A collection of recent press articles on the Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign from around the world. Compiled by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). The links below are all to PACBI site, on which the articles have been reposted, along with links to the original (where available).
PACBI Press Release
Boycott Israel to Stop its War Crimes in Lebanon and Gaza! Palestinian Civil Society Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel — Acting Steering Committee, July 18, 2006
Calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions
1. Formation of SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL COALITION IN SOUTH AFRICA
Press release | | July 21, 2006
“The crisis caused by the imperialist-backed Israeli state in their collective punishment of the Palestinians and the Lebanese people has demanded an urgent response.”
2. Derry protesters demand Israeli goods boycott
Sarah Brett | Belfast Telegraph | July 21, 2006
“Anti-war protesters will be on the streets of Londonderry tomorrow calling for a boycott of Israeli goods.”
International solidarity
1. Greens to Bush: Press Israel to Stop the Attacks on Lebanon
Green Party, USA | July 20, 2006
“Slaughter of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians is a punishable war crime; use of U.S. weapons for such purposes violates U.S. laws.”
2. Filmmakers Demand Withdrawal of Israeli Government Sponsorship of Film Festival
PACBI | | July 18, 2006
“The following intervention by Arab and other filmmakers has resulted in the Locarno International Film Festival 2006 renouncing financial support from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
3. NADEL CONDEMNS ISRAEL’S FLAGRANT BREACH OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
NADEL | | July 2006
“The National Association of Democratic Lawyers of South Africa condemns the flagrant breaches of international humanitarian law and the violations of the human rights of Palestinians further exacerbated by the latest attack from Israel on the residents of Gaza in Palestine.”
Related articles and analysis
1. Analysis: could Israel face war crimes charges?
Michael Herman | The [London] Times | July 20, 2006
“A UN warning that Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon may constitute war crimes has legal legs – but with the issue being as much about politics as law, prosecutions are unlikely anytime soon, analysts say.”
2. Film festival drops Israel as sponsor to protest attack
Jim Quilty | The Daily Star | July 21, 2006
“BEIRUT: The organizers of the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival have dropped the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a festival sponsor because of that country’s unremitting bombardment of civilian targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.”
3. Israeli Apartheid
Bruce Dixon | The Black Commentator | July 20, 2006
“Imagine, if you will, a modern apartheid state with first, second and eleventh class citizens, all required to carry identification specifying their ethnic origin.”
4. Nothing but anti-Arab racism can fully explain the behaviour of the Israelis
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown | The Independent | July 17, 2006
“Born in Germany, Hugh was from one of those cultured, intellectual Jewish Berlin families crushed by Nazism. He escaped to Britain in the late 1930s to become a world-class scientist. Israel would bring out the worst in his people, he always said, and I argued with him. Survivors of the Holocaust, I believed, were on the side of the angels. “No, my dear,” he would respond, “the Jewish state will make us nationalists, and will one day make us racialists.” I am glad he is not alive to see his prophetic words turned flesh.”
5. Boycott Israeli Dance Companies
Paul Ben-Itzak | The Dance Insider | July 2006
“PARIS — I’d love to be able to start this column with the dance angle, explaining why we should boycott the Israeli companies performing at this month’s Lincoln Center Festival — including Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva, opening tomorrow — but unfortunately, in the face of the dissembling and pandering to the Israel lobby by Senator Hilary Clinton and others, even as Israeli bombs continue to kill Lebanese children (the toll at the end of yesterday: 230 Lebanese civilians killed by Israel, 13 Israeli civilians killed by Hizbullah), I’m afraid some context is in order.”
6. A New Middle East is Born: But not exactly the one Shimon Peres had in mind
Omar Barghouti | Electronic Lebanon | July 19, 2006
“Six long, bloodstained days have passed since Israel launched its barbaric attack on Lebanon without succeeding in exacting a significant military toll on the resistance itself. Six days are exactly what it took Israel to deal a crushing and humiliating military defeat to the largely inferior armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan in June 1967, and to subsequently occupy the Palestinian Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Egyptian Sinai peninsula.”
7. Peace With Justice Is Only Way Out
Sam Bahour | OhmyNews International | July 18, 2006
“In case anyone had any remaining doubts, the flawed Middle East peace process and the international community’s half-hearted efforts have miserably failed, culminating in Israel’s most recent aggression in Gaza and Lebanon. Following the Palestinians’ democratic legislative elections which brought Hamas to power, Israel announced that its goal was to topple the Palestinian government at any cost.”
8. Ties with Israel open to debate, says Pahad
Boyd Webb | Cape Times | July 17, 2006
“Pretoria: While the government is not entertaining thoughts of cutting diplomatic ties with Israel or imposing sanctions, it is open to debate on the issue, says Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad.”