BDS Campaign Update(October - December 2011)
Turks say can’t sell Israeli carpets
16th October
2011 - A Turkish Company has cancelled an order of two containers of
carpets from Israel’s Carmel Carpets, saying it can’t sell Israeli
products at this time. Each container is said to be worth some NIS
100,000 (about $26,700). The Bytex CEO asked to cancel the order for
fear it would cause him financial damage and tarnish his image.
Carmel Carpets has been in contact with this client for some 10
years. “We created a friendly, almost family-like relationship,”
says a Carmel manager. “We approved his request in light of the
circumstances and didn’t fine him. We hope relations will be
resumed in the near future.”
The first national SJP conference adopts BDS principles as point of unity
21st October 2011 - 350 student activists from more than a hundred schools across the nation converged for the first-ever Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) national conference. The conference was structured around workshops ranging from “The Economics of Israeli Colonialism” to the “Politics of Women’s Activism” to “How to Effectively Start and Run an SJP Group.” The result of a year of student planning, organizing and fundraising, the SJP gathering comes at a moment when Palestine solidarity activism on college campuses is increasingly scrutinized. The aims of the “Students Confronting Apartheid” conference, activists said, were to strengthen the student movement for Palestinian rights and develop a better political understanding of the situation in Palestine. SJP activists convened in separate “movement building” workshops to create proposals for a national structure to better coordinate and share resources, though activists said individual chapters would remain autonomous
Edinburgh University Students Vote to Ban
G4S
26th October
2011 - In a victory for the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) movement, Edinburgh University Student Association
(EUSA)
overwhelmingly passed a motion through its Student Council to block
their contract with security firm G4S, and to lobby the University to follow
suit. G4S
currently provide security services to Edinburgh University
library, which prompted Students for Justice in Palestine
(SJP) to begin
a campaign to force the University to tear up its contract with the
security firm. It was then recently discovered that
EUSA were
also in the process of hiring the firm for money collecting
services. This led to a motion quickly going before Student Council
and it was clearly passed, meaning the Union’s trustee board must
now look for an alternative.
Cambridge University students vote to break contract with
Veolia
26th October
2011 - Students at Cambridge University in the UK have voted to
call on the University to cut ties with a company implicated in
Israeli human rights abuses. The vote calls on
CUSU
(Cambridge University Students Union) to campaign to have the
University cut ties with Veolia, a company involved in
infrastructure projects in Israeli settlements, and employed by the
University on a waste disposal contract. The referendum, which
closed yesterday, passed with a majority of 58% to 41%: there were
898 votes yes, 637 votes no, and 21 ballots spoilt. While a strong
majority was in support, the referendum was inquorate: 7.2% of the student
body voted, short of the 10% required. Students involved in the
campaign pledged to continue the campaign to ensure that
Veolia’s
contract, which expires in September 2012, is not renewed.
New Book calls for direct action against British companies
complicit in Israeli apartheid
27th October
2011 - Corporate Watch has released a book, Targeting Israeli
Apartheid: A Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Handbook, encouraging
campaigners to take direct action against the British companies
complicit in Israeli apartheid, militarism and colonization. The
book, based on extensive research in Palestine and the UK, and
interviews with Palestinian and Israeli campaigners, takes its cue
from the unified Palestinian call for Boycott Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS). The book begins by examining the Israeli economy,
industry by industry, and suggesting where the movement should
focus its campaigning energy in order to be most effective. Part
two contains five in-depth geographical case studies. The final
section looks at how campaigners can bring the fight home to the
UK
BDS
Victory: Alstom loses Saudi Haramain Railway contract worth
$10B
27th October
2011 - The BDS
National Committee (BNC) has declared a long sought-after victory
as Alstom
lost the bid for the second phase of the Saudi
Haramain
Railway project, worth $10 billion US dollars, after pressure from
the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS)
campaign, including effective campaigning from the newly launched
KARAMA, a
European campaign to Keep Alstom Rail And Metro Away. In 2008 the
BNC, the largest Palestinian civil society coalition, with partners
in Europe and Israel, launched the Derail Veolia and Alstom campaign, due to the two
companies’ involvement in Israel’s illegal Jerusalem Light Rail
(JLR) project,
which explicitly aims to “Judaize Jerusalem,” according to official
Israeli statements, by cementing Israel’s hold on the illegal
colonial settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in and
around Jerusalem. Since then, Veolia has lost more than
$12B worth of
contracts following boycott activism in Sweden, the UK, Ireland and
elsewhere. Alstom, too, suffered substantial blows when the
Swedish national pension fund AP7 excluded it from its investment
portfolio, after having been excluded from the Dutch
ASN Bank due
to the company’s involvement in Israel’s occupation of Palestinian
land, and has recently announced its intention to withdraw from the
project. The BNC and several partners have used private and public
channels to urge the Saudi leadership to exclude
Alstom from
the second phase of this large project which will connect by rail
Mecca with Medina after Alstom had won the much smaller contract
for the first phase.
BDS
Victory against Eden Springs
31st October 2011 - Glasgow Caledonian Palestine Society are
delighted that Eden Springs no longer provide water anywhere on our
campus. Mayanot Eden (The Israeli parent company of Eden Springs
UK) extract water from the Salukia spring and bottle in the illegal
Israeli settlement of Katzrin, both in the illegally occupied
Syrian Golan Heights. That Eden Springs UK and Eden Europe provide
locally sourced treated water in no way absolves them of the crimes
of the parent company and for us they are the same company.
Activists in France launch campaign against
Mehadrin
22nd November
2011 - Activists in France launched the campaign against Mehadrin
with a large demonstration outside the comapny’s French headquarters
in Chateaurenard in the south of the country. In the wake
of the collapse of Agrexco, Mehadrin has become Israel’s largest
agricultural produce exporter. Mehadrin sources produce from
growers in illegal settlements, exploits Palestinian workers and is
deeply involved in the theft of Palestinian water
British companies targeted for investment in Israeli
agricultural export companies
24th November
2011 - Palestine solidarity campaigners targeted the British
company Valley Grown Salads in Roydon, Essex, and Glinwell in St Albans, for
their 20% each share in Edom UK -an Israeli agricultural exporter. The action
was designed to coincide with the week leading up to a European day
of action against Israeli agricultural exporters, called for by the
Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions National Committee
(BNC) and its European partners.
Protest and lobby held at Belgian Ministry of
Economy
25th November 2011 - Ten activists from Belgian group Vredesactie
held a visible picket outside the offices of the Ministry of
Economy in the Brussels and held a lobby meeting with ministry
officials as part of Take Apartheid off the Menu action day. The
short conversation focused on the responsibility of the ministry to
prevent settlement produce from entering the market in Belgium, and
the activists handed over samples of settlement produce and a
briefing document emphasizing the role settlement products play in
facilitating settler attacks on Palestinians in occupied
Palestinian territory.
BDS South Africa exposes JNF Greenwashing at COP
17
28th November 2011 - issued the following release about the Jewish
National Fund and it’s attempt to ‘greenwash’ its racist practices
and policies:
With COP17, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, taking
place in South Africa we’ve been approached by several
environmental justice organizations regarding the Jewish National
Fund (JNF) and its presence at COP17.
The JNF potrays itself as a “green” organisation but at the same
time it is involved in human rights abuses against the Palestinian
people – including house demolitions and forced removals.
Furthermore, the JNF administers 13% of Israeli land (which it does
not allow Palestinians to use) and jointly (with the Israeli Land
Authority, an Israeli government body) administers another 80%.
Israeli land policies are discriminatory and the JNF is intimately
involved (and complicit) in maintaining and administering these
policies.
UK student body slams university’s Ahava link
30th November 2011 - A collaboration between King’s College London
(KCL) and an Israeli company located in an illegal West Bank
settlement has been condemned by the UK’s National Union of
Students (NUS), in a significant boost for campaigners. In a
meeting Monday night of the NUS’ National Executive Council (NEC),
a motion demanding the “immediate end” of KCL’s research project
with Ahava was passed with no votes against. The NEC motion, noting
the “overwhelming” international position on the illegality of
Israeli settlements, states that “by collaborating with Ahava,
King’s itself has become complicit with violations of international
law”.
Belgian NGO Vredesactie files complaint against Barco Co. for illegal weapons trade with Israel
December 20th 2011- Vredesactie filed an official complaint at the Ghent police office against technology company Barco. Barco developed a flight simulator for the Israeli air force, but never requested an export permission, although Belgian legislation on arms trade requires this. “Illegal arms trade”, says Vredesactie.
Veolia Takes Severe Blow As It Fails To Win 485 Million
Pound Contract In West London
December 23rd 2011 - Human rights campaigners are celebrating after
the West London Waste Authority (‘WLWA’) excluded French
multinational Veolia from a £485 million contract covering 1.4
million inhabitants of the London boroughs of Brent, Ealing,
Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames, for
treatment of residual domestic waste. The reasons behind the
decision by the WLWA to exclude Veolia are commercially
confidential but the impact of human rights campaigners should not
be under-estimated.
Campaign launched against French purchase of Israeli
drones
December 30th 2011 - French boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)
campaigners have called on their government to abandon a €318
million deal to buy Heron TP drones from Israel Aircraft
Industries. Meanwhile, senior members of France’s Senate have
called publicly for the country to abandon the purchase on grounds
that the Israeli drones are unsuited to the needs of the armed
forces.
Report: Third National BDS Conference, Hebron, December
17
On 17 December 2011, Palestinians gathered in the city of Hebron in
the occupied West Bank for the Third National Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions (BDS) Conference. The event took place against the
backdrop of continuous Israeli violations of Palestinian rights,
and a growing resistance against injustice worldwide as
demonstrated by the Arab revolutions and the occupy movements. Just
minutes away from the conference venue, 500 Jewish settlers live
under escort of the Israeli military in a colonial enclave in the
middle of old Hebron, terrorizing local Palestinian residents on a
daily basis, with the stated intent of driving them from their
homes. Hebron is also an important commercial center in Palestine,
and thus was a fitting venue to hold the national BDS conference,
after it was held in Nablus and Ramallah in previous years.
The day started early with about 500 Palestinians from all corners
of the West Bank, as well as 48 Palestinians representing a diverse
sector of civil society including trade unions, student and women
groups, academics, cultural workers and NGOs, all uniting under the
banner of BDS.
There was also a visible international presence as well as that of
Israeli partners who have responded to the 2005 BDS call. Notable
was the absence of representation from Gaza, under an Israeli
imposed siege, and refugees outside historic Palestinian, although
their contribution to the movement was acknowledged. Full report
available at:
http://www.bdsmovement.net/2012/conference-report-8583