Saturday, December 18, 2010

Stirling Local Council votes to Boycott Israeli Goods


Stirling Council to Boycott Israeli Goods

STIRLING COUNCIL TO BOYCOTT “APARTHEID” ISRAEL


Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Media Release

Wednesday 15th December 2010

At: http://shuafat-stirlingpartnership.blogspot.com/2010/12/stirling-council-to-boycott-israeli.html


The Council members are shown below.
Only 2 of them opposed the Boycott:




Stirling Council became the latest local authority to support a campaign to boycott "Apartheid" Israel on Monday, after condemning Israel's "open aggression and disregard for International Law."


The motion by Labour Councillors Colin Finlay and John Hendry states, "Apartheid was not acceptable in South Africa and it is not acceptable in Palestine", and instructs procurement officers to "ensure future agreements and contracts boycott all Israeli goods".

Two of the 22 members on the SNP-led Council, both Conservative, opposed the motion.


Councillor Colin Finlay:

Councillor Finlay, who helps run the Stirling branch of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), said he was delighted at the decision: "More and more Scottish councils are distancing themselves from Israel and its racist apartheid policies. Palestinians deserve our support, so I am delighted that Stirling is playing its part in the international boycott campaign. This is a significant step in the right direction."

Speaking from Palestine, SPSC Scottish Secretary, Sofiah Macleod said that Palestinians were "buoyed up" by this and other similar acts of solidarity.

Just last week, Edinburgh Council rejected an attempt by Veolia to take over a range of public services in the city, after hearing evidence from Macleod of the French firm's involvement in Israel's illegal settlements. City leaders had also received legal advice that contacting Veolia could expose the local authority to "legal action for failing to take on board their obligation to recognise and comply with their duties and responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions and international law."

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END


Notes for editors:

1. The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign started in autumn 2000 in response to the Palestinian second uprising against Israeli occupation (Intifada). The SPSC has branches and groups of supporters in several Scottish towns, cities, and universities, as well as individual members across Scotland and elsewhere.

For further information, contact:
SPSC Chair, Mick Napier: 0131 620 0052; 07958002591

Email: media@scottishpsc.org.uk (default reply to this email)
Website: www.scottishpsc.org.uk


2. Motion to Stirling Council, Monday 13th December 2010, Item 20(b) on the Agenda:
http://minutes.stirling.gov.uk/PDFs/Scouncil/Agendas/CouncilAgenda.pdf

Blockade of Gaza

"Stirling Council condemns the Government of Israel for its continuing illegal occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza. Council notes the heroic resilience of the people in these areas in the face of Israeli Defence Force's open aggression and disregard for International Law. Stirling Council recognises that Apartheid was not acceptable in South Africa and it is not acceptable in Palestine. This Council therefore resolves to reassess its current procurement arrangements and ensure future agreements and contracts boycott all Israeli goods. Council also agrees to write to all Scottish Local Authorities, Westminster and Holyrood Governments calling on them to implement an immediate boycott of all Israeli goods."

--Signed by Councillor Colin Finlay and Councillor John Hendry



The motion was passed subject to the following being added: "within the legal framework set by the Geneva Convention and the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006"

Marrickville Municipal Council votes to support boycott against Israel, by a vote of 10 to 2.




Marrickville has become the first local council in Australia to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.


This week the Council voted 10 to 2 for the motion to support the BDS -- an international campaign designed to stop trade and investment in companies, sporting teams and other institutions with ties to Israel.


It aims to coerce Israel to restore human rights and return occupied land to Palestinians.


The United Nations and Australian Federal and State Governments have refused to support the BDS.


But the NSW Greens are backing the campaign.


2SER’s Elise Scott spoke with Green’s Marrickville Councilor Cathy Peters, who put forward the motion this week.


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AUSTRALIA:

Marrickville Council votes to support BDS 14Dec10


At: http://australiansforpalestine.com/34297


December 15, 2010


Greens, ALP and an Independent councillor united at Marrickville Municipal Council to adopt the following resolution moved by Greens Councillor Cathy Peters:


“That:

  1. In particular recognition of its sister city relationship with Bethlehem and the strong support for this relationship from local progressive faith communities and other community members, Marrickville Council support the principles of the BDS global campaign and report back on any links the Council has with organisations or companies that support or profit from the Israeli military occupation of Palestine with a view to the Council divesting from such links and imposing a boycott on any future such links or goods purchases.
  2. Marrickville Council boycott all goods made in Israel and any sporting, institutional academic, government or institutional cultural exchanges.
  3. Marrickville Council write to the local State and Federal ministers (Carmel Tebbutt and Anthony Albanese) informing them of Council’s position and seeking their support at the State and Federal level for the global BDS movement.”


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Seattle buses say: "Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars at Work"



Click on the TV news photo to enlarge it.

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" 'Israeli War Crimes' signs to go on Metro buses"

The full TV news report is on Seattle's KING 5 TV News at:



by ALLEN SCHAUFFLER / KING 5 News


SEATTLE – "Israeli War Crimes," the enormous advertisement reads. "Your tax dollars at work."

To the right of the image is a group of children -- one little boy stares out at the viewer, the others gawk at a demolished building, all rebar and crumbled concrete.

It's an ad you'll be seeing soon on a handful of Metro buses in downtown Seattle.

A group calling itself the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign has paid King County $1,794 so that 12 buses will carry that message around town, starting two days after Christmas. That's December 27: the two-year anniversary of Israeli attacks on Gaza...


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Friday, December 17, 2010

Associated Press finally hounds the White House about jailing of Palestinian...



The video and story are on the Web at:




The YouTube video is also at:




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"Wayne State Student Council...demanded that Wayne State dump any Israeli investments."


"Jack soft on Israel"

In the METRO TIMES (Detroit, Michigan)

December 15, 2010

At: http://metrotimes.com/news/letters-to-the-editor-1.1077422


Re: "Leadership for sale" (Dec. 8), Jack Lessenberry can't have forgotten how Israel massacred 1,400 innocent Palestinians in Gaza, less than two years ago.


Yet Lessenberry is not campaigning against Israel. No, Lessenberry is venting his spleen against Helen Thomas.


Helen Thomas is rightly incensed at how Palestine is robbed, starved and massacred. She dared to demand action against Israel, as we all should.


How on Earth did that drive Lessenberry to libel Thomas as "a vulgar anti-Semite"?


Instead, Lessenberry should have joined her in demanding action against Israel, at long last.

Lessenberry should have joined the Wayne State Student Council in April 2003 — when the council demanded that Wayne State dump any Israeli investments.


Instead, Lessenberry has gravely dishonored himself and Metro Times. He chose to shield the Zionists, as they starve Gaza, and to strike Helen Thomas with a libelous death blow.


I hope to see the Metro Times replace Lessenberry's column with one by a human rights fighter who hates racism — like Helen Thomas. It's shameful to shield the Zionists. Stand with the occupied people of Palestine, and boycott Israel.


—Blaine Coleman, Ann Arbor


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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Students protest Israeli military propaganda at the University of Massachusetts:


This exact protest, against campus propaganda from Israeli soldiers, was originated by University of Michigan students.

The protests have already spread to Arizona State University, and to the University of Massachusetts , as you can see below.

The U.Mass. protest video is below.


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One of the members of Students for Justice in Palestine has written that the protest was in accordance with the call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel:


"Another silent walk-out in protest of Israel’s PR campaign"

Excerpted from the main article at:



"...In doing this action, we are also in accordance with the call for a boycott, divest, and sanctions movement against Israel. Until Israel is held responsible for their crimes against humanity, until they remove all troops from occupied territories, until they accept the right of return, and abandon the systematic policy of carving up the land – we will continue to boycott Israel to the fullest extent. Israel is a colonizer-settler state which has forcibly expelled the indigenous people from their land for decades. Despite condemning international accounts of their domestic policies, Israel is still being financed by economically powerful companies and countries. As a form of non-violent resistance, the boycott movement as a necessity needs to swell and multiply. We see hope on the horizon, and as a coalition, we are attempting to foster ways to reach those ends until Palestine is free, imbued with joyfulness and sovereignty..."