International Solidarity Movement Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.
ANOTHER VOICE
December 8, 2007
For Immediate Release
On December 9th, 2007, the twentieth anniversary of the first intifada, we call for a general boycott of Israeli products.
Israel’s income from Palestine is estimated at 3 billion dollars annually. When anyone purchases Israeli products, they are funding the occupation of our land. They are funding bullets, weapons, tanks, and fighter planes which are being used to kill our family and countrymen. They are funding bulldozers to uproot the trees of our ancestors and demolish our relatives’ homes. The soldiers manning the checkpoints are kept warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and well fed year round, with every purchase of an Israeli product.
Israel has a stranglehold over our economy which allows it to punish us whenever it wants by cutting off our access to essentials, as they are doing to our brothers and sisters in the Gaza Strip. Yet, despite the overwhelming odds, we must continue to resist and take action.
Boycotting during the first intifada was an essential component in the collective effort to end the occupation. People tried not to buy Israeli products but, instead, to contribute to the development of a national economy. Cooperatives sprung up to cover the shortages created by the boycott of Israeli products. People reclaimed lots and planted them, raised livestock, looked locally within their communities for alternatives to raw Israeli materials. This was part of civil disobedience against the civil administration, directed by local popular committees together with the political direction formulated by the Unified National Leadership.
Our call for a day of boycott is in remembrance of what once was, and what could resume today. We are all children and parents of the intifada. Every single one of us has a role to play in the struggle for our freedom. So, to commemorate the spark that awoke the world to our plight; to recall the spirit of our collective resistance; and to affirm the power that people have to make change, we call on everyone to refrain from buying any Israeli products on December 9th.
Resist! Boycott! We Are Intifada!
For more information, contact:
Huwaida Arraf: 0599-130-426
Saleh Hijazi: 0599-776-894
Web: www.anothervoice-palestine.org
E-mail: info@anothervoice-palestine.org
