A creative action by BDS activists in Philadelphia, USA, targeting Israeli brands Sabra and Tribe. The campaigners adapted the words of a popular song and performed a dance in a local store, explaining to shoppers why they were taking action and urging them to stop buying into Israeli apartheid. The video explains that their action was in response to the Palestinian call for BDS issued in 2005.
Category Archives: United States of America
Report to UN General Assembly [Spanish version]: Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Feb 2014)
particular mentions of Mekorot
Fighting the New Apartheid: A Guide to Campus Divestment from Israel
This 2005 how-to guide provides tips on starting divestment campaigns on campus to ensure your university is not complicit in Israeli apartheid. Explaining why divestment is a moral imperative, it offers advice on researching university investments, alliance building and exerting public pressure. The appendices include sample articles and divestment resolutions.
Divest Now! A Handbook for Student Divestment Campaigns
How-to guide for student divestment campaigns including tips on planning and developing your campaign and understanding your university’s investments. Grounded in opposition to Israeli apartheid and a commitment to the moral imperative of divestment, the guide also provides advise on utilizing and creating media, dealing with opposition, and building a coalition on campus. Through focused on US universities, with sample template divestment resolutions and an outline of alternatives to investment in occupation, this guide is useful to students around the world campaigning in solidarity with Palestinians.
Interrogating Israel Studies in the Academy: A Call for Action
Lauryn Hill cancels show after appeal from Palestinian groups
US hip hop star Lauryn Hill cancelled her Tel Aviv concert in May 2015 following requests to do so by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, groups across the US and many of her fans.
A member of the band The Fugees , Lauryn Hill is one of the world’s most famous hip hop artists.
Major artists including Faithless, U2, Bjork, Jean-Luc Godard, Snoop Dogg and Vanessa Paradis have cancelled performances in Israel or declined to perform there.
Students across US and Canada vote for divestment
More than 30 US student associations and 11 Canadian student associations have voted to support divestment from Israeli apartheid.
Campaigns calling on universities to divest from companies that profit from Israeli human rights violations have become one of the biggest issues on US and Canadian university campuses.
Resolutions in support of divestment have been passed at Stanford University, Princeton University and 7 of the 9 campuses of the University of California.
In Canada, divestment resolutions have been passed at universities including the University of Toronto, York University and the University of Regina.
So far one US university, the University of Hampshire, has responded to student pressure by divesting from Israeli occupation. The university divested from 6 firms over their role in Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Thousands of artists in Canada, Ireland, UK and Switzerland join cultural boycott
Musicians Brian Eno, Kate Tempest and Jarvis Cocker, playwright Caryl Churchill and Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft are among 1,000 UK artists to support a cultural boycott declaration launched in February 2015.
The 500 signatories to Irish Artists’ Pledge to Boycott Israel include actor Stephen Rea, writer Seamus Deane and actor Sinéad Cusack.
Similar pledges have also been organised in the US, Montreal and Switzerland.
Other high profile supporters of the cultural boycott include Judith Butler, Henning Mankell, Mira Nair, Chuck D and Dead Prez.
American Studies Association endorses academic boycott
The American Studies Association generated an international media storm when it became one of the first US based academic bodies to back academic boycott in a December 2013 vote of its National Council.
The motion passed resolves that „endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. It is also resolved that the ASA supports the protected rights of students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Israel-Palestine and in support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement”.
US supporters of Israeli apartheid reacted to the news by trying to introduce bills that sought to remove public funding from academic bodies that endorse BDS.
A growing number of US academic associations are now joining the ASA in supporting academic boycott.
George Soros and Bill Gates divest from BDS targets
In May 2014, the Bill Gates Foundation responded to BDS pressure over its investment in Israeli prison contractor G4S by selling all of its shares in the company. Protests had been held at the at Gates Foundation offices in London, Johannesburg and Seattle. A petition signed by more than 14,000 people called on the the Gates Foundation to divest from G4S because of its role in Israel’s prison service.
In August 2014, Soros Fund Management, the family office of the billionaire investor George Soros, sold its stake in SodaStream. The decision followed a letter from the Palestinian BDS National Committee that criticised Soros‘ investment in SodaStream given its role as a major Israeli export company that profits from the forcible displacement of Palestinians.
US churches divest from companies involved in occupation
Years of grassroots organising paid off in June 2014 when the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to divest from 3 US companies that support Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territory.
In July 2015, 80% of the the general assembly of the United Church of Christ voted to divest from companies including Veolia, Caterpillar, Motorola, and HP.
Similarly, the congress of United Methodist Church voted in 2012 to support a boycott of Israeli settlements and has since divested from G4S, a company involved in Israel’s prison system.
The Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation (FFC) has divested from Veolia and HP, two companies that participate in Israel’s crimes against the Palesitnian people.
The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) U.S. unanimously adopted an investment screen banning 29 companies over their role in Israel’s illegal occupation.
Author Alice Walker refuses to publish novel with Israeli publisher
Alice Walker was approached by Israeli publisher Yediot Books to publish her novel, the Color Purple. She refused to do so, writing that „I would so like knowing my books are read by the people of your country, especially by the young, and by the brave Israeli activists (Jewish and Palestinian) for justice and peace I have had the joy of working beside. I am hopeful that one day, maybe soon, this may happen. But now is not the time.“
She is joined in her support for the cultural boycott by fellow writers John Berger, Arundhati Roy, Ahdaf Soueif, Eduardo Galeano, and the late Iain Banks.