Mercredi, 20 Juin 2012 15:06 Michael Deas

Scottish activists/fans in support of Palestine and its national teams football player Mhmoud Sarsak who’s in detention in the Zionest under administrative detention for more than 3 years and is on a hunger strike since almost 3

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Over a hundred European lawyers set to discuss various legal aspects of pro-Israel advocacy and universal jurisdiction law amid attempts by Israel’s critics to engage in so-called ‘lawfare.’

By Anshel Pfeffer | Jun.17, 2012 | 7:36 PM |  13

Gaza family, victims of Israeli war crimes, appeal to Queen Elizabeth II to remove “blood diamond” The Sammoni family in Gaza have issued an appeal to the Queen to remove the Steinmetz Forevermark Jubilee Diamond which De Beers put on display in the Tower of London to mark the Queen’s Jubilee. Twenty nine members of the Sammoni family were killed by the Givati Brigade of the Israeli army during the Israeli assault on Gaza called Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 – January 2009. The Steinmetz diamond company has “adopted” a Unit of the Givati Brigade which it funded and supported during the attack on Gaza.

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Un enseignant de l’université Paris-Diderot, dans le cadre d’un examen de médecine humanitaire, a demandé aux étudiants d’appliquer les critères de classement du droit international à un exemple précis, tiré d’un épisode du conflit israélo-palestinien. L’exemple était décrit de manière purement factuelle. Le président de l’université, M. Vincent Berger, a pourtant réagi très vivement à cet examen par un communiqué à tout le personnel de l’université : il y conteste le bien fondé de la question, accuse l’enseignant de déroger au principe de laïcité et de neutralité de l’université, et annonce une enquête. Plusieurs autres réactions sont venues appuyer ce communiqué.

Alice Walker

Shining light human rights activist Alice Walker has refused to have her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple published in Israel. In a letter to the prospective publisher she writes:

“Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories.”

The ripple effect of Walker’s decision is yet to be determined, but that didn’t stop neocon reporter James Kirchick from shooting off a hysterical critique of her award winning fiction via twitter:

Alice Walker unwittingly spares the Israeli populace from having to read her shitty books haaretz.com/jewish-world/j…

— Jamie Kirchick (@jkirchick) June 19, 2012

Walker authorized the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to republish her letter to publishers Yediot Books.

This letter is published with author’s permission.

June 9, 2012
Dear Publishers at Yediot Books,

Thank you so much for wishing to publish my novel THE COLOR PURPLE. It isn’t possible for me to permit this at this time for the following reason: As you may know, last Fall in South Africa the Russell Tribunal on Palestine met and determined that Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories. The testimony we heard, both from Israelis and Palestinians (I was a jurist) was devastating. I grew up under American apartheid and this was far worse. Indeed, many South Africans who attended, including Desmond Tutu, felt the Israeli version of these crimes is worse even than what they suffered under the white supremacist regimes that dominated South Africa for so long.

It is my hope that the non-violent BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, of which I am part, will have enough of an impact on Israeli civilian society to change the situation.

In that regard, I offer an earlier example of THE COLOR PURPLE’s engagement in the world-wide effort to rid humanity of its self-destructive habit of dehumanizing whole populations. When the film of The Color Purple was finished, and all of us who made it decided we loved it, Steven Spielberg, the director, was faced with the decision of whether it should be permitted to travel to and be offered to the South African public. I lobbied against this idea because, as with Israel today, there was a civil society movement of BDS aimed at changing South Africa’s apartheid policies and, in fact, transforming the government.

It was not a particularly difficult position to hold on my part: I believe deeply in non-violent methods of social change though they sometimes seem to take forever, but I did regret not being able to share our movie, immediately, with (for instance) Winnie and Nelson Mandela and their children, and also with the widow and children of the brutally murdered, while in police custody, Steven Biko, the visionary journalist and defender of African integrity and freedom.

We decided to wait. How happy we all were when the apartheid regime was dismantled and Nelson Mandela became the first president of color of South Africa.

Only then did we send our beautiful movie! And to this day, when I am in South Africa, I can hold my head high and nothing obstructs the love that flows between me and the people of that country.

Which is to say, I would so like knowing my books are read by the people of your country, especially by the young, and by the brave Israeli activists (Jewish and Palestinian) for justice and peace I have had the joy of working beside. I am hopeful that one day, maybe soon, this may happen. But now is not the time.

We must continue to work on the issue, and to wait.

In faith that a just future can be fashioned from small acts,
Alice Walker

Alice Walker is a moral giant, an American treasure, a human treasure. As a  witness and scribe her wisdom inspires us and will continue to inspire generations of people leading to a more humane future for mankind.

The whole south was in an uproar because we were trying to change the very system that my parents had suffered under. I went to Mississippi and rejoined the Civil Rights movement. I think it is important to have faith in ones gift. The movement was so much about legal things, it was a huge act of faith that clearly if I had been prepared as a writer to be here, to witness this, there’s a meaning and eventually it will be clear.

Eventually it will be clear to even her most stalwart critics.

Une brève récapitulation de certaines des campagnes les plus vastes et les plus réussies révèle cette croissance du mouvement. L’une des campagnes BDSles plus réussies a ciblé Veolia, une multinationale française impliquée dans le développement du Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR – Métro léger de J.), un réseau de tramway illégal reliant Jérusalem et des colonies israéliennes illégales et cimentant l’emprise d’Israël sur le territoire occupé, ou l’implication d’Israël dans toute une série de services infrastructurels de déchets et de transport au profit des colonies illégales. C’est avec succès que la multinationale française a été prise pour cible partout dans le monde et tout particulièrement en Europe.

À Stockholm, une campagne dirigée par la société civile a fait que Veolia a loupé un contrat de 3,5 milliards de dollars pour la mise en service du système de métro de la ville. Cette campagne contre Veolia, bien décidée et coordonnée à l’échelle internationale, a fait perdre à la firme toute une série de contrats pour plus de 5 milliards de dollars, entre autres en France, au pays de Galles, en Irlande et en Australie. Fin 2010, Veolia et Alstom, une autre multinationale française impliquée dans le JLR, ont annoncé qu’ils allaient vendre leurs parts dans le consortium impliqué dans ces travaux.

Le fait que Veolia comme Alstom vont être remplacés par des sociétés israéliennes avec peu d’expérience, plutôt que par des sociétés internationales bien connues qui seraient plus qualifiées pour prendre leur place, ne peut être considéré que comme un succès de la campagne : aucune société internationale ne désire devenir la cible de notre mouvement très efficace et visible.

Le mouvement BDS montre aux sociétés qui soutiennent l’apartheid israélien qu’il y a un prix à payer pour leur complicité active. Les campagnes contre Veoliaet Alstom se poursuivront tant que ces deux sociétés n’interrompront par leur complicité et ne paieront pas les réparations de mise. Des églises du Royaume-Uni, de Suède, des États-Unis et d’ailleurs font des enquêtes et mettent sur pied leurs propres campagnes BDS, en grande partie en réponse au documentKairos – un document mis au point par d’éminents dirigeants palestiniens et appelant les églises du monde entier à « dire enfin la vérité et à adopter une position de vérité en ce qui concerne l’occupation par Israël de la terre palestinienne ».

Sans la moindre ambiguïté, Kairos Palestine applique les BDS en tant qu’une des formes non violentes et incontournables de solidarité qu’il est grand temps de voir adoptée par les organisations internationales s’appuyant sur la foi : « Nous percevons le boycott et le désinvestissement comme des outils au service de la justice, de la paix et de la sécurité. » Historiquement, les syndicats ont été à l’avant-plan des luttes contre l’injustice et particulièrement contre l’apartheid sud-africain. Des syndicats en Afrique du Sud, France, Belgique, Irlande, Suède, Italie, Australie, Canada, Brésil, Inde, Norvège et ailleurs ont récemment adopté certains aspects de la campagne BDS.

Au Royaume-Uni, le Trade Union Congress (TUC – Congrès des syndicats britanniques), représentant sept millions de travailleurs, est sur le point de se lancer dans des activités d’éducation de tous ses affiliés à propos de la nécessité de boycotter Israël et son apartheid. Les confédérations syndicales de l’Afrique du Sud, de l’Irlande, de l’Écosse et du Brésil, de même que de nombreux syndicats dans le monde sont occupés à durcir leurs liens avec la fédération travailliste raciste israélienne Histadrut. Quelques jours à peine après l’attaque par Israël de la Flottille pour la Liberté, en mai 2010, le Syndicat des dockers suédois, répondant à l’appel du mouvement syndical palestinien à bloquer les navires israéliens, immobilisait une cargaison de cinq cents tonnes de marchandises en provenance d’Israël.

Article complet

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) would like to applaud and thank the world-class musician, Zakir Hussain, for canceling his performance in Israel [1]. Hussain’s cancellation, coming on the heels of similar cancellations by Cassandra Wilson, Cat Power, among other international celebrities, has rattled the Israeli establishment and triggered even wider debate on the fast growth of BDS, particularly in the cultural domain, and its direct connection to Israel’s intensifying crimes against the Palestinians. Just recently Gil Shohat, an Israeli composer, conductor, Classical Music Advisor to the Israel Festival and Artistic Advisor to Israel’s Red Sea International Classical Music Festival was quoted as saying: In the world of classical music things are neither in-your-face nor crass, by the very nature of classical art, which is more noble, quiet, and introverted, but there are choirs and opera companies which are not interested in coming to Israel. Even if they don’t say it’s because of the political issue, they prefer not to get involved in such a sticky situation. As a composer active on the world scene, I can testify that more than once projects have been cancelled or postponed based on their ‘Israeliness.’ And again – these things are not said crassly, no one will say: we are conducting a boycott. The word boycott doesn’t exist, but the political situation of Israel also impacts this field. This is primarily true about larger projects, and less so regarding the activity of individual musicians. [2] We thank Hussain for his courage and hope that one day in the near future he will more vocally support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel, as a morally consistent and peaceful form of resistance supported by the majority of Palestinian civil society institutions. We also wish to thank the great efforts by the Indian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (INCACBI) for appealing directly to Hussain [3] and taking persistently working towards the freedom, equality and justice of the Palestinian people. The solidarity of the Indian people is a key component to our struggle. Finally, we want to recognize the efforts of Palestinians who had themselves contacted Hussain and brought this issue to our attention. These individuals who will remain anonymous have been an instrumental part of the consistent growth of the BDS movement.

www.pacbi.org

The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has cancelled a lecture on Monday by Israeli’s deputy ambassador to South Africa, Yaakov Finkelstein.

The decision was made by UKZN’s deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Joseph Ayee, on Sunday afternoon after coming under pressure from student organisations and academic staff to cancel Finkelstein’s lecture.

“I have reconsidered the sensitivities that the visit of the Israeli Deputy Ambassador have generated. Given the negative publicity that the visit will give UKZN, I hereby cancel the visit and the lecture by the Israeli Deputy Ambassador scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, 21 May 2012,” Ayee said in an email sent to staff on Sunday.

“[The Israeli ambassador will bring] likely reputational damage for the institution [which] is not in the interest of all of us.”

Ayee’s announcement came after the university was called on by students and staff to cancel the hosting of Finkelstein as it would have violated the “academic boycott” of Israel. Palestinians issued a call in 2005 for a programme of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it “abided by international law and basic human rights”.

Early last year, the University of Johannesburg became the world’s first university to impose an academic boycott on Israel by ending its institutional relationship with Israel’s Ben-Gurion University. In addition several student movements, including the South African Students Congress (SASCO), have publicly backed the BDS call.

UKZN School of Social Sciences senior lecturer, Dr Lubna Nadvi, said: “This is a positive and encouraging move by UKZN. Israel is fast becoming a pariah state, like apartheid South Africa did, that no one really wants to be associated with…”

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