Boycott of Israel at New Orleans Middle East Film Festival:

"But after the invasion (of Gaza) and Israel's refusal to let rebuilding materials in, I decided to join the international call for a cultural boycott of Israel," Broussard said. "I know I'm going to get heat from it, but ..."


See article below:

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"New Orleans Middle East Film Festival cranks up today"


By Mike Scott,
The New Orleans Times-Picayune

November 12, 2009, 12:24PM

On the Web at:

http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2009/11/new_orleans_middle_east_film_f.html



Originally, the New Orleans Middle East Film Festival was to be held every two years because of the limited number of films available from countries in the region. That was the plan, anyway.


Apparently, Middle Eastern filmmakers had other ideas. With a wealth of films from or about the Middle East at his disposal, organizer Rene Broussard has turned the festival into an annual event...

...One thing from years past that attendees won't see is a strong presence from Israeli filmmakers. That's by design, Broussard said.

"The first two years we had a very strong presence from Israel. This year, all of the films that deal with Israel are from the point of view of the Palestinians," he said. "I was reluctant (to do that) in the first few years of the film festival, because I wasn't doing a Palestinian film festival, I was doing a Middle East film festival -- I was trying to get a very balanced point of view.

"But after the invasion (of Gaza) and Israel's refusal to let rebuilding materials in, I decided to join the international call for a cultural boycott of Israel," Broussard said. "I know I'm going to get heat from it, but ..."

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Supermarkets targeted by Boycott-Israel campaign:

"Israel boycott steps up a gear this week"

In Al Bawaba, November 12, 2009, at:

http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Palestine/256811



Two of Britain's biggest supermarket chains will be targeted in a "week of boycott action" to highlight their continued sale of produce from illegal Israeli settlements, solidarity campaigners have announced.

Waitrose and Morrisons will be the main focus for action this week in protests organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and coinciding with a week of action called by the Palestinian grass roots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.

The Palestinian-based coalition has called on supporters to launch a week of global mobilisation against "the walls of apartheid" in the West Bank and Gaza from today.

Actions in Britain will include demonstrations and pickets outside Waitrose and Morrisons and mass co-ordinated phone calls to the headquarters of both stores on Wednesday.

Sarah Colborne of PSC said: "We are specifically targeting Waitrose and Morrisons as they have so far failed to engage in serious discussion with us.

"The PSC are hoping that they will take a principled position and stop stocking goods from illegal settlements."

In a statement, Waitrose insisted that the produce it sells from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank is grown on farms where a "Palestinian and Israeli workforce have worked side by side for many years."

Refuting the supermarket's claims, Ms Colborne noted: "There is no equality.

"Palestinian workers are forced to work in the settlements because their own economy has been destroyed by the Israeli occupation," she said.

"The settlements are built on stolen land and are irrigated by water stolen from the Palestinians. Palestinian children as young as 12 work on settlement farms."

Palestinian workers in Israeli settlements earn less than 50 per cent of the minimum wage and sometimes as little as five US cents an hour, according to Israel/Palestine-based employment rights organisation Kav LaOved.

They receive no holiday pay, pensions or sick pay and require work permits which can be rescinded if they complain about conditions or ask for a pay rise.

In September, the TUC conference voted to support a campaign of boycott, sanction and disinvestment, targeting Israeli goods as well as companies which benefit from Israel's illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

The resolution was a culmination of a wave of motions at individual union conferences this year in anger following Israel's war on the Gaza Strip in January, which killed 1,314 Palestinians.


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French Labor Union joins Boycott against "Israel".

"French union joins Israel boycott"



MA'AN NEWS AGENCY
November 11, 2009

On the Web at:

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=239036



Bethlehem – Ma’an – A French labor union decided to join the international movement to apply Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) on Israel, a statement from the National Work Confederation (Confédération Nationale du Travail - CNT) said Wednesday.

“The commitment of the CNT to support the Palestinian people over many years has led us naturally to join this vital campaign to end the exploitation and occupation by Israel,” the document said.

The international secretary of the union said it would also invite each of its constituent members to join the BDS campaign and participate in its activities.

“Our joining this Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions campaign is coherent with our solidarity with Palestine, defined by our statement of support of the Palestinian people’s struggle, adopted by the CNT during its 2006 congress. This statement is the expression of the anti-colonial and internationalist principles of our union,” the statement continued.

“It confirms our opposition to all forms of colonization and occupation as well as our solidarity with the oppressed against the oppressor,” the organization also said.

“As it was done in the case of South Africa, this initiative aims at weighing through economic means and the media on the state of Israel until the unpunished oppression of the Palestinian people and the denial of their fundamental rights end,” the statement said.

CNT describes itself as “an anti-capitalist internationalist union involved in social class struggles.”

Originally launched with an appeal from 170 Palestinian civil society groups, the boycott campaign has been gaining momentum, especially since Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip last winter which left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead.

In February, South African dock workers refused to offload cargo from Israeli ships in an expression of solidarity with Palestinians.


--END--

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Here is the union's own statement, for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against the state of Israel.

Their statement was just released in Paris:

COMMUNIQUÉ 01/11/2009

PALESTINE : La CNT rejoint la Campagne « Boycott, Désinvestissement, Sanctions »

Par le biais de son Secrétariat international, la Confédération Nationale du Travail (CNT), syndicat anticapitaliste, internationaliste et de lutte de classes en France, rejoint la campagne « Boycott, Désinvestissement, Sanctions contre l’état d’Israël » - campagne internationale lancée par plus de 170 organisations de la société civile palestinienne, incluant nos partenaires des syndicats indépendants palestiniens. Notre confédération syndicale participera activement aux initiatives lancées en France. Le Secrétariat international de la CNT invite également les différents syndicats et fédérations de notre confédération à signer individuellement et à agir concrètement dans leurs secteurs d’activités (éducation, santé-social, culture, commerce, médias…) et dans leurs différentes régions.

L’engagement de la CNT auprès du peuple palestinien, depuis de nombreuses années, nous conduit tout naturellement à adhérer à cette indispensable campagne pour la fin de l’exploitation et de l’occupation israélienne. Un Groupe de travail Palestine existe depuis 2001 au sein de notre secrétariat international. Par son biais, nous avons noué de nombreux contacts en Palestine avec des syndicats autonomes et des organisations de base en lutte contre l’occupation.

Nous rejoignons cette campagne « Boycott, Désinvestissement, Sanctions » (BDS), suite logique de notre solidarité avec la Palestine, définit par notre motion de soutien à la lutte du peuple palestinien votée par la CNT à son congrès de 2006. Cette motion est l’expression des principes anticolonialistes et internationalistes de notre syndicalisme. Elle réaffirme notre opposition à toutes formes de colonisation et d’occupation ainsi que notre solidarité envers les opprimés contre les oppresseurs.

Comme cela avait été fait pour l’Afrique du Sud, cette initiative a pour but de peser par le biais économique et médiatique sur l’état Israélien jusqu’à ce que cesse l’oppression et la négation, en toute impunité, des droits fondamentaux du peuple palestinien.

NE FINANCONS PAS L’OCCUPATION ET LA COLONISATION DE LA PALESTINE - NOTRE RÉPONSE, LA SOLIDARITÉ INTERNATIONALE DES TRAVAILLEURS !

Secrétariat international de la CNT www.cnt-f.org/international

Contact : Groupe de travail “Palestine” de la CNT : palestine@cnt-f.org

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Resolution Presented at Detroit City Council, to stop spending Trillions on Killing Muslims, and instead spent it to re-build Detroit:

This Resolution was proposed at Detroit City Council on Tuesday, November 10, 2009:

Click on the proposed Resolution to enlarge it.

The text of the Resolution is as follows:

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Detroit City Council Resolution asking Congress to:
* Stop Spending Trillions to Kill Muslims, and to
* Start Spending that Money to Re-build Detroit.

WHEREAS, U.S. Congressman John Dingell issued a news release, on April 23, 2008, stating that Congress has given Israel over $300 billion,

WHEREAS, The Iraq war alone will cost $3 trillion, according to “Harpers” magazine, January 2009,

WHEREAS, The United States has spent trillions to kill Muslims in Iraq, Palestine,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Lebanon; and has recently killed a Detroit Imam,

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That the Detroit City Council asks the U.S. Congress to immediately stop spending trillions of dollars killing Muslims, to stop sending aid to Israel, and to start spending that money to re-build Detroit and every inner city in the United States.

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University of Sussex Students' Union votes for a full boycott against Israeli goods.

November 02, 2009

Landmark victory for BDS at Sussex Uni


On the Web at:

http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2009/11/landmark-victory-for-bds-at-sussex-uni.html



BDS is on a roll now. Remember the wave of student occupations over the Israeli assault on Gaza late last year? There was the recent TUC vote for a boycott of Israel. There have been many votes in favour of BDS at various UK trade unions. Now students at Sussex University have voted for a boycott of Israeli goods.


I first heard about the vote taking place from someone I know at the university. I didn't think too much of it because there seems to be a lot of it about these days. Then the vote came out in favour of BDS and I was pleased but, as with the TUC decision, it didn't strike me as momentous. Well it turns out that, as with the TUC decision, it was unprecedented. See this:

Following a landmark referendum, students at Sussex University have voted to boycott Israeli goods. The decision will become part of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which calls upon Israel to respect international law and end the occupation of Palestine. The referendum result mandates the Students’ Union to remove all Israeli produce from its stores, and review its sources for food outlets. This makes Sussex Students’ Union the first in the UK to implement a full boycott of Israeli goods. The vote was one of the largest and closest contested in the Union’s history, with 562 votes for and 450 against the boycott.


The referendum received messages of support and thanks from Jewish and Israeli academics and non-governmental organisations that oppose Israel’s policy of occupation in Palestine. Author and scholar Norman G. Finkelstein described the referendum result as ‘a victory, not for Palestinians but for truth and justice’. He continued by saying, ‘Let us hope the boycott transmits the message to Israel that it should end the occupation, so that Palestinians can lead a decent life and amicable relations can be restored between Israelis and other peoples.‘

As I said, BDS is on the move now, like an idea whose time has come.


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University of Sussex Student Union has voted to boycott Israel

University of Sussex students: The Palestine Society, and Stop The War.

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"Sussex Student Union vote to boycott Israel"


On the Web at:

http://www.actionpalestine.org/student-movement/sussex-student-union-vote-to-boycott-israel/

On Wednesday 28^th of October [2009] the University of Sussex Student Union voted in line with the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS to boycott Israel. The movement calls upon Israel to respect international law and end the occupation of Palestine.

The referendum result mandates the Students’ Union to remove all Israeli produce from its stores, and review its sources for food outlets. The vote was one of the largest and most closely-contested in the Union’s history, with 562 voting in favour of the boycott and 450 voting against it.

The debate over the boycott was often tense, with the Friends of Palestine Society leading the ‘Yes’ campaign, and the ‘No’ campaign running under the slogan ‘Build Bridges Not Boycotts’. Martha Baker, a member of Palestine Society and speaker at one of the events, said that the biggest challenge for the pro-Boycott team was not, however, the pro-Israeli campaigners.

Baker commented: “Our biggest challenge was ignorance: most students are not aware of the situation facing Palestinians living under occupation. The more we spoke to people, the more they understood the reasons for boycotting Israel.”

Yasmin Khan, Senior Campaigns Officer at UK charity War On Want added: “Palestinians have suffered under the Israeli repression for 61 years, during which time governments all over the world have allowed Israel to act with impunity. It is time for this to change. The Boycott movement could be just the thing to finally bring justice to Palestine.”

Palestine Society member Bushra Khalidi says that the society will now focus its efforts on gaining scholarships for Palestinian students, and lobbying the Union to sell Palestinian West Bank produce.

Sussex becomes the latest student UK union to vote to boycott Israel, the University of Manchester Student Union and the University of Essex Student Union both voted for a boycott in March of this year, several other student unions in the UK have taken similar steps in recent years. The Right to Education campaign sees these boycotts as a symbol of solidarity with Palestinian students and a positive step towards securing academic freedom for Palestinians by highlighting the ongoing injustice of the Israeli occupation.

The imposition of immediate boycott, divestment and sanctions against the state of Israel is one of the strongest ways to register criticism and delegitimize the actions and policies of the Israeli government towards Palestinians. In particular, Israel’s siege on Gaza and their refusal to permit Gazans the basic equipment and supplies necessary for universally-acceptable living standards highlights the Israeli government’s flagrant disregard for human rights and international law.

As such, the methods of boycott, divestment and sanctions remain vital tools of activism until Israel abides by international human rights and humanitarian laws, dismantles its apartheid regime spanning both the occupied territories and Israel proper, and commits to pursuing a long-lasting, just solution.

Tearing down the Israeli apartheid wall, in occupied Palestine:

"Palestinians breach West Bank wall"

IRISH TIMES
Monday, November 9, 2009

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1109/breaking56.htm



Photo:

Palestinian and international activists pull down a section of the controversial Israeli barrier in the al-Amari refugee camp in the West Bank city of Ramallah today. Photograph: Reuters/Yannis Behrakis

Activists made a hole in Israel's West Bank wall for the second time in less than a week today in a demonstration to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Their faces masked, the activists tethered a two-metre wide section of the cement barrier to a truck which then pulled it over.

The crowd of around 50, which had gathered at a section of the barrier near an Israeli checkpoint at Qalandiya, cheered as the six-metre high section fell.

Israeli troops fired tear gas at the crowd, some of whom threw stones over the wall. Several demonstrators passed through the hole they had made, hoisting a Palestinian flag and setting ablaze tyres on the other side.

The panels of the walls in Israel's separation barrier are cast in the same inverted T-shape as the wall constructed through Berlin by communist East Germany.

Israel began building its barrier of fences and walls at the height of the Palestinian uprising that began in 2000 and it now runs along most of the West Bank border, at many points encroaching into West Bank territory.

It says it was built to prevent suicide bombers entering Israel and has largely succeeded in doing so. Palestinians see it as an attempt to seize land on which they aim to establish an independent state.

Violent protests at its construction have become a regular Friday event in which Israeli police fire gas and rubber bullets at stone-throwing Palestinians.

"Today we commemorate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall," said Abdullah Abu Rahma, leader of the People's Campaign to Fight the Wall. "This is the first step in a series of activities we will be holding in the coming days to express our firm attachment to our land and our rejection of this wall."

The protest mirrored a similar event last Friday in the West Bank village of Nilin, where Palestinian youths almost toppled a segment of the wall using a hydraulic car-jack.

In a non-binding decision in 2004, the International Court of Justice said the barrier was illegal and should be taken own because it crossed occupied territory. Israeli leaders have said the barrier is a temporary obstacle that could be removed once a peace agreement with the Palestinians is signed.

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