Texas Governor Signs Anti-BDS Law, Texas Bank Shuts Down BDS Accounts

[maz]

[tweet]862139643797622784[/tweet]

Texas governor on Twitter bragging about BDS bank accounts being shut down by leaning on local Texas bank.

http://www.thetower.org/texas-bank-shuts-account-of-anti-israel-boycott-group/

A Texas-based bank announced that it would shut the account of a group promoting boycotts of Israel, Benjamin Weinthal of The Jerusalem Post reported Friday.

Comerica Bank announced that it would close the account of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) in a statement e-mailed to the Post. The e-mail from Wayne Mielke, spokesman for the bank, read, "Comerica Bank has taken steps to close the account. The account closing, the result of a business decision, will occur in due course. We will have no further comment on this matter."

According to Harvard Law School Prof. Alan Dershowitz, the IADL "was founded as a communist front and supported financially by the Soviet Union. It is anti-democratic to its core and supportive of terrorism and repression. No decent person or institution should be associated with or supportive of its anti-democratic agenda and actions."

It is unclear whether the IADL account was closed due to anti-BDS legislation signed into law last week by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, or if it was due to support of terror groups by the IADL. The IADL did not respond to queries about the reason for the accounts' closure. In addition to its anti-Israel stand, the IADL, which is based in Brussels, has ties to a legal group associated with North Korea. The IADL also supports Iran's nuclear program.

Though it is believed that this is the first time in the United States that a bank closed an account belonging to a BDS-supporting group, a number of European banks have done so.

[yankeedoodle]

Good news from Norway on BDS.   Breivik didn't scare them away from doing the right thing.

Norway's largest trade union federation endorses full boycott of Israel to advance Palestinian human rights
http://mondoweiss.net/2017/05/federation-endorses-palestinian

Today, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), representing close to one million workers, endorsed a full boycott of Israel to achieve Palestinian rights under international law. LO is the largest and most influential umbrella organization of labor unions in Norway.

Commenting on this significant BDS victory in Norway, Riya Hassan, the Europe Campaigns Coordinator with the Palestinian BDS National Committee, said:  The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) salutes the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) for endorsing a full "international economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel" as a necessary means to achieve Palestinian fundamental rights, including the right of return for the refugees and equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel.

By courageously heeding the Palestinian BDS Call, issued by an absolute majority in Palestinian civil society in 2005, LO joins some of the world's most important trade union federations, including South Africa's COSATU, Brazil's CUT, Quebec's CSN and the IrishICTU, in calling for meaningful BDS pressure on the corporations and institutions that have enabled decades of Israeli occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.

The BNC hopes to closely coordinate with Norwegian partners within LO, particularlyFagforbundet, to translate this new policy into effective measures of accountability at the academic, cultural and economic levels to uphold human rights and international law. We also call on LO to apply pressure on the Norwegian government to end all its military ties with Israel's regime of oppression and to divest its sovereign fund from all companies that are complicit in Israel's occupation and illegal settlement enterprise.