BDS News

By members of the Israeli Apartheid Week at McGill organizing committee (McGill Reporter) - As the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week McGill (IAW), we would like to take this opportunity to thank all the organizations and individuals that helped make this year’s events a big success.

By Salim Vally - There are moments in modern history when particular struggles galvanise millions around the world to act in solidarity. This occurred during the Spanish Civil War, the struggle of the Vietnamese people against US imperialism and the liberation struggles of Southern Africa. The time has now come for progressive humanity to cut through the obfuscations, canards and calumnies and meaningfully support the resistance of the Palestinian people.

Press Release, NYCBI, 31 March 2009 - More than 50 New Yorkers protested outside the Motorola office in downtown Brooklyn this morning. The protest launched a new city-wide campaign to boycott Motorola over the company's complicity in the Israeli government's apartheid practices against Palestinians. In a heavy wind, human rights campaigners from the newly formed group The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (NYCBI) chanted, sang and passed out a thousand flyers to passersby.

Sawt el-Amel, March 30, 2009: On April 1, 2009, most Arab railroad crossing guards in Israel will lose their jobs. This mass lay-off is a result of Israel Railways’ new policy
denying employment to workers who have no permit to carry weapons – that is: who have not served in the Israeli army. According to Israel Railways, a government company, the new employment policy is designed to give priority to young army veterans.

View full report at: http://www.laborers-voice.org/article_details.aspx?TopID=940&catid=45

Sawt el-Amel/The Laborer's Voice
PO Box2721
Nazareth16126
Israel

Date: 31 / 03 / 2009, Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli exporters have been forced to cut prices in part because of a worldwide boycott of Israeli products in protest of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, a leading industry association reported this week.

Israeli exporters have been “losing foreign markets and customers because of the global economic crisis and a growing anti-Israel boycott of locally made products following Operation Cast Lead.”

The findings were made available by the Israel Manufacturers Association on Sunday, and published in the Jerusalem Post the following day.

Press Release, For Immediate Release, The Canadian Muslim Forum (FMC-CMF) - www.fmc-cmf.com - (Montreal, March 29, 2009) In response to the call from the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (CJPP), quoted below, The Canadian Muslim Forum (FMC-CMF) is cancelling the Muslim Community’s meeting with Mr. Jason Kenny the Minister of Multiculturalism and Immigration. The meeting was originally scheduled for April 4th, 2009 in Montreal.

By Tim Franks, BBC News, Jerusalem - Not all consumers are the same. Not all supermarket shoppers care just about price, or freshness, or brand. Some also care about from where a product came. Since I wrote about labelling of produce from the West Bank, in November, several people got in touch to tell me that they had been mystified by supermarket food, labelled as produce of the "West Bank". Did that mean produce of Israeli settlements or Palestinian farms?

On Tuesday, the British government is chairing a meeting in London on the issue.

March 29, 2009 By Multiple Authors - We are peace activists of Jewish background. Some of us typically identify in this way; others of us do not. But we all object to those who claim to speak for all Jews or who use charges of anti-Semitism to attempt to squelch legitimate dissent.

For Immediate Release: Thursday, March 26, 2009 - WASHINGTON, DC -- On Monday, March 30, the Green Party of the United States will join other advocates for an end to the Israeli occupation, for full human rights and equality for all in Israel-Palestine, and for a nonviolent resolution to the Middle East conflict by observing the Global Day of Action for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

A report published Sunday in the Hebrew-language business paper 'The Marker', 21% of Israeli exporters say that they have been directly impacted by a boycott of Israeli products since the beginning of 2009. The poll was conducted by the Israeli Union of Industrialists, and the percentage was extracted from a sampling of 90 companies from a variety of industries, including high tech, construction, textiles and food products.