10 oct 2018
Israeli minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan, on Tuesday, said he would reconsider his official stance on denying entry to an American student over alleged links to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement if she publicly condemned a boycott of Israel.
Last week, Lara Alqasem was barred from entering the country despite obtaining a student visa from the Israeli constulate in Miami, because Israeli authorities claim she supported and took part in campaigns boycotting Israel. Since then, according to the PNN, she has been detained at Ben-Gurion Airport, pending a final ruling on her case. Her first appeal was denied. The second appeal is expected to be heard in the coming days.
In her testimony to the appeals court last week, Alqasem said, “I don’t support BDS. If I supported it, I wouldn’t be able to come to Israel as a student.”
According to Haaretz, the ministry’s profile of Alqasem was composed of several Facebook posts and a profile compiled by the controversial right-wing website Canary Mission.Erdan questioned Alqasem’s credibility, saying she erased her social network accounts before coming to Israel. He also criticized the “far-left, Meretz members,” as well as the Hebrew University, for cooperating with “the campaign of lies of the boycott activist.”
Speaking on Israeli army radio, Erdan said that if “Alqasem comes forward tomorrow morning with her own voice, not with all sorts of lawyers’ wisecracking and statements that could be construed this way or another – and declares that supporting BDS, she thinks today is illegitimate and she regrets what she did on this matter, we will consider our stance.”
Erdan insisted that Alqasem is not incarcerated, and may travel back to the U.S. whenever she wishes. He said any other portrayal of the situation was a “huge lie.”
On Monday, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s senate called on Erdan and Interior Minister Arye Dery to allow Alqasem into Israel.
In an unusual step, the university also asked to join Alqasem’s appeal to the district court against the decision to deport her.
“Beyond that it [the Hebrew University] gave a scholarship to someone whose activity in the U.S. is to violently silence voices in U.S. campuses … the Hebrew University assists her, giving her a tuition scholarship at the expense of other students and appeals to the court,” he said.
Last week, Lara Alqasem was barred from entering the country despite obtaining a student visa from the Israeli constulate in Miami, because Israeli authorities claim she supported and took part in campaigns boycotting Israel. Since then, according to the PNN, she has been detained at Ben-Gurion Airport, pending a final ruling on her case. Her first appeal was denied. The second appeal is expected to be heard in the coming days.
In her testimony to the appeals court last week, Alqasem said, “I don’t support BDS. If I supported it, I wouldn’t be able to come to Israel as a student.”
According to Haaretz, the ministry’s profile of Alqasem was composed of several Facebook posts and a profile compiled by the controversial right-wing website Canary Mission.Erdan questioned Alqasem’s credibility, saying she erased her social network accounts before coming to Israel. He also criticized the “far-left, Meretz members,” as well as the Hebrew University, for cooperating with “the campaign of lies of the boycott activist.”
Speaking on Israeli army radio, Erdan said that if “Alqasem comes forward tomorrow morning with her own voice, not with all sorts of lawyers’ wisecracking and statements that could be construed this way or another – and declares that supporting BDS, she thinks today is illegitimate and she regrets what she did on this matter, we will consider our stance.”
Erdan insisted that Alqasem is not incarcerated, and may travel back to the U.S. whenever she wishes. He said any other portrayal of the situation was a “huge lie.”
On Monday, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s senate called on Erdan and Interior Minister Arye Dery to allow Alqasem into Israel.
In an unusual step, the university also asked to join Alqasem’s appeal to the district court against the decision to deport her.
“Beyond that it [the Hebrew University] gave a scholarship to someone whose activity in the U.S. is to violently silence voices in U.S. campuses … the Hebrew University assists her, giving her a tuition scholarship at the expense of other students and appeals to the court,” he said.
7 oct 2018
Israel has denied entry to a University of Florida graduate, claiming the female student is involved with a group that urged a boycott against the country for its policies toward Palestinians, according to Israeli news reports.
Haaretz and The Times of Israel said that 22-year-old Lara al-Qasem, a US citizen with Palestinian grandparents, was prevented from entering Israel after she arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday.
Al-Qasem had been granted a student visa from the consulate general of Israel in Miami to study in a master’s program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Haaretz reported. The visa was valid for a year.
The consulate general confirmed on Thursday that the visa was issued in Miami.
Lior Haiat, the consul general of Israel in Miami, told the Miami Herald in a statement: “Every country has the sovereign right to decide who is admitted to enter its borders. Once we realized that Ms. Al-Qasem is involved in anti-Israel activities through the BDS movement, she was denied entry. She appealed to the Israeli courts and the case is still being reviewed.
We find it ironic that someone who calls on the indiscriminate boycott of Israel, as a tool to harm and destroy the state of Israel, wishes to study in the very country which they call to boycott.”
Reports from Israel say al-Qasem was detained and held at the airport by the immigration and border authority, which manages security at Israeli borders, and later ordered to leave the country.
According to these reports, the student had served as president of Students for Justice in Palestine when she was a student at the University of Florida in 2016-17.
Haaretz and The Times of Israel said that 22-year-old Lara al-Qasem, a US citizen with Palestinian grandparents, was prevented from entering Israel after she arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday.
Al-Qasem had been granted a student visa from the consulate general of Israel in Miami to study in a master’s program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Haaretz reported. The visa was valid for a year.
The consulate general confirmed on Thursday that the visa was issued in Miami.
Lior Haiat, the consul general of Israel in Miami, told the Miami Herald in a statement: “Every country has the sovereign right to decide who is admitted to enter its borders. Once we realized that Ms. Al-Qasem is involved in anti-Israel activities through the BDS movement, she was denied entry. She appealed to the Israeli courts and the case is still being reviewed.
We find it ironic that someone who calls on the indiscriminate boycott of Israel, as a tool to harm and destroy the state of Israel, wishes to study in the very country which they call to boycott.”
Reports from Israel say al-Qasem was detained and held at the airport by the immigration and border authority, which manages security at Israeli borders, and later ordered to leave the country.
According to these reports, the student had served as president of Students for Justice in Palestine when she was a student at the University of Florida in 2016-17.
6 oct 2018
October 5, 2018 — A Nobel Prize has been awarded to George P. Smith, a renowned scientist and longtime advocate for Palestinian rights who supports the BDS movement and has called for an end to US military aid to Israel.
The BDS movement congratulates Professor Smith.
Dr. Samia Botmeh, Dean at Birzeit University in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and leading activist in the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), said:
Congratulations to Professor George P. Smith for winning the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His principled commitments are evident in both his scientific work to protect human life and his support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights.
Professor Smith has consistently spoken out against Israel’s egregious violations of Palestinian human rights, and taken the extremely important step of calling on his government in the United States to end arms sales to the Israeli military. His call to end military aid to Israel is not only deeply principled, but a critical and effective form of solidarity that we hope to see multiplied.
The US government should be investing in human needs, including health, education and dignified jobs, rather than giving Israel $3.8 billion in military aid a year to repress and destroy Palestinian life.
Thank you Professor Smith for your inspiring solidarity.
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 BDS movement congratulates Professor Smith.
Dr. Samia Botmeh, Dean at Birzeit University in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and leading activist in the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), said:
Congratulations to Professor George P. Smith for winning the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His principled commitments are evident in both his scientific work to protect human life and his support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights.
Professor Smith has consistently spoken out against Israel’s egregious violations of Palestinian human rights, and taken the extremely important step of calling on his government in the United States to end arms sales to the Israeli military. His call to end military aid to Israel is not only deeply principled, but a critical and effective form of solidarity that we hope to see multiplied.
The US government should be investing in human needs, including health, education and dignified jobs, rather than giving Israel $3.8 billion in military aid a year to repress and destroy Palestinian life.
Thank you Professor Smith for your inspiring solidarity.
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.
4 oct 2018
October 3, 2018 / Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)/ Europe
The European Union’s program “Israeli and Palestinian Young Leaders at the European Parliament” cynically aims at reducing 70 years of Palestinian suffering under Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid to a “conflict” that can be resolved through dialogue.
On the 13th of August 2018, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel sent a letter to Mr. Ralph Tarraf, the Head of the EU delegation in the West Bank and Gaza, among other EU officials, regarding the EU program “Israeli and Palestinian Young Leaders at the European Parliament”. The letter pointed out that the program violates the relevant BDS guidelines agreed upon by the vast majority of Palestinian civil society.
The letter also stated that the EU and its programs are highly complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights and international law. This program cynically aims at reducing 70 years of Palestinian suffering under Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid to a “conflict” that can be resolved through dialogue.
The letter called on the EU to end all forms of complicity and to halt all its normalization programs.
The campaign has received no answer from the EU delegation. We therefore share the letter publicly so that Palestinians and Europeans alike will realize how harmful these EU-funded normalization projects are to the popular Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.
PACBI calls on all Palestinian participants to withdraw from this normalization project to avoid becoming themselves complicit in undermining the Palestinian struggle for our inalienable rights under international law.
Subject: Israeli and Palestinian Young Leaders at the European Parliament
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a member of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society, would like to point out that your program “Israeli and Palestinian Young Leaders at the European Parliament” to be held in December of this year, as we learned, violates the boycott and anti- normalization guidelines agreed on by the vast majority of Palestinian civil society.
This program aims at bringing together Palestinian and Israeli young leaders on a joint trip to the EU headquarters, to familiarize them with the mechanisms and different bodies of the Union. The participants will then engage in joint discussions with members and representatives of the EU, encouraging them to share their views on the future of the “conflict” with their Israeli and European counterparts. The reduction of 70 years that Palestinians have suffered under a settler colonial occupation, to a conflict resulting from a psychological barrier that could be eliminated by joint dialogue amongst two equal parties, which this program tries to achieve, falls under the definition of normalization, an act rejected by Palestinian civil society.
These attempts give a false and distorted picture of the Israeli occupation and Apartheid regime, which has recently escalated its ethnic cleansing policies against Palestinians, i.e. what is happening now in Khan Al- Ahmar, the Jordan Valley and Negev.
During a time in which Israel is adopting the racist “Jewish nation-state” law, which turns apartheid’s policy into a constitutional law, and while it continues its crimes against peaceful Palestinian demonstrators in the Gaza Strip for the right of return and ending the siege, the EU must stop its disgraceful complicity with these crimes instead of financing projects aimed at covering the face of this colonial and racist system.
The EU maintains a network of military relations, arms research, banking transactions [pdf] and trade with settlements, and with Israeli companies, banks and institutions deeply complicit in human rights violations. For example, the EU imports goods from Israeli settlements with an annual estimated value of $300 million [pdf]. This is more than 17 times the average annual value [pdf] of Palestinian goods imported by the EU between 2004 and 2014.
Through its program “Horizon 2020”, the EU has approved more than 200 projects in collaboration with Israeli companies such as Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, accused of deep complicity with Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. The other beneficiary of EU funding is the Technion, a major center for the development of Israeli weapons systems used to commit crimes against Palestinian civilians.
European banks continue their trade relations with Israeli banks [pdf], despite the central role played by the latter in financing, providing services, or supporting illegal settlements established by Israel in occupied Palestinian territory (or Syria). A recent report by “Human Rights Watch” concluded that “companies can not fulfill their human rights responsibilities if they continue to carry out activities inside or for the [Israeli] settlements.”
Despite the pressure placed on the EU by hundreds of trade unions, European civil society organizations and more than 60 members of the European Parliament, it still has stubbornly refused to enforce the human rights clause in the FTA with Israel. This continued even after a legal report published by a UN agency last year revealed that Israel had established a system of apartheid against the entire Palestinian people. Apartheid is the second most serious crime against humanity in international law.
The EU continued support for the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime makes it a partner in crime, despite its occasional empty declarations calling for the achievement of a just peace that respects the rules of international law and the principles of human rights. Therefore, we call on the EU to stop all aspects of its complicity with Israel’s occupation and apartheid. We also call on it to stop all similar normalization projects aimed at perpetuating this occupation regime, at a time when the European people are calling for holding it accountable and imposing sanctions on it. Such a call is similar to those imposed on the apartheid regime in South Africa in the past, and on some countries nowadays, for their violations of human rights.
If the EU is indeed concerned with playing a positive role in supporting the march of freedom, justice, equality and human rights of the Palestinian people, then, the time has come for it to end its complicity and double standards.
Via the official BDS National Committee website.
The European Union’s program “Israeli and Palestinian Young Leaders at the European Parliament” cynically aims at reducing 70 years of Palestinian suffering under Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid to a “conflict” that can be resolved through dialogue.
On the 13th of August 2018, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel sent a letter to Mr. Ralph Tarraf, the Head of the EU delegation in the West Bank and Gaza, among other EU officials, regarding the EU program “Israeli and Palestinian Young Leaders at the European Parliament”. The letter pointed out that the program violates the relevant BDS guidelines agreed upon by the vast majority of Palestinian civil society.
The letter also stated that the EU and its programs are highly complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights and international law. This program cynically aims at reducing 70 years of Palestinian suffering under Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid to a “conflict” that can be resolved through dialogue.
The letter called on the EU to end all forms of complicity and to halt all its normalization programs.
The campaign has received no answer from the EU delegation. We therefore share the letter publicly so that Palestinians and Europeans alike will realize how harmful these EU-funded normalization projects are to the popular Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.
PACBI calls on all Palestinian participants to withdraw from this normalization project to avoid becoming themselves complicit in undermining the Palestinian struggle for our inalienable rights under international law.
Subject: Israeli and Palestinian Young Leaders at the European Parliament
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a member of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society, would like to point out that your program “Israeli and Palestinian Young Leaders at the European Parliament” to be held in December of this year, as we learned, violates the boycott and anti- normalization guidelines agreed on by the vast majority of Palestinian civil society.
This program aims at bringing together Palestinian and Israeli young leaders on a joint trip to the EU headquarters, to familiarize them with the mechanisms and different bodies of the Union. The participants will then engage in joint discussions with members and representatives of the EU, encouraging them to share their views on the future of the “conflict” with their Israeli and European counterparts. The reduction of 70 years that Palestinians have suffered under a settler colonial occupation, to a conflict resulting from a psychological barrier that could be eliminated by joint dialogue amongst two equal parties, which this program tries to achieve, falls under the definition of normalization, an act rejected by Palestinian civil society.
These attempts give a false and distorted picture of the Israeli occupation and Apartheid regime, which has recently escalated its ethnic cleansing policies against Palestinians, i.e. what is happening now in Khan Al- Ahmar, the Jordan Valley and Negev.
During a time in which Israel is adopting the racist “Jewish nation-state” law, which turns apartheid’s policy into a constitutional law, and while it continues its crimes against peaceful Palestinian demonstrators in the Gaza Strip for the right of return and ending the siege, the EU must stop its disgraceful complicity with these crimes instead of financing projects aimed at covering the face of this colonial and racist system.
The EU maintains a network of military relations, arms research, banking transactions [pdf] and trade with settlements, and with Israeli companies, banks and institutions deeply complicit in human rights violations. For example, the EU imports goods from Israeli settlements with an annual estimated value of $300 million [pdf]. This is more than 17 times the average annual value [pdf] of Palestinian goods imported by the EU between 2004 and 2014.
Through its program “Horizon 2020”, the EU has approved more than 200 projects in collaboration with Israeli companies such as Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, accused of deep complicity with Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. The other beneficiary of EU funding is the Technion, a major center for the development of Israeli weapons systems used to commit crimes against Palestinian civilians.
European banks continue their trade relations with Israeli banks [pdf], despite the central role played by the latter in financing, providing services, or supporting illegal settlements established by Israel in occupied Palestinian territory (or Syria). A recent report by “Human Rights Watch” concluded that “companies can not fulfill their human rights responsibilities if they continue to carry out activities inside or for the [Israeli] settlements.”
Despite the pressure placed on the EU by hundreds of trade unions, European civil society organizations and more than 60 members of the European Parliament, it still has stubbornly refused to enforce the human rights clause in the FTA with Israel. This continued even after a legal report published by a UN agency last year revealed that Israel had established a system of apartheid against the entire Palestinian people. Apartheid is the second most serious crime against humanity in international law.
The EU continued support for the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime makes it a partner in crime, despite its occasional empty declarations calling for the achievement of a just peace that respects the rules of international law and the principles of human rights. Therefore, we call on the EU to stop all aspects of its complicity with Israel’s occupation and apartheid. We also call on it to stop all similar normalization projects aimed at perpetuating this occupation regime, at a time when the European people are calling for holding it accountable and imposing sanctions on it. Such a call is similar to those imposed on the apartheid regime in South Africa in the past, and on some countries nowadays, for their violations of human rights.
If the EU is indeed concerned with playing a positive role in supporting the march of freedom, justice, equality and human rights of the Palestinian people, then, the time has come for it to end its complicity and double standards.
Via the official BDS National Committee website.
27 sept 2018
Representatives of the Irish campaign for a boycott of Eurovision 2019 in Israel, on Wednesday, held a meeting with the Director General of RTÉ Dee Forbes.
At the meeting, at which Rory Coveney, Strategic Advisor to the Director General of RTÉ, and Michael Kealy, Head of RTÉ’s delegation for Eurovision, were also present, a petition signed by over 11,000 people was handed in.
The campaigners explained the strength and breadth of support for a boycott in Irish society – including from Irish and international public figures like Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Wolf Alice, Christy Moore, Mary Black, Charlie McGettigan, Mike Murphy, Carrie Crowley, Paul Brady and Doireann Ní Bhriain and many others – due to Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people.
During the meeting, the RTÉ representatives stated that they “will take away all that has been said and think about it,” and noted that there “will not be any sanction against anyone from within RTÉ who doesn’t wish travel on conscientious grounds.” RTÉ also said that they are “well aware that the Irish people are very concerned about and supportive of Palestinians” and that they “will not just be covering it as an entertainment event, and bearing in mind everything that has been discussed [they] will be covering it more widely.”
John Dorman, Vice Chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: “We thank RTÉ for meeting us today and allowing us the opportunity to speak on behalf of over 11,000 people who are deeply concerned about the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel and who are asking RTE not to have any involvement in the Eurovision if it is to be held in Israel in 2019.”
“RTÉ may argue that the Eurovision is a cultural event that should not be politicised but that is exactly what Israel is doing, shamelessly using the Eurovision as part of their Brand Israel strategy. Israel is determined to put forward a pretty face to hide its ugly regime of settler colonialism, apartheid and brutal military occupation.
RTE representing Ireland, the first country to say no to Apartheid South African 40 years ago, should now listen to the Irish people by taking a stand and saying No to Apartheid Israel by withdrawing from the Eurovision. This simple act of solidarity with the oppressed would send out a very powerful message to Israel that we will not stand on the wrong side of history and will support the Palestinian people in their darkest hour,” Mr. Dorman said.
Betty Purcell, well known former RTÉ producer and former member Irish Human Rights and Equality Commissioner said: “I am aware that a number of RTE journalists and programme personnel are deeply concerned about this. They are seeking trade union and legal advice on their position, should they refuse to travel to Apartheid Israel.
RTÉ has a chance here to be on the right side of history, to heed the petition of over 11,000 Irish people who would like their national broadcaster to refuse to support the whitewash of Israeli war crimes, and to not travel to Israel for Eurovision in 2019.”
Catherine Ann Cullen, a poet, former Eurovision judge and member of PalFest Ireland, and organisation that fosters cultural links between Irish and Palestinian artists, said: “As a signatory of the Irish Artists Boycott of Israel, which more than 630 cultural workers have signed, I am particularly concerned about fellow artists under Israeli occupation.
I was on the Irish Eurovision jury with Johnny Logan many years ago and it was a hugely enjoyable and light-hearted experience. Taking any part in a Eurovision in Israel, however, could not be light-hearted. While Israel continues to refuse equality to Palestinians, while Palestinians cannot attend events or travel freely inside or outside of Israel, the Eurovision is tainted with apartheid.”
At the meeting, at which Rory Coveney, Strategic Advisor to the Director General of RTÉ, and Michael Kealy, Head of RTÉ’s delegation for Eurovision, were also present, a petition signed by over 11,000 people was handed in.
The campaigners explained the strength and breadth of support for a boycott in Irish society – including from Irish and international public figures like Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Wolf Alice, Christy Moore, Mary Black, Charlie McGettigan, Mike Murphy, Carrie Crowley, Paul Brady and Doireann Ní Bhriain and many others – due to Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people.
During the meeting, the RTÉ representatives stated that they “will take away all that has been said and think about it,” and noted that there “will not be any sanction against anyone from within RTÉ who doesn’t wish travel on conscientious grounds.” RTÉ also said that they are “well aware that the Irish people are very concerned about and supportive of Palestinians” and that they “will not just be covering it as an entertainment event, and bearing in mind everything that has been discussed [they] will be covering it more widely.”
John Dorman, Vice Chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: “We thank RTÉ for meeting us today and allowing us the opportunity to speak on behalf of over 11,000 people who are deeply concerned about the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel and who are asking RTE not to have any involvement in the Eurovision if it is to be held in Israel in 2019.”
“RTÉ may argue that the Eurovision is a cultural event that should not be politicised but that is exactly what Israel is doing, shamelessly using the Eurovision as part of their Brand Israel strategy. Israel is determined to put forward a pretty face to hide its ugly regime of settler colonialism, apartheid and brutal military occupation.
RTE representing Ireland, the first country to say no to Apartheid South African 40 years ago, should now listen to the Irish people by taking a stand and saying No to Apartheid Israel by withdrawing from the Eurovision. This simple act of solidarity with the oppressed would send out a very powerful message to Israel that we will not stand on the wrong side of history and will support the Palestinian people in their darkest hour,” Mr. Dorman said.
Betty Purcell, well known former RTÉ producer and former member Irish Human Rights and Equality Commissioner said: “I am aware that a number of RTE journalists and programme personnel are deeply concerned about this. They are seeking trade union and legal advice on their position, should they refuse to travel to Apartheid Israel.
RTÉ has a chance here to be on the right side of history, to heed the petition of over 11,000 Irish people who would like their national broadcaster to refuse to support the whitewash of Israeli war crimes, and to not travel to Israel for Eurovision in 2019.”
Catherine Ann Cullen, a poet, former Eurovision judge and member of PalFest Ireland, and organisation that fosters cultural links between Irish and Palestinian artists, said: “As a signatory of the Irish Artists Boycott of Israel, which more than 630 cultural workers have signed, I am particularly concerned about fellow artists under Israeli occupation.
I was on the Irish Eurovision jury with Johnny Logan many years ago and it was a hugely enjoyable and light-hearted experience. Taking any part in a Eurovision in Israel, however, could not be light-hearted. While Israel continues to refuse equality to Palestinians, while Palestinians cannot attend events or travel freely inside or outside of Israel, the Eurovision is tainted with apartheid.”
26 sept 2018
Delegates at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool have voted to support a freeze on arms sales to Israel, after debating a motion on Palestine, for the first time in living memory.
During the motion the conference floor became a sea of flags as delegates showed their support for Palestinians.
The unprecedented motion noted that that “the majority of Palestinian people were forcibly displaced from their homes” during the Nakba and condemned the “aggressive attempt to rewrite history and erase the victims of the 1948 war”.
It called for an “independent international investigation into Israel’s use of force against Palestinian demonstrators”, an “immediate and unconditional end to the illegal blockade and closure of Gaza” and “a freeze of UK Government arms sales to Israel”.
Israel has killed over 170 Palestinians in Gaza since weekly ‘Great March of Return’ demonstrations began on 30 March.
The motion noted that, amongst those killed during the Palestinian protests of recent months, are paramedics, journalists, women and children, while than half of the injured were hit with live fire by snipers as they approached the border with Israel.
According to the PNN, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Chair Hugh Lanning said: “We have witnessed extraordinary scenes of solidarity today and the Labour Party has done the right thing by recognising the longstanding injustice of Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights.
This is an important step forward in building solidarity with Palestinians within Labour and we hope the leadership will listen to the will of the party on this issue.”
PSC handed out more than a thousand Palestinian flags at conference on Tuesday morning. In remarkable scenes, many hundreds of delegates stood and waved their flags inside the conference hall when the motion was debated and chants of “Free Palestine!” were clearly heard.
PSC director Ben Jamal said: “This incredible show of support and this historic motion demonstrate the strength of feeling at the grassroots of the party. Labour members want to show real solidarity with Palestinians.
“Given Israel’s continuing use of live fire to kill unarmed Palestinian demonstrators, it is no surprise that there’s clear support for an immediate freeze of arms sales to Israel.”
The motion – moved by Harlow Constituency Labour Party (CLP) and seconded by Wolverhampton South West CLP – is the first to be heard at conference on Palestine in many years.
Palestine was put forward as the fourth most important issue by CLPs in the priorities ballot, after housing, the schools’ system and “justice for the Windrush generation” and above Brexit, the NHS, climate change and social care.
On Twitter, delegates posted pictures of conference hall calling the sea of Palestinian flags “emotional”, “historic” and “moving”.
08/14/18 Jeremy Corbyn Faces Attacks by UK’s Pro-Israel Lobby
During the motion the conference floor became a sea of flags as delegates showed their support for Palestinians.
The unprecedented motion noted that that “the majority of Palestinian people were forcibly displaced from their homes” during the Nakba and condemned the “aggressive attempt to rewrite history and erase the victims of the 1948 war”.
It called for an “independent international investigation into Israel’s use of force against Palestinian demonstrators”, an “immediate and unconditional end to the illegal blockade and closure of Gaza” and “a freeze of UK Government arms sales to Israel”.
Israel has killed over 170 Palestinians in Gaza since weekly ‘Great March of Return’ demonstrations began on 30 March.
The motion noted that, amongst those killed during the Palestinian protests of recent months, are paramedics, journalists, women and children, while than half of the injured were hit with live fire by snipers as they approached the border with Israel.
According to the PNN, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Chair Hugh Lanning said: “We have witnessed extraordinary scenes of solidarity today and the Labour Party has done the right thing by recognising the longstanding injustice of Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights.
This is an important step forward in building solidarity with Palestinians within Labour and we hope the leadership will listen to the will of the party on this issue.”
PSC handed out more than a thousand Palestinian flags at conference on Tuesday morning. In remarkable scenes, many hundreds of delegates stood and waved their flags inside the conference hall when the motion was debated and chants of “Free Palestine!” were clearly heard.
PSC director Ben Jamal said: “This incredible show of support and this historic motion demonstrate the strength of feeling at the grassroots of the party. Labour members want to show real solidarity with Palestinians.
“Given Israel’s continuing use of live fire to kill unarmed Palestinian demonstrators, it is no surprise that there’s clear support for an immediate freeze of arms sales to Israel.”
The motion – moved by Harlow Constituency Labour Party (CLP) and seconded by Wolverhampton South West CLP – is the first to be heard at conference on Palestine in many years.
Palestine was put forward as the fourth most important issue by CLPs in the priorities ballot, after housing, the schools’ system and “justice for the Windrush generation” and above Brexit, the NHS, climate change and social care.
On Twitter, delegates posted pictures of conference hall calling the sea of Palestinian flags “emotional”, “historic” and “moving”.
08/14/18 Jeremy Corbyn Faces Attacks by UK’s Pro-Israel Lobby
