Occupied Palestine, 21 June 2011 Dear Die Linke Executive Board members,
BDSmovement.net feed
Boykot Israel Denmark held a demonstration in Copenhagen on Friday to mark the launch of the Red Card Israeli Apartheid campaign, the day before the final of the 2011 competition was held in the country.
Occupied Palestine - June 22 2011 Mr. Platini,
All too aware of how bad association with war crimes is for business, the diamond industry has taken pains to evade questions about its connections with Israel’s human rights abuses — and so far has escaped scrutiny from watchdog organizations.
As Palestinian organisations dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), we are concerned about the involvement of corporations in violations of international humanitarian law. Of recent concern are the activities of Veolia Environment, a French multinational providing infrastructure through its subsidiary VeoliaTransdev to Israeli local authorities, for its involvement in the construction of a light rail tramway linking West Jerusalem to illegal Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank.
Over the last few years, as the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel (BDS) has gathered steam in the U.S. and throughout the world, the apartheid state of Israel has turned to various tactics in an attempt to counter the growing solidarity with the Palestinian people. One such strategy is to portray Israel as the only place in the Middle East that is friendly to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people.
Entering the Italian offices of the company, the activists delivered gift baskets of rotten fruit and vegetables to symbolize the Palestinian agricultural products rotting at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank. While produce from the plantations of Israeli settlements built illegally in the Occupied Palestinian Territories makes its way to European markets via Agrexco - the company, 50% owned by the State of Israel, exports 70% of all agricultural products grown on confiscated land - the Palestinians find the road blocked by Israeli checkpoints.
The Holy Land Awareness and Action Task Group, of the Social Justice and World Affairs Committee within South West Presbytery of the United Church of Canada, has launched Occupied with Peace in Palestine, a Boycott/Divestment Campaign. “The non-violent Campaign,” says spokesperson Rev.
(Barghouti, Omar. BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. 2011. Haymarket Books, USA.) "The BDS campaign is among the most important forms of such ‘resolute struggle’ by the great majority of Palestinians, who resist the colonization of their land and minds and demand nothing less than self-determination, freedom, justice and unmitigated equality..."
The following call for BDS at Earlham was circulated by Earlham Alumni Against Apartheid: At Earlham College, a group students supported by alumni are calling on their college to join the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israeli apartheid. BDS Earlham and Earlham Alumni Against Apartheid are asking you to join their campaign by signing their petition.
On June 13, more than fifty labor and anti-apartheid activists participated in a spirited picket of an Israel Bonds “celebration” dinner in New York City that honored prominent labor official Denis Hughes.[1]