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“RACISM” CHARGE DROPPED AGAINST ISRAEL PROTESTORS

Five Palestine campaigners who contested the relevancy of a “racially aggravated conduct” charge in relation to their protest against Israel’s blockade of Gaza had all charges against them dropped today.

The campaigners, all members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), had interrupted the August 2008 Edinburgh Festival concert by the Jerusalem Quartet. Tours by the classical musicians are regularly sponsored by the Israeli Government, which the campaign group claims makes them a legitimate target for protest.

The campaigners had been accused of making “comments about Jews, Israelis, and the State of Israel”, but during a three-day legal debate at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, a BBC audio recording of the event revealed that there had been no reference made to “Jews”. Comments included “They are Israeli Army musicians”, “End the Siege of Gaza”, “Genocide in Gaza”, and “Boycott Israel”.

Sheriff James Scott ruled that “the comments were clearly directed at the State of Israel, the Israeli Army, and Israeli Army musicians”, and not targeted at “citizens of Israel” per se. “The procurator fiscal’s attempts to squeeze malice and ill will out of the agreed facts were rather strained”, he said.

The Sheriff expressed concern that to continue with the prosecution would have implications for freedom of expression generally: “if persons on a public march designed to protest against and publicise alleged crimes committed by a state and its army are afraid to name that state for fear of being charged with racially aggravated behaviour, it would render worthless their Article 10(1) rights. Presumably their placards would have to read, ‘Genocide in an unspecified state in the Middle East’; ‘Boycott an unspecified state in the Middle East’ etc.

“Having concluded that continuation of the present prosecution is not necessary or proportionate, and therefore incompetent, it seems to me that the complaint must be dismissed.”

Mr Fraser, the Procurator Fiscal Depute, said he would be appealing the ruling.

Today’s ruling will disappoint the musicians whose concerts now attract regular protest. After a similar disruption of their Wigmore Hall concert last week they issued a statement claiming to “have no connection with or patronage by the [Israeli] Government”. However, organisers of their November 2009 Australia tour acknowledged that “The Israeli Government provided about $8000 towards the costs of the tour”, but explained, “this was only a minuscule proportion of the total cost.”

Outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court, supporters held banners reproducing the ‘racist’ slogans, and a number of enlarged concert programs indicating Israeli Embassy sponsorship of the quartet’s tours were on display. Human rights lawyer, Aamer Anwar, representing Mr Napier, read a statement on behalf of his client: “We welcome today’s judgment which impacts on civil liberties nationally. A dangerous precedent would be set if demonstrators were criminalised for racism for protesting against state genocide by Israel or any other country.”

SPSC chair, Mick Napier had mixed feelings about the ruling: “While this particular attempt to criminalise solidarity with Palestine has failed, British Government support for Israel continues. In England, more than 20 prison sentences – some for over 2 years – have been handed out to those who protested Israel’s massacre of 1400 mostly civilians in Gaza last year. On the subject of racism, of the 78 charged, all but two are young Muslims.

“If our case had gone to trial, it would have been Israel in the dock, not us. We had a string of witnesses from Palestine, Israel, and South Africa lined up to discuss the real racism and apartheid that Palestinians face daily. As long as the ethnic cleansing of Palestine continues, Israel’s political, cultural, and sporting ambassadors will face boycott protest similar to that faced by the racist apartheid South African regime in the last century.

“It’s time for politicians to fall into line with public opinion. Alex Salmond’s recent call for a review of trade relations with Israel is a step in the right direction, but what that means in practice remains to be seen.”

ENDS

[A link to the written judgement by Sheriff James Scott; and relevant photos will be available soon from the online version of this media release: http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk%5D

Notes for editors:

1. The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign started in autumn 2000 in response to the Palestinian second uprising against Israeli occupation (Intifada). The SPSC has branches and groups of supporters in several Scottish cities and universities, as well as individual members across Scotland and elsewhere.

For further information, contact:
SPSC Chair, Mick Napier: 0131 620 0052; 07958002591

Email: media@scottishpsc.org.uk (default reply to this email)
Website: http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk

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London supermarket occupied in Israel boycott

31 mars 2010 — Shoppers occupied Waitrose supermarket in London in protest over the support for illegal settlements in Israel. Much of the produce sold as ‘Israel’ actually comes from stolen lands in Palestine.

Global day of action for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. In solidarity with people of Palestine
30 March 2010, London
more info on http://www.waronwant.org

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Israel’s Accession to the OECD

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.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) calls upon civil society organizations around the world to apply maximum pressure on their respective governments to ensure that Israel will not be admitted into the OECD, including by casting a vote against Israel’s accession in the final review of its application in May. Membership in the OECD will intensely fuel Israel’s militarism, belligerence and aggression, further destabilizing the entire region, undermining security as well as social, political and economic development and making the quest for a just peace an unattainable goal.

The BNC deplores the OECD’s persistent disregard of evidence submitted by human rights and civil society organizations in process of examination of Israel’s membership application [1]. The BNC further deplores the decision by the OECD to consider Israel’s inability to provide economic statistics which distinguish between the state of Israel and the Palestinian and Syrian territories it occupies as not constituting and obstacle to Israel’s OECD accession [2].

We affirm that the OECD becomes complicit in Israel’s unlawful acts, if the Organization fails to address – despite ample evidence – Israel’s reality as an oppressive occupying and colonizing power in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip and continues to ignore Israel’s system of institutionalized racial discrimination which is the root cause of the extreme poverty among its Palestinian citizens highlighted in OECD reports.

In light of the persistent refusal of many OECD member states to consider Israel’s violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, we call inparticular on OECD members that have voted in support of the recommendations of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (Goldstone Report) in the United Nations – Ireland, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey – to reaffirm their principled stand also in the context of Israel’s bid for OECD membership. We urge you to maintain and reaffirm your position that Israel, like all other states, is to be held accountable to the standards of international law and universal human rights and must respect them before it can be welcomed as a member in the OECD.

Respect and compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law is a requirement for members under OECD instruments. The 1960 OECD Convention, for example, affirms that “economic strength and prosperity are essential for the attainment of the purposes of the United Nations, the preservation of individual liberty and the increase of general well-being.” In the “Road Map for the accession of Israel to the OECD Convention” adopted by the Council in November 2007, the Council noted that in order for Israel to accede to the OECD it must demonstrate its commitment to “fundamental values” shared by all OECD members and meet related benchmarks. The stated OECD values include “a commitment to pluralist democracy based on the rule of law and the respect of human rights, adherence to open and transparent market economy principles and a shared goal of sustainable development.”

Condemned as a state that is practicing occupation, colonization and apartheid by a recent authoritative legal study in South Africa supervised by international law expert and former UN human rights rapporteur, Prof. John Dugard, Israel is not in compliance with international law and OECD standards and benchmarks [3]. Israel has yet to comply with the recommendations of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict and investigate and prosecute where needed those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity that resulted in the death of more than 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians, in the winter of 2008/9. Israel has yet to lift its illegal blockade of the occupied Gaza Strip which has brought to the brink of starvation almost 1.5 million Palestinians, most of whom are refugees Israel had displaced and dispossessed back in 1948. It has yet to dismantle its illegal Wall in the occupied Palestinian West Bank in accordance with the 2004 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion. Israel has yet to end its almost 43-year-old occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, reverse its colonial enterprise and release Palestinians detained and imprisoned. It has yet to transform its political and legal system in order to provide reparation for millions of Palestinian victims, including return for the refugees, and allow full and equal participation of its Palestinian citizens. Only then will Israel meet the standards of pluralist democracies valued by the OECD.

The BNC reiterates the concerns expressed on numerous occasions to the OECD by human rights and civil society organizations and calls upon the governments and peoples of OECD member states to say no to Israel’s bid for membership in the OECD.

[1] See for example: Letter to Mr. Angel Gurria, Secretary General, OECD (22 human rights and civil society organizations), 28 September 2008: www.arabhra.org/HraAdmin/UserImages/Files/NGO%20Letter%20to%20the%20OECD.pdf;
Letter to the Foreign Ministers of Non-EU OECD member states (16 organizations), January 2009: http://www.badil.org/en/documents/category/36-regional-bodies; and Arab Higher Monitoring Committee to the OECD, 27 Feb. 2010: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1152638.html

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Israel and the “de-legitimization” oxymoron

For readers who may not be intimately familiar with English terminology, an oxymoron is a figure of speech by which contradictory terms are combined to form an expressive phrase or epithet such as cruel kindness and falsely true. (It’s derived from the Greek word oxymoros meaning pointedly foolish).

For my contribution to the De-legitimizing Israel series, I’m going to confine myself to one question and answer.

The question is: How can you de-legitimize something (in this case the Zionist state) which it is NOT legitimate?

read on

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Boycott protesters halt Jerusalem Quartet broadcast in London

Protesters disrupted a lunchtime performance by the Israeli chamber music group the Jerusalem Quartet in London on March 29, halting a live BBC broadcast from the prestigious Wigmore Hall in central London.

Radio listeners heard classically trained soprano Deborah Fink, a member of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, singing the words “Jerusalem is occupied” before a BBC announcer interrupted the broadcast.

Fink continued singing lyrics highlighting Israeli apartheid
and ethnic cleansing until security staff removed her.

The protest, organised by Brighton and Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign, continued as four other demonstrators intervened in the live concert at regular intervals. All were removed from the hall but no arrests were made.

Protest was aimed at the four Israeli musicians because, as cultural ambassadors for the State of Israel, they promote the interests of the state and provide a cultural veneer for its policies against the Palestinians.

Outside the Wigmore Hall, demonstrators handed out leaflets explaining to the audience Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, its ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem, the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and its attempt to starve the people of Gaza into submission.

The Jerusalem Quartet issued a statement calling the protests “mistaken, ignorant and inconsiderate”. They said they were “musicians, not politicians” and held up the involvement of two of them with Daniel Barenboim’s Israeli-Arab West-Eastern Divan Orchestra as proof that they did not deserve to be confronted with protest.

However they made no reference to Israel’s injustices against the Palestinian people, nor to their participation in Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations that Barenboim had refused to attend. They also kept quiet about Israeli state funding for their tour of Australia last year.

“Their claims that music is separate from politics are as baseless as the same arguments used against the cultural boycott of South African apartheid,” said one of the protesters.

Monday’s demonstration came the day before the 2nd Global Day of Action on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel.

It also coincided with the appearance in court in Edinburgh of five members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign for disrupting a Jerusalem Quartet concert last year.

Following their actions Israel’s ambassador to the UK complained of “attempts to sabotage the marketing of Israeli art and culture in Britain.”

Mick Napier from Scottish PSC said:

‘Scottish PSC congratulates the protesters in London today, and would like to see all other supporters of Palestine do the same every time the Jerusalem Quartet appear as ambassadors of the apartheid state’.

ENDS

See the following links for media discussion of the Jerusalem Quartet protest.

Discussion on BBC World Service “Europe Today” programme, 30.48 minutes in via this link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p006x9vs/p006x9y9/Europe_Today_01_04_2010/

West Bank reaches Wigmore Hall

http://www.guardian .co.uk/culture/ 2010/mar/ 30/jerusalem- quartet-wigmore- hall-protest

Protesters silence Israeli musicians in London

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/protesters-silence-israeli-musicians-in-london-1932735.html

Protesters disrupt Jerusalem Quartet recital

http://www.rhinegol d.co.uk/magazine s/classical_ music/news/ classical_ music_news. asp

Jerusalem Quartet concert disrupted by anti-Israeli protests

http://www.bbcmusic magazine. com/news/ jerusalem- quartet-concert- disrupted- anti-israeli- protests

7 ways to stop musical ‘ambassadors’ for Israel

http://www.indymedi a.org.uk/ en/2010/03/ 448318.html

Jewish Chronicle

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/30001/protesters-disrupt-jerusalem-quartet-wigmore-hall

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Teva, we don’t want you

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Israel threatens more Gaza attacks

Three Palestinian children have been wounded after Israeli planes and helicopters launched a string of air attacks on the Gaza Strip overnight.

The Israelis claimed that the air raids were in response to rocket fire from Gaza, but Hamas which runs the Palestinian enclave blamed the Israelis for the escalating tensions.

According to Palestinian medical sources, at least seven missiles targeted various Gaza sites.

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Activists burst AIPAC conference’s bubble

Activists protesting outside the AIPAC policy conference carried signs highlighting Israel's rights violations.

Stephanie Westbrook, The Electronic Intifada, 1 April 2010

Activists protesting outside the AIPAC policy conference carried signs highlighting Israel’s rights violations.

The theme of this year’s annual policy conference for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby group was “Israel: Tell the Story.” And it was quite a story that AIPAC wanted to tell. The conference aimed at imparting to the more than 7,000 attendees “an intimate understanding of the many ways that Israel is making the world a better place,” with a focus on peacemaking and innovation.
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Jerusalem Quartet Concert at London’s Wigmore Hall is Disrupted & Radio 3’s Live Broadcast is Terminated


Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Jerusalem Quartet Concert at London’s Wigmore Hall is Disrupted & Radio 3’s Live Broadcast is Terminated

I have a confession to make. I nearly didn’t make it. Yesterday I put my watch and car clock forward but forgot to do so for my mobile and radio alarm! Result was that I got up an hour later than intended! Fortunately I managed to get the next train to Victoria and despite further loss of time as I was (twice) misdirected, I got there only 10 minutes late.

There of course is London’s Wigmore Hall, home to the more discerning of nature’s liberals. Except that scratch a liberal and you will often find an angry conservative!

Jointly organised by members of Brighton PSC and J-Big (Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods) we ensured that the performance by the Jerusalem Quartet, the Israeli Army’s faithful musicians, didn’t go unchallenged.

Because in Scotland a similar protest in Edinburgh has resulted in 5 protestors being bizarrely charged with racism (it’s either anti-semitism or a non-existent Israeli nationality!) it was important that this protest included a Jewish contingent.

Along with an irate old lady who wanted to gain immediate entrance, despite being late, I was kept waiting for a pause in the proceedings. Fortunately our very own opera singer, Debbie Fink of J-Big, decided that she would try and enliven what was frankly a pretty dismal and boring performance by Israel’s finest. As her voice rose in harmony with the vultures on stage it seemed that at first people thought it was part of the show. However Debbie soon received a red card which quite fortunately enabled me to gain my entrance, apologising of course for my late arrival and any disruption that that might cause.

Having gained my seat, the Quartet quickly decided to resume playing. After rehearsing what I was going to say, I stood up after about 5 minutes later and proceeded to tell the JQ that they were the cultural ambassadors of Apartheid Israel and its Army whom they perform for.

Now I confess I don’t claim to understand those who pay to come and listen to musicians with blood on their hands. But then I don’t understand why Wagner was what he was. However I always thought that listening to classical music made you more not less peaceful. Instead as I began to contribute to the concert’s proceedings people began to get animated and started hitting me with their programmes! Not that I was hurt and nor did it distract me from the message I was getting across but it illustrates the Zionist mentality. Security however was quickly off the mark and I was, well not dragged but escorted off the premises, with one of the heavies shouting ‘fuck off’ at my back, to which I could but reply that that wasn’t very nice! The Police quickly entered but to my consternation and amazement did nothing. Given what had happened in Scotland I expected to be arrested. Instead I was merely thrown out into the street.

The next two to be evicted were members of Brighton PSC and the final evictee an activist in ISM. As we were gathering at a nearby café, a member of the audience came over to us to congratulate us on our protest which made us even more pleased. And when we learnt that the live broadcast by Radio 3 (which included Debbie’s initial operatic rendition) had been terminated we were even more over the moon.

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