Who says BDS isn’t working? Twelve years ago Israel launched “Brand Israel” to transform its image overseas. But marketers for Tel Aviv are seeking to disconnect the city from Israel, because the Israel brand is “contentious” and “less than savory,” a brand development site reports.
The Jewish Nation-State law is making it hard to be associated with Israel, without being openly associated with an Apartheid regime. How will Daniel Barenboim handle it? By continuing “dialogue” with Israel, or finally boycotting the regime?
“Israel is effectively declaring itself an apartheid state and dropping its worn-out mask of democracy,” Omar Barghouti says. And now that it is constitutionally mandated “to racially discriminate against” Palestinian citizens, “this should stir people, institutions and governments to take effective action to hold Israel accountable.”
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism equates antisemitism with advocacy for Palestinian rights and undermines both the Palestinian struggle for freedom and the global struggle against antisemitism, say 39 Jewish groups around the world that do not oppose BDS.
The Irish senate has voted in favor of a bill banning the importation of products from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, paving the way for the country to become the first EU nation to enforce a boycott of Israeli settlement goods.
The Episcopal Church voted today at its general convention in Austin, Texas, to divest from companies involved in Israel’s human violations against Palestine. The Church had defeated such measures before but now joins nearly a dozen other Christian denominations in taking economic action.
Since 2016, suicide rates in Gaza have been rising, reflecting rising levels of despair and hopelessness in the population, the Guardian reports. Until recently suicide in Gaza had been rare, partly due to strong clan networks, but mostly because killing oneself is forbidden in traditional Muslim societies.
Activist Ariel Gold is deported from Israel because of support for BDS, as a Jew. Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri said: “I am again using my authority to prevent the entry into Israel of a woman who came to act against Israel and call for its boycott. This is a Jew who tried to abuse this fact. Those boycott activists must understand that the rules of the game have changed.”
Last week Roger Waters performed in Munich following a campaign to cancel his concert backed by the city’s mayor, Dieter Reiter, who accused Waters of anti-Semitism. Waters punched back from the stage at Munich’s Olympic Hall: “I believe all people, all of us, all of our brothers and sisters, all of our fragile globe, whatever their ethnicity or religion or nationality deserve the same basic human rights under the law.”
Given their own history, the Irish understand the implications of Israeli settler colonialism and Palestinians appreciate Irish people’s support. Despite collaboration between Israel and Ireland, Irish universities have been hospitable to pro-Palestinian voices. And an independent Irish senator is planning to introduce a bill seeking to prohibit the import and sale of goods originating in illegal settlements in occupied territories.