Celebrities For Palestine shows their support through cultural boycott against Israel

by Marivel guzman
Artists and Intellectuals Including Junot Díaz, Chuck D, and Boots Riley Call for Boycott and Divestment from Israel

Junot Diaz, becoming an author in Oprah.com Photo: Nancy Crampton

More #Celebrities4Pal openly coming out endorsing Palestine, the voices are growing louder and thicker. Every day we discover more celebrities adding their voices to Cultural Boycott against Israel.
Junot Diaz, the 45-year-old Dominican-American Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  fiction editor at Boston Review. He also serves on the board of advisers for Freedom University, a volunteer organization in Georgia that provides post-secondary instruction to undocumented immigrants. Diaz is Pulitzer winner author of several books; This is How you Lose her, Drown, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, (Wikipedia)

Last September  Diaz called on the Brooklyn Book Festival to reject sponsorship from Israel’s Office of Cultural Affairs. In an open Letter to the Brooklyn Book Festival advising against accepting Israeli Sponsorship

Tell the Brooklyn Book Festival to no longer accept partnerships with the Israeli government or complicit institutions.

“It is deeply regrettable that the Festival has chosen to accept funding from the Israeli government just weeks after Israel’s bloody 50-day assault on the Gaza Strip, which left over 2100 Palestinians – including 500 children – dead, displaced a fourth of the population, destroyed homes, schools, and hospitals, and involved numerous potential war crimes. Sustaining a partnership with the Israeli Consulate at this time amounts to a tacit endorsement of Israel’s many violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.” An excerpt from the open letter to the Brooklyn Book Festival

 

On September 30,  during his Lecture at Clark University he made mention of the pressure scholars feel when they speak out for Palestine, and shared his personal experiences as a call to support the Palestinian people.

“We are extremely excited to have an author of Diaz’s stature visit Clark,” said Paul Posner, director of the University’s Latin American and Latino Studies concentration and faculty organizer of the event.  “His work deals with issues – colonialism’s legacy in Latin America, cultural identity and language, immigration and gender relations, among others – that are of central importance to many of our students and faculty.”
Endorsing The U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel a statement from Diaz was published as a Press release saying that Diaz joins Chuck D and Boots Riley as prominent artists who have recently endorsed the boycott

” If there exists a moral arch to the universe then Palestine will eventually be free but that promised day will never arrive unless we, the justice-minded peoples of our world, fight to end the cruel blight of the Israeli occupation. Our political, religious and economic leaders have always been awesome at leading our world into conflict, only we the people alone with little else but our courage and our solidarities and our invincible hope can lead our world into peace.” Junot Diaz

 

Every day we discover a new Celebrities4palestine showing either they disgust for Israel Apartheid policy of segregation or their open support for Palestine.
It is commendable to recognize their openness, knowing that they are risking their careers. In the US it is career suicide to support Palestine, but when in comes to persons of integrity they can’t hide it, it is against their moral compass.

Celebrities in another kind of cultural work, article published in the Blog of huffingtonpost.com

| #Israel #Palestine #Apartheid #RightOfReturn: The alternative is BDS!

The alternative is BDS ~ Haidar Eid, European Coordination Committee for Palestine (ECCP),  Mondoweiss.

As BDS activists, we are no longer interested in the sterile opposition to normalization generated by the Oslo Accords, but rather in formulating the kind of response that could actually defeat multiple forms of Zionist oppression, i.e, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid.  The moment the entire international community, civil society and governments, decides to act the same way it did against the apartheid system of White South Africa, Israel would succumb to the voice of reason represented by the 2005 BDS call issued by more than 170 Civil Society organizations and endorsed by almost all influential political forces from right to left of the political spectrum in historic Palestine and the Diaspora

Since the world is showing a growing disapproval of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its settlement policies there, the urgent question now is — how long the world will tolerate Israel’s blatant constitutional racism?

The latest BDS success triggered by the American Studies Association resolution to endorse boycott of Israeli academic institutions is, in fact, what we have been calling for since 2004 when the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel was launched. I, as a resident of Gaza and an academic, have been unable to fathom how it is that some reputable universities sign agreements with Israeli universities despite the policy of ethnic cleansing and the latest war crimes committed against the people of Gaza by Israel. Israeli academic institutions are known to be complicit in Israel’s policy of colonization and apartheid.

Is it not crystal clear, after all these years and thousands of reports by mainstream human rights organizations, that millions of Palestinians are denied the full right to education in the occupied Palestinian territories and in the refugee camps? Think about it, our education is denied because of more than 600 Israeli checkpoints, the medieval siege of Gaza, and the apartheid-like discrimination faced by Palestinian students in Israel. We are discriminated against for the simple fact that we were not born to Jewish mothers.

Thousands of Palestinian students and lecturers are in Israeli dungeons often without trial or sentenced by military courts. All credible international human rights and humanitarian organizations have detailed how the Israeli military deliberately targets Palestinian students and schools including UN schools. Shouldn’t academics and researchers be familiar with those reports?

We believe that it is our right to expect people of conscience, especially academics and students, to join us in our struggle against Israeli apartheid by boycotting this intransigent, racist and militarized Israeli regime and the institutions that keep it thriving.

ASA members must have found it unconscionable that their association remain complicit in Palestinian oppression by pretending to have “business as usual” with apartheid.  We, Palestinians, are an oppressed people without a state. We increasingly rely on international law and solidarity for our very survival.

What we want is the implementation of international law; putting an end to the Israeli military occupation of Arab lands occupied in 1967, fighting against the policy of colonization and apartheid as practiced by Israel against the indigenous population of Palestine of 1948, and the return of Palestinian refugees who were ethnically cleaned in 1948. Now, is that a call for the end of the state of Israel? Was the boycott of apartheid meant to end South Africa as a country, or to end racism in its ugliest from?

Israel is a settler colonialist, Apartheid state and the methods –or tools of struggle– used against Apartheid South Africa can be used as a model in our struggle against Apartheid Israel. Transforming Israel from an ethno-religious Apartheid state into a democracy should  be the objective of every single person believing in liberal democracy in general. But some “liberals” keep whining that one of the “scary aims of BDS” is equal rights and warns that the state of Israel might be in peril if BDS has it’s way!

With pressure imposed by the international community through a BDS campaign similar to the anti-Apartheid campaign which brought Apartheid South Africa to an end, we believe that Israel itself can be pressured to end its multi-tiered system of oppression.

The BDS campaign is intended to lead to satisfying the democratic rights of the Palestinian people in its three components — including of course the Palestinian citizens of the state of Israel who experience Israel’s institutional racism first hand. That is why one of the major demands of the BDS campaign defended by all those who have endorsed the above mentioned BDS call in 2005, is the call for the end of the policy of Apartheid practiced against the Palestinians of 1948. We strongly believe that the struggles of the Palestinian people whether in 1948 or in 1967, that is to say the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and even in the Diaspora are inseparable. That is why we think that our alternative, which is rights-based, to Oslo’s façade of “peace” based on normalization, can provide all Palestinians with a solution that guarantees the right of return and equality for the 1948 inhabitants.

To echo a quote often attributed to Mahatma Ghandi, in 2005 they ignored the BDS call, then they laughed at us, now they are fighting us, then we will, certainly, win!

Haidar Eid

Author is Associate Professor of Postcolonial and Postmodern Literature at Gaza’s al-Aqsa University. He has written widely on the Arab-Israeli conflict, including articles published at Znet, Electronic Intifada, Palestine Chronicle, and Open Democracy. He has published papers on cultural Studies and literature in a number of journals, including Nebula, Journal of American Studies in Turkey, Cultural Logic, and the Journal of Comparative Literature.

Article was published at Mondoweiss

| Apartheid #ziocolony: The Top Five Reasons Why #BDS is Winning!

The Top Five Reasons Why BDS is Winning ~ Eli Ungar-Sargon, JEWSCHOOL.
In many ways, 2013 was a breakthrough year for the BDS movement. High-profile individuals like Stephen Hawking heeded the call, efforts to shut down a BDS event in Brooklyn College backfired in a dramatic and public fashion, and the American Studies Association voted overwhelmingly to join the academic boycott. Here are the top five reasons why the BDS movement is winning.

1) BDS is a non-violent way that ordinary people who care about Israel-Palestine can make a difference.

The spectacular twenty year failure of the so-called peace process has created an enormous amount of frustration in people who care about Israel/Palestine. The ineptitude of the United States, the silence of the EU, the impotence of the UN and the impunity with which Israel continues to make life worse for the Palestinians have all contributed to this frustration. The BDS movement is a morally sound way for ordinary people to do something. By putting non-violent but effective pressure on the State of Israel, BDS offers people of conscience a way to participate in a moral struggle to restore Palestinian rights.

2) The BDS call marks a shift away from a discourse of nationalism towards a discourse of human rights.

Perhaps the most brilliant part of the BDS call is its refusal to endorse any particular political solution. By remaining agnostic on the one-state/two-state debate, the BDS movement is able to both create alliances and maintain a laser-like focus on the rights of the Palestinian people. Tactically, this means that people who think there should be two-states can participate in the movement alongside their one-state fellows. Ideologically, when liberal-minded people compare the rights-based first principles of the BDS movement to the ethnonationalist first principles of Israel and its defenders, the former are much more appealing.

3) Israel and its supporters think that they have a PR problem, when in reality they have a human rights problem.

The stratagems employed by the Israeli government and its supporters against the BDS movement can be summed up as follows: Delegitimize the critics and change the subject. The tactic of delegitimizing the critics yields a mantra-like repetition of the double-standard argument: “Why are you singling out Israel? There are so many other countries in the world with worse human rights records!” This criticism only makes sense as an interpretation of motive, the obvious implication being an unstated and pernicious prejudice on the part of BDS supporters. The problem, of course, is that this rhetoric amounts to little more than a thinly-veiled ad-hominem attack. People have all sorts of motivations for caring about, or advocating for one cause over others. Some of these motivations are rational and some of them are irrational. What none of us do is sort through all of the possible causes in the world, come up with a scale for which is most morally pressing, and work on them in order. Human beings are simply not built that way. Now if one of the irrational motivations behind BDS support in a particular instance is prejudice against Jews, that’s a problem and it must be brought to light. But absent any evidence of such prejudice, the double-standard argument falls flat.

The tactic of changing the subject has yielded the ham-handed efforts we have seen over the past few years to re-brand Israel as a gay-friendly, environmentally-friendly, incubator of hi-tech innovation. This too is not particularly persuasive. Israel could invent a renewable energy source to replace fossil fuels and people of conscience would still have a problem with the fact that the state denies Palestinians their basic rights.

4) The leaders of the BDS movement are vigilant and disciplined when it comes to the matter of antisemitism.

Whenever the leaders of the movement get a whiff of antisemitism, whether at a rally, or with would-be solidarity activists, they are quick to call it out and condemn it. This both makes the job of delegitimizing their advocacy more difficult and it also creates a stark contrast with their pro-Israel attackers some of whom have made alliances with racist Islamaphobes.

5) Despite being a regional superpower, the State of Israel and its citizens are incredibly susceptible to pressure from the United States and Europe.

As an embattled settler-colonialist society, Israel is subject to two opposing forces. The first is a deeply pathological siege mentality. This manifests as the belief that no matter how they behave towards the Palestinians, the whole world will always and irrationally be against them. But more powerful than the siege mentality is a deep desire to be a part of the world. In this way, Israel likes to think of itself as existing socially and culturally somewhere in-between Europe and the United States.

It’s true that BDS operates on both of these forces. That is, it does in a way feed Israel’s siege mentality in so far as many Israelis believe that they are being unfairly targeted. But it also plays against Israel’s desire to be a normal citizen of the world. If I am correct in asserting that Israel’s desire for inclusion is stronger than its siege mentality, then the net effect of BDS pressure will be that Israelis start to feel isolated from the world and this isolation will in turn force them to reconsider their policies towards the Palestinians. I believe we are already seeing signs of this pressure begin to take effect.

While 2013 marked an important year for the BDS movement, the subject is still toxic in many Jewish circles. My hope for the new year is that Jews around the world will decide to have a substantive conversation about Israel-Palestine in general and about BDS in particular. After all, it is our moral responsibility as human beings to do everything we can to bring an end to the ongoing tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This is a guest post by Eli Ungar-Sargon, a Los Angeles-based independent filmmaker and new media producer. He is currently putting the finishing touches on his documentary film, A People Without a Land and is co-hosting the new podcast series Four Cubits.

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| #ziocolony worried by Boycott: “greatest threat” facing Israel, leaders say!

Boycott “greatest threat” facing Israel, leaders say ~ THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA.

While Israeli hasbara (propaganda) initiatives continue to bravely deny that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is having any impact, two statements from prominent politicians indicate otherwise.

Israeli justice minister and war crimes suspect Tzipi Livni, who is in charge of the moribund negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, told a conference last week that Israel was living in a “bubble.”

Boycott advancing “exponentially”

“Livni said that a country usually only finds out the cost of living in a bubble after it bursts, such as in the case of South Africa,” Ynet reported.

Noting that there was a growing international movement focused particularly on boycotting Israel’s illegal colonies in the occupied West Bank, Livni warned, “It won’t end there. The boycott is moving and advancing uniformly and exponentially … Those who don’t want to see it, will end up feeling it.”

Livni said that Israel was turning itself into “a lone settlement in the world.”

“Greatest threat”

Livni nominally supports a “two-state solution,” including the transfer of Palestinian citizens of Israel to a Palestinian bantustan in a fraction of the West Bank.

But at the other side of Israel’s extremely narrow political spectrum, there is agreement about the threat of BDS.

Ayelet Shaked, chair of the Habayit Hayehudi party, warned that a “two-state solution” would be “national suicide,” The Jerusalem Post reported yesterday.

Habayit Hayehudi, with 12 seats in parliament and a member of the ruling coalition, calls for outright annexation of the entire West Bank.

Shaked called “for an Israeli response to the cultural and academic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, saying it was the greatest threat faced by the country,” according to The Jerusalem Post.

It’s clear that where the so-called “international community” of governments has done nothing but coddle and appease Israel, international grassroots activism is at last making its most intransigent and racist leaders feel some pressure.

Tzipi Livni (left), says Israel is living in a “bubble.”

 (Matty Stern / US Embassy Tel Aviv)

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| International solidarity with French BDS activists facing repression!

International solidarity with French BDS activists facing repression ~ Palestinian BDS National Committee.

More than 150 solidarity organisations stand in solidarity with French campaigners facing legal action!

As more than 150 Palestine solidarity and social justice organizations from across the world, we stand in solidarity with all of the French campaigners for Palestinian rights facing legal action and repression for participating in demonstrations calling for a boycott of Israel.

French campaigners have faced criminal charges for their solidarity activity since 2009. Despite a previous ruling that advocating boycott is not illegal and should be permitted as part of the right to freedom of speech, three activists were brought to trial earlier this month in Perpignan, seven more will attend court on June 27 in Alencon and further trials will take place later this year.

In all of these cases, campaigners have been charged with “incitement, provocation to discrimination, hatred or violence against a person or group of persons, due to their ethnicity, race, religion or nation” following their participation in actions at supermarkets calling for a boycott of Israeli goods.

This misuse of anti-discrimination law is part of a wider attack on solidarity with the Palestinian people. French pro-Israel organizations are plaintiffs in many of the cases against boycott activists and have successfully pressured the French government to support repression of solidarity activity. In 2010, then justice minister Michèle Alliot Marie ordered prosecutors to press charges against boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activists. Police regularly demand the names and addresses of those present at protests calling for a boycott of Israel and Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was deployed to stop protests at a basketball match involving an Israeli team that took place in France.

Alarmed by the growth of solidarity with the Palestinian people and the BDS movement in particular, Israel and leading Israeli think tanks have made clear their desire to sabotage and disrupt solidarity activism. Senior Israeli foreign ministry official Amir Sagie recently admitted that the Israeli government has been “investing heavily” in legal warfare against BDS in France and other European countries.

To Bernard, Jeanne, Yamina, Alain, Chantal, Christine Francis, Jo, Nicole and Pierre, to all those facing criminal charges and the whole of the French movement: we stand with you.

While we cannot be with you as you demonstrate outside the court at the start of the next trial on June 27, we express our full support for your efforts to build solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of state repression. We cannot allow Israel to export its attacks on basic freedoms to Europe or anywhere else.

Inspired by the steadfastness of the Palestinian struggle and the resolve of the French BDS movement, we pledge to continue to work with the BDS movement in France to support their efforts to resist oppression and to continue to build the international movement for a boycott of Israel.

Australians for Palestine, Australia
Association Belgo-Palestinienne, Belgium
Palestina Solidariteit, Belgium
Palestina Solidariteit vzw, Belgium
Vrede vzw, Belgium
Anel – Assembleia Nacional dos Estudantes – Livre!, Brazil
Ciranda Internacional de Comunicação Compartilhada, Brazil
CSP-Conlutas – Central Sindical e Popular, Brazil
CUT – Central Única dos Trabalhadores, Brazil
Frente em Defesa do Povo Palestino-SP, Brazil
Front of solidarity with the Palestinian people – Sao Paulo, Brazil
MML – Movimento Mulheres em Luta, Brazil
PSTU – Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores Unificado, Brazil
Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de São José dos Campos, Brazil
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign – Vancouver, Canada
Canada Palestine Association, Canada
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Canada
Seriously Free Speech Committee – Vancouver, Canada
ICAHD Finland, Finland
BDS Berlin, Germany
InCACBI (Indian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel), India
Palestine Solidarity Committee in India, India
Irish Friends of Palestine, Derry, Ireland
Derry Stop the Wall Coalition, Ireland
Derry to Gaza, Ireland
Gaza Action Ireland, Ireland
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Ireland
Peace & Neutrality Alliance, Ireland
Trade Union Friends of Palestine (ICTU), Ireland
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, Israel
100 idee per la pace, Siena, Italy
BDS Italia, Italy
BDS Milano, Italy
BDS Milano, Italy
BDS Trieste, Trieste, Italy
Castelli per la Palestina, Rocca Priora, Italy
Comitato BDS Campania, Napoli, Italia
Coordinamento Campagna BDS Bologna, Italy
Forum Palestina, Italy
Gruppo BDS Roma, Italy
ISM, – Milano, Italy
Parallelo Palestina, Italy
private, Italy
Rete di Solidarietà con la Palestina – Milano, Italy
Rete Romana di Solidarietà al Popolo Palestinese, Italy
U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice – Rome, Italy
Un Ponte per, Italy
Artists Against Occupation, Japan
Palestine Forum Japan, Japan
Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Netherlands Palestine Committee (NPK), Netherlands
Service and Research Centre for Palestine (docP), Netherlands
The Association of Norwegian NGOs for Palestine, Norway
Alternative Information Center (AIC), Palestine
Lajee Center, Aida Refugee Camp, Palestine
Polish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Poland
Edinburgh Students For Justice in Palestine, Scotland
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Scotland
We are all Hana Shalabi, Scotland
Students for Palestinian Rights – Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland
BDS South Africa, South Africa
Palestine Peace & Solidarity in South Korea, South Korea
Al-Quds Málaga, Málaga, Spain
Asociacion Al Quds, Spain
Asociación de Amistad Palestina-Granada Turab, Spain
Comité de Solidaridad con la Causa Árabe, Spain
Junts Associació Catalana de Jueus i Palestins,, Spain
La Comuna Presxs del franquismo/ Fed.Castilla y Leon, Burgos, España
Plataforma solidaria con Palestina en Valladolid, Spain
Red Solidaria contra la ocupación de Palestina (RESCOP), Spain
SODePAZ, Spain
Taula per Palestina, Palma, Spain
BDS Schweiz, Switzerland
BDS Zürich Switzerland, Switzerland
Gerechtigkeit und Frieden in Palästina Bern, Switzerland
BDS Thailand, Thailand
All African Women’s Group, London, UK
Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP), UK
Boycott Israel Network, UK
Global Women’s Strike, London, UK
ICAHD UK, UK
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK, UK
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, UK
Legal Action for Women, London, UK
Liverpool Friends of Palestine, UK
Palestine Solidarity Campaign, UK
Payday Men’s Network, UK
Portsmouth & South Downs Palestine Solidarity Campaign, UK
Queer Strike, UK
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, UK
Shalimar, UK
War on Want, UK
Women of Colour in the Global Women’s Strike, UK
14 Friends of Palestine, Marin, US
Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, US
Al-Nakba Awareness Project, Oregon, US
American Iranian Friendship Comte (AIFC), New York, US
Bay Area Women in Black, US
Bard Students for Justice in the Middle East, Annandale-on-Hudson, US
BDS Los Angeles, US
Boulder Palestine Film Festival, US
Boulder WILPF, US
Chicago Faith Coalition for Middle East Policy, US
Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy, US
Chico Palestine Action Group, US
CODEPINK Women for Peace, US
Colorado BDS Campaign, Colorado, US
Cornell SJP, US
Corvallis-Albany Friends of Middle East Peace, Corvallis, Oregan, US
CU-Divest!, Colorado, US
Culture and Conflict Forum, US
Free Palestine Movement, California, US
Friends of Palestine Wisconsin, US
Friends of Sabeel-North America, US
Guilford College Students for Justice in Palestine, US
Interdenominational Advocates for Peace, US
Interfaith Community for Palestinian Rights, Texas, US
International Solidarity Movement – Northern California, US
Israel Palestine Task Force CA/NV Conference United Methodist Church, US
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, US
Justice for Palestinians, California, US
Labor for Palestine, US
Lutherans for Justice in the Holy Land, Oredan, US
National Lawyers Guild – Free Palestine Subcommittee, US
National Lawyers Guild – International Committee, US
NorCal Friends of Sabeel, US
North Coast Coalition for Palestine, US
North Texas BDS, US
Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, Wisconsin, US
Minnesota Coalition for Palestinian Rights, Minneapolis, US
Middle East Peace Now, Minneapolis, US
Minnesota Anti-War Cpmmittee, Minneapolis, US
Palestine Israel Action Group (PIAG), US
Palestine Solidarity Group – Chicago, US
Palestine Study Group Peace and Social Justice Center, US
Palestine-Israel Working Group of Nevada County, US
Payday Men’s Network US, US
Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas, US
Peace Panel Project, US
Salaam Shalom, North Carolina, US
St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee, US
Students for Justice in Palestine at Brooklyn College, US
Students for Justice in Palestine at Hunter College, US
Students for Justice in Palestine at John Jay College, US
Tiffin Area Pax Christi, US
Tucson Women In Black, US
Network for Environmental & Economic Responsibility United Church of Christ, Tennessee, USA
University of Denver Students for Justice in Palestine, US
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, US
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, US
Vancouver for Peace, US
Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel, Vermont, US
WESPAC Foundation, New York, US
WI Middle East Lobby Group, US

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| New Israeli plan calls for more “intelligence” gathering to disrupt BDS movement!

New Israeli plan calls for more “intelligence” gathering to disrupt BDS movement! ~ Ben White, electronicIntifada.net.

This week in Jerusalem, the Israeli foreign ministry hosted the fourth international conference of the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism.

As I previously blogged, this is “a gathering that has served as an important focus for efforts to fight Palestine solidarity activism and boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns.” The pre-conference agenda and working group mission statements made it clear that hasbara — propaganda — was once again going to be high on the agenda.

Reproduced below is the “Action Plan” presented to delegates by the working group tasked with examining “delegitimization” and BDS. This is transcribed from slides shown to the conference, and the video can be viewed above.

This document needs to be read, shared, and taken into account by activists when planning campaigns and strategies.

BDS and Delegitimization Task Force

Action Plan

Divide Responsibilities – Rather than everyone trying to do everything, identify the comparative advantage of each organization to maximize their effectiveness in proactively and reactively addressing delegitimization threats. The British approach could be a model. For example, encourage groups with ties to labor to focus on working with unions, those with expertise in international relations to devote their attention to members of UN agencies, those involved in media and PR to concentrate on journalists and messaging, those with legal expertise to explore legal avenues for fighting BDS and those active on campus with students, faculty and other stakeholders.

Enhance Intelligence Capabilities – We need to have more information about the organizations promoting delegitimization, including their membership, funding and planned activities.  Nations, foundations and other funders supporting BDS should be named and shamed. Map connections between BDS organizations and their supporters, such as the PA [Palestinian Authority]. Also investigate the BDS efforts toward multinational corporations.

Improve Rapid Response Capabilities – this is one area that has improved since the last Global Forum. By making better use f LAN, the Dream Team and other organized responders, we can provide advice, resources and anything else that local stakeholders may need or want to determine how to respond to BDS campaigns in communities and on campus.

Using Legal Measures – Identify laws that can be used in different countries or states to fight discriminatory practices such as BDS. French law is a model that should be strengthened and replicated where possible.

Lobbying – Political organizations should lobby elected officials to adopt and strengthen anti-discrimination laws. They should also educate officials about the connections between delegitimization and anti-Semitism. Attention should also be given to the positive aspects of Israel and, especially, illustrate how Israeli innovations in education, agriculture, science and other areas can benefit their constituents [see, for example, Israel and the States]. Officials should be brought to Israel and encouraged to sign formal agreements [e.g. States to State Agreements with Israel] to enhance cooperation at the local, state and federal level. Push back against hostile diplomats and recruit high-profile former officials who will speak out against delegitimization (e.g. Friends of Israel). Take pre-emptive action to encourage officials to make positive statements about Israel and denounce delegitimization (e.g. Canada’s statement on Iran).

Educating the Media – the media too often parrots whatever anti-Israel spokespeople and organizations tell them. The media must also be educated about the distinctions between the legitimate criticism of Israel and delegitimization and how certain types of attacks on Israel have become the anti-Semitism of this century. Create a code of conduct for Middle East journalists and encourage them to use it. Help friendly media to increase their visibility (e.g. GOI [Government of Israel] giving exclusives).

Include Anti-Discrimination Programs in Education – Students should be sensitized to the distinctions between criticism and bigotry and the historical implications of allowing discriminatory acts to go unchecked.

Establish Strategic Guidelines – Some individuals and groups believe in responding or trying to prevent any delegitimization activity, sometimes in direct opposition to the wishes of local stakeholders who must live with the consequence. We have learned that overreaction can exacerbate a situation and give the delegitimizers publicity and credibility that they would not otherwise receive if they were ignored or a more tactical approach adopted. Ideally, we will develop guidelines to evaluate a threat and determine the appropriate response (ignoring, quiet diplomacy, public campaigns, or all-out opposition).

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| Stephen Hawking is right, it’s time to end international support for Israeli impunity!

Stephen Hawking is right, it’s time to end international support for Israeli impunity ~ RAFEEF ZIADAH, Voices, Views from elsewhere, New Statesman.

A woman shows a placard reading ‘Israel criminal, boycott Israel’ during a demonstration on November 17, 2011 in eastern France. Photograph: Getty Images.

Stephen Hawking’s decision to withdraw from Israel’s President Conference deals a huge blow to Israel’s attempts to whitewash its crimes by branding itself as a technologically advanced liberal democracy. His decision highlights the growing consensus that Israel’s oppression of Palestinians is intolerable. More than that, Hawking has made an immensely significant contribution to the campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel that has in recent years won support from musicians, artists, trade unions, faith groups and people all over the world.

Such effective forms of solidarity are badly needed in the face of government inaction. A ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2004 on the illegality of Israel’s Wall and settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories failed to persuade western governments to take action against Israel’s continued violations of international law. The reality is that Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people are only made possible through the continued financial, military and diplomatic support it receives from western states.

Palestinian civil society thus joined in 2005 to call for broad boycotts, divestment initiatives, and sanctions against Israel, until Palestinian rights are recognised in full compliance with international law. This call was endorsed by over 170 Palestinian political parties, organizations, trade unions, and social movements.

While Matt Hill argues that “the problem with the BDS campaign is that the message it sends Israel is anything but clear,” the demands set out in the BDS call could not be any more straightforward: Israel must comply with international law. It must end the occupation, respect the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and guarantee equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Campaigns against institutions operating in the Occupied Territories, the kind Hill recommends, are indeed taking place and play a major role in the growth and success of BDS. Such campaigns, including boycotts of and divestments from Elbit, Veolia, Sodastream, Ahava, and numerous other companies, can be hugely powerful. French multinational Veolia looks set to end some aspects of its involvement in illegal Israeli settlements after losing billions of pounds worth of local government contracts in the UK and across Europe in the wake of BDS campaigns against it. Facing complaints from its members, the Co-operative supermarket chain agreed not to source fruit and vegetables from any Israeli company that operate inside illegal Israeli settlements. Campaigners are now pressuring Sainsbury’s and other supermarkets to do the same.

Israel’s human rights violations however are not just limited to settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Bedouin community of Al-Arakib has seen its village in the south of Israel bulldozed more than 50 times. In Gaza, Palestinians live under a brutal siege and millions of Palestinian refugees languish in refugee camps outside their homeland.

Likewise, campaigns seeking to end the international support on which Israel’s continued impunity relies cannot focus solely on the settlements. One major BDS campaign targets security giant G4S over its contract to equip and service prisons inside Israel at which Palestinians prisoners, including children, are held without trial and subjected to torture. In the past year, banks, charities and universities across Europe have cut their ties to G4S, hitting the company’s bottom line and ensuring that there is a price to pay for corporate complicity with Israeli crimes.

Public appearances in Israel by prominent figures help Israel portray itself as a state like any other. Like Hawking, many other eminent figures including Roger Waters from Pink Floyd, Elvis Costello, Alice Walker, Iain Banks have pledged not to participate in events inside Israel in order to put pressure on the government to abide by international law. News of Hawking’s cancellation was front page news in Israel, reminding Israelis that the status quo is unsustainable and that their country is becoming a pariah in the way that South Africa once was.

Negotiations lead nowhere, not because Palestinians have insisted on a “fantastical goal”, as Hill argues, but because, ultimately, the outcome of any negotiation closely reflects the balance of power between the negotiating sides. As long as Israel can count on a blank cheque from the international community, a toothless world public opinion, it will continue to displace more Palestinians and further abuse and curtail their rights. The purpose of BDS is to alter the balance of forces that maintains the current situation.

There is another aspect in Hawking’s support for BDS that Hill sadly misses. In his letter to the organizers, Hawking makes a point of explaining that his decision to withdraw was based first and foremost on the advice of his Palestinian colleagues, academics whose freedom of speech, movement, teaching and learning is denied daily by Israel’s occupation. To support Palestinian rights means little without the fundamental willingness to listen to Palestinians voices who are best positioned to explain why Palestinians advocate a global, non-violent campaign of BDS and see it as a necessary and effective form of solidarity.

Rafeef Ziadah is a member of Palestinian BDS National coordinating committee and Senior Campaigns Officer with War on Want

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| BDS + the pariah state: Play your part for Gaza + Palestine!

Israeli Terror Attacks: Day 7 ~ Stephen Lendman.

Naked Israeli aggression shows Israel won’t stop unless punished diplomatically and economically. The Global BDS Movement for Freedom, Justice and Equality lists five ways ordinary people can effectively support Gaza.

 

(1) Boycott Israeli goods and services. Export profits bolster its economy. They also fund its war machine. Tell others what you’re doing. Urge retailer support.

 

(2) Join a BDS campaign or start a new one. Groups and initiatives of any size and type help. US campaigners pressured pension funds effectively to divest from Caterpillar and other companies. 

 

Giant Catepillar bulldozers demolish Palestinian homes. It’s complicit in Israeli crimes. So are other Western companies. Act against them effectively. Strike back so it hurts.

 

(3) Organize BDS protests. “Demonstrations, banner drops, and flash mobs” raise awareness. Target individual products like Ahava cosmetics. It profits by stealing Palestinian resources.

 

In Occupied Palestine, virtually everything mined helps Israel, its settlements, and predatory companies. Mining fees, levies, royalties, and profits flow straight to Israeli coffers and corporate bottom lines. Palestinians are denied what’s rightfully theirs.

 

(4) Urge organizations with which you’re affiliated to boycott Israel.

 

“Trade unions, student unions, faith groups and other organizations all over the world have passed BDS-related resolutions calling for divesting from companies profiting from Israel’s occupation.”

 

Keep the momentum going. Get others to act responsibly.

 

(5) Pressure elected officials to impose a weapons and munitions embargo on Israel. Military ties feed its war machine. Occupation harshness and wars continue. Palestinians suffer and die.

 

Hit Israel where it hurts.

Support BDS measures.

Act for right over might.

It’s long past time this pariah state was brought to heel.

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| Five ways to effectively support Gaza through Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions!

Five ways to effectively support Gaza through Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions ~ Palestinian BDS National Committee.

As this new aggression on the people of Gaza shows, Israel will continue its belligerence and state terrorism unless it is made to pay a heavy price for its crimes against the Palestinian, Lebanese and other Arab peoples.

Palestinian civil society has called for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as the most effective way for international civil society and people of conscience around the world to show solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and hold Israel – and all complicit institutions — accountable for its occupation, colonization and apartheid. The global, Palestinian-led BDS movement has achieved inspiring and spectacular success, causing economic damage to companies that support Israel’s crimes, persuading artists not to perform in Israel, winning support from major churches, trade unions and social movements, as well as pressuring governments to take action.

Here are five BDS ways to effectively express solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and elsewhere:

1. Boycott Israel! Don’t buy Israeli goods!

Profits from exports from Israel help to fund the Israeli government and its crimes against the Palestinian people. Refuse to buy Israeli goods and tell retailers that you are doing it. Persuade friends and family to stop buying any Israeli products too!

Brands to avoid include Ahava, Jaffa oranges, Sabra and Tribe hummus and SodaStream.

2. Join an active BDS campaign or start a new one

Initiate action in your institution, union, group, etc., against the companies and organisations that support and profit from Israel’s system of oppression over the Palestinian people.

For example, in the US, campaigners have pressured major pension funds to divest from Caterpillar, a company that provides bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian homes.

Public bodies across the world have been successfully pressured to stop awarding contracts for public services to Veolia, a company that provides infrastructure to illegal Israeli settlements. Veolia has lost contracts worth more than $14bn following BDS campaigns.

Campaigners recently persuaded a major bank to divest from G4S, a private security firm involved in Israel’s crimes against Palestinian prisoners, including children.

You can find out more about campaigns taking place in your area by contacting your local Palestine solidarity organisation. There’s a great online database of Palestine solidarity groupshere or contact us for advice on whom to contact or on how to start a new BDS campaign.

3. Organise a BDS protest action

Demonstrations, banner drops and flashmobs are great ways to raise awareness of the boycott of Israel. Some actions target particular products, like the actions against Israeli cosmetics companyAhava, while others take place in supermarkets and remind shoppers not to buy Israeli goods or totarget complicit companies.

There’s a useful guide to planning a BDS action here. The guide is written specifically for the Ahava campaign, but it’s full of useful ideas for similar campaigns too.

4. Urge organisations that you are a member of to divest from Israel

Trade unions, student unions, faith groups and other organisations all over the world have passed BDS-related resolutions calling for divesting from companies profiting from Israel’s occupation.

The US Quakers’ investment entity recently sold its shares in Hewlett Packard and Veolia, two companies supporting and profiting from Israeli violations of international law, after having divested from Caterpillar a few months ago for the same reasons.

Student unions around the world have voted to support divestment and have successfully campaigned to have companies like Sabra Hummus and Eden Springs removed from their campuses.

Trade unions can participate in BDS campaigns and sell any investments they may hold in Israeli companies or raise rank-and-file awareness about Israeli products to boycott.

Ask organisations that you’re a member of to hold a meeting to discuss education about and support for the BDS campaign, and find out if it’s possible to pass a resolution to support BDS when the time is right.

5. Pressure your elected officials to impose a military embargo on Israel

Military ties with Israel feed and encourage further Israeli violence. Israel wouldn’t be able to maintain its occupation and apartheid system over the Palestinian people if it wasn’t for the military aid it receives from the US or the military trade it conducts with countries around the world. Urge your government and elected representatives to support a military embargo on Israel.

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