Students Boycott Apartheid

Students Boycott Israeli Apartheid - on Electronic Intifada

Jul 19, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a comment | Author: Doug

(click title or read below)

Boycott apartheid: student delegation to Palestine
Doug Smith, , 17 July 2009

For the first time since the 2005 Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against institutions supporting Israeli apartheid, students from North America and Palestine came together in Ramallah to share their ideas and experiences. Consisting of eight days of travel and a four-day workshop, the North American student delegation spent their two weeks getting connected with the struggle in Palestine in order to better articulate the BDS movement in their respective cities. The visiting students met face to face with those who are living and resisting the systematic oppression of Palestinians by the state of Israel.

The travel portion brought the students nearly everywhere giving them a chance to see the distinct realities of what it is to be a Palestinian; be it in Hebron living next to violent settlers, in Haifa where they live as second class citizens or the Negev where a majority of Palestinian villages are not recognized by the state and therefore do not receive basic services such as running water. All the while the group respected the boycott as much as possible booking all accommodations and transportation with Palestinian businesses in every city, even those within Israel.

Aside from personal connections, they attended several meetings with Palestinian organizations like Badil - Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (also instrumental in the BDS campaign), Baladna (developmental and capacity building agency for Arab-Palestinian youth in Israel) and Adalah and Addameer (two rights-based organizations working mostly in the court system), solidifying direct lines of cooperation for future campaigns on and off campus. They also met with some Israeli activists working from within on promoting the boycott, the right to return, refusal to serve in the military and corporate complicity.

The delegation consisted of representatives from Palestinian-youth community and student organizations from three Palestinian universities and several cities within Israel, which totaled around 25 with their North American counterparts.

The obvious non-represented group of students were those from universities in besieged Gaza to whom we spoke via an all-too-short video conference session in Birzeit University. Their message was clear in that they felt that the cruel military blockade needed to be dealt with as an urgent matter however that talking about the BDS campaign was a way in which this could be done without efforts being spread too thin on certain specific issues.

The workshops themselves had their positive and negative sides in so far that the challenges faced and achievements gained on Palestinian and North American campuses are quite different. The discussions resulted less in concrete plans and strategies, but much more in an understanding and future direction between the youth Palestine solidarity movement from the inside and abroad. Some of the biggest challenges Palestinian student activists faced were the seeming impossibility of running a successful boycott in some areas where the Palestinian economy is totally dominated by Israel (Birzeit University being the only exception) and the opposition from the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has considerable influence on campuses, to any Gaza solidarity work due to the political situation. However unlike in North America students in Palestine do have a large base of support in nonpartisan civil society and the community at large that the visiting students are trying so hard to build in their own countries.

In stark opposition to the coming together that was the delegation, the group as a whole was given a tour of the apartheid wall by the Stop the Wall campaign and was able to see the land confiscations and strategic settlement expansions that accompany it. Due to the fact that this construction is ongoing, it gave the group a collective sense of what will happen if Israel’s racist polices of apartheid are not opposed.

The group also met with other Palestinians instrumental in the BDS campaign such as Omar Barghouti. The delegation was only the first of others that will be sure to follow in the near future now that the foundations are laid.

Doug Smith is a Montreal based student organizer, writer and activist currently working in solidarity with the Palestinian call for BDS on campus as well as in the community.

Boycott Tapuzina Public Service Announcement

Jul 12, 2009 Announcements Leave a comment | Author: Jehad

SBA on anniversary of BDS call

Jul 9, 2009 Announcements Leave a comment | Author: Hannah

July 9, 2009

Ramallah, Palestine

On the fifth anniversary of the International Court of Justice decision against Israel’s apartheid wall, and the fourth anniversary of the Palestinian civil society call for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, we are proud to announce the completion of the first-ever Students Boycott Apartheid (SBA) tour and workshop. For the past two weeks, delegates from nine North American colleges and universities have traveled throughout Palestine, meeting with organizations and participating in a three-day workshop to strengthen the student BDS movement.

Read More..

The Jabbar Family.

Jul 5, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a comment | Author: Sarah

The Jabbar Family

Our taxi could not seem to find our host families house. We were driving up and down a road that seemed to have nowhere to go. After a few turn around’s and phone calls the car stopped. A man was waiting for us on the side of the road.  He introduced himself as ‘Atta Jabbar. He showed us a pile of rocks and trash and explained that it used to be a road leading to his house until the Israelis blocked it. He showed us a field where he used to grow tomatoes until the Israelis cut his water supply. He pointed to a house at the top of the hill and said it was his. We started to climb up. On the way he showed us two piles of rocks. They used to be houses,his houses. Both were demolished by the Israelis only a few months apart from one another.  He was arrested for refusing to leave his land. With international out cry and media support he was ” allowed” to build a new home further up the hill.     Not before living in a tent with 4 young children and his wife first.  When we got to his home he showed us pictures of this tent and how his family cooked food and brought it over so they could all eat. I was in awe that they made light of such a horrifying situation.   He showed us pictures of his arrest and of the protesters outside his tent who came to support him.  They shared a lot with us that night. Food, their bed, tea and coffee but most importantly their story and for that  I am grateful. I will never forget ‘Atta Jabbar or his family. Not only because they posses more  strength than I thought possible  but because they shared it with me.

LYD

Jul 5, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a comment | Author: Sarah

Growing up near Detroit the word “ghetto” is nothing new to me. Hearing about drugs and crime is also not out of the norm so when I heard these things about Lyd I thought it would be something familiar so far from home. When I arrived in Lyd I realized there are many differences. In Detroit I think it would be fair to say we lack building demolition. Many old buildings we leave stand become crack houses. In Lyd however peoples home are demolished. Not crack houses, but rather houses where families live for the reason of ” building permits”. Israel denies people permits then later demolishes homes for not having them.  In Detroit there are definitely “ghetto’s” but nice houses are further away from them. In Lyd the nice houses are just past a wall. The wall was requested by Jewish citizens so that they no longer had to see the “ugliness” of Lyd.  This said a lot to me. The Israeli citizens of Lyd were not at all concerned about the families and children that are subjected to living under these conditions but rather their concern lied in the fact that they just did not want to see it. What kind of people are they? How can you witness these things and feel no concern or anger? When we went to see the wall it was still being built. We were told that construction of the wall had been stopped for awhile. The reason the construction was going on while we were there is because a family who lived near the wall was told that either their home would be demolished, or they and the other inhabits of Lyd had to sign a paper saying they agreed with the wall. Everyone decided the family keeping their home was more important than objecting to the wall. The unity amongst the people never seizes to amaze me.  Israel can built it’s walls but it will never stop the strength of the Palestinian people.

Things that go bump in the night, and other Hebron stories

Jul 4, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a comment | Author: meg

There were a great deal of things about Hebron that were maddening and sickening to witness. The boulders on grates above Palestinian streets thrown by Israeli settlers from apartments above, the security cameras buzzing from atop street corners hinting at the repressive surveillance which props up the apartheid regime, the racist anti-Arab graffiti scrawled in Hebrew along the city’s walls, and the young, arrogant and bored Israeli settlers who operate with virtual impunity to racially profile and harass the residents of Hebron– all of these realities were deeply disturbing in their own right. So too were the testimonies we received from Hashem A. about the violence enacted upon his family (including a child, then aged 9, whose teeth were smashed in by an Israeli woman) by right-wing ideological settlers in his neighborhood of Tel Rumeida, and the videos we watched of marauding settlers destroying gates and homes and attacking the Palestinian residents of Hebron under the watchful eye (and with the active support) of the Israeli army. The trees around Hashem’s house, all cut, the windows with metal grates to prevent further smashing, and the heaps of garbage lobbed down from settlers living above his home–all of these images remain burned in my brain, as does the text of a sticker that Baruch Marzel, leader of the right wing extremist settler Kach movement (and Hashem’s neighbor), purportedly has hanging in his home: “I’ve killed an Arab, and you?”
But none of these stories–horrific manifestations of the cruel depths of Zionist racism–struck me as deeply as Hashem and his wife Nasreen’s gentle patience and palpable love for their children, and the trembling indignation in Hashem’s voice as he told us about them. The children have ongoing monthly psychological counseling with Doctors Without Borders to manage the stress of the violence  which has been enacted upon them. They can’t sleep with the light out, he said, and they require the windows to be securely locked and shuttered in order to acquire what approximates a good night’s rest. I cannot imagine the horror of being a parent faced with the task of allaying a sleepless, frightened child’s fears with the knowledge that the things that bring them terror are not nightmares, but flesh-and-blood fanatics whose violence is governmentally sanctioned. The soothing reply of “but it’s not real” rings hollow in this case. The luxury of such a response remains out of reach for those living under Israeli occupation and apartheid.

Shministim: Israeli Conscientious Objectors

Jul 1, 2009 Palestine, Trip Leave a comment | Author: justicetopeace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNjggLhQo6w&hl

For most families in Israel, serving in the military is not only a required duty it’s also of great honor and prestige. “Shministim” is the equivalent of high school seniors in Israel. So at the age of 18, after graduating from high school, young Israelis serve in the military for 3 years before continuing their education. After the WhoProfits.org meeting with Dalit at the Zochrot office we met with two young female Israeli conscientious objectors: Netta Mishly and Raz Veron, both of whom rejected to serve in the Israeli military at the age of 18. Both of these young women discussed what led to their conviction of refusing to serve in the Israeli military and the reactions they received from their family and society.

Read More..

The sea is not deep enough

Jun 29, 2009 Trip Leave a comment | Author: Hannah

This evening we went to the sea in Yaffa. Every time I am here I have the same feeling as when I am in Jerusalem and I get a call from a West Bank friend. When a friend asks me where I am, sometimes I lie and say I am in Ramallah. Because Jerusalem does not mean to me what it means to them, and yet I am allowed to be there and they are not. It is the same with the sea. Some of my most meaningful times in Palestine have been traveling with children who have never been to the sea, watching them dive in fully clothed, even in the winter. This evening was nice. A beautiful evening, a good group of people. I was glad to be able to be there, and especially with the two members of our group who hold West Bank IDs and are therefore not usually allowed to visit the sea. But it is not so simple as to just enjoy it. As one pointed out yesterday, he is only allowed to be here in ’48, in his own land, because he is with a foreign group. I’m not sure the sea is deep enough to hold the pain or contradictions of Zionism.

An Israeli for BDS… and more where he came from

Jun 28, 2009 Trip Leave a comment | Author: Hannah

We met today with Kobi Snitz, an Israeli academic who is involved in Anarchists Against the Wall and is also (more pertinently to our delegation) involved in BDS work, particularly around the academic boycott. What was maybe the most unique and useful about our meeting with Kobi was to see the humility that he has as an Israeli in the movement. He and his group (soon to launch a website and official campaign!) are very aware of the ways in which Israelis can take over movements that are and should be Palestinian led. For this reason, their principles are basically centered around supporting the Palestinian civil society BDS call in full. They would not, for example, support the demand about an end to occupation without supporting the demand for right of return, or for equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel. Kobi responded to most questions by giving the official BNC line, and when he wasn’t sure about a particular question, he suggested we talk to Omar Barghouti (from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) about it. We plan to do so on Thursday.

Kobi’s group mostly wants to be a support for the Palestinian movement and for those in the global BDS movement (like us perhaps) who could use their information and endorsements in our campaigns. They will write letters to artists and academics who plan to visit Israel, asking them not to do so. And they will work with Israelis to figure out what role these people from within can have in the movement. It has been inspiring to see him and several other Israelis we have been speaking to actually reflect upon their role and come to positions that should be expected of progressive Israelis, but that we unfortunately rarely find.

The paradox of liberal Zionism

Jun 27, 2009 Palestine Leave a comment | Author: Holly.Jones

I was gmail chatting with an old friend today, and took the opportunity to unburden some of the emotional madness of the past few days. Some of my outrage, if you will. My friend, Shana, was raised Jewish, and is a great listener, even about Israeli Apartheid, but she mentioned the huge disparity between what I was telling her and what her parents believed and told her. My parents, too, fervently believe that Israel is a progressive democracy, fighting a war of self-defense against a belligerent and fundamentalist people who are in the business of oppressing gays, women, etc, etc. It is these people I am here because of. The liberals, the lefties, the vegetarians: my people, are still people who believe in this apartheid state of Israel.

But to me, the Palestinian people have seemed quite enlightened enough. Maybe many weren’t well-connected enough to the Western world at the time of the Naqba; the world seems to have been blind to it. But these are not ignorant people. They’re better represented by my friend Sinan, who spends hours each day passing checkpoints to Al Quds University; female and male students alike. People like Lubna, who go to Bethlehem University, subsidized by the Vatican, and live pluralism with their Muslim and Christian peers in the Holy Land, even while the missiles are demolishing their school buildings.

The things I have seen here in the West Bank are hard to reconcile with attempts at even-handedness between Jews and Palestinians. The latter, yes, have used violence, at times. I believe this policy is both immoral and has proven ineffectual. But it is a very different violence, greater both in quality and quantity, that I see in the systemic apartheid and ethnic cleansing which is planned and executed by the state of Israel.

I don’t, in so saying, want to condone or lessen the tragedy of violence from either side. But meeting a woman in Jerusalem, with ownership papers to her house from Israel, Britain, all the way back to the Ottoman Empire, who was forced from her house so that a settler could live there, and then had her tent (on rented Palestinian land) demolished 6 times by the Israeli military, and listening to how she had to answer her grandson’s question about why God, the same God of the Jews, martyred only Gazan Palestinian children, and never Israeli children, makes it easy to see the circumstances which could generate so much hatred. He told her that he wanted to be a martyr, too. She convinced him, instead, that he should be a doctor, and help people. Inshallah.