Tories to block Public Sector boycotts of Israel

The Tory government announced on Monday (15/2/16) that from now on only government approved boycotts will be tolerated. So much for local democracy.

Through a guidance note published by the Cabinet Office, without a debate, statement to, or a vote in parliament, the government has effectively banned public service organisations, which includes, local authorities, NHS Trusts, universities and students’ unions from adopting ethical procuring policies and supporting boycotts of Israel.

Although couched as guidance the statement makes it clear that public bodies will face severe penalties if they introduce or continue with boycotts on ethical grounds.

Despite the note being written in general terms, it is clear that the policy is a crude attempt to block the increasingly effective Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, (BDS) campaign against the Israeli apartheid state. In fact the announcement was made while Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock was on a trade visit to Israel.

Warsi is right - arms embargo and sanctions on Israel long overdue

If in effect we can have a Tory peer saying we need arms embargoes and sanctions on Israel, is it not time for all UK main political parties to also support the upholding of international rights and agreements that thus far Israel is callously disregarding?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28657623
    And it is time for a stronger Labour Party call for sanctions and arms embargoes against the perpetrators of international war crimes and violations of the Geneva convention as argued by Richard Burden MP.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/richard-burden/gaza-palestine_b_5646995.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-gaza

Anna Rose

Urgent call from Gaza civil society: Act now!

'We Palestinians trapped inside the bloodied and besieged Gaza Strip call on conscientious people all over the world to act, protest and intensify the boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel until it ends this murderous attack on our people and is held to account.
    With the world turning their backs on us once again, for the last four days we in Gaza have been left to face massacre after massacre. As you read these words, over 120 Palestinians are dead now, including 25 children. Over 1,000 have been injured including countless horrifying injuries that will limit lives forever –- more than two thirds of the injured are women and children.

Israeli Apartheid Week 2014

‘The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa’ says Naomi Klein in a new trailer for Israeli Apartheid Week - an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness about Israel's apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
http://apartheidweek.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KONygMEg8&feature=youtu.be

Roadmap to Apartheid

Last week the African National Congress voted to support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, declaring it was "unapologetic in its view that the Palestinians are the victims and the oppressed in the conflict with Israel." Democracy Now previews a new documentary film "Roadmap to Apartheid" - about the apartheid analogy commonly used to describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/21/as_the_anc_votes_to_support

PSI supports Palestinian statehood and BDS against Israel

#PSIcongress2012 Chris Tansley, UNISON President, intervened in the Congress debate on Palestine in support of the Palestinian people. Delegates backed Resolution 42 which referred to Israel as an apartheid state and called for a global policy of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and a composite motion, submitted by UNISON, PCS and PSI Africa region which called for action against companies complicit in the illegal Israeli occupation. In the lunch break before the debate South Africa's Coalition for a Free Palestine - supported by SAMWU (South African Municipal Workers Union), NEHAWU (National Health Education and Allied Workers Union) and other COSATU affiliates - had lobbied Congress delegates in a show of solidarity with Palestine.

South African Media Watchdog Says Israel Can Be Called An Apartheid State

A ruling by South Africa’s Advertising Standards Authority gives hope to those facing spurious attacks of anti-Semitism by the Israeli lobby when legitimately criticising Israeli political and military attacks on Palestinians. In a report from Australians for Palestine, Sonja Karkar said “That this decision was reached in South Africa is significant because that country more than any other would know exactly what are the conditions that constitute apartheid.”

BDS movement against Israeli Apartheid is 'doing a good job all over the world'

Ofer Eini, leader of Israel's Histadrut trade union confederation is reported in the Jerusalem Post as saying that the boycott movement against Israel is "doing a good job all over the world". Eini, a leading opponent of the boycott in the international trade union movement, was speaking at an Israel lobby event in New York.

TUC: UNISON & Palestine‏

Full text of speech by UNISON delegate Mike Kirby in TUC 2010 Congress Palestine debate: Trade unionists across the world are at the centre of progressive alliances and movements. And in December 2008 as the world watched aghast at the Operation Cast Lead incursion into Gaza and we condemned the actions of Israel, HISTADRUT the Israeli trade union centre, did not join the international chorus of condemnation.

TUC: Congress solidarity with Palestine sends Israel lobby spinning‏

TUC Congress yesterday overwhelmingly endorsed a motion on Palestine which instructed the General Council to work closely with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to actively encourage affiliates, employers and pension funds to disinvest from, and boycott the goods of, companies who profit from illegal settlements, the Occupation and the construction of the Wall.

A conversation with Noam Chomsky on Palestine/Israel‏

Filmed by Frank Barat at the M.I.T, Cambridge, USA on 2 September 2010. Topics talked about include: Zionism, One State/Two States, Right of return, BDS.
http://www.vimeo.com/14835834