Category Archives: Statements

These statements have been issued by the Palestinian BDS National Committee or its member organisations.

On Nakba day, Palestinian civil society in besieged Gaza decries collective failure to ensure accountability for Israeli massacre

As Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, the catastrophe in 1948 when more than 700,000 indigenous Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes by Zionist militias and later the State of Israel, life in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip is reaching a fatal tipping point, as the UN has warned.

Close to 2 million Palestinians are incarcerated by Israel in a small space condemned to a life of misery, where not even water, the source of life, is fit for human consumption. The provision of basic services such as health and education faltering and the alarm must be sounded. This is an Israeli-made “tsunami” that can be stopped if enough people of conscience around the world would hold Israel to account and pressure their institutions and governments to do so. Israel must pay a heavy price for its criminal behaviour.

If ever there was a right time to isolate a rogue regime to prevent it from committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, it is now. We, the undersigned Palestinian civil society organisations in Gaza, call for urgent and effective measures of accountability, including boycotts, divestment and meaningful sanctions, against Israel and the corporations that are complicit in its serious violations of international law to save hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza from a fate of unspeakable suffering and slow death.

Israel’s massacre in Gaza in the summer of 2014 left more than 2,300 of our people dead and damaged or destroyed our schools, hospitals, UN shelters and thousands of our homes. Eight months on, Gaza remains in ruins, yet at least 100,000 people remain homeless. Of the 12,600 houses that were totally destroyed, not one has yet been rebuilt. To Palestinians everywhere, and in Gaza in particular, the 1948 Nakba is ongoing.

Despite the so called cease-fire, Israel’s often deadly attacks on Palestinians in Gaza are continuous, especially on fishers in the access restricted areas (ARA) along the border with Israel and off the Gaza coast. ARA were among the most hit during the massacre and still continue to suffer from Israeli violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.

At the root of this grave human suffering is Israel’s ongoing occupation and illegal eight-year siege, which severely restricts movement of people, goods and reconstruction materials. Health and education services have been severely impaired as well. The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been open for just a handful of times so far this year. On average, just 198 people have been able to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing each week during 2014, down from 955 during 2014. As of February 2015, just 1,661 trucks (containing around 105,307 tonnes) of the 800,000 trucks of material needed to reconstruct destroyed homes and other buildings have been allowed to enter Gaza. The failure of international donors to release pledged funds has exacerbated severe energy shortages. Electricity is still only available for a few hours per day.

The UN Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM), the international community’s main response, is fundamentally flawed in a way that deepens the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. The GRM makes the international community, and the UN in particular, the enforcers of the Israeli siege and makes aid to Palestinians conditional on Israeli approval.

As much as 71% of the aid pledged by international donors is expected to benefit the Israeli economy, effectively rewarding Israel for its massacre of Palestinians. Many of the companies supplying the construction efforts are illegally involved in the crime of pillage of Palestinian natural resources and/or participate in the construction of illegal settlements.

Many western governments are seeking to prevent Palestinians from taking cases against Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Last July, the US voted against and several EU member including France, Germany and the UK abstained from voting on the establishment of a UN Gaza Commission of Inquiry.

The US and Germany look set to continue their vast military support for Israel, while the European Union has maintained its Association Agreement with Israel, affording Israel access to EU markets and programs, and the Canadian government has even signed a raft of new agreements with Israel. Even those countries in the global south that speak in clearer terms of their support for the Palestinian people’s right to self determination have failed to translate their symbolic gestures into ending their military links and preferential trade agreements with Israel.

Given the human catastrophe that Gaza is facing and Israel’s threats of more atrocities, we call on governments and international bodies to take immediate action to:

– Ensure Israel is held to account for its war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, including by supporting Palestinians in seeking justice at the ICC.

– End direct support for Israeli war crimes, including by imposing a comprehensive military embargo and suspending free trade agreements and other bilateral agreements until such time as Israel complies with international law, including lifting the siege on Gaza.

– Provide immediate international protection to civilians in Gaza, including by providing financial and material support to help Palestinians to cope with the immense hardship they continue to experience.

We warmly thank the countless people of conscience and principled organisations across the world who stand in solidarity with our struggle for freedom, justice and equality, and call on international civil society, including trade unions, NGOs, grassroots networks, political parties and parliamentarians to:

– Join and build the Palestinian-led, global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a key tool to ensure Israel is held to account for its violations of international law in Gaza and against Palestinians everywhere, including by pressuring universities, banks and pension funds to divest from companies profiting from Israel’s occupation and war crimes.

– Pressure governments to impose military embargoes and trade sanctions.

– Campaign against corporate criminals such as military company Elbit Systems, security firm G4S and key Israeli military supplier HP that enable Israeli violations of international law.

Signed

Palestinian BDS National Committee
Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)
Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO)
University Teachers‘ Society in Palestine
Palestinian Medical Relief Society
Palestinian Association for Development and Reconstruction (PADR)
Medical Democratic Assembly
Palestinian Student Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)
Medical Initiative Assembly
Arab Center for Agricultural Development (ACAD)
Union of Health Work Committees
One Democratic State group
Herak Youth Center
Badr Campaign for Boycott of Israeli Goods

Palestinian student unions send greetings to NUS conference and urge support for BDS

19 April 2015 – We the undersigned Palestinian student unions and youth groups wish you a successful conference. We salute your struggle for a more democratic form of education – one that is based on the needs and aspirations of its student body and faculty, and not on the needs of corporate power. As students whose education and lives are shaped and impacted by living under an oppressive colonial and apartheid regime, we share your appreciation of the value of education.

Since its inception in 1948, the state of Israel has systematically targeted Palestinian students, intellectuals and academic institutions. Israel’s recent military assault on Gaza killed more than 2,168 Palestinians, including many students and young people, and injured over 10,895 people, and also destroyed many university buildings, schools, and other educational buildings. Israel’s siege of Gaza makes it virtually impossible for students to continue their studies abroad or in the West Bank.

In the West Bank, Israel’s brutal military occupation presents grave problems for students, who face severe restrictions on their freedom of movement and arbitrary imprisonment. Palestinian citizens of Israel face systematic discrimination in universities from their fellow students and from the university administration itself.

Israel is only able to maintain its illegal regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid because of international support. Governments fail to hold Israel to account, and corporations and institutions across the world help Israel oppress Palestinians. International solidarity is urgently needed.

Supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is one of the most important steps that student unions internationally can take to stand in solidarity with our struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

Students in the UK, Palestine and around the world have long been at the forefront of the struggle for justice and liberation. In the 1970s and 1980s, the NUS took a principled position in support of boycotts and divestment against the apartheid regime in South Africa and helped to build the anti-apartheid movement.

It has been heartwarming to see the huge recent growth of support for BDS within the UK student movement. More than 25 student unions have voted to support BDS in recent years. The NUS Executive Committee, Black Students Campaign, Women’s Conference and Postgraduate Conference have all voted to support BDS tactics in recent months.

This support for BDS is increasingly being matched with successful campaigns that have pressured universities to drop contracts with companies such as G4S and Veolia that participate in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians. We look forward to working with you to build even more successful and visible boycott campaigns in the months to come.

We ask delegates at the NUS conference to continue to stand in support of our struggle. Your solidarity and support for BDS strengthens our ongoing resistance to Israel’s repressive, apartheid and colonial rule and our struggle for liberation.

The Secretariat of Students‘ Unions and Blocs – Gaza Strip
Palestinian Students‘ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)
Palestinian Youth Struggle Union
Herak Youth Centre
Fateh Youth and Student Movement
Almubadara Youth
Alquds University Student Union
Hebron University Student Union
Al-Najah University Student Union
Birzeit University Student Union
Bethlehem University Student Union
Arab American University Student Union
Palestinian Students Liberation Front
Palestinian democratic Youth Union
Student’s Struggle Block
Palestine Polytechnic University Student Union
Students Unions in Al-Quds Open University in the following branches: Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Ramallah, Nablus, Salfeet, Toubas, Qalqilia, Jenin, Toulkarem, Bedia, Doura, Yata, Biet Sahour, Alezarieh.

Palestinian students call on Sussex University to vote for BDS

The Secretariat of Student Unions and Blocs in the Gaza Strip, a coordination of 12 student unions in Gaza, and the Palestinian Students Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel‎, a Gaza based student group, are writing to strongly urge students at the University of Sussex to vote in favor of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) during the upcoming student union referendum.

Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid policies has enormous impacts on our right to education and on Palestinian youth in general. Israel’s recent military assault on Gaza killed more than 2,168 Palestinians and injured over 10,895 people, and also destroyed many university buildings, schools, and other educational buildings. Restrictions on the freedom of movement and Israel’s brutal military occupation presents numerous challenges for Palestinian students in the West Bank. Palestinian students living inside Israel face discrimination at the hands of the Israeli universities at which they study. Israel’s control of borders makes it incredibly difficult for Palestinian students to take up offers to study overseas, especially for Palestinians living in Gaza, who are not allowed even to study at the universities of West Bank.

Support for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) is one of the most important steps that student unions internationally can take to stand with us in our struggle for our right to education and for freedom and justice.

By deciding not to sell Israeli products in student union shops, and by campaigning against European companies such as Veolia that help Israel to maintain its apartheid system, Sussex student union would be taking practical steps in solidarity with Palestinian students and youth, and making important contributions to efforts to end international support for Israel’s crimes.

As Palestinian student unions, we reject attempts by those that seek to defend Israel’s crimes to present their opposition to BDS as ‘progressive’ or based on ‘protecting the interests of Palestinians’. These attempts to undermine effective solidarity, including those that seek to promote the voices of those very few individual Palestinians that oppose BDS as somehow representative, are colonial in nature in that they seek to silence the voice of the overwhelming majority of Palestinian student unions and civil society as a whole, which is clear and unambiguous in its support for BDS.

We also wish to express our admiration and respect for student campaigners at the University of Sussex who have done so much to support BDS. When Sussex student union voted to boycott Israeli goods in 2009, it was one of the first student unions in the UK to do so. We hope that the student union at Sussex will continue to stand alongside the National Union of Students and the more than 20 other individual UK student unions that also support BDS and our struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

Israel votes for permanent occupation and apartheid – it must face international isolation

The far-right in Israel may have given prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu his election victory after he officially promised not to recognize any Palestinian state and his racist remarks on Palestinian citizens, but the victory margin of Likud and other extremist Zionist parties that deny basic Palestinian rights are further evidence of a decisive shift among Jewish-Israelis to the far-right camp, dropping any pretense of seeking a just peace, leading Palestinian civil society activists said today.

Israel’s final ditching of the so-called “peace process” sham should deny world governments any excuse for not imposing sanctions against Israel, starting with a long overdue military embargo.

The convincing victory of the so-called “national camp,” a coalition of settler movements, Likud and their fanatic right partners, is seen by most Palestinians as a strong vote for perpetual Israeli occupation, colonization and apartheid. It is also an opportunity to further isolate Israel, mainly through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as well as prosecution of Israeli war criminal at the International Criminal Court.

Mahmoud Nawajaa from the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the broad coalition of Palestinian civil society organisations that leads the global BDS movement, said:

“The true face of the Israeli establishment has been revealed to the world. By rejecting Palestinian statehood and declaring he will not enter into any meaningful negotiations with Palestinians, Netanyahu has removed any excuse for governments not to impose sanctions on Israel and end their support for its colonial and apartheid regime.”

“This is a victory of apartheid and colonialism that should be met with sanctions against Israel by world governments and the UN.”

“European and other governments have consistently excused their lack of meaningful action to hold Israel to account by saying they did not want to damage prospects for a ‘two-state’ solution. How can governments defend their inaction now that Netanyahu has effectively buried the two-state solution?”

Nawajaa said that Netanyahu’s use of racism and incitement in the closing stages of the election campaign unmasked the Israeli establishment:

“Netanyahu race baiting and fear mongering among Jewish Israelis have revealed how deeply seated and prevalent racism has become in Israel. More than any previous Israeli leader, Netanyahu has clearly shown that he only represents Jewish Israelis, considering the indigenous Palestinian citizens an enemy that must be feared, hated and combated.”

“Today, we call once more on supporters of freedom and justice across the world to join us in intensifying our efforts to boycott Israel and to push governments to impose sanctions against Israeli apartheid, just as South African apartheid was isolated.”

Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights activist and a co-founder of the BDS movement, added:

“Israel, a belligerent nuclear power that completely disregards international law and basic human rights, will soon have its most fanatical government ever, with grave consequences for Palestinians as well as for world peace. Israel has dropped the mask.”

“The UN and world governments must take part of the blame for this victory by the far right. They have failed to hold Israel accountable to international law by imposing sanctions on it as was done against apartheid South Africa. They rejected pressure from world public opinion to stop Israel’s latest massacre in the besieged Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014 and its ongoing feverish colonization of the West Bank, especially in and around East Jerusalem and in the Jordan Valley. They were apathetic when Israel adopted even more extreme, racist laws that have further entrenched its regime of legalized and institutionalized racism which meets the UN definition of apartheid.”

“The biggest losers in the Israeli election are the Israeli right parties that wear left masks, like Labor and Tzipi Livni’s party. Both are guilty of cementing the occupation, the settlements and the apartheid regime, and both are guilty of grave war crimes against the Palestinian people. While rejecting the basic right to equality for Palestinians, both have managed to maintain a false façade of ‘moderateness’ and even ‘left’ tendencies. The mask has fallen. There is a Zionist consensus, with no exceptions, against equality for Palestinians in Israel, against the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their lands and homes from which they were ethnically cleansed, and against a real end to Israel’s unique system of occupation, colonization and apartheid.”

SOAS vote for the Academic Boycott of Israel – stand on the right side of history

We the undersigned Palestinian student and academic unions, with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), strongly urge all the University of London, SOAS community to vote for the institutional academic boycott of Israel in the campus wide referendum taking place 23-27 February. We take this opportunity to salute all campaigners who have worked tirelessly to promote the Yes vote and explain to the wider student, faculty and staff body both the necessity and urgency of a boycott of Israel’s academic institutions.

We who endure the brunt of Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid policies in the academic sector can attest not only to Israel’s deliberate, decades-long policies of stifling Palestinian academic life and repressing Palestinian academic freedom, but also to the deep complicity of Israel’s academic institutions in planning, implementing and whitewashing this regime of oppression.

During Israel’s latest military assault on Gaza in the summer of 2014, that left entire neighbourhoods levelled to the ground, destroyed schools, university buildings and UN shelters, as well as killed more than 2,168 Palestinians and injured over 10,895 people, Israel’s academic institutions came out in support of the Israeli military while it deliberately bombed universities and other civilian infrastructure in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip.

Hebrew University specifically, with whom SOAS has an institutional link, is partially built on stolen Palestinian land and has an army base on its campus; its complicity in Israeli violations of international law are well documented. Hebrew University stood by the Israeli army during the attack on Gaza; a notice circulated at the university announced a collection of goods including hygiene products, snacks and cigarettes “for the [Israeli] soldiers at the front according to the demand reported by the IDF [Israeli army] units.” Hebrew University maintains close ties to the Israeli military industry and collaborates with the Israeli army in training officers and recruits. Further, staff from the Hebrew University take part in the supervision and promotion committees of students and staff at the colony-college of Ariel, which was established on confiscated Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. These are only some of the most obvious reasons that the SOAS community should vote for ending such tainted collaborations with Hebrew University.

We restate that our call for an academic boycott is an institutional one. It targets the privileged status of Israel’s academic institutions and the image of normality they project while being deeply complicit in a colonial context built on the subjugation of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian academic boycott against Israel does not target individuals, so it clearly does not target the very few courageous Israeli academics that have come out in support of Palestinian rights. On the contrary, we strongly support their academic freedom and stand against the censorship and intimidation they face from their own institutions when they express dissenting views that support Palestinian rights, let alone any form of boycott to achieve those rights.

We are thankful to all campaigners who opened up this important discussion and debate at University of London, SOAS. While opponents of the academic boycott of Israel’s institutions often complain that it infringes on open dialogue, in reality it is clear that such referendums open up space for debate on a topic often side-lined and silenced on university campuses. We know that the wider SOAS community has a long history of backing Palestinian rights, including one of the first positive votes in a UK student union in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). The first conference calling for the academic boycott of Israel was held at SOAS in 2004. We are happy to see the continuation of this tradition with dynamic, practical and effective campaigns.

Finally, we reiterate that Israel’s academic institutions, far from being “bastions of liberalism,” are a pillar of Israel’s system of colonial oppression. The least that people of conscience can do to support our struggle for freedom, justice and equality is to end all complicity in these institutions’ role in our oppression.

We strongly urge the SAOS community to vote Yes to end such complicity and to stand on the right side of history, as was done against apartheid South Africa.

Sincerely,

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
Palestinian Federation of University Unions of Professors and Employees (PFUUPE)
University Teachers‘ Society in Palestine (UTSP)
Abnaa el Balad Student Movement
Almubadara Youth
Al-Najah National University student union
Alquds University Student Union
Arab American University Student Union
Beirziet University Student Union
Bethlehem University Student Union
Fateh Youth and Student Movement
Hebron University Student Union
NDA Student Movement
Palestine Polytechnic University Student Union
Palestinian Students‘ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)
Palestinian Youth Struggle Union
Palestinian Democratic Youth Union
Palestinian Students’ Liberation Front
Student Department of CPI (Communist Party of Israel) & DFPE (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality)
Student’s Struggle Block
Students Unions in Alquds open university in the following branches : Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Ramallah, Nablus, Salfeet, Toubas, Qalqilia, Jenin, Toulkarem, Bedia, Doura, Yata, Biet Sahour, Alezarieh,

Palestinian civil society condemns Canadian government disinformation and repression against boycott movement

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society organisations that leads the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, has condemned the Canadian government’s ramped up disinformation campaign and repressive measures against the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights.

BDS is a global, Palestinian-led nonviolent human rights movement that aims to apply pressure on Israel, as was done on apartheid South Africa, to fully comply with its obligations under international law.

Canada and Israel signed a series of cooperation agreements recently, one of which included an unprecedented commitment to work jointly to counter the continued growth of BDS.

On January 22, Canadian public safety minister Steven Blaney gave a speech at a meeting on anti-semitism at the United Nations General Assembly, convened in the wake of the Paris criminal attacks, that smeared the BDS movement as “anti-semitic.”

Rafeef Ziadah, a secretariat member of the the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the broad coalition of Palestinian civil society organisations that leads the BDS movement, said:

“Rather than seeking to hold Israel to account for its war crimes during the recent military assault on Gaza and its intensified colonization of the occupied West Bank, particularly in Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, the Canadian government is further deepening its collaboration with Israel’s occupation and launching a shameful, propagandistic attack on free speech in the process.”

“The Canadian government’s continued unconditional support for Israel’s colonial policies and its smear campaign against BDS highlight the deeply ideological and reactionary character of this government. Canada is sending Israel the message that it can act with total impunity in violating human rights and international law.”

“Sadly, while claiming to defend free speech the current Canadian government is among the most repressive in the west; it has gone farther than most in suppressing free speech and infringing the rights of its own civil society, including trade unions, community and faith groups, to participate in human rights campaigning, as in boycotts against Israel’s injustices.”

As a matter of principle, the BDS movement has consistently and categorically opposed all forms of racism, including anti-semitism and Islamophobia. The movement’s anti-racist, human rights platform is growing into the western mainstream and attracting growing support among Canadians, including many Jewish Canadians who join conscientious and progressive Jewish Israelis in rejecting Israel’s claim to commit its atrocities in their name.

In her 2009 article endorsing BDS against Israel’s regime of occupation and oppression, the world best-selling author Naomi Klein wrote:

“It’s time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.”

The award-winning Canadian filmmaker John Greyson, who has produced some of the BDS movement’s most creative videos, has justified his support for BDS and boycott of the Tel Aviv queer film festival saying: “[BDS] is the only peaceful means right now that can have an effect on the Israeli state that has gone completely out of control. … A line in the sand has been drawn.”

South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, a great supporter of the BDS movement, after presenting a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council about an Israeli war crime in the occupied Gaza Strip in 2008 said:

„I think the West, quite rightly, is feeling contrite, penitent for its awful connivance with the Holocaust … . The West is penitent, the penance is being paid by the Palestinians. … I just hope that ordinary citizens in the West will wake up and say, ‚we refuse to be part of this‘.“

Rafeef Ziadah concluded, “At a time when people of conscience the world over are joining the Palestinian BDS movement for freedom, justice and equality and connecting it with their own struggles for social and economic justice, equal rights, indigenous rights, minority rights, and environmental protection, the Canadian government is standing on the wrong side of history, supporting a pernicious regime of Israeli occupation, colonialism and apartheid.”

Boycott the Muslim Leadership Initiative and similar attempts to “Faithwash” Israel’s Regime of Oppression

Occupied Jerusalem, 26 January 2015 — The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society, calls for a boycott of the Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI) of the Shalom Hartman Institute and other such projects that bring international delegations, whether faith-based or otherwise, for visits to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) in a manner that is complicit with Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid.

The MLI is part of a broader spectrum of political tours to the oPt designed to normalize and build acceptance to Israeli policies of oppression against Palestinians. Under the cover of “balance”, such initiatives rationalize Israel’s occupation, racism and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians as just another valid, and even ethical, perspective with complete disregard to precepts of freedom, justice and equality. They are premised on a false and deceptive symmetry between oppressor and oppressed, which is used to justify and prolong Israel’s denial of the full spectrum of Palestinian rights under international law.

Traditionally, such programs have mainly targeted politicians, students and journalists, but they have increasingly been aimed, recently, at constituencies with strong or growing support for Palestinian rights. It is no coincidence that the entities behind such projects are supported by Israel in their fight against the Palestinian-led global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) for Palestinian rights, a movement that Israel regards as a “strategic threat”.

The growth and effectiveness of BDS worldwide in holding Israel accountable has caused panic among supporters of Israeli occupation and apartheid. As former Israel prime minister Ehud Barak recently wrote[1], “The BDS movement is developing. Its name is derived from the movement that finally brought about the collapse of South Africa, which was economically and militarily stronger than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa together, but could not keep standing because it could not withstand international isolation.” The MLI and similar whitewashing initiatives aim at recovering some of the lost ground to BDS through co-optation, chiefly through tokenizing of Palestinians and going as far as dictating how Palestinians should resist their oppressors.

These tactics are a direct extension to Israel’s colonial logic, which seeks to crush the Palestinian collective agency. The 2005 Palestinian civil society call for BDS came partially in response to such colonial tactics of divide and conquer to redefine in a decisive way the politics of solidarity. BDS has put Palestinians back at leading their struggle for liberation under principles of human rights, respect for international law and in rejection of all forms of racism and bigotry.

The MLI is a textbook example of a seemingly innocent program that reeks of complicity with Israel’s racist regime and of contempt for Palestinian rights. Whilst presenting itself as a “rigorous” academic program, the MLI makes cynical use of religion, or “faithwashing”, to provide cover for Israel’s racial supremacy used as justification for the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

The main premise of MLI is the deliberate blurring of the lines between Judaism, Zionism and the Israeli state. This logic serves to perpetuate the anti-Semitic claim that Jews are synonymous to the state of Israel and bear responsibility for its policies, no matter how oppressive these policies are, and that criticism leveraged against the state of Israel is, therefore, a criticism of all Jews. This conflation, which itself is anti-Semitic, as it reduces all Jews to a monolithic sum, has been used by opponents of Palestinian rights to muzzle legitimate opposition to Israel’s violations of international law and ignore growing dissent among Jews to such representations.

The MLI comes at a time when a strong multi-faith alliance in the United States of broad-based organizations such as American Muslims for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, Friends of Sabeel North America, as well as several influential groups in the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, among others, are working in harmony, in diverse but interconnected struggles from Ferguson to Palestine. This groundbreaking work, under the premise of shared values of equality, justice and human rights, is presenting an alternative to the deeply sectarian and racist establishment discourse on Israel in the US that projects Muslims and Jews as inherently antagonistic to each other. This discourse has served to build up an image of Israel as a garrison state for America’s interests and stoke Islamophobia and anti-Arab feelings.

As detailed in an Electronic Intifada expose, the Shalom Hartman Institute is at the forefront of this nefarious agenda bankrolled by an industry of hate.[2] The Institute maintains close ties with the Israeli military and runs indoctrination programs for soldiers responsible for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians. The organization espouses an open anti-BDS agenda, participates in several anti-Palestinian initiatives, and individuals at its helm are actively engaged in intimidation and muzzling of American citizens critical of Israel’s policies.

The BNC encourages visits from international delegations to the oPt premised on recognition of the full Palestinian human rights and without contact or cooperation with complicit entities. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott (PACBI), a constituent member of the BNC, has devised a comprehensive set of principled and morally consistent guidelines for this purpose.[3] From our experience, principled delegations have provided a valuable contribution to our struggle for freedom, justice and equality

In short, the MLI is a BDS bashing project that seeks Palestinian fig leaves[4] to hide its dishonest agenda. The BNC strongly condemns the MLI and calls all people of conscience to boycott it.

[1] http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.635978

[2] http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/islamophobia-bankroller-behind-organizer-israel-junket-us-muslim-leaders

[3] http://pacbi.org/einside.php?id=69

[4] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1645

With or without new “nation-state” law, Israel is a settler-colonial apartheid state

A Palestinian BDS National Committee statement on the occasion of the UN Human Rights Day

Occupied Palestine, 10 December 2014 — Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and United Nations Resolution 194 on December 10 and 11 of 1948, the UN has affirmed the human rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of the refugees to return to their homes and properties and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, on numerous occasions. Yet the UN has failed to address the serious and persistent Israeli violations of international law that prevent the exercise of these rights by Palestinians or to hold Israel to account for these infringements.

Sixty six years on, and on the occasion of the 2014 UN Human Rights Day, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee (BNC), representing all sectors of Palestinian civil society, reiterates its call on the United Nations and member states to acknowledge finally what is plain for everyone to see: Israel is neither a democratic state based on the rule of law, nor a temporary occupying power as defined in international humanitarian law. Israel is a criminal regime of settler colonialism and apartheid that systematically oppresses and displaces Palestinians with the aim of achieving permanent control of an exclusive “Jewish state” in most of the country, including most of the 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

The elements of Israeli apartheid

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines apartheid as inhumane acts “committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”

Article 1 of the International Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination defines “racial discrimination” as „any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.“

Institutionalized racial discrimination

Israel’s racial oppression of and domination over Palestinians is institutionalized in its domestic law, even without the new racist “Jewish nation-state” bill which was approved by the Israeli cabinet in November 2014. Irrespective of whether this bill will eventually be adopted by parliament, existing Israeli law already:

· Defines Israel as the “state of the Jewish people” and prevents candidacy for parliamentary elections of political parties that challenge this principle (Basic Law: the Knesset (1985), Amendment 9 of 1985).

· Claims sovereignty of the “state of the Jewish people” in the entire country, including the OPT (Area of Jurisdiction and Powers Ordinance, No. 29 of 5708-1948). Another law authorizes the government to incorporate newly seized areas into the state (Law and Administration Ordinance of 27June 1967, Section 11 B). On this basis, Israel treats the OPT as its own territory, exploiting its natural resources, expanding illegal Jewish colonial settlements and annexing East Jerusalem. Official Israeli maps show the entire area of British Mandate Palestine as Israel, with no reference to the occupied Palestinian territory. Israel’s domestic law, thus, contradicts the concept and rules of occupation under international humanitarian law.

· Reserves “national rights” and democracy only for Jews. Under Israeli law, there is no Israeli nationality, only “Jewish nationality” that is distinguished from citizenship.[1] The superior status and rights of nationals are reserved for persons classified as “Jewish” in Israel’s Law of Return (1950), including new immigrants and settlers in the OPT. The Israeli Supreme Court has rejected attempts by citizens to be classified as “Israeli” in the national population registry, arguing that doing so would pose a threat to Israel’s founding identity as a Jewish state for the Jewish people.

· The right to equality is omitted in Israel’s Basic Laws, which have constitutional power. Israel’s so-called bill of human rights (Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty of 1992) requires conformity with Israel’s values as a “Jewish and democratic state” and permits racial discrimination on this basis. UN human rights bodies have repeatedly called on Israel to repeal or reform this law in accordance with international standards, and even the U.S. Department of State has regularly criticized Israel for its system of „institutional, legal and societal discrimination.“

Absent a firmly established right to equality that could trump the above in court, Israel’s legal system contains a myriad of additional discriminatory laws that undermine fundamental human rights of Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel. Most importantly, Israeli domestic law, as well as military orders modelled on Israeli domestic law, do not recognize the existence of the Palestinian people, their indigenous status and land rights, or their status as citizens under the law of the British Mandate.

For example:

· Israel’s Citizenship Law (1952) excludes the (descendants of) Palestinian refugees from all entitlement to civil status, making them stateless and permanently preventing their return. The same law makes Palestinians who came under Israeli rule after the 1948 Nakba and their descendants into “Israeli citizens”, i.e., a status of individuals without a national identity, indigenous or collective rights.

· The Entry into Israel Law (1952) and the Entry into Israel Regulations (1974), which are applied in occupied East Jerusalem in the context of the illegal annexation, transform Palestinians there into “permanent residents”, i.e., a status of quasi-foreigners that does not even protect the right to stay, leave and return to their country and constitutes the main legal basis of the on-going revocation of residency and deportation of Palestinians from East Jerusalem.

· Based on Israeli military orders that assigned a similarly precarious “resident” status to Palestinians elsewhere in the OPT, Israel had revoked the civil status and deported 140,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and 108,878 from the Gaza Strip by 1994. Since then Israel’s military regime treats West Bank Palestinians as quasi-citizens of the Palestinian Authority. Although retaining overall control over the PA, including the population register, Israel claims no responsibility for the human rights of the Palestinian population. Israel also includes the West Bank (the so-called “district of Judea and Samaria”) in its official demographic statistics, but omits mention of the Palestinian population there.

· A series of Israeli laws regulate the systematic and irreversible confiscation of Palestinian land and property, and their transfer into the permanent ownership of the state and the Jewish National Fund (JNF)Among them are the Absentees’ Property Law (1950), the Development Authority (Transfer of Property) Law (1950), the Land Acquisition for Public Purposes Ordinance (1943), and the Basic Law: Israel Lands (1960). Israeli law regulating the annexation of occupied East Jerusalem, moreover, contains a provision permitting claims for pre-1948 Jewish property in East Jerusalem, but not claims for pre-1948 Palestinian property in West Jerusalem (Legal and Administrative Matters (Regulation) Law (Consolidated Version), 1970).

· Finally, another set of Israel laws conveys public status and functions in Israel and the OPT – mainly in the administration and development of (appropriated Palestinian) land, communities and public services – to private Zionist organizations which are mandated to cater exclusively to the “Jewish people” (World Zionist Organization-Jewish Agency „Status“ Law of 1952; Keren Kayemet Le-Israel Law of 1953; Covenant with Zionist Executive of 1954). As a result of these laws, in combination with the above system of land and property laws, 93% of the land in Israel came under the state’s control and is administered by the Israel Land Authority (ILA; formerly Israel Land Administration), where the JNF commands “decisive influence,” by law, ensuring that the land is exclusively used for the benefit Jews.

This discriminatory legal framework is completed by a state of emergency that has remained in force since 1948, and a set of emergency regulations. These are the basis for confiscation of Palestinian property under the Absentees’ Property Law, and inhuman acts such as torture, administrative detention and punitive home demolitions, committed in the name of “security”, all in violation of international law and standards.

Racial segregation

Racial segregation, i.e., forced separation and unequal treatment of Jewish and Palestinian populations living in the same territory, is an additional element of Israel’s system of institutionalized racial oppression and domination. Racial segregation (in Hebrew: hafrada) is an official Israeli policy that has been strongly condemned by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Examples are the maintenance of “Arab departments” and separate “Arab” and “Jewish sectors” in Israeli public administration, as well as the consecutive oppressive military regimes over Palestinians but not the Jewish population, first over Palestinian citizens (1948 – 1966), and then in the OPT since 1967.

Inhumane acts of apartheid

In the context of this institutionalized system of racial discrimination and segregation, and based on the massive ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, Israel, as “state of the Jewish people”, has reversed ownership and control of the land, changed the demographic composition of the country, and obtained effective control of the entire territory of pre-1948 Palestine. Whereas most Palestinians lived in Palestine as citizens until 1948, approximately one half of 11.8 million Palestinians today live abroad, and close to 70% are refugees and internally displaced persons. Whereas at least 90% of the land of historic Palestine was owned by Palestinians before the 1948 Nakba, Palestinians have effective control of only some 10% of the land today (3% in Israel, 40% in the OPT).

Israel keeps millions of Palestinians in protracted refugee-hood and forced exile. Since its “unilateral disengagement” (2005) from Gaza and the declaration of the Hamas-led PA as “hostile entity” (2007), Israel has pursued a policy of permanent separation of the occupied Gaza Strip from the country, aiming to get rid of the tiny strip of land with its large Palestinian population (1.7 million), most of them refugees (75%) with outstanding claims to their Israeli-confiscated land and (destroyed) homes located only a few kilometres away.

Elsewhere, Israel continues to dispossess and forcibly displace Palestinians who have remained in the country, as citizens of Israel, residents of occupied East Jerusalem, or under Israeli military rule in the occupied West Bank. Israel destroys or appropriates Palestinian heritage, communities and homes, confiscates Palestinian property and natural resources, and denies adequate services to populations it has deprived of their own means of livelihood and development.

Whereas all of the above is carried out gradually as a matter of routine administration, Israel also regularly seeks and exploits situations of acute armed conflict and crisis, such as recently in the occupied Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, which provide a veil of “security” and “counter-terrorism” for aggressive implementation of these policies, and oppression of Palestinian resistance, by means of punitive campaigns and collective punishment.

The violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed by Israel are not the occasional violations of a state based on the rule of law, or accidental war crimes of an otherwise lawful occupying power. Based on a legal system that defines Israel as the state of a “Jewish nation”, claims sovereignty in the OPT and endorses racial discrimination and segregation, Israel has systematically and deliberately oppressed the indigenous Palestinian people, in order to undermine and foreclose self-determination, and with the intention to maintain its regime of Jewish-Israeli domination and expand it into the OPT.

As confirmed by renowned scholars of international law,[2] the Israeli policies and measures applied in aggregate against Palestinians for this aim meet the definition of “inhumane acts” (crimes) of apartheid in the 1973 Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute of the ICC, in particular: forced transfer of population; persecution (systematic and severe deprivation of fundamental human rights because of affiliation with a racial group); murder; torture, unlawful imprisonment and other severe deprivation of physical liberty, and persecution because of opposition to apartheid.

On the occasion of this anniversary of the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights, the BNC urges states, the United Nations and private enterprises to fully assume their responsibilities vis-à-vis the serious violations and crimes committed by Israel. All states must adopt measures, including sanctions, in order to end Israeli colonialism, apartheid and population transfer. No state must give recognition, aid or assistance to their maintenance and those responsible must be brought to justice.

We call on people of conscience worldwide to intensify BDS campaigns to isolate Israel’s regime of settler colonialism and apartheid in the academic, cultural, economic and military fields, in order to bring about Israel’s full compliance with its obligations under international law. This must include pressuring companies to end complicit business activity and institutions to divest. Pressure must also be increased on governments to finally adopt effective measures, starting with a comprehensive military embargo, as well as the suspension of free-trade and cooperation agreements with Israel.

[1] As pointed out by Miloon Kothari, former UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, the official Israeli translation of the Ezrahut (Hebrew for Citizenship) Law (1952) as “Nationality Law” is misleading. Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Miloon Kothari’, UN Commission on Human Rights, Fifty-ninth session, 15 June 2002, Footnote #4, p.23.
[2] See, for example, Russell Tribunal on Palestine, Cape Town Session (2011), summary of findings http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/south-africa/south-africa-session-%E2%80%94-full-findings/cape-town-session-summary-of-findings; also, UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard, A/HRC/4/17 (29 Jan 2007); UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk, A/HRC/16/72 (10 January 2011)

Kuwait to boycott 50 companies over role in illegal Israeli settlements

Direct action by Palestinian activists in the Sha’ar Binyamin settlement, West Bank

The government of Kuwait has announced that it will not deal with 50 companies due to their role in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory in a move being welcomed by campaigners as a landmark success for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The blacklisted companies include some of the top corporate targets of the BDS movement, such as Volvo, Heidelberg Cement, Dexia, Pizzarotti, Alstom as well as Veolia. Veolia was recently excluded from a $750m contract, and “all future contracts,” by Kuwaiti authorities over its role in the illegal Jerusalem Light Rail project and other projects that serve illegal Israeli settlements.

The blacklisted companies are expected to be excluded from contracts worth billions of dollars, especially if other Arab countries take similar steps.

According to media reports, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Commerce and Industry is also investigating the Kuwaiti operations of G4S, the British security company that secures Israeli military checkpoints and colonies and helps Israel run prisons at which Palestinian political prisoners are tortured, with a view to cancelling its license to operate if it does not terminate its participation in Israeli violations of international law.

Zaid Shuaibi, a spokesperson for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the largest coalition of Palestinian trade unions, parties, NGOs and popular committees that leads the global BDS movement, said:

“This landmark decision means that international companies will now pay an even heavier price for participating in Israeli violations of international law.

“As European banks and pension funds continue to divest from Israel’s occupation and companies such as Veolia and G4S lose billions of dollars as a result of sustained, effective grassroots campaigning, many firms will now be wondering whether supporting Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid is good for business,” said Shuaibi.

Many European governments have taken steps to discourage firms from having economic links to the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, but this is the first time a government has decided to boycott international companies over their role in illegal Israeli settlements.

The Kuwaiti move, which follows lobbying by the Palestinian BDS National Committee and its partners in Kuwait, implements a decision of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), taken at a summit of foreign ministers at the height of the Israeli massacre in Gaza in August, to “impose political and economic sanctions on Israel, and boycott the corporations that operate in the colonial settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory.”

The Arab Summit of 2006 in Khartoum unanimously called for punitive measures against the companies, including Veolia and Alstom, involved in Israel’s colonization of Jerusalem.

The BNC has been working closely with BDS Kuwait since 2010 on advocating for accountability measures against international corporations that are complicit in Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian rights.

Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the BDS movement and a member of the BNC secretariat, commented on this unprecedented BDS victory saying, “We warmly welcome this important decision in support of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and self determination, and we urge the Kuwaiti government to implement it in full, including by cancelling any existing contracts with the blacklisted companies, as well as others that are also complicit, and ensuring that state money is not invested in any company, such as G4S, that enables Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights and international law.”

“In the wake of Israel’s massacre in Gaza, which was only made possible with the support of international governments and companies, we urge all governments, especially Arab League and OIC members, to impose sanctions on Israel and take action against the complicit corporations that profit from Israel’s occupation and crimes,” added Barghouti.

International companies that participate in Israel’s violations of international law have faced increasing pressure as a result of BDS campaigning in recent years.

Veolia recently announced that it intends to sell off large parts of its business in Israel after boycott campaigns cost the company more than $23bn – not counting Veolia’s latest losses in Kuwait — in lost potential contracts, although the French multinational will still remain involved in the illegal Jerusalem Light Rail Project.

British security giant G4S has pledged to end some aspects of its involvement in torture-ridden Israel’s prison system and checkpoints after trade unions, NGOs, universities and other public bodies cancelled contracts with the company.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) voted in June to divest from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and Hewlett Packard over their role in Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.

In January, Dutch pension giant PGGM announced it was divesting from five Israeli banks due to their support for illegal Israeli settlements. In February, it emerged that the sovereign fund of Luxembourg had taken a similar step, excluding nine Israeli banks and firms from its portfolio. In the months that followed, banks and pension funds in Norway, the Netherlands, the US and Denmark made similar announcements.

Notes

French multinational Veolia helps to operate the illegal Jerusalem Light Rail that facilitates the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and owns a landfill site in an illegal Israeli settlement
http://www.whoprofits.org/company/veolia-environnement
http://www.globalexchange.org/economicactivism/veolia/victories
Swedish multinational Volvo provides heavy machinery used for the demolition of Palestinian houses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, construction of Israeli settlements and construction of the illegal apartheid Wall
http://www.whoprofits.org/company/volvo-group-ab-volvo
German firm Heidelberg Cement operates quarries in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank
http://www.whoprofits.org/company/heidelberg-cement
Belgian bank Dexia Israel has been giving long-term loans and other financial services to municipalities of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories
http://www.whoprofits.org/company/dexia-group
Italian firm Pizzarotti is assisting with the construction of an illegal Israeli railway that passes through illegally occupied Palestinian territory
http://www.whoprofits.org/company/impresa-pizzarotti-c
For more information on European banks divesting from Israeli or international companies that participate in Israeli violations of international law, see
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/investing-israeli-settlements-continues-cycle-violence-desmond-tutu

Cairo donor conference: Palestinian civil society calls for public scrutiny of aid and zero complicity with Israeli violations of international law

Occupied Palestine, 12 October 2014 – As governments, aid agencies and the Palestinian Authority meet in Cairo to discuss Gaza reconstruction after Israel’s latest 51-day military assault last summer, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society unions, political parties and organisations, condemns in the strongest terms the UN-brokered reconstruction mechanism, which further entrenches Israel’s illegal blockade of 1.8 million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, allows Israel to reap financial benefits from its war crimes and, therefore, encourages their continuation.

Donor money pledges are no substitute for holding Israel accountable for its grave violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, and achieving justice for the Palestinian victims. The BNC calls on donors, international agencies and NGOs to adopt a clear and ethically responsible policy of transparency and zero complicity in aid delivery. The BNC also reiterates its call for a comprehensive and legally-binding military embargo on Israel and has delivered a petition with this demand to the UN.[1]

In addition, we call on states to support the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent Investigation Commission into all violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed in Gaza and elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territory since June, with the aim of bringing those responsible to justice.

Israel’s blockade and repeated military assaults against the occupied Gaza Strip are part and parcel of systematic Israeli efforts to permanently separate the tiny Gaza Strip from the West Bank and “get rid” of its large Palestinian population, most of them refugees of the 1948 Nakba with unresolved rights and claims in Israel. Under the pretense of its redeployment out of Gaza in 2005, Israel treats the occupied Gaza Strip as a “separate” and “hostile” entity, violates the territorial integrity of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and murders and imposes inhumane living conditions and collective punishment on Gaza’s Palestinian population. All of these are acts characteristic of a regime of colonialism and apartheid.

The BNC calls on UN agencies, the ICRC and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), which will once more deliver a large chunk of reconstruction aid to Gaza, to end their active and ongoing complicity with Israel’s blockade. For over seven years, the UN, the ICRC and INGOs have operated within the confines of Israel’s policy of separation and collective punishment, while issuing only token calls for the blockade to be lifted. With the recently brokered reconstruction mechanism for Gaza, the UN has even gone a step further, by willingly taking on the management of aspects of the blockade on behalf of Israel in complete disregard for its international law obligations.[2]

No effort was made in all these years to physically break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, as the ICRC sought to do, for instance, with the sea blockade of Misrata (Libya) in 2011. Aid actors have also failed to adopt a collective position of refusal to cooperate with Israeli illegal demands, although they are required to do so and have done so in other contexts in order to put pressure on governments engaged in limiting humanitarian space. Why is a double standard used when dealing with Israel’s grave violations of international law and the dire humanitarian situation that result from them, particularly in Gaza?

One example of the complicity of aid agencies is a recent multi-million dollar contract awarded by UNDP to Mifram LTD[3], an Israeli company that develops mobile steel military watchtowers and checkpoints used in the occupied West Bank by the Israeli military to limit Palestinian freedom of movement and enable the ongoing colonization of Palestinian land.

Another example is the recent agreement of aid actors to source cement for the reconstruction of Gaza from Nesher, an Israeli company that illegally quarries in the occupied West Bank[4] and supplies cement for the construction of settlements, the Wall and other associated illegal infrastructure, all in blatant violation of international law. Millions of dollars are expected to flow to Nesher for the reconstruction of the 18,000 homes Israel wantonly destroyed in Gaza, helping Israel profit from its war crimes.

The BNC calls for public scrutiny of aid. Like governments and private business, agencies delivering aid to Palestinians must be held accountable for their routine disregard of the principle of “do no harm” and the promotion of political agendas through their operations. Previous attempts by Palestinian civil society to raise these issues have largely fallen on deaf ears. Promises of “follow up” by senior UN officials were quietly brushed aside, with no serious effort for transparency or accountability.

The BNC urges the UN, ICRC and INGOs operating in the OPT to present in writing steps for non-recognition, aid or assistance to the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel. In particular, we call for rules of procurement, which exclude companies, Israeli or other, that are complicit in Israel’s serious violations of international law and abuses of Palestinian human rights in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza and which prevent Israeli profit or benefit from the humanitarian assistance process. We also call for a periodic mechanism of full disclosure of procurement contracts to the public, including Palestinian civil society.

[1] http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/more-than-60000-signatories-including-nobel-prize-laureates-celebrities-and-religious-organizations-call-for-military-embargo-on-israel-ahead-of-gaza-donors-conference-12736

[2] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/03/gaza-reconstruction-plan-un-israel-blockade

[3] http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_awards.cfm (last accessed 12 October 2014)

[4] Israel is prohibited from exploiting the natural resources belonging to the OPT in a way that undermines their capital and results in economic benefits for Israeli citizens, including settlers, or for its national economy: http://www.alhaq.org/publications/publications-index/item/pillage-of-the-dead-sea-israel-s-unlawful-exploitation-of-natural-resources-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory

Nobel laureates and 60,000 others call for military embargo on Israel

More Than 60,000 Signatories, Including Nobel Prize Laureates, Celebrities and Religious Organizations, Call For Military Embargo on Israel Ahead of Gaza Donors Conference

New York, NY – As international donors prepare to gather in Cairo on October 12 for a conference to rebuild Gaza after the devastation inflicted by Israel in its 51-day assault last summer, the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) delivered apetition signed by over 60,000 people including Nobel Laureates, artists and public intellectuals, to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling on the UN and governments around the world to take immediate steps to implement a comprehensive and legally binding military embargo on Israel, similar to that imposed on South Africa during the apartheid era.

The petition highlights the complicity of the United States, the European Union, and other countries, through their entrenched military trade agreements with Israel, in the crimes Israel is committing against the Palestinian people. It states: “By importing and exporting arms to Israel and facilitating the development of Israeli military technology, governments are effectively sending a clear message of approval for Israel’s military aggression, including its war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.”

Mahmoud Nawajaa, the general coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), said: “The recent brutal Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, including 501 children, could only be carried out because of the impunity and military aid Israel is provided by the international community.“

„During the donor reconstruction conference on October 12, we want to remind governments of their complicity in Israel’s violations of international law, and their legal and moral responsibility for ending it,“ Nawajaa added. „The governments of the world cannot provide Israel the military hardware it uses to destroy Palestinian lives and at the same time claim that they support Palestinian rights. It’s time for world leaders to put their money where their mouths are and to support nonviolent Palestinian-led efforts such as this to defend themselves and secure their rights.”

Signatories to the petition include Nobel Peace Laureates Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu,Adolfo Peres Esquivel, Jody Williams, Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchú and Betty Williams; intellectuals and academics such as Noam Chomsky, Rashid Khalidi, Judith Butler,Ilan Pappé, and David Palumbo-Liu; artists such as authors Alice Walker and Michael Ondaatje, musicians Roger Waters, Brian Eno, and Boots Riley, and filmmakers Mira Nair, Mike Leigh,Ken Loach, and John Pilger; and faith groups such as American Jews for a Just Peace, theBaptist Peace Fellowship of North America, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s Palestine Israel Network, the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, the Quaker Palestine Israel Network, and the United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network. The call for an arms embargo against Israel is also supported by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International.

The Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) is the coordinating body for the growing global boycott and divestment initiatives being carried out by unions, faith-based organizations, civil society groups and academics and cultural workers against Israel until it ends its occupation and colonization of Palestine.

The petition was submitted on behalf of the BNC by three U.S.-based human rights organizations:Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, Jewish Voice for Peace, andCODEPINK Women for Peace.

For more on the petition, visit: http://www.bdsmovement.net/stoparmingisrael.

###

Palestinian students call for Barclays boycott over Elbit investment

The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI), a group of Palestinian students in Gaza dedicated to the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign of Israel and the global justice movement for Palestinian justice and liberty, respectfully call on students around the world to stop banking with Barclays until Barclays divests from and ceases trading in shares in Elbit Systems, the major Israeli military company and drone manufacturer.

As Palestinians we suffer immeasurably from drone attacks. In 2012 and 2013, drones have killed more of us in Gaza than any other aircraft. As Palestinian Human Rights organisation Al-Mezan point out, drones are so deadly because “they are in the sky all the time, and they (the Israeli air force) don’t have to plan the attack properly beforehand.” Al Mezan found that, „When Israeli forces started to use drones, the number of people killed increased.“

Ayah Bashir, a Gaza-based BDS activist, said: “during the latest Israeli massacre in Gaza, we knew of the ground invasion even before the formal announcement. We heard the sounds of the drones getting louder in a crazy way, as if they were on steroids. In fact, their sound and volume became an indicator for us as to what is coming. Their buzzing sounds were piercing our ears creating cancers in our heads. They were hovering day and night without stopping and we wished they would cease for minutes so that we could sleep. It was funny that my sister and I tried helplessly using earplugs that never helped. At night and when Gaza sank into darkness without electricity, they were both the source of light illuminating the sky and death. They were in such incredibly large numbers that we used to joke saying that Israel is ordering one drone for each person in Gaza.”

“I used to contemplate these drones during the days of the attack. Sometimes, when I can’t stand being trapped inside the house, I would go to the roof and watch them while my father would demand that I come down because they always target us recalling the story of the three children from the Shuhaibar family in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City who were killed while they were just playing on their roof.”

“I often dwell on the persisting and disturbing memories of the drones and think of what an airplane represents in any other place. There, they are a means of transport that facilitate people’s lives. Here, in Gaza, they are a constant source of danger as they may kill you if they identify you as a threat, so much easier and quicker than you could ever imagine.”

Despite Elbit drones being used to commit war crimes in Gaza, Barclays bank is currently the listed as the owner of 50,217 shares in Elbit worth more than $3m.

Barclays has tried to absolve itself of any responsibility by saying its shares in Elbit are held on behalf of clients and to “hedge exposure”. Yet Barclays is profiting from holding shares in Elbit on behalf of its clients and the practise of “hedging” is a form of financial investment. By trading and holding shares in Elbit Systems, Barclays is deeply complicit in the war crimes carried out in Gaza using Elbit’s equipment.

Since Barclays refuse to end this unethical practice investing and dealing in shares in Elbit despite the fact that their drones kill us, our children, our parents, our brothers, sisters and friends, we ask for students to close their student Barclays account and tell Barclays why.

We know that boycotts by students are very effective. During the South African apartheid era, Barclays owned a South African subsidiary bank that made loans to the apartheid government and purchased millions in South African defence bonds. In solidarity with those being oppressed, British students closed their Barclays student accounts and encouraged others to do so. This caused Barclays share of the student market to drop from 27% to 15%. Encouraged by the students’ action, local councils, teachers associations and charities followed suit until Barclays permanently closed its South African subsidiary, having lost millions of pounds in closed bank accounts.

We welcome the decision by the UK National Union of Students to adopt BDS and the wave of divestment campaigns that has swept across North America in the past year.

We are certain that a similar campaign by student activists to switch bank accounts away from Barclays will pressure Barclays to stop investing and trading in Elbit Systems.

Signed by:

Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)
Gaza BDS Working Group
One Democratic State Group
University Teachers’ Association in Palestine

BDSmovement.net

The Palestinian BDS National Committee website