of racism and white supremacy that allows police to gun down black people with impunity, to cage black people in obscene numbers, and to systematically impoverish and degrade the black community as a whole.
The BNC has been honored to have met in Palestine with multiple solidarity delegations of leaders from Black Lives Matter, the Dream Defenders and other organizations within the Movement for Black Lives and has learned much from these interactions. The 2015 Black for Palestine statement shed a brilliant light on the organic relationship between the US’s domestic racial oppression and its racialized imperial oppression against people of color worldwide while sending a powerful message to all Palestinians about this movement’s commitment to solidarity with Palestinians and all oppressed people around the world.
We cannot thank the Movement for Black Lives enough for the powerful words of solidarity in the invest-divest section of the platform specifically endorsing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) measures against Israel’s occupation and apartheid in line with the 2005 Palestinian civil society call until all Palestinian human rights are respected.
We warmly welcome the Platform’s call for an end to US military aid to Israel and for the billions of dollars in military aid that currently enable Israel’s endless wars of aggression and what the prominent Israeli historian Ilan Pappe calls ‘incremental genocide in the Gaza ghetto,’ to be reinvested in education, health, employment, social programs, and the economic uplifting of communities of color in the U.S.
While the fastest growing Jewish group in the U.S., Jewish Voice for Peace, has endorsed the M4BL Platform in its entirety, predictably, anti-Palestinian groups in the U.S. that work to protect Israel’s regime of colonial oppression by ensuring the unconditional flow of billions in US taxpayers money denounced it loudly. The latter feel that the growing joint struggle between Blacks and Palestinians, which is evolving through sustained and long-term intersectional grassroots efforts among our two communities and supported by progressive Jewish communities, may threaten US support for Israeli apartheid.
This thinly-veiled racism of the ‘white moderate’ reminds us of what Malcolm X once said:
‘I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation.’
We in the BNC are honored to be listed as a resource in the Platform and will provide whatever support we can to the Movement for Black Lives. We will work with our partners in the U.S. and around the world to ensure stronger ties of solidarity between our movements and to mobilize the Palestine solidarity community in support of actions and policy recommendations of the Movement for Black Lives. We will work against anti-blackness wherever we find it, including within our own movement. And we will continue to say loudly and proudly those three words that in a just world would be completely uncontroversial but in the unjust world we live in have inspired a movement: Black Lives Matter!
Stephen Biko, the South African liberation leader who founded the Black Consciousness Movement wrote, ‘The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.’ This M4BL Platform is an empowering policy platform that shows how to liberate the minds of the oppressed to achieve justice and liberation.”
Edited for continuity by Chris Carlson, imemc.org
7 aug 2016
Protesters in New York City rallied outside the Manhattan office of British-Danish security corporation G4S on Friday, 5 August to demand freedom for Bilal Kayed, a Palestinian political prisoner in Israeli jails, on his 53rd day of hunger strike.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network gathered outside the G4S office, carrying Palestinian flags and signs urging freedom for Kayed, on hunger strike since 15 June demanding his release from imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention.
He was ordered to administrative detention after the completion of his 14.5-year prison sentence on 13 June. Kayed’s case threatens a dangerous precedent for all Palestinian prisoners completing lengthy sentences, who could suddenly be ordered to indefinitely-renewable administrative detention.
He is one of nearly 750 Palestinian prisoners held without charge or trial under administrative detention, and 7,000 total Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are engaged in actions to support Kayed, including over 100 joining an open hunger strike for his freedom.
The protest found many enthusiastic and interested passers-by, who received the flyers and literature about Kayed‘s case with interest. Several drivers witnessing the protest on the road also honked their support for Palestine and for Kayed’s freedom.
The protest was part of Samidoun’s ongoing actions protesting the security corporation, which contracts with the Israeli Prison Service to provide control rooms, equipment and security systems for Israeli prisons, as well as checkpoints and police training centers. Palestinian political prisoners have urged a global boycott of the corporation, which is also the focus of human rights protests for its involvement in the incarceration and deportation of youth and migrants in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.
Divestment from G4S has also been part of the demands of Black activists and prison abolitionists demanding an end to investment in the mass incarceration of Black youth in the United States.
Many participants in the protest are also currently participating in #ShutDownCityHallNYC, a protest encampment against NYPD violence and repression against the Black community and other oppressed communities in the city. Joe Catron of Samidoun spoke about the occupation’s demands, including defunding the NYPD, ending so-called “broken windows” policing and payment of reparations to survivors and victims of racist police violence. The movement celebrated a partial victory when Bill Bratton, the police commissioner whose firing was demanded by the movement, announced his abrupt resignation earlier in the week. Catron noted that police and prison abolition rather than reform is a primary focus of the encampment, which emerges from the broad Movement for Black Lives.
Noura Khouri, a Palestinian activist in the Bay Area and a member of the national committee of the War Resisters’ League, joined the protest during her visit to New York City. She also emphasized the importance of joint collective struggle to confront policing, imprisomnent and repression. In particular, she highlighted the campaign against Urban Shield, in which Palestinian activists in the Bay Area were deeply involved. The Stop Urban Shield Coalition is a broad coalition of social justice-oriented community organizations who came together to expose Urban Shield, a SWAT training and weapons exposition that brings together police and military units across the US and internationally. The coalition stopped Urban Shield from being hosted in Oakland and is now working to put an end to this militarized gathering altogether.
She also highlighted the campaign to cut the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), which funds the militarization of local police departments across the country under a “counter-terrorism” pretext, supporting the further surveillance, entrapment and repression against Arab and Muslim communities while intensifying the militarized repression of Black communities and other oppressed communities.
Samidoun is organizing with an array of New York City groups for a march and rally in support of Kayed’s strike on Friday, 12 August, as he enters his 60th day of hunger strike. Endorsers of the march include Al-Awda NY, the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, the International Action Center, International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jericho Movement, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, Labor for Palestine, NY4Palestine, NYC Free Peltier and NYC Students for Justice in Palestine.
Protesters will gather at the G4S office at 19 W. 44th Street in NYC before a 5:30 march to another G4S office at 370 Lexington Avenue, demanding that Israel release Bilal Kayed, all administrative detainees and all Palestinian political prisoners immediately, and that G4S immediately get out of Palestine.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network gathered outside the G4S office, carrying Palestinian flags and signs urging freedom for Kayed, on hunger strike since 15 June demanding his release from imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention.
He was ordered to administrative detention after the completion of his 14.5-year prison sentence on 13 June. Kayed’s case threatens a dangerous precedent for all Palestinian prisoners completing lengthy sentences, who could suddenly be ordered to indefinitely-renewable administrative detention.
He is one of nearly 750 Palestinian prisoners held without charge or trial under administrative detention, and 7,000 total Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are engaged in actions to support Kayed, including over 100 joining an open hunger strike for his freedom.
The protest found many enthusiastic and interested passers-by, who received the flyers and literature about Kayed‘s case with interest. Several drivers witnessing the protest on the road also honked their support for Palestine and for Kayed’s freedom.
The protest was part of Samidoun’s ongoing actions protesting the security corporation, which contracts with the Israeli Prison Service to provide control rooms, equipment and security systems for Israeli prisons, as well as checkpoints and police training centers. Palestinian political prisoners have urged a global boycott of the corporation, which is also the focus of human rights protests for its involvement in the incarceration and deportation of youth and migrants in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.
Divestment from G4S has also been part of the demands of Black activists and prison abolitionists demanding an end to investment in the mass incarceration of Black youth in the United States.
Many participants in the protest are also currently participating in #ShutDownCityHallNYC, a protest encampment against NYPD violence and repression against the Black community and other oppressed communities in the city. Joe Catron of Samidoun spoke about the occupation’s demands, including defunding the NYPD, ending so-called “broken windows” policing and payment of reparations to survivors and victims of racist police violence. The movement celebrated a partial victory when Bill Bratton, the police commissioner whose firing was demanded by the movement, announced his abrupt resignation earlier in the week. Catron noted that police and prison abolition rather than reform is a primary focus of the encampment, which emerges from the broad Movement for Black Lives.
Noura Khouri, a Palestinian activist in the Bay Area and a member of the national committee of the War Resisters’ League, joined the protest during her visit to New York City. She also emphasized the importance of joint collective struggle to confront policing, imprisomnent and repression. In particular, she highlighted the campaign against Urban Shield, in which Palestinian activists in the Bay Area were deeply involved. The Stop Urban Shield Coalition is a broad coalition of social justice-oriented community organizations who came together to expose Urban Shield, a SWAT training and weapons exposition that brings together police and military units across the US and internationally. The coalition stopped Urban Shield from being hosted in Oakland and is now working to put an end to this militarized gathering altogether.
She also highlighted the campaign to cut the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), which funds the militarization of local police departments across the country under a “counter-terrorism” pretext, supporting the further surveillance, entrapment and repression against Arab and Muslim communities while intensifying the militarized repression of Black communities and other oppressed communities.
Samidoun is organizing with an array of New York City groups for a march and rally in support of Kayed’s strike on Friday, 12 August, as he enters his 60th day of hunger strike. Endorsers of the march include Al-Awda NY, the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, the International Action Center, International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jericho Movement, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, Labor for Palestine, NY4Palestine, NYC Free Peltier and NYC Students for Justice in Palestine.
Protesters will gather at the G4S office at 19 W. 44th Street in NYC before a 5:30 march to another G4S office at 370 Lexington Avenue, demanding that Israel release Bilal Kayed, all administrative detainees and all Palestinian political prisoners immediately, and that G4S immediately get out of Palestine.
4 aug 2016
Czech MEP Petr Mach intends to establish the first official intergroup to support West Bank settlements and, inter alia, combat BDS in the European Parliament.
Soon, an official intergroup of friends the West Bank in the European Parliament will come into being for the first time. The intergroup, a form of caucus, will be composed of more than ten members of European Parliament (MEPs) from several countries, headed by Czech MEP Petr Mach (Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group).
The parliamentarian met on Wednesday with Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan in Prague to formalize the intergroup's formation.
In the past, officials from the regional council have held meetings in the European Parliament, and they have even been partners in organizing a conference there, but there has never been an official intergroup supporting settlements in the West Bank.
The "group of friends," as Mach called it, will begin working when the European Parliament returns from its summer recess in September. One of its goals will be to oppose marking products from the West Bank and the BDS movement in general.
Over the past three year, the Samaria Regional Council has hosted some 150 parliamentarians from all over the world and some 300 foreign journalists. This is how the connection was made to Mach, who visited the area in one of these group tours.
Mach claimed that Czechia has been friendly to Israel since its creation, maintaining that, despite changing governmental positions, the Czech people have always supported the Jewish State.
Soon, an official intergroup of friends the West Bank in the European Parliament will come into being for the first time. The intergroup, a form of caucus, will be composed of more than ten members of European Parliament (MEPs) from several countries, headed by Czech MEP Petr Mach (Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group).
The parliamentarian met on Wednesday with Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan in Prague to formalize the intergroup's formation.
In the past, officials from the regional council have held meetings in the European Parliament, and they have even been partners in organizing a conference there, but there has never been an official intergroup supporting settlements in the West Bank.
The "group of friends," as Mach called it, will begin working when the European Parliament returns from its summer recess in September. One of its goals will be to oppose marking products from the West Bank and the BDS movement in general.
Over the past three year, the Samaria Regional Council has hosted some 150 parliamentarians from all over the world and some 300 foreign journalists. This is how the connection was made to Mach, who visited the area in one of these group tours.
Mach claimed that Czechia has been friendly to Israel since its creation, maintaining that, despite changing governmental positions, the Czech people have always supported the Jewish State.
