- Palestine's move to become an independent state has benefitted
from the growing BDS movement, as the world wakes up the enormous and unjust
suffering of the Palestinian people, writes Eric Walberg
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- A new Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) campaign was
launched this summer by the United Church of Canada, which will try to
persuade six companies operating in Canada - Caterpillar, Motorola, Ahava,
Veolia, Elbit Systems and Chapters/Indigo - to stop supporting the Israeli
occupation. "The Campaign follows similar campaigns launched some
time ago by the US Presbyterian Church and the New England Conference of
the United Methodist Church. We have launched 'Occupied with Peace' after
almost two years of discernment and information gathering," says spokesperson
Jean Lee.
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- The UK's Trades Union Congress voted to reconsider its
ties with Israel's national trade union federation Histadrut, reaffirming
its policy to encourage affiliates, employers and pension funds to disinvest
from, and boycott the goods of companies who profit from illegal settlements,
the Occupation and the construction of the Wall.
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- In a most unusual boycott move, on 1 September, London
cultural activists from "Beethovians for Boycotting Israel" sang
their own version of the Ode to Joy repeatedly during a concert by the
Israeli Philharmonic at London's Royal Albert Hall, finally bringing the
live BBC broadcast to a halt. "Israel, end your occupation, There's
no peace on stolen land. We'll sing out for liberation till you hear and
understand."
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- South African students endorsed a nationwide boycott
against Israel, and South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority dismissed
complaints relating to a radio advert by the lead guitarist of Faithless
in support of the South African Artists Against Apartheid: "Hi, I'm
Dave Randall from Faithless. Twenty years ago I would not have played in
apartheid South Africa; today I refuse to play in Israel. Be on the right
side of history. Don't entertain apartheid. Join the international boycott
of Israel."
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- Legendary NBA basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar declined
to appear in Israel due to "concerns arising from Nakba day violence."
Abdul-Jabbar was slated to show his new documentary film about racial segregation
in basketball, On the Shoulders of Giants, and was due to compete for the
"Spirit of Freedom Award" at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
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- Facing an intense Europe-wide boycott campaign, Israel's
largest produce exporter, Agrexco, Israel's largest fresh produce exporter,
which markets produce from Israel's illegal settlements as "product
of Israel", filed for bankruptcy this summer. Its financial woes,
however, pale next to those of French multinational Veolia, an urban systems
corporation which provides light rail services that link West Jerusalem
with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the surrounding
West Bank.
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- Since the beginning of the Palestinian-led campaign in
2005, Veolia has lost contracts worth more than $14 billion. A recent merger
between Veolia's transport division and a subsidiary of the main French
state investment fund shows the French government's solution to Veolia's
problems: let the taxpayers finance Veolia's income losses. Veolia is cutting
its activities from more than 40 countries, but not the one country - Israel
- that is the main cause of its financial woes.
-
- Involvement in the light rail project violates Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines. Considering
that Paris is the seat of the OECD and Israel a new member, this is particularly
ironic.
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- Meanwhile, Israel's Sodastream took a direct hit in Sweden,
its largest market, when the Coop supermarket chain announced it would
stop all purchases of its products. The main production facilities for
Sodastream are located at Mishor Adumim, Israel's largest settlement in
the occupied West Bank, where it profits from tax benefits enjoyed by companies
in industrial parks in illegal settlements. Unilever has already bowed
to BDS pressure, in July announcing plans to move its Bagel and Bagel pretzel
factory to a location within the green line. Sodastream itself has shown
signs it will probably comply, also announcing it will build a new factory
within the green line, expected to begin operations in 2013, the same year
the lease on the Mishor plant is due to expire.
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- The campaign against Sodastream has quickly spread around
the world, including the US. In March, a petition calling on Bed Bath &
Beyond to stop selling Sodastream products (as well as products from Ahava,
the settlement-based cosmetics company) was delivered to 15 locations up
and down the US West Coast, from Seattle to Los Angeles, and a group of
activists dressed as brides held a mock wedding inside Bed Bath & Beyond
in Los Angeles calling on concerned brides everywhere to strike Sodastream
(and Ahava) off their bridal registries.
-
- The struggles are uphill, especially in Australia. A
peaceful BDS action against a Jericho cosmetics outlet, which sells Dead
Sea salts, was attacked in July by the Victoria police, and 19 Melbourne
activists face fines of $32,000. The attack followed the call by Victoria
Jewish Community President John Searle for the police to "stamp down
harder on aggressive protesters". Currently in the US, France and
Greece, hundreds of pro-Palestine activists are facing criminal charges
for nonviolently standing up for Palestinian human rights.
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- Then there's the herem law passed 11 July by the Knesset
that allows "victims" to sue boycott promoters. This bill follows
upon the Knesset's recent Nakba law, which defunded any institution that
acknowledged the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948.
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- Israeli peace group Peace Now immediately set up a Facebook
group "So Sue Me, I'm Boycotting the Settlements". "We've
never done a boycott of settlements. We are doing this now because of the
boycott law," Peace Now activist Etai Mizrav said. "The moment
they decided to shut mouths, we decided it is time to tell the Israeli
public that whoever supports settlements supports Israel's isolation and
harms the state." A coalition of allied groups said they would ask
Israel's Supreme Court to overturn the law. "It is really absurd that
victims of the occupation should be paying damages to the occupiers if
they organise a boycott of settlement products," coalition spokesman
Idan Ring said.
-
- A divestment victory this summer was the decision by
Norway's 450 billion euro Oil Fund to excluded two Israeli firms - Africa
Israel Investments and its engineering subsidiary Danya Cebus - for their
settlement activities.
-
- As for sanctions, the big news this summer was the UN
Palmer Report which criticised Israel's attack on the Freedom Flotilla
last year for its excessive use of violence, but nonetheless supported
its siege of Gaza, despite an earlier UN Human Rights Commission report
condemning it as illegal. The lack of any real sanctions against Israel
by the world body prompted the Turkish government to send its Israeli ambassador
packing. Israel's killing of at least five Egyptian border guards this
summer prompted Egyptian protesters to send their Israeli ambassador packing
too, and the Israeli ambassador in Jordan fled amid worries over a similar
protest there.
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- There was a setback for those trying to bring Israeli
politicians to account. Last week Britain amended a law that allowed for
issuing arrest warrants against Israeli politicians and military figures
under terms of universal jurisdiction, which holds that some alleged crimes
are so grave that they can be tried anywhere. Such a warrant was issued
against Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni in 2009.
- ***
- Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/
You can reach him at http://ericwalberg.com/ His Postmodern Imperialism:
Geopolitics and the Great Games is available at http://www.claritypress.com/Walberg.html
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