More great news for BDS. 400 delegates at the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ (CTUCC), representing 240 churches and 97,000 members throughout the state of Connecticut, voted to divest from all companies “profiting from the occupation of the Palestine Territories by the State of Israel” at their 147th annual statewide conference on Friday.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs in the Washington Post joins former Ambassador Marc Ginsberg in calling on an end to federal tax break for nonprofits helping settlement construction in Palestine
Israeli forces raided the West Bank village of Beit Laqiya on Thursday night and opened fire and shot Bahaa Samir Badir, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy, 3 times in the chest. Badir died 2 hours later at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.
SodaStream makes its seltzer devices under apartheid conditions in the occupied territories and has been the target of international boycott efforts. No wonder its stock, once at $64 is now at $22 and going nowhere fast.
A war of ads has begun over Palestine between Pam Geller’s Islamophobic group and Ads Against Apartheid, which asks a simple question: “When a country steals land does it really want peace? Freedom for Palestine now.”
Activists from Scotland’s Glasgow Palestine Action scaled their way inside the perimeter fence of a Thales UK factory in Govan, Glasgow in the early hours of the morning Tuesday, blockaded multiple entrances, climbed onto the roof top and shut down the weapons manufacture for the day protesting the companies collaboration with Israeli defense behemoth Elbit Systems, currently producing ‘Watchkeeper’ drones for the Israeli military.
Yesterday, Israel’s Supreme Court dismissed a petition by Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel effectually facilitating the Judaization of more Palestinian owned land inside Israel. According to Adalah, the court’s decision holding up Israel’s Admissions Committees Law, “entrenches racial segregation; 434 small communities in Israel, or 43% of all residential areas, will be allowed to close their doors to Palestinian Arab citizens of the state.” Much of the land in question was originally confiscated from Palestinian refugees, and the court’s decision will result in the continued concentration and containment of the Palestinian population in Israel.
After a months long court battle BDS South Africa (BDS-SA) won a “precedent-setting” freedom of expression court case last Thursday, September 11. In October 2012 BDS-SA along with the Palestine Solidarity Alliance purchased advertisements on billboard’s across South Africa. With no warning South Africa’s Continental Outdoor Media removed two BDS South Africa (BDS-SA) ads prior to their contractual expiration date without giving any notice to BDS-SA or the Palestine Solidarity Alliance. A judge of the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ruled in favor of BDS South Africa, declaring that the removal of the billboards was both “unlawful and unconstitutional” and ordering Continental to re-erect the billboards within 10 days and pay all court costs. The court also ordered the City of Johannesburg to amend their bylaws.
When Zoe Goorman tried to explain to Democratic politicians in Marin County, California, that Israel is the elephant in the room that they’re not talking about, she let them know graphically: with a poster of an elephant in the room. Maybe others should follow suit?
As evidence the Salaita firing is a catastrophe for the University of Illinois keeps stacking up, the American Studies Association (ASA) issued a statement from their Executive Committee characterizing the UIUC administration’s decision to rescind the offer of tenured faculty position to Salaita’s as “a de facto assault against the Program in American Indian Studies at UIUC ” that sets a “dangerous precedence”.