PSC July 9^: Report back

PSC organised a supermarket action to mark the fifth anniversary of the BNC’s call for boycott, divestment and sanctions on July 9^th. Journalists from Channel Four and Al Jazeera joined representatives from some of Britain’s largest trade unions, Unite, Unison and PCS outside Tesco’s in central London to urge shoppers to boycott Israeli goods.

PSC handed a letter to the manager of the store at Russell square at the end of the lunchtime action.

Ireland - Fri 9th - Sun 11th July 2010

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) used the opportunity International Boycott Weekend to launch a two-week petition drive seeking to enlist Dunnes Stores customers in Ireland to support the call for a boycotting Israeli products. Our aim is to gather more than 4,000 signatures in this short period calling on Dunnes Stores senior management to no longer stock Israeli products.

Both the academia and the arts are profoundly rooted in the values of democracy, equality and justice, and the pursuit of excellence in both these fields has meaning only if it is imbued with conscience. As  Indian academics, intellectuals and artists in the decolonised world, we have historically played a crucial role in the liberation of our peoples, and to this day continue to lend our voices in support to all those who are struggling to be rid of the yoke of colonialism and foreign domination.

This opinion piece has a story behind it. When Umberto Eco‘s harsh opinion piece against the cultural boycott of Israel appeared in the Italian newspaper L‘espresso [1], PACBI decided that a rebuttal was in order. Two PACBI members contacted the newspaper through an Italian colleague to ask that a rebuttal be published in the newspaper. After much negotiation and many emails exchanged with one of the editors, the rebuttal was pared down to a bare minimum, and the newspaper agreed to publish it on 2 July 2010 in the letters section of the paper [2].

This article was written in 2010 as a contribution to a BNC e-magazine commemorating the 5th anniversary of the BDS call in July 9th 2005.

This article was written in 2010 as a contribution to a BNC e-magazine commemorating the 5th anniversary of the BDS call in July 9th 2005.