Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Support Palestine: Products and Brands Boycotts

The BNC is currently encouraging consumer boycotts of the following products and brands:

Israeli Fruit and Vegetables

Fruit and vegetables are one of Israel’s biggest exports and all Israeli agricultural exporters are complicit in Israel’s violations of international law as they operate on stolen Palestinian land.

Caterpillar

Caterpillar bulldozers are regularly used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and farms and in Israel’s massacres in Gaza.

SodaStream

SodaStream home drinks machines are one of Israel’s best known exports.

Ahava

Ahava cosmetics are another of Israel’s best known export companies.

HP

Hewlett Packard helps run the ID system that Israel uses to restrict Palestinian movement.

Sabra

Eden Springs sells bottled water across the world. Its Israeli subsidiary operates a bottling plant in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

'brave' israelis


the israeli security forces once again demonstrate their 'bravery' against women...,

Sunday, June 26, 2016

IHEU reads poem banned in Saudi for ‘apostasy’ to delegates at UN

The ongoing case of Palestinian poet, Ashraf Fayadh, who is currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.

The latest in a series of trials and results has seen the sentence commuted from beheading to eight years imprisonment with 800 lashes for ‘apostasy’. The charges include “spreading atheism” and insulting “the divine self”.


Ashraf Fayadh, a poet currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday 23/06/2016 at the United Nations, the International Humanist and Ethical Union’s (IHEU) director of advocacy, Elizabeth O’Casey, read out a poem that is banned in Saudi Arabia on the grounds of ‘apostasy.’ The poem was delivered in front of the delegation from Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Human Rights Council.




Read the full story on:-
http://iheu.org/iheu-reads-poem-banned-in-saudi-for-apostasy-to-delegates-at-un/

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel Gathers Pace

The BDS Movement continues to grow globally with important events this month at home and abroad:-

Many of Ireland’s best-known musicians, writers, artists and sports stars have called on the Irish Government to join them in supporting the growing worldwide boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

The statement, in an open letter published in the Irish Times and Irish Independent, has been welcomed by Palestinian and Irish human rights campaigners. The full text of the letter is published for the record:-

Boycott of Israel is a legitimate response to regime's apartheid

We, the undersigned, welcome the recent statement in the Dáil by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charles Flanagan, that the strategy of boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) aimed at pressurising Israel into ending the occupation is a legitimate political viewpoint.

The full text of the Oireachtas debate can be viewed here:-
http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail2016052600033?opendocument

It is also heartening that Minister Flanagan outlines the Government's support for Israeli and Palestinian NGOs which are active on justice and human rights issues.
However, given this expression of support, it is both disappointing and confusing that when those same civil society organisations call on the international community to campaign for BDS as a means of showing solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation, the Irish Government refuses to support them or the campaign.

The BDS movement is a Palestinian civil-society-led global movement of citizens that carries out and advocates for non-violent campaigns of BDS as a means to overcome the Israeli regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid and achieve freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people.
The reasons to support BDS are systematically documented by organisations like Amnesty International, Defense for Children International, the United Nations and others, which describe extrajudicial killings, imprisonment of children, destruction of people's homes and livelihoods, theft of Palestinian lands and daily intimidation with tear gas and bullets.

It is for these and many other reasons that we call for: a boycott of Israeli products and services, business divestments from the occupation economy and governmental sanctions on the Israeli state.
Robert Ballagh, Frances Black, Mary Coughlan, Margaretta D'Arcy, Séamus Deane, Felim Egan, Jim Fitzpatrick, Honor Heffernan, Trevor Hogan, Gavin Kostick, Donal Lunny, Christy Moore and Dervla Murphy



In the US the largest gathering of UUs in the country just voted on whether to endorse the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)’s recent divestment from companies complicit in the Israeli occupation. The general assembly achieved a simple majority while falling short of the two thirds needed for passage. - See more at: http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=4806#sthash.OFfxVqSC.dpuf

On the wider front US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro recently expressed the US government's opposition to boycotts of Israel. The ambassador quoted President Obama, who said in February, 

“I have directed my administration to strongly oppose boycotts, divestment campaigns, and sanctions targeting the State of Israel. As long as I am President, we will continue to do so.”

One wonders how this position can be reconciled with the American constitution.? 

Boycott is a legitimate initiative by Palestinian civil society leaders responding to decades of human rights abuses.

It is somewhat encouraging that Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, made a comment in support of the rights of the individual during the recent Debate on Human Rights Issues. Failure to renew travel documents is an effective travel ban imposed on Omar Barghouti, one of the founders of the Palestinian movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

Minister Flanagan had the following to say:-

"The person in question is a leading advocate of the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions, BDS, against Israel, which is intended to pressure Israel into ending the occupation. While the Government does not itself support such a policy, it is a legitimate political viewpoint, albeit one regarded in Israel as deeply hostile."


Tuesday, January 12, 2016