by Sami Kishawi Sixteen Minutes to Palestine Nov. 19 2010

Photo: Israeli occupation soldiers in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

Today marks another win for the global boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) movement against corporations that profit from severe human rights violations. Chicago’s very own DePaul University just announced that their dining services will be discontinuing the sale of hummus manufactured by Sabra, an Israeli brand known for its vocal and material support of Israeli Defense Forces. The administration has temporarily suspended the sale of Sabra products and will likely move towards permanently banning the brand from campus.

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photos from Artists Against Apartheid feat. Obsesión @ BDS Quebec conference.

Photo Mickey Boston Cuban hip-hop group Obsesión at Artists Anti Apartheid.

Photographer and artist Mickey Boston captured a couple striking portraits of celebrated Cuban hip-hop group Obsesión performing at Artists Against Apartheid during the Quebec/Canada-wide BDS conference in Montreal on October 23 2010. Obsesión performed along side members of Montreal hip-hop group Nomadic Massive, also taking the stage during the concert was Detroit based hip-hop artist Invincible and celebrated Montreal MC The Narcicyst, who performed to a packed house with hundreds gathering for the rising Artists Against Apartheid concert series.

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Haaretz Nov. 2010

Photo Richard Wainwright Residents and protesters gather in the village of Nil’in to demonstrate against land confiscation and the Separartion Barrier running through their land.

A group of leading Israeli film and television artists have signed onto an online petition supporting the right of theater actors to refuse to perform in the newly opened arts center in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.

“A number of Knesset members and ministers from Yisrael Beitenu and Likud and other right-wing figures are calling for cutting off funding to artists that this week called for a boycott of the cultural center in Ariel,” the online petition said.

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BDS Quebec déclaration finale de la conférence. Novembre 2010

Photo: Drapeau palestinien affiché à protester contre l’apartheid israélien.

Un franc succès pour les organisations communautaires de Montréal qui ont organisé et accueilli une conférence visant à propulser le mouvement BDS au Québec, dans le cadre du mouvement global croissant pour le Boycott, désinvestissement et les sanctions (BDS) contre l’apartheid israélien. La conférence s’est tenue du 22 au 24 octobre dernier, à l’Université du Québec à Montréal, rassemblant des centaines de personnes préoccupées par la justice sociale et les droits humains en provenance de partout au Canada et d’ailleurs dans le monde.

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Allan Boesak and Farid Esack | 10 November 2010

Photo Israel’s apartheid wall from above.

In the opening lines of an open letter to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Rabbi Warren Goldstein, leader of the South Africa’s Orthodox Jews, makes a plea that: “Without truth there can be no justice, and without justice there can be no peace.” If ever there was a case of a single swallow not heralding summer, alas, this is it. The rest of his article bears little relationship to the truth:

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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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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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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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