Turkey will not send any delegation to a biannual tourism conference in Israel later this month, the country’s culture minister said Tuesday, marking the first boycott of Israel on a multilateral level since a deadly raid on a Turkish aid ship in May.
Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay told a group of reporters Tuesday that Turkey would not send any representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, conference on Oct. 20-22 in Jerusalem. “Regrettable statements have been made. We want tourism to take place, not politics,” he said.
Bil’in protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment today, for his involvement in his village’s unarmed struggle against the wall.
Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced today to 12 months in prison, plus 6 months suspended sentence for 3 years and a fine of 5,000 NIS. In the sentencing, the judge cited the non-implementation of an Israeli High Court ruling which declared the current route of the wall on Bil’in’s land illegal as a mitigating factor.
Evenement social ouvert à toutes et à tous en soutien à la Conférence BDS.
Photo: Biddu, Palestine, 2004 – The shadow of a young man throwing stones at Israeli Occupation Forces with a home-made sling during a protest in the West Bank village of Biddu. The people of Biddu were protesting the construction of the Apartheid Wall on their lands, and the Israeli soldiers had occupied the village to ensure that work continued on the Wall uninterrupted.
Following a sharp increase in divestment efforts across North American college campuses last spring, this academic year promises an even greater number of initiatives. The success and near-success of efforts at several campuses last year, coupled with Israel’s attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla this summer, has inspired new efforts among peace and justice activists to target companies that profit from and abet Israel’s apartheid regime.
Boycott, Désinvestissement et Sanctions pour mettre fin à l’apartheid israélien
En juillet 2005, plus de 170 organismes de la société civile palestinienne, incluant des groupes de femmes, des syndicats, des groupes de réfugié(e)s et des groupes culturels, se sont assemblés pour faire un appel au Boycott, Désinvestissement et Sanctions (BDS) intégral contre l’apartheid israélien. Par cette demande, ces organismes veulent inciter la société civile internationale à boycotter les produits israéliens, désinvestir des compagnies israéliennes et encourager leurs gouvernements à imposer des sanctions sur l’État d’Israël, jusqu’à ce que celui-ci respecte le droit international et droits humains des Palestiniens.
Voilà pourquoi du 22 au 24 octobre prochain, des organisations solidaires avec la Palestine basées à Montréal animeront une conférence de 3 jours dont l’objectif est de faire avancer la campagne BDS contre l’apartheid israélien. Cette campagne est basée sur trois demandes concrètes :
Photo Palestinian woman flying flag at protest in West Bank.
On September 5, 2010 the Israel newspaper Haaretz published an article the headline of which read “Anti-Israel Economic Boycotts are Gaining Speed.” The subtitle went on to state that “the sums involved are not large, but their international significance is huge.” Actually, what seems to have triggered the piece was not international. Rather, it was the decision of a “few dozen theater people” to boycott “a new cultural center in Ariel,” an illegally settled town in the Occupied Territories. This action drew public support from 150 academics in Israel. The response from the Israeli right, which presently controls the government and much of Israel’s information environment, was loud and hateful.
Britain and Spain will not send delegates to the OECD’s biannual tourism conference on October 20-22, because it will be held in Jerusalem, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov (Yisrael Beiteinu ) said yesterday.
This is only the second time in its history that the conference, which this year will deal with sustainable tourism, is being held outside Paris.
Photo Oded Balilty An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man carries a Palestinian flag as he walks in the street during the Purim holiday in Jerusalem, Monday, March 1, 2010.
The entire week was marked by boycotts. It began with a few dozen theater people boycotting the new culture center in Ariel, and continued with a group of authors and artists publishing a statement of support on behalf of those theater people. Then a group of 150 lecturers from various universities announced they would not teach at Ariel College or take part in any cultural events in the territories. Naturally, all that spurred a flurry of responses, including threats of counter-sanctions.
