Thank Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for slam dunking apartheid

Two months ago, YNet News reported that legendary basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was planning to visit Israel in coordination with the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Consulate of New York. NBA Sporting News reported that Abdul-Jabbar would be competing for the "Spirit of Freedom Award" at the Jerusalem Film Festival.

In private correspondence, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has confirmed that the former Los Angeles Lakers star has decided not to visit Israel due to concerns arising "after the Nakba Day violence." This year's commemoration of the Nakba, left 12 unarmed Palestinians dead after Israeli forces opened fire on refugees attempting to exercise their internationally recognized right of return.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, thank you for calling Israel's foul! Israeli cultural institutions like the Jerusalem Film Festival are used cynically to brand Israel as a beacon of cultural and technological progress, diverting attention away from its occupation and apartheid policies. For this reason, cultural boycott of Israel is a key component of the growing Palestinian-led movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law. You can read the Palestinian guidelines for cultural boycott here.

100 organizations signed a thank-you letter to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, urging him to hold fast to his decision not to lend his good name or an air of legitimacy to Israeli human rights violations. In addition to the US Campaign, signatories include the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (Israel), the Organization for Black Struggle, six Islamic-American organizations, four Jewish organizations, fourteen campus groups, and dozens of other US Campaign member organizations.

The letter points out to Abdul-Jabbar: Your film, "On the Shoulders of Giants," documents the policies of segregation and racism that characterized the world of basketball in the 1930s. Ironically, the majority of Muslim and Christian Palestinians could not even have attended such a screening because they are excluded from entering Jerusalem on the basis of their ethnicity and religion.

Click here to thank Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for slam dunking apartheid!
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=WYM8ci4kN5oXCfk6GL7SkPajIgIMFtLx

US Campaign to End the Occupation

Ahava, occupation profiteer

After years of strenuous denial, Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, an Israeli cosmetics firm with its main manufacturing plant in an illegal West Bank settlement, is proven by documentary evidence to be in violation of international law through its theft of Palestinian resources. This evidence was recently discovered by Who Profits, a research project of the Israeli Coalition for Peace, which documents corporate activity in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territory.

Prior to this finding representatives of Ahava repeatedly claimed that the company does not make use of natural resources from the West Bank: "the mud and materials used in Ahava cosmetics products are not excavated in an occupied area. The mud is mined in the Israeli part of the Dead Sea, which is undisputed internationally." The new findings prove that the company was given a license for excavating minerals in 2004 from the Israeli Civil Administration, which is the representative of the Israeli government in the Occupied West Bank, and that the excavation site on the occupied shores of the Northern Dead Sea is currently active. By making use of mud that is excavated in the occupied area the company is violating international humanitarian law (the laws of occupation), which prohibits the plundering of natural resources from the occupied territory. Merav Amir, Coordinator of Who Profits, said, "Ahava can no longer continue misleading consumers about where they get the mud used in their products. This mud is from the Occupied West Bank and is stolen from the Palestinian people."

Nancy Kricorian, the manager for CODEPINK ís Stolen Beauty Ahava Boycott http://www.stolenbeauty.org, an international campaign against the company's violations of international law, said, "Ahava's CEO has been circulating a letter to retailers that we thought was filled with lies, and now Who Profits has provided us with the evidence to prove it."

The company is still reeling from the public relations setback of an explosive new report issued on May 5th by Bítselem, a leading Israeli human rights group, which calls Ahava out by name as an occupation profiteer. Ahava representatives have yet to respond to Bítselem's report, and the company's reputation is now further tarnished by this just discovered documentary proof of its violations of international law.

Portland BDS Coalition Flash Mobs New Seasons: May 29, 2011

Ahava prove to violate international law

Press Advisory Date: 18 May 2011

CAUGHT: Ahava's Theft of Occupied Natural Resources Finally Exposed After years of strenuous denial, Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, an Israeli cosmetics firm with its main manufacturing plant in an illegal West Bank settlement, is proven by documentary evidence to be in violation of international law through its theft of Palestinian resources. This evidence was recently discovered by Who Profits (http://www.whoprofits.org), a research project of the Israeli Coalition for Peace, which documents corporate activity in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territory.

Prior to this finding representatives of Ahava repeatedly claimed that the company does not make use of natural resources from the West Bank:
"the mud and materials used in Ahava cosmetics products are not excavated in an occupied area. The mud is mined in the Israeli part of the Dead Sea, which is undisputed internationally".

The new findings prove that the company was given a license for excavating minerals in 2004 from the Israeli Civil Administration, which is the representative of the Israeli government in the Occupied West Bank, and that the excavation site on the occupied shores of the Northern Dead Sea is currently active. By making use of mud that is excavated in the occupied area the company is violating international humanitarian law (the laws of occupation), which prohibits the plundering of natural resources from the occupied territory. Merav Amir, Coordinator of Who Profits, said, "Ahava can no longer continue misleading consumers about where they get the mud used in their products. This mud is from the Occupied West Bank and is stolen from the Palestinian people."

Nancy Kricorian, the manager for CODEPINK's Stolen Beauty Ahava Boycott (www.stolenbeauty.org ), an international campaign against the company's violations of international law, said, "Ahava's CEO has been circulating a letter to retailers that we thought was filled with lies, and now Who Profits has provided us with the evidence to prove it." 

The company is still reeling from the public relations setback of an explosive new report [2] issued on May 5th by B'tselem, a leading Israeli human rights group, which calls Ahava out by name as an occupation profiteer. Ahava representatives have yet to respond to B'tselem's report, and the company's reputation is now further tarnished by this just discovered documentary proof of its violations of international law.

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East

http://www.cjpme.org/

Dear friends of CJPME:

We invite you to participate in the June focus* of our "We're not buying it" Boycott Israel campaign. As you may know, CJPME's Boycott Israel campaign is intended to pressure Israel to respect human rights and cease its occupation of Palestinian land. The campaign has a different focus each month: one consumer target, and one cultural target.  For June, we urge you to participate as we target:

• IKEA- Consumer Target 
• Duran Duran- Cultural Target 

IKEA   

IKEA delivers to the illegal Israeli colonies in the West Bank, while refusing to deliver to any Palestinian cities in the Occupied territories. IKEA currently has two stores in Israel and is planning on opening a third one in 2012. Find out more. 

What can you do?

• Express your concern by sending an email to the executives of IKEA by clicking here. 
• Send a letter to execs at IKEA by printing the letter here, adding your name, and sending it.  
• Print this letter, add your name, and take  it to your local IKEA. 

Duran Duran  

Duran Duran is an English band formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980's, and have sold over 100 million records throughout their career. The band will play in Tel Aviv on July 30.  Please ask Duran Duran to cancel their trip to Israel.

What can you do?

• Express your concern via email to Duran Duran by clicking here.
• Send a letter to Duran Duran by printing the letter here, adding your name, printing and sending it. 

If we all work together, we can make a difference. Please do your part to end Israel's human rights abuses, and put an end to the Occupation - it is time!

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
Telephone: (438) 380 5410

CJPME Website - CJPME Email

* Note that CJPME encourages its adherents to boycott all targets ongoing.  The monthly focus simply enables CJPME to give direction and freshness to its boycott campaign.