BDS

Students at DePaul University in Chicago voted by a large margin in a referendum asking if they support ending sales of Sabra brand hummus on their campus. Due to a technicality, however, the result will not be binding. A note received by The Electronic Intifada from campus activists with Students for Justice in Palestine at the university announced today the results of voting that took place earlier this week:

President Barack Obama laid out in a little bit more detail a US “vision” of what “peace” would look like in his much anticipated speech on US policy in the Middle East and North Africa, there was precious little new. Moreover, the speech affirmed that the United States will not take any effective action to advance its vision of a two-state solution.

After DePaul University initially agreed to remove Sabra hummus from the school’s cafe, outside pressure from the usual suspects caused the university to reverse its decision. However, Students for Justice in Palestine activists didn’t take no for an answer and they are now posing the question of whether the school should boycott Sabra through a student government referendum.

An interview with Omar Barghouti, a founder of the boycott, divestment sanctions movement, speaks about his new book which was recently reviewed by The Electronic Intifada: BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights.

The Stolen Beauty campaign focusing on a boycott of Ahava cosmetics, which are illegally manufactured in the occupied West Bank using Palestinian natural resources, has launched a culture jamming initiative currently underway on Twitter:

The first ever Palestinian trade union conference for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel was held in Ramallah last week on 30 April. A historic formation was made at the conference with the establishment of the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) — the largest coalition of the Palestinian trade union movement.

Today the US Palestinian Community Network issued a statement on the occasion of International Workers’ Day, giving a summary of the sacrifices Palestinian workers have made for the national liberation struggle, and describing the violations of Palestinian workers’ rights by Israel. Here’s an excerpt:

The last paragraph of an article published by Haaretz today on the disappearance of wildlife in Israel reads: “Only 298 winter rain pools remain in the entire country, and other typically Israeli landscapes are also disappearing.”

“Typically Israeli” landscapes?

Fifty-one Canadian filmmakers issued a letter last week to the co-chairs of the Hot Docs documentary film festival to protest its partnership with the Israeli organization CoPro Documentary Marketing Foundation. According to a press release issued today, “The funders of CoPro include the Israel Film Council, an official part of the Israeli Ministry of Science, Culture and Sports, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Golan Heights Winery, which operates illegally in the occupied Syrian Golan heights.”