Anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Campaign Update

A SELECTED LIST OF GLOBAL BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS INITIATIVES

27 November 2006: The Dutch ASN Bank becomes the first bank in the world to divest from companies benefiting from Israeli occupation. ASN announces that it will divest from Veolia, a company that actively supports Israeli colonization, and "all companies that benefit from Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory".

19 November 2006: The Norwegian Civil Service Union, one of the largest unions of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, votes in favor of a boycott of Israel in the form of an arms embargo.

26 August 2006: Ken Loach, the acclaimed British director and winner of the 2006 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, declared in a personal statement his support of 'the call by Palestinian film-makers, artists and others to boycott state sponsored Israeli cultural institutions and urge[s] others to join their campaign'.

19 August 2006: Connex Ireland, a company operating railway lines, cancels plans to train Israeli engineers and drivers in Ireland. The Israeli trainees were to operate a tramline built between Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

5 August 2006: The Irish Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs calls on the Irish government to push for sanctions against Israel in the EU on the grounds of Israel's human rights abuses.

2 August 2006: Organizers of the Edinburgh Film Festival cancel sponsorship of the festival by the Israeli embassy and return all funds received from the Israeli government.

1 August 2006: The administrative council of the Greek Cinematography Center (GCC) withdraws all Greek movies they planned to participate in Haifa's Cinema Festival in October 2006.

8 July 2006: The Indonesian women's tennis team, scheduled to play a Fed Cup play-off in Israel on the 15th and 16th of July, pull out of the tie in an act of solidarity with Palestinians. The Indonesian Tennis Federation (PELTI) and government officials from the foreign and sports ministries announce a boycott of the games due to the military aggression and massacres of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

29 May 2006: Members of Britain's largest college teachers' union agreed on a boycott of Israel over what members called "apartheid" policies toward Palestinians, saying union members will refuse to cooperate with Israeli academics who do not "disassociate themselves from such policies. "The 69,000-member National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) debated the proposal for the boycott at its annual conference in the northern English city of Blackpool." Two parts of the motion passed with a show of hands while a third went to a vote. Under the boycott, union members also will not submit articles to Israeli research papers.

27 May 2006: CUPE Ontario declares that it will "Support the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194."

14 May 2006: Green Party of the United States calls for "divestment from and boycott of the State of Israel until such time as the full individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people are realized."

7 February 2006: The Church of England's general synod - including the Archbishop of Canterbury - voted to disinvest church funds from companies profiting from Israel's occupation of Palestine.

16 December 2005: The regional council of the Sør-Trøndelag in Norway passed a motion calling for a comprehensive boycott on Israeli goods, to be followed up with an awareness-raising campaign across the region. Sør-Trøndelag has a population of 270,000 out of Norway's 4.6 million. Trondheim, Norway's third largest city, forms part of the region and will participate in the boycott initiative. Sør-Trøndelag was the first Norwegian county to boycott South Africa. Upholding this good tradition, the County council, again the first in the country, has decided to boycott Israeli goods, by not buying Israeli goods and by organizing awareness-raising efforts.

8 December 2005: The Socialist Left Party, a member of the center-left Norwegian government launched a solidarity campaign for Palestine beginning in the New Year. The campaign focuses on a consumer boycott of Israeli products and will push for a ban on any arms trade between the Norwegian government and the Israeli regime.

28 November 2005: The city council of Arbizu, in the Basque country, declared they will: "call for boycott, will support and execute it. The boycott consists of a consumer boycott of Israeli products as well as a boycott of all the firms, Basque or not, which make business with Israel, and non-cooperation with Israeli initiatives on the field of culture, education and sports."

8 August 2005: The Presbyterian Church (USA) published its divestment list that singles out Caterpillar, ITT Industries, Motorola, and United Technologies as concrete measures towards economic pressure against Apartheid Israel and its accomplices.

27 July 2005: A resolution passed by the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham, England, urged Anglican churches around the world to divest from companies whose activities profit from the occupation of Palestine.

13 July 2005: The UN International Conference of Civil Society for Peace in the Middle East unanimously adopted the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions.

March 2005: The World Council of Churches urged its member churches give "serious consideration" to pulling investments out of Israel and endorsed the 2004 decision by the Presbyterian Church of the United States to seek "phased selective divestment" from Israel. "The Central Committee takes note of the current action by the Presbyterian Church (USA) which has initiated a process of phased, selective divestment from multinational corporations involved in the occupation. This action is commendable in both method and manner, uses criteria rooted in faith, and calls members to do the 'things that make for peace' (Luke 19:42)," the WCC said.

For more information on the BDS campaign in Canada visit The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid.