YNET: Despite struggles, boycotts and threats, the acclaimed Israeli feature film “The Band's Visit” will finally be making it to Egypt this week. The film was rejected by the Cairo International Film Festival, and later on the Egyptian Actors’ Guild threatened to boycott the Abu Dhabi Film Festival for accepting the film. This eventually resulted in the latter dropping the film in the last minute. Despite all that, a special screening of the film will be held in Cairo this coming Thursday.
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In a statement, the BNC said: “We are appalled by the EU's blatant refusal to hold Israel to account for its persistent violations of human rights and international law … The EU is well aware of Israel's ongoing illegal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the massive colonization of the latter; after all, the EU member-states have regularly voted for UN resolutions condemning Israel's human rights violations, collective punishment and construction of settlements and the Wall.”
Gulf News: Dubai: The Arab League is considering blacklisting companies belonging to Israeli businessman Lev Leviev and that of his agent in the UAE, the pan-Arab body said just days after Unicef severed ties with the billionaire jeweller. The move came following a decision by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) to reject all partnerships and financing from Leviev in protest against the continued building of Jewish colonies in the occupied West Bank by companies belonging to Leviev.
Jerusalem Post: A group of Palestinian academics is boycotting an international academic conference in Tunisia because of Israeli participation, according to an Arab newspaper.
The Earth Times: Amman - The Jordan Artists Association (JAA) Thursday dropped its reservations over the Jordan Festival, giving the green light to Arab artists who had intended to boycott the event to change their mind. "After all ambiguities regarding the organizing firm were removed by His Majesty the King, we invite our Arab colleagues to go ahead with their plans to perform concerts," JAA President Shaher al-Hadid said in a statement.
The Earth Times: Amman - The Jordanian government appeared Monday under mounting pressure to cancel the Jordan Festival after at least three local and Arab singers announced they will not be performing at the event, citing "suspicion of normalizing ties with Israel."The boycott announcements were made amid confusion regarding the involvement of a French company, Publicis Groupe, in organizing the Jordanian national festivity after it handled Israel's 60th anniversary
How can an artist whose name is prominently associated with this form of popular and freedom-based musical expression, rap, be apathetic to the monstrosity of Israel ’s current war crimes in Gaza, its Apartheid Wall, declared illegal by the International Court of Justice at the Hague, or its continued violation of fundamental Palestinian rights?
A network of seventeen Palestinian human rights NGOs today launched a campaign to mobilize the international community to end Israel’s expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem. The Civic Coalition for Jerusalem is calling for a ‘blacklist’ of corporations supporting the occupation of Jerusalem, and is asking activists all over the world to research companies in their own countries to go on the list.
Yet you are reportedly going to play a concert in a country whose government and army are even now inflicting similar cruelties on another people. Is it possible that when you agreed to play in Tel Aviv on July 17, you did not think what message this would send to the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, many of whom now live in refugee camps outside their homeland, or in exile across the world? They were driven out en masse in 1948 and 1967, and no Israeli government has ever allowed them, their children, or their children's children, to return.
Stop the Wall: Following reports that an Israeli company won a substantial contract to work in South Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) issued a strong statement attacking the project, promising serious action if it is not halted.
To: Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, AM and Speaker of the National Assembly for Wales Cc: Mr. Mohammad Asghar, AM
Rebecca Spence, The Forward: If a local activist group has its way, Seattle could soon become the first major American city to divest from companies that provide material support to Israel.