Eye on Palestine – June 11, 2015
The YMCA-YWCA Joint Advocacy Initiative issues this bi-weekly newsletter to keep you updated on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories related to the Israeli occupation.
In June, three more U.S. churches to consider ending financial support for Israeli occupation Activism
Faith in the peace process is at an all-time low after the re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the extremism of his new government. With even President Obama admitting that the door on negotiations is all but closed, Christian activists are opening new windows to expose Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.
“Understanding Netanyahu’s intent and policy is not guess work at all, it is consistent with the historical record for any who bother to look,” said Rev. Dr. Jeffrey DeYoe, moderator of the Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). “Talk of a two-state solution, even with Netanyahu resurrecting that language after being elected, is a cynical delaying tactic.”
“Netanyahu is going to cost us Palestinians a tremendous amount of suffering, and more atrocities and policies of oppression,” said Bisan Mitri of the West Bank town of Beit Sahour. “But this also means that the mask has been dropped.” Mitri is one of 3,000 Palestinian Christians, including the heads of 13 churches, who signed the Kairos Palestine document calling for: “boycott and disinvestment as tools of nonviolence for justice, peace and security for all.” Read more.
Israel works to limit effects of BDS
Israeli government officials and representatives of the European Union have held meeting over the past few days to prevent the labelling of products made in the settlements, local radio revealed on Tuesday.
The station quoted anonymous Israeli officials as saying that these meetings come within a campaign launched by Israel to counter and “limit the consequences of the boycott”, including the economic boycott led by the BDS movement.
Since the start of 2014, the European Union officially started to boycott Israeli settlements in all fields, including commercial, academic and investment perspectives, while customs services in the European Union began to mark products from settlements to make them visible to European consumers. Read more.
Magazine: Meet Israel’s boycotters
Israeli members of the BDS movement and pro-Palestinian activists explain why the world should stop supporting Israel.
I am a conscientious objector to military service in the Israeli army, an activist with the Israeli group Anarchists Against the Wall and a member of Boycott from Within, an Israeli group that is part of the global, Palestinian-led BDS movement.
This is something I take on because it is the moral thing to do, it’s the basic thing to do if you’re Jewish. I am here as a privileged Israeli Jew and the state gives me extra privileges as it takes away rights from non-Jewish people.
So, as a human being I must boycott, but as an Israeli Jew I have an extra responsibility because it is this system that gives me extra privileges. So I have to fight against this. Read more.