PACBI November 2010 response to Nobel laureates’ attack on Israel academic boycott

Photo Israeli apartheid wall cutting through occupied Palestinian West Bank lands.

Once again, the specter of the suppression of academic freedom has been invoked in what is now becoming an organized campaign to counter the growing global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel, and the academic and cultural boycott in particular. This time, a number of American, European, and Israeli Nobel laureates have been enlisted in the campaign, in the hope that their plea to defend “academic freedom” will stem the tide of this ever-expanding movement.

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Independent Jewish Voices Media Advisory Nov. 5, 2010

Photo Cracks in the the Conservative wall.

Independent Jewish Voices will hold press conference on Monday in Ottawa, releasing a video to the media and Members of Parliament which challenges the Harper government’s mounting attacks on free speech.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and the Harper government are sponsoring an international conference in Ottawa on November 8 and 9 of the ‘Inter-Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism’ (ICCA), following hearings earlier this year of the ICCA’s local counterpart – the ‘Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism’ (CPCCA).

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EPACBI statement launch Paris 26 September 2010

Photo Israeli apartheid wall cutting through Palestine.

This declaration announces the establishment of a common European platform for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. The national, regional and local organisations and movements adhering to this platform:

* Accept and promote the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions and divestment from companies that contribute to Israel’s grave violations of international law and human rights;

* Support the call of Palestinian civil society for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and accept the guidelines on its implementation issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) through the Palestine Boycott National Committee (BNC).

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by Rami G. Khouri Daily Star Saturday, November 06, 2010

Photo Matthew Cassel A boy holds his backpack found in the rubble of his family’s home in Jabaliya, which was destroyed by Israel.

We can learn much from the Israeli government’s decision this week to suspend a special strategic dialog with the United Kingdom because of concerns that Israeli officials could be arrested and indicted with crimes against humanity in the UK, according to a British law that provides for “universal jurisdiction” in such cases, i.e., a suspect of any country can be charged, detained and tried in a British court even if the alleged crimes occurred in a third country and did not include British citizens among the victims. Israel’s Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni recently cancelled a trip to London as did Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor this week, because he was advised that he risked being arrested.

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Cinema Politica | Tadamon! co-presentation | photo Matthew Cassel Just Image

Monday November 15, 2010
screening begins 19h00
free! donations welcome
Room H-110
Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve West

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Richard Falk, Electronic Intifada 5 November 2010

Photo Wolf Bonpiedbonoeil Israeli apartheid wall in Palestine.

The following is an oral presentation made by Richard Falk, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967, to the United Nations General Assembly on 20 October 2010:

As this is my last report to the General Assembly in my term as Special Rapporteur on the Situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 it seems appropriate to describe some of the special difficulties that have faced the mandate-holder in discharging the functions of the position. The most salient of these difficulties involves the non-cooperation of the Government of Israel. Israel has refused to fulfill its obligations as a member of the United Nations by its repeated failures to allow the special rapporteur to enter Israel so as to visit periodically the occupied territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza ever since his expulsion on 14 December 2008 from Ben Gurion Airport when attempting to enter the country. This level of non-cooperation greatly exceeds that associated with the efforts of my predecessor, the distinguished South African international lawyer John Dugard who was allowed to enter Israel for purposes of the mandate, but denied access to Israeli political and military officials charged with administering the occupation. It should be pointed out that this record of non-cooperation was extended to such related important UN undertakings, including the “Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” widely known as the Goldstone report, and more recently in relation to the fact-finding panel appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate the allegations surrounding the flotilla incident of 31 May 2010. In each of these instances Israel reinforced this posture of non-cooperation by engaging in a politics of deflection, defaming the messenger and the auspices rather than contesting and responding to the findings and recommendations of the reports.

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PACBI statement | 2/11/2010

Photo Palestinian flag flies proudly over Ireland hills.

With the 29 September 2010 decision by the Senate of the University of Johannesburg “not to continue a long-standing relationship with Ben Gurion University (BGU) in Israel in its present form” and to set conditions “for the relationship to continue,” a new campaign for the academic boycott of Israel was born at the southern tip of the African continent.[1] Almost in tandem, on 11 October, at the northern tip of the European continent, a fresh academic and cultural boycott was announced in Oslo, endorsed by 100 leading Norwegian figures in the academy, culture and sports.[2]

Two weeks earlier, the European Platform for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (EPACBI) was established, after a successful meeting in Paris of 50 representatives of academic boycott campaigns from 9 European countries and a PACBI representative. The meeting was called at the initiative of the French campaign, AURDIP (Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine), and BRICUP (British Committee for the Universities of Palestine).

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Ezra Winton founder Cinema Politica @ Quebec BDS conference Montreal Oct 2010

Photo Ariel view on Israeli apartheid wall cutting though Palestinian lands.

As someone working in the media arts sector, I signed the 500 artist BDS letter along with Cinema Politica’s Executive Director Svetla Turnin. We signed because it was a tangible action that connected art to the resistance against oppression.

We also signed because we feel that too often artists and those working in the arts who are privately critical of Israel take two paths around the issue of Palestine’s occupation: Ignore it all together in their work and their public life, or adopt a liberal stance that argues it is not the role of art to intervene in such matters.

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Adalah press release November 3, New York, NY.

Photo ActiveStills Maale Adumim settlement in the occupied West Bank.

November 3, New York, NY – Africa Israel, the flagship company of Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, announced this week that it is no longer involved in Israeli settlement projects and that it has no plans for future settlement activities. Africa Israel subsequently denied that this was a political decision. However, in the last few years numerous organizations, firms, governments and celebrities have exerted pressure and severed their relationships with Leviev and his companies over their involvement in settlement construction and other human rights abuses, in response to a boycott campaign initiated by Adalah-NY.

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Gaza City, Inter Press Service – IPS by Eva Bartlett

Photo Palestinian youth biking at United Nations school in occupied Palestine.

The focus on people’s movements in Palestine continues to gain momentum with growing nonviolent demonstrations in Gaza, the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, and with a Palestine-wide call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

Years of the nonviolent demonstrations throughout the occupied West Bank against Israel’s wall have finally generated some media interest in the issue of the wall and annexation of Palestinian land. Yet the behind-the-scenes work of Palestinian unions, Palestinian and international BDS groups, video conferences bridging Palestine to the outside world, and the struggle of Palestinian students to access an education continues largely unnoticed by the cameras.

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