band annie's Weblog

April 24, 2010

Despite the fact that there is -as demonstrated by this web-site- clearly a lot of more work to be done for people campaigning for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel, a recent visit to the Jordan Valley confirmed that there are plenty of reasons for the BDS movement to take stock of its successes.

The fertile Jordan Valley is the largest agricultural area of the West Bank and the origin of most agricultural settlement produce (see, for example, http://corporateoccupation.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/occupation-as-profit-the-settler-economy/). Hence companies based in the Valley, such as the vegetable, fruit and flower exporter Carmel Agrexco, have been prime targets for the boycott movement and they are now visibly suffering a reduction in exports as a result. After spending a week interviewing Palestinians working in the settlements, it seems obvious to me both that our strategies are working and that they are supported by the exploited settlement workers themselves.

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H&M, the Swedish fashion chain, are opening a new store in Brixton in the
old Woolworth’s store at midday on 29 April.
That would be fine except: H&M are in the middle of a large expansion programme in Israel, including a new store in Jerusalem.

By opening that store H&M are supporting the Judisation of Jerusalem and supporting the expulsion of the Palestinians who have lived in the city for generations.

Judisation is not a peaceful process; it is conducted by demolishing
Palestinian homes and beating and imprisoning anyone who protests.
The Israeli Government has ignored international calls to halt the building of settlements in Jerusalem. There has been a European wide call to protest against H&M’s active support of Israeli apartheid.

Join our protest outside H&M’s new shop, Brixton Road
11.30 April 29
J-BIG
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods

For more details contact
supporters@bricup.org.uk

A Vote for Israel’s Accession to the OECD is a Vote in Support of Israel’s War Crimes and Other Grave Violations of International Law and Human Rights

Palestinian civil society urges the peoples and governments of OECD member states to defer Israel’s OECD accession until it respects international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people and shows commitment to the fundamental values shared by OECD members.

BNC, Palestine, 15 March 2010 – The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is scheduled to convene in May 2010 in order to take a formal decision on Israel’s application for membership in the Organization. A vote for Israel’s accession to the OECD will be regarded by an overwhelming majority of Palestinians, Arabs, and people of conscience around the world as a decisive and far-reaching act of complicity in rewarding and perpetuating Israel’s occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people. Furthermore, it will irreparably undermine the rule of law and further entrench the culture of impunity that has enabled Israel to escalate its commission of war crimes and what is described by some leading international law experts as a prelude to genocide against Palestinians in the illegally besieged and occupied Gaza Strip.
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Posted by BNC Palestine

Occupied Palestine, March 16th – The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) calls for international protests leading to a boycott of Swedish fashion giant H&M, particularly in the Arab World, in response to its opening of its second store in Israel, this time in the “Malha Mall” in Jerusalem, at a time when Israel is intensifying its illegal colonization of the occupied eastern part of the city. Malha is one of the Palestinian villages that were ethnically cleansed during the 1948 Nakba and whose original Palestinian inhabitants are refugees denied their UN-sanctioned right to return to their lands. Israel, to this day, continues its policies of ethnic cleaning in Jerusalem by evicting Palestinians from their homes and replacing them with Jewish colonial settlers and by constructing tens of thousands of housing units for those settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory. All Israeli colonies are regarded as war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

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