Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid » BDS

BDS Bus Ad Sightings

stkitmitto — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:00:14 +0000

Hewlett Packard, 7/11 and Kimberly Clark/Unicef/Pampers also profit from Israeli Apartheid and this February, Bay Area artists culture jammed about those ties. The group used the whoprofits database to fact check their information and created faux ads that were installed in San Francisco and the East Bay.

www.bdsmovement.net • facebook: Don’t Buy Into Apartheid

Hewlett Packardwww.bdsmovement.net • facebook: Don’t Buy Into Apartheid

Hewlett Packard (HP) owns EDS Israel which sells the Basel System to the Israeli government. The Basel System biometrically controls the movement of Palestinian people at checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza. These checkpoints prevent students from getting to school, workers from making a living, and families from meeting and accessing medical care.
Hewlett Packard profits from Israeli Occupation and Apartheid, both of which are illegal under international law.
When you buy a computer or printer, choose a brand that Does Not Buy Into Apartheid and let
HP know you did! Mark Hurd, CEO: 650.857.1501

Proctor and Gamble

Proctor and Gamble uses materials made in illegal West Bank settlements by Avgol Industries an Israeli company. And, UNICEF partner with Pampers to fund it’s programs.
Let Proctor & Gamble know you don’t buy into Apartheid and they should not either.
P&G: http://pg.custhelp.com

7 Eleven

What do Slurpees have to do with war crimes?!

The Alon Group is an Israeli company with a monopoly on the gas supply to Gaza. They
switch it off at will depriving the population of essential services. This is collective
punishment. This is a war crime. Alon USA owns 170 7 Eleven stores in the U.S..
Let 7 Eleven know you don’t buy into Apartheid and they should not either.
7 Eleven: 800.255.0711

The “Boycott from Within”: BDS Gaining Momentum INSIDE Israel

stkitmitto — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:55:13 +0000

A recent article by Michel Warschawski (journalist and writer and a founder of the Alternative Information Center (AIC) in Israel) on the International Viewpoint website discusses the growth of BDS inside Israel.

The call for BDS – Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions – has finally reached Israeli public opinion. The decision of Norway to divest capitals from Israeli corporations involved in settlement buildings made the difference, and provided the first big success to that important campaign.
Moreover, the group of Israelis supporting BDS, under the label “Boycott from Within” is gaining some momentum, thanks, among other, to a public appeal by Naomi Klein to Israeli activists when she came to Tel Aviv to present the Hebrew version of her “Shock Doctrine”.

The fact that there is an (even small) Israeli voice to support the international BDS campaign makes a lot of difference, and, among other, helps to disarm the infamous accusation of Anti-Semitism raised by the Israeli propaganda machine against everyone who dare to criticize the colonial policies of the Jewish State. Moreover, as I will argue towards the end of this article, the Israeli supporters of BDS are in fact expressing the true and long-term interests of the Israeli people. Reading recently two texts of Uri Avnery criticizing BDS convinced me that it was important to clarify how positive is that campaign and why should it be supported by as many Israelis as possible.

Michael Warschawski also reported in this August 2009 blog post on the AIC website about the movement:

In an op-ed piece published in the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Neve Gordon, professor of political science at Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva, called for international support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. I have already explained in my blog that the point of this international campaign is to sanction Israel for its occupation policies, colonization and systematic violation of international law and United Nations’ resolutions regarding the conflict in Palestine. Dr. Gordon is part of an activist Israeli group that has decided to support the BDS campaign from within Israeli society. This group, “Boycott from Within,” aims to support the claim that Israel must pay for its crimes, based on the understanding that only an unyielding position from the International community can put pressure on the leaders of the Jewish state to finally abide by international laws.

See also the website for the group BOYCOTT!, “Palestinians, Jews, citizens of Israel, join the Palestinian call for a BDS campaign against Israel”

US Campaign to End the Occupation signals expansion of their BDS work

stkitmitto — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:12:27 +0000

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a national Washington D.C. based organization & coalition, has signaled major shifts in their BDS work over the past few years. The most recent one came in September 2009 at their 8th Annual National Organizers’ Conference.

From their conference report:

Delegates also voted to endorse the principle of extending our BDS work to cultural and academic boycott campaigns and to non-U.S. corporations as well by endorsing the Stolen Beauty campaign against the Israeli cosmetics company Ahava for its profiting from Israeli occupation and settlements.

Nada Elia’s commentary on Electronic Intifada:

The proposal that “the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation should endorse the principle of cultural and academic boycotts” passed by a landslide with one abstention and not a single objection. The quasi-unanimous vote, and the deep collective breath of relief that followed, will go down in history as the moment US-based Palestine solidarity activists overcame tactical differences that had long hindered us, to finally come together to confront Israeli apartheid.

Event Report: Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions: Lessons from South Africa

hkornst1 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:09:46 +0000

On August 19th, over 50 people gathered in the Friends Meeting House to hear three experienced and thoughtful speakers address the topic of “Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions: Lessons from South Africa”. Gerald Lenoir, a leader from the South African anti-Apartheid movement in the US, kicked off the discussion with his insights on organizing in the 1970’s and 80’s. Gerald spoke of the decentralized nature of the BDS movement at the time, the need for a wide variety of actions, and the ability to commit to a longterm strategy. He gave us hope for the Palestine BDS movement, saying he didn’t think he would see an end to Apartheid in his lifetime, but they kept fighting, and they did it!

Jackie Husary, a masters student at SF State and research assistant for the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities in Diaspora program, followed Lenoir with a comparison of similarities and differences in the Apartheid systems of South Africa and Israel. Husary urged the audience to reexamine our understandings of Palestinian struggles to include an anti-colonial context that links Palestine with not just South Africa, but many nations of the Global South. Finally, Break the Siege member Ayla Jay Schoenwald closed the panel by emphasizing the importance of getting involved in local boycott campaigns like the Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid.

The audience was energized after hearing from Ayla about the many recent international victories, and jumped right into a question and answer session by sharing other campaigns, other victories, questions about strategy and struggle, and ideas for action. Loubna Qutami, our moderator for the evening, helped guide the conversation and contributed key insights, in particular about the history of co-optation of the Palestinian grassroots resistance by the US government and international NGO’s. Loubna closed the evening with a call to action: we in the U.S. must begin to see Israel not just as an “occupying force” but as a “colonial Apartheid regime” in order to be in true solidarity with Palestinian liberation. And BACEIA provided audience members with a first step– sign our pledge to Boycott Israeli Goods!

Thanks to everyone in attendance! This event was sponsored by Break the Siege, Center for Political Education, and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.