BDS

Israel’s Electronic War Against ‘Global Boycott Movement’

February 6, 2016 Staff, www.middleeastmonitor.com Resist! BDS, Cyber Warfare, Israel, Palestine

By Staff of Memo - The Israeli government has vowed to launch an “electronic war" against Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, including monitoring, tracking and thwarting their activities in cyber space, as well as attacking it with "special sophisticated tools". Israel Hayom newspaper reported: "Israel is facing a campaign to de-legitimise it. It penetrates into a certain extent; up to the secretary-general of the United Nations," noting that it is a new battle in its "own stadium: the cyber space".

Palestinians Welcome United Methodist Church Divestment

January 21, 2016 Palestinian BDS National Committee, www.bdsmovement.net Resist! BDS, Israel, Palestine

By Palestinian BDS National Committee for BDS Movement - The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society leading the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, salutes the United Methodist Church (UMC) for declaring the five largest Israeli banks off limits for investment for the Church’s $20-billion Pension and Health Benefits Fund. The BNC congratulates the United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR) group within the Church for its relentless and effective leadership in raising awareness among Methodist communities about Palestinian rights...

Why Did Brookings Institution Hold A Secret Panel Countering BDS?

December 29, 2015 Philip Weiss, www.mondoweiss.net Educate! BDS, Israel, Palestine

By Philip Weiss for Mondoweiss - Last June, Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson held a secret summit in Las Vegas to come up with ways of fighting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign on college campuses. They raised a reported $50 million to do so. Well now that secret process seems to have moved on to far more influential turf, to Washington, D.C., and a leading liberal thinktank: last week the Brookings Institution held a secret panel on BDS, sponsored by Haim Saban. By all appearances, the intent of the panel was to counter the BDS campaign.

BDS: Victory As Veolia Sells Off Israeli Operations

September 3, 2015 Palestinian BDS National Committee, www.bdsmovement.net Resist! BDS, Capitalism, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine

By Palestinian BDS National Committee - The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and its worldwide partners are celebrating the withdrawal of the huge French corporation Veolia from the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR), an illegal rail system built to facilitate the growth and expansion of Israeli colonial settlements on occupied Palestinian territory. The sale of its stake in the JLR project ends all of Veolia’s involvement in the Israeli market, including all projects that violate international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people. The sale follows an extensive 7-year boycott campaign against Veolia, due to its complicity in the Israeli occupation, which cost it tenders around the world estimated to be worth over $20 billion.

First US Trade Union Endorses BDS Of Israel

September 1, 2015 Haaretz, www.haaretz.com Resist! BDS, Israel, Labor Unions, Palestine

By Haaretz - One of the more prominent industrial unions in the U.S. voted to endorse the goals of the worldwide boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) movement against Israel, citing "its long history of violating the human rights of the Palestinians," thus purportedly becoming the first nationwide union to do so. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers' national convention met in Baltimore last week and voted on a string of foreign and as well as domestic policy issues, including the call to boycott Israel and support the nuclear deal with Iran. According to a statement on the UE's website, the union voted in favor of the "Justice and Peace for the Peoples of Palestine and Israel", and cited Israel’s sordid human rights record: "starting with the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians in 1947-48 that turned most of Palestine into the State of Israel."

Why I Support The BDS Movement Against Israel

July 28, 2015 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Resist! BDS, Capitalism, Israel, Palestine

By Chris Hedges in Truthdig - Justice for Palestine will never come from the traditional governmental institutions or political parties that administer power. These institutions have surrendered to moneyed interests. Justice will come only from us. And the sole mechanism left to ensure justice for Palestine is the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Sanctions brought down the apartheid regime of South Africa. And they are what will bring down the apartheid regime of Israel. BDS is nonviolent. It appeals to conscience. And it works. All Israeli products including Jaffa citrus fruits, Ahava cosmetics, SodaStream drink machines, Eden Springs bottled water and Israeli wine must be boycotted. We must refuse to do business with Israeli service companies. And we must boycott corporations that do business with Israel, including Caterpillar, HP and Hyundai.

The BDS Movement At 10: An interview With Omar Barghouti

July 20, 2015 Interview with Omar Barghouti Adam Horowitz and Philip Weiss, www.mondoweiss.net Educate! BDS, Israel, Occupation, Palestine

Interview with Omar Barghouti by Adam Horowitz and Philip Weiss in Mondoweiss - BDS has played a critical role in changing the discourse on the question of Palestine after more than two decades of a fraudulent “peace process” that undermined Palestinian rights and served as a fig leaf for the expansion and entrenchment of Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid. Today, Israel recognizes BDS as a “strategic threat” to its entire regime of oppression for several reasons. BDS is mainstreaming the quest for the UN-stipulated but long ignored rights of the entire Palestinian people and is gradually and methodically succeeding in isolating Israel academically, culturally and, to a lesser extent, economically as well. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid struggle, BDS is also succeeding in exposing the toxicity of the “brand” Israel.

State Dep’t Says It Has No Objection To BDS

July 3, 2015 Philip Weiss, www.mondoweiss.net Resist! BDS, Genocide, Israel, Occupation, Palestine

In yet another sign that the American government is reassessing the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel, and that BDS is gaining traction, the State Department yesterday said that it did not oppose BDS, boycott, divestment and sanctions actions, aimed at the occupied Palestinian territories, because Israeli settlements “make it harder to negotiate a sustainable and equitable peace deal in good faith.” The statement was a special clarification of White House policy on the new fast-track trade bill, which contained a provision that Congress had included at the urging of Israel lobby groups: to punish European companies and governments that support BDS of Israel– including Israeli activities in the occupied territories.

Foreign Investment In Israel Dropped 50% In 2014 Due To BDS

June 28, 2015 Annie Robbins, www.mondoweiss.net Resist! BDS, Israel

By Annie Robbins for Mondoweiss, Foreign direct investment in Israel dropped by 50% in 2014 according to a 2015 World Investment Report issued yesterday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Newsweek cites one of the authors of the report, Dr. Ronny Manos from the Open University of Israel, as speculating the declining investment is fallout from the Israeli military onslaught on Gaza last summer and “international boycotts” against Israel for “alleged violations of international law.” Ynet adds that, according to Manos, “these are only conjectures that can explain the sharp decline” As we reported in 2013 investment committees for European banks were considering recommending their institutions bar loans to Israeli companies that have economic links with the Palestinian occupied territories. At the time Haaretz reported the investment committees “submit a report to their clients with recommendations about where to invest − and where not to invest. The process of examining the Israeli companies that operate in West Bank settlements involved the exercise of due diligence.”

Why The War Against BDS?… The Real Reason

June 18, 2015 James North, www.desertpeace.wordpress.com Resist! BDS, Capitalism, Israel, Palestine

By James North in Desert Peace - Well, here’s why. The Financial Times has published a big, and somewhat balanced, article on the rapid rise of BDS that includes two stunning financial numbers showing how powerful the nonviolent movement for justice in Israel/Palestine is becoming. The most important information is deep inside the FT article: However, there are signs that Israel’s disquiet over BDS is genuine. This week an Israeli financial newspaper covered a leaked government report estimating that BDS could cost Israel’s economy $1.4bn a year. The estimate included lower exports from the settlements in keeping with the EU’s plans to begin labelling goods made there — not part of the BDS movement, although many Israelis lump the two things together. The Rand Corporation, the US think-tank, says the costs could be more than three times higher: $47bn over 10 years.

Secret Sheldon Adelson Summit Raises ~$50M For Anti-BDS Push

June 15, 2015 Nathan Guttman, www.forward.com Resist! BDS, Capitalism, Israel, Palestine

By Nathan Guttman in Forward - Pro-Israel activists headed home from Las Vegas last weekend resting easy that raising money to fight boycott and sanction campaigns on campus just got a lot easier. Although checks have yet to be written, deep-pocketed donors like summit organizer Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban pledged tens of millions to their cause. “You work together and we will raise you the money,” promised Israeli-American businessman Adam Milstein following the conference for Israel activists that took place there over the weekend. “You no longer have to worry about financing and fundraising. You just need to be united.”

Canada May Charge BDS Supporters With Hate Crimes

May 12, 2015 Neil Macdonald, www.cbc.ca Resist! BDS, Canada, Israel, Law, Political Prisoner

The Harper government is signalling its intention to use hate crime laws against Canadian advocacy groups that encourage boycotts of Israel. Such a move could target a range of civil society organizations, from the United Church of Canada and the Canadian Quakers to campus protest groups and labour unions. If carried out, it would be a remarkably aggressive tactic, and another measure of the Conservative government's lockstep support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While the federal government certainly has the authority to assign priorities, such as pursuing certain types of hate speech, to the RCMP, any resulting prosecution would require an assent from a provincial attorney general. And it would almost certainly be challenged under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, civil liberties groups say.

Boycott, Divest And Sanction Corporations That Feed On Prisons

April 7, 2015 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Strategize! BDS, Capitalism, Mass Incarceration

“Organizing boycotts, work stoppages inside prisons and the refusal by prisoners and their families to pay into the accounts of phone companies and commissary companies is the only weapon we have left,” said Amos Caley, who runs the Interfaith Prison Coalition, a group formed by prisoners, the formerly incarcerated, their families and religious leaders. “Mass incarceration is the most important civil rights issue of our day. And it is time for communities of faith to stand with poor people, mostly of color, who are unfairly exploited and abused. We must halt human rights violations against the poor that grow more pronounced each year,” Caley said here. He and other prison reform leaders spoke Saturday at the Elmwood Presbyterian Church.

Pressure Grows On US Firm Selling Homes In Israel’s Settlements

March 11, 2015 Charlotte Silver, www.electronicintifada.net Resist! BDS, Capitalism, Israel, Las Vegas

The campaign against RE/MAX, an American real estate firm that sells apartments in the settlements Israel is building in the occupied West Bank, is growing. Last week, activists from around the US traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, todemonstrate at and disrupt RE/MAX’s annual convention held at the Mandalay Bay Casino and Hotel. “The fact that it is known that RE/MAX is helping to facilitate the settlement expansion within the West Bank makes this moment important for folks across the globe to expose and target huge multinational corporations making money off the occupation,” Sophia Armen told The Electronic Intifada. Armen is the national coordinator of the Boycott RE/MAX: No Open House on Stolen Land campaign.

Free Speech As A Barrier To Trade? The Latest Anti-BDS Scheme

March 3, 2015 Chip Gibbons, www.defendingdissent.org Educate! BDS, Free Speech, Free Trade

Reps. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) have introduced the United States-Israel Trade and Commercial Enhancement Act into Congress. This bill, according to Roskam’s press release, would “counter the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and strengthen the U.S.-Israel economic relationship.” The bill cites its raison d’être not as a political defense of Israel, but as concern over “politically motivated actions” that would constitute barriers of trade in violation of the General Agreement on Trades and Tariffs (GATT). It would tie U.S. trade policy, most notably the pending trade deal with the European Union, to opposing BDS.

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