Once again, the membership of the University and College Union (UCU) has not let Palestinians down. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) salutes our British colleagues for their steadfast and principled support for the cause of justice and peace in Palestine and for adopting, at the UCU’s annual congress on 27 May 2009, significant steps in the direction of applying effective pressure on Israel and holding it accountable for its colonial and apartheid policies which violate international law and fundamental human rights. Read more about British universities union moves towards boycott
The 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) organizers announced on Friday they were returning money donated by the Israeli embassy. The return of the money was accompanied by an admission that it had been “a mistake to accept the 300 [British pounds] from the Israeli embassy” and followed a torrent of angry letters expressing incomprehension, fury or sadness at the EIFF being associated with the Israeli state. Read more about Edinburgh film fest returns Israeli funding
In an unprecedented way, a wide array of Israeli civil society and grassroots organizations has sent a letter to the Norwegian Pension Fund, addressed to its Council on Ethics, urging it to support their efforts for a just peace and equality in Israel/Palestine by divesting from all companies involved in the Israeli occupation. Read more about Israeli orgs call on Norway to divest from occupation
Mazin Qumsiyeh is a tireless activist for Palestinian human rights who returned to his hometown of Beit Sahour in the Israeli-occupied West Bank last year and now teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities. Qumsiyeh is both a human rights activist and a scientist who has a lengthy list of publications on genetics to his credit. He was interviewed for The Electronic Intifada by contributor Ida Audeh. Read more about Envisioning a better future: Activist Mazin Qumsiyeh interviewed
The West Bank Palestinian villages of Bilin and Jayyous and 11 national and international networks from Europe, Palestine, Israel and the US have sent letters calling on Norway to comply with its ethical guidelines and divest from its pension fund holdings in the company Africa-Israel, owned by the controversial diamond magnate Lev Leviev. Read more about Villages call on Norway to divest from Africa-Israel
On 1 May, people from the village of al-Masara and the neighboring villages in the Bethlehem area commemorated International Workers Day with a march in protest against the apartheid wall. The demonstration and International Workers Day festival was organized by the popular committees of the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign in al-Masara and Bethlehem district, in cooperation with the Bethlehem branch of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions. Read more about Rights groups call for labor solidarity with Palestine
Dear Leonard Cohen: We are Jews, Palestinians, Israeli citizens, who hold your poetry and music in high esteem, and it is because of this respect for your artistic contributions and your moral Buddhist commitment to “save all beings” that we hope that our appeal to you to cancel your planned performance in Israel will not fall on deaf ears. Read more about Israelis call on musician Leonard Cohen to cancel concert
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. Read more about London Sci-Fi festival asked not to celebrate apartheid
The following is an open letter from the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine to Canadian musician Leonard Cohen: Your songs have been part of the soundtrack of our lives — like breathing, some of them. But we can’t make sense of why you’ve decided to perform in Israel in September this year. Read more about Canadian musician Leonard Cohen urged to cancel Israel concert
Representing over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) launches its Israel Review Conference under the title: “United Against Apartheid, Colonialism and Racism: Justice and Dignity for the Palestinian People.” The conference takes place in Geneva between the 17-18 April 2009 on the eve of the United Nation’s Durban Review Conference. Read more about Palestinians hold Israel Review Conference parallel to UN racism conference
