PSC media release in support of Van Thanh Rudd

PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

For Immediate Release                                                           8 March, 2009

Van Thanh Rudd & the Economy of Movement- a piece of Palestine:

Defend the right to artistic expression & freedom of speech!

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) in Melbourne unequivocally defends and supports the right of visual artist, Van Thanh Rudd, to freedom of artistic expression and speech.

Van’s work, Economy of Movement – A piece of Palestine, which has been displayed as part of the Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance: Propositions towards urban (r)evolution exhibition at Flinders St Station has been subject to censorship this week.

The art work which depicts a rock and includes two informational statements outlining the resistance to Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and the role that French companies Alstom and Veolia (whose Australian transport operations operate under the name of Connex) are playing in facilitating the illegal Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem by building illegal settlement infrastructure.

Veolia and Alstom are part of the Citypass consortium which won the 2002 tender project amounting to 500 million Euros. The light rail will service illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land and is a serious breach of international law, in particular article 49 and article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which both Israel and Australia are signatories.

Article 49 states:

“The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.

Article 53 states:

“Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations”.

The transfer of any Israeli civilian population into the Occupied Palestinian Territories, whether it be East Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, is illegal under international law, as is the forcible confiscation and destruction of Palestinian private property by Israel as an occupying power.

The light rail being built on stolen Palestinian land by Veolia (Connex) and Alstrom will assist with the transfer of the Israeli civilian population into the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, directly supporting the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and its surrounds.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) supports the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel (www.bdsmovement.net ).  The campaign initiated in 2005 by almost 200  Palestinian civil society organisation calls for the boycotting of Israeli goods, divestment from Israeli companies and institutions and for governments to place sanctions on Israel by breaking military, political, cultural and economic ties until the country abides by international law.

In Australia, Palestine solidarity activists from a coalition of Palestine solidarity organisations, including the Palestine Solidarity Camaign, over the next months will be demanding that various state governments around Australia dump their contracts with Connex.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign also calls on the Australian Rudd government to break all political, economic, cultural and military ties with Israel, until it abides by its international obligations.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign congratulates Van Thanh Rudd for his ongoing support of human rights in both Palestine and elsewhere and applauds the Platform Artists Group for their courageous support of an artist’s freedom of artistic expression and speech.

For more information:

Tel: 0439 454 375

Email: palestinesolidaritycampaign@gmail.com

www.palestinesolidaritycampaign.net

Palestine Solidarity Campaign: who we are …

PSC is a grassroots, activist based group which does not adhere to any particular ideology and is not affiliated with any political or religious grouping.  PSC includes people from a diversity of cultural and political backgrounds, as well as religious affiliations and seeks to collaborate with all groups and individuals who are committed to our goal of ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine and who support justice for the Palestinian people.

Rudd’s nephew clashes with Connex

By Reid Sexton, The Age, 8 March 2009

http://www.theage.com.au/national/rudds-nephew-clashes-with-connex-20090307-8ryp.html

AN ARTWORK by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s nephew attacking Connex for suppressing Palestinians was installed beneath Flinders Street Station, then covered up following complaints. It has now been declared fit to be seen, on the grounds of freedom of speech.

The piece was censored last week aftercomplaints from the public and at least one Jewish group, but reinstalled on Friday night after being cleared by the City of Melbourne’s Protocol on Artworks panel. The body found the work caused community concerns, but was consistent with the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibility.

Van Thanh Rudd, who has called himself an “artist-activist”, uses two framed statements to attack Connex’s parent company, Veolia, and rail infrastructure giant Alstom, stating they support “illegal operations on occupied Palestinian territory” by building a light rail through disputed land in East Jerusalem. It also includes a rock allegedly thrown at an Israeli tank by a Palestinian youth in the city.

The artwork’s white and blue colouring is designed to look like Connex literature, prompting the train operator to express its concern to the City of Melbourne. It denies lodging a complaint, and maintains the East Jerusalem project is legal.

Economy of Movement (A Piece of Palestine) is part of a new exhibition, Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance, in Campbell Arcade beneath Flinders Street.

Mr Rudd, son of Kevin Rudd’s brother Malcolm and Malcolm’s wife, Tuoi, declined to answer questions but said in a statement that the colours represented blue skies, freedom and the Israeli flag, which he said is a sign of oppression for many Palestinians.

The work was unveiled last Monday, but exhibition organisers Platform covered it the next day and sought legal advice.

The City of Melbourne last year banned from an exhibition Van Thanh Rudd’s painting of Ronald McDonald carrying an Olympic torch past a burning monk.

Platform director Din Heagney said the latest work was initially covered after Connex threatened legal action because of the similarities to its own literature, another claim the transport operator denies. But Mr Heagney said that after receiving legal advice they decided to unveil it again at the exhibition’s official launch on Friday.

Veolia plans to run the East Jerusalem system for 27 years when it opens in 2010, while Alstom has been constructing it.

Activists claim it will break international law by transporting an occupier’s civilian population into occupied territory. The Palestine Liberation Organisation took the two companies to court in France in 2007.

Boycott Israel! Boycott Max Brenner!

by Fred Fuentes, Sydney

Green Left Weekly, 14 February 2009

Palestine solidarity activists in Sydney have launched a campaign targeting Max Brenner Chocolates, a 100% Israeli-owned company belonging to the Strauss Group, as part of the growing international boycott Israel movement.

The Strauss Group is the second-largest Israeli food and beverage company.

On the “corporate responsibility” section of its website, the Strauss Group emphasises the support it gives to the Israeli killing machine. Highlighting that it wants to “sweeten their special moment” the Strauss Group touts that, for more than 30 years, it has supported the Golani reconnaissance platoon, renowned for its murderous assaults on Palestinian civilians.

During Israel’s recent massacre in Gaza, a Ha’aretz article reported that the Golani platoon operated “in the sector in which the [Israel Defence Force] has seen the toughest battles with Hamas, the eastern part of Gaza City”.

According to the website of Adalah-NY, the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, Golani has also been involved in previous military operations in Gaza, in the massacres in the Jenin and Tul Karm refugee camps and the siege on Yasser Arafat’s Muqata compound in Ramallah.

It was also directly involved in the 2006 invasion of Lebanon.

Moreover, Adalah-NY reports that in November 2008, in a widely disseminated video, “members of the Golani Brigade filmed themselves forcing a captive, blindfolded Palestinian to sing humiliating songs, some of a sexual nature, and some about the Golani Brigade”.

For these reasons and more, the activists from the boycott working group of the Gaza Defence Committee are calling on people to boycott Max Brenner. Weekly pickets of Max Brenner are being organised every Thursday afternoon, outside its city and Parramatta stores.

The working group is also taking the boycott case to unions and universities in order to help expand the growing global movement to target apartheid Israeli, just as apartheid South Africa was targeted.

To get involved with the Gaza Defence Committee or the boycott working group call Aaron on 0403 879 220.

From: Australian News, Green Left Weekly issue #783 18 February 2009.

www.greenleft.org.au

Isolate Israel: a campaign whose time has come

From Direct Action: Issue 8, February 2009

www.directaction.org.au

By Kathy Newnam

The true face of Israel was exposed to millions of people throughout the world by the beginning of the Israeli attack on Gaza 0n December 27. The decades-long solidarity movement with Palestine mushroomed overnight, and throughout the three weeks of bombardment of Gaza, the world witnessed some of the largest demonstrations ever in support of Palestine. Through this outpouring of support for Palestine, the international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign has given political focus to the movement and begun to galvanise people into ongoing action.

On December 27, the Palestinian BDS national committee released a statement calling on the movement internationally to “join and intensify the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel to end its impunity and to hold it accountable for its persistent violation of international law and Palestinian rights. Without sustained, effective pressure by people of conscience the world over, Israel will continue with its gradual, rolling acts of genocide against the Palestinians, burying any prospects for a just peace under the blood and rubble of Gaza, Nablus and Jerusalem.”

The BDS campaign was launched in 2005 by more than 170 Palestinian organisations. It draws on the experience of the movement against South African apartheid, which brought about the international isolation of the apartheid regime and forced Western governments to apply sanctions on South Africa. This campaign provided tremendous material and moral support to the resistance movement, contributing to the eventual downfall of apartheid. The call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions on South Africa was initiated in 1958 and gathered momentum after the 1960 massacre in Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, where apartheid police opened fire on a peaceful demonstration, killing 69 people and injuring hundreds more in two days of attacks.

In an article for the Electronic Intifada on January 22, political commentator and activist Haidar Eid, a teacher of English literature in Gaza, wrote: “Gaza 2009, like Sharpeville 1960, cannot be ignored: it demands a response from all who believe in a common humanity. Now is the time to boycott the apartheid Israeli state, to divest and to impose sanctions against it. This is the only way to ensure the creation of a secular, democratic state for all in historic Palestine.”

Just days after the bombing campaign began, the British telecommunications company FreedomCall cancelled its contract with Israel’s MobileMax with an email stating, “As a result of the Israeli government action in the last few days we will no longer be in a position to consider doing business with yourself or any other Israeli company”. The CEO of FreedomCall told the Nation magazine that the decision was purely commercial because it could not afford to lose any customers.

In Sweden on January 21, Veolia, which is building an Israeli settler-only railway line in the occupied West Bank, lost a 3.5 billion euro contract for the Stockholm subway. It has held the contract for 10 years and had been the focus of protest and media attention.

The campaign for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel has also gathered momentum, including in the US, where the campaign was launched on January 22, the campaign call receiving more than 70 endorsements within two days. The call argues that in the face of Israel’s continuing atrocities, “Israeli academic institutions and most Israeli academics have by their silence been complicit with these attacks”.

There have been student occupations across Britain, beginning at the School of Oriental and African Studies on January 14. A number of the occupations have had partial victories, universities agreeing to demands such as offering scholarships to Palestinian students and fundraising for Gaza relief.

The BDS campaign has also received support from the trade union movement. On January 14, the NZ Council of Trade Unions endorsed the BDS campaign and called for the NZ government to take action including:

• Revoking the credentials of the Israeli ambassador to New Zealand.

• Cutting contacts with Israeli military and intelligence officials outside of UN-sponsored peacekeeping or observer liaison.

• Ensuring that New Zealand does not import goods manufactured, in whole or in part, in the Occupied Territories.

• Ensuring that the New Zealand government does not make use of Israeli products or services.

• Taking steps to ensure that New Zealand-sourced goods or services are not used by Israel to further its occupation of Palestinian lands.

• Ending the working holiday scheme for young Israelis.

• Attending meetings specific to the rights of the Palestinian people, and advocate for those rights within international organisations.

In Norway, six of the largest national trade unions have endorsed a call for the withdrawal of all state investment in Israel. This includes the Union of Trade and Office Workers, the largest union in Norway, which has called on its members to campaign to have Israeli products removed from stores. On January 8, the Norwegian Locomotive Union and the Oslo Tram Workers Union coordinated a two-minute stoppage of trains across Norway and trams in the capital in protest against the invasion of Gaza.

In Australia, the WA branch of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) adopted a resolution on January 27 to participate in the BDS campaign and called on the ACTU and Unions WA to support the campaign. The resolution also called on the upcoming WA conference of the MUA to “adopt a position of boycotting of all Israeli-registered vessels, and all vessels known to be carrying either goods destined for Israel or goods sourced from Israel”.

Palestine solidarity groups around the country have begun making plans for the BDS campaign. Possible targets under discussion include Veolia (which operates transport systems under the name of Connex in Victoria, NSW and WA); Starbucks, whose CEO, Howard Schultz, is a long-time supporter of Zionist Israel; and other corporations that profit from the occupation.

The Rudd government’s steadfast support of Israel, which has been visible throughout the attack on Gaza, will also be a target of this campaign. According to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) figures, imports from Israel in the 2007-08 financial year totalled $685 million (pearls and gems, fertilisers, telecommunication equipment and refined petroleum) and exports to Israel totalled $254 million (coal, live animals, pearls and gems, flat-rolled alloy steel). DFAT notes that this figure for total exports includes $60 million of “confidential items”. According to the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce website, 15 of the top 25 companies in Australia are currently among its members or sponsors.

Educating, organising and mobilising broad support for Palestine through the BDS campaign can make dealing with Israel a liability, not only for corporations but for the government. Building a movement that can force the government to impose sanctions on Israel and break off all political, economic, cultural, academic, diplomatic and military ties is what the campaign must be politically focused on. While it will take much hard work to build a movement with the strength to achieve this goal, the campaign is not starting from scratch; it has many years of education and experience to draw upon.

It is not enough to respond to each new atrocity — and as long as the Zionist state exists, there will be atrocities. We have to build a long-term campaign that can involve all those who have had their eyes opened to Israel’s brutality by the Gaza massacre.

French novelist Victor Hugo wrote, “All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come”, and at 11:30 a.m. on December 27, 2008, when the world witnessed Israel bombing Gaza as children walked home from school, the BDS was an idea whose time had well and truly come.

Martime Union of Australia – WA branch delegate resolution

Maritime Union of Australia Western Australia branch delegates’ meeting 27/1/09

Resolutions passed regarding the Gaza war

1. This delegates’ meeting of the WA branch of the MUA [hereafter this meeting] calls on the Rudd government to denounce the latest Israeli aggression against Gaza, and to cut all economic, diplomatic, cultural and political ties with the Israeli state until this aggression and the Israeli
siege of Gaza ends.

2. This meeting gives full its organisatonal and financial support to the protest movement in Australia against the Israeli aggression. In particular the WA branch of the MUA will inform its membership of the Friends of Palestine WA rally taking place this Saturday at midday in Forrest Place and provide a speaker, preferably Secretary Chris Cain.

3. We also call on the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Unions WA to give full organisational and financial support to the protest movement in Australia against the Israeli aggression. In particular we call on Unions WA to give full organisational and financial support to the action initiated by Friends of Palestine WA which will be happening at midday in Forrest Place on Saturday January 31st.

4. We will participate fully in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign when it is initiated and support actions related thereof when they are called by either Friends of Palestine WA or other interested parties (including other trade unions). We call on the ACTU and Unions WA to join us in supporting the BDS campaign and specific actions related thereof

5. In furtherance of resolution 4, this meeting recommends State Conference adopt a position of boycotting all Israeli-registered vessels, and all vessels known to be carrying either goods destined for Israel or goods sourced from Israel.

6. We stand, as we always have, for the long union tradition of campaigning for peace, which has always been a principle of the union movement in Australia.

Australian University students support BDS campaign

A number of student unions around Australia have recently moved motions in support of the Palestinian people, condemning both the war in Gaza and calling for support for the BDS campaign against Israel.

UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 17/12/2008

University of Western Sydney’s Student Association boycott Israeli institutions The University of Western Sydney’s Student Association (UWSSA) has decided to formally affiliate to the “Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel”. The call to boycott which was sent by “Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)” was adopted in full. In Palestine, millions of people live under oppressive military regime. Among them, hundreds of thousands of university students has to endure ongoing humiliations in checkpoints and roadblocks on their way to campus. Earlier this year, Israel has even denied the right of some students from Gaza to study overseas. As long as the occupation and apartheid continues, we, students of the University of Western Sydney, stand in solidarity with the Palestinian students, and the Palestinian people as a whole, and we acknowledge the role of the academic institutions of Israel in the highly oppressive apartheid regime.

The University of Western Sydney’s Student Association will:

• Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;

• Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;

• Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by international academic institutions;

• Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;

• Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.

The full campaign statement can be found on the PACBI website: http://www.pacbi.org/campaign_statement.htm For more details, please contact:

Jacob Carswell-Doherty President 0423 159 472 jcarswell@optusnet.com.au

Guy Gillor International Student Officer 0448 605 203 guy.gillor@gmail.com

***

ROYAL MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (RMIT) STUDENT UNION Motion  2 February, 2008

The RMIT Student Union strongly condemns the Israeli government’s recent war on the Palestinian people of the Gaza strip. The RMITSU mourns the death of over 1,300 Palestinians who have fallen victim to the violence of the Israeli Defence Forces, and expresses particular outrage at the use of the chemical white phosphorous on civilian populations.

The RMITSU calls for an immediate end to the continued bombing of the Gaza Strip, and an end to the 2-year blockade of Gaza ’s borders to allow the passage of food, fuel and medical supplies.

The RMITSU offers its solidarity to those in Palestine suffering from the Israeli government’s alleged war crimes, and to all concerned students in Australia affected by the war.

The RMITSU expresses grave concern at the stance taken by the Australian Federal Government, and calls on the Prime Minister to immediately condemn the Israeli government’s atrocities in Gaza .

The RMITSU is particularly appalled at what appears to be the calculated bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza and numerous other educational institutions, many operated by the UN.

The RMITSU supports the call for an imposition of an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions issued on December 29 by the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees.

The RMIT Student Union calls on students and staff of RMIT University to engage in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israeli academic institutions, recently called by the University Teachers’ Association- Palestine, whose headquarters were bombed by the Israeli military.

The RMITSU further asserts that any legitimate ceasefire must include provision for opening the borders into Gaza, a complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces, and a complete cessation of Israeli government military aggression.

The RMIT Student Union calls for the Israeli government to lift the blockade of Gaza ’s borders and allow the passage of all food, fuel and medical supplies.

******

Swinburne Student Union Motion – January 2009

Platform

Israel’s invasion of the Gaza strip is the most violent attack on Gaza since 1967. The Swinburne Student Union opposes all racism and oppression and hence is opposed to the deaths and destruction caused by Israel’s aggression. The Swinburne Student Union, calls on Israel to immediately stop the bombing, withdraw ground forces and lift the blockade on Gaza’s borders. We show solidarity with the victims of Israel’s attack and demand the Federal Labor Government call for an immediate end to Israel’s aggression.
Policy

1. The Swinburne Student Union condemns Israel’s aggression towards the Palestinian people.
2. The Swinburne Student Union calls for Israel to stop the bombing and withdraw ground forces.
3. The Swinburne Student Union calls for Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza’s borders and allow the passage of all food, fuel and medical supplies.
4. The Swinburne Student Union offers its solidarity to those in Palestine suffering from Israel’s bombing, and to students in Australia affected by Israel’s war.
5. The Swinburne Student Union condemns the Australian Government’s support for Israel’s war and craven refusal to condemn attacks on civilians.
6. The Union condemns violence on both sides of the border to end the conflict.

Action

1. The Swinburne Student Union endorses the rally on Sunday the 18th of January at the State Library and further actions called against Israel’s war.
2. The Swinburne Student Union will produce posters to advertise this demonstration to the general student population.
3. The Swinburne Student Union encourages Office Bearers will attend the demonstration on Sunday 18^th January, carrying student union banners.

Towards an Australian BDS Campaign

by Kim Bullimore – from al-Majdal Issue No 38 (Summer 2008  )

a publication of Badil Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights based in Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine www.badil.org/al-majdal/2008/summer/articles04.htm

On March 12, the new Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd moved a motion calling on the Australian House of Representatives to “celebrate and commend the achievements of the State of Israel in the 60 years since its inception” and to reaffirm Canberra’s support for “Israel’s right to exist” and a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.¹ In moving the opposition-supported motion, Rudd made it perfectly clear that despite the 11 year conservative Howard government being swept from power, there would be no change in Australia’s policy in relation to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

For the past decade, the former Prime Minister, John Howard and his Liberal party government have been among the strongest supporters of the Zionist state of Israel. Howard had visited Israel at least three times and was often described in both the Australian and Israeli media as “a longstanding friend of Israel.”2 In June 2007, when Howard was still Prime Minister of Australia, but clearly fighting a losing battle to stay in power, the Jerusalem Post sang his praises, describing him as “Israel’s greatest champion amongst world statesmen” and praising his “courageous support for Israel.”3 The Jerusalem Post article, which was written by Isi Leibler, a former veteran leader of the Australian Jewish community who had immigrated to Israel, went on to point out that while Howard was an exceptional champion, this was “not to suggest that Howard’s predecessors were unfriendly. Since the creation of our state, Australia has been led by a succession of governments from both sides of the political spectrum that were supportive of Israel. The solitary exception was Gough Whitlam (1972-1975), whose hostility against Israel during the Yom Kippur war is regarded as a historical aberration.”

The support by successive Australian governments, including the current Rudd government, for Israel’s colonialism and dispossession comes as no surprise, especially given Australia’s own record of historical and ongoing colonialist policies and practices. Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, like the Palestinian people, have suffered under the brutal heal of invasion, dispossession and colonialism, having their land stolen and their human and civil rights systematically violated.

While Rudd won international and national acclaim in February, for moving a motion of apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were systematically and involuntarily separated from their families and the traditional lands as a result of the colonial policies of successive Federal and State governments (known in Australia as the “Stolen Generations”) and acknowledging the historical mistreatment, injustice and suffering of Indigenous Australians saying that “decency, human decency, universal human decency demands that the nation now step forward to right a historical wrong,” his government has in practice continued to implement racist and colonial policies.4

Like Palestinians, Indigenous Australians today, continue to be the victims of government sponsored racism, discrimination, restriction of movement and land control, as the draconian legislation introduced in 2007 by the Howard government reveal. This legislation saw the Federal government seize control of more than 60 Indigenous communities’ lands and resources, the invasion of police and military units into these communities and excessive restrictions or “welfare quarantining” imposed on Indigenous welfare recipients. However, far from repealing the laws, the new Rudd government is now planning to expand many of the legislative measures to other states beyond the Northern Territory where it was first introduced.

While Rudd’s motion of apology to the Stolen Generations has succeeded in somewhat disguising the fact that his government continues to uphold and implement racist and discriminatory policies, his government’s motion in support of the Israeli state’s 60th birthday could not have revealed more starkly the Rudd government’s lack of “decency, human decency, universal decency” and its refusal to help “right historical wrongs.” Instead, in moving the motion in support of the Israeli state, ignoring completely the plight of the Palestinian people and the human rights abuses they are suffering at the hands of the Zionist state, the Rudd government confirmed that in reality it is little different from the ousted conservative Howard government.

In response to Rudd’s motion in support of Israel, supporters of Palestinian rights mobilised around the country to demonstrate that many Australians opposed his government’s uncritical support for Israel. In addition to organizing a variety of actions around the country, Palestine solidarity activists also took out a half page advertisement in the country’s only national newspaper, The Australian. The advertisement text stated that “we, as informed and concerned Australians, choose to disassociate ourselves from a celebration of the triumph of racism and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948.” It went on to say: “Australia and Australians should not give the Israeli people the impression that Australia supports them in their dispossession of the Palestinian people” and that “rather than celebrate the creation of the State of Israel, we should be recognizing the people of Palestine, those who were dispossessed, those who lived and died as refugees, those who continue to live and die at the hands of the State of Israel, and those who will continue to suffer and die in the future until justice is done.”5

The “Improper motion” campaign, as it became known, was led by Melbourne based solidarity groups, Australians for Palestine, Women for Palestine and the Adelaide based Australian Friends of Palestine Association. In less than a week, the advertisement garnered more than 400 individual signatories, plus support from 37 civil society organizations, including a number of Australian unions. Several dozen more individual signatories were not included in the advertisement as they came in after the advertisement went to print. The campaign was a success not only because it succeeded in involving those not normally involved in activism for Palestine but also because it stirred up considerable media debate and coverage.

The other success of the improper motion campaign was that it demonstrated once again the willingness of solidarity groups and activists around Australia to work together in support of Palestine. Australia, while having only a small population of 21 million people, is a geographically massive country. Our population is located primarily along the eastern seaboard but we also have sparse population centers distributed along the southern and western seaboards. As a result, Palestine solidarity groups are separated by vast geographical distances. However, modern communication technology has enabled us to keep in touch with each other and work together on a range of collaborative projects.

In general, the various Palestine solidarity groups around Australia have campaigned around the key demands put forward by the Palestinian people themselves: an end to the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the right of return for Palestinian refugees, as well as campaigning in support of the Palestinian citizens of Israel who struggle to retain what is left of their land within the Zionist state and for equal economic, social and political rights. Over the years, while keeping these demands at the forefront of their campaigning, Australian Palestine solidarity groups have also campaigned around the partial demands of dismantling the apartheid wall and for the end of the siege of Gaza and sought to bring a halt to unconditional Australian support for Israel’s policies of colonialism, apartheid and population transfer.

Despite these campaigns and the willingness of Palestine solidarity activists to work together, there has not in recent years, been a single tactical campaign that has united all the Palestine solidarity groups. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, however, has the potential to provide this. While the campaign has begun to gain momentum in countries such as Canada, the UK, Ireland and South Africa, it has not yet been able to gain any significant hold in Australia. The primary reason for this is not necessarily a lack of interest in the campaign, but as of yet a lack of concentrated focus on the campaign in order to get it off the ground.

Like in many Western countries already engaged in the BDS campaign, an Australian campaign should also focus around the various planks of the campaign: (1) a boycott campaign focused around consumer academic and cultural normalization; (2) a divestment campaign to encourage Australian businesses and shareholders to divest from Israel as well as to ensure that Israeli companies are not welcome in Australia; and (3) a campaign which seeks to pressure the Australian government to implement sanctions against the Israeli state rather then continuing its commercial, military and diplomatic relationship with it as long as Israel continues to violate international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people.

Over the last decade, there has been a significant increase in trade relations and military ties between Australia and Israel. In 2003, Australian merchandise exports to Israel, which included coal, live animals, aluminium, machinery components, were worth around US$198 million whilst imports from Israel, including telecommunications equipment, fertilisers, agricultural technology and pearls and gems, are valued at around US$463 million. According to the Australian Trade Commission, in 2006-2007, the annual bilateral trade between Australia and Israel totalled around A$750 million, with a trade deficit favouring Israel. The major Israeli exports to Australia included IT/telecommunication equipment, metals, plastics and medical/optical equipment, as well as precious stones.6

The Israel Trade Commission (ITC) website notes that there are currently 58 Israeli companies with local offices in Australia. These include companies such as Soda Club, based in Ma’ale Addumim, the largest of Israel’s illegal Jerusalem settlements, as well as Israel’s largest financial institution, Bank Hapoalim, and other financial institutes such as Bank Leumi.7

The ITC also notes that currently leading food and retail chains in Australia, such as Coles, Woolworths and Franklins are also stocking a range of Israeli food and wine products, including those produced in the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank. In 2007, Australian retail giant Big W, with its over 200 stores around the country, signed a 3 year contract with Beigel and Beigel, an Israeli sweets and pretzel distributor based in the illegal Israeli industrial settlement of Barkan in the Salfit governorate of the occupied West Bank. Currently, Beigel and Beigel is the second largest supplier of pretzels to Australia, holding 20% of the market, with the pretzels being marketed by the Australian company Trialia Foods.8

On the export side of the equation, the Israeli company, Guild Enterprise Ltd (whose Australian HQ is based in Queensland) has become the primary exporter of Australian products to Israel, such as Sanitarium health foods and Arnott’s biscuits, including Tim Tams. According to the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) website, “many young Israelis come to Australia after their national service to study or relax, and they have come to develop a taste for the Tim Tam and spread the word back in Israel and in the Palestinian Territories.”9

Subsidiaries of international companies which invest heavily in Israeli companies and occupation infrastructure, are also operating in Australia. For example, Connex, which is the name used by the French based Veolia Environment for their transport operations in Australia, in 2002 won the tender, along with Alstrom, to build the light rail which will service many of the illegal Israeli settlements surrounding East Jerusalem. The system will also operate feeder stations for settler traffic from Ma’ale Adumin to the Jordan Valley. As the Stop the Wall campaign notes “the light rail project plays a key role in sustaining the settlements and ensuring they become a permanent fixture upon Palestinian land.”10

In Australia, Connex operates the entire Melbourne suburban train work and also runs Sydney’s light rail/monorail system under contract from Metro Transport and has a large bus network which it runs in Sydney’s southern suburbs. In Perth, Connex also operates the Southern Coast Transit bus line, while in Brisbane it runs buses using the former National Bus Company’s fleet. While Palestine solidarity activists in Melbourne have previously run an awareness-raising campaign around the role of Connex in sustaining the Israeli occupation, the campaign has not been a comprehensive or systematic one.

The bilateral commercial relations between Australia and Israel are set to increase in 2008. According to a September 2007 report in the The Australian, an expected Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Australia and Israel will likely result in a “surge in Israeli hi-tech investment and the transfer of world-leading military technology.”11 According to the newspaper, Australian imports of classified defence technology were valued at around A$14 million in 2006, but with the FTA set to be signed in 2008, this will increase with a “closer defence relation between the two countries involving high-end robotic technology, smart missiles and unmanned aerial drones – military areas in which Israel is a world leader.” The bilateral defence agreement between the Australian and Israeli government will also involve “training exchanges involving Australian defence personnel and its Israeli counterpart.”

In addition to the boycott of Israeli consumer goods and divestment from Israeli companies and attempts to break trade and military ties with Israel and place sanctions on the Zionist state for its apartheid policies, we will also need to work towards developing the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. This academic and cultural boycott, which has been gaining international momentum over the last two years, also has the potential to flourish in Australia. The key component in the development of this campaign is gaining the support of progressive unions around Australia. Involving progressive Australian unions, however, will take time and well-planned work. It will require us to systematically approach the various unions and to patiently explain the situation in Palestine, not only in terms of the impact that Israel’s apartheid and occupation policies have on Palestinian workers and their families, but the impact that these policies have on the human and civil rights of all the Palestinian people.

In Australia, as the campaign will be starting almost from scratch, we will need to present the labor movement with not only relevant facts and information, but we will need to pace ourselves. As the campaign will be in its infancy, the first step for Palestine solidarity activists will be simply to get unions to begin to consider discussing this issue and campaign inside their unions. While we do not want to rush the campaign, we should however not be shy in highlighting the brutality of the Israeli occupation and the human suffering of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the systematic racist and apartheid nature of Israeli policies on both sides of Green Line and the illegal denial of refugee return.

A final plank of the BDS campaign will also be to gain the support of Indigenous Australians for the struggle of a fellow indigenous people. In Australia, in the past, there has been collaboration at a range of levels between Aboriginals and Indigenous Rights campaigners and Palestinians and Palestine solidarity activists. This, however, has not been consistent or widespread. An important part of the Palestine solidarity campaign over the next years in Australia should be to foster and develop this joint solidarity. Developing the indigenous relationship between both our peoples will be an important advance for both Palestinians and Indigenous Australians in our joint struggle against dispossession and ongoing colonialism of our lands.

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*Kim Bullimore is an Indigenous Australian who is active in supporting the Palestinian national struggle, both in Australia and Palestine. She is currently a human rights volunteer with the International Women’s Peace Service in the Occupied West Bank, www.iwps.info. Kim has a blog www.livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com and writes regularly on Palestinian-Israeli issues.

Endnotes

1. Australian Jewish News, 12 March, 2008 http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=5102

2. Goldberg, D., 25 September, 2007, YNet, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3307969,00.html

3. Leibler, I., 6 June 2007, The Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1180960626413&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

4. Full Text of Kevin Rudd’s “Sorry” address, 13 February, 2008, The Age http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pms-sorry-address/2008/02/12/1202760291188.html

5. Improper Motion campaign http://1948.com.au/2008events/national/improper-motion.html

6. Harcourt, T., (2004) Tim Tams to Tel Aviv: the Australian –Israel trade relationship, Australian Trade Commission http://www.austrade.gov.au/Tim-Tams-to-Tel-Aviv-the-Australian-Israel-trade-relationship/default.aspx

7. Israeli Trade Commission, Australia http://www.israeltrade.org.au

8. Israeli Trade Commission http://israeltrade.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/05307E0E-4F04-46A3-B3F2-6514928C2A3D/0/CommercialNewsfromIsraelMay07.doc

9. Harcourt, T.

10. Connex and Alstrom Fact Sheet http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/ConexEN.pdf

11. Dodd, M., September 26, 2007. The Australian, Israeli deal to boost defence

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22483470-15084,00.html

60 Years of Nakba, 41 Years of Occupation …

High Time for BDS

By OMAR BARGHOUTI

http://www.counterpunch.org/barghouti06052008.html

“The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet but not to make them die of hunger,” said Dov Weisglass, Sharon’s closest advisor, a few years ago. Today, Israel is slowly choking occupied Gaza, indeed bringing its civilian population to the brink of starvation and a planned humanitarian catastrophe.

If the US government is an obvious accomplice in financing, justifying and covering up Israel’s occupation and other forms of oppression, the European Union, Israel’s largest trade partner in the world, is not any less complicit in perpetuating Israel’s colonial oppression and special form of apartheid. At a time when Israel is cruelly besieging Gaza, collectively punishing 1.5 million Palestinian civilians, condemning them to devastation, and visiting imminent death upon hundreds of patients, prematurely born babies, and others, the EU is extending an invitation to Israel to open negotiations to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), instead of ending the EU-Israel association agreement due to Israel’s grave violation of its human rights clause. The US and European governments are not only providing Israel with massive economic aid and open markets, they are supplying it with weapons, diplomatic immunity and unlimited political support, and upgrading their relations with it specifically at a time when it is committing acts of genocide.

By frequently freezing fuel and electric power supplies to Gaza  for long periods, Israel, the occupying power, is essentially guaranteeing that “clean” water is not being pumped out and properly distributed to homes and institutions; hospitals are no longer able to function adequately, leading to the death of many, particularly the most vulnerable – already more than 180 patients, mainly children and senior citizens have died in Gaza as a direct result of the latest siege; whatever factories that are still working despite the blockade will soon be forced to close, pushing the already extremely high unemployment rate even higher; sewage treatment is grinding to a halt, further polluting Gaza’s precious little water supply; academic institutions and schools are largely unable to provide their usual services; and lives of all civilians is severely disrupted, if not irreversibly damaged.
In short, Israel is condemning a whole future generation of Palestinians in Gaza to chronic disease, abject poverty and long-lasting developmental limitations. UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, international law expert Prof. Richard Falk, considered Israel’s siege a “prelude to genocide,” even before this latest crime of altogether cutting off energy supplies. Now, Israel’s crimes in Gaza can accurately be categorized as acts of genocide, albeit slow.

In parallel, Israel is slowly transforming the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, into unlivable reservations that make the term Bantustan sound desirable, in comparison. Israel is systematically causing the slow disintegration of Palestinian society under occupation through its colonial Wall, its policy of fragmentation and ghettoization, its denial of the most basic Palestinian rights, and its obstruction of human development. Israel is slowly, steadily and systematically turning the lives of average Palestinian farmers, workers, students, academics, artists and professionals into a living hell, designed to force them to leave. The fundamental objective of the mainstream of political Zionism, to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its indigenous population to make room for Jewish settlers and them alone, has undergone only one significant change in more than a hundred years since the beginning of the Zionist settler-colonial conquest: it has simply grown slower.

Ever since the Nakba, the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians from their homeland and the ruin of Palestinian society, many “peace plans” have been put forth to resolve the “conflict.”  Virtually all these plans have had one factor in common: they have sought to impose a settlement based on “facts on the ground,” or the existing vast asymmetry in power that leave one side — the Palestinians — humiliated, excluded and unequal. They have been unjust; hence they have failed.

The path to justice and peace must take into account the particularities of Israel’s colonial reality. At its core, Israel’s oppression of the people of Palestine encompasses three major dimensions: denial of Palestinian refugee rights, including their right to return to their homes; military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), with massive colonization of the latter; and a system of racial discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel, partially resembling South African apartheid. A just peace would have to ethically and practically redress all three injustices as a minimal requirement of relative justice.

The latest political developments in Israel — particularly the last parliamentary elections, which brought to power a government with openly fascist tendencies and led to the criminal war on Lebanon and, most recently, the slow genocide against Gaza — have unequivocally exposed that an overwhelming majority in Israel stands fervently behind the state’s racist and colonial policies and its persistent breach of international law. A solid majority, for instance, supports the daily war crimes committed by the army in Gaza, including cutting off energy supplies; the illegal apartheid Wall; the extra-judicial executions of Palestinian activists; the denial of Palestinian refugee rights; the preservation of the apartheid system against the indigenous Palestinian citizens of Israel; and the control over large parts of the occupied West Bank, particularly around Jerusalem, as well as Palestinian water aquifers. If this is the peace that most Israelis want, it clearly falls short of the minimal requirements of international law and fundamental human rights.

As a result of the failure of the international community in holding Israel to account, many people of conscience around the world started considering Palestinian civil society’s call for nonviolent resistance against Israel until it ends its three-tiered oppression of the Palestinian people. From the prominent Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, to the Jewish minister in the South African government, Ronnie Kasrils, to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an increasing number of influential international figures have drawn parallels between Israeli apartheid and its South African predecessor and, consequently, have advocated a South African-style treatment.

It is quite significant that former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and the former U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Prof. John Dugard, while not endorsing boycott yet, have both accused Israel of practicing apartheid against the Palestinians. Given the time-honored U.N. resolutions designed to counter the crimes of apartheid, Dugard’s position should not be taken lightly. It may well be the first step — in a very long march — towards engaging the U.N. in identifying Israel as an apartheid state and adopting appropriate sanctions as a result.

As far back as 2001, in Durban, South Africa, despite the official West’s unwillingness to hold Israel to account, the NGO Forum of the U.N. World Conference Against Racism widely adopted the view that Israel’s special form of apartheid must be met with the same tools that brought down its South African predecessor. Many hope that “Durban 2” will build on this momentous achievement.

Soon after Durban, campaigns calling for divestment from companies supporting Israel’s occupation spread across American campuses. Across the Atlantic, particularly in the United Kingdom, calls for various forms of boycott against Israel started to be heard among intellectuals and trade unionists. These efforts intensified with the massive Israeli military reoccupation of Palestinian cities in the spring of 2002, with all the destruction and casualties it left behind, particularly in the atrocities against the Jenin refugee camp.

In 2005, a year after the ICJ’s ruling against Israel’s colonies and apartheid Wall, Palestinian civil society issued its call for boycott, divestment and sanctions, or BDS. More than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations and unions, including the main political parties, endorsed this call to make Israel comply with international law. Twelve years after the dismal failure of the so-called “peace process” that was launched in 1993, Palestinian civil society started to reclaim the initiative, articulating Palestinian demands as part of the international struggle for justice long obscured by deceptive and entirely visionless “negotiations.” In a noteworthy precedent, the BDS call was issued by representatives of the three segments of the Palestinian people — the refugees, the Palestinian citizens of Israel and those under occupation. It also directly addressed conscientious Jewish-Israelis, inviting them to support its demands.

For more than a century, civil resistance has always been an authentic component of the Palestinian struggle against Zionism. Throughout modern Palestinian history, resistance to Zionist settler-colonialism mostly took nonviolent forms: mass demonstrations; grassroots mobilizations; labor strikes; boycotts of Zionist projects; and the often-ignored cultural resistance, in poetry, literature, music, theater and dance. The first Palestinian intifada (1987-1993) was a uniquely rich laboratory of civil resistance, whereby activists organized at the neighborhood level, promoting self-reliance and boycott, to various degrees, of Israeli goods as well as of the military authorities. In Beit Sahour, for instance, a famed tax revolt presented the Israeli occupation with one of its toughest challenges during the period. BDS must therefore be seen as rooted in a genuinely Palestinian culture of civil struggle, while its main inspiration today comes from the South African anti-apartheid struggle. It is this rich heritage that inspires the current pioneering grassroots resistance in Bil’in against the Wall.

In the last few years, many mainstream groups and institutions around the world have heeded Palestinian boycott calls and started to consider or actually apply diverse forms of effective pressure on Israel. These include the two largest British trade unions, UNISON and the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU); the British University and College Union (UCU), which recently reaffirmed its pro-boycott stance; Aosdana, the Irish state-sponsored academy of artists; the Church of England; the Presbyterian Church USA; top British architects; the National Union of Journalists in the UK; the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU); the World Council of Churches; the South African Council of Churches; the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Ontario and, more recently, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers as well as ASSE, the largest student association in Quebec; and dozens of celebrated authors, artists and intellectuals led by John Berger, among many others. Many European academics and cultural figures are shunning events held in Israel, practicing a “silent boycott.” Most recently, Jean-Luc Godard, the iconic filmmaker, cancelled his planned participation in a film festival in Tel Aviv after Palestinians had appealed to him. Before him, Bjork, Bono, the remaining Beatles, the Rolling Stones, among others, all opted not to perform in Israel, effectively boycotting the “Israel at 60” celebrations.

In November 2007, hundreds of Palestinian boycott activists, trade unionists, representatives of all major political parties, women’s unions, farmers’ associations, student groups and almost every sector of Palestinian civil society convened at the first BDS conference in the occupied Palestinian territory. A direct result of this effort was the recent establishment of the BDS National Committee, or BNC, to raise awareness about the boycott and lead its local manifestations as well as act as a unified reference for international BDS campaigns.

For cynics who still consider the above too little progress for the given timeframe, I can only reiterate what a South African comrade once told us. “The ANC issued its academic boycott call in the 1950s; the international community started to heed it almost three decades later! So you guys are doing much better than us.”

Today, in the face of intensifying Israeli war crimes, impunity, and total disregard of international law, international civil society is called upon to initiate or support whatever BDS campaigns that are deemed appropriate in every particular context and specific political circumstances to support Palestinian civil resistance. This is the most effective, the most morally and politically sound, form of solidarity with the Palestinians. In these exceptional circumstances of slow genocide, exceptional, ethically coherent measures are called for. This is the most reliable path to freedom, justice, equality and peace in Palestine and the entire region.

Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian political and cultural analyst and a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). He presented this paper at the Bil’in Third International Conference on Grassroots Resistance, on 4 June 2008.

Hello world!

Welcome to the Australian BDS Campaign for Palestine blogsite.

This site will attempt to keep you update with news about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)  campaign against Israel in Australia.

What is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign?

The BDS campaign call was issued in 2005 by more than 170 Palestinian organisations, including political parties, unions, associations, coalitions and other civil organisations representing the Palestinian people in the 1967 and 1948 territories and the diaspora. Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid, the BDS campaign is conducted in the frame work of international solidarity and resistance to injustice, occupation and oppression. The campaign calls upon international civil society organisations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era, while also calling for pressure to be place on governments to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel until it meets its obligations to recognised the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self determine and Israel fully complies with international law by:

1. End its occupation and colonisation of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall:

2. Recognising the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and

3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

For more information on the Global BDS campaign, please visit: http://www.bdsmovement.net/

For more information on the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel campaign, please visit: http://www.pacbi.org/