BDS success

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Wellesley Students Call for Boycott of Apartheid Israelhttps://www.theinteldrop.org/2022/10/11/wesley-students-call-for-boycott-of-apartheid-israel/

The student body at Wellesley College of Liberal Arts in the US has called for the liberation of Palestine and listed companies supporting the Israeli occupation in an effort to encourage students to boycott them.

In an editorial published by the student body established at the liberal women's university, the group called for the liberation of Palestine and for boycotting the occupation, especially in Boston, Massachusetts, where the university is located.

The student body expressed support to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement (BDS), the Mapping Project in particular, which puts pressure on the Israeli regime through non-violent means.

According to the independent student newspaper of Wellesley College, Wellesley's Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) raise awareness on campus of the mistreatment of Palestinians and the illegal nature of Israel's settlements.

The editorial said that the student body "unequivocally supports Palestinian students on campus, especially international students who may hesitate to speak in fear of retribution."

Touching on the Mapping Project, the editorial said it provides a vital service through collecting data about institutions that support Israeli apartheid, tracing their financial and political activities, and publicizing the information," and stressed that it is of great importance.

The Mapping Project, unveiled earlier in June 2022, identifies policing institutions, universities, weapons manufacturers, and Zionist lobby groups in the New England region that work in tandem to fortify structures of oppression and occupation in Palestine and across the world.

The hallmark of the project that is creating ripples is an interactive map that shows the physical locations of pro-Zionist groups in the Massachusetts area, sparking fears and concerns among pro-Israel lobbyists.

According to key members of the project, the idea is to build a knowledge base of institutions, corporations, and other entities that contribute to the colonization of Palestine, US imperialism, policing displacement, and other forms of oppression.

Giving an example on such institutions, the editorial read "The Mapping project notes that MIT is complicit in the militarization, propaganda/normalization, surveillance and US imperialism and has an active role in developing the technologies used to harm Palestinians."

Moreover, the student body journalists wrote that they have an obligation to document the truth, and that they are fortunate so far for being able to do it without facing violence, unlike journalists covering Israeli atrocities committed in occupied Palestine, such as Shirine Abu Akleh who was killed in May by Israeli occupation forces fire while covering an Israeli raid on Jenin.

The student body also expressed they are disheartened "to witness Wellesley's administration refusal to acknowledge the occupation of Palestine and the brutality that has been occurring under Israel's settler-colonial regime for decades."

"Wellesley's News Editorial Board called on our fellow students, professors and the Wellesley's administration and board of Trustees to acknowledge the atrocities of the Israeli regime and call for the liberation of occupied Palestine," the editorial concluded.

Following a widespread Israeli media attack, which slammed the College and claimed it was "a beacon of anti-Semitism, the university administration said it did not support the project.

However, the student body explained in the editorial, "We believe that support for a free Palestine is in no way anti-Semitic."   

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/10/11/690770/US-student-body-calls-for-boycotting-Israeli-regime-

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Queen Mary SU votes to disaffiliate from NUS after Shaima Dallali's sacking
The student body also a endorsed Boycott, Divest, Sanctions motion
https://www.thejc.com/news/news/queen-mary-su-votes-to-disaffiliate-from-nus-after-shaima-dallalis-sacking-5g3wMONEK6JMsoP22YqMGe?reloadTime=1669770686937

Students at Queen Mary University, London have voted to disaffiliate from the National Union of Students (NUS) as a result of Shaima Dallali being fired as president.

In a vote last night at the university's student union, a motion in favour of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement was also passed.

These motions were passed in spite of strong opposition from the university's Jewish society, who wrote ahead of the votes that they feel "betrayed and let down by our Students's Union".

The JSoc and Union of Jewish Students said in a joint statement today that they are "disappointed yet unsurprised" by the votes, adding accused Queen Mary SU of "[shrugging] its shoulders at the expense of Jewish students."

The motion to disaffiliate from the NUS was described as a result of the firing of Shaima Dallali earlier this month as president of the national student union following an investigation into allegations of antisemitism.

The motion accused the NUS of having "contributed to the spread of anti-Palestinian racism" by firing Ms Dallali, and described her removal as an "affront to the democratic nature that the NUS purports to obtain".

It read: "Recently the NUS, for the first time in its entire history, removed its democratically elected President. The removal of an elected leader is an affront to the democratic nature that the NUS purports to obtain.

"Despite its commitment to anti-racism, the NUS has contributed to the spread of anti-Palestinian racism. This punitive reaction reflects a political context that has sought to toxify Palestine and is part of a wider pattern of endemic and systematic bigotry and prejudice. The Association of Student Activism for Palestine has said that the removal of the elected President Shaima Dallali is a direct attack on pro-Palestine student activism.

"The NUS has long ignored calls from Muslim students, organisations and the representative Muslim student body Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) – who have said that NUS is no longer a safe space for Muslim students."

Students also voted on and passed a motion in favour of the BDS movement, calling for a report on "the direct and indirect academic, economic, and corporate links Queen Mary and its affiliated institutions and companies have with organisations complicit in the Israeli regime".

It calls for divestment from companies identified in the report, and also demands that products sold in Israel, such as Coca-Cola, be removed from campus stores.

It demands that the SU "publicly reject the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and hold companies that operate in these illegal territories accountable".

The impact on Jewish students at Queen Mary university was not mentioned in the text of either motion.

In a statement on Friday ahead of the votes on Monday, the Queen Mary Jewish and Israel Society said they were "deeply concerned and distressed" by the motions.

"We feel betrayed and let down by our Students' Union, who failed to notify us of these divisive motions which directly impact Jewish students.

"We believe that the BDS motion would foster unnecessary division and that it obstructs dialogue rather than promoting peace. We also believe that it would contribute to a hostile and uncomfortable environment for Jewish students at Queen Mary. The NUS disaffiliation motion disregards and ignores the lived experiences of Jewish and LGBTQ+ students, who have spoken out bravely about their experiences of homophobia and antisemitism both within NUS and at their own SUs.

"These motions come only a year after Jewish students were stripped of their right to define antisemitism which affects them deeply and heightens the vulnerability of Jewish students on campus. We will be fighting against both motions on Monday, and we encourage all students to stand in solidarity with us."

The impact of these motions on SU and university policy remains unclear. It is not yet known if the meetings were quorate, and nor is it clear whether a student referendum on NUS disaffiliation would need to take place.

The Queen Mary JSoc and the Union of Jewish Students, said in a statement today: "We are disappointed yet unsurprised by the motions passed last night at Queen Mary Students' Union endorsing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and dismissing concerns about antisemitism and homophobia in the National Union of Students. This follows last year's annual student meeting in which Jewish students were denied the right to define antisemitism.

"At this year's meeting, no amendments to a highly contentious motion were allowed in spite of the repeated requests by Jewish students. It is vital that amidst a KC led investigation into antisemitism, Jewish students are free to express their experiences of antisemitism in the student movement.

"Jewish students at QMUL have been clear throughout the debate that these motions would lead to an environment on campus which is hostile for Jewish students, leading to division and preventing the very measures needed for peace. They now feel betrayed and let down by their Students' Union, with many Jewish students now feeling unsafe in their own Students' Union which shrugs its shoulders at the expense of Jewish students.

"This environment in which Jewish student experiences are ignored and silenced cannot go on. If any students need support they can reach out to Queen Mary JSoc or UJS at this time and always."

The Queen Mary Student Union and the National Union of Students have been approached for comment.

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Yalies 4 Palestine

Yalies 4 Palestine launches Boycott, Divestments, Sanctions campaign
Yalies 4 Palestine is heralding a BDS campaign to put pressure on the University to end its contract with G4S, a leading British security company that provides services for Israeli prisons detaining Palestinian political prisoners.
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/12/06/yalies-4-palestine-launches-boycott-divestments-sanctions-campaign/?ml_recipient=73955682651473251&ml_link=73955650863891823&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-12-08&utm_campaign=12+8+22+The+Shift

Until this semester, Yale was the only Ivy League college to have never had a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign — an international effort that works to end the oppression of Palestinians.

Yalies 4 Palestine, a campus group that has been cultivating conversations around human rights for Palestinians since 2019, is spearheading a BDS campaign that aims to terminate Yale's contract with the security company G4S, which currently supplies much of the University's surveillance, scanning and police department security services. The group is targeting this company specifically due to its alleged connections with the police and military violence committed against Palestinians and other minorities.

"Discourse around Palestine is so contentious and misconstrued at Yale that there has never been [a BDS campaign]," said Ruqaiyah Damrah '23, a Yalies 4 Palestine organizer. "We're hoping that our campaign will generate important discussions around what it means to stand in solidarity with oppressed and colonized people around the world and what we mean when we say that all struggles are fundamentally connected."

In the summer of 2014, the University implemented the Symmetry SR Retrofit System, which is provided by a G4S owned technology branch. The scanning required for entering dining halls and dormitories is affiliated with the system, along with the tracking of anomalous behavior in research facilities throughout the institution.

Part of the issue is that the appeal of G4S technology is rooted in its efficiency and capacity for violence, according to BDS committee head Craig Birckhead-Morton '24. He emphasized that this type of counter effort is not a new one, and that it was inspired by existing movements in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world to reduce the presence of G4S.

Beyond taking concrete actions — including hosting a Saturday afternoon teach-in on Palestinian history for members of the Yale community and launching a petition — the leadership at Yalies 4 Palestine hope that the BDS campaign will serve as a breakthrough conversation starter for a campus culture that has been largely silent on discourse surrounding Palestine.

Damrah said that currently, conversations on Palestine have been restricted by a confusion between general Palistine advocacy and anti-semitism, when, in reality, much of the advocacy on campus has less to do with Jewishness and more to do with "white supremacy modeled after European forms of colonialism."

Angel Nwadibia '25, one of the attendees at the teach-in, mentioned the existence of a "social media currency" that pressures users into siding with the majority without doing research — something affecting open discussion around Palestine.

The pressure is a feeling that Hanaé Yoshida '25 knows all too well. When Yoshida left Jordan for Yale in 2019, Yalies 4 Palestine did not yet exist and she said campus discussion about Palestine was limited. Yoshida said that others were not able to differentiate between criticism and education, something that was a "culture shock" for her.

When Damrah co-authored a statement in response to the forced expulsion of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah in summer 2020, she was swept into waves of media responses and online attacks. Among the criticism included two campus student groups — Hillel and the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish life at Yale — condemning the statement for having "antisemitic overtones."

What she was particularly disappointed by, however, was the fact that overseas outlets like the Israel Times covered the group's statement and the News did not, which she said evidenced the limited space for campus discourse on the issue.

In a similar vein, Birckhead-Morton is hopeful that the Yale BDS campaign will spark a new public consciousness of the challenges confronting Palestinians, stating that fragments of the oppression of Palestinians are very present and personal in the life of Yale students because of the University's ties with G4S.

"We're hoping to increase pressure on Yale's administration to question their affiliation with a company that so blatantly participates in human rights violations and imperial violence around the world," Damrah said.

138 countries around the world currently recognize Palestine as a country.

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Five BDS wins in 2022 that you might have missed
2022 has been another monumental year in the growth of the Palestinian-led BDS movement. Here are some victories from the last year that you might have missed.
https://mondoweiss.net/2022/12/five-bds-wins-in-2022-that-you-might-have-missed/?ml_recipient=75288308935033864&ml_link=75288192056559335&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-12-23&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines

In October, the United Nations' Mideast envoy announced that 2022 was set to become the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the organization started tracking fatalities back in 2005.

It's no surprise that this kind of violence has inspired further support for BDS, the nonviolent Palestinian-led movement aimed at pressuring Israel into meeting its international obligations. Here are some 2022 BDS moments from the United States that you might have missed.

Oakland Roots Drop Puma
Palestine became a big story during the World Cup as fans and players showed their solidarity with the country. Shortly before the tournament began, activists in California scored a big football-related victory.

The Oakland Roots (who play in the USL Championship league) became the first U.S. sports team to drop Puma as a sponsor. The squad had faced pressure from the Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), along with supporters' groups La Brigada Del Pueblo and Oakland Roots Radicals.

Puma has been targeted by BDS supporters since 2018, when the sportswear company signed a deal to sponsor the Israel Football Association (IFA). The IFA has multiple teams based in illegal West Bank settlements.

"PUMA is the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association, which includes teams in illegal Israeli settlements," Oakland Roots Radicals told SFGATE last year. "The injustice Palestinian people suffer as they are displaced by illegal settlements is in direct opposition to the values of the Oakland community, and the values espoused by the Roots that make us so proud to support them. We are calling on the Roots to stand up and confront injustice, by severing ties to Puma until they end their support for Israel's regime of apartheid and military occupation."

As these things generally go, the club claims it was a purely coincidental decision that had nothing to do with politics, and pro-Israel websites have embraced that narrative. However, BDS advocates obviously see it as a win.

"This is a victory for the people of Palestine, the people of Oakland and the Bay Area, and all people fighting for a world free from oppression," said AROC's Lara Kiswani in a statement. "AROC celebrates the unprecedented action taken by the Oakland Roots. This is an example of what can be won when community institutions (businesses, sports teams, universities) work with and listen to the voices of their community calling for racial justice, and take substantial, tangible action to heed those calls.."

Big Thief Cancels Tel Aviv Shows
In June the indie rock band Big Thief canceled two concerts that were set to take place in Israel. After facing backlash over the dates the band originally put out a statement defending its decision to play Tel Aviv.

"We are well aware of the cultural aspect of the BDS movement and the desperate reality of the Palestinian people," it read. "In terms of where we fit into the boycott, we don't claim to know where the moral high ground lies and we want to remain open to other people's perspectives and to love beyond disagreement. We understand the inherently political nature of playing there as well as the implications. Our intention is not to diminish the values of those who support the boycott or to turn a blind eye to those suffering. We are striving to be in the spirit of learning."

Less than a week later the band reversed its decision. "Since announcing these shows in Israel we have been in constant dialogue with friends, family, BDS supporters, allies, Palestinians, and Israeli citizens who are committed to the fight for justice for Palestinians," explained their new statement. "It has been the only thing on our minds and in our hearts."

The Barby, the Israeli venue where the band was slated to play, denounced Big Thief as "a bunch of miserable spineless musicians" and referred to the BDS movement as a "Nazi fear boycott." However, the musicians didn't back down.

"We salute Big Thief's courage and their willingness to listen to the oppressed," said the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), "We recognize, too, the clear position of a majority of the group's fans of principled support for BDS."

Harvard Crimson Backs BDS
In April the editorial board of The Harvard Crimson (Harvard University's student newspaper since 1873) published an op-ed endorsing the BDS movement and calling for Palestine to be free.

"As an editorial board, we are acutely aware of the privilege we hold in having an institutional, effectively anonymous byline," it reads. "Even on this campus, many of our brave peers advocating for Palestinian liberation can be found on watchlists tacitly and shamefully linking them to terrorism."

"These twin factors — the extraordinary abuses and our privileged ability to speak to them and face comparatively less unjustified retribution — compel us to take a stand. Palestinians, in our board's view, deserve dignity and freedom," it continues. "We support the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement as a means to achieving that goal."

"In the past, our board was skeptical of the movement (if not, generally speaking, of its goals), arguing that BDS as a whole did not 'get at the nuances and particularities of the Israel-Palestine conflict.' We regret and reject that view. It is our categorical imperative to side with and empower the vulnerable and oppressed. We can't nuance away Palestinians' violent reality, nor can we let our desire for a perfect, imaginary tool undermine a living, breathing movement of such great promise."

The op-ed predictably ignited a firestorm, with faculty and alumni putting out statements expressing their outrage. However, many people affiliated with the school embraced the position.

The Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) says that the op-ed (and the backlash) prove that BDS activism is having a real impact.

"Institutional pushback is draining and frustrating, but as student activists, we have come to realize that our power lies in bringing attention to our cause amongst our peers," reads a piece from the group. "Rather than thinking about how to respond to Zionist alumni with big names and powerful positions, we seek power in galvanizing student support for Palestinian liberation. We seek to build solidarity with other social advocacy causes, pushing students who hide behind "neutrality" to engage with critical questions of oppression and inequality, and bringing conversations about justice to our friend circles, cultural spaces, and classrooms."

"The recent Crimson editorial goes to show that our approach is working. Students– those generally unengaged with PSC's work– are starting to listen and those are the audiences that matter. Faculty members are stepping in to lend a voice of support. We remain steadfast in our call for Palestinian liberation, inspired by decades of students before us– from PSC members to activists calling for divestment from the apartheid South Africa regime. This is just the beginning and our movement will only keep growing."

Polls Show Support for BDS is Growing Among Democratic Voters and Young People
For the last few years we have seen poll after poll indicating that support for Israel is declining among Democratic voters and young people in the United States, while support for Palestine continues to grow.

2022 was no different. An August survey of Democratic voters carried out by Brookings/the University of Maryland shows that Democratic voters who have heard about the BDS movement overwhelmingly support it, by a margin of 33 to 10.

A May survey by the same groups shows that a large plurality of Democratic voters believe that Biden nd Congress do not represent them in relation to Israel. Among Democrats aware of The White House's position on the issue, 26% said that The White House leaned closer to Israel than they do while just 3% said it leaned closer to Palestine than they do. The numbers are even more dramatic in relation to Congress. Among Democrats who had an opinion, 33% said their representatives lean closer to Israel than they do, while just 3% said their representatives lean closer to Palestine than they do.

These studies line up with a May survey from Pew which found that Democrats hold more favorable views of Palestinians than of Israelis by a margin of 64 to 60%. The gap is bigger among people under 30: 61 to 56%.

The Pew survey indicates that the vast majority of Democratic voters are still unaware of the BDS movement (85% said they'd never heard of it), but a surprising number of respondents said they support a democratic one-state outcome in the region. 36% of Democrats said they wanted to see a two-state solution and 19% said they want one democratic state.

Pillsbury Divests from Israel
In May General Mills announced that it had divested its 60% stake in its Israeli subsidiary.

The company's statement doesn't acknowledge the BDS movement and claims that the move was simply about "strategic choices about where to prioritize our resources to drive superior returns." However, for the last two years General Mills had been targeted by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) over the fact that some of its Pillsbury products were manufactured in an illegal Israeli settlement.

"General Mills' divestment shows that public pressure works even on the largest of corporations," said AFSC's Noam Perry in a statement. "With this move, General Mills is joining many other American and European companies that have divested from Israel's illegal occupation, including Microsoft and Unilever just in the last couple of years. We call on all companies to divest from Israel's illegal and brutal occupation of Palestine, and from the apartheid system it is part of. We congratulate General Mills on this decision and hope this is the first step in cutting all its ties to Israeli apartheid and toward respecting universal human rights."

Since 2002 General Mills had run a Pillsbury products factory in the Atarot Industrial Zone, a settlement that was illegally annexed by Israel during the 1967 war. In 2020 the United Nations identified General Mills as one of 112 companies that violate international law by operating a business within the occupied territories.

AFSC's No Dough For the Occupation campaign was backed by organizations like American Muslims for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, as well as the Ainsworth United Church of Christ in Portland, Oregon. It was also endorsed by five members of the Pillsbury family, who published a Star Tribune op-ed last year calling on people to boycott General Mills.

"We take pride in seeing our family name associated with products sold around the world," it reads. "But in these times we no longer can in good conscience buy products bearing our name."

"As long as General Mills continues to profit from the dispossession and suffering of the Palestinian people, we will not buy any Pillsbury products. We call on General Mills to stop doing business on occupied land. And we call on all people of good conscience and all socially responsible organizations across the globe to join in boycotting Pillsbury products until General Mills stops this illegal and immoral practice."

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Israeli rugby team uninvited from South African tournament
The South African rugby board said they were reacting to backlash from 'stakeholders'
https://www.thejc.com/news/world/israeli-rugby-team-uninvited-from-south-african-tournament-79TifiGHLe5hZ67xnPEgIf?reloadTime=1675791208820

South Africa Rugby has withdrawn an invitation for Israel's only professional rugby team, the Tel Aviv Heat to participate in a tournament next month.

The Tel Aviv Heat is the first professional Israeli rugby union team and competes in the Eastern Conference of the Rugby Europe Super Cup.

On Thursday, a press release from SA Rugby said the Heat would join teams from Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Spain and six South African sides in the Mzansi Challenge beginning March 24, with the final set for June 17.

But the following day, the body announced that the Israeli team would not be welcome due to backlash from unidentified "stakeholders."

SA Rugby president Mark Alexander said only that the decision had been taken after "we listened to the opinions of important stakeholder groups."

The South African government has become a vocal critic of Israel, often accusing the Jewish state of practicing "apartheid."

Pretoria downgraded its embassy in Tel Aviv in 2019 and pulled out its ambassador.

President Isaac Herzog last month slammed as a "blood libel" comparison of Israel's policies towards the Palestinians to South African apartheid.

"It is a dangerous and intensifying terrorism, since the legitimacy of the State of Israel and the justification of its existence is directly related to its ability to protect itself and hence they are trying to undermine this ability," he said.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MaS8EbChKs

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DC court dismisses lawsuit targeting academics over BDS support
"I hope that the ruling will deter pro-Israel outfits with no means of winning a debate beyond harassment and defamation from trying to impoverish those of us committed to the wellbeing of the Palestinian people," Dr. Steven Salaita said in a statement.
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/03/dc-court-dismisses-lawsuit-targeting-academics-over-bds-support/?

After nine years of legal battles the Superior Court of Washington, DC has dismissed a lawsuit targeting academics over their support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The case was dismissed on the basis of a DC law aimed at discouraging Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), which are often used as a means to stifle and censor certain viewpoints by burdening public advocates with legal fees.

"This ruling should send a clear message to those trying to silence advocates speaking out against Israel's human rights abuses: boycotts are legally protected, and attempts to stifle such advocacy through the misuse of courts will not be tolerated," said Center for Constitutional Rights staff attorney Astha Sharma Pokharel, "These lawsuits will face strong opposition that will only grow the movement for justice and freedom in Palestine."

The Center for Constitutional Rights represented the defendants in the case.

In December 2013, the American Studies Association (ASA) voted on a resolution honoring Palestinian civil society's call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Over 66% of members endorsed the measure. "We believe that the ASA's endorsement of a boycott is warranted given U.S. military and other support for Israel; Israel's violation of international law and UN resolutions; the documented impact of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian scholars and students; the extent to which Israeli institutions of higher education are a party to state policies that violate human rights; and the support of such a resolution by many members of the ASA," read a statement from the organization's National Council at the time.

The pro-Israel Louis Brandeis Center sued the ASA in 2016 on behalf of four members of its members who opposed the resolution. The case was dismissed in 2019, but the group filed a complaint in the D.C. Superior Court. That effort was also dismissed, but the D.C. Court of Appeals was ordered to consider it again after the defendants launched their own appeal.

One of the defendants was Dr. Steven Salaita, the Palestinian rights advocate who was unlawfully fired from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign over tweets attacking Israel's 2014 assault on Gaza. The plaintiffs amended their lawsuit to include Salaita in 2018 despite the fact that he joined the ASA two years after they held the resolution vote.

"I welcome the judge's decision to dismiss this long-running lawsuit as a waste of time and money," said Salaita in a statement. "I am happy to finally be freed of this burden and hope that the ruling will deter pro-Israel outfits with no means of winning a debate beyond harassment and defamation from trying to impoverish those of us committed to the wellbeing of the Palestinian people."

In recent years a number of academic organizations and campus groups have endorsed the BDS movement, often leading to backlash from pro-Israel organizations. State authorities in New York recently opened a probe into the City University of New York (CUNY). The complaint that sparked the investigation alleges that Zionist and Jewish are being discriminated against because the faculty at CUNY Law School unanimously voted to endorse BDS. Additionally, New York Councilwoman Inna Vernikov pulled $50,000 in funding to a university program that provided free legal services in response to the BDS endorsement.

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Oslo, the Capital of Norway, Announces boycott of Goods Produced in the Israeli-Occupied Territories
https://www.juancole.com/2023/04/announces-produced-territories.html

The city council of Oslo, Norway, the Scandinavian country's capital, has passed a decree boycotting the importation of goods from the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories seized in 1967. The city will also boycott Israeli companies involved in exploiting the resources in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza.

The Oslo city council announced, "foodstuffs coming from Israeli-occupied areas must be labelled with the area from which the product comes and must indicate that it is from an Israeli settlement, if that is its source."

The Norwegian government had already made a rule in 2022 that goods from the Occupied Territories could not be marked "Made in Israel," only those produced inside Israel within its 1949 borders.

It may not be an accident that Oslo made this decision now. Daniel Boguslaw at The Intercept raised the question of whether the far, far right government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, which is filled with open racists, fascists and Jewish supremacists, might be the best ally the movement for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel has ever had. Global headlines have been full of the hate filled comments of cabinet ministers such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. Smotrich urged the ethnic cleansing of a Palestinian hamlet.

The Geneva Convention on occupied territories of 1949 and the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court in 2002 both strictly forbid countries that occupy the territory of neighbors in wartime from settling their own citizens in this territory. The stricture came in response to atrocities committed by the Axis powers in World War II, as when Germany occupied Poland in 1939 and settled it with German citizens even as the Nazis killed and displaced Poles– in a bid to make Poland German and "Aryan" and to wipe out Slavs.

Israeli authorities have since the 1970s assiduously ignored international law and have subsidized the settling of hundreds of thousands of squatters on privately owned Palestinian farms, orchards and town property. At the same time, the Israeli state permanently locked some 300,000 Palestinians out of the West Bank and Gaza and has exerted various forms of pressure on them to emigrate abroad. They have also illegally annexed Palestinian East Jerusalem and part of the Palestinian West Bank near it, into which they are also putting squatters. Israeli squatter settlements are Jews-only and discriminate against Palestinian residents in Palestine itself.

Oslo's principled stand is the form of BDS that I favor.

That is, I don't think it is fair to boycott ordinary Israelis, many of whom do not like the squatters or their goals. Israel sits in the United Nations as a recognized state, and Oslo is not interested in boycotting companies or products produced in the state as it came into the UN, under the borders of the 1949 armistice. However, virtually everything Israeli authorities have done in the West Bank and Gaza since they were seized in 1967 has been grossly illegal. Worse, Israeli authorities have deprived the occupied Palestinians of the basic right to citizenship in the state, keeping them without even the right to have rights.

Much post-war international law was passed in an attempt to implement a "Never Again" policy — no more aggressive wars, no more annexations of neighbors' territory, no more genocides against minorities such as Jews, Romani, gays and Poles. In flouting international law, Israeli authorities undermine their own alleged commitment to the principle of "Never again." They have launched aggressive wars, displaced hundreds of thousands of people (who now have 11 million descendants), illegally annexed territory, and have squatted on occupied territory. The Holocaust can be viewed through the lens of Jewish nationalism or Zionism, such that it becomes a justification for Jews to refuse to be bound by international law or yield to outside pressure. Or it can be viewed through the lens of a humanist universalism, such that it is one of many horrific genocides in the twentieth century — the Armenian, the Polish, the Cambodian, and so forth — and the lesson we take away from it is not a Likud or Religious Zionism 'get out of jail free' card allowing the flouting of all laws and norms but the urgent necessity of upholding the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute with a determination that the lawlessness of the Nazis, of Mussolini's black shirts, and of the Japanese imperial armed forces should never be repeated.

Oslo's boycott is in furtherance of a rules-based international order, and is therefore highly praiseworthy.

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Who Said BDS Has 'Already Failed'?: European Cities Boycott Apartheid Israel
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/who-said-bds-has-already-failed-european-cities-boycott-apartheid-israel/

By Ramzy Baroud

A succession of events starting in Barcelona, Spain, in February, and followed in Liège, Belgium, and Oslo, Norway, in April sent a strong message to Israel: The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is alive and well.

In Barcelona, the city's Mayor canceled a twinning agreement with the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. The decision was not an impulsive one, although Ada Colau is well-known for her principled positions on many issues. It was, however, an outcome of a fully democratic process, initiated by a proposal submitted by left-wing parties at the city council.

A few weeks after the decision was made, specifically on February 8, a pro-Israeli legal organization known as The Lawfare Project, announced its intentions to file a lawsuit against Colau because she, supposedly, "acted beyond the scope of her authority".

The Lawfare Project meant to communicate a message to other city councils in Spain, and the rest of Europe, that there will be serious legal repercussions to boycotting Israel. To the organization's – and Israel's – big surprise, however, other cities quickly advanced their own boycott procedures. They include the Belgian city of Liège and Norway's capital city, Oslo.

Liège's local leadership did not try to conceal the reasons behind their decision. The city council, it was reported, had decided to suspend relations with the Israeli authorities for running a regime "of apartheid, colonization and military occupation". That move was backed by a majority vote at the council, proving once more that the pro-Palestinian moral stance was fully compliant with a democratic process.

Oslo is a particularly interesting case. It was there that the 'peace process' resulted in the Oslo Accords in 1993, which ultimately divided the Palestinians while giving Israel a political cover to continue with its illegal practices, while claiming that it has no peace partner.

But Oslo is no longer committed to the empty slogans of the past. In June 2022, the Norwegian government declared its intention of denying the label "Made in Israel" to goods produced in illegal Israeli Jewish settlements in Occupied Palestine.

Though Jewish settlements are illegal under international law, Europe did not mind doing business – in fact, lucrative business – with these colonies over the years. In November 2019, the European Court of Justice, however, resolved that all goods produced in "Israel-occupied areas" had to be labeled as such, so as not to mislead consumers. The Court's decision was a watered-down version of what Palestinians had expected: a complete boycott, if not of Israel as a whole, at least of its illegal settlements.

However, the decision still served a purpose. It provided yet another legal base for boycott, thus empowering pro-Palestine civil society organizations, and reminding Israel that its influence in Europe is not as limitless as Tel Aviv wants to believe.

The most that Israel could do in response is to issue angry statements, along with haphazard accusations of anti-Semitism. In August 2022, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt requested a meeting with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, during the former's visit to Israel. Lapid refused. Not only did such arrogance make a little difference in Norway's stance on the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but it also opened yet more margins for pro-Palestinian activists to be more proactive, leading to Oslo's decision in April to ban imports of goods made in illegal settlements.

The BDS movement explained, on its website, the meaning of Oslo's decision: "Norway's capital ... announced that it will not trade in goods and services produced in areas that are illegally occupied in violation of international law." In practice, this means that Oslo's "procurement policy will exclude companies that directly or indirectly contribute to Israel's illegal settlement enterprise – a war crime under international law."

Keeping these rapid developments in mind, The Lawfare Project would now have to expand its legal cases to include Liège, Oslo and an ever-growing list of city councils that are actively boycotting Israel. But, even then, there are no guarantees that the outcome of such litigations will serve Israel in any way. In fact, the opposite is more likely to be true.

A case in point was the recent decision by the cities of Frankfurt and Munich in Germany to cancel music concerts of pro-Palestinian rock and roll legend, Roger Waters, as part of his 'This is Not a Drill' tour. Frankfurt justified its decision by branding Waters as "one of the world's most well-known anti-Semites". The bizarre and unfounded claim was rejected outright by a German civil court which, on April 24, ruled in favor of Waters.

Indeed, while a growing number of European cities are siding with Palestine, those who side with Israeli apartheid find it difficult to defend or even maintain their position, simply because the former predicate their stances on international law, while the latter on twisted and convenient interpretations of anti-Semitism.

What does all of this mean for the BDS movement?

In an article published in Foreign Policy magazine last May, Steven Cook reached a hasty conclusion that the BDS movement "has already lost", because, according to his inference, efforts to boycott Israel have made no impact "in the halls of government".

While BDS is a political movement that is subject to miscalculations and mistakes, it is also a grassroots campaign that labors to achieve political ends through incremental, measured changes. To succeed over time, such campaigns must first engage ordinary people on the street, activists at universities, in houses of worship, etc., all done through calculated, long-term strategies, themselves devised by local and national civil society collectives and organizations.

BDS continues to be a success story, and the latest critical decisions made in Spain, Belgium and Norway attest to the fact that grassroots efforts do pay dividends.

There is no denying that the road ahead is long and arduous. It will certainly have its twists, turns and, yes, occasional setbacks. But this is the nature of national liberation struggles. They often come at a high cost and great sacrifice. But, with popular resistance at home and growing international support and solidarity abroad, Palestinian freedom should, in fact, be possible.

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Brazilian City Ends All Ties with Israel, Denounces 'True Apartheid' (VIDEO)
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/brazilian-city-ends-all-ties-with-israel-denounces-true-apartheid-video/

The mayor of the Brazilian port city of Belem, Edmilson Rodrigues, has declared his city an Apartheid Free Zone, denouncing Israel's "expulsion of a people from their ancestral territory, a true apartheid", the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement announced on Tuesday.

Belem, the capital of the state of Para in the Amazonas, has a history of bringing indigenous and other people together in the struggle for justice and building solidarity.

Belem's decision follows those of other major cities in Europe.

https://twitter.com/PalestineChron/status/1658834417236713481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1658834417236713481%7Ctwgr%5Ea4de8ab324fd84c78e7f7235562993826d6fed8f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.palestinechronicle.com%2Fbrazilian-city-ends-all-ties-with-israel-denounces-true-apartheid-video%2F

The mayor of Barcelona, Spain, decided to suspend institutional ties with apartheid Israel and end twinning with Tel Aviv.

Liège city council, in Belgium, also cut ties with Israel while the Oslo city council, in Norway, excluded from public procurements companies that directly or indirectly contribute to Israel's illegal settlement enterprise.

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) applauded the mayor of Belem's move and called for other cities around the world to follow suit.

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The European Trade Union Confederation) decided to boycott products made in illegal Jewish settlements.(Photo: via ETUC)

European Trade Union Confederation to Boycott Products Made in Illegal Jewish Settlements
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/european-trade-union-confederation-to-boycott-products-made-in-illegal-jewish-settlements/

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which represents over 45 million European workers and their trade unions, decided on Friday to boycott products made in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The organization also stressed the importance of regulatory measures to prevent EU legal entities from importing or exporting products manufactured in illegal Jewish settlements in accordance with EU treaties and international law.

The decision came during the confederation's 15th Congress, being held in the German capital Berlin on May 23-26.

Addressing the conference, the Secretary-General of the Palestine Trade Union Federation, Shaher Saad, welcomed the attendees and drew attention to the plight of the Palestinians as he noted the death toll so far this year, which has already reached 172 Palestinians.

https://twitter.com/mohmerai/status/1662081090234769408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1662081090234769408%7Ctwgr%5E5f459dd41f314269d3500303c04ebfcf61c77dfc%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.palestinechronicle.com%2Feuropean-trade-union-confederation-to-boycott-products-made-in-illegal-jewish-settlements%2F

"Israel has been transformed entirely under the leadership of the far-right government to a hothouse and incubator of racism, terrorism and unbridled settler violence," he said.

"The occupying state is holding more than 4,900 prisoners, including 31 female prisoners, and 160 children, including a girl under the age of 18, in addition to 1,000 administrative detainees, including six children," he added.

According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, the confederation emphasized the need to reach an agreement between Israel and Palestine that would lead to the implementation of the two-state solution, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.

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BDS Movement Declares Victory as G4S Decides to Divest Completely from Israel
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/bds-movement-declares-victory-as-g4s-decides-to-divest-completely-from-israel/

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement declared victory on Thursday in its years-long campaign against corporate security giant G4S.

"In a major win for human rights activism against corporate complicity, the world's largest private security company Allied Universal, which owns G4S, has decided to sell all its remaining business in apartheid Israel," BDS said in a statement, adding:

"This follows years of an effective #StopG4S campaign waged by the BDS movement for Palestinian rights."

The BDS campaign against G4S was launched in 2012 by Palestinian prisoners' rights and human rights organizations to support the major hunger strike waged then by Palestinian political prisoners.

According to BDS, the pressure "led to high-profile divestment from G4S by the Church of Sweden, the United Methodist Church, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a Kuwaiti investment fund, UN agencies, trade unions, universities, and restaurant chains, among others, compelling the company in 2016 to divest from Israel's prison system, military checkpoints and illegal settlements. Yet the company remained invested in Policity."

https://twitter.com/BDSmovement/status/1664264234211893249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1664264234211893249%7Ctwgr%5E74b0ed52b56a04a664dc622ac0d87a3ce756b557%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.palestinechronicle.com%2Fbds-movement-declares-victory-as-g4s-decides-to-divest-completely-from-israel%2F

BDS has accused the company of a long, violent record of human rights abuses against Palestinians, as well as prisoners, migrants, and other communities worldwide, and has demanded it ends all business in Israel.

The BDS movement urged to intensify pressure on "other corporate criminals to make them respect their human rights obligations and stop profiting from oppression and injustice."

"We've won here, but our work is far from over. Now is the time to intensify BDS campaigns against Israel's regime of apartheid and settler colonialism, and against corporations and institutions that remain complicit in these crimes," the movement added.

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UK university lecturers union votes to boycott Israel, but could be illegal under planned anti-BDS laws
https://www.cufi.org.uk/news/uk-university-lecturers-union-votes-to-boycott-israel-but-could-be-illegal-under-planned-anti-bds-laws/

An anti-Israel motion adopted by the university and college lecturers union could be outlawed by proposed new government legislation.

Delegates at the University and College Union's (UCU) congress in Glasgow confirmed their full support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in a right to boycott motion.

The motion was titled "Israel oppression and the right to boycott" and was implies Israel is worthy of boycott because it is comparable to Nazi Germany.

It read: "Congress believes that civil society boycotts have an honourable tradition from anti-slavery campaigns through boycotts of Nazi trade to isolation of Apartheid South Africa."

However, the UCU's legal counsel warned it could fall foul of the incoming UK Government's proposed BDS and Sanction Bill.

The proposed bill would ban BDS to prevent further boycotts against Israel. It also follows a 2019 Conservative Party manifesto commitment to prevent local authorities from "adopting their own approach to international relations".  This move, pro-Palestine activists say, is in place to help businesses profiting from apartheid Israel.

If the proposed bill passed, the motion would be "void" as it would in effect ask members to break the law.

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PUMA's CEO Had BDS on His Mind. Join Global Day of Action, June 24, 2023
https://bdsmovement.net/puma-day9

You won't believe what PUMA's new CEO said in front of 200 shareholders in May.

BDS!

You can't make this stuff up. As he was talking about the Better Cotton Initiative, or BCI, he said BDS instead by mistake.

The BDS slip by PUMA's CEO is yet another sign that PUMA is alarmed by the growing boycott campaign over its complicity in Israeli apartheid.

PUMA is feeling the pressure. And it's about to increase!

Groups around the world are preparing for the Boycott PUMA Global Day of Action on Saturday, June 24, 2023.

It's no wonder PUMA's CEO has BDS on his mind. PUMA's complicity in Israeli apartheid was on display for all to see during its 75th anniversary shareholders meeting.

Ahead of the meeting, targeted online ads led customers googling "PUMA shoes" to the ThisIsPUMA.com spoof website.

Outside the meeting in Germany, PUMA shareholders and employees were met by Boycott PUMA banners and slogans.

Inside the meeting, activist shareholders spoke for 20 minutes about PUMA's partnership with the Israel Football Association, which governs and advocates for teams in illegal Israeli settlements.

While PUMA is celebrating its 75th anniversary, let's keep reminding it that Palestinians are marking 75 years of Israeli oppression.

We're keeping our pledge of #NoRestForPUMA until it ends support for Israel's regime of military occupation and apartheid.

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I am past President of the American Anthropological Association and this is why I am voting to boycott Israeli academic institutions
Eight years since the American Anthropological Association first considered the academic boycott of Israel, conditions for Palestinians have only gotten worse, and Israeli academic institutions are complicit. That is why I am supporting the new boycott resolution.

ALISSE WATERSTON
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/06/i-am-past-president-of-the-american-anthropological-association-and-this-is-why-i-am-voting-to-boycott-israeli-academic-institutions/?

At this critical time, anthropologists who are members of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) face a momentous decision. The matter before them is a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions, positioned as a nonviolent act of resistance in common cause with the Palestinian people suffering the crimes of apartheid and persecution. Electronic voting on the resolution begins June 15 and will conclude on July 14.

I have grappled with this decision before. On November 20, 2015, a record-breaking 1400 members attended the association's annual business meeting. The long night of discussion and debate ended decisively: a motion passed by a wide margin to bring the resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions to the full membership for a vote the following spring. In unprecedented voter turnout, the resolution did not pass by a narrow margin. A record-setting fifty-one percent (51%) of the membership voted; the boycott was voted down, with 2,423 opposing and 2,384 supporting the boycott.

I know about this because at the close of that meeting, I was handed the president's gavel, becoming AAA's 84th president. Facing the matter at hand, my most difficult challenge was separating myself as an individual (and how I might act and how I might vote) from my duties as an officer of the association, a challenge I addressed by keeping true to the organization's democratic processes and returning repeatedly to its bylaws. Over the course of a difficult six months preceding the vote, I and others among the AAA leadership and staff received harassing and threatening emails and phone calls from people outside the association who would have us withdraw the resolution altogether.

During those six months, I made it my mission to get out the vote, urging members to look to their own conscience for guidance and providing them the information they needed to make an informed decision. Included among that information was the AAA Task Force report on Israel-Palestine and a comprehensive bibliography on Israel/Palestine. Meantime, I convened a working group that produced eight actions concerning Israel-Palestine approved by the Executive Board in May of 2016. Among these actions was a statement of censure of Israeli policies and practices focused primarily on the denial of academic freedom and freedom of expression for Palestinians; it included a call to repeal Israeli laws that make it a crime to speak publicly in favor of a boycott.

[pdf]https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/aaa-task-force-israel-palestine-2015-FINAL.pdf[/pdf]
https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/aaa-task-force-israel-palestine-2015-FINAL.pdf

Today, under different professional conditions, I find myself again facing the matter. On March 3, 2023, over 200 AAA members submitted a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions. As before, and following AAA bylaws, a decision on the resolution will be determined by the full membership by means of the electronic vote.

No longer in a leadership position, I am an ordinary association member who has searched my conscience for guidance and studied updated evidence to make an informed decision. I have re-read the old documents, studied the new resolution, and reviewed new materials including the information provided by AnthroBoycott and the arguments put forth by the Alliance for Academic Freedom/Academic Engagement Network. I come to this assessment:

In the eight years since the 2015 AAA Task Force report documented the long history of Palestinian displacement, housing, and land loss alongside the ever-growing number and size of Israeli settlements, horrendous restrictions on movement, suppression of freedom of speech, deprivation of academic freedom, preventable adverse health and welfare outcomes, and outright discrimination, the circumstances for Palestinians in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza have worsened, becoming intolerable.

This is not a matter of opinion; the evidence speaks to the horrific conditions Palestinians endure as a direct result of Israeli laws, policies, and practices. This includes the Basic Law: Israel – The Nation State of the Jewish People that establishes the State of Israel "as exclusive to the Jewish People." Moreover, Israeli academic institutions have a long and documented history of working to advance the country's military and nationalist agenda, expanding its footprint into occupied territory, and neglecting the plight of the Palestinians. As one example, in a letter I received in December 2015 from the Association of University Heads, Israel, the 8 signatories representing sixteen Israeli universities, makes clear they perceive BDS as "an aggressive global anti-Israel campaign [that] is maliciously circulating vile slander and lies...with the sole objective of delegitimizing the State of Israel." There is no mention of concern for the ongoing violations—the denial of life, livelihood, freedom of speech and academic freedom—that harm Palestinians.

A situation once described as a conflict and Israeli state action as "the Occupation" is now named apartheid by several trustworthy organizations. For example, Amnesty International's research and data analyses have led it to conclude that Israel's apartheid, in violation of international law, is "a cruel system of domination and crime against humanity." Those words are abstract; the raw truth of the death and destruction experienced by Palestinians is practically unbearable to grasp. I read the multiple reports, the least I could do. There is no turning away from the painful facts.

Yet the United States does turn away from the facts. Since 2014, states began passing bills and executive orders against boycotts of Israel; today there are 35 states with legislation in effect. Rather than contest the long-held practice of conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel, an ever-growing number of states and the federal government have or are considering codifying this conflation by adopting the IHRA working definition. According to a Congressional Research Service report in March of this year, Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II, receiving $158 billion in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding; almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance. It is not polemics to claim that taxpayer dollars support the cruel system of domination and crime against humanity.

Having sat in a leadership position in the association, I know firsthand the challenges of responding to the varied points of view among its members, aligning decisions with the organization's core values and mission, including that of protecting academic freedom, worrying about the association's sustainability, and keeping a moral compass with respect to the human and political issues at hand. I am also aware of potential harm that may come to the association: some may drop their membership, some donors may stop giving, and some annual meetings may not be held in public convention centers in states with anti-boycott state contract legislation.

With all this in mind, the proposed boycott deserves a close reading. It calls for the AAA to: undertake a boycott of Israeli academic institutions until such time as these institutions end their complicity in violating Palestinian rights as stipulated in international law; implement this boycott according to the association's governance procedures, bylaws and mission; recognize that this boycott pertains to Israeli academic institutions only and not to individual scholars, and that individual anthropologists who are members of the AAA are free to determine whether and how they will apply the boycott in their own professional practice; and support the rights of all students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Palestine and Israel and in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

I recognize that at times certain principles come into contradiction. If the AAA boycott does any harm to academic freedom, this must be weighed against the dead bodies and ruined houses that are the Palestinian plight. If members drop their association membership and donors withdraw, those who support the boycott ought to pledge to bring in 1-2 members each and to provide financial support to the association above their membership dues. Any other threats or harm to the American Anthropological Association can be met with commitment to stand up on its behalf. If the boycott proves ineffectual, this must be weighed against complicity with the silencing of the condition of Palestinians under apartheid, leaving them isolated, lonely, and invisible.

In wrestling with a decision, I understand my special obligation as an anthropologist to consider the suffering of others. I also understand that safety and security can only come when all people are safe and secure; militarism, occupation, and apartheid are counter-productive to that goal. I am aware of the power structures that reproduce inequities and the social suffering that results, leading to a sense of responsibility to take action on behalf of those who are dehumanized, dispossessed, and displaced. I have examined the data and the arguments, and understand the risks that may befall the association, considering threats already made and those that may come. As a Jew, I have looked to the moral teachings from my mother's prayer book to help guide me. Perhaps none is more important or relevant than the imperative to pursue "justice, justice," a word written twice to "teach us that we must practice justice at all times, whether it be for our profit or for our loss, and towards all men [sic], Jew and non-Jew alike."

In the end, I will vote in favor of the resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions, the only decision my conscience will allow.

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G4S withdrawal from Israeli apartheid a victory for activism
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/g4s-withdrawal-israeli-apartheid-victory-activism

Private security firm Allied Universal, the owner of G4S, has decided to sell all its remaining business in apartheid Israel.

In 2016, G4S already dropped its Israeli security business which provided services to Israel's prison system, military checkpoints and illegal settlements.

Allied Universal will now pull out of Israel's national police academy, where Israel's "finest" learn to repress Palestinians.

In a statement, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) claims the victory comes after human rights campaigns which caused G4S serious "reputational damage" and some lucrative investments and contracts.

"Along with the BDS movement, several other human rights campaigns have also targeted G4S over its long, violent record of human rights abuses against prisoners, migrants, and other communities worldwide, including the UK, South Africa and the US."

The G4S role in Israel's occupation of Palestine was most prominently exposed at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine in 2010.

At that tribunal, corporate watchdog WhoProfits unveiled research revealing G4S's services to Israeli jails, military checkpoints, settlement businesses and the Israeli police.

The report, The Case of G4S, laid a solid foundation for boycott campaigners ever since.

A long struggle
Palestinian prisoners' rights and human rights organizations gave a boost to the BDS campaign against G4S in 2012, when Palestinian political prisoners waged a major hunger strike.

The Electronic Intifada also exposed the relationship between Israel's violations of the rights of Palestinian prisoners and G4S's role in securing Israeli jails in several articles, while reporting on the many victories around the world as the campaign against G4S gained traction.

These included victories in Denmark, Finland, Jordan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, and the US and the US-based United Church of Christ.

But G4S's 2016 decision to divest from Israel did not include the sale of its stake in the consortium that operates Israel's police academy.

The StopG4S campaign therefore kept up the pressure. arguing that the Israeli police has perpetrated "war crimes and grave human rights violations" against Palestinians over decades.

The final push to convince Allied Universal to end its complicity in Israel's human rights abuses appeared to have come with position taken by a large Canadian public pension fund manager, Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ), according to the BNC.

Trade unions, BDS campaigners and American Friends Service Committee pressurized CDPQ to use its influence as the largest shareholder in Allied Universal.

That led to Allied Universal's decision to sell its stake in Israel's police academy to G1 Secure Solutions, formerly G4S Israel. The sale is pending approval of the Israeli authorities.

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ABA Endorses the Resolution to Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions
https://aba.americananthro.org/aba-endorses-the-resolution-to-boycott-israeli-academic-institutions/

The Association of Black Anthropologists hereby endorses the Resolution to Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions. In keeping with the AAA's "commit[ment] to the promotion and protection of the right of people and peoples everywhere to the full realization of their humanity," (1999 DAHR) we heed the resounding call from Palestinian civil society organizations to take action toward affirming their inalienable right to self-determination. We raise our voice in concert with the chorus of prominent American academic organizations that have already expressed support for the Resolution.

While some members of the AAA have publicly expressed concerns regarding the efficacy of the proposed boycott, we reject the colonial inclination to speak for oppressed peoples, instead respecting that the aforementioned Palestinian civil societies know what will be most useful in their struggle toward liberation. As past AAA president Alisse Waterston wrote, "If the boycott proves ineffectual, this must be weighed against complicity with the silencing of the condition of Palestinians under apartheid, leaving them isolated, lonely, and invisible."  Additionally, we challenge the sincerity of any notion that a boycott would diminish academic freedom at Israeli universities when many are actively colluding with the state in the repression of dissent against its apartheid project. Meanwhile, Israel undermines the free exchange of ideas at Palestinian academic institutions through such measures as imposing strict limits and quotas on international faculty and students visiting Palestinian universities for work and study.

As Black anthropologists whose work often centers around issues of structural subjugation, we recognize the striking similarities between the Netanyahu government's abhorrent treatment of Palestinians and Arabs on one hand and the South African National Party's institution of apartheid against Black Africans writ large.

Based on the above evaluation of the circumstances surrounding the Resolution, in addition to the case expertly presented by the Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions group and points expressed by countless others who support a boycott of institutions complicit in Israeli apartheid and violations of international law, we encourage all members of the AAA to vote in favor of the boycott.

In 2021, the ABA was a signatory on the AAA Middle East Section (MES)'s statement condemning the forced evictions and retaliatory violence by Israeli state forces against Palestinians. In 2023, the ABA stands once again in solidarity with Palestinian academics, against Israeli apartheid and the oppression of Palestinians.

As our colleagues of AnthroBoycott remind us, the time for action is now.

The Association of Black Anthropologists

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Rejecting Normalization, Leading Arab Environmentalist Withdraws from EU Session due to Israeli Participation
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/rejecting-normalization-leading-arab-environmentalist-withdraws-from-eu-session-due-to-israeli-participation/

The director of the Arab Union for the Protection of Nature, Mariam Al-Geagea, withdraws from a training course called by the European Union in the Italian city of Bari, due to the presence of a delegation representing the Israeli occupation, Lebanon's Al Mayadeen news agency reported.

The Lebanon-based pan-Arab news network said that,

"The director of the Arab Union for the Protection of Nature, Mariam al-Geagea, withdrew from a meeting entitled 'Regional training and study tour at the optimal level of irrigation management' called by the European Union in the Italian city of Bari, due to the presence of a delegation representing the Israeli occupation." 

No to Normalization
One of the organizers, representing a network of Arab civil society organizations, nominated al-Geagea to attend a training on water and irrigation dedicated to the Arab region, only to be surprised by the presence of a delegation representing the state of Israel.

After consulting with members of the 'Arab Union for the Protection of Nature and the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty', which includes 30 entities from 13 Arab countries, al-Geagea filed a public objection before withdrawing, stating that the EU contradicts itself by inviting Israelis to these sessions.

Al-Geagea indicated that she represents an organization dedicated to defending the environmental and agricultural sectors in Palestine and Jordan from "the criminal practices of the (Israeli) occupation," and rejects the use of the environment in such frameworks "to normalize relations with the occupation."

https://twitter.com/WesMed19/status/1671054010822934528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1671054010822934528%7Ctwgr%5Eaf9efd4375dc08bd178f7b7942fa93a9de50c882%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.palestinechronicle.com%2Frejecting-normalization-leading-arab-environmentalist-withdraws-from-eu-session-due-to-israeli-participation%2F

Political, Not 'Technical'
Al-Geagea also addressed the organizers, saying that "if they want to stop the conflict in a sustainable and just way, they must address its root causes such as occupation, theft of resources and violation of human rights."

She called on the organizers to adhere to international law, which is supposed to be an acceptable frame of reference to the organization.

Al-Geagea also rejected the claim made by some participants that "training is technical," not political.

The "Water and Environment Support" project has been sponsored by the EU since 2019 and has an estimated budget of €7.9 million (approximately $8.6 million).

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18 years of BDS and 18 related impacts so far in 2023   
Take a look back at some highlights in our struggle for Palestinian rights in the first half of 2023.         
https://bdsmovement.net/news/18-years-bds-and-18-related-impacts-so-far-2023

As we approach the 18th birthday of the BDS movement for Palestinian rights, we take a look back at some highlights in our struggle for Palestinian rights in the first half of 2023:

1 - In a massive victory for human rights, G4S, the largest security firm in the world, decided to completely divest from apartheid Israel. This decision followed 13 years of tireless BDS campaigning with support from global partners.

2 - Barcelona's Mayor suspended institutional relations with apartheid Israel, including the twinning agreement with Tel Aviv. The decision was supported by over 54 prominent figures, including Mark Ruffalo & Susan Sarandon as well as progressive Jewish groups and individuals from 15 countries.

3 - Norway's capital, Oslo, announced it will exclude from procurement companies that directly or indirectly contribute to Israel's illegal settlement enterprise.

4 - The Belgian city of Liège voted to end all ties with Israel, citing its regime of "apartheid, colonization and military occupation" against Palestinians, and Verviers (Belgium) cut its ties with the Israeli apartheid regime to "strengthen its support for the Palestinian people."

5 - The mayor of Belém (Brazil) declares the city an Apartheid Free Zone.

6 - The PLO, the BDS movement, and Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations issue a historic anti-apartheid call to intensify global pressure to dismantle Israel's regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid.

7 - Palestinian trade union bodies and professional syndicates urge all trade unions, trade union federations, and professional syndicates worldwide to contribute to the Palestinian-led Anti-Apartheid Movement.

8 - Despite the hypocrisy of FIFA's decision to remove them as a host, Indonesia stood for Palestinian rights and called for the exclusion of apartheid Israel from the Under-20 Men's World Cup. while the governor of Bali opposed the inclusion of apartheid Israel team.

9 - Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE Manitoba), which represents 37,000 workers, announced its support for the BDS movement to end Israeli apartheid and oppression of Palestinians.

10 - The Brit and Grammy award-winning artist Sam Smith canceled their performance in apartheid Israel, following pressure from fans and supporters of Palestinian rights.

11 - South African Rugby Union (SARU) rescinded an invitation to the Tel Aviv Heat, a team representing apartheid Israel, for the Mzansi Challenge.

12 - US Tech Companies shut down operations in Israel, following the lead of Israeli tech giants that have moved abroad, further undermining investor confidence in the troubled Israeli economy.

13 - Brazilian organizations forced the cancellation of a propaganda event at the University of Campinas featuring complicit Israeli universities. And UK scholar Sophie Grace Chappell withdrew from an ethics conference in apartheid Israel.

14 - Indigo Music Festival canceled an event in Sinai after popular pressure led by BDS Egypt because of Israeli participation in the festival in violation of the movement's anti-normalization guidelines.

15 - Balkan Trafik Festival in Belgium ends partnership with apartheid Israel.

16 - In response to the artworkers' strike against the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, due to its complicity in supporting Israeli apartheid, the Finnish National Gallery accepted new ethical guidelines leading to a substantial milestone for the art community.

17 - Following intense boycott pressure, including PACBI's call to boycott all films supported by the Rabinovich Foundation, the racist Israeli film fund will reportedly end its insistence that filmmakers seeking its support must sign a loyalty oath to deny in their films the reality of Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing against Indigenous Palestinians..

18 - Following a year long European Citizens Initiative (ECI) to ban trade with settlements, the European Committee on Petition (PETI) decided unanimously that the European Commission must respond to our demand to stop trade with illegal settlements.

[yankeedoodle]

Biden Administration bows to Int'l Law, Ceases funding Israeli research done on Stolen Land in Palestinian West Bank   
https://www.juancole.com/2023/06/administration-research-palestinian.html

The Biden administration has reverted to the longstanding practice of not funding Israeli institutions in the Palestinian West Bank. AFP reports that State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, "engaging in bilateral scientific and technological cooperation with Israel in geographic areas which came under the administration of Israel after 1967 and which remain subject to final-status negotiations is inconsistent with US foreign policy."

Rebekah Yeager-Malkin at The Jurist points out that in the 1970s, Washington established three foundations to promote cooperation between the US and Israel in scientific research. These are, she says, "the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD), the Binational Science Foundation (BSF) and the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Foundation (BARD)."

The major Israeli research institution in the Palestinian West Bank, Ariel University, was built on land stolen from Palestinian families, and it had been the major beneficiary there of BIRD, BSF and BARD research monies.

President Donald Trump had more or less recognized the Palestinian West Bank as Israel, the same position as is taken by right-wingers in the Israeli government. Trump broke with US policy as it had been pursued since 1967, when Israel opportunistically seized the Palestinian West Bank and the Gaza Strip, making the Palestinians stateless and without basic human rights, including the right to own property securely. One Israeli squatter of US heritage was caught on video trying to steal a Palestinian home, and when he was rebuked by the rightful owner, he replied, "If I don't steal it somebody else will."

This decision by the Biden administration appears to have been taken two years ago, but it was not implemented in the run-up to the 2022 midterms. It was only communicated to the Israeli government this weekend, and confirmed by Miller on Monday.

Haaretz notes that the European Union also won't fund squatter Israeli institutions on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

In international law, occupying enemy territory during wartime is not forbidden. However, the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 envision occupation as lasting for a brief duration during the war. They do not provide for it to last 56 years. In fact, they forbid the occupying power from making any significant changes in the lifeways of the occupied population. It is also forbidden to transfer people from the occupying nation into the occupied territory. That is a war crime, of which Israel is guilty on several hundred thousand counts.

Israel's occupation, I would argue, is by now illegal on the face of it, as are most Israeli actions in the West Bank. The ongoing blockade and siege waged against the Gaza Strip, a form of collective punishment that harms children and other noncombatants, is also illegal.

The Israelis have since 1967 locked several hundred thousand Palestinians out of the West Bank. Those who remain face a maze of Israeli checkpoints and must constantly be showing their papers. Their olive trees are cut down, their crops sabotaged, their property further stolen. South Africans who lived under Apartheid there and who have visited the West Bank say, appalled, that the situation for Palestiians under Israeli rule is much worse that what Blacks faced under South African Apartheid.

In recent days, Israeli squatters on Palestinian property have gone wilding, with thousands rampaging into Palestinian hamlets, setting fires and shooting them up. Only five of these black shirts have even been charged by the Israeli state. The Biden administration at least condemned these pogroms.

The least the US government can do is refuse to be a party to this Apartheid situation, toward which this decision is a small step. But it is mainly symbolic. If the Biden administration wanted to do the right thing and was serious about a two-state solution (which by now is probably impossible), they would stop exercising their veto on Israel's behalf at the UN Security Council. Israel's law-breaking is so egregious that the UNSC would certainly place it under economic sanctions if the US didn't block that step.

But don't hold your breath.

[yankeedoodle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lh8KVnXrBE

[yankeedoodle]

Groups Across the World Join Boycott PUMA Global Day of Action
From Kuala Lumpur to Paris, from Tokyo to Berlin, from Kuwait City to London, actions were held at PUMA shops and retailers, at human rights festivals, football matches and anti-racist football tournaments urging PUMA to end complicity in Israeli apartheid.
https://bdsmovement.net/news/groups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action
On Saturday, June 24, 2023, the #BoycottPUMA Global Day of Action let PUMA know the campaign will only continue to grow until it ends complicity in Israeli apartheid.

From Kuala Lumpur to Paris, from Tokyo to Berlin, from Kuwait City to London, actions were held at PUMA shops and retailers, at human rights festivals, football matches and anti-racist football tournaments.

Front and center in many protests were images of young Palestinian footballers gunned down by Israeli soldiers over the past two years. Just days before the day of action, Israeli soldiers murdered 24-year-old footballer Omar Qatin, a father of two, who was defending his neighbors from armed Israeli settlers violently rampaging through his village of Turmus Ayya.

Thousands of leaflets were handed out informing shoppers of PUMA's complicit partnership with the Israel Football Association, which governs and advocates for teams in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land.

Online, #BoycottPUMA was a worldwide trending topic and the hashtag in English and Arabic had a reach of over 14 million.

Just as international graffiti artist Banksy has done with his kitten in Gaza, the day of action put the power of cats on social media to use for Palestinian rights with #CatsVsPUMA. Images of cats with Boycott PUMA signs and messages filled social media.

Last month, actions inside, outside and online during PUMA's annual shareholders meeting had the CEO so flustered that he said "BDS" instead of "BCI" while talking about the Better Cotton Initiative. The growing boycott campaign clearly weighs heavily on his mind.

Earlier this month, when PUMA held a promo event in London with NBA star Melo Ball, activists ensured fans knew about PUMA's role in supporting Israel's crimes against Palestinians.

We've pledged #NoRestForPUMA, and we are keeping that pledge until PUMA ends complicity in Israeli apartheid by ending its partnership with the Israel Football Association.

Join the campaign: pacbi@bdsmovement.net

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1673331962042302468?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1673331962042302468%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1673248496672014336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1673248496672014336%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/ipsc48/status/1672705482769719296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672705482769719296%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1673309171314307073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1673309171314307073%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

We're still going!

Dublin for the #BoycottPUMA Global Day of Action.

Groups around the world are supporting the call from 200+ Palestinian sports teams to boycott @PUMA until it ends complicity in Israeli apartheid.

Take action online: https://t.co/Zm0n75jPBs https://t.co/fUk0KzxfZM

— PACBI (@PACBI) June 25, 2023

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1672660891093938179?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672660891093938179%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PSCupdates/status/1672580389695819776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672580389695819776%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1672648741499596800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672648741499596800%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1672632713226907652?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672632713226907652%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/ClaptonCFC/status/1672565093278666752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672565093278666752%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1672598689490038786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672598689490038786%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PSCupdates/status/1672624224308011010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672624224308011010%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1672571536652357632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672571536652357632%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1672557031901876224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672557031901876224%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1672515171695067136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672515171695067136%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/ManchesterPSC/status/1672647840122777600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672647840122777600%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/BDSBerlin/status/1672633846838317057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672633846838317057%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/BDS_Arabic/status/1672651870408519681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672651870408519681%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/MovimientoBDS/status/1674515861011415040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1674515861011415040%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1672500893168566272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1672500893168566272%7Ctwgr%5E28931e1d02af65a84a0d4be61254b75bde8b0608%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbdsmovement.net%2Fnews%2Fgroups-across-world-join-boycott-puma-global-day-action

[yankeedoodle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBPyxEImdOY

[yankeedoodle]

American Anthropological Association endorses academic boycott of Israel 
Members of the American Anthropological Association overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions with 71% of members supporting the measure.
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/07/american-anthropological-association-endorses-academic-boycott-of-israel/?

Members of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) have overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions. 71% of the members who voted backed the measure while just 29% opposed it.

"This was indeed a contentious issue, and our differences may have sparked fierce debate, but we have made a collective decision and it is now our duty to forge ahead, united in our commitment to advancing scholarly knowledge, finding solutions to human and social problems, and serving as a guardian of human rights," said AAA President Ramona Pérez in a statement. "AAA's referendum policies and procedures have been followed closely and without exception, and the outcome will carry the full weight of authorization by AAA's membership."

A previous Israeli boycott measure was enthusiastically endorsed at an AAA business meeting 2015, but ended up being defeated in a close vote the following year. In March 2023, over 200 AAA members submitted a petition to the Executive Board requesting a full-membership vote on the issue. The voting took place between June 15 and July 14.

"The Israeli state operates an apartheid regime from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including the internationally recognized state of Israel, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank and the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and the 1998 Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court (ICC) define apartheid as a crime against humanity," reads the resolution.

"Israeli academic institutions are complicit in the Israeli state's regime of oppression against Palestinians...including by providing research and development of military and surveillance technologies used against Palestinians," it continues. "..Israeli academic institutions do not provide protections for academic freedom, campus speech in support of Palestinian human and political rights, nor for the freedom of association of Palestinian students on their campuses."

Under the resolution, Israeli academic institutions can't be published in AAA's published materials, advertise in AAA publications, use AAA conference facilities for job interviews, participate in AAA events, or reprint articles from AAA publications. The resolution only applies to the institutions, not the scholars and students connected to them.

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1683400631426359297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1683400631426359297%7Ctwgr%5E000405d8fd42da95d85d8ac0c4ecccd629710191%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmondoweiss.net%2F2023%2F07%2Famerican-anthropological-association-endorses-academic-boycott-of-israel%2F

"This resolution is a meaningful demonstration of solidarity by thousands of scholars standing alongside their Palestinian colleagues, whose work and lives are impacted on a daily basis by Israel's racist, discriminatory policies and brutal military rule," said Jessica Winegar, an anthropology professor and member of the Anthroboycott collective, a group that pushed for the measure. "As scholars with a long history of studying colonialism, anthropologists are all too familiar with the devastating harm of Israel's oppression and theft of Palestinian land. This vote is an important step in showing that support for Palestinian rights goes hand in hand with the AAA's values of human rights for all."

https://twitter.com/anthroboycott/status/1683480957880356865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1683480957880356865%7Ctwgr%5E000405d8fd42da95d85d8ac0c4ecccd629710191%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmondoweiss.net%2F2023%2F07%2Famerican-anthropological-association-endorses-academic-boycott-of-israel%2F

Alisse Waterston, Professor of Anthropology at the John Jay College and former president of the AAA, detailed why she endorsed the measure in a piece at Mondoweiss earlier this year.

"I recognize that at times certain principles come into contradiction," she wrote. "If the AAA boycott does any harm to academic freedom, this must be weighed against the dead bodies and ruined houses that are the Palestinian plight. If members drop their association membership and donors withdraw, those who support the boycott ought to pledge to bring in 1-2 members each and to provide financial support to the association above their membership dues. Any other threats or harm to the American Anthropological Association can be met with commitment to stand up on its behalf. If the boycott proves ineffectual, this must be weighed against complicity with the silencing of the condition of Palestinians under apartheid, leaving them isolated, lonely, and invisible."

[yankeedoodle]

Might be true, or might be fake controversy generated by jews.   

US university 'investigating' Jewish professors for 'discrimination' against BDS activists
The academics have been outspoken about antisemitism and BDS activity at the City University of New York
https://www.thejc.com/news/world/us-university-investigating-jewish-professors-for-discrimination-against-bds-activists-2aefcM4xglS2cCcGL8uHt2

Four Jewish professors at a US university are understood to be under investigation after expressing concern over BDS activity on campus.

The pro-Israel academics have also been outspoken about alleged antisemitism at the City University of New York (CUNY).

Advocacy group SAFE CUNY, which represents Jewish students and staff at the university, announced the news about a university investigation on their Twitter account.

The group said: "Four Zionist Jewish professors who complained about antisemitism on their campuses have now been placed under investigation by CUNY for 'discrimination' against BDS and radical Islamist antisemitic activists.

"We have all the details but cannot share yet."

One of the professors, Jeffrey Lax, said he had been put under investigation by the university for speaking out.

https://twitter.com/SAFECUNY/status/1688263576736153600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1688263576736153600%7Ctwgr%5Ebaa16672f135debf14ec8dac624343b0b561ef87%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thejc.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fus-university-investigating-jewish-professors-for-discrimination-against-bds-activists-2aefcM4xglS2cCcGL8uHt2

"For those asking, yes, I am one of the four," the political science academic wrote on his Twitter account on Monday.

"I said from the very beginning that I may have been the first one they did this to, but I would be FAR from the last.

"And, here we are. A 1930s Germany style purge of faculty in Academia."

Over the years, CUNY staff and students have reported several alleged antisemitic events on campus.

In May, graduate Fatima Mohammed delivered a speech in which she accused Israel of "Indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshippers" and lauding CUNY's efforts to allow students to "speak out against Israeli settler colonialism."

At the time, Lax pointed to her speech as a sign of the school's attitude towards radicalism on campus.

He said: "What I find truly incredible is not just that Mohammed's speech is clearly evil – I'm not interested in a random evil student, even though she's now a graduate.

"What I'm much more interested in is that the faculty most likely saw that speech and approved it."

The university has also been accused of covering up antisemitism and refusing to cooperate with investigations into a campus environment that is hostile towards Israel and Jews.

In July 2022, CUNY administrators clashed with New York City council members at a hearing called to examine the school's handling of antisemitic incidents across its 25 campuses.

According to Jewish Insider, Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez did not show up for the hearing, despite it having been moved multiple times to accommodate his schedule.

The university also came under fire when CUNY's law school faculty endorsed a student government resolution backing the BDS campaign in May 2022.

The student resolution, passed in December 2021, charged the school with "complicity" in war crimes alleged to have been perpetrated by Israel, and called for ties to be cut between CUNY and Israeli institutions, as well a Jewish student groups on campus.

It criticised some students groups for supporting Israel and called for the school to "cut all ties with organisations that repress Palestinian organising".

A spokesman for CUNY told the JC: "CUNY does not comment on confidential personnel matters."

[yankeedoodle]

Calls grow to boycott Santo Domingo International Book Fair over plan to honor Israel     
More than 200 writers, academics, intellectuals, and activists have signed a call to boycott this year's Santo Domingo International Book Fair over plans by President Luis Abinader's right-wing government to honor the State of Israel.
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/08/calls-grow-to-boycott-santo-domingo-international-book-fair-over-plan-to-honor-israel/?

A call to boycott this year's Santo Domingo International Book Fair (FILSD 2023), scheduled for August 24th to September 3rd, is gaining momentum as the right-wing government under President Luis Abinader is set to honor the State of Israel. This tribute clearly serves to culture-wash the apartheid regime in Israel. More than two hundred writers, academics, intellectuals, and activists have signed the joint statement, launched by leftist, anti-racist, and anti-Zionist activists and writers.

Diplomatic ties between the Dominican state and Israel go back to the establishment of Israel in 1948. In the 1950s, for example, the nascent Zionist state sold weapons to the brutal Rafael Leonidas Trujillo dictatorship. Then again in the 1970s, the State of Israel sold weapons to  Joaquín Balaguer's repressive regime.

As of this writing, both the Puerto Rican poet and novelist Mayra Santos-Febres and the US-born Dominican author Angie Cruz have signed the statement in support of the boycott and canceled their participation in the FILSD 2023. Other key signatories are author, scholar, and feminist political activist Angela Davis, public intellectual and philosopher Cornel West, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, US-born Palestinian scholars and authors Rashid Khalidi and Steven Salaita, as well as Dominican authors Julia Alvarez, Elizabeth Acevedo, Nelly Rosario and Junot Díaz among others.

Following in the footsteps of Trujillo, Balaguer, and the subsequent regimes led by the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (1996-2000; 2004-2020), President Luis Abinader has created a climate of fear and racial hatred by embracing right-wing nationalist rhetoric, building a wall on the Dominican-Haitian border against the so-called "Haitian menace" and enacting anti-Haitian racist laws to further segregate  Dominicans of Haitian origin and Haitian immigrants who, since the early 20th century, have represented an important source of cheap labor for foreign and local capitalists exploiters. Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent represent around 8% of the Dominican Republic's population.

In May 2022, at the end of a book fair marked by censorship and neo-fascist threats against LGBTQ and black Dominican artists and authors, the Ministry of Culture announced with great fanfare that Israel would be the guest of honor at the 2023 book fair. The announcement sparked outrage and widespread condemnation among leftist activists and authors already fed up with state censorship during the book fair and beyond. Dominican activists see the tribute to Israel's apartheid regime as sending an insulting political message in the context of its internal policies of racial profiling and persecution and outright disregard for Palestinian rights. Calls to boycott the FILSD were accompanied by statements of support for the Palestinian people. In November 2022, feminist, anti-racist/black conscious, and socialist organizations sent an Open Letter to the Minister of Culture to express their outrage:

"We are concerned that a cultural event is being used by the Dominican government to pay homage to an apartheid state, as recognized for decades by Palestinian human rights organizations, and also denounced by international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and even by the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories."

Disturbed by rising death threats against activists and writers during the previous Book Fair, several cultural organizations met in January with representatives of the Ministry of Culture to demand that the Book Fair organizers address the issue of safety and free speech. However, their demands fell on deaf ears, prompting cultural workers and writers to withdraw their participation in the annual literary festival.

In January 2023, echoing Dominican activists, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) released a statement calling "on the Dominican Republic Ministry of Culture to cancel its planned tribute to apartheid Israel at the Santo Domingo International Book Fair."

Certainly, by now, the Santo Domingo Book Fair has lost whatever luster it claimed to have in the past. Since the mid-1980s, the event, took place in April to celebrate the World Book Day. April also holds historical significance for Dominicans due to the commemoration of the 1965 April Revolution and a subsequent U.S. military invasion. As such, the Book Fair became a rare cultural event each year in a country with no centralized public library system and fewer bookstores. It served a public good, celebrating literary works and fostering reading among the youth. Over the past decade, however, writers, artists, and cultural workers have criticized the event as no longer centered on books, literature, and creative writing but as turning into a camouflaged propaganda vehicle for the state. The arrogant and anti-democratic decision by the Dominican elite to honor a colonialist state coincides with the Dominican state's own increasing apartheid practices. In 2013, it stripped Dominicans of Haitian origin of their birthright to citizenship, rendering them stateless, and, over the past few years, it reinforced its persecution of Haitian migrants. These are not isolated incidents, but a byproduct of intrinsic government policies carried out systematically by the Dominican state.

In the end, these developments underline the crucial need to adopt a new strategic vision that requires building solidarity between the Palestinian liberation movement and the anti-racist and anti-imperialist Left in the Dominican Republic. The current boycott campaign is an important step in that direction.

Statement with signatures below.

We Reject the Racist Persecution by the Dominican Government

Boycott the 2023 Santo Domingo International Book Fair Dedicated to Israel 

The undersigned artists, writers, intellectuals, and activists express solidarity with the Haitian writer Jhak Valcourt, who was arrested on the morning of July 13 by police agents and taken to two police headquarters in the city of Santo Domingo, before being transferred to the Haina [immigrant] detention center, despite having his immigration papers in order. Valcourt has lived in the Dominican Republic for 11 years and during all these years he has forged collaborative ties with Dominican writers. His case illustrates how the policy of mass deportation against Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic is based on racial profiling and discrimination, with a de facto state of exception where no legal or constitutional guarantee is respected.

Faced with the ongoing barbaric persecution, which is reflected in thousands of weekly arrests, warrantless raids, extortion, and confinement in overcrowded places without access to water and food, among other abuses, we raise our voices in repudiation of this racist, xenophobic anti-Haitian witch hunt by the Dominican government under President Luis Abinader. Following in the same footsteps of [right-wing] peledeistas and balagueristas governments in the past, President Abinader has followed point by point the script of the most reactionary sectors of the ruling class, giving free rein to the propagation of racial hatred, while the powerful local and foreign capitalists enrich themselves on the backs of working-class Dominicans and immigrants.

We strongly reject the discriminatory immigration policy of the Dominican State, which in recent months has intensified its violence. We also reject cooperation between neo-fascist groups and the authorities, for example with the "patriotic marches" organized by an official institution, the Instituto Duartiano as well as the recent induction of the genocidal general Ramiro Matos to the Dominican Academy of History. All these facts, together with the legalization of a Trujillist party, mark the accelerated anti-democratic deterioration of the country.

Within this framework of racist violence, persecution, mass deportations, and abuse of power, the Dominican State is organizing the Santo Domingo International Book Fair (FILSD), scheduled for the end of August, and dedicated to the apartheid regime of Israel. The 2022 edition of the same book fair was the scene of acts of censorship for reasons of homophobia and racism. Both the Culture Minister Milagros Germán and the General Director of Books and Reading within the Ministry of Culture Ángela Hernández have refused to guarantee that there will be freedom of expression and protection for the safety of writers and artists at the book fair after cultural organizations made such a request in January of this year. Faced with this very serious situation, we call on writers, artists, editors, publishers, and cultural workers around the world not to attend the next Santo Domingo International Book Fair in 2023, and to continue demanding that the Dominican government respect human rights and democratic freedoms.

Abdul Hadi Sadoun, escritor, Irak-España
Achy Obejas, escritora, Cuba-Estados Unidos
Adriana García, economista, República Dominicana
Adriana Urrea, filósofa, Colombia
Agrupación Cultural Titerike, Región de La Araucanía, Chile
Alberto Aguilera, obrero, Panamá
Alberto Martínez-Márquez, escritor boricua
Alejandra Gutiérrez Lara, antropóloga, Colombia
Ali José Álvarez Suárez, coord. relaciones internacionales del Movimiento Cultural Campesino los Arangues, Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los pueblos, Venezuela.
Alicia Lira Matus, presidenta de la agrupación de familiares de Ejecutados Políticos, Chile
Alicia Méndez Medina, actriz, República Dominicana
Amarilys Estrella, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Amaury Pérez, profesor universitario, República Dominicana
Amaury Rodríguez, escritor y traductor, Estados Unidos
Amín Pérez, profesor universitario, República Dominicana
Ana Harcha Cortés, artista y académica, Chile
Ana María Belique, activista social en DDHH, República Dominicana
Ana María Ramírez, enfermera, Estados Unidos
Anderson Mojica, actor y cineasta, República Dominicana
Angela Davis, autora, académica, feminista y activista política, Estados Unidos
Angélica Cuero Caicedo, España
Angelina Tallaj, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Angie Cruz, escritora, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Aniova Prandy, artista visual, República Dominicana
Anthony Arnove, escritor, editor, Estados Unidos
Antonio González-Walker, Puerto Rico
Antonio Isaac Salim, profesor, Puerto Rico
April J. Mayes, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Arelis Figueroa, pastora, Estados Unidos
Arlene Dávila, profesora universitaria, NYU, Estados Unidos
Aurora Santiago Ortiz, catedrática auxiliar, Estados Unidos
Ayendy Bonifacio, profesor universitario de inglés, Estados Unidos
Beatriz Llenín Figueroa, escritora, traductora, Editora Educación Emergente, Puerto Rico
Bienvenida Mendoza, animadora sociocultural, anti-racista, República Dominicana
Blanca Carrasquillo Rodríguez, Puerto Rico
Camila Ladeira Scudeler, Brasil
Carlos Decena, profesor universitario, Estados Unidos
Carlos Francisco Bauer, profesor universitario, Argentina
Carlos Nieves, contador, Puerto Rico
Carmen Ana Dávila Torres, enfermera, Puerto Rico
Catherine Bourgeois, investigadora, Bruselas, Bélgica
Cecilia Carrasquillo, profesora, Puerto Rico
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Charles Post, sociólogo, Estados Unidos
Charlotte Wiener, abogado, Estados Unidos
Christian Vauzelle, artista, Francia
Christina Sharpe, profesora universitaria, CRC, Canadá   
Claribel Díaz, poeta y psicoanalista,  República Dominicana-Estados Unidos
Claudio Mir, coordinador de proyectos estudiantiles, Rutgers University, Estados Unidos
Claudio Remeseira, periodista, Argentina-Estados Unidos
Claudy Delne, profesor universitario, Estados Unidos
Colectivo Ilé, Puerto Rico
Comisión Ética contra la Tortura Juana Aguilera, Secretaria Ejecutiva, Chile
Comité de Solidaridad con el pueblo de Haití, Puerto Rico
Comuna Caribe, Puerto Rico
Constantino, actor, Chile
Cornel West, philosopher, political activist, Estados Unidos
Cristian  Aquino-Sterling, Ph.D., profesor universitario, Educación Bilingüe & ESL – Tech University, Estados Unidos
Cristina Corrada Emmanuel, antropóloga, Puerto Rico
Dana Cloud, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Dan-el Padilla Peralta, profesor de literatura clásica, Princeton, Estados Unidos
Dani Fresard C, publicista, Chile
Daniel Huttinot, Estados Unidos-Haití
Daniel Infante, arquitecto, Argentina
Daniela González López, coordinadora Internacional del Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos, México
Daniela Robles, estudiante universitaria, Estados Unidos
David Auerbach, profesor universitario, Puerto Rico
Deborah E.McDowell, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Diana Braceras, escritora, Argentina
Dorothy Bell Ferrer, autora, Puerto Rico
Dr. Miguel Valerio, profesor, Estados Unidos
Dr. Rachel Douglas, scholar, Escocia/Reino Unido
Dra. Berta H Joubert, psiquiatra jubilada, Puerto Rico
Echedey Medina, escritor y filólogo, España
Edwin Solano, escritor, República Dominicana
Elena donoso, profesora, Chile
Elena Lorac, activista, República Dominicana
Elizabeth Acevedo, escritora, Estados Unidos
Elizabeth S Manley, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Emmanuel G. Roa, Estados Unidos
Ensabella Guillermo Pablo, jubilado, Argentina
Ernesto Rivera, artista, República Dominicana
Esperanza Marzouka, médico y escritora, Chile
Estelí Capote – arquitecta, Puerto Rico
Esther Hernández Medina, socióloga y activista feminista, Estados Unidos-RD
Eveling Carrazco López, investigadora y feminista descolonial nicaragüense, Nicaragua
Fabiola Agudelo Henao, Colombia
Federico Cintrón Fiallo, escritor, Puerto Rico
Fiona Brown, Estados Unidos
Flor Angel Agustín Federico, República Dominicana
Francisco González, arquitecto, Colombia
Françoise Foutou, docente, Martinica
Frank García Hernández, historiador y sociólogo, Cuba
Gabriela Rosas, docente, Panamá 
Genesis Lara, historiadora, Estados Unidos
George Lipsitz, docente, Estados Unidos
Gerardo R. Mercedes, artista y gestor cultural, Moca, República Dominicana
Ginetta E.B. Candelario, PhD., profesora de sociología, Estados Unidos
Gladys Cardona Torres, jubilada, Puerto Rico
Gonzalo Basile, investigador en Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Argentina
Héctor Miolán, escritor, República Dominicana-Estados Unidos
Henry Morel, periodista, República Dominicana
Hilda Guerrero, terapia holística, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Hilda M. Díaz, Puerto Rico 
Hugo Ríos Cordero, profesor, Puerto Rico
Ilan Pappé, historian, Reino Unido
Ingrid Luciano, teatrista, escritora, activista, República Dominicana
Inmaculada Lara Bonilla, profesora universitaria, España-Estados Unidos
Isabel Amarante, académica, Lenapehoking, Turtle Island, Estados Unidos
Isidora Araya Carrera, estudiante, Chile
Ismael Rivera, poeta, Chile
Iván Anacarate, docente, Argentina
Ivanova Veras de Jesús, investigadorx, República Dominicana
Ivette Romero, catedrática, Estados Unidos
Jamila Medina Ríos, Cuba
Jean Lhérisson, agrimensor, Bélgica
Jennifer Marline Rodríguez, profesora, República Dominicana
Jhak Valcourt, escritor haitiano residente en República Dominicana
Jimmy Lam, escritor, Estados Unidos
Johan Mijail, escritora travesti afrodominicana, República Dominicana
Johanna Agustín Federico, poeta y activista antirracista, República Dominicana
Johanna Fernández, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos.
Johanné Gómez-Terrero, cineasta, República Dominicana
John Keene, autor & profesor universitario, Estados Unidos
Jordan Hernández, escritor, República Dominicana
Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, Assistant Professor  of Latin American and Caribbean History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Estados Unidos
Jorge A. Montijo, neuropsicólogo, Puerto Rico
Jorge Rueda, jubilado, Argentina
Jorge Ventocilla, biólogo, Panamá
José Carrasquillo Rodríguez,  maestro, Puerto Rico
José Cruz, profesor, España
José M Félix, economista, Chile
José Rodríguez presidente del Comité Dominicano de Derechos Humanos en Puerto Rico
Juan Miguel Pérez, República Dominicana
Juana Ramírez G, pensionada, Chile
Julia Alvarez, escritora, Estados Unidos
Julián González Beltrez, bibliotecarie/historiadore, Estados Unidos-R.D.
Junot Díaz, escritor, Estados Unidos
Kalil Abu-Qalbein Koda, antropólogo, Chile
Katerina González Seligmann, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Kevin Holmes, traductor y gestor cultural, Chile
Kiya Vega, artista, Estados Unidos
Koldo Campos Sagaseta, escritor, Estado Español
Lasana M. Sekou, escritor, San Martín
Lauren Derby, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos 
Lauristely Peña Solano, gestora cultural, República Dominicana
Leonardo Nin, escritor, República Dominicana
Lety Elvir, profesora y escritora, Honduras
Lissette Acosta, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Lissette Rolón Collazo, profesora, Puerto Rico
Lorgia García Peña, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Lourdes Carrasquillo, terapeuta de masaje, Puerto Rico
Lourdes M. Santaballa Mora, IBCLC, Puerto Rico
Lourdes Rivera Román, jubilada del gobierno de Puerto Rico
Lucy Carrasquillo, Puerto Rico       
Luis Feliz León, periodista, Estados Unidos
Luz María Sosa Contreras, España.
Marc Lamont Hill, profesor universitario, Temple University, Estados Unidos
Marcelo Montagna, cerrajero y estudiante de la Lic. de Filosofía, Argentina
María Eva De Bartolo, narradora, titiritera, Argentina
María Inés Urrutia, religiosa, Chile
María Reinat Pumarejo, educadora y organizadora antirracista, Puerto Rico
María Riquelme, poeta, Prof. Artes Visuales, Puerto Rico
Maribel Núñez, periodista, activista afro, República Dominicana
Mariel Acosta, estudiante universitaria, Estados Unidos
Marisel Moreno, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Massiel Torres Ulloa, PhD Candidate in Romance Languages and Literature, Harvard University, Estados Unidos
Mauricio Amar, académico, Chile
Mauricio Barria Jara, dramaturgo, Chile
Mayobanex Pérez, escritor, República Dominicana
Mayra Santos-Febres, escritora. Puerto Rico
Medhin Paolos, film maker, activist, Italia
Melissa Zamora Monge, Costa Rica
Mercedes Petit, ensayista socialista, Argentina
Mercy Carrasquillo, retirada, Puerto Rico
Micely Díaz Espaillat, trabajadora social, República Dominicana
Michèle Hehn, docente pensionada, Canadá
Miguel Sorans, revista Correspondencia Internacional, Argentina
Milagros Sefair, escritora, Argentina-La Internacional de Escritores Insurgentes, Argentina
Miriam Neptune, bibliotecaria, Estados Unidos
Morella Ortiz, profesora, Estados Unidos
Narcisa Núñez, Estados Unidos
Natanael Disla, investigador social, Santo Domingo, República Dominicana
Nathalie Molina, artesana, República Dominicana
Neici M. Zeller, profesora universitaria emérita, Estados Unidos
Nélida Noemí Duranti, docente jubilada, Argentina
Nelly Rosario, escritora, Estados Unidos- República Dominicana
Nelson Ricart-Guerrero, artista y escritor, Francia
Nelson Santana, catedrático, Estados Unidos
Nicolás Eltit Misleh, estudiante de derecho, Chile
Nixon Boumba, sociólogo, Haití
Norberto Ganci, periodista, director del Club de La Pluma, Argentina
Nuna Marcano, profesora dominicana en Estados Unidos
Nuriluz Hermosilla, arqueóloga, Chile
Ochy Curiel, feminista decolonial y profesora universitaria, República Dominicana
Odalys Rivera, organizadora comunitaria, Puerto Rico
Onesima Lienqueo, licenciada en Educación, defensora de los derechos de infancia, Chile
Oscar Álvarez, gestor cultural, Uruguay
Pablo Delano, profesor universitario, Trinity College,  Estados Unidos
Pablo Ruiz, periodista, del Observatorio por el Cierre de la Escuela de las Américas, Chile
Patricio García P., profesor universitario, República Dominicana
Paul Joseph López Oro, assistant professor of Africana Studies, Estados Unidos
Paula Fernández Hernández, docente e investigadora, Islas Canarias, España
Pedro Cabrera, abogado, República Dominicana
Pedro Ureña RIB, lingüista, profesor universitario, República Dominicana
Quisqueya Lora H, historiadora, República Dominicana
Raj Chetty, profesor universitario, Estados Unidos
Ramón Grosfoguel, profesor universitario, Universidad de California, Estados Unidos.
Randol Contreras, profesor universitario, Estados Unidos
Raquel Virginia Cabrera, escritora, Estados Unidos
Rashid Khalidi, profesor universitario, Estados Unidos
Raúl Guadalupe, poeta, ensayista e historiador, profesor universitario, Puerto Rico, Colonia USA
Raùl Zecca Castel, antropólogo, Italia
Ricard Sánchez Andres, activista social, España
Roberto Carlos García, autor y poeta, Estados Unidos
Robin D. G. Kelley, profesor universitario, UCLA, Estados Unidos
Robin Koenig, obrero, Irlanda
Román López, psicólogo comunitario, República Dominicana
Rosa Carrasquillo, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Rosa Maribel Ruth Mansilla, estudiante, Argentina
Rosa Navas, Chile
Rosaura Laabidi, enfermera, Estados Unidos
Rubén Sacchi, poeta, Argentina
Ruth Pión, investigadora social, activista, República Dominicana
Samir Eskanda, artista y organizador, Palestina-Reino Unido
Sandra Lema, actriz, Chile
Sandy Plácido, historiadora, Estados Unidos.
Santiago Grullón, PhD; economista, Estados Unidos
Saúl Nieves, activista, Estados Unidos
Saulo Colón, New Politics, Puerto Rico
Scherezade García, Estados Unidos-RD
Sharina Maíllo-Pozo, docente e investigadora, Estados Unidos
Silvio Torres-Saillant, profesor universitario, Syracuse University, Estados Unidos
Soledad Yañez actriz, Chile
Sophie Maríñez, profesora universitaria, Estados Unidos
Steven Salaita, Cairo, Egipto
Taí Fernández, artista, Puerto Rico -TT
Tomás Modesto Galán, poeta, Estados Unidos
Tomás Pérez, teatrista, República Dominicana
Verónica Nuñez, CPA, Puerto Rico
Victor Miguel Castillo de Macedo, antropólogo, Brasil
Victor Vázquez, artista, Puerto Rico
Virgilio Aran, organizador laboral, político y escritor, República Dominicana
Virgilio Burgos, J actor y profesor de teatro, República Dominicana
Yarí Taína Rodríguez Benítez, Directora Ejecutiva-Conuco Campesino, Puerto Rico
Yolanda Velázquez-Vélez, artista, Puerto Rico
Yomaira Figueroa, catedrática, Michigan State University, Estados Unidos     
Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, Argentina-República Dominicana
Zuleika Romay Guerra, escritora, Cuba

[yankeedoodle]

Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf's government has refused consent on the bill

Scottish Government rejects bill to ban councils from Israeli boycotts   
The Scottish Government said it was concerned the proposed legislation could restrict its autonomy to determine its own policies on international relations
https://www.thejc.com/news/politics/snp-led-scottish-government-rejects-tory-bill-to-ban-councils-from-israeli-boycotts-2j4R6rhKrPfOT7sFzas8sZ

Scottish ministers have blocked a new UK wide law stopping public bodies from boycotting Israel.

The Scottish Government said it was concerned the proposed legislation could restrict its autonomy to determine its own policies on international relations.

The ruling SNP-led administration in Edinburgh has now urged the Scottish Parliament to  refuse legal consent for the proposed Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill.

The new rules aim is to prevent public bodies, including councils and universities, from bringing in sanctioned unilateral bans on Israel.

The bill would outlaw campaigns, including those relating to the purchase of goods and services or investments. The UK government at Westminster has previously highlighted a 2014 Leicester city council motion banning goods from Israeli settlements.

The bill, introduced by Communities Secretary Michael Gove in the House of Commons in Westminster in June, would apply to the whole of the UK.

But the Scottish Government argue the bill is "wholly unnecessary and an unwelcome alteration of Scottish ministers' competence".

Explaining the reasons in a consent memorandum lodged to the Scottish Parliament, Deputy First Minister Shona Robison said: "The first reason is the disproportionate and unnecessary nature of the Bill.

"The Scottish Government has always acted responsibly and in line with the UK's international commitments.

"The second reason is the importance of being able to take a values-based approach to international engagement.

"The Scottish Government's international activity creates opportunities at home, broadens our horizons, attracts high-quality investment and ultimately benefits the people of Scotland.

"While the Scottish Government will always meet the obligations placed upon it by international law and treaties, people in Scotland rightly expect that decisions should not be made in an ethical or moral vacuum.

"The third reason relates to democracy. To make it unlawful for Scottish Ministers to even publish a statement to the effect that they would have acted in a certain way were it not outlawed by this Bill – or risk having fines levied by the UK Government – is an assault on democratic expression and will stifle the ability for democratic debate."

A UK Government source said it "was disappointing" the SNP-led administration had refused to back the UK wide bill.

They added: "Britain must have a consistent approach to foreign policy, set by the UK Government."

Scottish Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw, whose Eastwood constituency represents some of Scotland's biggest Jewish communities, told the JC: "It is utterly disgraceful that the SNP-Green government have not followed suit and backed this bill.

"These are sensible measures which are backed by our Jewish communities, yet ministers have been missing in standing in solidarity with them by refusing to give the green light to this legislation.

"The fight against antisemitism cannot be half-hearted. SNP-Green ministers should rethink this decision urgently."

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The Scottish Government has lodged a legislative consent memorandum with the Scottish Parliament setting out the reasons why ministers believe the parliament should not give its consent to this bill as drafted.

"It is now up to the Scottish Parliament to consider how to respond to the bill. If it does not give its consent, then in accordance with the Sewel Convention, the UK Government should amend the bill to reflect and respect the Scottish Parliament's decision."

[yankeedoodle]

BDS victory: Puma to end its sponsorship of Israel's national team
"After years of BDS campaigning that has cost German conglomerate Puma dearly in reputation and projects, we have forced it to abandon its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association in this time of Israel's Gaza Genocide," said the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel.
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/bds-victory-puma-to-end-its-sponsorship-of-israels-national-team/?

Puma SE has announced that it will not renew its contract with the Israel Football Association (IFA) in 2024. The news was first reported by the Financial Times, which obtained internal documents pertaining to the sponsorship deal.

Puma has been a target of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) since the contract was signed in 2018. The Palestinian-led campaign aims to hold Israel accountable to its obligations under international law. The IFA has multiple teams based in illegal West Bank settlements.

"After years of BDS campaigning that has cost German conglomerate Puma dearly in reputation and projects, we have forced it to abandon its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association in this time of Israel's #GazaGenocide," tweeted the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1734478736521646255?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1734478736521646255%7Ctwgr%5Ed4748706abc152abbaef7ee71bdd9b96738de8ee%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmondoweiss.net%2F2023%2F12%2Fbds-victory-puma-to-end-its-sponsorship-of-israels-national-team%2F

"Palestinians are currently facing unprecedented violence at the hands of the Israeli military. As the world calls for a permanent ceasefire, corporations continue to profit from the killing and destruction," said Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Director Ben Jamal in a statement. "We need to end this complicity."

"PUMA's decision is an important victory that shows the power of the solidarity movement," he continued. "We've sent all corporations a powerful message: if you choose to be complicit in Israeli apartheid, you will face the strength of the solidarity movement. We will continue to grow our BDS campaigns against banks like Barclays and corporations like JCB, who are complicit in Israel's system of apartheid."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMFNbypw1qs

Puma denies that the decision had anything to do with the campaign and says that they made the choice prior to the most recent assault on Gaza. "The review of the existing roster of national teams along certain [key performance indicators] such as commercials and participation in major international tournaments led to a few changes," reads a statement from the company sent to Time.

However, as PACBI notes, the campaign has won a number of victories against the company that have undoubtedly impacted its bottom line. In 2020, Malaysia's largest university dropped its Puma sponsorship deal, and UK clubs have also been pressured to act. Luton Town FC dropped its deal the same year, and Rovers FC pledged not to sign a contract with them.

Puma's stores have also been targeted by activists over the sponsorship. In 2021, Lea Kayali, a Palestinian organizer in the Boston area, spoke to Mondoweiss about protests targeting a Puma outlet in the area. "The goal of any BDS campaign is to force people to confront their relationship with Zionism," she explained. "Its the same goal locally, the campaign is a vehicle to do that. It's not just about sneakers and jerseys, it's about confronting the ties we have as taxpayers in this country."

Hundreds of Palestinian teams and athletes have also called for a boycott. After Puma released a statement in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2020, Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak wondered how the company was condemning racism while "supporting the hate which is destroying lives and poisoning the beautiful game."

"We cannot pick and choose with racism," he wrote. "Either we stand against all hate and all violations of rights and humanity, or we are part of the problem. Right now, Puma is part of the problem."

[yankeedoodle]

Starbucks Loses Billions Amidst Israel Boycotts From Leftists Despite Company's Progressivism
https://thepoliticalinsider.com/starbucks-loses-billions-amidst-israel-boycotts-from-leftists-despite-companys-progressivism/

Starbucks has lost nearly $12 billion in market value over the past few months, with rumors swirling that this stems from boycotts over the Israel-Gaza war.

https://twitter.com/hatescapitalism/status/1732549883091955909?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1732549883091955909%7Ctwgr%5E54398b3df5a5008602814ede8a90f197721509d7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthepoliticalinsider.com%2Fstarbucks-loses-billions-amidst-israel-boycotts-from-leftists-despite-companys-progressivism%2F

Starbucks Loses Billions
The New York Post reported that Starbucks' stock dropped 1.6% when the markets opened on Monday, declining for a 11th consecutive session. This is the longest losing streak that Starbucks has suffered since it went public back in 1992. It has erased erased 9.4% of Starbucks' market value, which is a decline of nearly $12 billion.

Much of this may be due to boycotts launched over Starbucks' perceived support of Israel. Last month, the Workers United union that represents Starbucks' union workers took to social media in a post that has since been deleted to express "Solidarity with Palestine!"

Starbucks immediately fired back by attempting to distance itself from Workers United.

"We unequivocally condemn acts of terrorism, hate and violence, and disagree with the statements and views expressed by Workers United and its members," Starbucks said in a statement. "Workers United's words and actions belong to them, and them alone."

This was interpreted by many as a show of support for Israel over Palestine. Though Starbucks has tried to downplay any signs of a boycott, the hashtag #boycottstarbucks continues to trend on social media at the time of this writing.

https://twitter.com/DrDadabhoy/status/1732271794332242127?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1732271794332242127%7Ctwgr%5E54398b3df5a5008602814ede8a90f197721509d7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthepoliticalinsider.com%2Fstarbucks-loses-billions-amidst-israel-boycotts-from-leftists-despite-companys-progressivism%2F

Starbucks Has Tried To Be Progressive
This all just goes to show that nothing will ever be enough to appease the far-left, which is trying to punish Starbucks for not virtue-signaling about the Israel-Hamas controversy despite the fact that the coffee brand has made the leftwing principles of diversity and inclusion a focus for years.


"By 2025, our goal is to achieve racial and ethnic diversity of at least 30% at all corporate levels and at least 40% at all retail and manufacturing roles," the official Starbucks website states.

"To do this, we are enhancing our efforts in reaching a broader pool of candidates and fostering inclusivity in our recruitment practices, assessing partner engagement, and continuing to provide opportunities for inclusive leadership training," it continues.

Back in 2021, Starbucks launched the Community Resilience Fund "with the commitment to invest $100M to advance racial equity and environmental resilience by supporting small business growth and local nonprofits in communities with historically limited access to capital by 2025."

Starbucks alleges that $37 million has been invested towards this goal at this time.

Starbucks even pays college tuition for their employees, saying that "every eligible U.S. partner working part- or full-time receives 100% tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor's degree through Arizona State University's online program."

https://twitter.com/AlertDogeX/status/1733049750541488592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1733049750541488592%7Ctwgr%5E54398b3df5a5008602814ede8a90f197721509d7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthepoliticalinsider.com%2Fstarbucks-loses-billions-amidst-israel-boycotts-from-leftists-despite-companys-progressivism%2F

Progressive Mob Never Satisfied
That all sounds like exactly the type of goal that should make any progressive happy, yet the radical left wants to destroy Starbucks for seemingly supporting Israel over Palestine. Starbucks is clearly putting in the work to help further progressive causes, but that isn't helping the brand now when it comes to combatting the cancel culture mob.

https://twitter.com/JackFought_1/status/1732436979332071781?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1732436979332071781%7Ctwgr%5E54398b3df5a5008602814ede8a90f197721509d7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthepoliticalinsider.com%2Fstarbucks-loses-billions-amidst-israel-boycotts-from-leftists-despite-companys-progressivism%2F

In the end, this all just proves that the radical left cares way more about words than they do about action. Only time will tell if Starbucks is able to survive their wrath.

[yankeedoodle]

Brazilian University Cancels "Innovation Challenge" With Complicit Israeli University
https://bdsmovement.net/news/brazilian-university-cancels-innovation-challenge-with-complicit-israeli-university

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) welcomes the decision of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) in Brazil to cancel the "Innovation Challenge Brazil – Israel" over Israel's military assault that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

In a statement, UFC clarified that it stands "firmly against the war and is outraged by all the loss of human life and the destruction that have occurred."

Israel is currently carrying out what legal experts have defined as an unfolding genocide, using starvation and thirst as weapons.

Holding an "innovation challenge" with complicit Israeli institutions on topics such as food security and water and sanitation, would have been a grave affront to the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza struggling for their lives under Israel's brutal bombing campaign and siege.

Initiatives such as these aimed at strengthening ties with complicit Israeli institutions are part of the close-an-eye culture of impunity that has allowed Israel to carry out the world's first livestreamed genocide and maintain its apartheid rule oppressing Palestinians.

"Innovation Challenge" partner Ben Gurion University partners with Israel's Ministry of Defense and Israeli weapons companies currently carrying out the genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza, including Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries.

In addition, the Israeli military is building a technology campus next to Ben Gurion University, aimed at furthering the ties between the military and BGU. A brigadier general at the ribbon cutting ceremony said it will "reinforce the army's operational capabilities."

We thank UFC community members for campaigning to raise awareness, refusing business-as-usual with Israel's genocidal regime, and successfully working to cancel this partnership.

We urge all universities, academic associations, faculty unions and student groups to work to cancel all ties with complicit Israeli institutions as a contribution to stopping Israel's genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza and to dismantling its apartheid regime.