BDS

The Boycott Is Our Palestinian Non-Violent Resistance

February 11, 2014 Hanan Ashrawi, www.haaretz.com Resist! BDS, Palestine

The SodaStream controversy, which recently caught the attention of media worldwide, has highlighted Israel’s ongoing military occupation and contributed to the growing awareness of global consciousness and social responsibility towards Palestine. It has laid wide open the whole issue of Israeli impunity and the imperative of multifaceted intervention and accountability. Scarlett Johansson’s choice to be the face of SodaStream, a company that operates a factory in the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, has brought to the forefront the debate on continued Israeli settlement activity and the real cost of such a dangerous and irresponsible policy. Ms. Johansson, who was also an ambassador of the human rights organization Oxfam, suddenly faced a conflict of interest and the challenge of individual responsibility and choice.

Soda Stream Controversy Builds Growing Boycott Israel Movement

February 7, 2014 Resist! BDS, Israel, Palestine

The threat of boycott has Israeli business leaders worried and the boycott against Soda Stream is being blamed for a slide in the value of the Israeli currency. Secretary State John Kerry raised the issue of a growing boycott with Israel warning them that if the peace negotiations fail with Palestine. Kerry has been negotiation for Israel, more than as an unbiased middleman, and is repeating what many Israeli politicians are saying; other Israeli politicians believe boycotts should not be talked about because it only strengthens the movement. In the US we have seen New York and Maryland consider bills to punish universities that support boycotts and a bill has been introduced in the US House of Representatives. The NY bill has faltered. The others have been introduced but not yet moved forward.

NY State Assembly Moving To Prevent Boycotts Of Israel

February 1, 2014 Staff, www.palestinelegalsupport.org Resist! BDS, Israel

This past Tuesday, Jan. 28th, the NY State Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill targeting the American Studies Association (ASA) because it recently passed a resolution supporting an academic boycott of Israel. If this becomes law it would prohibit public universities and colleges from using any taxpayer money on groups that support boycotts of Israel. For instance, such funds could not be used for travel or lodging for a faculty member attending a meeting of a group that supports a boycott of Israel. Just as dangerous, this law will lay the groundwork for other attempts to silence debate and opposition on other controversial issues. A similar bill is quickly moving through the process in the NY State Assembly...we must act now to stop it!

GMU Students Challenge Israeli Apartheid

January 16, 2014 Anderson Bean, www.socialistworker.org Resist! BDS, Israel, Palestine

"LOSE TO 100 graduates, family members and guests walked out during George Mason University's (GMU) winter graduation ceremony to protest the university's entanglements with profiteers of Israeli apartheid. The walkout may have been the first instance of a university acknowledging and offering accommodations for a walkout of its own graduation ceremony. This concession by the administration came after campaigns led by Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), a campus organization committed to the Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) call."

Johannsson: No Guilt Over Product Made In Occupied Land

January 15, 2014 Annie Robbins, www.mondoweiss.net Educate! BDS, Israel, Palestine

SodaStream is the seltzer maker that produces its fizz-boxes in occupied territory in Palestine, and the other day starlet Scarlett Johansson signed a multi-year contract with the corporation that kicks off during the Superbowl. Monday was SodaStream’s first day of trading since the announcement that Johansson was SodaStream’s new face, and the stock took a beating, and it hasn’t recovered in the two days of trading since. “Even Star Johansson Can’t Help SodaStream as Stock Sinks 26%” was Boomberg Business Week’s headline, while InvestorPlace contributor Lawrence Meyers cites SodaStream as “long-term business failure….a momentum fad stock.”

‘Common Sense Has Moved On’: Report From MLA Debate On Israel

January 14, 2014 Bruce Robbins, www.mondoweiss.net Educate! BDS, Israel, Palestine

"At the preparatory debate on Friday (where I did get my chance to speak) a critic of Israel had complained that these words were badly chosen because this discrimination wasn’t arbitrary at all–it was simple racism. On the other hand, Israel’s defenders objected that its control of the border reflected legitimate security concerns. This is demonstrably false–did the Israelis hold Noam Chomsky at the border for so many hours because they thought he had a bomb in his briefcase? I would have wanted to say that arbitrariness was absolutely central. Palestinian department heads and administrators trying to recruit foreign faculty and plan course offerings have called for Israel to articulate some policy, some clear, transparent set of rules or norms dictating whether people will be allowed in, denied re-entry, lose their tickets, spend weeks in limbo, or whatever."

Israel Boycott Growing “Much Faster” Than South Africa Campaign

January 10, 2014 Staff, www.electronicintifada.net Resist! BDS, Education, Palestine

"An MLA meeting would not normally make headlines but Barghouti’s appearance has provoked alarmist articles in the Israeli and US media, including in Haaretz and The Wall Street Journal. Following the American Studies Association’s (ASA) landslide vote to endorse the academic boycott of Israel in December, Israel and its supporters fear that the much larger MLA – with 30,000 members in 100 countries – is heading in the same direction. No boycott resolution is currently on the MLA’s agenda, but there is a resolution on academic freedom in the occupied territories which is seen by some as a trial balloon."

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