New Israeli rules will ban organizations like mine from Gaza, ending aid and cutting vital solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues.
On August 5, the Iowa City Council unanimously voted to boycott and divest from Israel bonds and all companies complicit in the Gaza genocide and occupation of Palestine.
Residents across five towns in Vermont voted to cut ties with Israeli apartheid making the state the first in the country where municipalities have voted to cut economic ties with Israel.
“Inspired by the anti-Apartheid movement that toppled the Apartheid regime in South Africa, we are building an anti-apartheid movement in North America,” says the Apartheid-Free Communities campaign.
On May 31 General Mills announced that it divested its stake in its Israeli subsidiary. For the last two years the company has been targeted by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) over the fact that some of its Pillsbury products are manufactured in an illegal Israeli settlement.
Soheir Asaad, Mariam Barghouti, and Ahmed Abu Artema, Palestinian activists from ’48 Palestine, the West Bank, and Gaza, share their reflections and analysis of the current situation on the ground across Palestine, and what recent moments of popular resistance mean in the broader context of the Palestinian struggle.
“In Hebron, I saw what to me looked like two Americans coming towards us, but they were escorted by four or five Israeli soldiers with rifles. And I was hoping to have a conversation with them. But before I got too close– the rifle kind of came out, to push me away, when it was clearly evident that I’m a tourist. It was an unnecessary reaction. Because I wasn’t at all threatening. But these were American dignitaries, and I think it was part of the deal. To illustrate this is a dangerous place. ‘Okay, we’ll take you to Hebron, but you need to have a five-soldier escort.’ That’s the narrative that is played up. Our security is paramount no matter what happens.”
To further pressure on Israel to end its 72 years of injustice and oppression, Global Kairos for Justice has launched an online BDS ToolKit “Resisting Apartheid & Racism.”
The last five years have witnessed unprecedented change in the struggle for justice in Palestine. These changes offer opportunities that our movement needs to act on, particularly during the 2020 election cycle.