Campaigns

NOVANEWS Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions week of Action till 16th November 2010   For more than sixty years the suffering of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli state has been met with the international community rewarding Israel economically and politically, and allowing Israel to act with impunity.   People of conscience around the world have a responsibility to respond to the call from Palestinian civil society to join them in the growing movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until the country complies with international law and recognises Palestinian rights. As part of the BDS week of action, we’re pleased to re-launch the Boycott Israeli Goods website – with in-depth information in a number of current campaigns we are involved in – including saying...

NOVANEWS Press Release from the European Platform for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (EPACBI) Monday 8th November 2010 - for immediate release Today marks the establishment of a European co-ordinating organisation for promoting the academic and cultural boycott of Israel, following a founding meeting in Paris on 25-26 September. EPACBI currently includes representatives from organisations in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. BRICUP (The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine) and AURDIP (Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine) are issuing special newsletters simultaneously to announce the agreed founding Declaration of EPACBI. EPACBI will co-ordinate the campa...

NOVANEWS This first cropped up about 4 years age, and re-emerges each Christmas season. "Peace" Oil  is an initiative of The Charities Advisory Trust and its director Hilary Blume. It was heavily sponsored by the Zionist Federation at a time when Zaytoun was making a breakthrough. It as sold as cross-community cooperation, and many charities were unwittingly selling the oil on their Christmas stalls along with seasonal cards etc supplied by Blume's organisation.   The olives are supplied entirely by Israel and are grown in the Carmel hills. The press is owned by a Druze family and I think the labouring work is done by Palestinians. Most South African businesses employed black south africans as labourers in the Apartheid days. If you buy this oil you are helping the economy of Israel.All th...

NOVANEWS November 6, 2010 by Debbie Menon By Neve Gordon -  London Review of Books blog Would Meryl Streep, Spike Lee, Tim Robbins or Susan Sarandon be willing to swear an oath of loyalty to the United States and its policies in order to receive public funding for feature films that they star in, direct or produce? In Israel, the far-right Knesset member Michael Ben Ari has proposed a bill that would require entire film crews to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and to declare loyalty to its laws and symbols, as a condition for receiving public funding. It’s just one of more than ten bills to be discussed during the Knesset’s winter session that several commentators in Ha’aretz have characterised as proto-fascist. As in most democracies, all new Israeli cit...

NOVANEWS Hi Does anyone know anything about this Peace Olive Oil sold by Card Aid - http://www.cardaid.co.uk/cardaid_shops You can read about the charitable claims of Peace Oil on their website here - http://www.peaceoil.org/ They claim that profits from Peace Oil® are used to support peace and reconciliation work in the Middle East. One of our members is a member of IMRI (Interfaith group for Morally Responsible Investment). They asked Card Aid where these profits went to in Palestine and were given the answer "Slimming Clubs in Gaza". According to wikipedia the product was launched at an Israel Expo Day organised by the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, which promoted it as a way "to support Israel’s vibrant trade...to make a difference to the actual future of Israel." The...

NOVANEWS Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions week of Action 6 – 16th November 2010 For more than sixty years, the suffering of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli state has been met with the international community rewarding Israel economically and politically, and allowing the country to act with immunity. Enough is enough. Respond to the call from Palestinian civil society to people of conscience around the world to join them in the growing movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until the country complies with international law and recognises Palestinian rights. Get involved: sign the ‘boycott pledge’ and keep it in your wallet, as a reminder to check the label during your supermarket shop, or make conversation with the shop manager to show you’re a card c...

NOVANEWS Naked conspiracy: Ackerman says ‘first class team’ of 5 Jewish, pro-Israel congressional chairs has ‘major, major, major influence’ on Obama October 30, 2010 by crescentandcross  By Phillip Weiss, www.mondoweiss.com The Forward’s Nathan Guttman has a fine piece of reporting up about how the Israeli right is hoping that the Congress will change hands next week. The best part of the piece is where the Congressional Democrats protest, Hey we love Israel just as much, even more! Read this with your eyes open. I know, that’s hard. The juice comes at the end. And tell me, will Gary Ackerman have to eat his words, or lose his job, ala Rick Sanchez and Helen Thomas? Will Howard Berman, Henry Waxman, Sander Levin, or Barney Frank speak a word of criticism? Will the Obama administr...

NOVANEWS So in a break from reading the delightful ethnographies of the players in the Israel Lobby littering the comment section in Mondoweiss, I started reading Grant Smith's homework assignment book, Spy Trade, which asserts that the Israel Lobby and American slavish adherence to Israeli policies is undermining American rule of law and our Proud Traditions. Enough of this. The Lobby pursues Likudnik policies, but the policies that are carried out are in the main imperial policies. They are class war, best captured by a Gini coefficient rising to third-world levels during the time of strongest support for Israel, from 1967-2001. Keep on trying to convince imperial managers that support for Israel is against their interests. They don't seem to agree. Zionism shouldn't be opposed because i...

NOVANEWS Historic BDS debate in Zeek By Jesse Bacon Zeek, the artsy hipstery Jewish journal, published two long pieces on BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) for what I assume is the first time. This bold move plants the movement squarely within the more creative portion of the Jewish establishment, at least as a topic of conversation. This suggests that the effort to make any discussion, as opposed to demo- nization, of BDS taboo has backfired. It is the BDS-demonizers who find themselves increasingly having a conversation with themselves. Iff you saw my credit at the end of JVP Executive Director (and Forward 50 honoree!)  Rebecca Vilkomerson’s piece, or if you have read any of my own work, it should be no surprise where my sympathies lie. The surprises are only that the New ...

NOVANEWS     More Recent Articles Search MuzzleWatch Prior Mailing Archive The Zionist Organization of America’s Effort to Criminalize Campus Activism through Federal Civil Rights Legislation By Eyal Mazor Under the leadership of Mort Klein, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)  is celebrating its success in its efforts to expand federal anti-bullying guidelines  stipulated under the US Civil Rights Act of 1964.  So why in the world would Mort  Klein and his pro-occupation and pro-settlement ZOA be interested in federal civil  rights and anti-bullying policy in the first place? Perhaps a new-found interest in  protecting religious practice and reigning in on all instances of discrimination?  Of course not. Read on and prepare yourself to be outraged. In a p...