Category: Press Releases

PACBI: Urgent appeal to all academics

CONDEMN U.S. GOVERNMENT COMPLICITY IN BLOCKING PALESTINIAN RIGHT TO MOVEMENT AND ADVOCATE MEASURES TO PRESSURE ISRAEL

To view original appeal click here

May 30, 2008

The news that the US State Department has decided to cancel all previously approved Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza is deeply shocking. In yet another clear demonstration of US complicity with the Israeli occupation regime, the State Department has decided to withdraw the grants for graduate studies in the US because Israel has not given permission for the students to leave Gaza. The US Consulate in Jerusalem is reported to have stated that the grant money had been “redirected” because of concern that if the students were forced to remain in Gaza the grant money would go to waste. Is it credible for the US government, principal supporter and financier of Israel, to claim impotence in the face of Israeli measures restricting the movement of Palestinians into and out of the Gaza Strip?

This US government measure comes only days after Amnesty International termed the siege and imprisonment of a million and a half Palestinians in the Gaza Strip collective punishment that is causing the gravest humanitarian crisis to date; the decision was announced scarcely a few weeks after former US President Carter called the imprisonment of the entire Gaza population a terrible human rights crime and a brutal punishment and called for strong voices in Europe, the US, Israel and elsewhere to speak out and condemn this human rights tragedy. Only yesterday, Nobel laureate and head of the UN human rights observer team visiting the Gaza Strip, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, denounced the international community for its “silence and complicity” on Israel’s “abominable” 11-month blockade of Gaza.

What should be the response of the international academic community to this travesty of the most basic of human rights, the right to move freely, especially when students and academics are involved? We recall that one of the strongest arguments against the academic boycott of Israel put forth by some associations of academics in the United States and Europe is that boycotts violate the free exchange and circulation of ideas among academics. How can there be a free exchange of ideas when a whole people are denied their basic human right of movement? Are the human rights—let alone academic freedom—of Palestinian students and scholars of no concern to academics the world over?

We urge all associations of academics, as well as individual academics, particularly in the United States, to protest in the strongest terms possible this latest instance of US government complicity in the criminal Israeli policy of siege and imprisonment. We also appeal to academics to advocate and adopt effective measures to counter US complicity and, most crucially, Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights and international humanitarian law. The Israeli academy in particular cannot be allowed to carry on its business as usual in the face of the deepening oppression of the Palestinian people. Its deafening silence is a certain sign of its complicity in the structures of oppression, including the criminal siege upon the Gaza Strip and the collective punishment of its people. Measures such as academic boycotts, divestment initiatives, and any other form of pressure on the Israeli academy are among the few avenues left for academic activism today.

www.PACBI.org
info@boycottisrael.ps

Jayyous students to Dubai: boycott settlement-builder Leviev

On May 27, 2008, representatives from Adalah-NY and Jews Against the Occupation (JATO) met with representatives from the United Arab Emirates UN Mission in Manhattan. They presented the UAE representatives with a letter from students from the West Bank village of Jayyous calling on the people of Dubai to boycott Israeli billionaire and settlement-builder Lev Leviev. In mid-April, Leviev announced that he would open two jewelry stores in Dubai. Adalah-NY then called on Dubai to boycott Leviev because of his businesses’ involvement in human right abuses and violations of international law in Palestine, Angola and New York City. Leviev’s companies have built settlement homes in Jayyous, in Bil’in, in Har Homa on Jabel abu Ghneim, and in Maale Adumim. On April 30, Ali Ebrahim, Deputy Director General for Executive Affairs in Dubai, was quoted in “Gulf News” saying that authorities had “not granted a trade license to any business of this name” and would not approve the application should one be made. Ebrahim “added that Israeli businesses would be prevented from operating in Dubai through non-Israeli partners.” In the May 27 meeting, Adalah-NY and JATO also gave the UAE representatives photos showing that Leviev’s jewelry is being advertised and sold by his Palestinian/Moroccan partner Arif Ben Khadra in his “Levant” stores in Dubai (http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/05/97529.html), and asked the UAE to heed the Jayyous students’ boycott call below and enforce their government’s boycott pledge.

We, high school students of English in the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Jayyous, declare our complete opposition to the Israeli businessman Mr. Lev Leviev who is destroying our olive groves that have sustained our village for centuries. Many of our families are not allowed permits by the Israeli occupying forces to work our own lands that Israel’s Wall is stealing for Mr. Leviev so he may expand his settlement “Zufim” onto our village’s farmlands.

We hear that the government of the United Arab Emirates has stopped Mr. Leviev from opening his diamond stores in Dubai Emirate. We ask the government and the people of Dubai to prevent the sale to customers in Dubai of “Leviev’s rocks of apartheid,” which will be used by Mr. Leviev to build more settlements on Jayyous’ lands.

How do we describe to the world what our life is like in occupied Jayyous in Palestine? The sadness in the eyes of our neighbors, whose only farmlands have been confiscated to build a settlement financed by Mr. Lev Leviev; the exhaustion that results when every daily action requires an extraordinary effort and when despair fights for a place on our people’s faces, as they carry their bags and babies through checkpoints, passing soldiers and tanks.

On rainy days the water swells around our feet while we are going to our schools in Jayyous and Qalqilia. On the other hand, Israeli soldiers stand in shelters and never seem to get wet under their helmets and uniforms. They pull us out of our cars and line us up facing the wall. They sometimes make us sit in the dirt or in the rain, or under the hot sun while they chat on their mobile phones, joke with their friends, eat, smoke, and insult us with their words and their actions.

How do we explain how it feels when the wind blows and fill our noses with dust, and with the smell of sewage and garbage? Everyday, we feel more insecure, as curfews prevent pregnant women from giving birth in hospitals, and stop ambulances in their tracks, forcing some families to live with the decaying corpses of their family members for days.

What has increased our feeling of insecurity as students is the growing number of school days missed, the invasion and closure of the schools by Israeli forces, the number of teachers who cannot get to work, and the number of Palestinian prisoners who are without adequate food, water, sanitation, trials and family visits. These provocative practices that we grew up with in Jayyous have created many psychological problems for us. We think often of our fellow students who cannot afford to go to universities, students made poor because their families can no longer work on their farms because those lands are now isolated behind the “separation wall” where Mr. Leviev’s bulldozers destroy our grandfathers’ trees.

We think about the flood of indignities at the checkpoints. All our dreams for the future have been negatively affected and it’s becoming too challenging to fulfill them. As students we always dream of preparing for the future, but unfortunately many obstacles, such as curfews, Walls, closures, and unpredictable checkpoints are preventing their realization.

We hope for all students to live in peace, justice, freedom and love. Every Leviev diamond bought in Dubai pays for our oppression and dispossession. Give our proud village the chance to feed itself and grow again — boycott Mr. Lev Leviev, in Dubai and all over the world.

Break The Siege On Gaza! Action postponed until 27th June

Put Your Body Where Your Heart Is – Break The Siege On Gaza!

There is still time to get involved! People of conscience from around the world are gathering in Egypt now. The demonstration has been changed to June 27th to accommodate people continually arriving. People will attempt to enter Gaza in an act to break the murderous siege and to stand in solidarity with those inside.

The siege, brutally imposed by the Israeli government in June 2007, following over a year of sanctions has resulted in lethal denial of medical access, shortages of food, fuel and electricity, and stands as a grave act of collective punishment.

It is time to stand up and shout, “No more!” It is time to show that we will not simply stand by while this atrocity is carried out, as our governments do nothing. It is time to use our bodies to prove what we believe is just in this world.

Our governments have backtracked on their responsibility, as stipulated in past agreements, to facilitate and over see the flow of people through the Rafah border crossing, making us complicit with the murderous acts of the Israeli government.

We call on international human right activists and lawmakers to join us in breaking the siege, entering Gaza, and standing in solidarity with the people imprisoned there. Join us in Egypt, come with us to Gaza and put your body where your heart is.

What you can do?

1. Join us in this act of solidarity with the people of Gaza, come to Egypt before the end of May, preferably as early as possible to help with preparations.

2. Have your organization endorse and circulate this call

3. Support this initiative financially – email gazasolidarity@gmail.com for more information

Signed: The International Solidarity Movement – Palestine

OCHA: Gaza Strip inter-agency humanitarian fact sheet (April 2008)

To view OCHA website click here

To download full fact sheet click here

Israeli restrictions on fuel supplies to Gaza peaked in April when Israel halted supplies of diesel, petrol and cooking gas (LPG) to Gaza. UNRWA was forced to suspend its food distribution to 650,000 beneficiaries for four days due to the lack of fuel. Limited supplies of cooking gas and industrial diesel resumed before the end of the month. Market prices increased significantly in the month of April. Gazan militants attacked the Nahal Oz fuel terminal on April 9 and the Kerem Shalom goods crossing on April 18.Israeli military incursions into Gaza occurred almost every day in April, killing 21 children.

Right to Enter: International investors warned about accessing foreign investment in occupied Palestinian territory

By the Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry. To view website click here

As hundreds of international investors begin arriving in Bethlehem for the Palestine Investment Conference scheduled for May 21-23, the threat of being barred from entering the occupied West Bank by Israeli officials is likely to be foremost on everyone’s mind. Those hoping to actually invest in Palestine will be looking for answers regarding who will guarantee unhindered access in the future for themselves, their staff and the suppliers needed for investments to succeed in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

Along with movement and access restrictions for Palestinians, Israel’s denial of entry practices against foreigners trying to reach the oPt continues to pose severe obstacles on investment efforts to revive Palestinian economic life. The conference attempt to promote international investment in the occupation-strangled Palestinian territory is being undertaken despite the fact that Israel has not demonstrated any serious intention to reduce the restrictions it is placing on the Palestinian economy.

For this conference, though, some lucky participants will be passing Israeli-controlled crossings thanks to Israel’s pre-authorization of limited 14-day permits. Investors expecting future access to their investments are unlikely to have the U.S. Administration, the Quartet, and Quartet Special Representative Tony Blair regularly available to negotiate entry visas for themselves or for their staff. For investors, Israel’s refusal to establish a transparent, internationally lawful policy on which foreign nationals wishing to enter or maintain their presence in the oPt can rely is clear evidence that third states are not doing enough to create the necessary environment for investments to succeed.

Campaign members recently met with Mr. Blair, stressing the need for a comprehensive solution to foreign nationals’ vulnerability to arbitrary exclusion or expulsion by Israel and pointing out the futility of attempting to realize investments in the oPt while the ability of Palestinian institutions and businesses to recruit and retain the human resources needed for development remains uncertain and subject to Israel’s political discretion.

The Campaign urges the Quartet and other third state actors to send clear signals that the arbitrary exclusion and expulsion of foreign passport holders from the oPt, like Israel’s other abusive restrictions on movement and access, violates Israel’s treaty obligations to those states, is contrary to the UN Charter and directly concerns the States themselves.

Contrary to international law, Israel continues to exercise its control over entry and residency in the oPt in an arbitrary, capricious and political manner that seriously harms Palestinian economic, social and cultural life. Since the Campaign began in 2006, thousands of Palestinians with foreign passports as well as other foreign nationals were denied entry into the oPt, refused permits to stay, and/or have been deported. Israel’s refusal to act on the overwhelming majority of family unification applications since 2000 directly affects at least half a million people whose families remain separated or are threatened with separation. Vital health, educational, religious and social services are handicapped and disrupted. The results of Israeli practices includes business investment is deterred or thwarted and families being forced to relocate just to stay together.

Campaign member and businessman Sam Bahour observes that “real investment in Palestine starts with real access to all of the occupied Palestinian territory – the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.”

Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry

Telephone: +970.(0)59.817.3953 Facsimile: +970.2.295.4903

Website: www.RightToEnter.ps Email: info@righttoenter.ps