23 aug 2018
Earlier this week, PepsiCo announced that it signed an agreement to buy SodaStream, a producer of home-carbonation machines. SodaStream has faced global boycotts because of its complicity in Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian human rights.
Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement for Palestinian rights, said:
“SodaStream is still subject to boycott by the global, Palestinian-led BDS movement for Palestinian rights. Its new factory is actively complicit in Israel’s policy of displacing the indigenous Bedouin-Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Naqab (Negev).
SodaStream’s mistreatment of and discrimination against Palestinian workers is not forgotten either.
“The BDS movement sees SodaStream’s closure of its factory in the militarily occupied West Bank as a success, in line with our commitment to end Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights.
This SodaStream factory was located in one of the largest illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land, on the ruins of seven Palestinian villages whose inhabitants were forced out to make way for a Jewish-only town, in contravention of international law and decades of stated US policy.
“As was the case with the international boycott of and divestment from corporations complicit in the crimes of apartheid South Africa, all corporations that are complicit in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights are legitimate targets for the BDS movement.
“At the height of the BDS campaign against SodaStream, the company’s share price tumbled and its reputation was damaged.
“It’s clear that violating the Palestinian BDS call is morally objectionable because it’s bad for human rights. It’s also bad for business.”
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society. It leads and supports the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.
Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement for Palestinian rights, said:
“SodaStream is still subject to boycott by the global, Palestinian-led BDS movement for Palestinian rights. Its new factory is actively complicit in Israel’s policy of displacing the indigenous Bedouin-Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Naqab (Negev).
SodaStream’s mistreatment of and discrimination against Palestinian workers is not forgotten either.
“The BDS movement sees SodaStream’s closure of its factory in the militarily occupied West Bank as a success, in line with our commitment to end Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights.
This SodaStream factory was located in one of the largest illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land, on the ruins of seven Palestinian villages whose inhabitants were forced out to make way for a Jewish-only town, in contravention of international law and decades of stated US policy.
“As was the case with the international boycott of and divestment from corporations complicit in the crimes of apartheid South Africa, all corporations that are complicit in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights are legitimate targets for the BDS movement.
“At the height of the BDS campaign against SodaStream, the company’s share price tumbled and its reputation was damaged.
“It’s clear that violating the Palestinian BDS call is morally objectionable because it’s bad for human rights. It’s also bad for business.”
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society. It leads and supports the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.
22 aug 2018
American singer and songwriter, Lana Del Rey, received criticism worldwide following an announcement that she will be performing at the Meteor Festival in Tel Aviv, next month.
Despite pro-Palestinian groups’ efforts, such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), insisting that Lana Del Rey cancel her performance at the Meteor Festival next month, she officially declared her decision to perform.
Del Rey said, in a statement issued via her Twitter account, that her performance is “not a political statement or a commitment to the politics there, just as singing here in California doesn’t mean my views are in alignment with my current government’s opinions or sometimes inhuman actions.”
Del Rey continued, in her tweets: “I understand many of you are upset that we are going to Tel Aviv for the Meteor Festival. I understand your concern, I really do.”
“What I can tell you is I believe music is universal and should be used to bring us together. We signed on to the show with the intention that it would be performed for the kids there and my plan was for it to be done with a loving energy and a thematic emphasis on peace. If you don’t agree with it, I get it. I see both sides.”
Ma’an News Agency further notes that “performing for the kids” typically means under the age of 18, while the Meteor Festival’s minimum age is 18; most of the attendees of the festival were, will be or currently are part of the Israeli army which enforces the Israeli occupation throughout the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.
Del Rey concluded: “For the record, I’m doing the best I can and my intentions are better than most peoples’ that I know.”
Del Rey posted her tweets in response to the calls by BDS members to cancel the singing performance, and included a petition entitled “Dear Lana, We Need to Talk about Your Appearance in Israel.”
BDS wrote, in an open letter to Del Rey, that “performing in an apartheid state, whether South Africa in the past or Israel today, in defiance of the voices of the oppressed always undermines the popular struggle of the oppressed to end oppression.”
Following the criticism, Lana Del Rey responded, via her Twitter, “We will still be playing our show in Israel. That being said, I understand the concern towards showing support to the Palestinians too. So I just wanted to let you know when I’m in Israel I will be visiting Palestine, too, and I look forward to meeting both Palestinian and Israeli children and playing music for everyone.”
Performing in Israel still remains highly politicized, with many criticizing that Israel’s military action towards the Palestinians is more than enough to justify a cultural boycott.
The New Zealand singer, Lorde, was also criticized for booking a concert in Tel Aviv for her 2018 world tour, but cancelled it after many discussions with people with various views on the situation. “I didn’t make the right call on this one,” Lorde explained.
Following widespread criticism from pro-Palestinian groups, several artists have cancelled their concerts in Tel Aviv, including Beyonce and Shakira.
Lana Del Rey now joins a list of music artists, such as Radiohead, who have publicly denounced BDS attempts urging them to cancel their planned performances in Israel.
Despite pro-Palestinian groups’ efforts, such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), insisting that Lana Del Rey cancel her performance at the Meteor Festival next month, she officially declared her decision to perform.
Del Rey said, in a statement issued via her Twitter account, that her performance is “not a political statement or a commitment to the politics there, just as singing here in California doesn’t mean my views are in alignment with my current government’s opinions or sometimes inhuman actions.”
Del Rey continued, in her tweets: “I understand many of you are upset that we are going to Tel Aviv for the Meteor Festival. I understand your concern, I really do.”
“What I can tell you is I believe music is universal and should be used to bring us together. We signed on to the show with the intention that it would be performed for the kids there and my plan was for it to be done with a loving energy and a thematic emphasis on peace. If you don’t agree with it, I get it. I see both sides.”
Ma’an News Agency further notes that “performing for the kids” typically means under the age of 18, while the Meteor Festival’s minimum age is 18; most of the attendees of the festival were, will be or currently are part of the Israeli army which enforces the Israeli occupation throughout the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.
Del Rey concluded: “For the record, I’m doing the best I can and my intentions are better than most peoples’ that I know.”
Del Rey posted her tweets in response to the calls by BDS members to cancel the singing performance, and included a petition entitled “Dear Lana, We Need to Talk about Your Appearance in Israel.”
BDS wrote, in an open letter to Del Rey, that “performing in an apartheid state, whether South Africa in the past or Israel today, in defiance of the voices of the oppressed always undermines the popular struggle of the oppressed to end oppression.”
Following the criticism, Lana Del Rey responded, via her Twitter, “We will still be playing our show in Israel. That being said, I understand the concern towards showing support to the Palestinians too. So I just wanted to let you know when I’m in Israel I will be visiting Palestine, too, and I look forward to meeting both Palestinian and Israeli children and playing music for everyone.”
Performing in Israel still remains highly politicized, with many criticizing that Israel’s military action towards the Palestinians is more than enough to justify a cultural boycott.
The New Zealand singer, Lorde, was also criticized for booking a concert in Tel Aviv for her 2018 world tour, but cancelled it after many discussions with people with various views on the situation. “I didn’t make the right call on this one,” Lorde explained.
Following widespread criticism from pro-Palestinian groups, several artists have cancelled their concerts in Tel Aviv, including Beyonce and Shakira.
Lana Del Rey now joins a list of music artists, such as Radiohead, who have publicly denounced BDS attempts urging them to cancel their planned performances in Israel.
21 aug 2018
August 20, 2018 / By Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) /
Six of the eleven invited speakers have confirmed their withdrawal from a physics workshop at Ariel University, which is built on occupied Palestinian land in an illegal Israeli settlement. Palestinian academics urge remaining speakers to withdraw from the workshop.
The following letter was sent on August 2, 2018 to invited speakers of the “Inflation, Alternatives and Gravitational Waves” workshop to be held September 3-6 at Ariel University. The university is built on occupied Palestinian land in the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel. Over half those invited to speak have confirmed they will not be attending. Despite some having withdrawn weeks ago, the workshop website continues to falsely display their names. We urge the remaining speakers to stand with their Palestinian colleagues and withdraw from the workshop.
We are writing to you as an invited speaker for the workshop entitled “Inflation, Alternatives and Gravitational Waves” at Ariel University, Sept 3-6, 2018. As the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), we urge you to cancel your participation at this university, which is built on occupied Palestinian land, in violation of international law.
Ariel University was built in the illegal Israeli settlement of the same name in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. International consensus holds that Israeli settlements are illegal. United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 recently reconfirmed this position, maintaining that Israel’s settlement activity “has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.” Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israeli settlements constitute a war crime.
The settlement of Ariel was built on land stolen from surrounding Palestinian villages and on land Palestinian families have cultivated for generations.
The apartheid wall built to annex Ariel to Israel, and declared illegal in 2004 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), severs Palestinian villages from each other and restricts freedom of movement and their development. Palestinians have to live with the stench of wastewater from Ariel that affects their health, destroys their crops and pollutes water sources.
The settlements, which rob Palestinians of land and resources, are a part of Israel’s system of oppression dominating all aspects of Palestinian life, in particular education.
Israel’s military checkpoints restrict travel to and from university for Palestinian students, researchers and professors. Israel prevents Palestinian students in besieged Gaza, where nearly two million people live on four hours of electricity per day, from studying at Palestinian universities in the West Bank or from leaving Gaza for universities abroad.
Israel denies travel permits to Palestinian scholars, severely limiting access to international conferences.
Since the start of the current academic year, Israel has denied entry or refused to renew visas for scores of faculty members of Palestinian universities holding foreign passports.
Israel denies Palestinians the fundamental right of academic freedom, and Ariel University is playing an active role.
The European Union [pdf] and the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation exclude Israeli academic institutions in the occupied Palestinian territories, such as Ariel University, from grants and research programs.
Israeli academic associations, including the Israeli Anthropological Association and the Israeli Sociological Society [pdf], as well as 1200 Israeli academics, have shunned and are refusing to cooperate with Ariel University.
Earlier this year, Kasetsart University in Bangkok ended its partnership with Ariel University for a Women’s Study Conference.
These measures were taken in recognition of the fact that collaborating with Ariel University necessarily means normalizing Israel’s illegal policies that deny Palestinian rights and stifle Palestinian higher education.
By participating in a workshop at Ariel University, you would be lending your name and scholarship to this end, something we trust you would not want to do.
We, Palestinian academics and human rights defenders, urge you to do the right thing and cancel your participation at this conference in the illegal settlement of Ariel.
We look forward to receiving your reply and would be happy to discuss this further with you.
Sincerely,
Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE)
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
The Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) represents more than 6,000 Palestinian university staff at 13 institutions of higher education in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) was initiated in 2004 to contribute to the struggle for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality. PACBI advocates for the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, given their deep and persistent complicity in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights as stipulated in international law.
Six of the eleven invited speakers have confirmed their withdrawal from a physics workshop at Ariel University, which is built on occupied Palestinian land in an illegal Israeli settlement. Palestinian academics urge remaining speakers to withdraw from the workshop.
The following letter was sent on August 2, 2018 to invited speakers of the “Inflation, Alternatives and Gravitational Waves” workshop to be held September 3-6 at Ariel University. The university is built on occupied Palestinian land in the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel. Over half those invited to speak have confirmed they will not be attending. Despite some having withdrawn weeks ago, the workshop website continues to falsely display their names. We urge the remaining speakers to stand with their Palestinian colleagues and withdraw from the workshop.
We are writing to you as an invited speaker for the workshop entitled “Inflation, Alternatives and Gravitational Waves” at Ariel University, Sept 3-6, 2018. As the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), we urge you to cancel your participation at this university, which is built on occupied Palestinian land, in violation of international law.
Ariel University was built in the illegal Israeli settlement of the same name in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. International consensus holds that Israeli settlements are illegal. United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 recently reconfirmed this position, maintaining that Israel’s settlement activity “has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.” Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israeli settlements constitute a war crime.
The settlement of Ariel was built on land stolen from surrounding Palestinian villages and on land Palestinian families have cultivated for generations.
The apartheid wall built to annex Ariel to Israel, and declared illegal in 2004 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), severs Palestinian villages from each other and restricts freedom of movement and their development. Palestinians have to live with the stench of wastewater from Ariel that affects their health, destroys their crops and pollutes water sources.
The settlements, which rob Palestinians of land and resources, are a part of Israel’s system of oppression dominating all aspects of Palestinian life, in particular education.
Israel’s military checkpoints restrict travel to and from university for Palestinian students, researchers and professors. Israel prevents Palestinian students in besieged Gaza, where nearly two million people live on four hours of electricity per day, from studying at Palestinian universities in the West Bank or from leaving Gaza for universities abroad.
Israel denies travel permits to Palestinian scholars, severely limiting access to international conferences.
Since the start of the current academic year, Israel has denied entry or refused to renew visas for scores of faculty members of Palestinian universities holding foreign passports.
Israel denies Palestinians the fundamental right of academic freedom, and Ariel University is playing an active role.
The European Union [pdf] and the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation exclude Israeli academic institutions in the occupied Palestinian territories, such as Ariel University, from grants and research programs.
Israeli academic associations, including the Israeli Anthropological Association and the Israeli Sociological Society [pdf], as well as 1200 Israeli academics, have shunned and are refusing to cooperate with Ariel University.
Earlier this year, Kasetsart University in Bangkok ended its partnership with Ariel University for a Women’s Study Conference.
These measures were taken in recognition of the fact that collaborating with Ariel University necessarily means normalizing Israel’s illegal policies that deny Palestinian rights and stifle Palestinian higher education.
By participating in a workshop at Ariel University, you would be lending your name and scholarship to this end, something we trust you would not want to do.
We, Palestinian academics and human rights defenders, urge you to do the right thing and cancel your participation at this conference in the illegal settlement of Ariel.
We look forward to receiving your reply and would be happy to discuss this further with you.
Sincerely,
Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE)
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
The Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) represents more than 6,000 Palestinian university staff at 13 institutions of higher education in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) was initiated in 2004 to contribute to the struggle for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality. PACBI advocates for the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, given their deep and persistent complicity in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights as stipulated in international law.
20 aug 2018
A total of 84 British black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) organizations came out strong on attempts in the United Kingdom to silence discourse on Palestine, particularly those critical of Israel and its racist policies against Palestinians.
The letter, published in the Independent, criticized recent attempts by the Labor Party to adopt the 2016 International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) guidelines, which equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism in an effort to delegitimize any pro-Palestinian activity or public criticism of Israel.
"We are deeply worried about current attempts to silence a public discussion of what happened in Palestine and to the Palestinians in 1948, when the majority of its people were forcibly expelled,” said the BAME letter. “These facts are well established and accessible, are part of the British historical record, as well as the direct experience of the Palestinian people themselves. The Palestinian community in the UK has raised the disturbing absence of key information about these past and current injustices, and highlighted the racism it exposes then and now."
It added: “Public discussion of these facts, and a description of these injustices, would be prohibited under the IHRA’s guidelines, and therefore withholds vital knowledge from the public. This silencing has already begun. Today we can freely describe the racist policies experienced in the era of British and European colonialism in our countries of origin (indeed it is taught in British schools), but the colonial history of the Palestinians is continually erased. This is a dangerous breach of our own rights, and of the wider British public: we must all hear the full story of the Palestinians in order to make sense of the current discussions about racism and Israel.”
BAME said that while anti-Israel groups are being silenced, right-wing groups that openly advocate hate of Palestinians and Muslims in general are getting funding and support without any problem.
“We also know of the efforts by organizations – including UK-based fundamentalist groups aligned with the far-right in the US – to deny Palestinians’ basic humanity by suppressing their entire history and current plight," it said "At the same time, hardline conservative groups in the US, such as the Middle East Forum, are providing funding and support to anti-Muslim extremist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), deliberately increasing hatred, fear, and confusion. These coordinated efforts by right-wing extremists are being actively encouraged by President Trump’s racism and fear-mongering, which is now aimed at dismantling UNRWA, the UN agency that protects Palestinian refugees.”
BAME concluded by reminding “politicians and public bodies of their responsibilities to uphold the principles of the Human Rights Act for every British citizen and resident in the UK equally, especially the direct victims of colonialism, racism, and discrimination. As migrant and BAME communities we stand as one, united against all attempts to suppress our voices and our calls for justice, freedom and equality.”
The letter, published in the Independent, criticized recent attempts by the Labor Party to adopt the 2016 International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) guidelines, which equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism in an effort to delegitimize any pro-Palestinian activity or public criticism of Israel.
"We are deeply worried about current attempts to silence a public discussion of what happened in Palestine and to the Palestinians in 1948, when the majority of its people were forcibly expelled,” said the BAME letter. “These facts are well established and accessible, are part of the British historical record, as well as the direct experience of the Palestinian people themselves. The Palestinian community in the UK has raised the disturbing absence of key information about these past and current injustices, and highlighted the racism it exposes then and now."
It added: “Public discussion of these facts, and a description of these injustices, would be prohibited under the IHRA’s guidelines, and therefore withholds vital knowledge from the public. This silencing has already begun. Today we can freely describe the racist policies experienced in the era of British and European colonialism in our countries of origin (indeed it is taught in British schools), but the colonial history of the Palestinians is continually erased. This is a dangerous breach of our own rights, and of the wider British public: we must all hear the full story of the Palestinians in order to make sense of the current discussions about racism and Israel.”
BAME said that while anti-Israel groups are being silenced, right-wing groups that openly advocate hate of Palestinians and Muslims in general are getting funding and support without any problem.
“We also know of the efforts by organizations – including UK-based fundamentalist groups aligned with the far-right in the US – to deny Palestinians’ basic humanity by suppressing their entire history and current plight," it said "At the same time, hardline conservative groups in the US, such as the Middle East Forum, are providing funding and support to anti-Muslim extremist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), deliberately increasing hatred, fear, and confusion. These coordinated efforts by right-wing extremists are being actively encouraged by President Trump’s racism and fear-mongering, which is now aimed at dismantling UNRWA, the UN agency that protects Palestinian refugees.”
BAME concluded by reminding “politicians and public bodies of their responsibilities to uphold the principles of the Human Rights Act for every British citizen and resident in the UK equally, especially the direct victims of colonialism, racism, and discrimination. As migrant and BAME communities we stand as one, united against all attempts to suppress our voices and our calls for justice, freedom and equality.”
18 aug 2018
There’s perhaps no greater barometer to measure the lengths to which Israel will go to defame, attack and sabotage the global movement for Palestinian rights than its attitude towards BDS.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, remember, is nothing more than an attempt to told Israel accountable under concepts of international law and basic human rights, where national governments have for decades refused to do so.
BDS calls for a full boycott of Israel until it concedes the three central Palestinian human rights it is currently violating: freedom, equality and return.
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (along with the Syrians of the Golan Heights) live under an illegal military occupation, now into its 52nd year. Palestinians thus demand freedom.
Palestinian citizens of Israel – while having some token civic rights – do not have equality, with more than 65 laws (and counting) that discriminate against them for the crime of not being Jewish. Palestinians thus demand equality.
And Palestinian refugees across the world live in now-entrenched, sprawling refugee camps, deprived of their homeland after they and their ancestors were expelled at the barrel of a gun by the Zionist militias which founded the Israel army. Unlike in any other conflict in the world, they are deprived of their basic right (under both international law and basic morality) to return to their homeland. Palestinians thus demand the right to return.
All three of these demands are contained in the 2005 BDS Call, the foundational document of the movement, which is endorsed by the entirety of Palestinian civil society.
Human rights under international law are no bargaining chips to be bartered away under the pretence of being “reasonable” or “realistic”. Palestinian rights, like the rights of all humans, are therefore inalienable, and cannot be given away by any quisling or political leader of any stripe.
The BDS movement has Israel on the defensive.
It has an entire government “ministry” now devoted purely to combatting BDS – in what it calls a “war”. Using Israel’s common euphemism for an assassination, Israel’s spy minister Yisrael Katz in 2016 threatened “civil targeted thwarting” of BDS movement co-founder Omar Barghouti. The following year, Barghouti was subjected to travel bans and was the victim of a fabricated “tax evasion” legal case.
This so called ministry – the Ministry of Strategic Affairs – has in effect become a new branch of Israel’s spy agencies. It is led by former high-level military intelligence officer Sima Vaknin-Gil, and most of its staff are drawn from the various Israeli spy agencies.
It is engaged not only in “monitoring” of the global BDS movement, but in active sabotage. The veteran Israeli intelligence journalist Yossi Melman has called this “black-ops”.
The global nature of this threat means that Israel is engaged in active subversion on foreign soil, including in the UK, quite possibly in violation of local laws.
Israel is openly interfering in the electoral systems of the US and UK to a degree that vastly overshadows anything Russia has even been accused of, let alone credibility proven.
The covert sabotage campaign has several fronts, including the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, but the primary target around the world is the BDS movement. Unlike previous “strategic threats” to Israel’s system of racism and occupation, the strategic affairs ministry understands that BDS has no singular leadership that can be “decapitated”, like it did with the many Palestinian leaders – of armed and unarmed struggle alike – which it has murdered in the past.
So it is instead engaged in a multi-faceted sabotage campaign targeting this Palestinian-led global movement.
It is a rather hilarious symptom of how afraid Israeli planners are of the BDS movement that the government seems to have taken out a form of “BDS insurance” to protect the planned Eurovision song contest due to be held in Israel next year.
In June, BDS campaigners against the Israeli Eurovision claimed their first victory. Having blatantly politicised the competition, Israel’s culture minister (and arch-racist) Miri Regev was forced into a humiliating climb-down.
Regev had insisted that Eurovision be held in Jerusalem, or not held at all. She took this stand as an attempt to add legitimacy to Israel’s illegitimate claim that Jerusalem is its capital.
The problem of course is that, despite Trump’s highly controversial move of the US embassy to the city earlier this year, no European country recognises Israel’s claim, and all maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv for that reason.
The Israeli press reported that she had to climb down because of the backlash, and that Tel Aviv is now being considered as the venue for the tacky pop show. BDS campaigners have called for the pressure to be maintained until it’s cancelled altogether.
Although Israeli propagandists have in the past attempted to publically make a show of ignoring BDS and dismiss it as an irrelevance, those days are long gone.
This “BDS insurance” is a sign of how serious a threat to Israeli occupation BDS is considered. The Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported this week that the public broadcasting corporation is in negotiations with Israel’s finance ministry over the terms of a massive $13.5 million loan to cover the costs of putting on the contest.
According to the paper, “the Finance Ministry would commit to cover the loan amount if the competition is ultimately not held in Israel, due to extenuating circumstances such as earthquake, war or a boycott organised by BDS, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.”
The final terms have apparently not yet been agreed, but this kind of “BDS insurance” is probably a sign of things to come.
~Middle East Monitor/Days of PalestineAsa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He writes for The Electronic Intifada where he is an associate editor and also a weekly column for the Middle East Monitor.
Opinion/Analysis 08/14/18: The Palestinian David
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, remember, is nothing more than an attempt to told Israel accountable under concepts of international law and basic human rights, where national governments have for decades refused to do so.
BDS calls for a full boycott of Israel until it concedes the three central Palestinian human rights it is currently violating: freedom, equality and return.
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (along with the Syrians of the Golan Heights) live under an illegal military occupation, now into its 52nd year. Palestinians thus demand freedom.
Palestinian citizens of Israel – while having some token civic rights – do not have equality, with more than 65 laws (and counting) that discriminate against them for the crime of not being Jewish. Palestinians thus demand equality.
And Palestinian refugees across the world live in now-entrenched, sprawling refugee camps, deprived of their homeland after they and their ancestors were expelled at the barrel of a gun by the Zionist militias which founded the Israel army. Unlike in any other conflict in the world, they are deprived of their basic right (under both international law and basic morality) to return to their homeland. Palestinians thus demand the right to return.
All three of these demands are contained in the 2005 BDS Call, the foundational document of the movement, which is endorsed by the entirety of Palestinian civil society.
Human rights under international law are no bargaining chips to be bartered away under the pretence of being “reasonable” or “realistic”. Palestinian rights, like the rights of all humans, are therefore inalienable, and cannot be given away by any quisling or political leader of any stripe.
The BDS movement has Israel on the defensive.
It has an entire government “ministry” now devoted purely to combatting BDS – in what it calls a “war”. Using Israel’s common euphemism for an assassination, Israel’s spy minister Yisrael Katz in 2016 threatened “civil targeted thwarting” of BDS movement co-founder Omar Barghouti. The following year, Barghouti was subjected to travel bans and was the victim of a fabricated “tax evasion” legal case.
This so called ministry – the Ministry of Strategic Affairs – has in effect become a new branch of Israel’s spy agencies. It is led by former high-level military intelligence officer Sima Vaknin-Gil, and most of its staff are drawn from the various Israeli spy agencies.
It is engaged not only in “monitoring” of the global BDS movement, but in active sabotage. The veteran Israeli intelligence journalist Yossi Melman has called this “black-ops”.
The global nature of this threat means that Israel is engaged in active subversion on foreign soil, including in the UK, quite possibly in violation of local laws.
Israel is openly interfering in the electoral systems of the US and UK to a degree that vastly overshadows anything Russia has even been accused of, let alone credibility proven.
The covert sabotage campaign has several fronts, including the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, but the primary target around the world is the BDS movement. Unlike previous “strategic threats” to Israel’s system of racism and occupation, the strategic affairs ministry understands that BDS has no singular leadership that can be “decapitated”, like it did with the many Palestinian leaders – of armed and unarmed struggle alike – which it has murdered in the past.
So it is instead engaged in a multi-faceted sabotage campaign targeting this Palestinian-led global movement.
It is a rather hilarious symptom of how afraid Israeli planners are of the BDS movement that the government seems to have taken out a form of “BDS insurance” to protect the planned Eurovision song contest due to be held in Israel next year.
In June, BDS campaigners against the Israeli Eurovision claimed their first victory. Having blatantly politicised the competition, Israel’s culture minister (and arch-racist) Miri Regev was forced into a humiliating climb-down.
Regev had insisted that Eurovision be held in Jerusalem, or not held at all. She took this stand as an attempt to add legitimacy to Israel’s illegitimate claim that Jerusalem is its capital.
The problem of course is that, despite Trump’s highly controversial move of the US embassy to the city earlier this year, no European country recognises Israel’s claim, and all maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv for that reason.
The Israeli press reported that she had to climb down because of the backlash, and that Tel Aviv is now being considered as the venue for the tacky pop show. BDS campaigners have called for the pressure to be maintained until it’s cancelled altogether.
Although Israeli propagandists have in the past attempted to publically make a show of ignoring BDS and dismiss it as an irrelevance, those days are long gone.
This “BDS insurance” is a sign of how serious a threat to Israeli occupation BDS is considered. The Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported this week that the public broadcasting corporation is in negotiations with Israel’s finance ministry over the terms of a massive $13.5 million loan to cover the costs of putting on the contest.
According to the paper, “the Finance Ministry would commit to cover the loan amount if the competition is ultimately not held in Israel, due to extenuating circumstances such as earthquake, war or a boycott organised by BDS, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.”
The final terms have apparently not yet been agreed, but this kind of “BDS insurance” is probably a sign of things to come.
~Middle East Monitor/Days of PalestineAsa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He writes for The Electronic Intifada where he is an associate editor and also a weekly column for the Middle East Monitor.
Opinion/Analysis 08/14/18: The Palestinian David
16 aug 2018
The Tunisian General Labor Union (TGLU) and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activists, on Thursday, forced an Israeli ship belonging to Zim Integrated Shipping Services to change course, as it was attempting to dock at the Rades port in Tunisia, on its way to Spain.
The ship was turned around at the entrance to the port after anti-Israel activists threatened to block the port, and port workers said, according to WAFA, that they would not handle the ship’s cargo if it docked.
In response, the crew decided to continue directly to Spain.
TGLU has previously called, through its Facebook page, upon port workers and all those concerned to prevent the Israeli ship from entering the national waters of Tunisia.
The ship was turned around at the entrance to the port after anti-Israel activists threatened to block the port, and port workers said, according to WAFA, that they would not handle the ship’s cargo if it docked.
In response, the crew decided to continue directly to Spain.
TGLU has previously called, through its Facebook page, upon port workers and all those concerned to prevent the Israeli ship from entering the national waters of Tunisia.
8 aug 2018
Ireland’s continued support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement has extended into the cultural sphere, as Israel’s hosting of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest may be held without Irish Singers.
A petition created by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign commits signatories to refrain from performing in Israel or accepting any funding related to Israel’s government.
The rationale for this comes from Israel’s documented attempts to establish a propaganda campaign that would give western countries the impression that Israel is an important patron of artistic and democratic values, while minimizing the image of Israel as an apartheid state.
According to a former Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel’s goals are to promote “culture as a propaganda tool of the first rank” while making sure not to “differentiate propaganda and culture.”
With the Eurovision Song Contest being hosted in Israel, their efforts to promote themselves as a culturally sensitive democracy will be tested by what the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement will be able to protest.
According to the PNN, this cultural petition was modeled after the successful campaign to boycott Apartheid South Africa in response to the appalling treatment of the native population.
601 signatories come from among Ireland’s most internationally known actors, writers, poets, painters, sculptures, film-makers, architects, dancers, designers, composers, musicians and others.
Other countries have had similar successes, such as Switzerland, South Africa, and Britain.
“Sadly, this pledge remains as necessary as when it was launched eight years ago,” said Chairperson of Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign Fatin Al-Tamimi.
“Western governments’ continued failure to sanction Israel means it remains necessary for civil society to take action for justice for Palestine. This pledge allows people from the artistic community to take a stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
A petition created by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign commits signatories to refrain from performing in Israel or accepting any funding related to Israel’s government.
The rationale for this comes from Israel’s documented attempts to establish a propaganda campaign that would give western countries the impression that Israel is an important patron of artistic and democratic values, while minimizing the image of Israel as an apartheid state.
According to a former Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel’s goals are to promote “culture as a propaganda tool of the first rank” while making sure not to “differentiate propaganda and culture.”
With the Eurovision Song Contest being hosted in Israel, their efforts to promote themselves as a culturally sensitive democracy will be tested by what the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement will be able to protest.
According to the PNN, this cultural petition was modeled after the successful campaign to boycott Apartheid South Africa in response to the appalling treatment of the native population.
601 signatories come from among Ireland’s most internationally known actors, writers, poets, painters, sculptures, film-makers, architects, dancers, designers, composers, musicians and others.
Other countries have had similar successes, such as Switzerland, South Africa, and Britain.
“Sadly, this pledge remains as necessary as when it was launched eight years ago,” said Chairperson of Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign Fatin Al-Tamimi.
“Western governments’ continued failure to sanction Israel means it remains necessary for civil society to take action for justice for Palestine. This pledge allows people from the artistic community to take a stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
7 aug 2018
Israeli security services held and interrogated Simone Zimmerman, a US Jewish activist, at the border with Egypt for several hours on Sunday, over her alleged “connections with Palestinians.”
Zimmerman, who resides and works in Israel, tweeted that her and a friend were held at the Taba Crossing for four hours, where they were questioned by security agents from Shin Bet over their political views and previous work with Palestinians.
“I am at the border after a weekend in Sinai and Israeli authorities have detained me and my friend Abby for the last three hours. We are being questioned solely about our political opinions and activities vis a vis Palestinians esp in the occupied territories,” the activist tweeted on Sunday.
The activist said that security agents quizzed her and fellow activist Abby Kirschbaum over places they had visited in the West Bank, what they thought of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and “why she wanted to help [people] in Gaza.”
“All of the questions they asked me were about if I go to Palestinian areas, what do I do/who do I meet there, why I go there… and why the hell would I want to do that,” she said, in another tweet.
Zimmerman, who describes herself on Twitter as part of the Jewish Resistance to the occupation, works for an Israeli human rights organisation in Tel Aviv for which she holds a valid work permit.
She is a founding member of IfNotNow, an American Jewish anti-occupation organization.
Zimmerman worked previously for US Senator Bernie Sanders, as the Jewish outreach coordinator for the 2016 primary campaign. However, she was allegedly fired after comments surfaced, from 2015, in which she called Netanyahu a “manipulative asshole” and “murderer”.
Zimmerman, who says she is not herself a supporter of the BDS movement, recently made a video condemning Israel’s travel ban on anyone associated with the boycott movement, which came into action last year.
Zimmerman, who resides and works in Israel, tweeted that her and a friend were held at the Taba Crossing for four hours, where they were questioned by security agents from Shin Bet over their political views and previous work with Palestinians.
“I am at the border after a weekend in Sinai and Israeli authorities have detained me and my friend Abby for the last three hours. We are being questioned solely about our political opinions and activities vis a vis Palestinians esp in the occupied territories,” the activist tweeted on Sunday.
The activist said that security agents quizzed her and fellow activist Abby Kirschbaum over places they had visited in the West Bank, what they thought of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and “why she wanted to help [people] in Gaza.”
“All of the questions they asked me were about if I go to Palestinian areas, what do I do/who do I meet there, why I go there… and why the hell would I want to do that,” she said, in another tweet.
Zimmerman, who describes herself on Twitter as part of the Jewish Resistance to the occupation, works for an Israeli human rights organisation in Tel Aviv for which she holds a valid work permit.
She is a founding member of IfNotNow, an American Jewish anti-occupation organization.
Zimmerman worked previously for US Senator Bernie Sanders, as the Jewish outreach coordinator for the 2016 primary campaign. However, she was allegedly fired after comments surfaced, from 2015, in which she called Netanyahu a “manipulative asshole” and “murderer”.
Zimmerman, who says she is not herself a supporter of the BDS movement, recently made a video condemning Israel’s travel ban on anyone associated with the boycott movement, which came into action last year.