<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[ei: Boycott roundup: international day of action called for Land&nbsp;Day]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><span class="text14">Report, <em>The Electronic Intifada,</em> 11 February 2011<br />
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<p>As part of a regular feature, The Electronic Intifada reports on the  latest developments of the Palestinian-led global boycott, divestment  and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli violations of human rights  and policies of apartheid.</p>
<p>BDS campaigners scored a significant victory this month as the London  Borough of Tower Hamlets voted to exclude Veolia, a French firm that has  provided services to the Israeli occupation in the West Bank, from  receiving any contracts with the municipality. Activists have also  staged protests and launched campaigns in Ireland, Belgium, Palestine.  Meanwhile, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee  (BNC) announced the third annual global day of action to be held on 30  March 2011.</p>
<p><strong>Ireland</strong></p>
<p>Activists with the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) are  calling for a global boycott against Israeli &#8220;blood diamonds&#8221; on  Valentine&#8217;s Day, 14 February.</p>
<p>In a statement on the campaign&#8217;s website, IPSC activists are urging  consumers to make conscious choices in buying jewelry gifts for their  loved ones.</p>
<p>&#8220;This Valentine&#8217;s Day, don&#8217;t let dazzling diamonds blind you to the  plight of those whose misery and suffering is funded by revenue from the  Israeli diamond industry,&#8221; IPSC stated (&#8220;<a href="http://www.ipsc.ie/campaigns_diamond_boycott.php#val11">Global Call to Action &#8211; Flashy Stones and Broken Bones</a>,&#8221; January 2011).</p>
<p>IPSC has campaigned against the Israeli diamond industry for more than a  year, petitioning Irish jewelry associations to stop carrying Israeli  gemstones.</p>
<p>Sean Clinton, chairman of the Limerick branch of IPSC, <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11170.shtml">wrote last year for The Electronic Intifada</a> that &#8220;The diamond industry is a major pillar of the Israeli economy &#8230;  No other developed country is so heavily dependent on a single luxury  commodity and the goodwill of individual consumers globally.&#8221;</p>
<p>Clinton added that Israel holds a &#8220;dominant position&#8221; in the diamond  industry, and the state currently chairs the Kimberly Process  Certification Scheme, an international regulation and certification  program that is tasked with eliminating &#8220;blood diamonds&#8221; from the  industry. Blood diamonds are gemstones mined from areas in the world &#8212;  mostly in the African and Asian continents &#8212; that are involved in, or  directly finance, ongoing human rights violations, violence and war.</p>
<p>In its campaign statement, the IPSC added: &#8220;[diamonds] are the currency  of broken bones and bombed out homes in Gaza. The burning glow of the  white phosphorous that rained down on Gaza doesn&#8217;t come cheap, but the  $1 billion the Israeli military derives from revenue from the Israeli  diamond industry each year helps to fill the coffers of the criminal  military regime.&#8221;</p>
<p>IPSC stated: &#8220;Every time someone buys a diamond processed in Israel some  of the money goes to funding the Israeli war machine that stands  accused of war crimes. Israeli diamonds are blood diamonds.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>United Kingdom</strong></p>
<p>The Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK is intensifying its efforts  to urge local authorities to exclude French urban services corporation  Veolia from major public contracts. This comes on the heels of the  recent findings of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine that Veolia is  liable for serious violations of international human rights and  humanitarian law because of its numerous contracts with the Israeli  government&#8217;s settlement industry in the occupied West Bank (&#8220;<a href="http://www.palestinecampaign.org/index7b-2.asp?m_id=1&amp;l1_id=3&amp;l2_id=19&amp;content_ID=1716">The Boycott VEOLIA Campaign-A Fortnight of Actions In February</a>,&#8221; February 2011).</p>
<p>Campaigners around the UK are planning a series of actions, including  sit-in protests at two London borough council meetings to protest  possible city contracts with Veolia for waste management systems. On 1  February, the group organized a protest at Veolia&#8217;s UK headquarters in  Islington, North London.</p>
<p>On 2 February, Tower Hamlets, one of the London Borough councils, passed  a motion to formally exclude Veolia from its urban waste management  contracts, citing that the corporation has &#8220;clearly committed acts of  grave misconduct in relation to the Palestinian people and the  maintenance of illegal settlements &#8230;&#8221; (&#8220;<a href="http://moderngov.towerhamlets.gov.uk/Published/C00000309/M00003040/$$$Decisions.doc.pdf">Full text of the Council meeting</a>,&#8221;2 February 2011 [PDF]).</p>
<p>Additionally, the council voted to support the boycott, divestment and  sanctions campaign &#8220;against the pariah state of Israel,&#8221; and stated that  &#8220;urgent steps should be taken to review all contracts with Veolia and  not to place any further contracts with the company.&#8221;</p>
<p>The council also passed a motion to urge the Mayor of London to write to  Veolia to communicate the council&#8217;s &#8220;determination to terminate any  relationship&#8221; to the company.</p>
<p>The action by Tower Hamlets is reminiscent of similar actions by many UK  local authorities during the 1980s campaigns against apartheid in South  Africa.</p>
<p>After the Russell Tribunal, Veolia Environmental Services UK spread the  news that the company had pulled out of the operation of the Tovlan  landfill site in the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. The  landfill serves mainly illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and  municipalities in Israel. Meanwhile, Who Profits? (<a href="http://www.whoprofits.org/">www.whoprofits.org</a>)  &#8212; a project of the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace &#8212; verified  the information against facts on the ground. The Israeli environmental  protection authority of the settlements in the West Bank told Who  Profits? in early February that Veolia is still operating the Tovlan  landfill.</p>
<p><strong>Belgium</strong></p>
<p>Solidarity activists staged a protest inside an international tourism  industry exhibition in Brussels on 5 February, encouraging attendees to  boycott the Israeli exhibit. Wearing matching T-shirts emblazoned with  &#8220;Free Palestine&#8221; and &#8220;Palestine Vivra&#8221; (Palestine will live), with  &#8220;Boycott Israel&#8221; on the back, activists formed a human chain around the  Israeli tourism tent and chanted in support of boycott.</p>
<p>The protest, organized by European solidarity group Generation-Palestine (<a href="http://www.generation-palestine.org/">generation-palestine.org</a>), was captured on video and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJZGYwS6dMs">uploaded to YouTube</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Palestine</strong></p>
<p>Palestine-based activists with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic  and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) continued to put pressure on  American singer Macy Gray, who has stated she will perform in Tel Aviv  despite <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11740.shtml">repeated protests by Palestinian, Israeli and international boycott campaigners</a>.</p>
<p>In its statement on 9 February, PACBI expressed &#8220;great dismay&#8221; at Gray&#8217;s  decision to keep her Tel Aviv performance date, and warned her that she  would be &#8220;electing to serve directly the interests of the [public  relations] campaign to Brand Israel&#8221; (&#8220;<a href="http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1477">Open letter to Macy Gray</a>,&#8221; 9 February 2011)</p>
<p>&#8220;This is a campaign that has been launched by the Israeli government and  promoted by institutions throughout the country and abroad in order to  whitewash Israel&#8217;s violations of international law and project a false  image of normalcy,&#8221; PACBI added.</p>
<p>PACBI stated that Gray has promoted this campaign already, by playing at  the opening of the Israeli consulate offices in Los Angeles and, more  recently, releasing a statement declaring her support for Israel at the  request of Israeli diplomats in California.</p>
<p>After Gray announced that she would proceed with her planned  performance, she said she would visit Ramallah, the West Bank city where  the US-supported Palestinian Authority is based, during her visit, a  move which PACBI said is a &#8220;a patronizing attempt to dictate the terms  of the Palestinian people&#8217;s struggle &#8212; by wanting to visit Palestinian  schools or play a show in Ramallah, as though the Palestinian people  need your pity.&#8221;</p>
<p>PACBI added: &#8220;We have asked, as an occupied people, for the minimum act  of solidarity by not playing in Tel Aviv. We have been answered with  your dismissal of our struggle in favor of your own way of helping, as  though you know better. While we acknowledge there are many ways to  help, we ask that people who do so are not directly delegitimizing the  popular will of the Palestinian people. By playing in Tel Aviv you will  do this and more. Your action will imply support of the occupation and  the colonial Israeli state, denial of the right of Palestinian refugees  to return to their homes, and dismissal of a system of apartheid.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Global boycott, divestment and sanctions day of action</strong></p>
<p>The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) announced  the third annual global day of action to be held on 30 March 2011, in a  call to intensify boycott actions around the world while commemorating  an historic day in the Palestinian anti-colonialist movement (&#8220;<a href="http://bdsdayofaction.net/call/">Commemorate Land Day 2011 by Joining the Global BDS Day of Action</a>&#8220;).</p>
<p>&#8220;Inspired and buoyed by the popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia and  their unique manifestation of courage, dignity, civility and  determination, we stand resolutely with worldwide struggles for  self-determination, freedom, democracy, social justice and equality, and  we call for intensifying BDS actions globally as the main form of  solidarity with Palestinian rights,&#8221; the BNC stated.</p>
<p>The BNC said it is calling on people of conscience all over the world to  join the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement by launching  and supporting local, national and international divestment  initiatives; by taking part in consumer boycotts; to pursue legal action  against Israeli war criminals and violations of international law by  corporations complicit in Israeli military policies; and more.</p>
<p>The date of the global day of action, 30 March, is the annual  commemoration of Land Day. In 1976 the Israeli military shot and killed  six young Palestinian citizens of Israel during a massive uprising in  protest of the Israeli government&#8217;s plan to build new Jewish-only  colonies and expand existing Jewish cities.</p>
<p>&#8220;Today, Land Day symbolizes Palestinian resistance to Israel&#8217;s ongoing  land expropriation, colonization, occupation and apartheid,&#8221; the BNC  wrote in its statement.</p>
<p>The first Global BDS Day of Action was announced by Palestinian civil  society with overwhelming support at the World Social Forum in 2009.</span></p>
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