Palestinian Appeal to International Civil Society
Palestinian civil society organizations   March 30, 2008
Sixty Years of Dispossession and Ethnic Cleansing
Boycott the "Israel at 60" Celebrations!

March 30, 2008

How can you celebrate? The establishment of the State of Israel sixty years ago was a settler-colonial project that systematically and violently uprooted more than 750 thousand Palestinian Arabs from their lands and homes. Sixty years ago, Zionist militias and gangs ransacked Palestinian properties and destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages. How can people of conscience celebrate this catastrophe? MORE...
 
  BDS News and Opinion
| CBC News | May 10, 2008

About 4,000 people filled the streets of Turin, Italy, on Saturday to protest against the Turin Book fair's celebration of Israeli writers. ...more

| International Herald Tribune | May 8, 2008

The following statement, signed by 54 international figures in the literary and cultural fields,
was published in the International Herald Tribune on May 8, 2008:

“Even after fifty years of living the Palestinian exile I still find myself astonished at the lengths to which official Israel and its supporters will go to suppress the fact that a half century has gone by without Israeli restitution, recognition, or acknowledgment of Palestinian human rights and without, as the facts undoubtedly show, connecting that suspension of rights to Israel's official policies. ... the Palestinian Nakba is characterized as a semi-fictional event ... caused by no one in particular.”

Edward Said, commenting on the “Israel at 50” celebrations in the US in 1998 ...more

Omar Barghouti | American Theatre | May 4, 2008

In 1965, the American Committee on Africa, following the lead of prominent British arts associations, sponsored a historic declaration against South African apartheid, signed by more than 60 cultural personalities. It read: "We say no to apartheid. We take this pledge in solemn resolve to refuse any encouragement of, or indeed, any professional association with the present Republic of South Africa, this until the day when all its people shall equally enjoy the educational and cultural advantages of that rich and beautiful land." ...more

| Adalah-NY | May 2, 2008

New York, NY, May 2 – During the run-up to Mother's Day in the US, over 100 women from around the world have signed a letter from Adalah-NY calling for a boycott of Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev's diamonds because his companies are destroying the lives of Palestinian mothers. Mother's Day, on May 11, is the third biggest shopping period for jewelry in the US. Women will begin flyering on Saturday May 3 at Leviev's Madison Avenue store, asking shoppers to honor the boycott call. The Mother's Day boycott call comes just days after government officials in Dubai honored a boycott call from Adalah-NY by announcing that Leviev had no license to open jewelry stores in the Emirate. ...more

Jonny Paul | The Jerusalem Post | May 1, 2008

The British NGO War on Want has been warned by the Charity Commission for deviating from its mission in a pro-Palestinian campaign. ...more

Hagit Klaiman | YNet News | April 30, 2008

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day and a week before Israel marks its 60th Independence Day, a group of over 100 British Jews comprised of well-known academics, writers, actors and other public figures has launched a scathing attack against the Jewish state. ...more

Abe Selig | The Jerusalem Post | April 30, 2008

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers passed a resolution at its national convention in April supporting the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, labeling it an "apartheid state" and calling on the Canadian government to increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. ...more

| The Guardian | April 30, 2008

In May, Jewish organisations will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This is understandable in the context of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-semitism and Hitler's genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasised, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Naqba is to the Palestinians. ...more

Abbas Al Lawati | Gulf News | 30 April 2008

Dubai: No trade licence has been granted to open Israeli jewellery store Leviev in Dubai contrary to claims by Leviev and its agent in Dubai, said a top official at the Department of Economic Development.
...more

LAWRENCE VAN GELDER | New York Times | 23/4/2008

Barbra Streisand has withdrawn from a celebration of the 60th anniversary of Israel scheduled for Jerusalem next month, The Associated Press reported. The office of President Shimon Peres said Ms. Streisand gave no reason for the cancellation. She had been scheduled to appear at a convention, hosted by Mr. Peres, where she was to perform a rendition of the Hebrew prayer Avinu Malkeinu (“Our Father, Our King”). ...more


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IMAGES FROM THE OCCUPATION
The main road from Shufa to Tulkarm, which is now closed to villagers after Avne Hefetz settlement was built on confiscated sections of the road.


Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
FAQs Sheet
Criteria for Palestinian-Israeli joint projects
 
  PACBI Updates

28 April 2008

Open letter to Nadine Gordimer*

In your response to our letters of concern and protest over your planned visit to Israel, to participate in a writers festival largely endorsed by the ...
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February 22, 2008

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has learned that you have been invited by Israeli President Shimon Peres to take part in a conference ...
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24/4/2008
Haidar Eid

Dear Ms. Gordimer,

I am a Palestinian lecturer in Cultural Studies living in Gaza. I happen to also have South African citizenship as a result of my marriage to a ...
...more