Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel25 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. Read more about Boycotting Israel Put High on the Agenda
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. Read more about Academic boycott will lead to Israeli self-examination
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. Read more about Federation of University Unions Calls on All Parties to Uphold Palestinian Call for Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions
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. Read more about Palestinian farmers, women and youths support the AUT position to boycott Israeli universities
A Palestinian teachers union has called for the dismissal of Al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh for “normalising ties with Israel” and “serving Israeli propaganda interests”. A statement by the Palestinian Union of University Teachers and Employees (PUUTE), published on the front page of the Ramallah-based daily Al-Ayyam, on Monday accused Nussaibeh of “normalising relations with the Sharon government” despite the Israeli prime minister’s policy of “bullying the Palestinians and stealing their land”. “This constitutes a strong blow to the Palestinian national consensus against normalisation with Israel,” said the statement. Read more about Palestinian teachers union calls for Sari Nusseibeh's dismissal
Those who follow Palestinian activism, from the McCarthyist “Campus Watch,” to the intrepid Jews Against the Occupation, are aware that Labor For Palestine (LFP) has emerged over the past year as a new campaign in labor internationalism. Yet as LFP prepares for its first national conference in Chicago on July 23, 2005, few know how it began. Officially, LFP was born in June 2004 when I met Michael Letwin in Manhattan’s Union Square to discuss drafting the Open Letter, LFP’s founding document. But the notions behind LFP were in the works long before this. They started in South Africa, where an international divestment movement threw a wrench in apartheid’s brutal turbines. Read more about Reconstructing Internationalism with Labor For Palestine
On 16 May 2005, a large number of Palestinian non-governmental organizations wrote to express their full support of the decision made by AUT delegates on the 22nd of April to launch immediate boycotts of Haifa and Bar-Ilan Universities. According to the signatories, the motion “marks an historic moment in the global movement to isolate Apartheid Israel as a means of forging effective solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, self-determination and sovereignty.” Read more about Open letter from Palestinian Civil Society in Support of AUT Academic Boycott
Demonstrators will protest against AIPAC’s support for Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, its abuses of the rights of Arabs in the occupied territories and in Israel, and its promotion of wars against Syrian and especially Iran. We also protest Israeli leader Ariel Sharon’s appearance at the conference because of his involvement over 50 years in a series of war crimes, including the massacres at Sabra and Shatilla. And we protest any role of AIPAC or its employees, past or present, in passing highly classified information on Iran or any other topic from U.S. government employees to the state of Israel. Read more about Three Speakers Set for Protest Against Aipac's Promotion of Occupation of Palestine and War Against Iran.
Palestinians have observed the blackest day in their history with warnings that there will be no Middle East peace until they get independence and the plight of their refugees is solved. Millions of Palestinians at home and in the diaspora on Sunday commemorated the 57th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe). The term denotes the loss of Palestine to Zionism, the creation of Israel and the expulsion of most of the Palestinian people from their historical homeland. Sirens were sounded throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinians were asked to stand silent for a minute in memory of the anniversary. Marches and rallies were organised throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, with speakers reasserting commitment to the right of return. Read more about Palestinians mark day of catastrophe
Palestinian Return Centre, London, the Palestinian Association in Austria and the Expatriate Society in Austria organized a well attended conference of Palestinian communities in Europe under the title ‘‘Palestine: Land and People - an integral and indivisible unit. No to the racist wall in Palestine’. Representatives and delegations of Palestinian communities from 21 European countries participated in the conference. Several members of the Arab diplomatic corps in Austria, officials from the Austrian government, as well as prominent members of Arab and Muslim communities participated. Read more about Palestinian community in Europe adopts Vienna Declaration
