1 dec 2018
PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi: “We call on the EBU to respect the Palestinian people’s rights and to not broadcast any Eurovision Song Contest events in Israel’s illegal settlements…”
Giving Israel the privilege of hosting the 2019 Eurovision amounts to rewarding it for and helping it to conceal its decades-old military occupation and grave violations of Palestinian national and human rights. At the very least, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) must ensure that Israel’s illegal settlements throughout the occupied Palestinian territory are strictly excluded from any broadcast of the Eurovision activities.
The UN Security Council has repeatedly affirmed that Israel’s settlement enterprise constitutes a “flagrant violation” of international law and has “no legal validity,” and has rejected Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem as “illegal” and “as null and void.” The European Union also has a long-standing policy that strongly opposes the illegal settlements.
Therefore, the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, demands that the EBU oblige all of its members and associate members, especially Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, to not broadcast any Eurovision Song Contest events in Israel’s illegal settlements, including those in occupied East Jerusalem. This is the minimum that the EBU must do to be in compliance with the obligations of non-state actors, including businesses and organizations, under international law and European policy, particularly given the unprecedented escalation of Israel’s unlawful unilateralism and criminal behavior.
The recently adopted ‘Jewish Nation-State’ law, for instance, has given Israel license to apartheid, discrimination and ethnic cleansing at the expense of the Palestinian people. Such racist and prejudicial legislation is illegal by all standards of international law, democracy, humanity, justice, tolerance, and inclusion. The extremist government coalition in Israel has once again exposed its true character by demonstrating that it is bent on sustaining an official policy of ethnic purity and supremacy, thereby regulating the indigenous Palestinian citizens to an inferior-class status.
Such legislation also affirms Israel’s willful intent, with blind support from the current US administration, to omit the Palestinian narrative, presence and continuity on the land, while actively eradicating the history, culture and identity of the Palestinian people. Despite all Israeli efforts at erasing our rights and our identity, the Palestinian people’s determination to remain on our land and our commitment to the global principles of justice, freedom and self-determination are a remarkable tribute to Palestinian resilience and humanity.
The EBU has an obligation to ensure that it does not provide a platform for the legitimization and/or normalization of the illegal system of colonization in Palestine. The EBU must also understand that it is legally accountable to the act of profiteering from this illegal system of colonization, directly or indirectly.
I conclude by reiterating my call to the EBU to respect the Palestinian people’s rights, as recognized by the multilateral legal and political system, and to comply with its moral and legal obligations not to support, directly or indirectly, any violations of international law.
November 30, 2018, PLO
Giving Israel the privilege of hosting the 2019 Eurovision amounts to rewarding it for and helping it to conceal its decades-old military occupation and grave violations of Palestinian national and human rights. At the very least, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) must ensure that Israel’s illegal settlements throughout the occupied Palestinian territory are strictly excluded from any broadcast of the Eurovision activities.
The UN Security Council has repeatedly affirmed that Israel’s settlement enterprise constitutes a “flagrant violation” of international law and has “no legal validity,” and has rejected Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem as “illegal” and “as null and void.” The European Union also has a long-standing policy that strongly opposes the illegal settlements.
Therefore, the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, demands that the EBU oblige all of its members and associate members, especially Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, to not broadcast any Eurovision Song Contest events in Israel’s illegal settlements, including those in occupied East Jerusalem. This is the minimum that the EBU must do to be in compliance with the obligations of non-state actors, including businesses and organizations, under international law and European policy, particularly given the unprecedented escalation of Israel’s unlawful unilateralism and criminal behavior.
The recently adopted ‘Jewish Nation-State’ law, for instance, has given Israel license to apartheid, discrimination and ethnic cleansing at the expense of the Palestinian people. Such racist and prejudicial legislation is illegal by all standards of international law, democracy, humanity, justice, tolerance, and inclusion. The extremist government coalition in Israel has once again exposed its true character by demonstrating that it is bent on sustaining an official policy of ethnic purity and supremacy, thereby regulating the indigenous Palestinian citizens to an inferior-class status.
Such legislation also affirms Israel’s willful intent, with blind support from the current US administration, to omit the Palestinian narrative, presence and continuity on the land, while actively eradicating the history, culture and identity of the Palestinian people. Despite all Israeli efforts at erasing our rights and our identity, the Palestinian people’s determination to remain on our land and our commitment to the global principles of justice, freedom and self-determination are a remarkable tribute to Palestinian resilience and humanity.
The EBU has an obligation to ensure that it does not provide a platform for the legitimization and/or normalization of the illegal system of colonization in Palestine. The EBU must also understand that it is legally accountable to the act of profiteering from this illegal system of colonization, directly or indirectly.
I conclude by reiterating my call to the EBU to respect the Palestinian people’s rights, as recognized by the multilateral legal and political system, and to comply with its moral and legal obligations not to support, directly or indirectly, any violations of international law.
November 30, 2018, PLO
30 nov 2018
With an overwhelming majority, the National Congress of Chile approved a resolution demanding the government “forbid the entry of products manufactured and coming from Israeli colonies in the occupied Palestinian territory.” The resolution had 99 votes in favor and only 7 against.
The resolution was debated as part of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The text states that “since 1947 there has been a permanent expulsion of Palestinians and loss of their territory, which made impossible the full exercise of the right to national sovereignty held by the Palestinian People.”
Mahmoud Nawajaa, from the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) welcomed the decision:
We are glad that the Chilean Congress has marked the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People with concrete measures of solidarity and respect for international law. We urge the Chilean government to respect the Congress resolution and make sure that no products from illegal Israeli settlements are allowed into the country.
Israel’s entire economy benefits from its illegal apartheid, colonization and occupation policies. It is time for all countries in Latin America and around the world to end their complicity with Israel’s violations of international law. Banning products from illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land is hardly enough. To fulfill its moral and legal obligations, Chile should also implement an urgent military embargo on Israel.
The BDS movement has been steadily growing in Chile. Earlier this year, the Chilean city of Valdivia became the first Latin American city to declare itself an “Israeli Apartheid Free Zone” (AFZ). Last year, students at University of Chile’s Faculty of Medicine voted to break institutional ties with Israeli universities, following similar decisions by Social Sciences and Law faculty students.
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.
The resolution was debated as part of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The text states that “since 1947 there has been a permanent expulsion of Palestinians and loss of their territory, which made impossible the full exercise of the right to national sovereignty held by the Palestinian People.”
Mahmoud Nawajaa, from the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) welcomed the decision:
We are glad that the Chilean Congress has marked the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People with concrete measures of solidarity and respect for international law. We urge the Chilean government to respect the Congress resolution and make sure that no products from illegal Israeli settlements are allowed into the country.
Israel’s entire economy benefits from its illegal apartheid, colonization and occupation policies. It is time for all countries in Latin America and around the world to end their complicity with Israel’s violations of international law. Banning products from illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land is hardly enough. To fulfill its moral and legal obligations, Chile should also implement an urgent military embargo on Israel.
The BDS movement has been steadily growing in Chile. Earlier this year, the Chilean city of Valdivia became the first Latin American city to declare itself an “Israeli Apartheid Free Zone” (AFZ). Last year, students at University of Chile’s Faculty of Medicine voted to break institutional ties with Israeli universities, following similar decisions by Social Sciences and Law faculty students.
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.
29 nov 2018
The Irish Senate on Wednesday approved another stage in the legislation to boycott the sale of products and services from Israeli settlements.
The bill submitted by senator Frances Black was approved by a vote of 30-13. In July, the Senate approved the same bill in a preliminary reading. At the time, 25 parliament members voted in favor, 20 opposed and 14 abstained.
The bill prohibits the export and selling of products and services which come from "illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The bill must return to the Senate (Seanad Eireann) for one more vote before it moves to the House (Dail Eireann) for approval.
However, the legislation finally needs the signature of the Irish president before it becomes law.
The bill submitted by senator Frances Black was approved by a vote of 30-13. In July, the Senate approved the same bill in a preliminary reading. At the time, 25 parliament members voted in favor, 20 opposed and 14 abstained.
The bill prohibits the export and selling of products and services which come from "illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The bill must return to the Senate (Seanad Eireann) for one more vote before it moves to the House (Dail Eireann) for approval.
However, the legislation finally needs the signature of the Irish president before it becomes law.
Earlier this month, Faculty at Pitzer College in California overwhelmingly voted to pass two motions providing support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights.
In the first motion, faculty rejected a decision taken last year by the college’s president and trustees to nullify a Student Senate resolution in support of BDS.
This Student Senate resolution, passed in April 2017, resolved to stop any funds for student activities from being used to purchase goods from companies complicit in Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestinian territories.
In the second motion, faculty called on Pitzer College to suspend its academic exchange program with the University of Haifa until Israel stops restricting entry based on ancestry or political speech and “adopts policies granting visas for exchanges to Palestinian universities on a fully equal basis as it does to Israeli universities.”
Daniel Segal, Jean M. Pitzer Professor of Anthropology and Professor of History, explained:
“As Pitzer College faculty, we have overwhelmingly voted to express that it’s unacceptable for our college President and Board of Trustees to violate the Student Senate’s autonomy in controlling its funds, singling out student concerns about the college’s relationship to Palestine and Israel as a basis for interference. This is the first time in the history of Pitzer College that there have been efforts to override students’ autonomy in deciding how to dispense their funds. It’s antidemocratic and unprincipled. The Pitzer Board is trying to apply a “Palestine exception” to free expression.
What’s important here is not just the outcome, which is clear faculty support for Palestinian rights. What’s also important is that the Pitzer faculty voted after educating itself about the realities of Palestinian lives and the policies and practices of the Israeli state. My Pitzer faculty colleagues have, in short, fulfilled their responsibilities as intellectuals.”
Professor Samia Botmeh, Dean at Birzeit University in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and leading activist with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), said:
“Faculty and students at Pitzer College are standing up for Palestinian rights at a critical time. Israel’s attacks on Palestinian education are not new, but over the last two years, they have been escalating.
I have colleagues with foreign passports, including senior faculty teaching at my university for years, who are being denied visas or visa renewals. Israel is forcing academics teaching in occupied Palestine to abandon their lives and students. Many of them have Palestinian origins, all face the threat of being forced out because of their ethnicity or their commitment to Palestinian education.
Israel is also turning away many of our international students at the borders, preventing them from registering for classes or continuing their studies in Palestine.
Israel’s repression of Palestinian academic freedom and disruption of Palestinian education is part and parcel of its military rule over us and effort to control every aspect of our lives.
It’s heartening to see fellow academics around the world rise to the occasion and make sure that they and their institutions are not complicit in this harm to Palestinian education and life. It’s a professional and ethical responsibility.”
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.
In the first motion, faculty rejected a decision taken last year by the college’s president and trustees to nullify a Student Senate resolution in support of BDS.
This Student Senate resolution, passed in April 2017, resolved to stop any funds for student activities from being used to purchase goods from companies complicit in Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestinian territories.
In the second motion, faculty called on Pitzer College to suspend its academic exchange program with the University of Haifa until Israel stops restricting entry based on ancestry or political speech and “adopts policies granting visas for exchanges to Palestinian universities on a fully equal basis as it does to Israeli universities.”
Daniel Segal, Jean M. Pitzer Professor of Anthropology and Professor of History, explained:
“As Pitzer College faculty, we have overwhelmingly voted to express that it’s unacceptable for our college President and Board of Trustees to violate the Student Senate’s autonomy in controlling its funds, singling out student concerns about the college’s relationship to Palestine and Israel as a basis for interference. This is the first time in the history of Pitzer College that there have been efforts to override students’ autonomy in deciding how to dispense their funds. It’s antidemocratic and unprincipled. The Pitzer Board is trying to apply a “Palestine exception” to free expression.
What’s important here is not just the outcome, which is clear faculty support for Palestinian rights. What’s also important is that the Pitzer faculty voted after educating itself about the realities of Palestinian lives and the policies and practices of the Israeli state. My Pitzer faculty colleagues have, in short, fulfilled their responsibilities as intellectuals.”
Professor Samia Botmeh, Dean at Birzeit University in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and leading activist with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), said:
“Faculty and students at Pitzer College are standing up for Palestinian rights at a critical time. Israel’s attacks on Palestinian education are not new, but over the last two years, they have been escalating.
I have colleagues with foreign passports, including senior faculty teaching at my university for years, who are being denied visas or visa renewals. Israel is forcing academics teaching in occupied Palestine to abandon their lives and students. Many of them have Palestinian origins, all face the threat of being forced out because of their ethnicity or their commitment to Palestinian education.
Israel is also turning away many of our international students at the borders, preventing them from registering for classes or continuing their studies in Palestine.
Israel’s repression of Palestinian academic freedom and disruption of Palestinian education is part and parcel of its military rule over us and effort to control every aspect of our lives.
It’s heartening to see fellow academics around the world rise to the occasion and make sure that they and their institutions are not complicit in this harm to Palestinian education and life. It’s a professional and ethical responsibility.”
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.
28 nov 2018
Pressure from activists of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has led organizers of an academic conference in South Africa to cancel invitations to Israeli participants.
Entitled “Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation: The Light and Shadow of Historical Trauma,” the conference is set to take place next week at Stellenbosch University.
In a letter calling on the organizers to disinvite the Israelis, BDS activists cited the nation-state law, many other egregious violations of basic human rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the draconian laws of Israel's military administration in the West Bank and Gaza. The signatories to the letter included the South African Jews for a Free Palestine organization.
Seven academics from three Israeli universities – the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev – were supposed to attend.
Entitled “Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation: The Light and Shadow of Historical Trauma,” the conference is set to take place next week at Stellenbosch University.
In a letter calling on the organizers to disinvite the Israelis, BDS activists cited the nation-state law, many other egregious violations of basic human rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the draconian laws of Israel's military administration in the West Bank and Gaza. The signatories to the letter included the South African Jews for a Free Palestine organization.
Seven academics from three Israeli universities – the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev – were supposed to attend.
26 nov 2018
Several South African pro-Palestine solidarity groups are calling for the withdrawal of the participation of Israeli academics at a conference to be held at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa from 5-9 December.
Entitled “Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation: The Light and Shadow of Historical Trauma”, the aim of the conference is to deepen understanding of trans-generational trauma, and develop strategies to deal with the repercussions of genocide, colonial oppression, and mass violence.
The conference committee is chaired by award-winning author and scholar, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, and the 4-day gathering features several prominent academics and activists, including Achille Mbembe, Homi Bhaba, Albie Sachs, Zackie Achmat and Lindiwe Hani. The closing ceremony will celebrate 20 years of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“We are unequivocal in our support for the conference, and this is not an appeal to boycott the conference as a whole,” says Roshan Dadoo from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
“However, the participation of Israeli academics at a conference of such moral and intellectual significance is unacceptable, given the role that Israeli academic institutions play in planning, executing, justifying and whitewashing the Israeli state’s abuse of Palestinian human rights, numerous violations of international law - and even war crimes,” explained Dadoo.
In a statement, the groups are calling on the conference organizers, speakers, participants and sponsors to support the rationale of the Palestinian call for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel.
“The rationale for the call of the cultural and academic boycott of Israel is for Israel to extend full human and civil rights to all citizens of Israel, to end the occupation and enable the Palestinian right to return. Notably, all these demands are consistent with international humanitarian law,” says Dadoo.
“The heart of the statement represents a call of conscience” says Dr. Stiaan van der Merwe from Kairos Southern Africa, a Christian group in support of the Palestinian liberation struggle.
According to van der Merwe, the pro-Palestine groups are calling on organizers, and others associated with the conference, to act courageously in a show of moral, political and historical conscience. “We are calling on them to honor the South African and international history of struggle against apartheid; to act in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid and its occupation of Palestine; and to honor the integrity and importance of the conference theme.”
According to Dadoo, none of the Israeli delegates are known for having publicly supported the reasons for the academic boycott of Israel. “We therefore must assume that they remain part of the silent majority implicated in a currently-unfolding historical trauma.”
The statement also notes the seeming absence of authentic Palestinian academics.
One conference participant, Mohammed Dajani, visited South Africa in 2016 as a guest of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies as a counter to the annual global Palestine solidarity event, ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’. According to the statement, Dajani was promoted by the pro-Israel lobby to posit a so-called ‘moderate’ Palestinian line, much as Bantustan and other figures were used by the South African apartheid regime to break international boycotts and sanctions and promote the idea that apartheid was a political dispute in which there were two equal sides in conflict.
“It is inconceivable that a conference dedicated to understanding historic trauma would only include the voices of Israeli academics,” says Stellenbosch psychology professor, Ashraf Kagee. Kagee conducts capacity-building work with a community mental health program in the Gaza Strip where he has seen first-hand the traumatic effects of Israel’s brutal military attacks on the besieged coastal enclave.
“If this conference on historical trauma turns away from the fact that the State of Israel is conducting a war against the Palestinian people’s very right to exist and is silent on this matter, then there can be little meaningful contribution to knowledge on the recognition of past and current world traumas, on the politics of remembering and interpreting historical and current traumas, and on articulating different understandings of reparations for the too many horrors of the 20th and 21st centuries,” cautioned Kagee.
“We take no pleasure in having to make this call,” says van der Merwe. “Sad as it might be towards the individuals as colleagues and as fellow human beings, we cannot avoid this difficult moment by calling for a strong message of solidarity with Palestinians and with resistance to Israeli apartheid and against the historic trauma currently perpetuated.”
Source: Afro-Palestine Newswire Service
Entitled “Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation: The Light and Shadow of Historical Trauma”, the aim of the conference is to deepen understanding of trans-generational trauma, and develop strategies to deal with the repercussions of genocide, colonial oppression, and mass violence.
The conference committee is chaired by award-winning author and scholar, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, and the 4-day gathering features several prominent academics and activists, including Achille Mbembe, Homi Bhaba, Albie Sachs, Zackie Achmat and Lindiwe Hani. The closing ceremony will celebrate 20 years of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“We are unequivocal in our support for the conference, and this is not an appeal to boycott the conference as a whole,” says Roshan Dadoo from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
“However, the participation of Israeli academics at a conference of such moral and intellectual significance is unacceptable, given the role that Israeli academic institutions play in planning, executing, justifying and whitewashing the Israeli state’s abuse of Palestinian human rights, numerous violations of international law - and even war crimes,” explained Dadoo.
In a statement, the groups are calling on the conference organizers, speakers, participants and sponsors to support the rationale of the Palestinian call for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel.
“The rationale for the call of the cultural and academic boycott of Israel is for Israel to extend full human and civil rights to all citizens of Israel, to end the occupation and enable the Palestinian right to return. Notably, all these demands are consistent with international humanitarian law,” says Dadoo.
“The heart of the statement represents a call of conscience” says Dr. Stiaan van der Merwe from Kairos Southern Africa, a Christian group in support of the Palestinian liberation struggle.
According to van der Merwe, the pro-Palestine groups are calling on organizers, and others associated with the conference, to act courageously in a show of moral, political and historical conscience. “We are calling on them to honor the South African and international history of struggle against apartheid; to act in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid and its occupation of Palestine; and to honor the integrity and importance of the conference theme.”
According to Dadoo, none of the Israeli delegates are known for having publicly supported the reasons for the academic boycott of Israel. “We therefore must assume that they remain part of the silent majority implicated in a currently-unfolding historical trauma.”
The statement also notes the seeming absence of authentic Palestinian academics.
One conference participant, Mohammed Dajani, visited South Africa in 2016 as a guest of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies as a counter to the annual global Palestine solidarity event, ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’. According to the statement, Dajani was promoted by the pro-Israel lobby to posit a so-called ‘moderate’ Palestinian line, much as Bantustan and other figures were used by the South African apartheid regime to break international boycotts and sanctions and promote the idea that apartheid was a political dispute in which there were two equal sides in conflict.
“It is inconceivable that a conference dedicated to understanding historic trauma would only include the voices of Israeli academics,” says Stellenbosch psychology professor, Ashraf Kagee. Kagee conducts capacity-building work with a community mental health program in the Gaza Strip where he has seen first-hand the traumatic effects of Israel’s brutal military attacks on the besieged coastal enclave.
“If this conference on historical trauma turns away from the fact that the State of Israel is conducting a war against the Palestinian people’s very right to exist and is silent on this matter, then there can be little meaningful contribution to knowledge on the recognition of past and current world traumas, on the politics of remembering and interpreting historical and current traumas, and on articulating different understandings of reparations for the too many horrors of the 20th and 21st centuries,” cautioned Kagee.
“We take no pleasure in having to make this call,” says van der Merwe. “Sad as it might be towards the individuals as colleagues and as fellow human beings, we cannot avoid this difficult moment by calling for a strong message of solidarity with Palestinians and with resistance to Israeli apartheid and against the historic trauma currently perpetuated.”
Source: Afro-Palestine Newswire Service