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Read about Leonard Cohen
Tom Hickey addresses the Kerala Film Festival
Tom Hickey, a member of the BRICUP organising committee was invited to speak at the 14th Kerala Film Festival. He spoke about the situation of Palestinians under occupation and blockade and explained the case for the film and cultural boycott of Israel.
Read Tom Hickey's talk Justice and the Claims of Truth: Films, Festivals and the Case of Palestine
BRICUP supports Bethlehem Now: Alternative lessons and songs of protest for Palestine
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods organised a concert to highlight the tragedy of modern day Palestine with an evening of poetry, prose, song and theatre at St Pauls Church, Covent Garden, London. BRICUP was pleased to be a sponsor of tis event.
The concert was successful and well attended. It was a moving testiment of the strugle of the Palestinian to survive under and resist Israeli occupation and blockade.
The evening raised over £1500 for Free Gaza, Wi'am and Interpal
Academic Boycott of Palestinian Students: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?
Isabelle Swerissen, an intern with FFIPP has written powerfully about the effects of Israeli disruption of education in Palestine.
The article concludes: " The focus of this article has been on the legal aspects of the denial of the right to freedom of movement and the right to education, both under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. A discussion of these aspects can only lead to one conclusion: Israel’s restrictive policy is legitimized by de jure security reasons, which, by their unjust use, come down to a de facto academic boycott of Palestinian students from Gaza. "
Right-wing groups creating climate of fear at Israeli universities
Right-wing groups in Israel want to create a climate of fear among left-wing scholars at Israeli universities by emulating the "witch-hunt" tactics of the US academic monitoring group Campus Watch, Israeli professors warn.
The watchdog groups IsraCampus and Israel Academia Monitor are believed to be stepping up their campaigns after the recent publication in a US newspaper of an Israeli professor's call to boycott Israel.
Full story from electronic intifada
Bethlehem University Student is Blindfolded, Handcuffed, and Taken to Gaza by Force
Berlanty Azzam, 21, was arrested while crossing from one part of the West Bank to another – just because her address in the Israeli-controlled Population Registry is registered in the Gaza Strip.
The Military Legal Adviser's Office promised not to remove her to Gaza pending a court petition this morning by Gisha challenging the removal. Despite the promise, Berlanty was blindfolded, handcuffed, and taken to Gaza by force.
Full report form Gisha
Sign the petition to Gordon Brown to call for Berlanty's release
Academic freedom in Israel and Palestine
Steven Rose, a founder member of BRICUP has written an article on 'Academic freedom in Israel and Palestine' in EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) Reports.
Professor Rose says: "T he ultimate test of a boycott must be the role it has in changing the policies of those boycotted. The vociferousness of the opponents of the boycott, their ad hominem accusations against its signatories, and the mobilisation of the Israel lobby in the USA to challenge the legality of what is above all an individual moral decision, makes it clear that it has touched a sensitive nerve. For Israel, its academy is second only to the military in national prestige. Being part of the European Research Area symbolizes Israel’s aspirations to be regarded more as a part of Europe than of the Middle East."
Leading Israeli journalist tells how sanctions are biting
Sever Plocker wrote in Ynet news
The current anti-Israel wave is particularly dangerous especially because it is not limited to the media and to leftist groups that traditionally were classified as “Israel haters.” This wave is rising, expending, drawing young people, and painting the perceptions of the well-established middle class and influential elites.
Israel’s image has hit a nadir; it is isolated, unwanted, and perceived as bad. The world is telling us that should we continue along the same contemptible path, we will lose our legitimacy.
French trade union issues boycott call
The CNT has joined the international BDS movement. The international secretary of the union said it would also invite each of its constituent members to join the BDS campaign and participate in its activities.
“Our joining this Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions campaign is coherent with our solidarity with Palestine, defined by our statement of support of the Palestinian people’s struggle, adopted by the CNT during its 2006 congress. This statement is the expression of the anti-colonial and internationalist principles of our union,” the statement continued.
Hebrew University Student Union demands another wall
According to the Jerusalem online newspaper Mynet, Hebrew University’s Student Union Chairperson, Ofer Raviv, recently recommended that a Separation Wall between the university’s Mount Scopus campus and the nearby Palestinian village of Issawiya be constructed.
Duke University professor lays out the argument for Boycott
Fred Moten, professor of English at Duke University argued for the acaemic boycott in address he delivered at the American Studies Association Annual Meeting on 7 November 2009 in Washington, D.C.
The justification of the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions is quite simple and quite clear: the victims of a sovereign brutality instantiated in racial-military domination have come to an overwhelming consensus, in the very shadow of the state that has come to exemplify The State and its exception, that boycott is the most immediate form of international support they require....
Urge Norwegian University to support the boycott call
This is a petition to be sent to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Board of Directors in Trondheim, Norway urging them to vote YES on Nov. 12, 2009 to academically boycott Israel. Many Universities and campuses are considering same but this University is he first university to actually bring this to a vote to the Board of Directors.
This petition must be given to the University by November 9, 2009.
Sussex students vote to boycott Israeli goods
Following a landmark referendum, students at Sussex University have voted to boycott Israeli goods. The decision will become part of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which calls upon Israel to respect international law and end the occupation of Palestine.
The referendum result mandates the Students’ Union to remove all Israeli produce from its stores, and review its sources for food outlets. This makes Sussex Students’ Union the first in the UK to implement a full boycott of Israeli goods. The vote was one of the largest and closest contested in the Union’s history, with 562 votes for and 450 against the boycott.
Zionists pressurise Manchester hospital to ban Physicians for Human Rights (Israel)
Miri Weingarten was due to speak at the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of the widely respeected PHR(I). The venue was cancelled at short notice, allegedly following pressure from the Zionist Central Council.
University of Johannesburg staff oppose links with Ben Gurion Univeersity
A staff petition has been sent to the management of the University of Johannesburg by staff outraged at moves to link with Ben Gurion University and they are demanding the Univerity rescinds their recently signed Memorandum of Agreement with Ben Gurion University.
Review of worldwide progress on BDS
The latest issue of American's for Middle East Understanding's bulletin is a round up of progress on BDS. Page 10 focuses on the academic boycott.
Bethlehem University was forced to close on Yom Kippur
Bethlehem University was forced to close on 28 September, reports Mazin Qumsiyeh, because the Israeli authorities imposed a "closure" of the West Bank because of Yom Kippur holiday. As our students and faculty from Jerusalem cannot get to Bethlehem (a mere 5 miles away) because of this closure, the educational activities cannot be carried out. Also all Palestinians who are lucky enough to have permits to cross into Palestinian Jerusalem (for work, educatin etc) are also thus forced to take a day off. In the meantime, the repression does not take days off. Israeli authorities are very busy in continued colonial activities from ethnic cleansing to stealing water (80% of the West Bank water is taken by Israel), to kidnapping and holding political prisoners, to starving Gaza, and to violence against people and against nature. Israeli sewage still flows down the valleys of Salfit while Israel forbids Palestinians from building sewage treatment plants. News today is that Israel has told hundreds of citizens in East Jerusalem that they will cutoff the water to their homes (which used to be a mere one cubic meter per person per month, barely enough to drink and cook let alone take showers). The forms of ethnic cleansing continue to morph.
Israel tries to prevent seminar at Norwegian University
In a move which Foreign Ministry sources defined as "unusual," Israel's embassy in Norway has officially protested the launch of a high profile academic seminar there delivered exclusively by lecturers known for their highly critical views of Israel.
Israel's Foreign Minister last week described Norway's attitude toward Israel as "hostile."...
Cambridge scientist refused entry at Ben Gurion Airport
Upon arriving at the airport, I was detained for 9 hours and interrogated repeatedly with no access to food. Humiliated by the numerous strip searches, I was given no reason for my detention, before finally being told that my access to Israel had been denied. I was then taken by police to a detention centre where I was locked in a cell for another 9 hours awaiting deportation back to Britain.
Israeli academics defend war crimes and attack Goldstone
Leading representatives of Israeli academia are rallying to the Government campaign to deny the charges in Justice Goldstone's report on war crimes in Gaza.
Professor Asa Kasher author IDF's ethical code defends the 'most moral army in the world' and Dr. David Altman, Senior Vice-President, Netanya Academic College accuses Goldstone of being like a collaborator with the Nazis.
Adalah issues report on the silencing of Gaza Protests - identifies academic complicity
Leading Israeli Human Rights group Adalah has issued a report on the silencing protests during the assault on Gaza. Ha'aretz's item on the report says:
The report accuses intellectuals and academics of standing by during the violence in Gaza and overlooking the collective arrests of peace activists. Only a few lecturers mustered the courage to publicly protest the military operation. Academics who protested the collective arrest of settler teens did not speak out against the suspected IDF war crimes and the collective detainment of protesting minors. Academic institutions hung banners and took out newspaper ads voicing support for the war. They stood by while the Shin Bet and the police charged at Jewish and Arab students protesting the operation.
For instance, at the height of the operation, the University of Haifa released the following announcement despite its many Arab students: "As a show of solidarity with IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza and residents of the south, the University of Haifa has made its central tower into a national flag ... the university is not an ivory tower and is inseparably connected to the community. With this symbolic act, it expresses its great appreciation for the residents of the south and its support for the IDF's soldiers."
Ariel Universrsity excluded from international architecture competition
Following pressure from Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine and the Palestine Boycott National Committee Ariel University College (College of Judea and Samaria) has been barrd form participating in the Madrid Solar Decathlon. The Decathlon is a major international competition to promote sustainable housing. Many architercts ptoested that a building on illegally occupied land cannot be celebrated for its sustainability.
Read the correspondence
Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP) Press Release
A turning point for the US solidarity movement
At the eighth annual US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation national organizers' conference held in Chicago, delegates from the approximately 300 member groups that make up the US Campaign voted in favor of an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.
Australian students banned from supporting Palestine
At the University of Sydney the Students for Palestine group have been told by their Student Union that they are not entitled to form a club, and benefit from the facilities, for reasons no-one is allowed to disclose. All present at the relevant meeting have been sworn to secrecy. So they’ve called a protest rally later this month, which is also being advertised by students from other universities: universities like Macquarie, also in Sydney, whose Head of Security reportedly frogmarched several of them off the campus for the ‘crime’ of leafleting outside the library, occasioning complaints of “offensive behaviour”.
British Trades Union Congress endorses boycott
The TUC passed a motion, moved by the Fire Brigades Union committing the British Trade Union movement to "encourage trade unionists to boycott Israeli goods" and "encourage campaigns of disinvestment from companies associated with the occupation".
Israel's embarrassing grovelling
Gideon Levy wr ites in Ha'aretz how Israel craves the attention of any performer who will visit Israel. The converse is how much tjhe cultural boycot hursts Israel.
Israel Bars Some Foreign Academics Who Teach in the West Bank
An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (the leading US publication covering Higher Education) on 3 September details further steps by Israel to disrupt Palestinian HE.
Israel has clamped down on the movement of foreign academics teaching at Palestinian universities in the West Bank, barring some from entering the region altogether or stamping "Palestinian Authority only" in the passports of others, preventing them from entering Israel.
World Council of Churches re-iterates boycott call
The World Council of Churches have issued a statement on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The statement includes:
[The WCC] reiterates the need for an international boycott of settlement products and services, for member churches to inform themselves about settlement products imported into their countries and for churches to practice morally responsible investment in order to influence businesses linked to the Israeli occupation and its illegal settlements.
BRICUP has published conclusive evidence, in its regular newsletters and elsewhere, that Israeli Universities are complicit in in the occupation and notes that the WCC declaration reinforces the call for the academic boycott of Israel.
John Greyson withdraws film in protest at Tel Aviv celebration
Canadian gay film-maker, John Greyson withdrew his film ‘Covered’ from the Toronto International Film Festival in protest against their inaugural City-to-City Spotlight on Tel Aviv. In the Canadian Jewish News, Israeli Consul General Amir Gissin described how this Spotlight is the culmination of his year-long Brand Israel campaign.
Israeli director Udi Aloni is supporting the Canadian protest and is calling on Israeli artists to take the same steps.
Full story
LA Times report on Toronto Israel gets a punch in the schnoz from Toronto Film Festprotesters
Jewish Voice for Peace response to the attacks on the signers of Toronto film fest protest letter
A letter in support of Jane Fonda from Atlanta Jews Atlanta Jews Reject Vilification and Stand Up for Jane Fonda
Udi Aloni Seinfeld, you were wrong to condemn our Toronto protest
Curators pull out of Tel Aviv art biennial over Gaza war protest
Two international curators, Viktor Misiano from Russia, and Zdenka Badovinac from Slovenia, who were to participate in the planning of ArtTLV, an art biennial taking place in Israel in September, have pulled out of the project after their Israeli counterparts refused to publish articles condemning Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza and to arrange a symposium on art and war.
Janina Struk declines invitation from Yad Vashem
Janina Struk has declined an ivitation to atend a semianr at Yad Vashem because of Israel's actions in Gaza. She is author of Photographing the Holocaust: Interpretations of the Evidence, a freelance photographer and writer and a former senior lecturer in photography, University of Westminster in London.
The Peace Industry or BDS?
Faris Giacaman, a Palestinian student from the West Bank, attending his second year of college in the United States, argues that 'peace industry' efforts are harmful and undermine the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel -- the only way of pressuring Israel to cease its violations of Palestinians' rights.
Neve Gordon of Ben Gurion Universtiy writes in the LA Times in support of BDS
Neve Gordon, chair of the Politics and Government Department at Ben Gurion University whose research interests include the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, has written an article in the Los Angeles Times in support of BDS, "Boycott Israel: An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way to save his country"
- Anat Matar of Tel Aviv University writes in Ha'aretz on Why Israeli academics must pay price to end occupation
- Gideon Levy writes in Ha'aretz on the moral weakness of those who attack Neve Gordon The last refuge
- Roane Carey writes in the Nation on Gordon's stand Boycott Israel?
- Kim Petersen dissects Uri Avnery's critique of Gordon in Dissident Voice Boycotts as a Legitimate Means of Resistance: As Determined by the Oppressed People
- Boycott From Within statement in support of Neve Gordon
- Naomi Klein Shows You Can Boycott Israel Without Cutting Off Dialogue Over Palestine
- Alan Sabrosky, former Director of Studies, Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College CONTRA AVNERY: A Case for Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
- Cary Nelson, national president of the American Association of University Professors writes in Inside HigherEd Neve Gordon's Academic Freedom
Tel Aviv University - A Leading Israeli Military Research Centre
The School of African and Asian Studies (SOAS) Palestinian Socienty have published a ten page report detailing the close links between Tel Aviv University and the Israeli military. The report identifies the leading role played by TAU in developing an explicit military doctrine of "disproportionality" calling for the targeting of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and civilian infrastructures. All of the data assembled and clearly sourced in the briefing paper is publicly available and widely known both at TAU and to the wider Israeli public.
Boycott movement takes hold in British unions
The international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel has won several important victories in recent months. At this summer's trade union conferences in Britain, BDS activists have made significant progress.
While the campaign has been building momentum in unions globally since the 2005 Palestinian call for BDS, Israel's winter invasion of Gaza has spurred several trade unions and union federations in Britain and Ireland to pass motions more explicitly in favor of BDS. Several are calling for BDS for the first time...
International archeological conference in Ramallah excludes Israeli academics
Archeology in Palestine/Israel is intensely political, even when it is not wrapped up with home demolitions and ethnic cleansing asit is in Silwan. When the World Archeological Congress held their latest conferenece in Ramallah Israeli archeologists could not attend because the Israeli Government bans its citizens from visiting Ramallah and all other Area A poarts of he West Bank. WAC's decision to site the conference in Ramallah stemmed from past problems with archeologists being refused visas to attend the WAC's events in Washington and because Palestinians had difficulties getting visas to many countries.
Despite this the Jerusalem Post claimed WAC bias
BRICUP calls for boycott of Ariel conference
Ariel College, established as a settler university on illegally occupied Palestinian land, is attempting to hold a conference in November on "Media Influence on Public Opinion". Despite its location in Ariel Settlement in occupied Palestine, it is giving the location of the conference as "Ariel, Israel ". Among the topics are to covered is "*Revealing and Confronting Media Bias". We do not expect that the coverage given to Palestine in such channels as the Jerusalem Post, Fox News or the Daily Mail will be the subject of critical attention.
BRICUP calls on all its supporters to boycott his conference and to oppose any financial support being given to anyone in the institutions where they work to attend this event. This is a provocation and not an academic gathering.
PACBI publishes Guidelines for Applying the International Cultural Boycott of Israel
the Palestinian cultural boycott against Israel applies in the following situations:
(1) Cultural product is commissioned by an official Israeli body
(2) Product is funded by an official Israeli body, but not commissioned
(no political strings)
(3) Event is partially or fully sponsored or funded by an official Israeli
body
(4) Event or project promotes false symmetry or “balance”
Ken loach boycotts Melbourne Film Festival
Leading British film directort, Ken Loach, is boycotting the Melbourne Film Festival and withdrawing his film 'Looking for Eric'. Loach tried to get the festival to refuse Israeli funding and took this action when the festival valued income over integrity.
Read the correspondence between Loach and the festival organisers
Pro-Israel Lobby Alarmed by Growth of Boycott, Divestment Movement
The movement to call Israel to account for its crimes against the Palestinian people is growing, it is "invading the mainstream discourse, becoming part of the constant and unrelenting drumbeat against Israel." It could eventually threaten the existence of the Jewish state by undermining the support it receives from its strongest backer, the U.S. government.
That was the message of alarm delivered by the Executive Director of the American Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Howard Kohr, to the AIPAC Policy Conference on May 3.[i]
The YesMen say no to the Jerusalem Film Festival
We regret to say that we have taken the hard decision to withdraw our film, "The Yes Men Fix the World," from the Jerusalem Film Festival in solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign
This decision does not come easily, as we feel a strong affinity with many people in Israel, sharing with them our Jewish roots, as well as the trauma of the Holocaust, in which both our grandfathers died. Andy lived in Jerusalem for a year long ago, can still get by in Hebrew, and counts several friends there. And Mike has always wanted to connect with the roots of his culture.
Israeli academics call on Professor Jessica Benjamin to cancel her visit
Israeli academics, on behalf of 'BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within', have written to leading American theorist of gender and psychoanalysis Professor Jessica Benjamin demandng she cancel her propodsed vist.
230 Israeli lecturers vow not to obey law banning Nakba commemoration
Two hundred and thirty lecturers from Israeli universities and academic institutions signed a declaration this week to "publicly violate" the proposed Nakba and Citizenship laws, should they pass through the Knesset.
According to the declaration, the proposals are "harshly anti-democratic, and all gravely violate basic rights essential to democracy and to freedom of expression."
Gisha report reveals: Israel Uses Diplomats as "Security Guards" in Gaza Exit
- New Israeli demand requires diplomats to personally escort Palestinian students from Erez Checkpoint to Allenby Crossing;
- Israel restricts exit of students, even if they are escorted;
- Only a few of the more than 1,000 students seeking to leave Gaza each year are permitted to reach their studies;
- Only in Israel are diplomatic representatives required to protect the security of the "host" state – rather than vice versa
Read
press release
Full
report
UCU Congress 2009
Overwhelming support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
UCU debated 5 motions on Palestine at its Congress and passed them all overwhelmingly. One motion was ruled invalid. This was not because the union leadership wanted to frustrate Congess but because they were under a well organised and funded legal attack by boycott opponents (and, by implication, massacre apologists). The Union is committed to encouragoing discussion of the BDS call in branches and to an calling an international trade union conference on the implementation of BDS
UCU congress
decisons on Palestine (see motions 24-29)
Read the BRICUP press release
Salute to our
British Partners: a message from PACBI
PressTV report on
the Congress decisions (YouTube)
Read the boycott
opponents' report of the debate (posted here without, and beyond,
comment)
BRICUP leaflet on
Israeli University complicity
Message from Professor
Rachel Giora, Tel Aviv University to BRICUP
A day in my life – thoughts
on non-violent Jewish resistance: a message from a Jewish Israeli
Student
Ilan Pappe 'The necessity of cultural boycott'
If there is anything new in the never-ending sad story of Palestine it is the clear shift in public opinion in the UK. I remember coming to these isles in 1980 when supporting the Palestinian cause was confined to the left and in it to a very particular section and ideological stream. The post-Holocaust trauma and guilt complex, military and economic interests and the charade of Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East all played a role in providing immunity for the State of Israel. Very few were moved, so it seems, by a state that had dispossessed half of Palestine's native population, demolished half of their villages and towns, discriminated against the minority among them who lived within its borders through an apartheid system and divided into enclaves two million and a half of them in a harsh and oppressive military occupation.
230 Israeli lecturers vow not to obey law banning Nakba commemoration
Two hundred and thirty lecturers from Israeli universities and academic institutions signed a declaration this week to "publicly violate" the proposed Nakba and Citizenship laws, should they pass through the Knesset.
According to the declaration, the proposals are "harshly anti-democratic, and all gravely violate basic rights essential to democracy and to freedom of expression."
Free Gaza Movement calls for books for Gaza
In partnership with Al-Aqsa University, the Free Gaza Movement (FG) is launching its “Right to Read” campaign which will use the FG fleet to deliver textbooks and other educational supplies to universities throughout the occupied Gaza Strip.
More details and how to send books
Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI) launched
Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI) has been launched by students in Gaza.
PSCABI calls upon freedom-loving students all over the world to stand in solidarity with us by boycotting Israeli academic institutions for their complicity in perpetuating Israel's illegal military occupation and apartheid system. We note the historic action taken by thousands of courageous students of British and American universities in occupying their campuses in a show of solidarity with the brutally oppressed Palestinian people in Gaza. ... read the full statement
Protest concerning the proposed Australia-Israel cultural exchange trip to Israel to be led by Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Over 60 Australian academics and cultural workers have signed an open letter
As citizens of conscience we would like to protest in the strongest possible terms against the proposed Australia-Israel cultural exchange trip to Israel to be led by Julia Gillard and involving other parliamentarians, academics, business people, and journalists. We consider this trip a dreadful affront to the many Palestinians left maimed, wounded, traumatised and homeless by Israel’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip in late 08/early 09.
Student distributing fliers against university policy arrested at Ben Gurion University
A student distributing leaflets expressing opposition to the new anti-Nakba Day Knesset bill outside the Ben-Gurion University campus in Beersheba on Sunday was arrested by police.
The arrest resulted in a student protest later that night that took place alongside a ceremony attended by the school's board of governors and VIPs being awarded honorary doctorates. .. full story from the Jerusalem Post
Palestinian and Israeli Human Rights Organisations call for End to International Donor Complicity in Israeli Violations of International Law
Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations, note that by agreeing to reconstruction without specific, binding assurances from the State of Israel, international donors are effectively underwriting Israel’s illegal actions in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). International law – including, international human rights law, international humanitarian law (IHL), and the law of state responsibility for wrongful acts – places specific, binding obligations on the State of Israel (based, inter alia, on its duties as an Occupying Power) with respect to the maintenance and development of normal life in occupied territory. By repeatedly restricting their action to providing aid, without holding Israel accountable for its specific obligations, international donors are relieving Israel of its legally binding responsibilities... [signed by 14 civil society organisations] full statement
Edinburgh International Film Festival refuses Israeli funding folowing protests
Ginnie Atkinson, Managing Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has confirmed that EIFF will not be taking Israeli Embassy money to help fund the 2009 film festival. Atkinson was unwilling to admit EIFF was influenced by Scottish PSC, or by the protest emails the EIFF received, and said that the decision was “a natural conclusion to having realised that we had made a mistake in the first place”. Their decision follows the Scottish PSC call earlier today for a protest outside the Filmhouse in Edinburgh where the EIFF is based. Mention of the Israeli Embassy on the EIFF’s ‘Honour Board’ was removed after Atkinson and the EIFF admitted that “it was a mistake to accept the £300 from the Israeli Embassy”.
Leading Catalan music group 'LA CARRAU' joins boycott
"LA CARRAU IS CANCELLING ITS VISIT TO ACRE"
After having talks with the platforms promoting the boycott of Israel and with representatives of Catalan institutions and gathering as much information as possible about the events taking place on 24-25 May at Acre, Israel in which La Carrau has been invited to participate, we feel that we should make this public statement.
US Artists Against Apartheid launch email organising list
There’s now an email list for organizing around www. artistsagainstapartheid.org Any artists, arts professionals, or other concerned individuals internationally whio would like to endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel call and be involved in the ongoing discussion with Artists Against Apartheid, please join here.
725 doctors from 43 countries protest to the WMA
We the undersigned 725 physicians represent both academic medicine (114 professors) and clinical practice in 43 countries. A matter of grave concern to us, and a threat to the public reputation of the World Medical Association, has brought us together in this perhaps unprecedented medical initiative. We wish to publicly protest and appeal against the recent appointment of Dr Yoram Blachar, longstanding President of the Israeli Medical Association, as President of the World Medical Association. We believe that his Presidency makes a mockery of the principles on which the WMA was founded in 1947, which was as a response to egregious abuses by German and Japanese doctors in World War Two. read the full letter and signatory list
Read the exchange of letters between Yoram Blachar and Derek Summerfied in the Lancet
British firefighters vote to ratchet up the heat on Israeli 'ethnic cleansing'
AS the Fire Brigades Union conference ended on Friday, delegates gave overwhelming support for a boycott of Israeli goods and backed calls for sanctions in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
20 Israeli Organizations Call on Norway to Divest from the Israeli Occupation
Twenty Israeli organizations sent an appeal to the Norwegian people to withdraw Norwegian national pension fund’s investments in all Israeli and international corporations which are involved in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
“We, Israeli organizations …, call upon the Norwegian people to join us in our efforts and to stop investing in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.”
This appeal follows and expands a previous call on the Norwegian fund, by two Palestinian West Bank villages and eleven other organizations from around the world to divest from Africa-Israel, an Israeli corporation involved in building Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
BDS reaches the northernmost university in the world!
Twenty-one staff members of the University of Tromsø have signed a call for boycott of all Israeli academic institutions.
The initiative calls for the University to "establish an academic boycott of Israel", of Israel‘s "institutions of education, research and culture, and the institutions‘ representatives, regardless of religion and nationality."
The University of Tromsø has 9000 students and is known in Norway as the "peace university." Mordechai Vanunu and Desmond Tutu were both granted honorary doctorates by the university. The University was a leading force in Norway during the massive boycott of the Apartheid regime in former South Africa.
The call follows the outline of the PACBI call.
The city of Tromsø also has a twinning relationship with the city of Gaza, and the people of Tromsø mobilized in good numbers for the Gaza demonstrations in January. One of the Norwegian physicians who worked in Gaza at Shifa Hospital, Mads Gilbert, is also a part of the Palestine movement in Tromsø
Website (in norwegian)
BRICUP deplores McCarthyite campaign against Omar Barghouti
There has been an orchestrated campaign to hound Omar Barghouti a leading figure in PACBI. Omar has registered for a PhD at Tel Aviv University and is being accused of hypocrisy by boycott opponents. It has never been PACBI’s policy, or BRICUP’s to call for Palestinians not to study at Israeli Universities. Because of the restrictions on Palestinian Universities, Israeli universities are the only places that many Palestinians can study at. This is particularly true at doctoral level where Israeli occupation and blockade has prevented all but a few programmes being offered within the Occupied Territories.
It is difficult for many Palestinians to study abroad, even if they can get scholarships and exit visas they run a high risk of losing their residencies rights when they try to return. This is an especial issue for those with Jerusalem IDs. Omar as a holder of an Israeli ID is, through Israel's version of the Pass laws, not allowed to enter the areas of Palestine where the universities are sited.
Omar’s decision to study at TAU, where despite the recent fuss he has been a student for ten years, highlights the pressure that Palestinian Universities are under and reinforces the argument for an international boycott of Israeli higher education. There is hypocricy here, but it comes from the Zionist claque, not from Omar who BRICUP is proud to have as a friend.
Read PACBI's statement on the campaign against Omar Barghouti
PACBI calls on London Science Fiction Festival not to pay tribute to Israel
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is writing to the organizers of the Sci-Fi-London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantasy Film to urge you to cancel the special “Focus on: Israel” in your festival in London from 29 April – 4 May. We also urge the attendees of this festival, if its organizers insist on the special tribute to Israel, to protest the inclusion of this session and to boycott the focus on Israel. Honoring Israel in any field right after its massacre in Gaza shows either apathetic disregard for the lives and rights of the Palestinian people or, worse, complicity in Israel’s grave violations of international law and human rights principles.
BRICUP calls on Leonard Cohen to cancel Israel visit
BRICUP has issued a call to Leonard Cohen to cancel his proposed vist to Israel to perform at a concert on 24 September.
We are calling on all supporters to read our open letter to Leonard Cohen and send messages to him via his manager, Robert Kory, asking him to abandon this trip.
BRICUP joined with PACBI and Israeli and international boycott organisations to appeal to Amnesty International to end its sponsorship of Leonard Cohen's sanctions-busting concert in Tel Aviv. |
- A letter has been sent to Leonard Cohen signed, initially, by 110 Israelis - but more signatories are being collected. If you are an Israeli (Jewish or Palestinian) and wish to add your name contact Rachel Giora
- Adalah NY, a New York Palestinian rights group have been organising
against Cohen's visit
Download their flier to be handed out at Cohen's concerts
Adalah UK have produced a pack of materials to help protest organisers - Update on Leonard Cohen boycott call
- Alexi Sayle's YouTube message to Leonard Cohen
- Video of the picket of Cohen's Liverpool concert - Demo report
- Video of the picket of Cohen's Dublin concert
- Report of the picket of Cohen's Belfast concert
- Leonard Cohen Seeks Reconciliation At Apartheid Bank Discount
Scottish TUC endorses BDS
Scotland today (22 April 2009) joined Ireland and South Africa when the Scottish Trade Union Congress, representing every Scottish trade union, voted overwhelmingly to commit to boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. This is the third example of a national trade union federation committing to BDS and is a clear indication that, while Israel can kill Palestinians with impunity and Western support, it has lost the battle for world public opinion. It is now seen to be a state born out of ethnic cleansing and still expanding through the violent dispossession of the Palestinian people.
Australian Academic Boycott of Israel launched
"Responding to the CALL of Palestinian civil society to join the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, we are an Australian campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel)..."
Report on Gaza universities
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has issues a report on Gaza's universities following Israel's invasion. They report "Many university students who lost relatives or whose homes were destroyed during the recent 23-day Israeli offensive are finding it difficult to cope, according to university officials and students. Some have been unable to register for the new semester due to lack of funds; others are still traumatised."
Lebanese academics call for sanctions and boycott
"We thus stand, as academics in Lebanon, in urging our colleagues, regionally and internationally, to oppose this ongoing scholasticide and to support the just demand for academic boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. Specifically, we ask our colleagues worldwide to support the call by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel to comprehensively and consistently boycott and disinvest from all Israeli academic and cultural institutions, and to refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joining projects with Israeli institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid."
Read full statement and view signatures
Jewish Canadians Concerned about Suppression of Criticism of Israel
Over 150 Jewish Canadians signed a statement expressing their concerns about the campaign to suppress criticism of Israel that is being carried on within Canada. The signatories include many prominent Canadians, including Ursula Franklin O.C., Anton Kuerti O.C., Naomi Klein, Dr. Gabor Mate, and professors Meyer Brownstone (recipient of Pearson Peace Medal), Natalie Zemon Davis, Michael Neumann, and Judy Rebick.
Two leading Canadian papers the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail refused to print this statement. We are pleased to publicise it.
BRICUP'S protest to the Science Museum about Israel Science Day
With amazing and insensitive bad taste the Science Museum in London
(and the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry) are allowing their
premises to be used for an ‘Israel Day of Science’ sponsored
by the Zionist Federation. The research of seven Israeli universities
is to be showcased. The planned dates are March 3 (Manchester) and March
5 (London).
Event details
This cannot be allowed to happen. These universities are without exception complicit in the mechanisms and policies of the Israeli occupation, and in developing the military technology used in the massacre in Gaza. Protests are rolling in from scientists and non-scientists alike
BRICUP has drafted a statement to be sent to the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the London Science Museum Lord Waldegrave.
Unless you tell us to the contrary we will take it that you equally oppose the Israel Science Day in Manchester, and are willing to support an equivalent statement to the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.
The leaflet distributed outside the Science Museums
The deadline for signing up is 21 February 21. BRICUP will then send the statement in to the Science Museum with a list of signatories and maximum publicity.
- Letter published in the Guardian 16 February - but more signatures still needed.
- Jonathan Rosenhead responds to critics of the museum protest
- British academics urge cancellation of Israel Day of Science - PressTV
- Science Museum accused over links to Israel - The Independent, London, 3 March, Front page lead
- Academics blast Science Museum’s Israel Day - Evening Standard 3 March
- Science Museum attacked over Israel link - The Statesman, India, 3 March
- Protests at Israeli science event - BBC News online , 3 March
- Science Museum Trade Union branch (PCS) supports the BRICUP action
Lancet special issue on 'Health in the Occupied Palestinian Territory'
The Lancet has published a special issue on Palestine.
This is on the health status of 3·8 million people living in the occupied Palestinian territory details one of the most important flashpoints not only in Middle East politics, but for global security. The Lancet report examines aspects of the Palestinian health predicament: health services; maternal and child health; cardiovascular diseases; diabetes and cancer; health and human security; and the future of the healthcare system. The report has been written by a team of health scientists in the occupied Palestinian territory, together with international colleagues from WHO, associated UN agencies, and academic institutions in the USA, UK, Norway, and France.
Read the whole issue (free registration required)
British Medical Journal discussion on the Perils of criticising Israel
The British Medical Journal published an article in 2004 by BRICUP member Derek Summerfield 'Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes' This attracted a deluge of critical emails. Karl Sabbagh analysed these emails in 'Perils of criticising Israel' and drew conclusions about the orchestrated nature of the attacks that articles critical of Israel attract. The editors contributed an editorial describing their ways of managing such campaigns and invited other contributions including one from Michael O'Donnell, whose journal, World Medicine, closed as a result of an earlier co-ordinated campaign.
Editorial: What
to do about orchestrated email campaigns
Perils
of criticising Israel - Karl Sabbagh
Commentary:
Standing up for free speech - Michael O’Donnell
Commentary:
Toughen up - Jonathan Freedland
How political
should a general medical journal be? - Tony Delamothe
Palestine:
the assault on health and other war crimes - Derek Summerfield
Canadian Union of Public Employees opens discussion on academic boycott
CUPE Ontario university workers committee are considering a peaceful boycott of Israeli academic institutions that builds on our existing policy aimed at bringing about Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territories and a negotiated peace in the region.
Columbia faculty demand statement on Academic Freedom in Palestine
Over 120 Columbia University, NY, faculty have written to the University's president, Lee Bollinger, demanding he speak out on Israeli restrictions on academic freedom. Bollinger led the campaign in the USA against the academic boycott call, claiming it breached academic freedom. He has never expressed any concern about repeated breaches of Palestinian academic freedom.
Mike Cushman responds to Jewish Peace News on the boycott call
There has been a series of postings on Jewish Peace News about the boycott which reflected an intense debate between the editors of JPN on the issue.
In the course of the debate they circulated a a series of comments critical of the boycott call. They then agreed to circulate a response from Mike Cushman on behalf of BRICUP.
56 French academics call for boycott
"We who have signed this text commit ourselves to cease all collaboration with Israeli institutions participating in the occupation, and declare our solidarity with those who in Israel struggle courageously for the human, social, and political rights of Palestinians."
Chicago protests at Israeli dance troupe
People arriving at Israeli dancers' performance in Chicago greeted by dozens of people wearing bandages smeared with fake blood to represent Palestinian casualties in Gaza. Palestine solidarity activists issued a call late last year for protest against the Tel-Aviv based Batsheva Dance Company
Full
story from Ynet news
Background
article on te Batsheva Dance Company
Paul
Ben-Itzak writes in Dance Insider on why to boycott Batsheva
60 Cambridge academics support their occupying students
Cambridge academics wote to the Vice-chancellor to express continued support for the initiative taken by Cambridge University students in asking this University to respond to the recent humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, Palestine and to contribute to the reconstruction of the educational infrastructure there. Their ‘occupation’ at the Law Faculty was a peaceful, dignified and humanitarian show of constructive solidarity with suffering civilians, particularly their fellow students in Palestine.
Read the letter in full
Alan Dershowitz threatens Hampshire College over divestment
Hampshire College in Massachusetts, USA has promised to divest from six companies with connections to Israel’s military operations in the West Bank and Gaza. as part of a review of investments that do not meet their ethical standards.
Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law Professor and virulent opponant of the Academic Boycott has urged donors to boycott the college in response.
Full
story
Read appeal
from the Hampshire students
Israeli Academics support Manchester students occupying in Gaza protest
Twelve Isaeli academics and students have written to the President of Manchester University expressing their support for the students who are occupying the University in support of Gaza
New research published on UK corporate links with Israeli settlements
UK economic links with Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory
A research paper prepared for the Sir Joseph Hotung Programme for Law, Human Rights and Peace Building in the Middle East, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
New US academic boycott call
Over 90 University staff have signed a decleration, organised from Virginia Tech University, calling "upon institutions of higher education in the U.S. to cut ties with Israeli academic institutions, dissolve study abroad programs in Israel, and divest institutional funds from Israeli companies, using the 1980s boycott against apartheid South Africa as a model [and] on all people of conscience to join us in boycotting Israeli products and institutions until a just, democratic state for all residents of Palestine/Israel comes into existence.
South African dock workers will not handle Israeli goods
COSATU have announced that dockers in South africa will not handle Israeli goods and are refusing to unload a ship due to dock in Durban on 8 February.
Read the COSATU
statement
Read the Palestinan BDS National
Committee (BNC) response
Jerusalem's Al-Quds University to cut ties with Israeli academia
Al-Quds University will cease all forms of academic cooperation with Israeli academic institutions soon, the school’s board determined on Sunday.
“In cooperation with all sides and under an accepted timetable,” the university will phase out programs and cooperation, the university board said in a statement.
It added that, “If the two-state solution is as far away today as it was ten years ago, there is no justification for continued academic cooperation based on reaching that solution.”
Sign the open letter to Haruki Murakami
Leading Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami, intends to travel to Israel for the Jerusalem Book Fair and to receive the 'Jerusalem Prize'.
Sign the open letter asking him to refuse the prize
Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 may be coming to a campus near you
Tori Cheifetz, Jerusalem Post 29 January
Israeli Apartheid Week will take place on March 1-8 on college campuses in 27 cities internationally, in what has become a growing phenomenon since the annual event was started in 2005.
Although the schedule for this year's version has not yet been released, a message on its Web site makes clear what the focus will be: "This year, IAW occurs in the wake of Israel's barbaric assault against the people of Gaza. Lectures, films and actions will make the point that these latest massacres further confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid."
Spanish university professors, stakk and students call for academic boycott
Is an Israeli Jewish sense of victimization perpetuating the conflict with Palestinians?
Report from Ha'aretz of an important study by Professor Daniel Bar-Tal of Tel Aviv University, one of the world's leading political psychologists, and Rafi Nets-Zehngut, a doctoral student.
Read the
Ha'aretz report
"Emotions
in Conflict: Correlates of Fear and Hope in the Israeli-Jewish Society"
E Halperin, D Bar-Tal, R Nets-Zehngut, E Drori - Peace and Conflict
(14), 2008
Irish Call for Justice for Palestine and for BDS
An advert in the Irish Times on 31 January was signed by over 300 people including include 5 MEPs (from Proinsias de Rossa to Marian Harkin), many TDs and Senators (FF, SF, Green, Independent and Labour), some MLAs, Gerry Adams, the presidents or general secretaries of the major trade unions (ICTU, Siptu, Impact, Nipsa, Unite, Mandate and others) , professors, well known musicians and cultural figures, and loads of citizens.
Inappropriate appointment
The Tel Aviv University faculty members who oppose the appointment of Col. Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, head of the international law division (ILD) in the Military Advocate General's office, to a post at the university's law faculty, are right.
...
One of the important reasons not to appoint Sharvit-Baruch to the law faculty is her sanctioning, as head of the division, of the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, many of them children, women and elderly people, during the three weeks of the war.
Read the
Ha'aretz editorial
Ha'aretz
news report
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday responded to opposition to the appointment by saying Israel would no longer support institutions that discriminate against IDF officers because of their military service. "In my opinion, any university that takes part in the disqualification of lecturers on such grounds before an examination [of their service] has finished, will be an institution not suitable for funding from the Israeli government."
IDF colonel to teach TAU law course, despite critics' bid to stop her
Israeli Academic Institutes Join the Iron Fist Policy: Hundreds of Special Forces Brutally Suppress a Demonstration by Arab Students in Haifa University
Twelve students were arrested and many more assaulted and injured, one of whom hospitalized, during a demonstration arranged by the Arab students of Haifa University against the Gaza massacre. The University administration called for the interference of the police and Special Forces, who entered the campus in order to suppress the demonstration and prevent the students from expressing their solidarity with the people of Gaza and their anti-war attitude.
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi Calls for Government Action on Israel
NZ trade unions call for a wide range of sanctins against Israel
European parliament socialist group opposes extension of trade relations
[The Socailsat Group] Stresses again that any upgrading of political relations between the EU and Israel must be strongly conditioned on respect for international humanitarian law, on real commitment to a comprehensive peace settlement, on the end of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and on respect for full implementation of the EC-PLO Interim Association Agreement. As long as the situation remains so critical the Socialist Group shall maintain its negative position on the EP's vote of assent to further participation of Israel in EC programmes.
Israel Bombs University Teachers Association in Gaza--Boycott Now!
PACBI learned today from its Steering Committee member, Dr. Haidar Eid, that the headquarters of the University Teachers Association-Palestine, in Gaza, was bombed by the Israeli occupation forces during their indiscriminate, willful destruction campaign in the Tal el-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City on Friday. full story
Tel Aviv University celebrates its support for the Israeli military
The latest issue of Tel Aviv University's Magazine declares how "TAU is playing a major role in enhancing Israel's security capabilities and military edge."
U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel launched
BRICUP welcomes the action of US academics of issuing a US appeal to support the PABI call. We hope that US readers will support this call as well as joining many other US academics in becoming supporters of BRICUP
BRICUP now has videos available
There are videos now available on this site. The first set are from our public meeting on the Occupation and Civil Society.
Read extensive notes of talks at the meeting
Birmingham and Oxford vote for boycott.
City councillors of Birmingham, the UK's second largest city, from all major parties endorse the logic of boycott. They were joined by Oxford City Council
Read full story on Birmingham
Oxford
City Council's resolution
The Grand Hotel Intercontinental (Paris) cancels the Israeli Tourism Fair
Confronted with the indignation expressed by so many people in France and abroad who had heard about the scheduled Israeli Tourism Fair in this great Parisian hotel, the management of this establishment has made the decision to cancel this event, which was supposed to open on January 15.
In Gaza as the storm clouds gathered
Mike Cushman and Jonathan Rosenhead of BRICUP report on their visit in December 2008.
If you would like to ask Mike or Jonathan to speak at a meeting or ask them a question about their visit send a mail to GazaSailors@bricup.org.uk
EU must hold Israel to its agreements
Letter to Guardian with 297 signatories including many academics
Norway oil fund's Israel holdings under scrutiny
Norway's finance minister has ordered a review of investments by the country's $300 billion wealth fund in companies active in the Palestinian territories after Israel's crackdown in the Gaza Strip, officials said.
475 Israelis call for UN sanctions on Israel
They stated "We are calling on the world to stop Israeli violence and not allow the continuation of the brutal occupation. We call on the world to condemn and not become an accomplice in Israel's crimes." They signed a call on the world to implement the call by Palestinian human rights organizations.
UK Liberal-Democat leader Clegg calls for suspension of Israel/EU agreement
The European Union should use today's emergency meeting of foreign ministers to suspend a new co-operation agreement between the EU and Israel, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has said.
We
must stop arming Israel Nick Clegg in the Guardian
British telecom firm severs ties with Israeli counterparts - posted 1 January
British telecommunications firm FreedomCall has terminated its cooperation with Israel's MobileMax due to the IDF operation in Gaza.
BRICUP members back from Gaza - posted 16 December
Mike Cushman and Jonathan Rosenhead of BRICUP sailed to Gaza on the FreeGaza boat Dignity. Their trip, which lasted from 8-12 December 2008 was to help 11 students escape from the siege of Gaza and continue their studies abroad. |
 |
While they were there: they met trade unionists and civil society groups; and toured Gaza and saw the effects of the blockade and of Israeli bombing and shelling.
Read press releases from
FreeGaza and Bricup
View
photographs of their trip
Two videos of interviews of Mike Cushman and Jonathan Rosenhead by Haim Brasheeth about their visit.
Bricup has a new banner - posted 3 December
You can view a picture of our new banner
The Bilbao Initiative – civil society action for justice in Palestine--Final Declaration and Action Plan - posted 27 November
The international conference held in Bilbao at the end of October issued a 10 point action plan starting with "To raise awareness about and implement the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign against Israel"
UNGA head accuses Israel of apartheid (and calls for BDS)
UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann said the international community should consider sanctions against Israel including "boycott, divestment and sanctions" similar to those enacted against South Africa two decades ago.
Public Meeting - The Occupation and Israeli Civil Society
Public Meeting
The Occupation and Israeli Civil Society
Speakers:
- Gideon Levy (Ha’aretz)
- Prof Ilan Pappe (Exeter University)
- Dr Karma Nabulsi (Oxford University)
Implications of the Occupation for Palestinian civil society
Saturday 29 November, 2pm
Khalili Lecture Theatre, School of Oriental & African Studies
Malet Street, London WC1 (nearest tube: Russell Square)
A Museum of Tolerance to be built on top of a Muslim Cemetery in Jerusalem? posted 30 October 2008
The State of Israel and the Jerusalem municipality is building a Museum of Tolerance on the site of a Muslim Cemetery in the heart of Jerusalem. BRICUP calls on all its supporters to suppport the campaign launched by the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information - IPCRI against this obstacle to peace and a just settlement.
BRICUP issues press release on threats to UCU posted 30 October 2008
BRICUP denounced the effort by unnamed members of the University and College Union (UCU) to prevent free debate of Israel’s actions in the union. The legal challenge to the UCU, said BRICUP, demonstrates the desperation and the hypocrisy of those of those who wish to defend Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. Read full press release
- Read the UCU statement re-affirming committment to implementing Motion 25
- UCU refutes claims it has 'dropped boycott motion'
Israel Targets Palestinian Students posted 23 October
Report from Inter Press Service on how Isreal is blocking students leaving Gaza to take up courses of study abroad
PGFTU support for the boycott re-affirmed posted 16 September
At their meeting at the TUC earlier this month Trade Union friends of Israel attempted to confuse the audience about the Palestinian Genetral Federation of Trade Unions' support for BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions). You can view a copy of the original BDS call countersigned by Shaher Saad, PGFTU secretary-general.
Further, as announced in May 2008, PGFTU is a member of the BDS National Committee (BNC). Since then BNC have issued several statements, explicitly listing the names of the constituent organizations and unions in the BNC. At no time has anyone in PGFTU objected to the inclusion of their name
Gideon Levy on the Israeli military in Israeli universities posted 9 September
Gideon Levy has an article in Ha'aretz The Shin Bet's academic freedom on 8 September which details the special privileges given to members of the IDF in universites and their demands for more.
"The twisted thought process according to which members of the security forces have the right to special academic conditions has become deeply entrenched in the Israeli academic world. Today there is hardly a university that does not offer special courses for officers, pilots and secret agents."
Give students in Gaza a chance to study! posted 19 August
Trpped in Gaza: Azhar, Samer, Zeinab, Wael and Izideen are just five out of hundreds of students trapped in the Gaza Strip, prevented from reaching the universities around the world to which they have been accepted. Since June 2007, Israel has imposed a nearly total closure on the Gaza Strip, violating the right to freedom of movement for 1.5 million Palestinian residents - including hundreds of students in danger of losing their chance to access study programs not available in Gaza...
Sign the petition from Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement
Paul McCartney cancels Israeli gig posted 13 August 2008
Paul McCartney will not be performing in Israel next month as planned.
Boycott the Israel Medical Association website launched posted 13 August 2008
The Medical Committee for Boycott of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) will document the systematic torture of Palestinian people by agents of Israel.
Snoop Dogg cancels Israeli gig posted 13 August 2008
Rapper slated to perform in Rishon Lezion Amphitheater reneges on tour date and joins the list of other no-shows this summer, including Chris Cornell, Björk and Siouxsie Sioux.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions report supports boycott posted 13 August 2008
Irish Congress of Trade Unions launches the report of a senior union delegation visit to Israel and Palestine which recommends support and promotion for a "boycott campaign of Israeli goods and services and a policy of disinvestment from Israeli companies."
Sue Blackwell publishes response to Gordon Brown on the Guardian website posted 13 August 2008
Sue Blackwell published an article on the Guardian website rebutting the argumetns made by Gordon Brown for closer links with Israel
International Jewish Solidarity Network sends open letter to Mercedes Sosa posted 13 August 2008
The International Jewish Solidarity Network has written to the Argentinian singer Mercedes Sosa asking her to cancel her propsed visit to israel
BRICUP open letter to Branford Marsalis posted 23 June 2008
BRICUP has sent an open letter to Jazz Musician Branford Marsalis. We are asking him not to play in Tel Aviv in July as part of Israel's 60th birthday celebrations
Independent publishes rebuttals of Fitzsimons posted 12June 2008
The Independent published four letters from BRICUP supporters rebutting the article they published a week earlier by Lorna Fitzsimons. Fitzsimons, Chief Executive of BICOM - the well funded pro-Israeli propaganda and PR organisation - had seriously misrepresented the decisions of UCU congress.
Jean-Luc Goddard refuses to go to Israel
Prominent Frenc nouvelle vague film director, Jean Luc Goddard has supported the cultural boycott of Israel by rwefusing to go to the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival.
Read the report in the Washington Post
UCU congress passes complicity and greylisting motion posted 3 June 2008
On 28 May the UK Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) Annual Congress in Manchester overwhelmingly passed a motion re-affirming its opposition to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and its determination to highlight the extent of the complicity of Israeli Higher Education Institutions in the occupation.
- Read full report
- Read PACBI's reponse to the vote
- Listen to a podcast of BRICUP's eve of congress meeting
Medical ethical violations in Gaza posted 27/05/08
Article in the Lancet December 22-29 2007
Uri Davis motion to Israeli Anthropological Association posted 26/05/08
Professor Uri Davis has proposed a motion suppporting the academic boycott to the Israeli Anthropological Association. This has not yet been debated but is being posted on their website.
Report of debate at Institute of Social Studies, The Hague posted 22/05/08
Acknowledging the past, Imagining the future: Confronting the impasse between Israel and the Palestinians
A public debate with Omar Barghouti, Independent Palestinian Analyst and Commentator and Salomon Bouman, former correspondent for NRC Handelsblad in Israel.
Video and audio streams of the debate
Statement from End The Occupation South Africa posted 19/05/08
End The Occupation South Africa sent a message out to supporters of the Palestinian liberation movement. The advertisement appeared on page 41 of the Citizen (15 May 2008). Read this powerful statement signed by many prominent veterans of the struggle against apartheid
Breaking News: Russel Banks refuses to go to Israel
Writer Russell Banks refuses to attend the International Writers' Festival in Israel in May soon after BRICUP publishes an open letter requesting him to boycott the event. This contrasts with Nadime Gordimer rejecting our plea which has attracted much negative comment in South Africa and elsewhere.
Breaking News: BRICUP launches its podcast service
Podcasts will now be available on this site. The first two feature Palestinain academics who visited us as part of the UCU tour and the third an Arab Israeli UCU member talking about her experiences
- Lisa Taraki speaking at Lambeth College on 25 April 2008
- Samia al Botmeh in conversation with Mike Cushman on 27 April 2008
- An Arab Israeli FE lecturer and UCU
member talking about her experience of abuse as a student at Tel
Aviv University
BRICUP sends open letter to Nadine Gordimer posted 15 April 08
BRICUP sends an open letter to Nadine Gordimer deploring her decision to participate in the International Writers' Festival in Israel in May.
Take Archaeology in Jerusalem out of the Hands of Elad
Posted 14 April 08
For nearly a decade, all archaeological work in the Wadi Hilwe area of Silwan in East Jerusalem—that is, the City of David, the core of ancient Jerusalem and one of the most sensitive archaeological sites in Israel—has been controlled by Elad, an organization of right-wing Israeli settlers. Read more details and sign the petition
UCU announces details of tour of Palestinan academics: Revised 22 May 08
UCU have posted details of the re-arranged tour of Palestinian academics, as mandated by 2007 congress on their website
UCU have published their account of the tour with a programme for follow up action
Breaking News: Posted 27th Feb 08
LSE students vote for divestment
Breaking News:
General Union of Palestine Workers endorses BDS
original
text -PDF Document
Posted: 27th Feb 2008
Israel cooks up secret research security deal with Europe
Israel's
new security deal _ Word Document
Posted: 25th Feb 2008
Palestinian academic tour to go ahead! The postponed tour is taking place at he end of April - UCU branches wanting to invite Palestinian academics to visit and discuss conditions under occupation and their responses should contact UCU Head Office as soon as possible.
Posted: 27.02.08
Appeal to U2's Bono: It's all About Justice - Don't Honor Israel!
PACBI appeals to Bono to refuse to attend Israel's 60th celebrations.
Click
here to read - www.pacbi.org
