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The Jewish National Fund (JNF), a British charity implicated in human rights violations in Israel, received yet another blow when Green Party of England and Wales members voted overwhelmingly to support an international call for action against JNF practices in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and to revoke its charity status in the UK.

Green Party member Deborah Fink, who is co-founder of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, moved the motion on Sunday.  Fink alerted the conference to “JNF greenwash” and said that “the Green Party stands for environmental and social justice, the upholding of human rights, is against racism and is officially in solidarity with the Palestinian people who have called for this campaign.  The JNF is a major impediment to realisation of Green Party policy on the Middle East, therefore the JNF should be condemned.  As a charity, the JNF gets tax advantages, so through our taxes, we are subsidising injustice”.  The motion passed with no one speaking in opposition and with only three people voting against.

The Green Party endorsement of the Stop the JNF Campaigns comes after similar motions were passed last year by the Scottish Green Party and Scottish Friends of the Earth, all repudiating the JNF’s claim to be an “environmental charity”.  The JNF is known for establishing forests and parks over the remains of destroyed Palestinian villages.  Last year the JNF lost high level political protection when David Cameron resigned as Honorary Patron, the first time in its 111 year history the serving British Prime Minister does not hold this position.  Equally unprecedentedly, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg declined the JNF’s request to become Patrons when they became leaders of their parties.

Terry Gallogly, Green Party member and an organiser of the Stop the JNF Campaign in the UK, welcomed the decision this weekend,

“Our government has stood by for over sixty years doing nothing, or directly complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights.  The JNF is a key tool of Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing, operating as a para-statal organisation with powers over land administration.

“This decision, along with similar positions already taken by civil society organisations such as the Iona Community and trade unions, is a message to the JNF that their days are numbered – we won’t tolerate their abuse of charity status in the UK to fund a system of land theft and racism against Palestinians.”

Campaigners believe that another sign of the JNF’s increasing difficulty is the sixty-four MPs who have signed an Early Day Motion stating there is just cause to consider the revocation of the JNF’s charitable status.

Contrary to Finkelstein’s claim that the BDS movement would lead to the ‘destruction’ of Israel, one can simply look to Ireland as an example of a lasting two-state solution [GALLO/GETTY]

Chicago, IL – In a recent and highly controversial interview, Norman Finkelstein, long a scourge of Israel, turned his guns on Palestinians and their supporters. He accused the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement of being a “cult”, and claimed that its achievements were mostly exaggerated.

But what exercised Finkelstein most was his conclusion that if implemented, the demands of the 2005 Palestinian civil society call for BDS, would amount to “the destruction of Israel”.

Finkelstein lay into the three “tiers” of the BDS call: that Israel end its occupation of Arab lands conquered in 1967; that it end all forms of discrimination and guarantee equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel; and that it respect and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees, including the right of return.

“They don’t want Israel,” Finkelstein declared, “They think they’re being very clever. They call it their three tiers… We want the end of the occupation, we want the right of return, and we want equal rights for Arabs in Israel. And they think they are very clever, because they know the result of implementing all three is what? What’s the result? You know and I know what’s the result: there’s no Israel.”

Finkelstein demanded that Palestinians drop this programme, “Because, if we end the occupation and bring back six million Palestinians and we have equal rights for Arabs and Jews, there’s no Israel.” He also insisted that a “two-state solution” was the only outcome supported by international law.

Putting the BDS call to the test

For the sake of argument, let’s put Finkelstein’s thesis to the test. But before I do that, let me make clear where I stand. As is well known, I support, and believe, that the eventual outcome in historic Palestine will be a single state.

Many supporters of the BDS movement, including some of its founders are on record calling for the same. But the BDS call itself is agnostic, focusing on the rights of Palestinians, not on state arrangements – something Finkelstein insisted was mere deception.

Here, I am going to do what I normally never do. Argue the case for a two-state solution that meets all the demands of the BDS call. Moreover, it should meet fully with Finkelstein’s approval as well, because it will be based on a solution that he himself endorsed.

“I just came back from Northern Ireland,” Finkelstein said in his interview, “They found a settlement. You talk to Protestants, you talk to Catholics. Most people are willing to live with it. You know there are some people who find it unacceptable. But [for] most people, it’s ok, we can live with it. I think you can find a settlement to Israel/Palestine that virtually everybody, particularly Palestinians, can live with.”

The question then will be whether Finkelstein and his new Zionist champions (his interview was widely and gleefully distributed by anti-Palestinian websites and commentators) could accept a solution that applies the very same principles in historic Palestine as were endorsed on the island of Ireland.

A quick history: Settler colonialism and partition

Conflicts in Ireland and Palestine are the legacies of settler-colonialism facilitated by Britain. In each case, the settler-colonial intervention created two mutually exclusive claims to sovereignty, legitimacy and self-determination underpinned by two diametrically opposed narratives, and a material reality of one community long monopolising state power, resources and symbols to dominate and denigrate the other. In both cases, the British imposed or facilitated partitions, which rather than resolve the underlying problem, simply converted the conflict into new forms of antagonism.

Every historical situation, including those in Palestine and Ireland, is distinct, yet comparisons are possible and useful, and in these two cases the similarities are more important than the differences.

Irish nationalists point to an 800-year history of British colonialism, but the modern conflict can be traced to the colonisation of the northeast part of the island, beginning in early 1600s.

As British authorities granted land to Protestant settlers from England and Scotland, native Catholics were forcibly displaced in large numbers, a process very similar to how Zionist settlers displaced, and continue to displace, Palestinians.

Although Britain annexed Ireland in 1801, repeated Irish nationalist rebellions made the question of granting Irish “home rule” the central controversy in British politics through much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Unionists, generally comprised of the ascendant and long-settled Protestant population, were adamantly opposed to home rule, fearing it would threaten their privileged status. In 1912, Unionist militancy, military preparations and threats of violence succeeded in forestalling British attempts to implement home rule.

Meanwhile, Irish nationalists, predominantly Catholic, gained increasing support for independence – especially after the British executed the leaders of the failed 1916 Easter Rising in which an “Irish Republic” was proclaimed. In the 1918 election to the British parliament, the republican party Sinn Fein won a landslide of Irish seats on a platform of total independence from Britain.

Following a guerilla war between British and republican forces that ended in stalemate, the sides signed the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State, an autonomous “dominion” of the British Empire, that eventually became the Republic of Ireland.

But its territory covered only 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties. To appease unionists, the British simultaneously partitioned the island, forming Northern Ireland, an autonomous self-governing state linked to Britain, gerrymandered to have a two-thirds Protestant majority.

A Protestant state for a Protestant people

Northern Ireland became a unionist-run, one-party state. Nationalist resistance to partition was violently suppressed by British forces and unionist militia. Within a year of partition, hundreds of Catholics were killed in Belfast, 11,000 were forced from their jobs, and 22,000 – a quarter of the city’s Catholic population – were driven from their homes.

In the widely quoted formula attributed to Northern Ireland’s first prime minister, Lord Craigavon, the state’s seat of government at Stormont Castle was a “Protestant parliament for a Protestant people”.

Catholics experienced severe discrimination in employment, housing, and all aspects of political and cultural life. They viewed Northern Ireland as an illegitimate imposition, and its security forces as Protestant sectarian militia guaranteeing unionist dominance.

Unionism viewed any effort to create a united Ireland as a mortal threat. In 1990, for example, James Molyneaux, leader of the then dominant Ulster Unionist Party, described the Republic of Ireland’s constitutional claim to the north as “a demand for the destruction of Northern Ireland” that was “equivalent to Hitler’s claim over Czechoslovakia”.

This language resembles that used by Zionists and Norman Finkelstein to describe any fundamental reform of the Israeli state to end its systematic discrimination against non-Jews, let alone a one-state solution, as tantamount to Israel’s “destruction”.

Obsession with demography

At partition, Catholics were a third of the population in Northern Ireland. By 2001 they were 44 per cent.

Just as Israelis are obsessed with the “demographic threat” from the births of Palestinians, fear of a relatively high Catholic birthrate – which could provide the Catholic majority in the north needed to reunify Ireland – was a recurrent theme in unionist discourse. “The basic fear of Protestants in Northern Ireland,” a former prime minister said, “is that they will be out-bred by the Roman Catholics. It is simple as that.”

Equality for all or the ‘destruction of Israel’?

In the mid-1960s, after almost 50 years of unionist rule, nationalists mobilised a civil rights movement modelled on the one in the United States – demanding equal citizenship and an end to systematic discrimination against Catholics.

This departed from traditional republicanism, which had focused on ending partition, but the unionist state perceived even demands for equal rights within Northern Ireland as an attack on Protestant “identity” and the very existence of the state. Unionists responded to calls for equality and reform with violence, and, as in the 1920s, Catholics were once again subjected to pogroms.

During Israel’s December 2008 to January 2009 invasion of the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, the vast majority of which were civilians, veteran Irish journalist Patrick Cockburn wrote in The Independent that Israeli society reminded him “more than ever of the unionists in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s”. Like Israelis, he wrote, unionists were a community “with a highly developed siege mentality which led them always to see themselves as victims even when they were killing other people. There were no regrets or even knowledge of what they inflicted on others and therefore any retaliation by the other side appeared as unprovoked aggression inspired by unreasoning hate”.

“There were no regrets or even knowledge of what they inflicted on others and therefore any retaliation by the other side appeared as unprovoked aggression inspired by unreasoning hate.“

- Patrick Cockburn

Indeed, Israel’s reaction to Palestinian demands for equal citizenship mimics the unionist response to the nationalist campaign for equality in Northern Ireland almost precisely. Israel also characterises these demands as an existential threat, a tacit acknowledgment that inequality and discrimination are foundational elements of the Israeli state. As Finkelstein succinctly put it, “equal rights means the end of Israel”.

This is why Palestinian citizens of Israel and their representatives in the Knesset such as Hanin Zoabi, face ever more hostile rhetoric and discriminatory bills and laws – from loyalty oaths, to bans on commemorating the Nakba, to provisions reserving jobs and land for army veterans (effectively favouring Jews) to the  Citizenship Law that makes it impossible for Israeli citizens to bring Palestinian or other Arab spouses to live in the country (Ben White’s new book Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy is an excellent primer).

In short, Israel has responded to calls for equal citizenship with the insistence that it must be recognised as a “Jewish and democratic state”. Just as Northern Ireland unionists insisted on a Protestant state for a Protestant people at the expense of Catholics and their human rights, 21st century Zionists demand a Jewish state for a Jewish people at the expense of Palestinians.

‘The Troubles’

Unionists’ violent rejection of nationalist demands for equality in the late 1960s inaugurated the three-decade low-level civil war known as “The Troubles” in which more than 3,500 people were killed and 50,000 injured – nearly two per cent of the Northern Ireland population.

As violence escalated, the British abolished the unionist government in 1972, imposed direct rule from London, and sent in the British army. The unionist state had collapsed, but the unionist-dominated status quo was preserved, as the army, initially sent in to protect Catholics, quickly began to act and be seen by Catholics as an occupying force.

A reconstituted Irish Republican Army (IRA) resumed armed struggle, initially in defence of Catholic communities, but later went on the offensive against the police, army and unionist militia (known as “loyalists”). The IRA and other republican armed groups also carried out bomb attacks and political assassinations which killed noncombatants, including in Britain.

British tactics included curfews, internment (imprisonment without charge or trial similar to Israel’s “administrative detention”, also a legacy of British colonial rule in Palestine), assassinations and extrajudicial executions, and there was extensive and now well-documented collusion between state forces and the loyalist militia that killed hundreds of noncombatant Catholics in brutal sectarian attacks.

A two-state solution in Ireland

In 1998, Unionists and Nationalists signed the Belfast Agreement. It established, in effect, a bi-national state in Northern Ireland where Irish nationalists share power with pro-British unionists.

It did not abolish Northern Ireland, but it did banish, once and for all, the “Protestant state” and enshrined equality as a fundamental principle.

The agreement notably does not resolve whether the six counties that form Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom or rejoin a united Ireland, but it establishes principles and mechanisms for determining where sovereignty should lie and what would happen if it changes.

Crucially, it the agreement states whether Northern Ireland remains part of the UK, or becomes part of a united Ireland,

“the power of the sovereign government with jurisdiction there shall be exercised with rigorous impartiality on behalf of all the people in the diversity of their identities and traditions and shall be founded on the principles of full respect for, and equality of, civil, political, social and cultural rights, of freedom from discrimination for all citizens, and of parity of esteem and of just and equal treatment for the identity, ethos, and aspirations of both communities.”

Northern Ireland has no ‘right to exist’

This was made possible because the British effectively abandoned any claim that Northern Ireland as an entity had a “right” to exist. A breakthrough moment came in 1992 when the UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland conceded that “provided it is advocated constitutionally, there can be no proper reason for excluding any political objective from discussion. Certainly not the objective of a united Ireland…”

As part of the agreement, nationalists conceded that the reunification of Ireland could only come about by the consent of a majority in Northern Ireland.

Consequently, the Belfast Agreement did not recognise any separate right to self-determination for unionists as unionists or Protestants as Protestants that would be analogous to a specifically Jewish right to self-determination within historic Palestine.

Unionists enjoy the right to participate in self-determination, along with nationalists, as legitimate residents of the territory. No more, no less.

Freedom of movement and citizenship

There is complete freedom of movement, residency and cross-border employment (something guaranteed in any case under European Union rules) between the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland and the right to full citizenship in either or both states. Moreover, such citizenship cannot be revoked from any person even if the status of Northern Ireland changes. There is nothing to stop Catholics moving north or Protestants moving south.

In order to reverse the long history of discrimination, public bodies and officials in Northern Ireland are under a statutory obligation to promote equality among individuals and communities, and safeguards enacted in British and Irish law are designed to ensure that practices conform to European and international human rights standards. Employment anti-discrimination measures in Northern Ireland are strictly enforced, and although Catholics are still, on average, poorer than Protestants, the gap has narrowed.

A form of 1980s solidarity activism in the United States – somewhat analogous to BDS – demanded that US firms doing business in Northern Ireland adhere to the MacBride Principles, which forbid any form of sectarian discrimination.

A model for historic Palestine?

The Belfast Agreement preserves an existing “two-state solution” in Ireland unless and until people in both jurisdictions choose any other arrangement. But in the meantime, it required one of the states – Northern Ireland – to transform into an inclusive democracy from an oppressive ethnocracy. The agreement also required the Republic of Ireland to strengthen its own human rights and equality guarantees.

So if Northern Ireland is the model, how would it transpose to Palestine? Clearly, Israel would have to become, like Northern Ireland, a bi-national state with strict equality and full representation for all citizens. All laws privileging Jews would have to be abolished and strong measures taken to redress historic and present injustices and prevent future discrimination. A Palestinian state would have to be no less committed to equality.

There would be complete freedom of movement and residency between Israel and the Palestinian state, and because ethnic and racial privileges would have to be abolished, Palestinian refugees could exercise their right to return to the state of their choice and gain citizenship in either.

The Republic of Ireland grants citizenship to any person from abroad with one grandparent born in Ireland, regardless of religion or ethnic background. A similar law could replace Israel’s racist “Law of Return” that grants citizenship only to Jews while discriminating against Palestinians.

Jews would have no separate right of self-determination, but like Protestants in Northern Ireland, would enjoy full democratic rights to participate in self-determination as residents of the territory.

All these principles underpin the Belfast Agreement and yet they did not mean the “destruction of Northern Ireland”. What they rightly did away with is ethno-religious privileges for Protestants at the expense of Catholics.

“If Finkelstein and Zionists cannot accept a two-state solution on these terms, then we know it is not the number of states that concerns them.”

So the question then for Norman Finkelstein and Zionists who are horrified by the idea of a one-state solution, is: could they accept two states on such terms? If the answer is yes, then it is clear that the BDS call is completely compatible with a two-state solution, and Finkelstein should withdraw his claim that this is mere deception.

If Finkelstein and Zionists cannot accept a two-state solution on these terms, then we know it is not the number of states that concerns them. Rather, their priority is to preserve racial and colonial privileges for Jews at the expense of fundamental Palestinian rights.

That is something Palestinians and their allies, as with nationalists in Northern Ireland, can never – and must never – accept, no matter how many states exist in their respective homelands.

Ali Abunimah is author of One Country, A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. He is a co-founder of the online publication The Electronic Intifada and a policy adviser with Al-Shabaka.

Original Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/2012227111759385177.html

DaitoCrea, the general agent in Japan for Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, announced on its website that they would no longer be distributing Ahava products manufactured in the Israeli illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the West Bank as of January 31, 2012,  Monday said a statement issued by the Palestine forum Japan.

Ahava is an Israeli cosmetics company with a manufacturing plant in an illegal West Bank settlement, which has been the subject of an international boycott campaign since 2009 because of its illegal practices.

Ahava’s plant, visitors center and research facility are in the West Bank settlement of Mitzpe Shalem. All Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, including Mitzpe Shalem, are illegal under international law according to the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, Israeli and international human rights organizations.

“This decision is the direct result of a concerted campaign by the Palestine Forum Japan starting in 2010 to educate Daito Crea and Japanese consumers about Ahava’s illegal practices. Activists wrote letters, organized a social media campaign, and eventually had a sit-down meeting with Daito Crea,” said the statement.

Once the Japanese agent was made aware of the legal and ethical issues involved with Ahava’s products, they began to take steps to sever ties with the company.

Ahava’s profits subsidize Mitzpe Shalem and the settlement of Kalia, both of which are co-owners of the enterprise. In addition, Ahava sources the mud used in its products from the occupied shores of the Dead Sea in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention’s ban on the pillage of occupied natural resources.

In addition to its efforts directed at DaitoCrea, members of the Palestine Forum Japan also met with the Consumer Affairs Agency, the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, informing them about Ahava’s occupation profiteering and the occupation’s harmful effects on the Palestinians of the West Bank.

In a meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in May 2010, the Ministry confirmed that it was inappropriate for Ahava to label its goods as “Product of Israel” when in fact they were manufactured in the Occupied West Bank. This fraudulent labeling has also come under scrutiny in France, The Netherlands, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

This is the second major Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) victory in Japan, following on the success of the “STOP MUJI” campaign in 2010; where Activists used a variety of tactics, including sending post cards, organizing a Twitter campaign, and staging in-store protests to pressure MUJI, a large Japanese retail chain that sells consumer goods and electronics, not to open a planned store in Israel.

Building on these two successes, the Palestine Forum Japan will continue its work to support Palestinian rights. There is plenty to do as Israeli companies seek to deepen their reciprocal ties with Asian countries while losing market share in Europe and North America because of human rights campaigns.

Last July, a Hello Kitty store was opened in the suburbs of Tel Aviv; this is the first Japanese retail shop in Israel. Classic Japan, a cut flower import company, was for many years a trading partner of Agrexco, a now bankrupt Israeli agricultural supplier that sold products grown in illegal West Bank settlements.

Classic Japan is now importing flowers from Bickel, another Israeli agricultural concern with greenhouses in illegal Jordan Valley settlements. In October of this year, Synergy Trading in Osaka began to carry Soda Stream products, which are manufactured in the illegal settlement of Mishor Adumim. In December, a prominent theater director, Yukio Ninagawa, announced plans to stage “The Trojan Women” in Tokyo and Tel Aviv with sponsorship of both governments.

As our governments continue to allow Israel to flout international law with impunity—witness the blockade of Gaza, the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, the confiscation of land in Nabi Saleh, Bilin and other villages, the home demolitions in East Jerusalem—it is up to global civil society to hold Israel accountable. It is through grassroots BDS efforts that citizens of the world can support Palestinian human rights and work to end Israel’s brutal occupation and its system of apartheid.

Original Link: http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=19126

In a major setback for Israeli efforts to suppress the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in the United States, a judge in Olympia, Washington today dismissed a lawsuit designed to force the Olympia Food Co-op to rescind its boycott of Israeli goods.

The judge ruled that the lawsuit, brought by opponents of the boycott, violated a Washington State law designed to prevent abusive lawsuits aimed at suppressing lawful public participation. The court said it would award the defendants attorneys’ fees, costs, and levy sanctions against the plaintiffs.

While the lawsuit was brought by several individuals against present and former members of the Olympia Food Co-op Board, it was planned in collusion with StandWithUs, a national anti-Palestinian organization, working with the Israeli government, an Electronic Intifada investigation revealed last September.

For Full Article: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/judge-throws-out-israel-backed-lawsuit-against-olympia-food-co-op-upholds-right

Over 30 people turned out on Saturday 25th February to demonstrate against Barclays’ investments in the arms trade and in Israeli companies.

The demonstration was called by Brighton Jordan Valley Solidarity, Smash EDO and Brighton and Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign. After demonstrators arrived security guards, clearly fearing a repeat of UK-Uncut style protests, shut the front doors of the bank and would only grant access to customers who were carrying Barclay Cards.

photos at http://yfrog.com/gyu24vurj

Barclays is the largest global investor in the arms trade and is the market maker for arms company ITT Exelis.

Barclays is also the only high street bank with significant direct investments in Israeli companies.

The Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) calls for companies to divest from Israeli companies. The call also demands an end to investment in companies profiting from Israel's occupation. The arms companies, such as BAE Systems, invested in by Barclays fall into this category.

Barclays also  hold shares in Unilever, the owner of Beigel and Beigel, who run a manufacturing plant in the Barkan settlement industrial zone in the occupied West Bank.

The bank is also attempting to move in to the Israeli High Street. Barclays has an Israeli HQ and, in 2011, applied to operate branches in Israel. If it is successful Barclays will, like all banks operating in Israel, provide loans to settlers and settler industries.

Edited by Audrea Lim

Leading international voices argue for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

In July 2011, Israel passed legislation outlawing the public support of boycott activities against the state, corporations, and settlements, adding a crackdown on free speech to its continuing blockade of Gaza and the expansion of illegal settlements. Nonetheless, the campaign for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) continues to grow in strength within Israel and Palestine, as well as in Europe and the US.

This essential intervention considers all sides of the movement—including detailed comparisons with the South African experience—and contains contributions from both sides of the separation wall, along with a stellar list of international commentators.

Contributors: Merav Amir and Dalit Baum, Ra’anaan Alexandrowicz, Hind Awwad, Mustafa Barghouthi, Omar Barghouti, Joel Beinin, John Berger, Angela Davis, Nada Elia, Marc Ellis, Noura Erakat, Ran Greenstein, Neve Gordon, Ronald Kasrils, Jamal Khader, Naomi Klein, Mark LeVine, Ken Loach, David Lloyd and Laura Pulido, Haneen Maikey, Ilan Pappe, Jonathan Pollak, Lisa Taraki, Rebecca Vilkomerson, Michael Warschawski, Slavoj Žižek.

With contributions by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, Merav Amir, Hind Awwad, Mustafa Barghouthi, Omar Barghouti, Dalit Baum, Joel Beinin, John Berger, Angela Davis, Nada Elia, Marc Ellis, Noura Erakat, Neve Gordon, Ran Greenstein, Ronald Kasrils, Jamal Khader, Naomi Klein, Paul Laverty, Mark LeVine, David Lloyd, Ken Loach, Haneen Maikey, Rebecca O’Brien, Ilan Pappe, Jonathan Pollak, Laura Pulido, Lisa Taraki, Rebecca Vilkomerson, Michael Warschawski, and Slavoj Žižek

Original Link & For Purchase: http://www.versobooks.com/books/956-the-case-for-sanctions-against-israel

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Challenging injustice through the courage of faith

The South African Christian community through the South African Council of Churches (SACC), South African Conference of Bishops of the Catholic Churches (SACBC) and other several ecumenical agencies join the other parts of the Church in the world to remember the Israeli/Palestinian people in their celebration of the 8th International Israeli Apartheid Week starting from the 5 -11 March. Our participation in this Week is influenced highly by our own history of struggle and suffering in South Africa for over many decades when the values of justice, peace and love were suppressed in the interest of apartheid, division, exclusion and conflict. We found through the teachings of the Gospel how these values formed the core of Christ’s ministry.

It is only regrettable that the voice of the Church against injustice in our society is highly weakened today. It is an observation that South Africans have made with a desire now rekindled to resuscitate the voice of prophesy.

As this reflection is made on the life of our own nation in South Africa, many of you will remember that Israel remained the single supporter of apartheid when the rest of the world implemented economic sanctions, boycotts and divestments to force change in South Africa.

Our brothers and sisters in Palestine have made a call in this regard, that we should question what kind of regime Israel is. And to this, after many debates and exchanges, the answer is that it shared and continues to share a similarity with the old South Africa in implementing apartheid where all non-Jews of Palestine are discriminated against, displaced of their land and homes, and subjected to refugee camps and a permanent state of violent military rule.

Today the Palestinians cry out to the world and to God, saying:

How long, O God, will they steal our livelihood? Oppress, imprison and humiliate our people? Deprive our children of their childhood? Indeed how long, God, will the multitudes of Christians of the world ignore the anguish of our Palestinian sisters and brothers and all of the oppressed?

From South Africa we are called to repent of this ignorance and oblivion we have shown. We are called to return to the way of truth, community in humanity and speak out from the podiums to the mountain tops. We are called to tell the truth and join in prayer, in the pursuit for justice, peace and love in their land.

In their Kairos Document, similar to the one South Africans put to the world in the 1980s, Palestinians say:

Our question to our brothers and sisters in the Churches today is: Are you able to help us get our freedom back, for this is the only way you can help the two peoples attain justice, peace, security and love?

Israeli Apartheid Week

We urge all South Africans and the Church in South Africa to join in the Awareness Campaign that over 100 Universities in the world including those in our country are engaging in during what is called Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW): 05 – 11 March 2012.

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events (including rallies, lectures, cultural performances, film screenings and multimedia displays) held -by ordinary people- in cities, communities, churches and campuses across the globe.

IAW seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and to mobilize support for the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Last year IAW was incredibly successful with over 90 cities worldwide, and 9 universities in South Africa, participating in the week’s events.  We now urge churches in South Africa to join in collective intercession for Freedom in Palestine before the Israel Apartheid Week takes place in different parts of the World. On the 4th of March we will join in collective prayer to bring Palestine to God our Father.

The South African Council of Churches has designed a Worship Liturgy which is obtainable on the SACC website and from all our Provincial and National Offices. Our contact person is Ms. Dudu Masango contactable through dudu@sacc.org.za ; (011) 241 7800/3.

We hope and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that this effort will be possible.

We thank you all in anticipation of your passionate and positive response to this call and participation in Israeli Apartheid Week.

God bless you

Revd. Mautji Pataki                                                                       Bishop Revd. Dr Jo Seoka
General Secretary                                                                         President

http://www.sacc.org.za/pages/saccnews.html#churchstate Original Link: http://www.bdssouthafrica.com/2010/02/press-statement-on-occasion-of-8th_3965.html

The Italian Coalition Stop That Train celebrates the news that the City Council of Naples, Italy has approved a motion condemning Pizzarotti for its involvement in a project in blatant violation of international law, the Israeli high-speed train cutting through the occupied Palestinian territories. The decision of the Naples City Council, which follows that of Rho (Milan) on November 30, 2011, is a strong sign for responsible action by local authorities, in this case one of Italy’s largest cities.

Stop That Train congratulates the Committee “For a Pizzarotti-Free Naples!” for the work done to mobilize citizens in support of the Campaign and in establishing dialog with the local administration in order to encourage it to take a stand on the issue.

In re-launching the press release from Naples, we call on all local administrations to endorse the “Pizzarotti-Free Cities” campaign and pass similar resolutions against Pizzarotti, until it ceases involvement in projects in violation of international law.

http://stopthattrain.org/?p=599

PRESS RELEASE

NAPLES STANDS FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS
THE CITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS THE PARTICIPATION OF PIZZAROTTI IN THE TEL AVIV-JERUSALEM RAILWAY

On February 13, 2012, the City Council of Naples, Italy voted and approved by majority the motion presented by Council Members Fucito (FDS), Vasquez (N è t), Moxedano (IdV), Borriello (SEL), Fiale (PD) which “expresses moral and political condemnation of Pizzarotti & C for the firm’s participation in the construction of the A1 Jerusalem-Tel Aviv “. The new high-speed rail line, which is reserved “for the exclusive use of the Israeli population, runs for 6.5 km through the occupied West Bank, resulting in the confiscation of private property in the Palestinian villages of Beit Iksa and Beit Sourik, including agricultural land recognized by the Israeli Supreme Court as a ‘key resource for subsistence’ of the community.”

Therefore, “the A1 railway is in violation of International Humanitarian Law and International Treaties on Human Rights, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, particularly Article 53 which prohibits ‘[a]ny destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations…except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations’, in this case the destruction is the result of construction of permanent infrastructures inaccessible to the local population.”

With this symbolic act and commitment, the City Council has shown responsibility in acting for peace and justice, even within the narrow limits of local administrations, where, however, the increasingly pervasive ramifications of political choices condemned by international law are established and sustained and the responsible institutions lack the willpower to apply sanctions and stop them. Recently, the UN passed another nine resolutions with regards to Israel’s lack of respect for international law, but without any consequences.

The motion passed was also in response to citizens and organizations of civil society that for months mobilized for the campaign “For a Pizzarotti-Free Naples!” and collected signatures on a petition to exclude Pizzarotti from future contracts until its actions, in Italy and abroad, are in compliance with laws in defense of human rights, and specifically Palestinian rights. The Naples campaign is part of a larger campaign on a national and international level, for more information see: www.stopthattrain.org.

The decision of the Naples City Council is based on human rights and follows the example of the City Council of Rho (Milan), Italy as well as Deutsche Bahn, the German railway company, that withdrew from the A1 project in March 2011 on the recommendation of the German Ministry of Transport.

The City Council of Naples is, in fact, the second to have acted on the call from the national Stop That Train campaign to urge Pizzarotti to withdraw from the latest Israeli project to colonize the West Bank and, ultimately, indirectly force out the Palestinian civilian population. In fact, on November 30, 2011, Rho City Council approved a similar motion. Both measures commit the city councils to notify Pizzarotti & C. SpA of the contents of the motions passed.

The text also commits the Mayor and City Council of Naples “to consider the possibility of inclusion in the Rules for participation in tenders for the execution of municipal public works (…) a clause which excludes from participation companies and economic entities operating in violation of human rights and/or in violation of international law; and to include in all contracts of any kind, the mandatory clause ‘that the contract will be canceled if the contracting firm is involved in clear violation of international law and conventions.”

Thus, the Naples City Council gave new substance to their recognition of the State of Palestine, which first and foremost necessitates a stop to the continual erosion of the land on which it exists by the occupying power, Israel.

The Council also took the opportunity presented by this specific case to expand its commitment to international civilian vigilance through the ordinary acts is called upon to carry out.

We are proud of the Naples City Council, which demonstrated its capability to act on instances of respect for international law to protect the rights of the Palestinians that we brought forth to the Council.

We are satisfied with the fruitful dialogue we have established with the Council, while respecting each other’s roles.

We thank the entire City Council, who, in various ways, contributed to an act of international responsibility. We thank all Councilors who, through the motion on the A1 Tel Aviv-Jerusalem high-speed rail line and the involvement therein of Italian firm Pizzarotti, wished to reiterate our city’s commitment to peace, which can only flourish with justice. Going beyond mere words, the City Council, aware of the tangled web linking everyday actions of local administrators with international dynamics, has taken a bold position in relation to its responsibilities, converging with the commitment of many citizens of Naples who mobilize for the recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people and demand an end to occupation, colonization and apartheid.

Campaign “For a Pizzarotti-Free Naples!”

Notes

The Italian Coalition Stop That Train, comprising some 90 organizations, national and international, including Israel, as well as local groups throughout Italy, calls for the immediate withdrawal of Pizzarotti & C. S.p.A. from the Israeli project for the A1 railway.
http://stopthattrain.org

The A1 project and involvement of Pizzarotti are detailed in the report prepared by the Coalition of Women for Peace – Israel, Crossing the Line: The Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Fast Train
http://www.whoprofits.org/sites/default/files/Train%20A1.pdf

Text of the motion approved by the Naples City Council [in Italian]
http://stopthattrain.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/ordine-del-giorno-su-Pizzarotti-C..pdf

Press release “Rho City Council approves resolution condemning Pizzarotti ”
http://stopthattrain.org/?p=521

Original Link: http://stopthattrain.org/?p=599

Commemorating Land Day, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) invites people of conscience around the world to unite for a BDS Global Day of Action on 30 March 2012 in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, justice and equality and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it fully complies with its obligations under international law.

Let’s showcase our BDS successes through creative actions and media efforts and mobilize for the World Social Forum Free Palestine in November 2012.

First launched at the World Social Forum in 2009, the BDS Global Day of Action on 30 March coincides with Palestinian Land Day, initiated in 1976, when Israeli security forces shot and killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel and injured many in an attempt to crush popular protest against ongoing theft of Palestinian-owned land. Thirty-six years on, Israel continues to entrench its regime of occupation, colonization and apartheid and intensify its grave violations of the basic rights of Palestinians everywhere, whether those living under occupation, citizens of Israel, or the majority of the Palestinians, the refugees.

In the past year we have continued to witness a historic outburst of people power motivated by the desire for justice and freedom from tyranny and corporate greed. There is renewed belief in popular struggles as a means to achieve human emancipation and empowerment. Ordinary people have bravely stood up to the decades-old regimes of the Arab region, overcoming their fears and challenging their longstanding subjugation. Largely inspired by the Arab popular upheavals and earlier, similar uprisings across Latin America, people across the world have vocally “occupied” the centers of corporate exploitation or otherwise mobilized to demand social justice and an end to devastating wars. The ‘Arab Spring’ has given new impetus to the ongoing struggle against imperial hegemony in the global south and a new reach for the alternatives to neoliberalism. The global 99% are further uniting and connecting their struggles for justice, rights and dignity.

In this spirit of shared struggle, we invite Palestine solidarity activists and all those active in social justice and human rights causes worldwide to use this day of action to launch a far reaching mobilization effort towards the upcoming World Social Forum Free Palestine to be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in November 2012 and to take action to highlight and develop the key campaigns of our global movement.

The Forum will provide a unique space for discussion of a unified global strategy to uphold the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination and end Israeli violations of international law.

Ideas for action

The BDS Global Day of Action is an opportunity to showcase the achievements of our diverse and global movement through visible and creative actions. The BNC calls on supporters of Palestinian rights to focus on developing thoroughly researched, broad based and strategic BDS campaigns that are based on the three operational principles of the movement: context-sensitivity, gradualness and sustainability.  Developing such a long-term vision is essential for the growth and sustainable success of the movement.

With these criteria in mind, the BNC suggests the following forms of action for this BDS Global Day of Action:

1. Organize a visible and creative protest, flash mob or action that promotes an existing long-term campaign to a new audience;

2. Prepare outreach meetings or events or media initiatives that seek to bring BDS to new audiences;

3. Launch mobilization initiatives for the WSF Free Palestine, to be held in late November in Port Alegre, Brazil. Consider announcing the formation of national, regional or sector mobilizing committees and to start public and media outreach. The mobilizing committees for the WSF Free Palestine serve to mobilize and to discuss how to use this opportunity to strengthen local solidarity efforts and provide them with global reach and exposure. More information here.

4. Where possible, use the Global BDS Day of Action as a launching pad for new BDS campaign initiatives;

5. Call on governments to implement incremental sanctions against Israel, by heeding the call from Palestinian civil society for a military embargo on Israel or by suspending free trade agreements or other agreements;

6. Publicize, promote and make use of the recently published report issued by EU heads of mission to occupied Jerusalem calling for preventing and discouraging “financial transactions in support of [Israeli] settlement activity.” This can be accurately interpreted as a call for a ban on colonial settlement products from entering the EU market and for effective measures against all actors implicated in Israel’s colonization of East Jerusalem and the rest of the OPT.

Join the BDS Global Day of Action on Land Day, 30 March 2012!

For information on how to join this global event and how to develop ongoing BDS action in your country, organization and network, please contact the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) at: bdsdayofaction@bdsmovement.net.

We’ll be highlighting all of the day’s actions on the bdsmovement.net website, so please send any information about planned actions ahead of time to bdsdayofaction@bdsmovement.net.

On the day itself, let’s all use Twitter hashtag #bds to promote our actions and don’t forget to follow @bdsmovement to follow the action as it unfolds!

For further inspiration:

BDS Global Day of Action 2011 press release
BDS Global Day of Action 2010 press release

 

Photo: Israeli apartheid wall in Occupied Palestine.

Last fall, the Conservative government announced plans to expand the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA), a set of policies that serves to further legitimize Israeli occupation and apartheid, and deepen Canadian corporate and state involvement in Israeli racism and colonialism.

CIFTA, which took effect in January 1997, covers geographical areas over which Israel maintains military control (the West Bank and Gaza), and does not respect internationally-recognized borders. As such, it effectively legitimizes Israeli territorial control over all of Palestine. Furthermore, a portion of the trade covered in CIFTA (particularly in the agricultural sector) is the result of illegal settlement activity and production in industrial zones in the West Bank settlements. A failure to distinguish between Palestinian goods produced in the occupied territories reinforces the colonial logic that such production is Israeli economic activity, and arguably provides support for the expansion of its colonies.

In Canada, both state and corporate support for Israel has increased dramatically. Since January 1997, CIFTA has eliminated tariffs on all industrial products manufactured in Canada and Israel as well as reducing or eliminating duties on various agricultural and fisheries products. During this period, trade between Canada and Israel doubled from $507 million in 1996 to $1.4 billion in 2010, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. 1

Israel’s status as an apartheid state -defined under the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid as “establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them” -has been affirmed across countless legal and political spheres. 2

Most recently, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine Cape Town session – an International People’s Tribunal created by a large group of citizens involved in the promotion of peace and justice in the Middle East – concluded that “Israel’s rule over the Palestinian people, wherever they reside, collectively amounts to a single integrated regime of apartheid.” 3 4 5 As such, the further expansion of CIFTA serves to increase Canadian involvement in Israeli racism and colonialism, and increasingly legitimize Israeli apartheid and occupation.

The expansion of CIFTA comes at a time where other free trade and investment agreements with Israel are coming under pressure from civil society and legal experts around the world. One such FTA is the European Union-Israel Association Agreement (EUIAA). Established in June 2000, the EUIAA opened the door for the export of illegal settlement products, and more broadly supporting and legitimizing the illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This has been accomplished by allowing settlement products or goods originating from the occupied territories to be labeled as Israeli, in a clear violation Palestinian rights.

In March 2010, in response to this trade agreement, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that settlement products shouldn’t receive preferential customs duties exemptions under the EUIAA. 6 7

Although Israel initially refused to cooperate in identifying whether goods came from settlements, it conceded by identifying products’ origin by use of a postal code (recognizing that the EU does not have the capacity to check if all the goods are allocated the correct customs status). Similarly, CIFTA lacks any mechanisms to prevent Canada from providing similar preferential trade treatment to settlement products.

Furthermore, the European Union bends its own rules and laws to accommodate Israel’s ongoing violation of international law. In fact, Article 2 of the EUIAA states that the relationship between Israel and the EU is based on a mutual respect of international law and human rights. However, Israel’s violation of international human rights and utter disdain for the international community continues. On July 9, 2004, The International Court of Justice ruled that the Apartheid Wall is illegal under international law. 8 9

If the relationship between Israel and the EU (within the context of the EUIAA) is based on a mutual respect of international law and human rights, and Israel continues to be an egregious violator of both, why has the agreement not been suspended?

The proposed expansion of the Canada Israel Free Trade Agreement will broaden the scope of the agreement to cover new areas, particularly in the realm of science and technology. In an October 10, 2010 Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) press release, former International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan explained: “there are a great many opportunities for cooperation between Israel and Canada when it comes to the commercialization of science….Canada and Israel can be even more effective partners in the areas of technology collaboration, research and development, and innovation commercialization.” 10

This statement points to the means by which the expansion of this FTA reaffirms Canadian state and corporate complicity in Israeli research and development that supports the illegal military occupation. Through state-subsidized research and development funding and lower tariffs, CIFTA allows Canadian and Israeli companies to profit heavily. MTI Engineering Ltd., an Israeli company, for instance, received subsidies for naval surveillance research, and was awarded major contracts for the Israeli Ministry of Defense 11. Such technology is used to deny basic freedom of movement for Palestinians through technologies that are used for surveillance of Palestinians to enforce the illegal blockade of the Gaza strip, and to surveil Palestinians along the apartheid wall, in the West Bank.

The expansion of CIFTA must also be viewed within the context of the Conservative government’s growing support for Israeli apartheid. After their election victory in 2006, Harper and the Conservatives have been one of Israel’s strongest international allies. In 2006, the Conservatives strongly backed the Israeli attack on Lebanon, and moved quickly to support the 2008/2009 war on Gaza as well as the ongoing military siege on the Gazan people. Not only has the Canadian government supported Israeli war crimes, but it has gone so far as to publicly celebrate them.

Yet even as the Conservative majority government continues to vigorously support Israeli apartheid politically and economically, community groups, trade union, and solidarity activists in Canada have responded to the 2005 call made by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations for a comprehensive campaign to isolate Israeli Apartheid through Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS).

In recent years, support for the BDS movement has grown decisively across Canada. Many trade unions including the CSN-CCMM in Quebec, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), The New Brunswick Federation of Labour, and the Prince Edward Island Federation of Labour are now actively supporting the movement. Active campaigns for divestment from companies involved in the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip are growing at Carleton University and University of Toronto. This grassroots campaign for Palestinian freedom has also been publicly backed by over 500 artists in Montreal 12, and over 400 hundred university and college faculty members across Canada. 13

Dismantling the Canada Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA) is a key step for all who support the Palestinian liberation struggle, as the bilateral trade agreement codifies Canadian complicity and support for Israeli apartheid.

Please join us in demanding an end to all economic and political support for Israeli Apartheid and those Canadian and Israeli corporations who profit off of the continued systemic colonialism, racism and apartheid regime imposed upon Palestinians.

To support our call for an end to the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement and its further expansion, you can:

1. Urge your organization to send a letter or statement to the Department of Foreign and International Affairs opposing CIFTA and its planned expansion, or write one yourself:

Trade Negotiations Consultations (Israel)
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
Trade Policy and Negotiations Division I (TPE)
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, ON K1A 0G2
Fax: 613-944-3214
Email: consultations(at)international.gc.ca

2. Sign on to this Tadamon! statement by emailing: info(at)tadamon.ca

3. Contact your local Member of Parliament and demand the Canadian Israeli Free Trade Agreement be suspended. You can find your local Member of Parliament by searching here

4. Urge your organization, union, student union, or community group to join the growing campaign for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions called for by 170 Palestinian organizations or get involved in existing campaigns for BDS in your local city or town.

statement endorsed by

Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid – Toronto
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid – Winnipeg
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign – Vancouver
Independent Jewish Voices – Canada
Regina Solidarity Group
Coalition for Justice in Palestine – UQAM
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) – Concordia
Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) – Montreal

for more information about the campaign

Boycott Divestment and Sanctions -Boycott National Committee in Palestine
www.bdsmovement.net

Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
www.stopthewall.org

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
www.pacbi.org

for more info on Tadamon!
info(at)tadamon.ca | 514 664 1036

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[1] http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/israel/index.aspx?lang=en&view=d

[2] http://www.jus.uio.no/english/services/library/treaties/02/2-10/crime-apartheid.xml

[3] http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/south-africa/south-africa-session-%e2%80%94-full-findings/cape-town-session-summary-of-findings

[4] http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/

[5] For more information about Israel’s apartheid practices, visit :  http://www.divestmentproject.org/apartheid_laws.shtml

[6] http://www.bdsmovement.net/2010/bnc-welcomes-landmark-eu-court-ruling-calls-for-intensifying-grassroots-bds-666

[7] http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2010-02/cp100014en.pdf
[8] http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf

[9] http://www.stopthewall.org

[10] http://www.international.gc.ca/media_commerce/comm/news-communiques/2010/330.aspx?lang=eng&view=dand
[11] http://www.ciirdf.ca/_files/file.php?fileid=filezNzoJLvoun&filename=file_1_Innovative_Surveillance_System_Boat_Monitoring_Bilingual_Oct6_2009.pdf
[12] http://www.tadamon.ca/post/582
[13] http://www.caiaweb.org/committees/faculty-for-palestine/

Original Link: http://www.tadamon.ca/post/9814