Letters for BDS and a slap on the wrist for Chomsky

These letters are in today's Guardian:

It is now 10 years since the international court of justice ruled that the wall built by Israel in the occupied West Bank contravenes international law and must be removed. Israel is marking this anniversary with renewed attacks on Gaza which continue to punish the Palestinians for resisting the illegal occupation of their land (Israel turns screw on Hamas as 300 targets are hit in a single night, 11 July). The apartheid wall is still there, making any kind of normal life for Palestinians an impossibility, as well as stealing their land. It is 47 years since Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, thus extending the process (begun in 1948) of ethnically cleansing the indigenous population and then installing settlers.

All this is illegal under international law, which has been flouted by Israel, aided by the complicity of western governments. The media too, especially the BBC, must bear some responsibility with its grotesquely biased reporting which, as Owen Jones notes (9 July), portrays Israel as an innocent victim, exempt from any norms of behaviour. Our government will not hold Israel accountable, so we have a responsibility to do so, especially through the civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

Miriam Margolyes, Mike Marqusee, Alexei Sayle, Ahdaf Soueif, Prof Haim Bresheeth, Prof Jonathan Rosenhead, Prof Moshe Machover, Prof Nira Yuval-Davies, Seymour Alexander, Rica Bird, Elizabeth Carola, Mike Cushman, Judit Druks, Nancy Elan, Mark Elf, Deborah Fink, Sylvia Finzi, Kenneth Fryde, Claire Glasman, Tony Greenstein, Abe Hayeem, Rosamine Hayeem, Selma James, Riva Joffe, Michael Kalmanovitz, Adah Kay, Leah Levane, Les Levidow, Mica Nava, Diane Neslen, Susan Pashkoff, Roland Rance, Leon Rosselson, Maureen Rothstein, Michael Sackin, Ian Saville, Miriam Scharf, Sam Weinstein, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Devra Wiseman, Ben Young
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG)

• Debate about strategy is vital for good politics. We welcome Noam Chomsky's admonitions as a stimulus to the debate and education which the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions movement has enabled globally. Aside from the errors of fact in Chomsky's Nation article reported on by Ian Black (Israeli sanctions campaign: Chomsky's boycott warning, 2 July), the timing of his intervention is unfortunate since the BDS movement has now reached even American campuses, occasioned Israeli cabinet deliberations as to how to counter it, and caused reputational damage to corporations working with Israeli firms in occupied Palestine.

Chomsky also ignores that BDS is fully backed by Palestinian civil society and a growing number of Israelis. In this difficult period for progressive politics and international solidarity, the BDS movement builds across the globe. In its stead Chomsky proposes nothing.

Hilary Rose Professor emeritus of social policy, Bradford, Martha Mundy Professor emeritus in anthropology, LSE, Steven Rose Professor emeritus of neuroscience, Open University, Sami Ramadani London Metropolitan University

I ought to add that whilst the first letter was organised via Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG) not all of the signatories are members.

Kick Israel out of UEFA

Some important announcements from the Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods website:

RED CARD ISRAELI RACISM CAMPAIGN TARGETS UEFA CONGRESS

Posted on 16 March 2013 by jews4big | Leave a comment

PROTEST at UEFA’s Annual Congress in London on May 24

SUPPORT Mahmoud Sarsak’s UK tour in May-June 2013

PARTICIPATE in the Goals for Peace tournament on May 19

BUILD the campaign to Red Card Israeli Racism

The Red Card Israeli Racism campaign is escalating its activities as the June 5-18 dates for UEFA’s under-21 men’s football final in Israel draw near.

The London-based campaign is now part of a European coalition of groups working to expose the folly of staging a major competition in a state which shows contempt for the rights of Palestinian football players and supporters.  Beyond June, Red Card has the potential to develop into a long-term challenge to Israel ’s membership of UEFA – the overarching body for European football.

The June tournament will probably still go ahead, but the case against it has gained prominence over recent months.  Frederic Kanoute and 51 other leading professional players issued a statement deploring Israel ’s attacks on Gaza in November, saying they called into question holding the games in Israel . In January, a well publicised action at the UEFA offices in Nyon , Switzerland , forced UEFA president Michel Platini to give pro-Palestinian protesters a hearing after two years of turning a deaf ear to the campaign.

In March, the congress of the French trade union CGT-INRA passed a resolution contesting UEFA’s decision to stage the competition in Israel and a former French minister of sport, Marie-George Buffet, wrote to Platini calling on him to hold it elsewhere.

In the UK , football media are opening up space for discussion of the issues, such as this piece on the FootyMatters website, written by members of the student group Football Beyond Borders. It prompted a reaction from the Jewish Chronicle, insisting that UEFA would “stand firm” against our campaign.

FBB has held two well-attended public meetings in London to mobilise support for the campaign.

The Red Card petition now has 6,500 signatures, and rising.

The UK will become the focus of intense campaigning action as UEFA holds its annual congress in London on Friday May 24. A major demonstration is planned for the occasion.

The men’s and women’s Champions League finals will be taking place around the same time and Friends of al-Aqsa are organising a 16-plus anti-racist tournament in east London – Goals for Peace – for up to 20 six-a-side teams.

Mahmoud Sarsak, the national Palestinian team player whose release from unlawful detention we campaigned for last Spring, plans to be in England at that time as part of an extended European tour. He aims to visit Norway , Spain , France , Italy , the UK and Ireland between April and June, meeting players, officials, fans, politicians, journalists and activists.

The intended dates for the English leg of his tour are May 16-26, visiting Scotland until June 8 and moving on to Ireland before returning to his home in Gaza later in the month.

The campaign is working to build support for the tour through mainstream organisations such as FARE (Footballers Against Racism in Europe), Kick It Out and Show Racism the Red Card, trade unions and faith groups, as well as pro-Palestinian and human rights bodies.

Red Card Israeli Racism was established in London in 2011 by members of PSC, Friends of al-Aqsa and Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods. It currently (March 2013) has a steering group representing those organisations but is inviting much wider participation to build a sporting boycott campaign alongside other BDS groups around Europe .

Contact: info@rcir.org.uk

Got all that? Good.  But just in case you didn't get all that, here's the Red Card Petition link again and here's a link to the Red Card Israeli Racism website.

#IFO4Habima

Erm, what I'm trying to say is that the Israeli foreign office is tweeting for support for Israel's "foremost Hebrew speaking theatre company", Habima's, appearance at the Globe Theatre in London. Here's Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods:

In emails circulated to some sections of the Jewish community, the embassy is launching a Twitter campaign using “the hashtag #LoveCulture as it is short enough to fit on a substantial tweet and won’t be taken at first glance as a political statement” (our emphasis).

Suggested hasbara tweets from Tuesday morning onwards include:

Great to see @HabimaTheatre celebrating the Cultural Olympiad @the_globe…all the world’s a stage #LoveCulture

 Fantastic seeing the foremost Hebrew speaking theatre company perform the Merchant of Venice @the_globe #LoveCulture

Maybe panic is setting in because the performances are tomorrow and the night after. Of course protests have been organised:

For those who, on the other hand, respect the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions and recognise cultural boycott as a legitimate weapon in the non-violent struggle for freedom, justice and equality, we recommend joining a mass protest outside the Globe at 6pm on Monday May 28 and again on Tuesday 29th.

No doubt zionists and EDLrs will be out in force too.

Norman Finkelstein in the UK

Norman Finkelstein speaking engagements in the UK but check out additional info below the list for what is happening in Manchester:

DATE 7/11/2011
PLACE: University of Leeds
TIME:  7:00 PM

SPONSORS Palestinian Return Centre

CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER irial@hotmail.co.uk, +447976637686

 ——————————————— 

DATE 8/11/2011
PLACE: University of Manchester Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, M2 5NS
TIME 7:00 PM
SPONSORS Palestinian Return Centre

CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER sana.aburawa@student.manchester.ac.uk, +447871663857

 ————————————————————

DATE 9/11/2011
PLACE University of Nottingham
TIME 6:00PM
SPONSORS Palestinian Return Centre

CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER miss.raja@live.co.uk, +447411430873

 —————————–——————————————————–

DATE 10/11/2011
PLACE University of Birmingham
TIME 6:00 PM
SPONSORS Palestinian Return Centre

CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER cxc087@bham.ac.uk, +447792284352

 —————————–————————————————————————-

DATE 11/11/2011
PLACE Logan Hall, London
TIME 7 PM
SPONSORS Palestinian Return Centre and Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods

CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER laythhanbali@hotmail.com, +447935819927 

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Manchester venue changed after lobbying from the, er, lobby, in this instance the Jewish Society, an affiliate of the Union of Jewish Students which in turn is an affiliate of the World Zionist Organisation.  Here's Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods on what happened to change the venue:

Manchester University has caved in to Zionist pressure and forced students organising a speaking tour by Professor Norman Finkelstein to move his planned lecture off campus.

Students from Manchester Action Palestine said the university management and Union “capitulated to pressure from JSOC [Jewish Society] to limit attendees of the event to students only, depriving the public of seeing one of the world’s foremost commentators on the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

JSOC members alleged that the safety of Jewish students would be endangered if the public were allowed in, even though they had made clear their own intention to attend and hold a picket.

Instead of standing up to this blatant attempt to interfere with freedom of expression, administrators issued an ultimatum saying that the lecture would have to be closed to non-students or be cancelled.

Action Palestine has been obliged to find a new location in the city. They are asking supporters to send protest letters to Martin Conway (martin.conway@manchester.ac.uk) Head of Governance Office and Deputy Secretary, and Pat Sponder (pat.sponder@manchester.ac.uk) Head of the Office of Student Support and Services.

According to the UJS website they "want to be open and honest about what we do" and yet the only indication that are a affiliates of the World Zionist Organisation is in a blog post from last year. I don't think the Manchester University Jewish Society even pretends to be, what was it? oh yes, "open and honest about what we do".