We challenge FIFA to live up to the letter and the spirit of its statutes and to seize this opportunity to prove to the world that it stands for a more just world by sending Israel an unmistakeable threat of exclusion. This would be an important victory for human rights — not only for the Palestinian people, but also for the international football community. Read more about FIFA urged to give the red card to Israel
On 2 October 2009, the Palestinian leadership — under heavy international pressure lead by the United States — deferred the draft proposal at the Human Rights Council endorsing all the recommendations of the UN Fact Finding Mission (the Goldstone Report). This deferral denies the Palestinian peoples’ right to an effective judicial remedy and the equal protection of the law. It represents the triumph of politics over human rights. It is an insult to all victims and a rejection of their rights. Read more about Palestinian orgs: Justice delayed is justice denied
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
On 2 March 2009, major international donors convened in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt to collectively respond to the destruction caused by Israel’s 23 day military offensive on the Gaza Strip. During the conference, a total of $4.5 billion was pledged in reconstruction funds for Gaza. In light of the extensive destruction across the Gaza Strip, especially the destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure, reconstruction is urgent. Read more about Rights orgs: Donor aid shouldn't underwrite Israeli crimes
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
Based on our faith in our national, moral, and legal responsibility and recognizing our duty to work towards building and strengthening the democratic edifice of the prospective Palestinian state, we, the undersigned Palestinian human rights organizations, hereby and articulate our demands of the Palestinian political authorities for measures to be taken in order to overcome the pains and agonies of the crisis generated by internal fragmentation and conflict. Read more about Rights orgs: Infighting jeopardizes our cause and our rights
As educators and scholars of conscience in Australia, we fully support this call. We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel’s ongoing attacks on the rights of Palestinians to education, land, and human dignity, and to support the nonviolent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions. Read more about Australian academics call for boycott of Israel
A letter signed by 300 Irish civil society figures was published in a full-page ad that appeared in the 31 January 2009 edition of The Irish Times. The undersigned stated, “The occupation can end if political and economic pressure is placed on Israel by the international community. Recognizing this, the Palestinian people continually call on the international community to intervene.” Read more about Irish civil society calls for boycott of Israel
With the death toll in Gaza growing hourly, silence is complicity. It is imperative for concerned citizens to demand that their governments take immediate action in order to stop Israeli genocide in Gaza. Write your representative today and demand that Israeli war criminals be brought before the International Criminal Court or a Special Tribunal for war crimes committed in Gaza. (Remind your representative that the investigation, prosecution or extradition of those responsible for war crimes is an obligation of all high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions.) Read more about Gaza orgs: Silence is complicity