July 30, 2009

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

Dear friends,

As part of our Summer of Hope campaign, the Free Gaza Movement was planning to make 3 boat voyages to Gaza this summer, one in June, one in July and one in August. On our July and August voyages we had planned to take into Gaza all of the books that you have sent us as part of our Right to Read campaign (see below for update).

Due to Israel’s hijacking of our boat, the Spirit of Humanity last month, we have had to change our plans. No, we are not backing down. Now, more than ever, we believe it’s critical to continue these missions, and demonstrate the power of the international civilian community to stand up to cruelty, human rights abuses, and oppression. If we let Israel’s attack on our last mission stop us, we will be giving in to the violence that is perpetrated 100-fold against the occupied Palestinian people. The risks that we take by getting on these boats are nothing compared to the existential threats that Palestinians face every day of their lives. But to make this next voyage happen, we need your help urgently! We need to raise a substantial sum of money and engage in considerable outreach over the next few weeks in order to be able to send the next mission before the weather changes and the Mediterranean Sea starts becoming unpredictable.

Please share this email with friends and family and decide on one or more ways you can get involved. We will not be able to do this without you.
Suggestions for things that you can do:

(1) Donate. You have donated to us so generously to us in the past, we need you to do it again. Please consider making a donation of $100 ( 100 or £100) and asking 9 friends to do the same. Go to: http://www.freegaza.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=109&Itemid=147. Please do it now.

(2) Fundraise. Plan a fundraiser for the Free Gaza Movement in your home or community. A dinner, movie screening, house party or other could be a great way to get your friends and family more aware of and involved in our efforts, while contributing to our goal of purchasing a cargo ship and accompanying passenger boats to go to Gaza.

(3) Educate. We have volunteers in various countries that might be available to come speak at your school, university or other venue about their experiences in Gaza, the horrifying effects of Israel’s illegal blockade, and what the Free Gaza Movement is doing to break the siege. Consider hosting an event or a speaking tour for the Free Gaza Movement. For help in doing this, please contact us (friends@freegaza.org).

(4) Outreach. We would like to get celebrities, dignitaries, and community leaders to join our next mission in order to draw more attention to the dire situation in Gaza and the need for immediate action. If you have contact to an actor, singer, athlete, artist, producer, politician or other public personality, including prominent human and civil rights leaders, ask them to lend their voice and presence to this nonviolent action in defense of human rights. Reach out to your member of congress or parliament and ask him/her to join us. If someone is not able to physically be on our boat, ask him or her for a statement or letter or endorsement.

On Board the Spirit of Humanity before Israeli Navy illegal boards and arrest unarmed human rights workers – VIDEO by Ishmahil Blagrove – RicenPeas

(5) Contribute. We would like to get as many local, national, and international groups and organizations involved in the success of this mission as possible. Approach a local group or organization about donating cargo to send to Gaza on the next Free Gaza boats. One of the two areas our next mission will focus on is education, taking in books (see information about Right to Read campaign below), paper, ink and school supplies. Ask your local school, church, mosque, synagogue, social justice group, or other NGO to commit to this effort. Even primary schools can contribute to breaking the siege on Gaza by writing letters to schoolchildren in Gaza. Please contact us (friends@freegaza.org) about the items that we are accepting for cargo.

The second area our mission will focus on is building supplies. It is now more than six months since the end of Israel’s brutal 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip, which led to the killing of over 1400 Palestinians, and the people of Gaza are still living in rubble. Consider approaching a local business about sponsoring reconstruction cargo for Gaza. Please contact us (friends@freegaza.org) for details.

(6) Right to Read campaign. The response to the Right to Read (http://www.freegaza.org/right-to-read) campaign has been heartening. In addition to the books that the universities in Gaza requested, some of you sent us school supplies for children, as you know that paper, pencils and crayons are among the thousands of items that the Israeli authorities do not allow into Gaza. Others approached their local universities about offering free e-library and other database access to Palestinian universities; this is invaluable! Also a few authors have donated copies of their books to the campaign; thank you! As great as the response has been, we still have not acquired all of the books we need. Please, let’s keep going! We will start taking these books in on the next voyage. Visit: http://www.freegaza.org/right-to-read

How soon we can make this next voyage happens will depend on our collective effort. We are aiming for September/October. Let’s make it happen!

In solidarity & struggle,
FREE GAZA MOVEMENT

http://www.FreeGaza.org

Recently Israeli telecommunications company Cellcom released an advertisement which which portrayed Israeli soldiers playing a “friendly” game of soccer near the apartheid wall supposedly with Palestinian youth on the other side of the wall.  The advertisement has been condemned by many as an attempt to “normalise” Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

In response to the Cellcom advertisement, Ayyad Mediqa has made his own advertisement using footage from the weekly non-violent demonstration against the wall in Bil’in village in the Occupied West Bank.  Mediqu’s video shows what a real soccer ‘match’ between real Israeli Occupation Soliders and Palestinians look like.

What a real soccer match between IOF soldiers and Palestinians looks like

Original Cellcom advertisement

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http://www.miftah.org/display.cfm?DocId=20055&CategoryId=3

Cellcom Commercials ‘Clearly Not The Best’
July 13, 2009
By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

Preposterous’ is almost too mild a word to describe the new Cellcom commercial that many Palestinians and Israelis alike are calling for to be pulled. The advert portrays an Israeli army jeep patrolling near the West Bank separation wall when a soccer ball suddenly flies over from the other “Palestinian side”, hitting the hood of the jeep. For the first brief moment after the boom of the ball-on-jeep impact, the soldiers go into combat-mode, a hint of fear sweeping over their faces, fingers on triggers. Jumping out of the vehicle, the soldiers first hold still in caution, not knowing what to expect from the “other side,” the commander clearly waving his hand to stay his troops.

The final decision is to kick the ball over the wall to the other side (the players who, of course, are never shown). A “game of soccer” ensues between the two sides after one Israeli soldier calls some of his army buddies (on his Cellcom cell phone obviously) to join the game. The catchphrase of the commercial? “After all, what are we all after? Just a little fun.”

It is no wonder so many groups – including one on the popular social network Facebook, has demanded that the Israeli mobile phone company cancel the advertisement. There are almost too many offensive and insulting aspects of the commercial to tick off. For starters, the idea that the separation wall can double as a volleyball net of sorts, undercuts and belittles the actual purpose and impact of this hideous structure.

Then, take the fact that the commercial reinforces stereotypes right from the get-go. The Palestinians are never seen, perpetuating the idea that “they” are too horrible or too dangerous to engage face to face. One only has to look at the soldiers’ initial reaction to the soccer ball loudly bouncing off the jeep’s hood to reveal the great divide between the two peoples. The Israelis are scared – perhaps thinking a Molotov Cocktail has been thrown at them, or at best, a rock. In any case, this is the way the bulk of Israelis perceive Palestinians, isn’t it?

But then, the most dangerous part of all comes. Deciding to be “nice and playful” soldiers, they kick the ball back, hardly thinking the Palestinians will volley it right over again. Some may wonder why the elusive Palestinians do not come over on their own to retrieve their ball. Simple. According to the rules of this game, if they try to cross, jump over or in any way surpass the cement edifice they will be shot on the spot (or at best, arrested) for illegally entering “Israeli” territory.
This point opens yet another can of worms. Given that the wall, which Israel claims was built to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from entering Israeli cities, actually cuts into approximately 40 percent of the West Bank in areas that are conveniently adjacent to illegal Jewish settlements, the wall in this commercial just may be between Palestinian and Palestinian territory and not Israeli at all.

The soldiers in the commercial call up “reinforcements”, including attractive young women soldiers to cheer the men on. As the ball goes back and forth, so do the laughs and pats on the backs between Israel’s occupying soldiers. Then the line, “After all, what are we all after? Just a little fun.”

Actually, no. If anything, the Palestinian “ghosts” on the other side of the wall would much rather find a way to tear down that wall than kick their ball back and forth with an army whose presence there has one purpose and one purpose only – to oppress and occupy their entire people. What Cellcom tried to portray – in poor taste, it should be added – was that this oppressive, imposing and discriminatory wall, can be viewed in no different of a light than say a volleyball net on the sandy beaches of Tel Aviv. That “neighbors” could be “neighborly” if they chose, even when one is an occupied people not allowed to freely move a few hundred meters around a cement wall to find their ball, and the others is a heavily armed, militarily superior occupying army that protects this wall and the illegal settlers behind it.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Palestinians (and conscientious Israelis) find nothing amusing about this advertisement. The separation wall, which has caused considerable everyday suffering to Palestinians not to mention its long term purpose of grabbing as much Palestinian land as possible, is nothing to make light of.

Coincidently (or not), the commercial’s release coincided with the fifth anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the illegality of the separation wall in July, 2004. Cellcom’s commercial not only belittled the wall’s impact on the Palestinians, it gave it an image of ‘normalcy’ and, most importantly one of a benign nature, which it is clearly not.

If anything positive comes of this, it hopefully will be the opposite of what Cellcom intended. Instead of portraying the Israeli army as playful and kind and the wall as an instrument of entertainment between two warring neighbors, perhaps the feedback from all those who feel so strongly against the advert will educate those ignorant minds that Israel’s separation wall is no laughing matter.

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Program at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mip@miftah.org.

HUMAN RIGHTS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED IN PALESTINE

The International Women’s Peace Service in Palestine (IWPS-Palestine) is a team of women human rights workers, who provide international accompaniment to Palestinian civilians, document and non-violently intervene in human rights abuses and support acts of non-violent resistance to end the illegal Israeli occupation and building of the apartheid wall.

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IWPS-Palestine is currently inviting applicants from women who would like to join our team of longer term volunteers. Successful applicants will serve a minimum of one 3 month term in Palestine and support our on-going work outside. Preference will be given to women able to commit to further terms in Palestine (1-3 months).

Deadline for application 30.09.09.

Please contact iwpstraining@ yahoo.com for more info and application form. For more information about IWPS see: www.iwps-pal. org

Boycott Israeli Apartheid

SPEAKOUT IN SUPPORT OF GAZA

11 am – 1pm

Saturday, July 11

Bourke St Mall,

Cnr of Swanston and Bourke St,

Melbourne City

On 19 September 2007, Israel’s “Security Cabinet” declared the Gazain the name of “security” has imposed an illegal and punitive siege against the 1.5 million Strip a “hostile entity”.  Since that time, Israel civilians living in Gaza, preventing almost entirely the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza.  Israel’s illegal siege, which is a form of collective punishment, is a war crime under international law.

According to Oxfam, more than 80% of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents are currently dependent on international food aid as a result of the siege. In addition, according to a report in October 2008 by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights currently 45% of working age adults in the Gaza Strip are officially unemployed.

Since Israel’s all-out bombing of the Gaza Strip in December – January, the situation in Gaza has gotten worse and the siege has tightened.  During Israel’s assault on Gaza, more than 1400 Gazans were killed, two-thirds of whom were civilians.  According to the United Nations, more than 42,400 houses were destroyed, leaving more than 250,000 people homeless.   Also destroyed were 14 mosques and 10 schools, while a further 240 schools were damaged.  Currently, due to Israel’s siege, no widespread reconstruction can take place.

On July 9 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s building of the apartheid wall is illegal.  The following year on July 9, 2005, more than 100 Palestinian civil society organisations launched the international call for a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel until it complied with its obligations under international law.

To mark the anniversary of these two very important events, we call on all supporters of human rights to join us and to speak out against Israel’s ongoing human rights abuses against the Palestinian people, to say no to Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies and to demand justice for the Palestinian people struggling against siege, occupation and war.

End the siege of Gaza!

End the Israeli occupation of Palestine!

No Australian support for Israel – Sanctions Now!

Initiated by Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Tel: O439 454 3750 or 0431 728 271

Email: palestinesolidaritycampaign@gmail.com

www.palestinesolidaritycampaign.net

“Gaza is a prison and Israel seems to have thrown away the key”

-UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights,   John Dugard

At the July 11 action we will be displaying the goods banned by Israel. If you can contribute any of the following for the display, please bring them on the day or contact us at the above numbers/email.

As part of its illegal and punitive siege of Gaza, Israel currently bans the following items in the name of “security”:

Canned goods, tinned meat, tomato paste, tea, coffee, milk products in large packages, apricots, most baking products, sausages, semolina, sesame seeds, nuts, cherries, kiwi, green almonds, pomegranates, plums, grapes, avocados, chocolate, animals (ie. cows, sheep), clothing, shoes, notebooks, toys, crayons, fabrics, threads, needles, candles, matches, books, light bulbs, hair conditioner, musical instruments, mattresses, sheets, blankets, cutlery, crockery, cups, glasses, wood, wooden furniture, building material, electric appliances, refrigerators, washing machines, spare machine, car parts.

Previously banned but allowed to be imported in the last three months:

toilet paper, nappies, sanitary napkins, detergents, soaps, pasta, pumpkin, carrots, hair shampoo, margarine, salt, artificial sweetener, legumes, yeast, cheeses, toothbrushes, toothpaste