Campaigns

NOVANEWS APHEDA is the aid arm of Australia’s biggest union, the ACTU. Yesterday they released the following statement: Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA study tour to the Middle East Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA, the overseas humanitarian aid agency of the ACTU, led a study tour of trade union officials and members to the Middle East from Monday 1st March to Monday 15th March, 2010. The purpose of the study tour was:- • To examine Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA’s aid projects with Palestinian refugees in Bourj el-Barajneh camp in Beirut, Lebanon; food security and agriculture projects with Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; and projects of medical assistance to the El Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital in Gaza. • To meet with Palestinian and Israeli trade unions and workers’ organisations ...

NOVANEWS A bogus news release that claimed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee had called on Israel “to immediately freeze new settlement projects” led to a incorrect report on NPR’s newscast this morning. AIPAC has not issued any such statement, spokesman Josh Block tells us, and condemns whoever is responsible for spreading the misinformation. The official-looking statement, e-mailed to NPR earlier today, appeared to come from Block. But, as a closer look reveals, the e-mail address did not quite match Block’s official AIPAC address. In the course of a report about the AIPAC Policy Conference that is underway in Washington this week, NPR relayed the bogus information to listeners. Israel’s settlements in disputed territories have been atop the news again in recent weeks in large...

NOVANEWS "Even the competition with the new Israel lobby group on the left, J Street, did not succeed in shaking the standing of AIPAC, at least in terms of the numbers of participants, with 7,500 people signing up, a record high for the group." The lousy J Street? Who would want them to succeed anyway? They are a branch of AIPAC, no more. Today, they took up an ad in the New York Times. They called on Palestinians to desist from inciting violence but did not call on Israelis to desist from inflict violence. www.haaretz.com

NOVANEWS Hillary tells AIPAC, the occupation is hurting the US around the world By: Philip Weiss I think there was much to celebrate in Hillary Clinton’s speech to AIPAC. Couched in the usual pandering of the special relationship forever, and sanctions that "bite" Iran, she made a point of breaking the news to American Jews that the "status quo is unsustainable." Yes, she said this had to do with "demographics," a veiled form of racism involving the Palestinian birthrate, but she mentioned the "occupation," and the "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza, and the inhuman blockade, and the need for Palestinians to have a "partner" for negotiation. Most significant, it seemed to me, was her statement that in the ’90s she traveled the world and no one talked about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Now eve...

NOVANEWS   Open letter in defence of the right to boycott Israel We, the undersigned, condemn the attempt by Scottish prosecutors to criminalise the growing international campaign to boycott Israel until Israel comes into line with international law. In July 2005, working in close co-operation with partners in South Africa, hundreds of civil society organisations across Palestine produced a call for an international campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions “against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era”. The boycott did not emerge out of nowhere: according to the recent UN Goldstone report, “The prolonged situation of [Israeli] impunity has created a justice crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that warrants action.” In the historic absence ...

NOVANEWS Buzz Up! Print Story Air pollution is causing the early deaths of up to 50,000 people a year and making thousands more ill - but the Government is failing to take enough action to tackle the problem, MPs have said. Skip related content Related photos / videos Pollution 'causing early deaths' Enlarge photo The UK should be "ashamed" of its poor air quality and the harm it is causing to people's health and the environment, a report by the Commons Environmental Audit Committee said. The report said pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen oxides and "particulate matter" from transport and power stations contributed to conditions such as asthma, heart disease and cancer. The failure to reduce levels of pollution has "enormous" costs for the NHS, and puts the UK at risk of multimillion-pound...

NOVANEWS california-divest-israel.jpg Back-dropped by the golden shrine of the Dome of the Rock, Palestinian youth play on a sofa in Ras al-Amud just outside Jerusalem's Old City this past Sunday (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) Two new ballot initiatives were cleared for circulation this week by the Secretary of State's office. This is the stage where backers must get over 400,000 signatures from Californians to qualify for the ballot. Of the two,the most notable one would prohibit state retirement funds from investing in Israel. Specifically, the Public Employees’ Retirement System and State Teachers’ Retirement System would be verboten from "investing in companies doing business in Israel," according to the proposition's language. Continued: "Requires these funds to sell existing investments in ...

NOVANEWS by Philip Weiss Jennifer Rubin at Commentary passes this report on with credulity (maybe because it reflects the Podhoretz family’s views?): An elderly couple from Florida were agitated by recent events. The wife explained she that had fled Nazi Germany as a child for Shanghai. “There are parallels,” she said. “This is depressing. It’s scary.” She said that she had argued with her liberal friends during the campaign about Obama’s associations with anti-Israel figures. “My mother always said where there is smoke, there is fire,” she explained, then added wearily, “They didn’t listen.” She bemoaned the fact that Jews’ political activities are fragmented on issues like global warming. “There are plenty of people to do that,” she said. “Where are they on Israel?” That’s just a sampli...

NOVANEWS Eric Lee’s Scab Campaign Against Amnesty International Who you might ask is Eric Lee? Well there is a web site that supposedly supports workers of the world in their struggles. It is run by an Israeli reserve officer Eric Lee. Nothing wrong with that you might say and of course you are right. Plenty of Israelis are active in solidarity organisations of one form and another. But Lee is made from an entirely different metal. He wastes no opportunity to support the Israeli state against the Palestinians. He has already been refused £2,000 by my union, UNISON, because of his and LabourStart’s support for Zionism and Israel. Laborstart consistently and consciously refuses to cover Histadrut’s treatment of the Palestinians. Histadrut is the Israeli settler union that steals 11% of Pales...

NOVANEWS   Catherine Shyu/Photo Spectators attend the ASUC Senate meeting Wednesday night at which a bill urging UC divestment in companies that have provided Israel with materials used in alleged war crimes was considered.   The ASUC Senate considered a bill Wednesday night urging the University of California to divest from companies who have supplied the Zio-Nazi regime in 'Israel' with materials used in alleged war crimes. A final vote, not available as of press time, was expected to be close, and numerous supporters both for and against the bill came to the meeting to voice their opinions. While proponents said the bill is the first step in an expected long-term process to convince the UC Board of Regents to pull total investments of about $135 million from five companies cur...