Press Release – 25 November 2009

Photo: Palestinian flag at a solidarity demonstration in London.

In reaction to reports alleging that a Palestinian trade union official has stated his reservations about the Palestinian civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the full spectrum of the Palestinian trade union movement has expressed solid support for the BDS National Committee (BNC)* and for the global BDS campaign against Israel as an effective form of resisting its military occupation, war crimes and apartheid policies.

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An interview with author Ben White by Stefan Christoff.

Photo: ActiveStills Palestinian held at Israeli military check-point during Ramadan.

Public discourse towards the Palestine-Israel conflict has shifted. More and more, we hear the word “apartheid” associated with discussions concerning Israeli policy towards the Palestinian people. Such an analysis of apartheid makes connections between the contemporary conflict in the Middle East and the apartheid era in South Africa. It is, in part, this political tie that has mobilized grassroots networks globally in solidarity with Palestine.

U.K.-based author Ben White, author of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide, has just topped off a cross-country tour of major Canadian universities where he has lectured on Israeli Apartheid.

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Fred Moten | PACBI | 7 November 2009

Photo: Palestinian stands in Gaza Strip grave after Israeli military bombing.

1. The justification of the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions is quite simple and quite clear: the victims of a sovereign brutality instantiated in racial-military domination have come to an overwhelming consensus, in the very shadow of the state that has come to exemplify The State and its exception, that boycott is the most immediate form of international support they require. To be in solidarity with the Palestinian people is to enact and support the boycott. However, the significance of the boycott is a slightly more complicated matter. Arguments against the boycott that go beyond the rejection of whatever form either of criticism of Israel or Palestinian resistance or the sometimes open/sometimes veiled assertion of an assumed Israeli exception and exemption, focus on the negative impact the presumed isolation and withdrawal of support for Israeli dissidents will have, already a morally obtuse argument insofar as it shifts our primary political and ethical concerns away from the actual victims of racial-military domination.

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Confederation Nationale du Travail joins BDS campaign – press release

Photo: ActiveStills Palestinian youth hurls stone during a protest against the wall.

November 2009 – Through the intermediary of its international Secretary, the National Work Confederation (Confederation Nationale du Travail or CNT), a French anti-capitalist internationalist union involved in social class struggles, has joined the campaign labeled “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the State of Israel”, an international campaign launched by more than 170 grass-root Palestinian organizations, including our partnering independent Palestinian independent unions.

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photos by Elsa Marie Jabre and Anthony Côte

Photo: Elsa Marie Jabre. Seven Arrows performs at Artists Against Apartheid.

Montreal’s groundbreaking concert series Artists Against Apartheid continues to unite artists on stages across the city for major cultural events in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

At the eleventh Artists Against Apartheid hundreds gathered to listen to performances, including a trio featuring Sam Shalabi on oud, Omar Dewachi on oud and Pierre-Guy Blanchard on percussion to open the evening.

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solidarity with Bil’in, the Palestinian village at the heart of the popular resistance!

Friday 27 November, 2009
6pm at Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN)
1601 de Lorimier
Métro Papineau
Montreal, Quebec

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Interview with Palestinian artist Suleiman Mansour by Aaron Lakoff

Photo: Painting on the apartheid wall near Ramallah by Suleiman Mansour

Suleiman Mansour is one of Palestine’s most renowned painters. Active in the Palestinian artist community since the 1970s, he has contributed greatly to art education and promotion in the West Bank. He is a co-founder of the Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem, and is also a member of the “New Vision” artist group, which focuses on the use of local material in artwork.

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba in 2008, Suleiman Mansour was interviewed at the Palestinian International Academy of Art in Ramallah about the struggles of Palestinian cultural producers over the decades, and what the significance of art is in the face of this historic milestone.

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photo essay by photographer Claudia Espinosa

Photo: Claudia Espinosa. DAM performs in Montreal with Narcicyst

Hundreds gathered in Montreal for the ninth Artists Against Apartheid concert featuring DAM, the celebrated Palestinian hip-hop group, who took the stage in Montreal for the first time at Café Campus.

Joining DAM at the concert was Montreal-based Iraqi hip-hop artist the Narcicyst, along with MCs from the celebrated local hip-hop group Nomadic Massive

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photo essay by Valérian Mazataud

Photo: Valérian Mazataud. Israeli occupation forces launch teargas at protests, Nil’in.

Palestinian protests in opposition to Israel’s ‘separation barrier’ or apartheid wall have spread across the West Bank in recent years, as popular protest committees have formed in multiple cities, many holding weekly demonstrations as in Bil’in and Nil’in villages.

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press release, Saturday, October 31st, 2009.

Photo: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign graphic.

Montreal, October 31 – On the scariest day of the year, members of Middle East solidarity groups Tadamon, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) and the Québec BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Committee will be demanding that the Bay take its creepiest product, Ahava Dead Sea cosmetics, off its shelves.

Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories (www.ahava.co.il) is a privately held Israeli cosmetics company that manufactures products using minerals and mud from the Dead Sea. Ahava products are widely available in high-end department stores and pharmacies throughout the United States, Europe and Canada. But Ahava is hiding the ugly truth — its products are derived from Palestinian natural resources stolen from the occupied West Bank and are manufactured in the illegal West Bank settlement of Mitzpe Shalem. Ahava’s corporate practices violate international law.

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