Monday, August 15, 2011

When the police shut down a Palestine video in a U.S. university town:


You can click on the Ann Arbor News article, below, to enlarge it:


Above, you will see a January 14, 2006 news article, entitled "Activist takes video case to ACLU", on page A3 of the Ann Arbor News, showing exactly how a City limits Palestine human rights speech in public forums.

At an Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council meeting, an Ann Arbor Police Lieutenant was sent to stop a 3-minute video of Israeli soldiers breaking the bones of a helpless, captured young Palestinian.

It did not matter that the 3 minutes had been properly reserved in advance with the city government, as is normal for public commentary time.

It did not matter that a computer and projector had already been set up to use the same projection screen that was used by so many others in presentations to City Council, year after year.

In spite of all that, the police lieutenant pulled the cord out of that computer-- which forcefully prevented any projection of that video to the City Council.


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Sunday, August 14, 2011

U.S. Congressman Dingell actually says "I have proudly supported more than $300 billion dollars in aid for the State of Israel."


When Congressman John Dingell appears in his home district of Dearborn, Michigan, why is he never challenged about his overwhelming support to Israel?

Dingell says, "I have proudly supported more than $300 billion dollars in aid for the State of Israel."


Click on Dingell's news release, page 1, above.

Click on Dingell's news release, page 2, above.

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Here is Dingell's quote, in his own words:

"...during my 50 years in Congress, I have proudly supported more than $300 billion dollars in aid for the State of Israel. ..."

--Congressman John Dingell, at:

http://www.house.gov/dingell/documents/press_releases/109th_Session2/08-02-06.htm


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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Campaign to boycott all Israeli products at a New York City Food Co-op:


The continuing campaign to boycott all Israeli products at a New York City Food Co-op:

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"Group Wants Park Slope Food Coop to Consider Boycott of Israeli Products"

Wednesday, August 10, 2011
By Luna Lin
On WNYC (New York), at:



"A group aligned with the B.D.S. movement wants Brooklyn's Park Slope Food Coop to consider a move toward a boycott of Israeli products.

"Opposing opinions on issues around Israel and Palestine have long been exchanged in the coop's in-store newspaper, the Linewaiters' Gazette.

"But on July 26, the group Park Slope Food Coop Members for Israeli Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions proposed that the coop's board vote on whether or not to hold a referendum to poll the coop's 15,000 plus members on the issue.

" 'I think that's a peaceful way to get the message across,' said member Brenda Iijima. 'It's controversial and I understand everyone's sensitivity. But I think what's happening in Palestine is just unconscionable and sad. We are directly responsible for it in the United States...'

"...The Park Slope Food Coop isn't the only food coop to consider a B.D.S. endorsement. The Olympia Food Co-op's board voted to institute a B.D.S. boycott last year. But the membership of the People's Food Co-op in Ann Arbor, Michigan voted down a motion to support the B.D.S. movement in 2007 by a ratio of 3 to 1, as did the Food Co-Op Port Townsend in Washington because its rules don't permit the coop to boycott products from an entire country.

"Doug Walter, who has been the membership director at the Davis Food Co-op in California for 22 years, said his coop's board voted down the endorsement because only 15 percent of its members supported the move..."


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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Boycotting Israel at another Food Co-op


Boycotting Israel at another Food Co-op:

See article below.

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"Soy Vey! Could a Hummus Fight Kill the Co-op?,
"BroBos pick sides as Park Slope Food Co-op considers Israeli products ban;
"Dershowitz rends garments: we will ‘make them pay!’
"Nobel laureate Tutu backs boycott"

August 3, 2011
New York Observer

See full article on the Web at:
http://www.observer.com/2011/08/soy-vey-could-a-hummus-fight-kill-the-co-op/

Brief excerpts are below:

"Israel and the Park Slope Food Co-op have a lot in common. Both were founded in part by Jewish socialists. Both are governed by a raucous democracy with laws and rituals to rival the Talmud. Both have a soft spot for hummus and couscous.

"And now both are plagued by the Palestinian question.

"Last week, the co-op held its first open discussion about whether or not to endorse B.D.S., an international movement that calls for the boycott, divestment and sanctioning of Israeli products and companies. Supporters see B.D.S. as a nonviolent way to attack Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, while critics claim the movement stinks of anti-Semitism. The issue has been batted around the co-op for years, from the bulk aisles to the letters section of the biweekly Linewaiters’ Gazette, house organ of the organic house...

"When the Gaza flotilla fiasco occurred last summer, it inflamed the issue yet again, which led a group of about 20 co-op members to push for a referendum on B.D.S., the subject of last week’s meeting..."

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Saturday, August 6, 2011

South African student bodies slam "Israeli Apartheid Agents" and endorse nationwide Israel boycott



At:

PRESS STATEMENT:

South African student bodies slam "Israeli Apartheid Agents" and endorse nationwide Israel boycott

This afternoon at a joint press conference held at the student center of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, national representatives of the South African Union of Students (SAUS), the South African Student Congress (SASCO) and the Young Communist League (YCL) slammed the pending trip of "Israeli Apartheid agents" to South Africa.

The Israeli mission to South African campuses is expected to arrive on the 11th of August 2011. Palestinian students have written to South African colleagues asking them to challenge and boycott the Israeli delegation.

Today's press conference was hosted by South Africa's oldest, largest and most representative student bodies - the South African Students Congress* and the South African Union of Students**. Furthermore, members of the University of Johannesburg and University of the Witwatersrand's Student Representative Councils were also present.

An extract of the press statement is produced below:

"We, students and youth of a post Apartheid South Africa, who bear the scars of a racist history and who continue to fight for complete liberation, have a duty and responsibility to stand in solidarity with those facing oppression worldwide. Israeli apartheid is one such form of oppression.

"Israeli media boast that a mission of 150 Israeli propagandists will be sent to universities in 5 countries to fix Israel's "serious image problems". The Israeli mission will begin on South African campuses on the 11th of August, with a delegation that includes at least two aides from the Israeli parliament. A delegation member was clear about the intention of their trip: "We have to create some doubt in their [South African students'] minds."

"Don't patronize us! We lived apartheid, we suffered apartheid, we know what apartheid is, we recognise apartheid when we see it. And when we see Israel, we see a regime that practices apartheid. Israel's image needs no changing; its policies do! We urge Israeli students to instead join the growing and inspiring internal resistance to their regime, particularly the boycott from within movement, rather than waste time and money on these propaganda trips to deceive us Black students, South Africans have no need for these Muldergate-like trips.

"A "major focus of the Israeli trip will be the University of Johannesburg (UJ). On 1st April 2011 UJ's Senate, with the full backing of UJ's Student Representative Council, terminated its institutional relationship with Israel's Ben-Gurion University. Indeed, UJ set an academic boycott of Israel precedent that all other South African and international universities can follow.

"Following UJ's decision, and in response to a letter sent to us by Palestinian students, we urge all SRCs, student groups and other youth structures to strategize and implement a boycott of Israel and its campaigns. We declare that all SA campuses must be Apartheid-Israel free zones.

"As with the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, international solidarity is key in overcoming Israeli Apartheid. In Nelson Mandela's words: 'It behooves all South Africans, erstwhile beneficiaries of generous international support, to stand up and be counted among those contributing actively to the cause of freedom and justice. We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.'


FOR THE RECORD

A. On Education

1. The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories has had disastrous effects on access to education for Palestinians. Palestinian students face poverty, harassment and humiliation as a result of Israeli policy and actions.

2. Israel mounted direct attacks on Palestinian education, including the complete closures of two Palestinian universities in 2003 and the targeting and bombing of more than 60 primary and secondary schools during the Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2009.

3. Israel's assault on the education of Palestinians is illegal under international law. The right to education is a fundamental human right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments.

4. The Israeli blockade of Gaza has had a detrimental impact on students. Gaza's electricity supply is controlled by Israel and shut-down for several hours most days, making it difficult for students to study. Moreover, the blockade means insufficient quantities of educational equipment, such as paper, desks and books, reach students.

B. On Israeli Apartheid

5. Several of our senior leaders have compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa, including Comrades Kgalema Mothlantle, Blade Nzimande, Zwelinzima Vavi, Rob Davies, Jeremy Cronin, Ahmed Kathrada, Winnie Mandela, Ronnie Kasrils, Denis Goldberg, the late Kader Asmal and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

6. Both the former and current United Nations Special Rapporteurs for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have requested that Israel be investigated for the crime of apartheid.

7. In an official report commissioned by the South African government in 2009, the Human Sciences Research Council confirmed that Israel, by its policies and practices, is guilty of the crime of apartheid.

8. In November 2010, South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation called upon the Israeli government to cease their activities that are reminiscent of apartheid forced removals.

C. On Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

8. Palestinian civil society, including student groups, have called for a policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel until it abides by international law.

9. This call has the endorsement of the largest and most representative coalition of civil and political society in Palestine. The call also has the support of a growing number of progressive Israeli groups.

10. In 2010, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Professor Richard Falk, said: It is politically and morally appropriate, as well as legally correct, to accord maximum support to the BDS campaign.

11. COSATU, South Africa's largest trade union federation was one of the first unions to endorse the BDS call. Subsequently, numerous other international trade unions have also adopted a pro-BDS position.

12. Several international groups have began to advance the BDS call in the cultural, consumer, sports, economic and academic spheres. Earlier this year the largest student union in Europe, the ULU, passed a motion in support of BDS."

ISSUED ON THURSDAY THE 4th OF AUGUST 2011 BY
South African Union of Students, South African Student Congress and the Young Communist League of South Africa


FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Themba Masondo +27 (0) 791993421 - masondothemba@gmail.com

Mbuyiseni Ndlozi +27 (0) 11 7174450 - mbuyiseni@gmail.com -

Kate Joseph +27 (0) 722299613 - Katejoseph3@gmail.com

Muhammed Desai +27 (0)842119988 - mdesai.work@gmail.com

* SASCO is South Africa's oldest and largest student organization.

** The SA Union of Students (SAUS) comprises all South African university Student Representative Councils and is the most representative student union in the country.




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