Have Your Members of Congress Write Attorney General Holder about Rasmea Odeh’s Case

Apeal from End the occupation

Dear PEOPLE,

Israeli forces killed six children when a missile struck a residential building in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Credit: DCI-Palestine. .

It is with a heavy heart and a profound sense of outrage that we are witnessing Israel yet again brutally attack the besieged 1.7 million Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip with U.S. weapons and political support. 

As of last night, Israel had killed at least 41 Palestinians, including 13 children; injured more than 100 people; and deliberately targeted at least 60 homes since the latest assault began on Monday.

Already, people like you have sent more than 20,000 letters since Monday to President Obama and Congress protesting Israel’s human rights abuses and collective punishment of the Palestinians. Send an updated letter to them calling for an immediate ceasefire and accountability for Israel’s actions by clicking here.

As Israel is intensifying its U.S.-sponsored brutality toward the Palestinian people, the United States is moving ahead with its prosecution of Rasmea Odeh—a survivor of Israeli torture and a beloved Chicago-area Palestinian-American community organizer—despite thousands of you who have written to and called the District Attorney to drop the spurious immigration-related charges against her.

But we won’t be deterred. Today, we’re joining with US Campaign member groups and friends—American Muslims for Palestine, Council on American-Islamic Relations Chicago, Committee to Stop FBI Repression, Defending Dissent Foundation, Jewish Voice for Peace, National Lawyers Guild, and the United States Palestinian Community Network—in a joint day of action.

Please take a moment to write and call your Members of Congress expressing your concern about Rasmea's prosecution and asking them to send a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder about the case.

As we explain in the letter to Congress:

“The 67-year-old community leader is facing up to ten years in federal prison and the prospect of her U.S. citizenship been revoked and being deported. Her arrest stems from allegations that she failed to disclose on her naturalization application an unjust conviction by Israeli military courts over 45 years ago.  She was physically and sexually tortured into confessing to a crime she did not commit, and subjected to continued torture, sexual abuse and solitary confinement while in detention for 10 years. 

These charges against Odeh are spurious because she has not hidden her torture and imprisonment. On the contrary, in 1979, she publicly testified before the UN in great detail about the torture to which she was subjected while imprisoned by Israel.”

Click here to read the letter and send a personal version to your Members of Congress. It’s easy…just type in your zip code to get started.

As we mentioned in our alert earlier this week, the August Congressional recess is coming up. We want to help you set up a delegation to meet with your Members of Congress to share your concerns about Rasmea Odeh’s prosecution and to hold Israel accountable for its increasing brutality both toward Palestinians and Americans such as Tarek Abu Khdeir. 

To get started, please contact our Legislative Coordinator Mike Coogan who will provide you with the training and resources you need for a successful meeting. Don’t worry if you’ve never met with your Members of Congress before. We’ll walk you through the process as needed.    

For additional details about Rasmea’s case, please check out this flyer from USPCN and this article I wrote in The Hill. 

Thank you for taking action to protest our government’s prosecution of Rasmea Odeh and for all of your continued activism to end Israel’s U.S.-sponsored brutality toward the Palestinians.

Sincerely,



Josh Ruebner, Policy Director

Join a Boycott SodaStream Day of Action Nov 29-Dec 10!

Day of Action! Boycott SodaStream this Holiday Season at Target and Beyond!

Dear supporters,

CLICK ABOVE TO WATCH the 2013 Boycott SodaStream Day of Action promo video!

It's that time again! As occupation profiteer SodaStream continues to exploit Palestinian land, labor, and resources while it amps up holiday promotional efforts in the U.S. and beyond, we cannot remain silent.  Join groups nationwide and beyond in planning a 2013 Boycott SodaStream Day of Action during holiday shopping! 

More than 20 cities around the country are targeting SodaStream locally, and many have already decided to take part in the Day of Action. Will you join them?

Member group Jewish Voice for Peace - DC Metro created this awesome video to invite all to take part!

WHEN? 
Pick whatever day works best for you! Friday, November 29 marks theInternational Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People as well asBlack Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. Cyber Monday isDecember 2 (great for online actions) and Tuesday, December 10 isHuman Rights Day. 

With so many great options to choose from, your group can pick the most comfortable and context-appropriate time to take action ANY day(s) between Nov 29 and Dec 10 -- as holiday shopping goes into full swing. Your activities and reports can unfold, one after another, during this exciting period.

Click here to plan an action and join the Day of Action Facebookevent page!

WHERE?

The primary corporate focus of the Days of Action will be Target,which touts an ethical policy saying "We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards, and we expect our partners to do the same." For more than a year, member groups from coast to coast and in between have urged Target to de-shelve and Friends of Sabeel - North America began a "SodaStream 14" Campaign this fall to send letters to the CEOs of Target and other corporations. Learn more and send your own letters here.

Does your group prefer to focus your Boycott SodaStream action onanother corporate target? That's fine too!

WHAT? 

CLICK TO RSVP on Facebook and stay appraised of this exciting series of events!

There are lots of actions your group can take, from flyering toonline actions, fromholiday caroling to aflash mob... Many action ideas and resources are listed on the Day of Action page.

We will be adding more as time goes on, and we'll be in touch once you RSVP to take part!

If you haven't yet, please also sign the Boycott SodaStream petition of the Interfaith Boycott Coalition, which member groups in Minneapolis willdeliver to Target headquarters as part of the Day of Action!

WHO?

Member groups in Milwaukee, WI; Washington, DC; Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; Rochester, NY; Chico, CA; Portland, OR; Sacramento, CA; New York, NY; Boston, MA; San Diego, CA; and Minneapolis, MN are planning actions so far. Add your organization and city to the list! 

Click here for loads of information on the Day of Action and get started!

Excitedly yours, 

                               

             
Anna Baltzer                       Ramah Kudaimi
National Organizer                Membership and Outreach Coordinator 

Last Chance, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

Our Organizers' Conference is This Weekend! 

Dear Milena, 

If you are planning on attending our 12th Annual National Organizers' Conference this weekend at George Mason University in Arlington, VA, please hurry up and register today!
You can find the entire program for the weekend here. Highlights include: 

• Friday night opening panel with Noura Erakat, Palestinian human rights attorney, and Josh Ruebner, our National Advocacy Director, about U.S. Policy and Palestine/Israel 20 Years After the Oslo Accords
• Saturday night evening session featuring a discussion with Cindy and Craig Corrie on "Justice for Human Rights Defenders" and a performance from "My Name is Rachel Corrie"
• Sunday morning panel entitled "Building Solidarity Across Black, Native American, and Palestinian Struggles"
• 20 workshops to help you strengthen your organizing skills
• BOYCOTT! The Art of Economic Activism poster exhibit highlighting diverse historical and contemporary boycott movements from the 1950s to the present.

Registration will close at 5:00pm EDT on Wednesday, September 18. 
If you are unable to join us, please consider being a part of the weekend by making a donation to help us ensure a successful conference that will strengthen our coalition's work for Palestinian rights.

If you donate $120 or more, we will send you a signed copy of Josh's new book, Shattered Hopes: Obama's Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace. 
Thank you for all you do for freedom, equality, and justice.
 

                                                        

                                                   

Ramah Kudaimi                                         

Membership and Outreach Coordinator

Stevie Wonder: We Just Called to Say, Don't Entertain Apartheid!

Dear Milena,

Click above to tell Stevie: Occupation is nothing to sing for!

Tomorrow, November 29th, the United Nations and people around the world will observe the annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, marking 65 years since the U.N. voted to partition Palestine, leading to Israel's exile and dispossession of Palestinians.

The US Campaign was shocked to discover that one week later, on Thursday, December 6th,legendary musician Stevie Wonder -- himself designated as a "Messenger of Peace" by the United Nations -- is scheduled toperform at the annual gala fundraiser of the "Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces" (IDF). In a letter to Stevie, Palestinian writer Bassem Nasir wrote:

"This army, [the one you are supporting] Stevie, is a tool of oppression and subjugation that has kept me, my family, and my people occupied for over forty-five years. Every day, this army is protecting the seizure of more Palestinian land to build illegal Israeli settlements and further denying me my rights as a human being... I am urging you to cancel this performance and stand with the values of justice and peace for all."

Click below to join Bassem and the chorus of voices saying: 
Stevie, We Are the World... Asking You Not to Glorify or Fundraise for the Israeli Army!

The US Campaign is compiling letters, resources, and updates on thisnew web section dedicated to the growing worldwide call for Stevie Wonder to cancel the performance. Check out this greatTwitter alert, created in partnership with US Campaign coalition member group the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI). Here are some sample tweets:

Be the Sunshine of My Life, don't play for apartheid. Ask @motown's Stevie Wonder to cancel! http://bit.ly/Wuc1ZU #BDS
Click here to tweet the above instantly!

Instead of a 'Ribbon in the Sky', Palestinians get bombs. Don't play for the IDF Stevie. http://bit.ly/Wuc1ZU cc @motown
Click here to tweet the above instantly!

There are many more ready-made, easy-to-use tweets as well.

Stevie's concert comes on the heels of more than a week of brutal attacks by the Israeli army on the Gaza Strip that killed more than 170 Palestinians dead, the majority of whom were civilians. 

These horrifying attacks were only the latest example of the Israeli military regularly violating human rights and international law with impunity, with widespread attacks on civilians going unpunished. For example this past summer, the parents of American peace activist Rachel Corrie were denied justice when an Israeli court absolved the Israeli military of any responsibility for killing Rachel with a Caterpillar bulldozer almost ten years ago as she tried to protect a Palestinian family's home from being demolished. The Israeli military commander in southern Gaza at the time of Rachel's death was Colonel Pinhas "Pinky" Zuaretz -- who went on to become deputy national director and director of development of none other than the Friends of the IDF.

Stevie Wonder has been hailed as a champion of freedom and equality. He is an award-winning civil rights and anti-apartheid advocate. In 1985, he was arrested while protesting apartheid in South Africa, and he wrote the song: "It's Wrong (Apartheid)." Now, 27 years later, let's remind Stevie that apartheid was wrong for South Africa, and it is wrong for Palestinians!

Click here to tell Stevie, Don't be only a Part-Time Lover of Justice -- Cancel Your Date with the Israeli Army!
On the eve of the UN's International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, let's urge Stevie to be true to his UN title of "Messenger of Peace" by standing on the right side of historyand canceling his performance for the Friends of the IDF.

Yours,


Anna Baltzer
National Organizer
PS: For tomorrow's International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we'll be joining with our friends at Kairos USA to deliver more than 30,000 signatures of support to the 15 courageous church leaders who called on Congress to investigate Israel's misuse of U.S. weapons. If you're in DC, please join us for a press conference tomorrow, Thursday, Nov. 29 at 10:00AM at the United Methodist Building, 100 Maryland Ave. NE. If you can't make it in person, watch it anywhere in the world as we live-stream the event here.

As Children Killed, Israel Supporters Celebrate

http://blog.endtheoccupation.org

Last night a march from the State Department to the White House organized by Palestinian activists to demand Obama pressure Israel to implement an immediate ceasefire and end US military aid was greeted by a group of Israel supporters singing and dancing. Watch what our National Advocacy Director Josh Ruebner had to say to this celebration of death. 

Subtitle: Take Action as Israel Escalates Attacks on Gaza

Dear Milena,

Israel has escalated attacks on the Gaza Strip. Click above for updates.

Today, Israel launched a major offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing the Hamas leader nearby civilians, including two girls under the age of five. The death toll continues to rise. The US Campaign strongly condemns these brutal attacks, carried out with U.S. weapons given to Israel as military aid and paid for by U.S. taxpayers, and Israel's ongoing, illegal siege of Gaza. You can follow updates from Gaza here.

Please act now and call on the Obama administration to exert diplomatic pressure on Israel to bring about an immediate cease-fire and to initiate an investigation of Israel's misuse of U.S. weapons against Palestinians in this and previous attacks.

White House: 202-456-1111
State Department: 202-647-6575

As Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza heighten, activists in the United States are taking action. Yesterday, the Associated Students of the University of California at Irvine voted unanimously in support of divestment from companiesthat profit from Israeli occupation and apartheid. The US Campaign congratulates Irvine Divest for its hard work on this principled action, in line with a tradition of campus campaigns leading the way in social justice struggles throughout history.

Among the companies mentioned in the resolution were Caterpillar and Hewlett Packard -- targets of multiple, recent faith-based initiatives and victories following years of work by US Campaign member groups, including the Palestine Israel Action Group of the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, United Methodist Kairos Response, and the Israel-Palestine Mission Network.

In two historic resolutions this year, the United Methodist andPresbyterian churches voted to boycott products produced in Israeli settlements, including SodaStream, a device that makes carbonated water and soda from tap water, made primarily in the illegal Israeli settlement of Mishor Adumin. SodaStream's illegal activities were also highlighted in this week's UC Irvine resolution.

Click above for more information on and resources to join the Black Friday Boycott SodaStream Day of Action!

SodaStream is being promoted widely this holiday season at such outlets as Costco, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Macy's. In response, many US Campaign member groups -- both faith-basedand non-faith-based -- are supporting a Boycott SodaStream Day of Action on "Black Friday,"the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day of the year.

There are many ways to take action on NEXT FRIDAY, November 23rd (Black Friday):

1. Write or call. Generate letters/petitions or calls from individuals, congregations, or groups to one or more stores and their corporate offices. Reference any ethics/responsible business practice policies they may have. Click here for sample letters, store contacts, and links to ethics policies.

2.  Store visits. Go in groups or individually to selected stores to talk to management about not carrying SodaStream. Fill out comment cards to that effect. Most store managers have no information at all about the occupation of Palestine. A visit is a good way to share information. Click here for sample handouts and other materials.

3. Hold a vigil, prayer vigil, informational leafleting, etc. at a local mall or in front of a chain or chain stores that sell SodaStream. This can be effective even with a few people (though be aware that store security guards and local authorities have been known to approach, antagonize, and even arrest vigilers). Click here for sample signs and leaflets.

4.  Tweet! Use the hashtags #SodaStream and #BDS to generate interest in your Tweets. Post information on your own or your group's Facebook page.

Member groups from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. are boycotting SodaStream.

Please send photos and report-backs to the US Campaign by clicking here so we know what you did!

Students in Gaza, in spite of everything, remain steadfast, recently launching Gaza's first campus-based boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign. In solidarity with the students and people of Gaza, and inspired by UC Irvine's recent divestment decision involving SodaStream, member groups are planning actions from Sacramento (building on the recent de-shelving of SodaStream from a major local store) to Washington, D.C. Join them in taking action next Friday in your local community!

Yours,


Anna Baltzer
National Organizer


P.S. -- On Friday, we will be delivering our open letter and petition to the State Department calling on the United States to investigate Israel’s killing of Rachel Corrie in the Gaza Strip and its injuring and killing of additional U.S. human rights defenders. You can still have your signature delivered to the State Department if you sign before 4pm Eastern tomorrow.

Baltzer: BDS Movement Strategic, Flexible, Diverse and Inclusive

Below is an article in The Jewish Week covering the talk our National Organizer Anna Baltzer gave this past weekend in New York on "The Jewish-American Relationship with Israel at the Crossroads" with Norman Finkelstein. You can read Anna's remarks here. 

Has Norman Finkelstein, long reviled in the Jewish community as a vitriolic hater of the Jewish state, morphed into a defender of Israel’s legitimacy? And what does Finkelstein’s newfound “moderation” say about the current state of the anti-Israel left, exemplified by the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement?

Over the course of three decades, Finkelstein achieved superstar status on the anti-Zionist left by writing a myriad of books and articles in which he declared Israel to be “an insane state” and charged Elie Wiesel and other pro-Zionist Jews with exploiting the memory of the Holocaust as an “ideological weapon” in support of Israel.

Given that stormy history, it was strange to attend an unabashedly one-sided discussion last Saturday afternoon at the New School in Manhattan titled “The Jewish-American Relationship with Israel at the Crossroads,” and to hear Finkelstein denounce the BDS movement for refusing to affirm Israel’s right to exist within the 1967 Green Line border. Sitting next to him on the panel was Anna Baltzer, national organizer of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and a top leader in the BDS movement.

Finkelstein argued that the movement’s failure to take a clear stance on that issue will prevent it from bringing aboard the growing number of young American Jews who, he believes, have concluded that Israel’s occupation is morally wrong and must be ended.

But while the overwhelmingly anti-Israel crowd of about 500 heard Finkelstein out respectfully, they ardently applauded Baltzer when she argued that BDS movement is growing in strength and stature despite its unwillingness to take the steps Finkelstein demands; those include official embrace of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The talk, which was moderated by Adam Shatz, an editor at the London Review of Books, and which took place before the end of the Sabbath, was supposed to have also included anti-Zionist avatar Noam Chomsky, who cancelled because of laryngitis. The event seemed conceived as an opportunity for Finkelstein to showcase the argument laid out in his recently published book, “Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel is Coming to an End” (Or Books). In it he argues that a critical mass of young American Jews have concluded that Israeli policy toward the Palestinians is morally indefensible and that many of them can be brought into the BDS movement on behalf of Palestinian rights — as long as the movement makes clear its commitment to Israel’s survival.

However, the afternoon came to feel like a symbolic changing of the guard on the anti-Israel left.

Much of the audience appeared dubious of Finkelstein’s moderation and enthralled with Baltzer; she is an articulate and attractive 33-year-old St. Louis native who turned sharply to the left and made pro-Palestinian advocacy her top cause after being disillusioned with what she saw in Israel during a Birthright Israel trip in 2000. Her polished speaking style served to temper the impact of her full-throated advocacy for the right of Palestinians to return to within the borders of pre-1967 Israel (code to pro-Israel supporters for the destruction of the Jewish state), and her defense of Palestinian-Americans and others who refuse to affirm the right of Israel to exist.

Read more at The Jewish Week

source

First 7 passed away :)) BDS at 7!

BDS at 7! – Celebrating, reflecting and further mainstreaming 

http://www.bdsmovement.net/2012/bds-at-7-9206

Occupied Palestine, 9 July 2012 – Seven years after the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel was launched, the global BDS campaign has become stronger, more widespread, more effective and certainly more diverse than ever—a true cause for celebration by all those groups and conscientious citizens of the world who contributed to this success. However, Israel’s intensifying violations of international law and basic Palestinian rights, the direct threat Israel poses to the freedom of peoples across the region, and the impunity that Israel still enjoys are cause for reflection and the continuous fine-tuning of our strategies to further spread BDS and further isolate Israel as a world pariah, just as South Africa was under apartheid.

Thanks to the BDS movement, the struggle for the basic rights of the entire Palestinian people has taken a major leap during these last seven years, reaching wide audiences and achieving concrete achievements in major European countries, South Africa, Latin America, India, the Arab world, Australia, New Zealand and even North America. Following on from a similar round up published to mark five years of BDS, the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the broad Palestinian civil society coalition, has put together the following selection of highlights gives a taste of the spectacular growth of BDS over the last two years.

The global reach of the BDS movement is maybe best highlighted by this year’s edition of the BDS Global Day of Action which took place in 23 countries and the 8^th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) was organized this year on campuses in 202 cities across the world, causing near panic in the Israeli public diplomacy ministry, which scrambled 100 envoys to counter IAW around the world.

Popular consumer boycotts of Israeli products and campaigns against companies that export and sell Israeli products, particularly those implicated in Israel’s illegal colonies in the occupied Palestinian territory, have not only raised awareness among ordinary citizens in countless cities across the world but led to significant damage to complicit Israeli companies:

- Agrexco, Israel’s former largest exporter of agricultural produce, entered liquidation towards the end of 2011, following a campaign of blockades, demonstrations, lobbying of supermarkets and governments, popular boycotts and legal action in more than 13 countries across Europe. The campaign against the company was a major factor behind the lack of investors’ interest to salvage it.

- The largest Co-operative in Europe, the Co-Operative Group in the UK, introduced a policy to end trade with companies that source products from Israel’s illegal settlements, following a determined campaign by Co-Op members. Campaigners are working to pressure other supermarkets to adopt a similarly comprehensive position.  Many supermarkets across Europe already claim not to sell produce from illegal settlements.

- A sustained campaign against Ahava, the Israeli cosmetics company situated in an illegal Israeli colony, forced the company to close its flagship London store and retailers in the UK, Norway,Japan and Canada to announce boycotts of the company.

Inspired by the integral role that Israeli academic institutions play in developing the knowledge and technology behind Israeli occupation, colonization and apartheid, and planning and justifying Israel’s worst crimes, academic boycott campaigns have spread to campuses across the world:

- Setting a worldwide precedent for the academic boycott of Israel, the University of Johannesburg severed ties with Israel’s Ben-Gurion University in 2011, following a campaign backed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and over 400 South African academics.

- Campaigns against EU-funded collaboration with private Israeli companies and Israeli universities have sprung up at campuses across Europe in response to a call from Palestinian academics and civil society.

- Academic unions in the UK and Canada have voted to support various academic boycott campaign initiatives. There are also active academic boycott campaigns in India, the US, South Africa, Ireland, Chile, Brazil, Pakistan, and in many European countries.

Rapidly losing support around the world and recently again voted one of the most negatively viewed countries in the world, Israel’s attempts to whitewash its system of colonization, occupation and apartheid using culture is increasingly thwarted by a highly visible cultural boycott:

- Scores of artists — especially musicians and filmmakers — and writers have refused to perform in Israel or cancelled scheduled performances following pressure from the BDS movement including Bono, Snoop Dogg, Jean Luc Godard, Elvis Costello, Gil Scott Heron, Carlos Santana, Devendra Banhart, Faithless, the Pixies, Cassandra Wilson, Cat Power, Zakir Hussain.

- Many artists and other cultural figures now speak publicly of their support for BDS: Roger Waters, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein, John Berger, Judith Butler, Etienne Balibar, Ken Loach, Arundhati Roy, Angela Davis, Sarah Schulman, among others.

- Israeli artists who accept funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are required to sign a contract committing them to be part of Israel’s cultural public relations offensive. Protests and campaigns against state-backed performances — such as those by the Batsheva dance company, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Habima theater, and the Jerusalem Quartet — are now common place in Europe and North America, forcing some cultural venues to defend or retract their decision to host representatives of Israel and persuading others not to invite state-backed Israeli artists at all.

In the related field of sports boycott:

- The inspiring 93 day hunger strike by imprisoned Palestinian national football team player Mahmoud Sarsak, who was detained and subsequently held without trial by Israel in 2009 while attempting to leave Gaza to play an international match was met with calls for his release by footballing superstars and FIFA, the international football federation. Sports clubs in Gaza and footballing legend Eric Cantona have criticized the European football association for awarding Israel the right to host the 2013 under-21 football tournament.

- The Egypt Football Association announced that its national teams would no longer wear Adidas kit over the company’s sponsorship of an Israeli marathon that violates international law and whitewashes Israel’s illegal occupation of Jerusalem. Calls for boycotting Adidas were issued by the Council of Arab Sports Ministers and by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC).

- US basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar cancelled a scheduled public visit to Israel.

Corporations, both Israeli and international, play a key role in facilitating Israeli apartheid.Divestment campaigns are raising the price of corporate complicity with Israeli violations of international law and changing corporate attitudes towards doing business with Israel:

- French multinational Veolia has been targeted since November 2008 due its provision of infrastructure services to illegal settlements, including the Jerusalem Light Rail. Local municipalities across Europe and Australia have decided not to award Veolia contracts worth at least $14 billion following BDS campaigns. An increasing number of municipal authorities have implemented policies excluding Veolia from bidding on local contracts. Several European banks have divested from the company as well. Veolia has been forced to admit the damage the BDS campaign has caused it and subsequently announced plans to withdraw from some illegal Israeli projects.

- Several European banks have also divested from Alstom, one of Veolia’s partners in the Jerusalem Light Rail. Alstom lost a $10 billion contract to build the second phase of the Saudi Haramain Railway project following a concerted campaign of pressure.

- Following a concerted campaign in the US, Caterpillar was removed from MSCI-ESG, an influential ethical investment index over the use of its bulldozers and equipment to destroy Palestinian homes. This led to TIAA-CREF, the US pension fund giant targeted by a wide US civil society coalition, removing the company from its Social Choice Funds.

- The European Parliament elected not to renew a contract with G4S following action by Palestine solidarity groups. G4S is a private security company that Palestinian civil society has called for action against over its contract with the Israeli Prison Service and its resulting complicity with the detention of Palestinian political prisoners.

- The Norwegian government pension fund and 12 other European finance institutions haveexcluded Elbit Systems from their portfolios. Elbit is an Israeli military company involved in constructing Israel’s illegal wall.

Responding to ever-increasing public anger with Israel’s occupation and denial of basic Palestinian rights, a number of governments have started to introduce sanctions against Israel:

- Turkey and Norway have both announced decisions to suspend military relations with Israel and Turkey is pursuing legal action against Israel over its killing of 9 Turkish citizens on the Freedom Flotilla in 2010. Bolivia, Venezuela, Qatar, Mauritania and several other countries also took action in response to the attack.

- A call from Palestinian civil society for a comprehensive military embargo on Israel last July was supported by Nobel Peace Prize winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Betty Williams and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and civil society groups around the world representing millions of people.

The campaign to Stop the JNF has gone from strength to strength, forcing the leaders of all of the major UK political parties, including Prime Minister David Cameron, to end their patronage of the organization, successfully persuading the authorities in the Swiss town of Geneva to disassociate the city from the JNF and winning support of numerous mainstream organizations.

In the trade union movement, labor-led sanctions and BDS initiatives have become the leading form of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle:

- BDS principles and tactics have been formally endorsed by national trade union federations in South Africa, UK, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, the Basque Country, Brazil and other countries across Latin America, in addition to scores of national and local unions. Africa’s largest trade union federation, ITUC-Africa – representing 15 million workers from 56 African trade union federations has endorsed BDS and the European Trade Union Congress is currently taking action against produce from illegal Israeli settlements.

- Trade unions are initiating concrete campaigns and actions, such as the heroic blockades of Israeli ships by dockworkers in South Africa, Sweden, and California, and the campaigns by the London region of the UK Rail, Maritime and Transport union against Alstom, due to its complicity with an illegal occupation infrastructure project, and by the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees (Fagforbundet) against Ahava and other companies complicit with Israeli violations of international law.

- Some major trade unions, particularly in Europe, are taking steps to sever links with the Histadrut, the colonial Israeli trade union entity that has always played a key role in Israel’s system of oppression over the Palestinian people. Most recently, Unison, the UK’s second largest trade union with 1.3 million members, voted to reaffirm its position of suspended relations with the Histadrut.

Following a call for concrete solidarity from Palestinian Christians entitled Kairos Palestine,churches around the world have adopted BDS-related actions:

- In the US, the Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation (FFC) divested $900,000 in shares of Caterpillar, targeted over its sale of bulldozers to Israel that are used to violate Palestinian rights. The worldwide United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church in the US have both called on their members to boycott produce from illegal Israeli settlements.

- In the UK, the Methodist Church and the Quakers in Britain recently called on the UK government to ban trade in products from illegal Israeli settlements.

At university campuses across the world, the student movement in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle continues to rapidly emerge:

- In North America, students are developing sophisticated and widely supported campus divestment initiatives, with student unions in Regina and Carleton in Canada and National Movímíento Estudíantíl Chícan@ de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A), the largest association of Latin@ youth in the US, and the student government at University of Massachusetts-Boston voting to support divestment and other BDS initiatives. The first student-led BDS U.S. national conference was held at the University of Pennsylvania earlier this year following a successful national student  conference at Columbia University last year.

- BDS student groups are growing across Europe. In the UK the National Union of Students hasendorsed student campaigns that have succeeded in ending relationships between universities and Ahava and Eden Springs. Edinburgh University Student Association voted to end its contract with G4S.

With the eruption of peoples’ upheavals across the Arab world, or what came to be known as the Arab Spring, massive solidarity with Palestinian rights in Arab countries is increasingly being channeled in effective BDS campaigns, especially in Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar and Kuwait.

The Israeli establishment is growing increasingly concerned with the growth of the BDS movement. Israeli President Shimon Peres recently cited fear of the impacts of BDS as a reason to “make peace”. Meanwhile, top Israeli business leaders have launched their own “peace initative” out of fear of the impact of BDS. Some Zionist leaders are also starting to call for change in Israeli policies out of fear of BDS. The leading Israeli think tank the Reut Institute has spoken of BDS as a “strategic threat”, prompting the Israeli government to pass a draconian law forbidding any citizen from supporting BDS or any partial boycott. There is a real and growing fear within Israel that it is becoming a pariah state in the way that South Africa once was.

Against the backdrop of continued success and the reactions from Israel, we look forward to working with trade unions, NGOs, faith groups, solidarity organizations, people’s movements and people of conscience all over the world to continue to spread BDS as an effective and morally compelling tool in support of the Palestinian struggle for comprehensive rights. Israel realizes it and so do we: BDS is spreading and having a significant impact on Israel’s occupation, colonization and apartheid; it is time to push even further into the mainstream to entrench Israel’s pariah status. Only thus can Palestinians regain their rights and exercise self-determination, and without that there can never be a just and sustainable peace in the entire region.

BNC Secretariat

We Want You at Our National Organizers' Conference!

Join us in St. Louis September 21-23, 2012! 

Dear Milena, 

Planning is underway for our 11th Annual National Organizers' Conference and we want to make sure you are getting updates as soon as we have them so you can register to join us September 21-23 at St. Louis University! 

We will kick off our conference with a Friday night discussion on the Arab uprisings and how changes in the region affect our work to change U.S. policy toward Palestine/Israel. The speakers will be Dr. Hatem Bazian, Chairman of American Muslims for Palestine, andPhyllis Bennis, Director of the New Internationalism Project at theInstitute for Policy Studies. Our Saturday night program features a performance by Palestinian-American poet and activist Remi Kanzai.

Topics and workshops during the weekend will include next steps for church divestment efforts; building on recentBDS victories; campus activism; academic and cultural boycott initiatives; organizing and coalition building; andmember group workshops. 

Register by August 21 to take advantage of our $80 registration fee!

It's been a busy past few weeks for the US Campaign and our member groups. The United Methodist Church and Presbyterian Church both passed resolutions calling for a boycott of all products made in Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. TIAA-CREF's decision toremove Caterpillar from its Social Choice Funds portfolio was a big victory for the We Divest Campaign. With the help Jewish Voice for Peace, St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee, and American Muslims for Palestine, we delivered more than 17,000 signatures to the State Department protesting U.S. and Israeli discriminatory policies. 

Register today to help continue our efforts to change U.S. policy to support human rights, international law, and equality. Make sure you book your hotel room by August 21 to be guaranteed a special conference rate. Also invite your friends on Facebook and your followers on Twitter using #ETO2012.

We look forward to having you join us in St. Louis September 21-23!  

In Peace and Solidarity, 

Ramah Kudaimi
Membership and Outreach Coordinator 

Take Action

Register for Our National Organizers' Conference 
Book Your Hotel Room by August 21 to Receive Special Rate
Part of a Member Group? Submit a Workshop Proposal

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