Tag: BDS

List of actions in Palestine for Land Day and Global BDS Day

Stop the Wall | Global BDS Movement

30 March 2009

The people in Palestine are mobilizing for the 32nd annual commemoration of Land Day, happening March 30. Land Day marks the date of the Palestinian demonstration that occurred in the Galilee against a wide-scale land confiscation, when Israeli forces killed 6 Palestinians, injured 96 and arrested 300.

Today, the Land Day protests of the people in Palestine and around the world are focused on the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. The call for a global day of action on March 30 came out of the World Social Forum in Belem (Brazil) and aims to promote BDS as the most effective tool to stop Israeli policies of land theft and colonization and the discrimination, massacres and ethnic cleansing that have been carried out against the Palestinian people in pursuit of these goals.

Actions all across historic Palestine tie the ongoing defense of Palestinian land and agriculture from the Wall and settlement project to the call for boycott of Israeli products and institutions. Where farming becomes a form of resistance, choosing Palestinian over Israeli products is an essential part of the Palestinian struggle for justice, freedom, and return. Where a people is besieged, bombed and starved with the complicity of governments around the world, the call for global BDS becomes an essential tool to break the siege.

LIST OF ACTIONS

Galilee (’48 Palestine) – organized by the Higher Follow Up Committee of the Arab citizens of Israel

March 30, Deir Hanna: Demonstration against Israeli racism and fascism. Gathering at 3 pm.

March 30, Kufr Kanna: Demonstration at 10 am

March 30, Sakhnin: Demonstration at 10 am

Jenin

March 30, Rumaneh: Tree planting along with a workshop entitled “Land Day, BDS and the struggle against the Wall”.

Qalqiliya

March 27, Jayyous: Demonstration against the Wall and for the boycott of Israeli products.

March 29, Qalqiliya city: BDS district meeting. Activists, political representatives and students will discuss the boycott strategies in the district to work towards a ‘Qalqiliya district free of Israeli products’.

March 30, Jayyous: Demonstration against the Wall and for BDS along with the planting of olive trees.

March 30, Qalqiliya city: Demonstration against against Israeli occupation and for BDS

April 6 and 7, Qalqiliya city: Workshop in al Quds Open University Qalqiliya on economic and academic boycott as a form of resistance.

Ramallah

March 27, Ni’lin and Bil’in: demonstrations against the Wall and for BDS

March 27, al-Lubban: A day for voluntary work and painting of murals for the children, political workshop on BDS, and a film screening.

March 28, Shuqba: A day for voluntary work and painting of murals for the children as well as political workshop on BDS.

March 28, Sinjil: A day for voluntary work and painting of murals for the children, political workshop on BDS, and a film screening.

March 30, Qalandiya: Demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint against the isolation of Jerusalem and for BDS.

April 3, Ni’lin and Bil’in: Demonstrations against the Wall and for BDS.

April 4, Beit Liqiya: A day for voluntary work and painting of murals for the children, political workshop on BDS, a film screening, and a dabke festival.

Saffa, April 4: A day of voluntary work, painting of murals for the children and the planting of olive trees.

Bethlehem

March 27, al Ma’sra: Demonstration against the Wall and for BDS.

March 30, Qubbet Rahel (Bethlehem): Women’s demonstration against the Wall and for BDS.

March 30, Beit Sahour: Workshop at the Palestinian Center For Rapprochement Between People covering the topics of communication for western audiences about Palestine and activism on Palestine and abroad, including BDS. (9 am – 12am).

April 3, Irtas: Planting olive trees.

April 3, al Ma’sra: Demonstration against the Wall and for BDS.

BDS global day of action

Boycott National Committee | Global BDS Movement

30 March 2009

Boycott Israel! Make it account for its crimes in Gaza!

Today, the Palestinian people scattered across the globe mark Land Day, commemorating the events of 33 years ago, when Israeli security forces shot and killed six young Palestinian citizens of Israel and injured many.

These brave youth were among the thousands protesting Israel’s expropriation of Palestinian land to build new Jewish colonies and expand existing Jewish cities. Today, Land Day symbolizes Palestinian resistance to Israel’s ongoing land expropriation, apartheid, colonization and occupation. It marks as well the first Global Day of Action for Palestinian rights and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), launched at the 2009 World Social Forum in Brazil.

Israel’s racist policies of confiscating Palestinian land and forcibly displacing Palestinians have gained in intensity since the original Land Day. The policies of incremental ethnic cleansing that Israel calls “Judaization” are proceeding apace in Palestine’s historic cities, including Jerusalem, Jaffa, Acre, Lydda and Ramla, with daily home demolitions and forced evictions. Israel’s aggressive land grab continues with the construction and expansion of the Apartheid Wall and colonies on occupied Palestinian land. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face imminent displacement as their villages are slated to be erased from the map in their entirety.

Moreover, the fundamental injustices that gave rise to the original Palestinian Civil Society BDS Call in 2005 are more acute than ever today. Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees, who were ethnically cleansed during the 1948 Nakba and ever since, their UN-sanctioned right to return to their homes of origin; it continues its institutionalized racial discrimination against the Palestinian citizens of Israel; and its military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip is intensifying in repression and cruelty.

Land Day this year takes on further significance in light of Israel’s atrocious war of aggression against the hermetically besieged Palestinian people in the occupied Gaza Strip. The more than 1,400 deaths, 5,000 injuries, and 14,000 homes damaged or destroyed are only the latest manifestation of the contempt with which Palestinian life is regarded by Israel. The silence of powerful world governments in the face of the massacre was yet another astounding failure of the “international community” to uphold international law and to hold Israel to account for persistently and gravely violating the most basic of international norms.

Indeed, all these forms of Israeli colonial and racist oppression could not have reached this critical level without the direct or indirect support and collusion of the United States, the European Union and many other countries, including several Arab regimes. The isolation of Israel through boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS), as was done to apartheid South Africa, must become a top priority for anyone struggling for freedom, justice and the consistent application of international law and universal human rights principles.

For the martyrs of land day and the thousands of others who gave their lives for freedom, justice and self-determination, for the thousands imprisoned for their commitment to human dignity, for Gaza, for return, equality and freedom, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) calls on people of conscience around the world struggling against all forms of oppression to boycott Israel and divest from it and from companies profiting from its oppression until it fully abides by its obligations under international law and recognizes our inalienable rights on our land. We salute all the groups and individuals who heeded the call to organize BDS-related activities on this Global Day of Action for Palestine. With your support, we shall overcome.

Carmel blockaded in Jayyous solidarity action

8th February 2009

At around 6:30 this morning a group of students from Brighton locked themselves to Carmel Agrexco, the Israeli state owned export company, to protest against their complicity in the illegal annexation of the West Bank and the repression of students in the Palestinian village of Jayyous.

Carmel Agrexco grows and imports agricultural produce (including fruit, vegetables and flowers) from illegal settlements in the West Bank which are then sold in supermarkets such as Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and many others. As such, companies such as Carmel Agrexco are responsible for the systematic annexation of Palestinian land.

In these settlements workers, including children, are known to work in slave-labor conditions, with low wages, inadequate access to food and water, and no contract. Furthermore, the settlements have not only stolen land, but use up much needed agricultural resources such as water.

This action has been done in response to a callout for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, after the events of 18th February and onwards in Jayyous. On this day, occupying Israeli Defence Force soldiers invaded the town of Jayyous, where regular protests have been held against the building of the apartheid wall, which will annex 5,585 dunums (558.5 hectares) of land from the town, much of which is to be used for the expansion of the illegal settlement, Zufim.

75 soldiers and 25 army jeeps invaded the town in the early hours of the morning, conducting house to house raids: throwing sound-bombs at houses before forcing families out at gunpoint and ransacking their houses. At least 75 people were arrested, the vast majority students, including the entire student Stop the Wall Committee. Those arrested were taken to a school that the army had turned into a detention centre. Most of the people were blindfolded and handcuffed and all were forced to sit in stress positions. They were not allowed to eat, drink or talk to each other as they were taken in for interrogation one by one. They were held for as much as 19 hours and 15 young men were taken to Huwarra military base on unknown charges. Bulldozers were then brought in which created blockades at the entrances to the town and the population were put under curfew for 18 hours.

Since then, the village has been invaded two further times, on the second time a half-day curfew was imposed on the town. Residents have also been threatened with home demolitions.

James Robinson, one of the protesters, said

The situation in Jayyous is demonstrative of the systematic human rights abuses perpetrated against the Palestinians for the expansion of the settlements which Carmel Agrexco supports and profits from.

ISM Sweden protest Swedish-Israeli Davis Cup matches

On Friday the 6th of March protesters from ISM Sweden joined with other activists in a peaceful demonstration outside the arena in Malmö, Sweden, where the Davis Cup matches between Sweden and Israel are being played.

Activists participated in street theater, spoke to media and passers-by, and shouted out their anger and frustration outside the enclosed area around the arena, which is being guarded by one of the largest police contingencies in Swedish history. Debate about the matches has been hot in Sweden the last few weeks, and the ISM sees their work during the weekend as part of an international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

The matches are being played without audiences – a partial victory for the campaign run by a broad coalition of political parties, cultural groups and organisations that has been working since the beginning of the Gaza massacre.

The demonstration was a clear statement against the opening of the Davis Cup weekend in Malmö, especially through work with the national and international media. Instead of getting caught in the hype about perceived threats of violence against the matches, ISMers managed to raise the critical issues at hand, namely the daily situation of millions of Palestinians and the inappropriateness of welcoming representatives of the state of Israel to a city where many inhabitants have lost friends and family in the Israeli massacre on Gaza. Matches are scheduled during the whole weekend, and manifestations and rallies are planned to continue, the largest one on Saturday expecting to gather around 10.000 protesters. The ISM are proud to have been present from the start to show our disgust of the decision to welcome Israeli tennis players to Sweden, and to stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Palestine.

Stop the match! Boycott Israel!

ISM Sweden