News from the zionist entity

- In Israel, faking its religion to seduce a Jewish woman is considered a crime, this is what happened to Sabbar Kachour who will do 30 months in jail. However faking identity to kill abroad is not considered a crime in Israel...

- US food Co-op boycotts Israeli products.

Spontaneous Boycotts of Israel Flourishing...

A French movie distributor refuses to air an Israeli movie.

Israelis banned from Madrid's gay pride march.

Usually, Israel's response is a legal challenge. However, this time my impression is that the boycotts will be numerous. If we are many to show our indignation at Israeli brutalities, ugly occupation and impunity, Israel will need an army of lawyers to challenge the boycotts...We therefore need more initiatives along this line, civil boycotts, peaceful resistance and perseverance...This is the only thing that will bring peace to the ME...The countries who support Israel will not be able to keep their allegiance under international civilian outrage. Let's repeat the campaign against the Apartheid...

Elvis Costello cancels concerts in Israel

Costello, one of the most gifted British songwriters of his generation, was due to play on 30 June and 1 July but says his "conscience" dictated that he pull out of the performances.

He joins a list of performers who have decided not to play in Israel, including Gil Scott-Heron and Santana.

On his website, Costello wrote: "Then there are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent.

"I must believe that the audience for the coming concerts would have contained many people who question the policies of their government on settlement and deplore conditions that visit intimidation, humiliation or much worse on Palestinian civilians in the name of national security.

"I am also keenly aware of the sensitivity of these themes in the wake of so many despicable acts of violence perpetrated in the name of liberation.

"It is a matter of instinct and conscience.

"I cannot imagine receiving another invitation to perform in Israel, which is a matter of regret, but I can imagine a better time when I would not be writing this.

"With the hope for peace and understanding. Elvis Costello."

Source: The Guardian

Amnesty report: Israel denies water to Palestinians

This is not news. This is life under Israeli occupation and apartheid. Read the summary here where you will find the link to the report.

There is an extensive radio documentary from the CBC's Anna Maria Tremonti on the question of water between Israel and the Palestinians (March, 9th, 2009) in which what struck me most at the time is the racist justification of the government of Israel for allowing very little water for palestininans: way of life, they don't need water as much as Israelis do and...let them eat biscuits....

Jim MIles: Uncertain outcomes.

No Celebration Of Occupation: The global Israel PR campaign should stop

Toronto International Film Festival is being complicit in a million-dollar ‘Brand Israel’ PR campaign to change negative perceptions of the state of Israel by deciding to spotlight the city of Tel Aviv and the work of 10 Israeli filmmakers.
The Toronto declaration accusing TIFF of participating in the branding of the state of Israel came after Canadian filmmaker John Greyson decided to withdraw his documentary from the festival to protest the festival's decision to put a spotlight on Tel Aviv.
Among those who protested are Ken Loach, Jane Fonda, Danny Clover, and Canadian and Toronto born Naomi Klein. Klein said in a statement: “ it strains credulity” to think that TIFF’s decision to spotlight Tel Aviv was not connected to the Israeli PR campaign. Such a programming decision “feeds Israel’s foreign policy goals and presents Israeli society as more diverse and open than it actually is,” she said.

Covered from John Greyson on Vimeo.

Covered, Greyson's documentary, and its relation to his decision to withdraw, by his own words: ''It's a doc about the 2008 Sarajevo Queer Festival, which was cancelled due to brutal anti-gay violence. The film focuses on the bravery of the organizers and their supporters, and equally, on the ostriches, on those who remained silent, who refused to speak out: most notoriously, the Sarajevo International Film Festival and the Canadian Ambassador in Sarajevo. To stand in judgment of these ostriches before a TIFF audience, but then say nothing about this Tel Aviv spotlight -- finally, I realized that that was a brand I couldn't stomach.''

Read here Greyson's letter to TIFF's organizers

The Boycott and Divestment Campaign

And the Zionists respond.

Norway fund sells Israeli shares on ethical ground.

Israel: The time is ripe for sanctions to force Israel to respect international law

Le Monde Diplomatique

This month the UN will publish the findings of its inquiry into Israel’s possible war crimes in Gaza in 2008-9. These are unlikely to lead to legal proceedings, so there are calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions to force Israel to comply with international law

The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel has gained momentum after four years of near silence. It was launched on 9 July 2005 by a group of Palestinian organisations, a year after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled, in an advisory opinion, that the wall built in the occupied Palestinian territories was illegal. It is a protest against Israel’s failure to honour its international obligations...
...On 30 March 2008 the BDS movement organised a global day of action, a move decided a few weeks earlier at the World Social Forum in Belém, Brazil. Calls to support this day of action were heard from Jewish communities everywhere and even from within Israel.

The boycott, within this non-violent resistance strategy, calls on consumers not to buy products made in Israel (whether by local or foreign companies) or in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Lists of goods (fruit, vegetables, fruit juice, cut flowers, tinned fruit, biscuits, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics) and their barcodes have been published, especially in Europe. Other tactics include publicity campaigns, petitioning of store managers to withdraw blacklisted products, awareness campaigns directed at central purchasing agencies, and disruption operations in supermarkets...

...There are also campaigns by organisations for the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement, on the grounds that Israel has failed to observe article 2, which requires “respect for human rights and democratic principles”. This agreement, which was signed in 1995 and came into force in 2000, exempts Israeli goods from EU customs duties. There is a traceability problem: many goods declared by Israel as Israeli are produced in Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

A survey reveals that 21% of Israeli exporters have had to cut their prices as a result of the boycott, after a significant loss of market share, especially in Jordan, the UK and Scandinavia...

...The boycott of Israeli goods is the aspect of the BDS campaign that has received most coverage, but other attempts have been made to isolate and bring pressure to bear on Israel. There have also been cultural, academic, diplomatic and sporting boycotts. And an Israeli tourism fair in Paris in January was cancelled; Israeli tourism posters were removed from the London underground in May; Hertz, the car rental market leader, declined to have its name associated with a promotional offer by El Al; and Sweden refused to join international air manoeuvres because Israel would be taking part.

The divestment element of the campaign, aimed at companies doing business in the Middle East, is beginning to take effect. A campaign to force the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia to withdraw from Israel, with the slogans “Dexia, get out of Israel!” and “Israel Colonises, Dexia Finances”, led 14 Belgian municipalities to leave the bank, which was financing Israeli settlements in the occupied territories through its Israeli subsidiary.

The French power and transport group Alstom has also been targeted and was excluded from Sweden’s AP7 national pension fund portfolio in early 2009. The fund’s decision followed the example of the Dutch financial institution ASN Bank, which took action against another French firm, Veolia Transport, in 2006. Participating in the construction of a tramway in Jerusalem has deprived these multinationals of a number of contracts: in France, the Greater Bordeaux urban community cancelled Veolia’s contract for waste management, worth $53.3m; in the UK, Sandwell borough council excluded Veolia from the bidding for a waste collection and recycling contract worth $1bn; and in Sweden, Stockholm council cancelled its contract for operating the city’s metro system, worth $2.5bn...

...What of sanctions against the Israeli state? Bogged down in arguments, the UN has difficulty in acting as a guarantor of the international rule of law. Although many other states are subject to sanctions, and though they proved their worth during the struggle against apartheid, sanctions have yet to be applied to Israel...

...The Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS), supported by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), has been pursuing in the French courts, since 2007, against Alstom, Alstom Transport and Veolia Transport. In 2004 CityPass Limited, a consortium governed by Israeli law in which Veolia Transport and Alstom Transport had minority interests of 5% and 20% respectively, signed a concession contract with the Israeli government for the construction and operation of the tramway that would serve Jerusalem and part of the West Bank, as mentioned above. The court case aims to prove that the contract is illegal.

The companies contested the subpoena, arguing that the Nanterre high court, before which the case had been brought, was materially and territorially incompetent; and that the petitions were not admissible since the AFPS and PLO were not qualified to act as complainants, and their interests were not affected by the contract. The court still ruled on 15 April that the AFPS could bring a valid action against the three French companies, since the execution of the contract would harm the collective interests that it defends. The court also dismissed the argument that Israel fell outside its jurisdiction. Israel is not a party to the court proceedings but is considered as an occupying power in the area of the West Bank where the disputed tramway is being built and will be operated. Alstom decided to appeal, Veolia decided not to...

Jews Sans Frontières has two interesting links at the end of a recently posted blog on the subject including one website that lists the companies who profit from the occupation.
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