When: Saturday, 2pm August 7.
Where: Victorian Trades Hall, Cnr. Victoria and Lygon Street.

Speakers:
Union ACT Secretary Kim Sattler
Health & Community Services Union Organiser, Ginny Adams

Both Sattler and Adams were participants in Apheda’s Middle East study tour
(additional speakers TBC)

In 2004, Archbishop Desmond Tutu a South African leader who campaigned against apartheid wrote:

“The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure – in particular the divestment movement of the 1980s. Over the past six months, a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation.”

One of the critical sectors in South Africa’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign was the international trade union movement. Around the world from the UK to South Africa unions are again taking up the BDS call – this time against Israel. Palestinian unions issued a “Worker’s Boycott Call” in February 2007, which called on the international labour movement to “boycott and divest from Israel and work towards sanctions upon Israel, until Israel stops its crimes against our people and implements international law safeguarding human rights for all”. In Australia 12 union bodies have already adopted motions in support of BDS. This is a great start but how can we further use our union organisations to put pressure on Israel to end their racist policies?

There is a proud tradition in the Australian trade union movement  of standing in solidarity with oppressed peoples against colonialism, occupation and exploitation. Examples of Australian Trade Unions solidarity include not only their opposition to South African Apartheid but also against PM Bob Menzie’s support of the Japanese occupation in China; against Dutch colonialism in Indonesia and Australia trade unions also stood with the people of East Timor against the Indonesian military occupation.

Entry by donation.

For more info contact James 0403 943 529

If your union is interested in endorsing this forum please e-mail palestinesolidaritycampaign@gmail.com

www.palestinesolidaritycampaign.net

The Zionist Story, an independent film by Ronen Berelovich, is the story of ethnic cleansing, colonialism and apartheid to produce a demographically Jewish State. Berelovich in the film seeks to not only explore the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, he also seeks to the explore core reasons behind the conflict: Zionism as an ideology, its goals and the grip that it holds on Israeli society.

Berelovich, throughout the film, successfully combines archival footage with commentary from himself and others such as Ilan Pappe, Terry Boullata, Alan Hart and Jeff Halper

Thursday, July 22 @ 7pm

New International Bookshop

Basement of Victoria Trades Hall

Cnr of Lygon and Victoria St, Carlton

Entry by donation

Organised by the

Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Saturday 5th of June @ 2pm

State Library of Victoria

cnr of Swanston and La Trobe St,

Melbourne City.

The rally has been called by a coalition of community and Palestinian organisations under the name of the Gaza Freedom Movement.

Israel has attacked the Free Gaza Movement flotilla which was carrying 700 human rights activists, doctors, parliamentarians, journalists and 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Emergency protests are taking place or being organised all over the world to protest Israel’s murder of human rights activists and hijacking of the Freedom flotilla in international waters.

The details for the Australian protests so far are listed below, as is the Media Release issued by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Melbourne.

Melbourne:

Tuesday June 1, 4.30pm, Cnr of Burke Street Mall and Swanston St, Melbourne City.

Organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (Melbourne)

Sydney:

Tuesday June 1, 5.30pm at the Town Hall

organised by Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine.

Perth

Tuesday June 1, 5pm, Wesley Church, cnr William & Hay Sts, Perth. Organised by Friends of Palestine, Western Australia

Brisbane

Tuesday, June 1, 5pm,Brisbane Square

Organised by Justice for Palestine (Qld)

***

The following media release has been issued by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Melbourne: **

Gaza Freedom Flotilla attacked by Israeli commandos in international waters; 16 reported killed

Palestine solidarity groups calls for emergency action:

MELBOURNE ACTION

- Tuesday, 1 June at 4.30pm Cnr of Bourke St Mall and Swanston St, Melbourne City.

A few hours ago hundreds of Israeli commandos illegally stormed the six vessels of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that were endeavouring to deliver 10 000 tons of humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Gaza. The Israeli media is reporting that up to 16 people have been killed and up to 30 wounded after the commandos opened fire on unarmed civilians in international waters. Not since the French Secret Service blew up the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985 has there been such a brazen act of international piracy by a sovereign state. Governments all around the world have condemned the criminal actions of Somali pirates in international waters off the horn of Africa, and have even sent naval armadas to confront those pirates. The international community must now unreservedly condemn this criminal act of piracy on the high seas, and immediately sent an international naval armada to restrain the barbaric actions of the Israeli Navy.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (Melbourne) has called an emergency protest for (Tuesday) 1st June at 4.30pm, corner of Bourke St Mall and Swanston St, Melbourne City.

May 15, will mark 62 years of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe). In 1948, more than 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homeland by Zionist forces, with more than 500 Palestinian villages depopulated and destroyed. Today more than 7 million Palestinian refugees, the largest refugee community in the world, are living in exile. Israel continues to colonise and ethnically cleanse Palestinian land through occupation and war. On the 62nd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba join the ongoing campaign to say no to Israel’s ongoing war crimes & ethnic cleansing of Palestine and demand justice for the Palestinian people.

End the Siege of Gaza!

End Israel’s occupation of Palestine!

Recognise the Palestinian Right of Return!

No Australian support for Israel – Sanctions Now!

Rally & March 6 pm

Friday, May 14, 2010

State Library of Victoria

cnr of Swanston & La Trobe Sts,

Melbourne City

Initiated by Palestine Solidarity Campaign

tel: 0439 454 375 or 0431 728 271

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign meets every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at the New International Bookshop, Victoria Trades Hall, cnr of Lygon and Victoria St, Carlton.

Ziyaad Lunat – 0191181340 (Egypt)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 1, 2010

Gaza Freedom Marchers issue the “Cairo Declaration”

to end Israeli Apartheid

(Cairo) Gaza Freedom Marchers approved today a declaration aimed at accelerating the global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli Apartheid.

Roughly 1400 activists from 43 countries converged in Cairo on their way to Gaza to join with Palestinians marching to break Israel’s illegal siege. They were prevented from entering Gaza by the Egyptian authorities.

As a result, the Freedom Marchers remained in Cairo. They staged a series of nonviolent actions aimed at pressuring the international community to end the siege as one step in the larger struggle to secure justice for Palestinians throughout historic Palestine.

This declaration arose from those actions:

End Israeli Apartheid

Cairo Declaration

January 1, 2010

We, international delegates meeting in Cairo during the Gaza Freedom March 2009 in collective response to an initiative from the South African delegation, state:

In view of:

- Israel’s ongoing collective punishment of Palestinians through the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza;

- the illegal occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the continued construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall and settlements;

- the new Wall under construction by Egypt and the US which will tighten even further the siege of Gaza;

- the contempt for Palestinian democracy shown by Israel, the US, Canada, the EU and others after the Palestinian elections of 2006;

- the war crimes committed by Israel during the invasion of Gaza one year ago;

- the continuing discrimination and repression faced by Palestinians within Israel;

- and the continuing exile of millions of Palestinian refugees;

- all of which oppressive acts are based ultimately on the Zionist ideology which underpins Israel;

- in the knowledge that our own governments have given Israel direct economic, financial, military and diplomatic support and allowed it to behave with impunity;

- and mindful of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (2007)

We reaffirm our commitment to:

Palestinian Self-Determination

Ending the Occupation

Equal Rights for All within historic Palestine

The full Right of Return for Palestinian refugees

We therefore reaffirm our commitment to the United Palestinian call of July 2005 for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to compel Israel to comply with international law.

To that end, we call for and wish to help initiate a global mass, democratic anti-apartheid movement to work in full consultation with Palestinian civil society to implement the Palestinian call for BDS.

Mindful of the many strong similarities between apartheid Israel and the former apartheid regime in South Africa, we propose:

1) An international speaking tour in the first 6 months of 2010 by Palestinian and South African trade unionists and civil society activists, to be joined by trade unionists and activists committed to this programme within the countries toured, to take mass education on BDS directly to the trade union membership and wider public internationally;

2) Participation in the Israeli Apartheid Week in March 2010;

3) A systematic unified approach to the boycott of Israeli products, involving consumers, workers and their unions in the retail, warehousing, and transportation sectors;

4) Developing the Academic, Cultural and Sports boycott;

5) Campaigns to encourage divestment of trade union and other pension funds from companies directly implicated in the Occupation and/or the Israeli military industries;

6) Legal actions targeting the external recruitment of soldiers to serve in the Israeli military, and the prosecution of Israeli government war criminals; coordination of Citizen’s Arrest Bureaux to identify, campaign and seek to prosecute Israeli war criminals; support for the Goldstone Report and the implementation of its recommendations;

7) Campaigns against charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF).

We appeal to organisations and individuals committed to this declaration to sign it and work with us to make it a reality.

Please e-mail us at  cairodec@gmail.com

Signed by:

(* Affiliation for identification purposes only.)

1.   Hedy Epstein, Holocaust Survivor/ Women in Black*, USA

2.   Nomthandazo Sikiti, Nehawu, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Affiliate International Officer*, South Africa

3.   Zico Tamela, Satawu, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Affiliate International Officer*, South Africa

4.   Hlokoza Motau, Numsa, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Affiliate International Officer*, South Africa

5.   George Mahlangu, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Campaigns Coordinator*, South Africa

6.   Crystal Dicks, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Education Secretary*, South Africa

7.   Savera Kalideen, SA Palestinian Solidarity Committee*, South Africa

8.   Suzanne Hotz, SA Palestinian Solidarity Group*, South Africa

9.   Shehnaaz Wadee, SA Palestinian Solidarity Alliance*, South Africa

10. Haroon Wadee, SA Palestinian Solidarity Alliance*, South Africa

11. Sayeed Dhansey, South Africa

12. Faiza Desai, SA Palestinian Solidarity Alliance*, South Africa

13. Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada*, USA

14.  Hilary Minch, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Committee*, Ireland

15. Anthony Loewenstein, Australia

16. Sam Perlo-Freeman, United Kingdom

17. Julie Moentk, Pax Christi*, USA

18. Ulf Fogelström, Sweden

19. Ann Polivka, Chico Peace and Justice Center*, USA

20. Mark Johnson, Fellowship of Reconciliation*, USA

21. Elfi Padovan, Munich Peace Committee*/Die Linke*, Germany

22. Elizabeth Barger, Peace Roots Alliance*/Plenty I*, USA

23. Sarah Roche-Mahdi, CodePink*, USA

24. Svetlana Gesheva-Anar, Bulgaria

25. Cristina Ruiz Cortina, Al Quds-Malaga*, Spain

26. Rachel Wyon, Boston Gaza Freedom March*, USA

27. Mary Hughes-Thompson, Women in Black*, USA

28. David Letwin, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)*, USA

29. Jean Athey, Peace Action Montgomery*, USA

30. Gael Murphy, Gaza Freedom March*/CodePink*, USA

31. Thomas M^cAfee, Journalist/PC*, USA

32. Jean Louis Faure, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)*, France

33. Timothy A King, Christians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East*, USA

34. Gail Chalbi, Palestine/Israel Justice Project of the Minnesota United Methodist Church*, USA

35. Ouahib Chalbi, Palestine/Israel Justice Project of the Minnesota United Methodist Church*, USA

36. Greg Dropkin, Liverpool Friends of Palestine*, England

37. Felice Gelman, Wespac Peace and Justice New York*/Gaza Freedom March*, USA

38. Ron Witton, Australian Academic Union*, Australia

39. Hayley Wallace, Palestine Solidarity Committee*, USA

40. Norma Turner, Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign*, England

41. Paula Abrams-Hourani, Women in Black (Vienna)*/ Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East*, Austria

42. Mateo Bernal, Industrial Workers of the World*, USA

43. Mary Mattieu, Collectif Urgence Palestine*, Switzerland

44. Agneta Zuppinger, Collectif Urgence Palestine*, Switzerland

45. Ashley Annis, People for Peace*, Canada

46. Peige Desgarlois, People for Peace*, Canada

47. Hannah Carter, Canadian Friends of Sabeel*, Canada

48. Laura Ashfield, Canadian Friends of Sabeel*, Canada

49. Iman Ghazal, People for Peace*, Canada

50. Filsam Farah, People for Peace*, Canada

51. Awa Allin, People for Peace*, Canada

52. Cleopatra McGovern, USA

53. Miranda Collet, Spain

54. Alison Phillips, Scotland

55. Nicholas Abramson, Middle East Crisis Response Network*/Jews Say No*, USA

56. Tarak Kauff, Middle East Crisis Response Network*/Veterans for Peace*, USA

57. Jesse Meisler-Abramson, USA

58. Hope Mariposa, USA

59. Ivesa Lübben. Bremer Netzwerk fur Gerechten Frieden in Nahost*, Germany

60. Sheila Finan, Mid-Hudson Council MERC*, USA

61. Joanne Lingle, Christians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East (CPJME)*, USA

62. Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children’s Alliance*, USA

63. Josie Shields-Stromsness, Middle East Children’s Alliance*, USA

64. Anna Keuchen, Germany

65. Judith Mahoney Pasternak, WRL* and Indypendent*, USA

66. Ellen Davidson, New York City Indymedia*, WRL*, Indypendent*, USA

67. Ina Kelleher, USA

68. Lee Gargagliano, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (Chicago)*, USA

69. Brad Taylor, OUT-FM*, USA

70. Helga Mankovitz, SPHR (Queen’s University)*, Canada

71. Mick Napier, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign*, Scotland

72. Agnes Kueng, Paso Basel*, Switzerland

73. Anne Paxton, Voices of Palestine*, USA

74. Leila El Abtah, The Netherlands

75. Richard Van der Wouden, The Netherlands

76. Rafiq A. Firis, P.K.R.*/Isra*, The Netherlands

77. Sandra Tamari, USA

78. Alice Azzouzi, Way to Jerusalem*, USA

79. J’Ann Schoonmaker Allen, USA

80. Ruth F. Hooke, Episcopalian Peace Fellowship*, USA

81. Jean E. Lee, Holy Land Awareness Action Task Group of United Church of Canada*, Canada

82. Delphine de Boutray, Association Thèâtre Cine*, France

83. Sylvia Schwarz, USA

84. Alexandra Safi, Germany

85. Abdullah Anar, Green Party – Turkey*, Turkey

86. Ted Auerbach, USA

87. Martha Hennessy, Catholic Worker*, USA

88. Louis Ultale, Interfaile Pace e Bene*, USA

89. Leila Zand, Fellowship of Reconciliation*, USA

90. Emma Grigore, CodePink*, USA

91. Sammer Abdelela, New York Community of Muslim Progressives*, USA

92. Sharat G. Lin, San Jose Peace and Justice Center*, USA

93. Katherine E. Sheetz, Free Gaza*, USA

94. Steve Greaves, Free Gaza*, USA

95. Trevor Baumgartner, Free Gaza*, USA

96. Hanan Tabbara, USA

97. Marina Barakatt, CodePink*, USA

98. Keren Bariyov, USA

99. Ursula Sagmeister, Women in Black – Vienna*, Austria

100. Ann Cunningham, Australia

101. Bill Perry, Delaware Valley Veterans for Peace*, USA

102. Terry Perry, Delaware Valley Veterans for Peace*, USA

103. Athena Viscusi, USA

104. Marco Viscusi, USA

105. Paki Wieland, Northampton Committee*, USA

106. Manijeh Saba, New York / New Jersey, USA

107. Ellen Graves, USA

108. Zoë Lawlor, Ireland – Palestine Solidarity Campaign*, Ireland

109. Miguel García Grassot, Al Quds – Málaga*, Spain

110. Ana Mamora Romero, ASPA-Asociacion Andaluza Solidaridad y Paz*, Spain

111. Ehab Lotayef, CJPP Canada*, Canada

112. David Heap, London Anti-War*, Canada

113. Adie Mormech, Free Gaza* / Action Palestine*, England

114. Aimee Shalan, UK

115. Liliane Cordova, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)*, Spain

116. Priscilla Lynch, USA

117. Jenna Bitar, USA

118. Deborah Mardon, USA

119. Becky Thompson, USA

120. Diane Hereford, USA

121. David Heap, People for Peace London*, Canada

122. Donah Abdulla, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights*, Canada

123. Wendy Goldsmith, People for Peace London*, Canada

124. Abdu Mihirig, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights-UBC*, Canada

125. Saldibastami, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights-UBC*, Canada

126. Abdenahmane Bouaffad, CMF*, France

127. Feroze Mithiborwala, Awami Bharat*, India

128. John Dear, Pax Christi*, USA

129. Ziyaad Lunat, Portugal

130. Michael Letwin, New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW)

Labor For Palestine

THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF

PALESTINE

Boycott Israeli Apartheid!

Tuesday, 20^th October @ 11.30am – 12.30pm

Picket Premier John Brumby

& Australian Israel Chamber of Commerce

The Palladium, Crown Towers

cnr. Queensbridge & Whiteman St,

South Bank

In Dec-Jan, more than 1400 Palestinians, 3/4 of them civilians, were killed when Israel conducted its 22 day war against 1.5 million Palestinians civilians living in the Gaza Strip.  According to well-respected Jurist, Justice Richard Goldstone, who led the UN investigation into the December-January war, Israel committed a range of war crimes under international law, as well as possibly crimes against humanity during its three-week assault on the 1.5 million Palestinians residents in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s war came on the back of Israel’s illegal and brutal two year siege of Gaza which has denied the people of Gaza adequate food, fuel, medicine and electricity.  In addition, Israel continues, in contravention, of international law to carry out an illegal 40 year military occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, engaging in Apartheid policies, while continuing to dispossess for more than 60 years the Palestinian people from their homeland.

The Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC) membership includes more than 1000 leading Australian companies across a broad range of industry sectors.  It seeks to vigorously promote bilateral trade between Australia and Israel.  On October 20, Victorian Premier, John Brumby, will be speaking at the AICC’s  business luncheon.

Join us and demand:

Boycott Israeli Apartheid!

End the Siege of Gaza – End the Occupation of Palestine!

No Australian support for Israel – Sanctions Now!

Tel: 0439 454 375 or 0431 728 271

www.palestinesolidaritycampaign.net

palestinesolidaritycampaign@gmail.com

PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

presents

The Struggle for a Free Palestine:

SPEAKING OUT AGAINST ISRAELI APARTHEID AND OCCUPATION

A public forum and discussion on Israel, Zionism, apartheid and the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom

7pm,

Thursday, 8 October

New International Bookshop

Victorian Trades Hall,

Cnr of Lygon and Victoria St, Carlton

Entry by donation

“Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state”

- Henrik Verwoerd, South African Prime Minister, 1961

“The occupation reminds me of the darkest days of apartheid, but we never saw tanks and planes firing at a civilian population. It’s a monstrousness I’d never seen before. The wall you built, the checkpoints and the roads for Jews only – it turns the stomach, even for someone who grew up under apartheid. It’s a hundred times worse”.

-Ronnie Kasrils, Jewish South African anti-apartheid activist & South African Parliament member.

SPEAKERS:

Avigail Abarbanel is a former Israeli soldier and citizen of Israel, who renounced her Israeli citizenship in 2001 in protest against Israel’s occupation and human rights abuses of the Palestinian people. Avigail is active in the struggle for Palestinian rights and is currently the director of Deir Yassin Remembered in Canberra. She will speak about Zionism and the reasons behind Israel’s Apartheid practices.

Kim Bullimore is an international human rights volunteer who lived and worked for more than a year in West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories with the International Women’s Peace Service. Kim is active with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and writes regularly on Palestine-Israel issues for a range of publications, including Direct Action and Palestine Chronicle. Kim will discuss the current political situation in Palestine and Israel and how Israel implements its Apartheid policies in practice.

Tel: 0439 454 375 or 0431 728 271

Email: palestinesolidaritycampaign@gmail.com

www.palestinesolidaritycampaign.net

6pm

FRIDAY 25th SEPTEMBER

STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA

cnr of Swanston and La Trobe St, Melbourne City

• Lift the siege on Gaza

• End the occupation of Palestine

• No Australian ties with apartheid Israel, Sanctions now

• Recognise the right of return for Palestinian refugees

In 1982, Israel and it’s allies killed thousands of Palestinians. 27 years later, the killing continues. “But there were women lying in houses with their skirts torn up… children with their throats cut and rows of young men shot in the back after being lined up against an execution wall… their bodies were tossed into rubbish heaps alongside discarded US army ration tins, Israeli army equipment and empty bottles of whiskey.” – Acclaimed journalist, Robert Fisk, describing what he found in the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres, carried out by Lebanese Phalangists with the support of the Israeli army, during the 16-18th of September 1982. In 2009, Israel continues to pursue a policy of systematic cruelty and brutality towards the Palestinians: following the December/January invasion, Gaza is still in rubble and the West Bank is more fragmented than ever. Now, more than ever, Palestine needs our solidarity.

Initiated by Students For Palestine with the support of

the Palestine Solidarity Campaign

For more info: 0439 454 375 or 0421 185 037

www.palestinesolidaritycampaign.net  http://studentsforpalestine.wordpress.com/

In May, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) called on singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen to heed thePalestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel and avoid complicity with Israel’s violations of international law by cancelling his planned September concert in Israel, particularly in view of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza earlier this year. Sadly, according to a July 28 article in the Jerusalem Post, Amnesty International USA has agreed to cooperate with Cohen in dealing with Israel on the basis of business as usual. Amnesty International USA will serve as sponsor of a new fund that will whitewash the money raised at Cohen’s concert in Israel by using it to finance programs for “peace.” Being one of the world’s strongest proponents of human rights and international law, you shall thus be subverting a non-violent, effective effort by Palestinian and international civil society to end Israel‘s violations of international law and human rights principles. We call on you to be true to your values and immediately withdraw support for Leonard Cohen’s ill-conceived concert in Israel.

The Jerusalem Post report indicates that Cohen and his PR staff, having been criticized for trying to normalize Israel’s occupation and apartheid, are trying to whitewash the concert in Israel by using Amnesty International USA’s good name. According to the article, “All of the net proceeds from Leonard Cohen‘s September 24 concert at Ramat Gan Stadium will be earmarked for a newly established fund to benefit Israeli and Palestinian organizations that are working toward conciliation,” and the fund will be “sponsored by Amnesty.” Curt Goering, the senior deputy executive director of Amnesty International USA, told the Post, “We saw this as an exciting opportunity with potential to recognize, support and pay tribute to the Israelis and Palestinians who have been working for peace and human rights amid a difficult environment and insurmountable odds. I see our participation as complementary to what we do, even though this initiative is different from Amnesty‘s ongoing work.”

WHY WE ARE CALLING ON AMNESTY TO WITHDRAW FROM THE PROJECT

By supporting Cohen’s concert in Israel, Amnesty International is actively undermining a particularly successful effort by Palestinian and international civil society to end Israel‘s occupation and other violations of international law and human rights principles. We find this position by Amnesty particularly frustrating and puzzling given your call for an arms embargo against Israel following its atrocities in Gaza earlier this year, which your organization described as constituting war crimes.

Accepting funds from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel is the equivalent of Amnesty accepting funds from a concert in Sun City in apartheid South Africa. Profits earned through violations of human rights and international law are tainted and should not be accepted by any morally consistent human rights organization, particularly when this money is intended to be used to whitewash the very violations behind those profits.

Furthermore, your Israeli partners in this venture actively hinder efforts to achieve a just peace. The Peres Center for Peace, with its multi-million dollar annual budget and fifteen million dollar building, is listed incongruously by the Jerusalem Post as both a beneficiary of the fund and a member of the new fund’s Board of Trustees. The Peres Center has been denounced by leading Palestinian civil society organizations for promoting joint Palestinian-Israeli projects that are “neither effective in bringing about reconciliation, nor desirable” and that enhance “Israeli institutional reputation and legitimacy, without restoring justice to Palestinians, in the face of continued Israeli Government violations of international law and fundamental Palestinian human rights, including breaches of the Geneva Conventions.” A columnist in Israel’s Ha’aretz Daily called the Peres Center patronizing and colonial, explaining that “Efforts are being made to train the Palestinian population to accept its inferiority and prepare it to survive under the arbitrary constraints imposed by Israel, to guarantee the ethnic superiority of the Jews.”

Your other indirect partner in this project, according to the Jerusalem Post, is Israel Discount Bank, a key sponsor of the Cohen concert. Who Profits, a project of Israel’s Coalition of Women for Peace, reports that Israel Discount Bank has branches in the settlements of Beitar Illit and Maale Adumim, has financed construction in the settlements of Har Homa, Beitar llit and Maale Adumim, and is a major shareholder in a factory in a settlement. Amnesty hardly needs any reminder that Israel’s colonial settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory are not only illegal under international law but are considered war crimes in the Fourth Geneva Convention. Your intention to indirectly partner with a bank that profits from the occupation and to oversee a fund that uses some of that legally and morally stained money contradicts Amnesty’s founding principles and commitment to human rights.

The latest attempt by the Cohen team to find an alternative Palestinian fig leaf has also failed. The only Palestinian organization falsely reported in the Jerusalem Post article as being a partner in this project, the Palestinian Happy Child Center, has confirmed that it is not taking part. There is no Palestinian organization participating in this whitewash.

BACKGROUND ON THE BOYCOTT

With the international community failing to take action to stop Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people, and inspired by the international boycott movement that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, Palestinian civil society has launched calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)nearly sixty Palestinian cultural and civil society organizations and inspired by the South African anti-apartheid boycotts, PACBI calls on “the international community to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel‘s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid.” These Palestinian calls have inspired a growing international boycott movement which gained added momentum following Israel’s assault on Gaza last winter. against Israel, including an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Endorsed by

In April, the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) and over 100 Israelis called on Leonard Cohen to cancel his planned September concert in Israel. Protests against Cohen’s plans to play in Israel were then held at Cohen’s concerts in New York,Boston, Ottawa and Belfast, among other cities. Feeling the rising heat of the protests, Cohen tried to schedule a small concert in Ramallah to “balance” his concert in Israel. However, Palestinians rejected the Ramallah concert. The Palestinian group that was supposed to host the Ramallah event cancelled its invitation to Mr. Cohen after realizing the adverse effects this would have on the boycott movement, which is widely supported by Palestinians. Reflecting the general mood in Palestinian society against any claimed symmetry between the occupying power and the people under occupation, a July 12 PACBI statement explained, “Ramallah will not receive Cohen as long as he is intent on whitewashing Israel‘s colonial apartheid regime by performing in Israel. PACBI has always rejected any attempt to “balance” concerts or other artistic events in Israel–conscious acts of complicity in Israel‘s violation of international law and human rights–with token events in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

For all the above reasons, we strongly urge you to distance Amnesty International from this discredited project and its tainted money.

Signed:

• The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
• Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East
• The Alternative Information Center (AIC)
• American Jews for a Just Peace (US)
• BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within (Israel)
• British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP)
• Independent Jewish Voices (Canada)
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
• Jews Against the Occupation-NYC
• New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (NYCBI)
• New York City Labor Against the War
• Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK)
• US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel

Cc:

• Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA
• Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty International USA
• Zahir Janmohamed, Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International USA
• Colm Ó Cuanacháin, Amnesty International (UK) Senior Director, Campaigns
• Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International (UK) Senior Director, Research and Regional Programs
• Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International (UK) Researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories