Asa WINSTANLEY: "Israel's 'war' against BDS is increasingly desperate" (MEMo, Jan 18, 2016): click here!
At first ignored, and later derided, the BDS movement has by now become one of the top strategic threats to Israel's ability carry on the business of occupation as usual.
It is beginning to seem as if the arrival of winter spells academic boycott season as well as the festive season. This year in November, the business meetings of two major associations voted overwhelmingly to endorse the call of Palestine civil society to engage in a boycott of Israeli academic institutions until such times as they—and the state with which they are so deeply intertwined—respect the internationally recognized human rights of Palestinians.
Sean M.KENNEDY: "On the MLA and the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions " (Right to Education Campaign Birzeit Univ., Jan 15, 2016): click here!
This is the first time a major church pension fund has acted to preclude investment in Israeli banks that sustain Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
"United Methodist Church pension fund rules 5 top Israeli banks off-limits for investment" (Mondoweiss, Jan 12, 2016): click here!
Aziza NOFAL: "Why Palestinian housewives are taking lead in boycott campaigns" (Al-Monitor, Jan 8, 2016): click here!
BDS campaign coordinator and Palestinian politician Majida al-Masri told Al-Monitor, “This campaign is unique in that it addresses housewives in their capacity as those in charge of household spending and the best suited to make decisions related to buying products. As the campaign developed, it garnered the membership of all women’s groups and organizations that are active in the West Bank, subsequently spreading to Gaza, thus empowering and driving it forward.”
Members of the American Historical Association on Saturday voted down, 111 to 51, a resolution “upholding the rights of Palestinian faculty and students to pursue their education and research freely” and committing the AHA to “monitoring Israeli actions restricting the right to education in the occupied Palestinian territories,” among other points. The vote came at the association's annual meeting here.
Saree MAKDISI: "Why Israel's schools merit a U.S. boycott" (Los Angeles Times, Jan 8, 2016): click here!
The United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination points out with alarm that Israel maintains two separate educational systems for its citizens — one for Jewish children and another for the children of the Palestinian minority — a structure that reinforces the profound segregation of Israeli society in everything from matters of citizenship and marriage to housing rights.
French telecoms giant Orange has announced the termination of its franchise relationship with Israeli company Partner Communications, confirming the BDS movement’s announcement last year that this was likely to happen.
Recent Israeli efforts to fight BDS smell of deep despair, which is giving rise to hopeless aggression, even worse bullying and patently irrational measures that can only help BDS to grow in the coming few years.
On December 15, 2015, the United Auto Workers (UAW) International Executive Board (IEB) nullified the resolution passed last year by members of UAW Local 2865, the 13,000 teaching assistants and student-workers at the University of California system, that called on the International to endorse the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel by withholding their financial investments in companies “complicit in severe and ongoing human rights violations as part of the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people."
MLA (Modern Language Association) Members for Justice in Palestine is a group within the MLA Commons that was established in 2014 and submitted a Resolution Endorsing the Boycott of Israeli Academic institutions to the Organizing Committee of the Delegate Assembly for consideration at the 2015 Delegate Assembly meeting. The vote on the Resolution was postponed until the 2017 MLA Convention allowing for further debate and discussion of the issue with the aim of educating the membership. The organizers and supporters are scholars at all levels within the academy working in a various fields of language and literary studies. [The Open Letter can be signed online.]
"BDS in 2015: Seven ways our movement broke new ground against Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid" (BDS Movement, Dec 29, 2015): click here!