BDS Campaign Update (January – May 2012)
UK’s student body endorses divestment
January 6, 2012—In a historic move, the National Union of Students
(NUS) in the UK has committed its “resources and support” to any
students wishing to organize their own campaign targeting companies
complicit in Israel’s occupation and breaches of
international law, and particularly Eden Springs and Veolia.
This comes soon after the NUS’ National Executive Committee voted
to condemn the collaboration between King’s College London (KCL)
and Ahava.
BDS Campaign in France gains momentum after AGREXCO liquidated
January 15, 2012—The third national weekend of training and debates organized by the BDS French Campaign and held in Lyons saw the participation of more than 100 activists from all over France to share their experiences and exchange their views on different aspects of the campaign. The French campaign’s successful actions against the Israeli firm AGREXCO, which had been the campaign’s priority in 2011 were underlined and saw citizens’ actions and demonstrations that played a decisive role in the legal liquidation of the company, which represented an important victory over colonization and apartheid.
Italian BDS movement gains strength
January 21-22, 2012—The third national meeting of the BDS movement
in Italy was held in Bologna with the participation of around 80
activists from over 20 cities representing groups, associations and
political parties throughout the country. The scope of the meeting
was to evaluate the progress of ongoing campaigns, establish
strategic objectives and shared work methods, exchange information
between the various Italian groups working on BDS and reassess
organizational aspects of the BDS movement in Italy. The meeting
concluded with a commitment to further intensify the BDS movement
in Italy, linking with movements in Europe and around the world,
and a call on all Italian activists and people who hold dear issues
of justice and peace to join in the struggle for civil, political
and human rights of all the Palestinian people.
Distributor in Japan Drops Ahava due to its Illegal
Practices
January 31, 2012—DaitoCrea, the general agent in Japan for Ahava
Dead Sea Laboratories, announced on its website that they would no
longer be distributing Ahava products manufactured in the Israeli
illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the West Bank. This is the
second major BDS victory in Japan, following on the success of the
“STOP MUJI” campaign in 2010; where Palestine Forum Japan activists
used a variety of tactics, including sending post cards, organizing
a Twitter campaign, and staging in-store protests to pressure MUJI,
a large Japanese retail chain that sells consumer goods and
electronics, not to open a planned store in Israel.
Occupy Oakland movement endorse BDS
February 2, 2012—Participants of the Occupy Oakland movement voted
to back the Palestinian-led BDS movement during a regular general
assembly meeting at Oscar Grant plaza. In a near-unanimous passage
of the proposal by 135 people voting yes, 12 abstentions, and 1 no
vote, Occupy Oakland vowed to stand with the BDS movement.
Naples, Italy Stands For Palestinian Rights
February 13, 2012—The City Council of Naples, Italy approved a
motion condemning Pizzarotti for its involvement in the Israeli
high-speed train cutting through the occupied Palestinian
territory. The decision of the Naples City Council, which follows
that of Rho (Milan) on November 30, 2011, is a strong sign for
responsible action by local authorities, in this case one of
Italy’s largest cities. The BDS victory in Naples was won through
the campaigning of the Stop That Train coalition which has called
on all local administrations to endorse the “Pizzarotti-Free
Cities” campaign and pass similar resolutions against Pizzarotti
until it ceases involvement in projects in violation of
international law.
England and Wales Green Party calls for revocation of
JNF charitable status
February 28, 2012—Members of the Green Party of England and Wales
voted overwhelmingly to support an international call for action
against the practices of the Jewish National Fund in Israel and the
Occupied Palestinian Territories, and to revoke its charity status
in the UK. The Green Party endorsement of the Stop the JNF
Campaigns comes after similar motions passed by the Scottish Green
Party, Scottish Friends of the Earth, the Iona community and
various trade unions all repudiating the JNF’s claim to be an
“environmental charity” as well as the Early Day Motion by 64
members of the British parliament stating that there is just cause
to consider the revocation of the JNF’s charitable status.
Canadian Graduate Students Vote to Divest from Israeli
Occupation
March 21-22, 2012—Graduate students at Carleton University in the
Canadian capital Ottawa overwhelmingly voiced their support for the
Palestinian people, by voting for the university’s pension fund to
divest from four companies that are complicit in the occupation of
Palestine. The vote took place through a referendum question in
which over 72 percent of the graduate students voted in favor of
divestment. The referendum came about as part of a campaign
spearheaded by Students Against Israeli Apartheid, formed in 2008,
exactly twenty years after the Carleton Anti-Apartheid Action Group
forced the university to divest from South African Apartheid.
Major Norwegian retail chain joins Ahava
boycott
March 23, 2012—Norwegian retail chain VITA announced that they will
stop all sales of products originating from settlements in occupied
Palestine, particularly Ahava. VITA has been the main retailer of
Ahava products in Norway, and this decision will be a serious blow
to the sales of Ahava products in Norway. VITA’s position of not
wanting to contribute to the Israeli occupation is shared by
Norgesgruppen, the company holding 49 percent of the shares in
VITA. BAMA, another Norgesgruppen company has implemented the same
policy regarding Israeli fruit and vegetables for several years
already. The VITA decision came after a period of active lobbying
from Norwegian People’s Aid and the Norwegian Union of Municipal
and General Employees (Fagforbundet), providing VITA and VITA’s
owners with information about Ahava and their production in the
Mitzpe Shalem settlement.
National M.E.Ch.A. Endorses Palestinian Boycott Call
Against Israel
March 30, 2012—At the 19th annual national conference of M.E.Ch.A.
(Movímíento Estudíantíl Chícan@ de Aztlán), the largest association
of Latin@ youth in the US, chapter leaders voted by a landslide
decision to endorse the global call for Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions (BDS) on Israel due to its military occupation and
settlement of Palestine. The announcement coincided with
international observances of “César Chávez Day” and “Land Day,”
commemorating ongoing civil rights and anti-colonial struggles for
Latin@s and Palestinians. The conference included 600 participants
and took place in Phoenix, Arizona.
G4S contract with the European Parliament cancelled on
Palestinian Prisoners Day
April 17, 2012—The European Union declined to renew a contract with
private security company G4S amidst concerns raised by MEPs and
campaign groups about the role the company plays in equipping
Israeli prisons in which Palestinian political prisoners are held
in violation of international law. G4S has provided security
services to the buildings of the European Parliament since 2008 but
the contract award notice (service contract 118611-2012) published
on the EU official tenders’ website showed that G4S had lost its
contract with the European Parliament. In March 2011, a group of 28
Members of the European Parliament, including 8 MEPs from Denmark
and 6 from the UK wrote a letter to former EU Parliament President
demanding that the Parliament drop G4S as the principal security
contractor if it continued to provide security services to illegal
Israeli settlements, checkpoints and Israeli prisons at which
Palestinians are detained. Their demands were a response to
investigations conducted by the Danish NGO DanWatch and a report
made by the Israeli research project “Who Profits” which revealed
and documented G4S’ implication in illegal activities in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory.
UMass Boston Student Senate Calls For Divestment from
Boeing
April 18, 2012-- The UMass Boston Undergraduate Student Government
unanimously passed a bill demanding that the UMass Foundation, the
university’s investment fund, divest from Boeing and other
companies profiting from war crimes and/or human rights violations.
The decision to divest from Boeing is based on the company’s record
of actively manufacturing and selling weapons that have been used
in direct attacks on Palestinian civilians, a violation of
international humanitarian law and human rights. The bill
specifically highlights the connection between Boeing and Operation
Cast Lead, Israel’s 3-week military onslaught against the Gaza
Strip in 2008-09, during which 1,300 Palestinians were killed, most
of them civilians, including 412 children. Boeing produces the
Hellfire missile and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, both of which
are documented to have been used in Operation Cast Lead.
Egypt to boycott ‘pro-Israel’ Adidas kit
manufacturer
April 19, 2012—Egypt Football Association (EFA) president Anwar
Saleh confirmed that Egypt will boycott the Adidas sportswear
company to comply with the decision of the Arab Youth and Sports
Ministers. The decision came after an announcement earlier in April
by the Arab Council of Youth and Sports Ministers that “all
companies that have sponsored the marathon in Jerusalem, including
Adidas, will be boycotted.” Sports apparel manufacturer Adidas was
the only non-Israeli sponsor of that race, and which the Council
considered to be an attempt by “Israel to mislead public opinion
into believing that Jerusalem is its capital which is a violation
of all UN resolutions.” EFA officials have announced that their
boycott of Adidas will entail the loss of 1.7 million euros for the
Egyptian organization.
Scottish TUC delegates unanimously support BDS and
Palestine freedom struggle
April 25, 2012—The 450 delegates to the Annual Conference of the
Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), the umbrella group for every
trade union in Scotland, voted unanimously and repeatedly against
Israeli apartheid, with resolutions to: campaign to expose the role
of the racist JNF (Jewish National Fund) in the Israeli apartheid
system; support the participants in the Welcome to Palestine
initiative who tried to travel peacefully to Palestine via Tel Aviv
Airport; fully support the Palestinian-Brazilian call for the World
Social Forum-Free Palestine in Brazil in November; and support the
Palestinian hunger strikers and the work of Addameer, the
Palestinian prisoner support organization.
Co-op boycotts exports from Israel’s West Bank
settlements
April 28, 2012—The UK’s fifth biggest food retailer and its largest
mutual business, The Co-operative Group, decided to end trade with
companies that export produce from illegal Israeli settlements. It
is the first major European supermarket group to do so. The
decision directly affects four companies and contracts worth some
£350,000: Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, Adafresh and Mehadrin,
Israel’s largest agricultural export company. Other companies may
be affected by the policy.
Over 150 Professors in US come out in defense of right
to support BDS
April 28, 2010—Over one hundred and fifty prominent US college
professors signed a letter objecting to an advertisement in The New
York Times by David Horowitz naming individual faculty members at
several US colleges and accusing them of inciting murder of Jewish
children, and likening the movement to boycott Israel (BDS) to
Nazism. The response letter was not published by the New York
Times, but is available online at:
http://pennbds.org/press-releases/20120428-letter-to-the-editor-of-the-nyt
United Methodist Church steps up support for the Kairos
Palestine document
May 2, 2012—The General Conference of the United Methodist Church
decided to call for an explicit boycott of all Israeli companies
“operating in the occupied Palestinian territories,” knowing that
this constitutes the absolute majority of Israeli corporations.
This and the overwhelming support for the “Kairos Palestine”
document and its call “for an end to military occupation and human
rights violations through nonviolent actions,” which include
boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), will pave the way forward
for further action by the Church to hold Israel accountable for its
colonial and apartheid regime.