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At the UN, Palestinian democracy tests American and Israeli limits

Michael Kagan 25 May 2005


Last week, an obscure UN body called the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations decided to “defer” the application from the Badil Resource Center, a Palestinian organization working for Palestinian refugee rights based in Bethlehem. Badil was asking for “consultative status” that would allow it to make statements at official UN gatherings. The committee was supposed to decide if Badil’s work was consistent with the purposes of the UN. Germany demanded that Badil provide a copy of every statement it has ever made on terrorism. The US demanded to hear Badil’s position on the land issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Then the US asked if Badil had anything to do with the International Solidarity Movement. 

Boycotting Israel Put High on the Agenda

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel 25 May 2005


The Special Council of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) in the United Kingdom will be convening to reconsider the motions to boycott two Israeli universities passed less than a month ago. Considering the well-orchestrated campaign of vilification and misinformation aimed at demonizing and discrediting the idea of boycott and boycott activists in the UK and beyond, it will not be surprising if the Special Council revokes the boycott motions. Despite this anticipated setback, the inspiring process of awareness building and mobilizing that was launched in preparation for the AUT’s initial meeting will persist and can only grow. 

Academic boycott will lead to Israeli self-examination

Oren Ben-Dor 25 May 2005


Moving away, but only for a moment, from the issue of Nakba-denial in the academy, there are arguably very good reasons for a general boycott of Israel, in such areas as trade, sports and so on. Here, parallels with South Africa are not out of place. Such a boycott is separate from one directed against Nakba-denial in the Israeli academy. When academics are included in a general boycott, it is as a result of their belonging to a population which is boycotted because its various activities nourish a criminal state. 

Why Us? On the academic boycott

Tanya Reinhart 25 May 2005


A boycott decision — like that passed by Britain’s Association of University Teachers to boycott two Israeli universities — naturally raises a hue and cry among Israelis. Why us? And why now just when negotiations with the Palestinians might be renewed? In the eyes of the world, the question is what can be done when the relevant institutions do not succeed in enforcing international law? The boycott model is drawn from the past: South Africa also disregarded UN resolutions. At that time as well, the UN (under pressure from the United States), was reluctant to impose immediate sanctions. 

The Clash of Democratic Ideals

Omar Yousef Shehabi 25 May 2005


Two years ago a US magistrate judge pronounced al-Arian “a model of civic involvement” but denied him bail, substituting a nationalistic play for a real assessment of flight risk. The problem, evidently lost on the judge, is that Palestine cannot offer al-Arian or any other of its refugees safe haven; the Israeli military has occupied the Palestinian areas for 38 years and prohibits their return. Under US Supreme Court precedent, this flight risk makes al-Arian’s two-year pretrial stay in a Florida maximum-security prison, with 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, a constitutional administrative measure, not punishment. 

Federation of University Unions Calls on All Parties to Uphold Palestinian Call for Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions

25 May 2005


During a press conference held at Birzeit University’s Media Institute on May 25, 2005, the Federation of Unions of Palestinian Universities’ Professors and Employees, Birzeit University Employees Union and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), together stated their support for the courageous decision taken by the Association of University Teachers in the United Kingdom (AUT), on 22 April 2005, to boycott Haifa and Bar Ilan Universities in Israel as institutions complicit in the illegal and violent occupation of Palestinian land. They further voiced their strong condemnation of the signing of an agreement between the President of Al Quds University, Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, and the President of the Hebrew University. 

Palestinian farmers, women and youths support the AUT position to boycott Israeli universities

25 May 2005


The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) with its six affiliated associations and 400 hundred community-based organizations and grassroots committees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would like to express their full support to the proposal of the largest British Association of University Teachers (AUT) to boycott two Israeli universities (Haifa and Bar Ilan) passed on April 22, 2005. We wish to stress our respect and high appreciation of this courageous and moral position, which signaled the globally rejected racist and colonial policies of the State of Israel towards the native Palestinian people with which some Israeli academic institutions identify themselves. 

Amnesty launches annual assessment of human rights

24 May 2005


Governments are betraying their promise of a world order based on human rights and are pursuing a dangerous new agenda, said Amnesty International today as it launched its annual assessment of global human rights. Speaking at the launch of the Amnesty International Report 2005, the organization’s Secretary General Irene Khan said that governments had failed to show principled leadership and must be held to account. The Israeli army killed more than 700 Palestinians, including some 150 children. Most were killed unlawfully — in reckless shooting, shelling and air strikes in civilian residential areas; in extrajudicial executions; and as a result of excessive use of force. 

ICG report: Mr Abbas goes to Washington

24 May 2005


As their leader, Mahmoud Abbas, prepares to visit Washington on 26 May, Palestinians are watching for signals from the White House to help them decide whether he deserves their continued support. Mr Abbas Goes to Washington: Can He Still Succeed?, the latest briefing from the International Crisis Group, examines the Palestinian President’s predicament. Although Abbas enjoys institutional and popular legitimacy for his agenda, that support will fade if his international partners fail to deliver on their commitments. “Abbas has international support Yasir Arafat could only dream of”, says Crisis Group Senior Analyst Mouin Rabbani. “But he has until now been no more successful in changing Israeli policies or fundamentally altering the U.S. approach”. 

Israeli Discriminatory Law Tears Apart Thousands of Families

24 May 2005


The Knesset should not extend a discriminatory law, due to expire on May 31, which prevents Israeli citizens and residents from living with their spouses from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists said today in a joint letter to Knesset members. On May 15, the Israeli Cabinet endorsed a continuation of the law with limited exceptions based on the age and sex of the Palestinian spouse. The three human rights organizations called on Knesset members to reject this amendment, which is currently before the Knesset for a first reading, as insufficient.