Co-founder of Who Profits from the Occupation

 Activist Radio has the following guest on this week:

GUEST: Dalit Baum, Ph.D., Director of Economic Activism for the American Friends Service Committee, and co-founder of Who Profits from the Occupation as well as the Coalition of Women for Peace in Israel, talks about what boycott means and why it is being applied to companies profiting from the occupation of Palestine.

https://www.whoprofits.org

Activist Radio is broadcast: Thursdays 5-6 pm from WVKR 91.3 FM at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY; Sundays 4-5 pm from WIOF 104.1 FM in Woodstock, NY; and Sundays 5-6 pm from the Progressive Radio Network at PRN.FM. It will also be posted on the ClassWars website for the next ten weeks. Simply click on the date to hear it.

Thanks,

Fred

Activist Radio

https://www.classwars.org

Pillsbury products in an illegal Israeli settlement

Did you know that food giant General Mills is manufacturing Pillsbury products in an illegal Israeli settlement, on stolen Palestinian land?

That is not OK.

The Pillsbury factory is in Atarot Industrial Zone, a settlement near the infamous Qalandia Checkpoint in the West Bank, which was annexed into Jerusalem.

The U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights has listed General Mills as one of the companies supporting illegal Israeli settlements.Our own research shows that the land the factory was built on was confiscated by force. The factory is located on land that used to be part of the town of Beit Hanina, which Israel dissected using the separation wall.

We wrote a letter to Jeff Harmening, the CEO of General Mills, and received no response.

JOIN US!

Write your own letter to Jeff Harmening and tell him: “No Dough for the Occupation!”

Until the company does the right thing, we’re boycotting Pillsbury.

Help us spread the word: 

Share more information about the campaign as well as our campaign website: BoycottPillsbury.org

Good Shepherd Collective

Thanks for following along with us as we share with you more of what the Good Shepherd Collective is about and what we are working toward here, on the ground in the Holy Land.

As Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is one of the biggest topics dominating the situation and peoples’ reactions to it both in this land and abroad, we feel that it is important to outline and share our perspective on it.

We at Good Shepherd Collective strongly and affirm people’s right to use economic means of pressure (i.e. boycott, divestment, and sanctions) to express their freedom of thought and conscience.

Israeli authorities must release Palestinian human rights defender

Israeli authorities continue to deny Palestinian human rights defender and BDS Coordinator Mahmoud Nawajaa his right to see his lawyer, keeping him in their interrogation dungeons.  Amnesty International is calling for international pressure to #FreeMahmoud and to protect BDS campaigners globally.

Take action to share this statement widely to help #FreeMahmoud

Amnesty International issued a statement that said: "Israeli authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Palestinian human rights defender Mahmoud Nawajaa, 34, the General Coordinator of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).... He has been detained solely for exercising his rights to freedom of expression and association and is therefore a prisoner of conscience."

National Students for Justice in Palestine

The undersigned student groups are in fierce opposition to the Israeli-US annexation plan. With Trump’s blessing, the Israeli regime continues to steal more and more Palestinian land, tearing families from their homes and siphoning essential natural resources, maintaining its goal of Zionist supremacy from the river to the sea.

Illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank have stolen Palestinian lives, land, and livelihoods for over half a century, and Trump’s green light will formalize their theft. While this is indeed a moment of crisis, Palestinians have been resisting systematic Israeli violence for decades while the US bankrolls and politically enables Israeli atrocities.

Annexation means further entrenching a settler-colonial project which imposes apartheid walls that separate families, military checkpoints that brutalize workers daily, settlement construction that destroys centuries-old olive groves, and unequal rights based on race and religion as the permanent reality for Palestinians.

Read full statement and list of sponsoring groups

Complicity in Israeli Apartheid

A statement by tens of UN experts condemned Israel's planned annexation as crystallizing Israel’s “21st century apartheid.” Advocating accountability and an end to Israel’s impunity, they wrote: “The lessons from the past are clear: Criticism without consequences will neither forestall annexation nor end the occupation.”

Israel is only able to maintain its regime of occupation, colonisation and apartheid over the Palestinian people because of the international complicity of States, institutions and corporations.  But thanks to pressure from the BDS movement even large companies such as Veolia and Orange have withdrawn from illegal Israeli projects and Microsoft has recently ended its involvement with Israeli facial recognition company AnyVision over human rights concerns.

Today is French insurance company AXA’s shareholder meeting. Under pressure from our BDS campaign, AXA has divested from Israeli weapons-maker Elbit Systems and largely divested from a subsidiary that finances Israeli apartheid. But AXA still invests in three Israeli banks which are listed in a UN database of companies that enable Israel’s illegal settlements.

Ben and Jerry is PEP, progressive except for Palestine

Middle East Eye:

"Ben & Jerry's freezes when it comes to Palestine. Ice cream brand has been vocal advocate for Black Lives Matter movement, but refuses to halt operations in illegal Israeli settlements. ...

Case in point: Israel. Ben & Jerry's has conducted business in Israel with a licensee partner since 1987, with a manufacturing facility and two scoop shops they describe as located 'outside the occupied territories, just south of Tel Aviv.'

Thousands of individuals and almost 250 organizations in 20 countries have since urged Ben & Jerry's to stop sales in illegal Israeli settlements and publicly oppose Israel's occupation. In 2015, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) called for a boycott of the brand amid its refusal to alter its business practices."

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/progressive-ice-cream-ben-jerry-freezes-when-it-comes-palestine

-->Ben and Jerry is PEP, progressive except for Palestine, Should opposition to racism stop at our borders? The NYT doesn't do articles about PEP, since our newspaper of record is a prime example. 

Israel’s illegal Jerusalem Light Rail project

On June 13, the Basque firm CAF will hold its annual shareholders meeting. CAF is helping to implement Israel’s illegal Jerusalem Light Rail project, which enables the ongoing annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory. We must ensure that CAF's involvement in Israel’s violation of Palestinian human rights and international law is on the shareholders' agenda.

CAF’s AGM coincides with announced plans by the extremist Israeli government to formally annex a critical part of the occupied Palestinian West Bank from July 1.

1. Action on social media

From June 1 to June 13 we want to make a lot of noise! Use your networks to mobilize and raise awareness. Please do the following:

1. Print the image at the top of this page

2. Take a photo of yourself holding the image

3. Share the photo on social media with this text

Israel plans to formally annex West Bank Palestinian lands. CAF is developing a tramway entrenching Israel’s illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land marked for annexation.

#CAFGetOffIsraelsApartheidTrain End involvement in Jerusalem Light Rail: https://bit.ly/2AhiTui

Tag the CAF campaign on twitter: @eaudecaf

2. Email jam

Send an email to CAF’s CEO ahead of CAF’s shareholders meeting demanding that the company quit the illegal Israeli Jerusalem Light Rail project and stop supporting Israel’s military occupation, annexation and apartheid.

3. Call CAF

Contact the company by phone to request that CAF stop participating in the Jerusalem tram project. You can either call CAF’s headquarters at +34 943 88 01 00 or your local office listed here.

GUEST: Cody O'Rourke, human rights activist in the West Bank

Activist Radio (5 - 6 pm) has the following guest on this Thursday:

GUEST: Cody O'Rourke, human rights activist in the West Bank and communications coordinator for the Good Shepherd Collective, talks about his organizations commitment to exposing apartheid and ending the occupation of Palestine.   

https://goodshepherdcollective.org

Activist Radio is broadcast: Thursdays 5-6 pm from WVKR 91.3 FM at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY; Sundays 4-5 pm from WIOF 104.1 FM in Woodstock, NY; and Sundays 5-6 pm from the Progressive Radio Network at PRN.FM. Past programs can be heard on ClassWars.org, or as a podcast (search for Activist Radio).

Thanks,

Fred
Activist Radio

Condemning ethnic cleansing...

Boycotting Israeli dates is working and we need to keep going

There are five major Israeli date companies that export to the United States and Europe: Hadiklaim and its brands Jordan River and King Solomon, Mehadrin, Galilee Export, Carmel Agrexco and Agrifood Marketing with its brand Star Dates.

Hadiklaim, Mehandrin and Carmel Agrexco all have operations in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Hadiklaim and Carmel Agrexco have been accused of using child labour and paying Palestinian workers less than the minimum wage. 

Read More

Field Tested on Palestinians

Israel's largest arms company, Elbit Systems, profits from the siege on Gaza — “battle-testing” its killer drones, white phosphorus, sniper bullets and fighter jet parts, all deployed by the Israeli occupation army to murder or maim Palestinians. Elbit Systems’ Hermes 900 drones were among Israel’s drones that murdered 164 Palestinian children in Gaza in 2014.

Now the European Union is using Elbit’s Hermes 900 drones to implement the EU’s deadly anti-migration policies.

Sign a petition telling the EU: Don’t finance Israel's military industry, respect refugee rights

Will Bard students face punishment over protest of racist speakers?

Fri, 02/28/2020 - 15:34

Nora Barrows-Friedman Activism and BDS Beat 27 February 2020

Bard College could punish two students for protesting anti-Palestinian speakers.

Bard College in New York has engaged in a months-long investigation into two of its students who protested an October panel discussion that featured anti-Palestinian speakers.

During the protest, members of Students for Justice in Palestine silently held signs emblazoned with quotes from one of the panelists, right-wing Harvard professor Ruth Wisse, such as “Palestinian Arabs are people who breed and bleed and advertise their misery.”

The two members of SJP under investigation, Ben Mulick and Akiva Hirsch, are the only ones who spoke to the media after the protest – according to civil rights group Palestine Legal – and are the only ones being investigated for alleged violations of Bard’s free speech policy and its harassment, discrimination and stalking policy.

Read more at:

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/will-bard-students-face-punishment-over-protest-racist-speakers 

Ben & Jerry's out of Israeli Settlements!

Ben & Jerry's in Israel is implicated in Human Rights Abuses by selling ice cream in Shufersal supermarkets "that profit from Israel’s illegal annexation and settlement activity in the West Bank" according to the UN Human Rights Report. (Read More here ) The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, announced that 112 major companies had been identified as operating in Israeli settlements in ways that violate human rights. The UN 'Advance Unedited Version' of the report (12 February 2020) lists the companies doing business in illegal settlements. It was announced here.

The list includes the Israeli Supermarket chain Shufersal that sells Ben & Jerry's ice cream in settlements. See: www.vtjp.org/icecream/MoreNews.html#A38 and https://www.vtjp.org/icecream/MoreNews.html#A40 Along with major Israeli banks, transport services, energy, building and telecoms firms, prominent international businesses are listed. They include Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola, Trip Advisor, JCB, Expedia and General Mills. Contact Ben & Jerry's here and select "Social Mission Goals and Objectives" Or phone them at +1 802-846-1500 Mon - Thurs, 8:30am - 4:30pm EST; Friday 8:30 - 12:30 Ben & Jerry's out of Israeli Settlements! Don't collaborate with Israeli Apartheid!

UN publishes list of companies with ties to Israeli settlements

The UN has published a list of companies with business ties to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the US-based TripAdvisor and Airbnb and the British truck and digger maker JCB.

Most of the 112 companies linked to settlements, which are regarded as illegal under international law, were Israeli. The list included 18 international firms, including the London-based online travel agency Opodo and the Netherlands-based Booking.com.

The UN statement made clear the report was not part of a judicial process and the database will have no immediate legal implications for the companies. However, an official list published by a UN agency could lend energy to pro-Palestinian efforts to pressure governments and consumers to take action such as boycotts against businesses linked to the occupation.

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session43/Documents/A_HRC_43_71.docx