1 july 2017
Spanish parliament in Madrid.
On Tuesday, the Spanish parliament unanimously passed a motion recognizing the right to advocate for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) as protected under the right to freedom of expression and association. This bill was introduced by the progressive parliamentary coalition “Unidos Podemos-En Comú Podem-En Marea.”
Unidos Podemos said in a statement:
On June 27th the International Cooperation Committee of the Spanish Congress unanimously approved a motion put forward by our parliamentary group supporting the legitimate defense of Human Rights. The amended motion calls on the Government “to recognize and defend the right of human rights activists from Palestine, Israel and other countries to engage in legal and peaceful activities, protected by the right to freedom of speech and assembly, such as the right to promote boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaigns.”
This approval means that our Government must uphold those rights and act against the harassment of activists, in Spain and in many other countries, engaged in peaceful, legal and legitimate campaigns against the violation of human rights in Palestine. By doing so, our Congress has joined the many voices that have already recognized the right to BDS as freedom of speech, like Federica Mogherini (EU Vice-President and High Representative), the Governments of Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden, and the Parliament of Navarre.
Ana Sanchez, International Campaigns Officer with the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) said:
This is a victory for all those acting on their conscience by participating in the BDS movement for Palestinian human rights.
As boycotts, divestments and sanctions campaigns continue to grow around the world, state institutions in Europe, the United States and beyond are increasingly affirming the right of their citizens to participate in the BDS movement to advance Palestinian human rights. Boycotting all entities complicit with Israel’s military occupation and racist system of apartheid is just as legally protected and morally necessary as was the successful international boycott of apartheid South Africa. In fact, many business operations with Israel are carried out in breach of international law.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Israeli military rule and nearly 70 years of Palestinian dispossession and ethnic cleansing. Enough is enough. It is encouraging to see support for Palestinian human rights grow across the Spanish state. This parliamentary ruling is clearly an expression of that growing popular support.
This is the second time within a short period that Spanish state institutions have affirmed the right to boycott. In late April, the Spanish foreign minister also affirmed that the right to advocate for BDS in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle is protected by laws guaranteeing freedom of expression.
This news also comes on the heels of the Barcelona City Council’s vote to end complicity with Israel’s military occupation and Israel’s construction of illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land. In addition, dozens of Spanish cities have over the course of the last year declared themselves “Free of Israeli Apartheid,” joining the existing network of more than 70 Spanish public institutions, including provincial councils and a regional parliament, that have long taken a position against Israeli Apartheid.
In 2016, the European Union and the governments of Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands upheld the right to advocate for BDS to support Palestinian freedom, justice and equality as protected by freedom of speech and freedom of association principles.
That same year, more than 200 renowned lawyers and legal scholars from 15 European countries, including a former Supreme Court judge in Spain, issued a declaration recognizing BDS as “a lawful exercise of freedom of expression.”
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. Visit their website and follow them on Twitter @BDSmovement
On Tuesday, the Spanish parliament unanimously passed a motion recognizing the right to advocate for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) as protected under the right to freedom of expression and association. This bill was introduced by the progressive parliamentary coalition “Unidos Podemos-En Comú Podem-En Marea.”
Unidos Podemos said in a statement:
On June 27th the International Cooperation Committee of the Spanish Congress unanimously approved a motion put forward by our parliamentary group supporting the legitimate defense of Human Rights. The amended motion calls on the Government “to recognize and defend the right of human rights activists from Palestine, Israel and other countries to engage in legal and peaceful activities, protected by the right to freedom of speech and assembly, such as the right to promote boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaigns.”
This approval means that our Government must uphold those rights and act against the harassment of activists, in Spain and in many other countries, engaged in peaceful, legal and legitimate campaigns against the violation of human rights in Palestine. By doing so, our Congress has joined the many voices that have already recognized the right to BDS as freedom of speech, like Federica Mogherini (EU Vice-President and High Representative), the Governments of Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden, and the Parliament of Navarre.
Ana Sanchez, International Campaigns Officer with the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) said:
This is a victory for all those acting on their conscience by participating in the BDS movement for Palestinian human rights.
As boycotts, divestments and sanctions campaigns continue to grow around the world, state institutions in Europe, the United States and beyond are increasingly affirming the right of their citizens to participate in the BDS movement to advance Palestinian human rights. Boycotting all entities complicit with Israel’s military occupation and racist system of apartheid is just as legally protected and morally necessary as was the successful international boycott of apartheid South Africa. In fact, many business operations with Israel are carried out in breach of international law.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Israeli military rule and nearly 70 years of Palestinian dispossession and ethnic cleansing. Enough is enough. It is encouraging to see support for Palestinian human rights grow across the Spanish state. This parliamentary ruling is clearly an expression of that growing popular support.
This is the second time within a short period that Spanish state institutions have affirmed the right to boycott. In late April, the Spanish foreign minister also affirmed that the right to advocate for BDS in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle is protected by laws guaranteeing freedom of expression.
This news also comes on the heels of the Barcelona City Council’s vote to end complicity with Israel’s military occupation and Israel’s construction of illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land. In addition, dozens of Spanish cities have over the course of the last year declared themselves “Free of Israeli Apartheid,” joining the existing network of more than 70 Spanish public institutions, including provincial councils and a regional parliament, that have long taken a position against Israeli Apartheid.
In 2016, the European Union and the governments of Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands upheld the right to advocate for BDS to support Palestinian freedom, justice and equality as protected by freedom of speech and freedom of association principles.
That same year, more than 200 renowned lawyers and legal scholars from 15 European countries, including a former Supreme Court judge in Spain, issued a declaration recognizing BDS as “a lawful exercise of freedom of expression.”
- Read the the Unidos Podemos press release in English and Spanish. Read the BNC’s Spanish BDS partners’ press release in Spanish.
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. Visit their website and follow them on Twitter @BDSmovement
23 june 2017
Last month, Egged Bus Systems (EBS), a subsidiary of Egged Israel Transport Cooperative Society, Israel’s largest public transportation operator, lost a bid for a decade-long contract to run public transportation in the North-Holland region of the Netherlands, which includes the country’s capital, Amsterdam. This contract was valued at 19.1 million euros a year, with a total worth of 190.1 million euros.
Egged Bus Systems lost this lucrative bid after Dutch BDS activists launched a campaign charging its Israeli parent company with facilitating grave violations of Palestinian human rights and international humanitarian law.
Specifically, Egged Cooperative operates Jewish-only buses to and between almost all of Israel’s illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land in the militarily occupied West Bank, including remote outposts and East Jerusalem.
Egged buses traveling on Israeli settlement bus routes bar access to Palestinians. They use an extensive network of roads built to seamlessly connect illegal settlements on both sides of the illegal Israeli separation Wall to cities within present-day Israel.
The company thus supports and profits from a racist, segregated bus system that actively facilitates the maintenance and expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements, which are themselves considered war crimes [PDF] under international law.
A spokesperson for DocP, a coalition of Dutch BDS activists for Palestinian rights, said,
We are very happy with this result, with the fact that our regional government rejected Egged’s bid to run North-Holland’s public transportation system.
People can now step into a bus in Amsterdam without helping pay for Israeli apartheid buses that discriminate against Palestinians. Without helping normalize coming and going from Tel Aviv to illegal Jewish-only settlements built on stolen Palestinian land.
There is nothing normal about the daily oppression faced by Palestinians, and I’m heartened that our Dutch BDS campaigns are growing in popular support and showing results.
Riya Hassan, Europe’s campaigns officer for the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) said:
Congratulations to all the activists, organizations and collectives in the Netherlands who successfully built on their earlier BDS campaigns to exclude from their communities a powerful Israeli transportation company that profits from segregated busing, segregated roads and segregated Israeli settlements illegally built on stolen Palestinian land.
You have helped ensure that the regional council of North-Holland adheres to its own obligations under international law by not aiding and abetting Israel’s serious violations of Palestinian rights.
Egged Cooperative has also been accused of putting its Palestinian drivers in harm’s way, and not doing enough to protect them from violent Israeli extremists. In 2014, 100 Palestinian Egged bus drivers resigned fearing attacks by Israeli settlers and after Palestinian Jerusalem-line bus driver Yusuf Hassan al-Ramouni was found dead and hanging in an Egged bus.
Egged Bus Systems was one of four companies bidding for the lucrative public transportation contract in the Netherlands. The winning company Connexxion, a Dutch public transportation company, will provide buses and run public transportation in North-Holland for the next 10-years, beginning in July 2018.
Connexxion is itself owned by Veolia, a French corporate giant which was complicit in the Israeli occupation until an extensive BDS campaign cost it tenders around the world estimated to be worth over $20 billion, causing it to exit the Israeli market. Veolia and Connexxion have ended their complicity with Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights, but have yet to pay reparations to the Palestinian communities they harmed, and campaigners are still demanding that they do so.
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. Visit their website and follow them on Twitter @BDSmovement
Egged Bus Systems lost this lucrative bid after Dutch BDS activists launched a campaign charging its Israeli parent company with facilitating grave violations of Palestinian human rights and international humanitarian law.
Specifically, Egged Cooperative operates Jewish-only buses to and between almost all of Israel’s illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land in the militarily occupied West Bank, including remote outposts and East Jerusalem.
Egged buses traveling on Israeli settlement bus routes bar access to Palestinians. They use an extensive network of roads built to seamlessly connect illegal settlements on both sides of the illegal Israeli separation Wall to cities within present-day Israel.
The company thus supports and profits from a racist, segregated bus system that actively facilitates the maintenance and expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements, which are themselves considered war crimes [PDF] under international law.
A spokesperson for DocP, a coalition of Dutch BDS activists for Palestinian rights, said,
We are very happy with this result, with the fact that our regional government rejected Egged’s bid to run North-Holland’s public transportation system.
People can now step into a bus in Amsterdam without helping pay for Israeli apartheid buses that discriminate against Palestinians. Without helping normalize coming and going from Tel Aviv to illegal Jewish-only settlements built on stolen Palestinian land.
There is nothing normal about the daily oppression faced by Palestinians, and I’m heartened that our Dutch BDS campaigns are growing in popular support and showing results.
Riya Hassan, Europe’s campaigns officer for the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) said:
Congratulations to all the activists, organizations and collectives in the Netherlands who successfully built on their earlier BDS campaigns to exclude from their communities a powerful Israeli transportation company that profits from segregated busing, segregated roads and segregated Israeli settlements illegally built on stolen Palestinian land.
You have helped ensure that the regional council of North-Holland adheres to its own obligations under international law by not aiding and abetting Israel’s serious violations of Palestinian rights.
Egged Cooperative has also been accused of putting its Palestinian drivers in harm’s way, and not doing enough to protect them from violent Israeli extremists. In 2014, 100 Palestinian Egged bus drivers resigned fearing attacks by Israeli settlers and after Palestinian Jerusalem-line bus driver Yusuf Hassan al-Ramouni was found dead and hanging in an Egged bus.
Egged Bus Systems was one of four companies bidding for the lucrative public transportation contract in the Netherlands. The winning company Connexxion, a Dutch public transportation company, will provide buses and run public transportation in North-Holland for the next 10-years, beginning in July 2018.
Connexxion is itself owned by Veolia, a French corporate giant which was complicit in the Israeli occupation until an extensive BDS campaign cost it tenders around the world estimated to be worth over $20 billion, causing it to exit the Israeli market. Veolia and Connexxion have ended their complicity with Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights, but have yet to pay reparations to the Palestinian communities they harmed, and campaigners are still demanding that they do so.
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. Visit their website and follow them on Twitter @BDSmovement
10 june 2017
Students at the University of Chile call for an end to ties with Israeli academic institutions.
Student-led BDS campaigns resulted in two major Chilean universities canceling events co-sponsored by the Israeli embassy and featuring Joe Uziel, a director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). On Monday, Alberto Hurtado University’s Anthropology Department announced the cancellation of the event, and yesterday the University of Chile’s Social Sciences Faculty did the same.
BDS Chile highlighted the reasons behind the campaign to cancel the event:
Universities cannot be passive accomplices in grave human rights violations. The State of Israel maintains an illegal occupation, colonization and apartheid regime against the Palestinian people, and the Israeli Embassy is this regime’s representative in Chile. In addition, the Israel Antiquities Authority is a government entity illegally based in occupied East Jerusalem that carries out illegal excavations in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Some of these illegal excavations are directed by the invited speaker, Joe Uziel.
The confiscation and theft of Palestinian cultural heritage are part of Israel’s attempts to erase Palestinian memory and cultural identity. Since 1967, the IAA has been deeply involved in cultural crimes and serious violations of international law, such as illegally removing and plundering hundreds of thousands of precious artifacts from the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem. Fearing BDS campaigns, Israel has been trying to prevent information about archeological work in the OPT from being made public and to whitewash these violations by promoting events like these abroad.
Sharaf Qutaifan, from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) said:
Through the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel attempts to bury the history of the indigenous people of Palestine, which was always home to groups with diverse cultures and religions. This is an extension of Israel’s policies of expulsion and cultural theft that it has carried out against Palestinians since its establishment. Israel has a troubling record of systematically looting Palestinian lands and properties, cultural treasures and even books and artworks, which continues until today.
We salute the Chilean students for pressuring the Anthropology Department of Alberto Hurtado University and the Social Sciences Faculty of University of Chile to take principled positions. Academic institutions should not lend their good names to Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights. We hope to see all Chilean universities fully free of Israeli apartheid.
BDS Chile celebrated the victory:
We welcome the decisions of Alberto Hurtado University and the University of Chile. The Palestinian people expect principled acts of solidarity in support of their human rights and the respect of international law. These cancellations demonstrate Chilean students’ determination to denounce Israel’s oppression and to work towards interrupting our universities’ ties with institutions complicit in Israeli apartheid.
This latest news is another stride in the growing academic boycott of Israel in Chile. Last year, law faculty students at the University of Chile overwhelmingly voted in support of BDS, as did more than 90% of the social sciences students. At the Catholic University of Chile, the Student Council also passed a BDS resolution by a large majority.
The cancellations are also another strike against the Israel Antiquities Authority. At the end of 2016, the 8th World Archaeological Congress published a resolution condemning Israel’s excavations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and called on international academic publishers to refuse publishing works related to archaeological research in those areas.
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. Visit PACBI at https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi and follow us on Twitter @PACBI
Student-led BDS campaigns resulted in two major Chilean universities canceling events co-sponsored by the Israeli embassy and featuring Joe Uziel, a director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). On Monday, Alberto Hurtado University’s Anthropology Department announced the cancellation of the event, and yesterday the University of Chile’s Social Sciences Faculty did the same.
BDS Chile highlighted the reasons behind the campaign to cancel the event:
Universities cannot be passive accomplices in grave human rights violations. The State of Israel maintains an illegal occupation, colonization and apartheid regime against the Palestinian people, and the Israeli Embassy is this regime’s representative in Chile. In addition, the Israel Antiquities Authority is a government entity illegally based in occupied East Jerusalem that carries out illegal excavations in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Some of these illegal excavations are directed by the invited speaker, Joe Uziel.
The confiscation and theft of Palestinian cultural heritage are part of Israel’s attempts to erase Palestinian memory and cultural identity. Since 1967, the IAA has been deeply involved in cultural crimes and serious violations of international law, such as illegally removing and plundering hundreds of thousands of precious artifacts from the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem. Fearing BDS campaigns, Israel has been trying to prevent information about archeological work in the OPT from being made public and to whitewash these violations by promoting events like these abroad.
Sharaf Qutaifan, from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) said:
Through the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel attempts to bury the history of the indigenous people of Palestine, which was always home to groups with diverse cultures and religions. This is an extension of Israel’s policies of expulsion and cultural theft that it has carried out against Palestinians since its establishment. Israel has a troubling record of systematically looting Palestinian lands and properties, cultural treasures and even books and artworks, which continues until today.
We salute the Chilean students for pressuring the Anthropology Department of Alberto Hurtado University and the Social Sciences Faculty of University of Chile to take principled positions. Academic institutions should not lend their good names to Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights. We hope to see all Chilean universities fully free of Israeli apartheid.
BDS Chile celebrated the victory:
We welcome the decisions of Alberto Hurtado University and the University of Chile. The Palestinian people expect principled acts of solidarity in support of their human rights and the respect of international law. These cancellations demonstrate Chilean students’ determination to denounce Israel’s oppression and to work towards interrupting our universities’ ties with institutions complicit in Israeli apartheid.
This latest news is another stride in the growing academic boycott of Israel in Chile. Last year, law faculty students at the University of Chile overwhelmingly voted in support of BDS, as did more than 90% of the social sciences students. At the Catholic University of Chile, the Student Council also passed a BDS resolution by a large majority.
The cancellations are also another strike against the Israel Antiquities Authority. At the end of 2016, the 8th World Archaeological Congress published a resolution condemning Israel’s excavations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and called on international academic publishers to refuse publishing works related to archaeological research in those areas.
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. Visit PACBI at https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi and follow us on Twitter @PACBI
7 june 2017
Amnesty International launched a campaign Wednesday to press the international community to boycott goods produced in illegal Israeli West Bank settlement outposts.
“The international community must ban the import of all goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements and put an end to the multimillion dollar profits that have fuelled mass human rights violations against Palestinians,” said Amnesty International.
“To mark the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, the organization is launching a new campaign calling on states across the world to prohibit settlement goods from their markets and to prevent their companies from operating in settlements or trading in settlement goods,” the report read.
“For decades, the world has stood by as Israel has destroyed Palestinians’ homes and plundered their land and natural resources for profit. While the Palestinian economy has been stunted by 50 years of abusive policies, a thriving multimillion dollar settlement enterprise has been built out of the systematic oppression of the Palestinian population,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
“Fifty years on, merely condemning Israel’s settlement expansion is not enough. It’s time for states to take concrete international action to stop the financing of settlements which themselves flagrantly violate international law and constitute war crimes,” added Shetty.
“Israel’s policy of settling Israeli civilians on occupied Palestinian land has led to a myriad of human rights violations,” warned Amnesty. “Tens of thousands of Palestinian homes and properties have been demolished by Israel and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced; many families were pushed out of their homes or land to clear areas for settlement construction. At least 100,000 hectares of Palestinian land have been appropriated for exclusive settlement use.”
According to Amnesty, Israel has also unlawfully seized control of Palestinian natural resources, such as water, fertile land, stone quarries and minerals, and diverted these to benefit settlement industries to produce agricultural products, construction materials and manufactured goods that are often exported abroad. At the same time, Israel has imposed arbitrary restrictions depriving Palestinians of access to and use of their own water, land and other resources, restricting their economic development and violating their economic and social rights.
“Across the West Bank, settlement infrastructure, including “settler-only” roads, have divided Palestinian towns and villages and have severely limited the ability of Palestinians to move around freely. Israel has also maintained an illegal air, sea and land blockade of the Gaza Strip for nearly 10 years, locking two million people into an area just under half the size of New York City,” the report further read.
“One of the tragedies of 50 years of ceaseless occupation-related violations is that the world has become accustomed to the shocking level of oppression and humiliation that Palestinians face in their daily lives in the occupied territories,” said Salil Shetty. “But how can states continue to allow financial backing to an inherently cruel, discriminatory and criminal settlement policy that enables Israeli settlers to live on stolen land in homes with irrigated lawns and swimming pools, while Palestinian communities on their doorstep are deprived of access to enough clean water or electricity to cover their basic needs?”
Amnesty urged all states to ensure respect for international humanitarian law and also not recognize or assist in any manner the illegal situation that Israel’s settlement policy has created and, in fact, to use their influence to stop such violations.
“States that continue to help settlements flourish economically are blatantly undermining their international obligations and the very policies they have pledged to uphold. It is a state’s duty under international law to ensure that their actions and those of their nationals do not recognize or aid illegal situations or acts,” said Salil Shetty.
Over decades, multiple UN resolutions have confirmed that Israeli settlements violate international law. Most recently, a UN Security Council resolution was passed in December 2016 calling on Israel to cease all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The resolution also called on all states to distinguish in all their dealings between the state of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.
Despite this, Israel has accelerated its expansion and support of settlements in recent months, announcing plans for thousands of new homes in existing settlements, as well as plans to build thousands more homes in two new settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“Israel has made it abundantly clear that maintaining and expanding settlements takes priority over respect for international law. It’s time for the world to send a clear message that it will no longer tolerate the Israeli authorities’ blatant disregard for international law,” said Salil Shetty.
“The international community must ban the import of all goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements and put an end to the multimillion dollar profits that have fuelled mass human rights violations against Palestinians,” said Amnesty International.
“To mark the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, the organization is launching a new campaign calling on states across the world to prohibit settlement goods from their markets and to prevent their companies from operating in settlements or trading in settlement goods,” the report read.
“For decades, the world has stood by as Israel has destroyed Palestinians’ homes and plundered their land and natural resources for profit. While the Palestinian economy has been stunted by 50 years of abusive policies, a thriving multimillion dollar settlement enterprise has been built out of the systematic oppression of the Palestinian population,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
“Fifty years on, merely condemning Israel’s settlement expansion is not enough. It’s time for states to take concrete international action to stop the financing of settlements which themselves flagrantly violate international law and constitute war crimes,” added Shetty.
“Israel’s policy of settling Israeli civilians on occupied Palestinian land has led to a myriad of human rights violations,” warned Amnesty. “Tens of thousands of Palestinian homes and properties have been demolished by Israel and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced; many families were pushed out of their homes or land to clear areas for settlement construction. At least 100,000 hectares of Palestinian land have been appropriated for exclusive settlement use.”
According to Amnesty, Israel has also unlawfully seized control of Palestinian natural resources, such as water, fertile land, stone quarries and minerals, and diverted these to benefit settlement industries to produce agricultural products, construction materials and manufactured goods that are often exported abroad. At the same time, Israel has imposed arbitrary restrictions depriving Palestinians of access to and use of their own water, land and other resources, restricting their economic development and violating their economic and social rights.
“Across the West Bank, settlement infrastructure, including “settler-only” roads, have divided Palestinian towns and villages and have severely limited the ability of Palestinians to move around freely. Israel has also maintained an illegal air, sea and land blockade of the Gaza Strip for nearly 10 years, locking two million people into an area just under half the size of New York City,” the report further read.
“One of the tragedies of 50 years of ceaseless occupation-related violations is that the world has become accustomed to the shocking level of oppression and humiliation that Palestinians face in their daily lives in the occupied territories,” said Salil Shetty. “But how can states continue to allow financial backing to an inherently cruel, discriminatory and criminal settlement policy that enables Israeli settlers to live on stolen land in homes with irrigated lawns and swimming pools, while Palestinian communities on their doorstep are deprived of access to enough clean water or electricity to cover their basic needs?”
Amnesty urged all states to ensure respect for international humanitarian law and also not recognize or assist in any manner the illegal situation that Israel’s settlement policy has created and, in fact, to use their influence to stop such violations.
“States that continue to help settlements flourish economically are blatantly undermining their international obligations and the very policies they have pledged to uphold. It is a state’s duty under international law to ensure that their actions and those of their nationals do not recognize or aid illegal situations or acts,” said Salil Shetty.
Over decades, multiple UN resolutions have confirmed that Israeli settlements violate international law. Most recently, a UN Security Council resolution was passed in December 2016 calling on Israel to cease all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The resolution also called on all states to distinguish in all their dealings between the state of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.
Despite this, Israel has accelerated its expansion and support of settlements in recent months, announcing plans for thousands of new homes in existing settlements, as well as plans to build thousands more homes in two new settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“Israel has made it abundantly clear that maintaining and expanding settlements takes priority over respect for international law. It’s time for the world to send a clear message that it will no longer tolerate the Israeli authorities’ blatant disregard for international law,” said Salil Shetty.
5 june 2017
The head of the national committee for the boycott, divestment and sanctioning of Israel, Mahmoud Nawaja, on Sunday, through Voice of Palestine radio, called for intensifying the activity of the BDS movement in various fields, in order to pressure and isolate Israel.
This came in response to a decision by Israeli Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan, to step up campaigns against the movement and allocate $20 million to confront and prevent its continuation.
This, according to the PNN, is in addition to the formation of committees of thousands of volunteers to monitor its website and attempting to penetrate and defame its members.
In the recent past, the Israeli government has launched programs to pay students to promote their agenda on Facebook and similar internet chat rooms.
Students participating in the program were offered a two thousand dollar stipend to spend five hours a week online promoting talking points provided by the Israeli government. Other students have received education grants for such activities.
This came in response to a decision by Israeli Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan, to step up campaigns against the movement and allocate $20 million to confront and prevent its continuation.
This, according to the PNN, is in addition to the formation of committees of thousands of volunteers to monitor its website and attempting to penetrate and defame its members.
In the recent past, the Israeli government has launched programs to pay students to promote their agenda on Facebook and similar internet chat rooms.
Students participating in the program were offered a two thousand dollar stipend to spend five hours a week online promoting talking points provided by the Israeli government. Other students have received education grants for such activities.
