New Seasons BDS Flashmob mentioned on Spanish web site: Boicot contra Israel...¿bailando?

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Written by Clara Valverde Gefaell Clara Valverde Gefaell

Published: 15 June 2011 15 June 2011

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VIDEO) Boicot contra Israel...¿bailando?
Los comités del Boicot contra los productos de Israel están demostrando una gran creatividad.
Clara Valverde Gefaell | Para Kaos en la Red | 13-6-2011 a las 19:43     | 384 lecturas     | 1 comentario
www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/video-boicot-contra-israel...bailando

Existen comités de Boicot a los productos de Israel en muchas ciudades por todo el mundo, sobre todo en Canadá y en los EEUU, donde numerosos grupos BDS (Boicot, Divestment and Sanctions) llevan a cabo actividades de todo tipo.

El Comité BDS de la ciudad de Portland (Oregón) en los EEUU lleva meses intentando reunirse con la gerencia de los supermercados “New Seasons” para hablarles de la importancia del boicot, de las injusticias que Israel está llevando contra Palestina y de los productos israelís que tienen en sus tiendas.

Pero New Seasons se niega a reunirse con el Comité BDS, con lo cual sus miembros han decidido que sólo les queda una opción: bailar!

Les ofrecemos el video del “flashmob” llevado a cabo recientemente en un supermercado New Seasons en Portland y a continuación, la traducción del diálogo y la canción del video:

Ei! ¿Qué haces?

Sólo estoy comprando.

No puedes comprar eso.

¿Por qué no?

Porque esos productos apoyan en “apartheid” israelí.

Oh!



La cadena de supermercados New Seasons dicen que son la tienda más “amable” de la ciudad.

Después de meses de que los gerentes se negaran a reunirse con la Coalición Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions de Portland, que añadieran 9 productos israelís más y de que cientos de clientes se quejaran sin que les hicieran caso, sólo quedaba una cosa que hacer… bailar!



“Anti-ocupación no es anti-semitismo”



Todos estos productos apoyan el apartheid israelí,

y el precio es los derechos humanos de los palestinos.


New Seasons, decís que apoyáis a la comunidad

pero vendéis productos que destruyen a la gente al otro lado del mar.


NO NO NO NO NO NO

No te dejes camelar,

marcas israelís, hechas en tierra robada.

NO NO NO NO NO

No te dejes camelar,

marcas israelís, hechas en tierra robada.


New Seasons: Decís que sois locales pero entráis en el juego

de la ocupación israelí.

B-B-B-B-B-Boicot, apoya el boicot.


Queremos que esta tienda se responsabilice

y que haga el boicot contra Israel hasta que Palestina sea libre.

Enfadaros porque los EEUU regala 7 millones de dólares al día a Israel.

CADA DÍA!


NO NO NO NO NO

No entres en el juego.

Productos israelís hechos en tierra robada.



El Couscous Osen y el Mix Falafel,

quítalos de tu lista de la compra.

Productos como Binyamina Cabernet Merlot apoyan la situación actual.

Las galletas Ener-G Wheat Free Crackers y las galletas de té Keden Kosher, todas apoyan las atrocidades que el estado israelí lleva a cabo.

New Seasons: decís que sois locales pero entráis en el juego.





Ya lo  dijo Emma Goldman, anarquista americana:

“Si no puedo bailar, no quiero estar en tu revolución”.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/nora/portland-bds-flashmob-new-seasons-grocery-store

Gaza unemployment levels 'among worst in world'

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Written by BBC News BBC News

Published: 14 June 2011 14 June 2011

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Gaza's unemployment rate was among the world's highest, at 45.2% in late 2010, the UN has found, as Israel's blockade of the territory enters its fifth year.

Real wages meanwhile fell by more than a third, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said.

Its report says that private businesses have been hardest hit by the continuing ban on virtually all exports.

Israel tightened sanctions on Gaza in 2006 after militants captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The blockade was tightened again a year later when Hamas ousted rival Palestinian organisation Fatah from the territory.
'Boost to Hamas'

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said of the report in a statement: "These are disturbing trends and the refugees, who make up two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million population, were the worst hit."

The unemployment figure, for the second half of 2010, was a slight improvement on the 45.7% jobless rate during the same period in 2009.
Continue reading the main story
At the scene
image of Jon Donnison Jon Donnison BBC News

One of the things you notice in Gaza is the tremendous number of people just sitting around apparently with time on their hands - smoking, chatting, shading themselves from the June sun.

This week I met a young man, Rami, a graduate with a degree and two masters degrees but still with no job. By no means a supporter of Hamas, he told me had no reason for optimism.

Israel imposed the blockade to weaken and put pressure on Hamas, which it calls a terror organisation. But as the blockade enters its fifth year, one of the key findings of this UN report is that the Hamas-run public sector is one of the only areas of the economy that is growing.

Hamas employs tens of thousands of people here. Private businesses have largely been crippled by the ban on virtually all exports and the fact that Gazans just don't have the money to spend.

But it was an increase from the first half of 2010, when a temporary building boom boosted jobs.

The UN report says while private businesses have suffered most, the Hamas-run public sector is one of the few areas where there has been economic growth, with the government employing tens of thousands of people.

Mr Gunness said the research had found that since 2007, Hamas had been able to increase public employment by at least one fifth.

"If the aim of the blockade policy was to weaken the Hamas administration, the public employment numbers suggest this has failed," he added.
'Accept Israel'

Israel says the measures against Gaza are necessary to stop weapons smuggling and to put pressure on Hamas, but the UN insists the restrictions amount to collective punishment of Gaza's population.

The Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, says Israel is not against Hamas improving Gaza's economy or running the territory, but wants them to recognise Israel.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

Hamas insists on remaining committed only to an all-out war, and that is the systemic explanation of what is happening in Gaza”

Yigal Palmor Israeli foreign ministry spokesman

"We are totally in favour of Hamas accepting the international community's pre-conditions to become an interlocutor," he told the BBC World Service's World Today programme.

"If they only accepted that - surely that's not too much to ask, to recognise Israel, and to agree to negotiate with Israel - then Hamas would be accepted by Israel too as an interlocutor. And that would certainly immediately alleviate the plight of Gaza.

"But Hamas insists on remaining committed only to an all-out war, and that is the systemic explanation of what is happening in Gaza."

The restrictions was eased by Israel last year in response to international pressure, after nine Turkish activists were killed in clashes with Israeli troops who boarded their aid flotilla which was trying to break the blockade.

Restrictions at Gaza's border with Egypt have been eased since the ousting of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak this year.

A change of policy by Cairo has seen the southern border crossing at Rafah opened daily for civilian traffic, but not for trade.

Although Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, it refuses to recognise Israel or to renounce violence and is designated in the West as a terror organisation.

DePaul vote on Sabra hummus a victory for human rights

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Written by Sami Kishawi, The Electronic Intifada Sami Kishawi, The Electronic Intifada

Published: 10 June 2011 10 June 2011

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Over the course of the last few months, DePaul University has become ground zero of the growing campus boycott movement in Chicago. It began after DePaul’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) discovered that the sale of Sabra brand hummus served to profit a corporation found to have direct financial ties to two Israeli army brigades notorious for countless human rights violations.

Students with SJP immediately drafted a letter of appeal to campus administrators to have Sabra hummus removed from the university’s cafeterias. The appeal, which also included suggestions for alternative brands of hummus, was taken very seriously and administrators immediately announced the discontinued sale of all Sabra products pending further investigation.

However, DePaul’s decision sparked immediate outrage by Israel supporters. On 24 November, when SJP just began its appeal to the campus administration, the Jewish United Fund (JUF) openly criticized the proposal as an attack against Israel itself, prompting the university to rescind its initial decision to temporarily remove the product on the basis of procedural error.

This did not deter SJP’s progress. The group continued to compile research regarding Sabra’s ties to the Israeli military, all of which was presented to DePaul’s Fair Business Practices Committee after it was charged with overseeing any subsequent investigation of the hummus product. After months of deliberations, the DePaul administration and student government placed the SJP’s referendum on a student ballot.

For one week, students at DePaul were encouraged to vote either in favor of or against the referendum. The campus community quickly mobilized for something that critics of the referendum characterized as trivial and unnecessarily provocative. Media, both local and nationally, reported on SJP’s efforts and their role in inspiring and giving impetus to similar campaigns at other college campuses across the country.

The results were released shortly after voting ended on the morning of Friday, 20 May. DePaul SJP stated in a 21 May open letter to the DePaul community:

“The election resulted in a staggering 1,127 votes in favor of the referendum. This accounted for nearly 80 percent of the total 1,467 votes. According to the Student Government Association constitution, 751 students must vote in favor for a referendum in order for it to pass. The votes in favor of replacing Sabra surpassed this number by 376 votes. To be considered valid, however, a referendum must have a total voter turnout of 1,500 or more students. Nonetheless, the number of votes cast in favor of the referendum represents an incredible, landslide victory for our campaign to boycott Sabra hummus” (“Open letter to the DePaul Community on the Outcome of the Sabra referendum”).

It is not possible to view this as a defeat for SJP or for the movement to boycott products and companies profiting from human rights abuses in Palestine and around the world. While only 33 more votes were needed to validate the results of the referendum, one cannot ignore the staggering student support for the removal of Sabra hummus.

Not only is this an explicit indication of the high moral ethic of DePaul University’s student body, it also goes to show how effective and dedicated students with DePaul’s SJP truly are. As one SJP member noticed, in the few days of voting, the campus appeared “festive” as students waving brightly colored “VOTE YES” posters, distributed flyers to passerby and encouraged colleagues to consider alternative hummus brands.

The results of the vote also show the failure of the Sabra hummus boycott counter-campaign. External groups like the JUF quickly and deceitfully spun the campaign into a “hummus war” to be misinterpreted as a component of the global and even anti-Semetic movement to boycott all things Israeli. JUF Executive Vice President Michael C. Kotzin accused SJP of “using misleading language to cloak their real intention in the guise of concern for human rights. In fact, their ultimate goal is the elimination of the State of Israel” (“Local Jewish leaders condemn attempt to boycott Israeli hummus,” JUF News, 18 May 2011).

With JUF’s encouragement, a number of students organized a “VOTE NO” campaign, handing out free samples of Sabra hummus and urging students to consider SJP’s strategy as an attempt to stifle “dialogue.” The counter-campaign also alleged that SJP provided no additional information to substantiate their boycott attempt.

But these are all false claims, and judging by the 77 percent of voters who chose to support SJP’s efforts, it is clear that most students recognize the false and deceitful nature of the claims as well. In at least two separate instances, SJP presented detailed analyses of Sabra’s parent company, Strauss Group, and its widely-publicized financial ties to the Givati and Golani brigades.

The analyses also included reports of egregious human rights violations, including the use of human shields and white phosphorus chemical weaponry, committed by these two brigades as documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations. There is a system involving the routine abuse of human rights and Sabra brand hummus plays a role in it. SJP’s proposals outlined this evidence in its entirety, giving the DePaul administration no other choice but to bring the vote to the student body.

And contrary to how Kotzin portrays the referendum, SJP’s strategy is not predicated on the elimination of an Israeli state. Rather, it deals purely with human rights. The logic is simple; boycotting Sabra hummus and other similarly problematic products sends a strong signal to owners of the companies that make them, which is that any profiteering from human rights violations will not be tolerated.

Companies like the Strauss Group are given two choices: maintain financial ties with criminal entities or maintain financial ties with consumers.

Although the landslide victory cannot legally be validated by the Student Government, the numbers don’t lie. This is a definitive victory for socially responsible consumerism — not just at DePaul University but also for other institutions calling for increased awareness and responsible investment. The students behind this months-long strategy to expose and help rectify DePaul’s financial investments have made it clear that the campaign to ban Sabra has not come to a close. If anything, its success and subsequent publicity make this a perfect starting point for future action.

Sami Kishawi is an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago where he is heavily involved in human rights studies, grassroots activism and student campaigns in support of Palestinian rights. He currently blogs at Sixteen Minutes to Palestine.

Israel launches campaign before Palestinian statehood vote

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Written by Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem

Published: 10 June 2011 10 June 2011

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Classified diplomatic cables from Jerusalem to foreign embassies outline plan to mobilise against UN recognition

Israel has launched a global diplomatic campaign to persuade countries to vote against recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly in September.

Classified cables have been sent from the foreign ministry in Jerusalem to embassies around the world, instructing diplomats to draw up plans to mobilise against the Palestinian campaign for recognition, according to the newspaper Haaretz, which obtained the documents.

Diplomatic missions have been told to lobby government officials in the countries in which they serve, offer articles and interviews arguing against recognition to media outlets, enlist the help of local Jewish communities and if necessary request visits from top Israeli officials.

Read more: Israel launches campaign before Palestinian statehood vote