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Tag: BDS

BDS Activists Plan Black Friday Protests Against HP’s Support For Israeli Apartheid

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Though best known for their computers and computer peripherals like printers, companies under the Hewlett-Packard umbrella are engaged in another profitable, and far more nefarious business: enabling apartheid Israel to track the movement of occupied Palestinians.

Activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement are calling for a week of action against HP beginning on Black Friday, the high-volume shopping day that occurs after Thanksgiving. Organized by the HP Boycott Campaign and the Palestinian BDS National Committee, a coalition of Palestinian civil society groups, 99 actions were scheduled in 18 countries around the world, including the United States, as of Monday afternoon.

The Israeli military operates checkpoints throughout the occupied West Bank. In order to pass through them, Palestinians must submit to facial and and hand recognition scanners. This biometric identification system, called the “Basel System,” is maintained by HP Enterprise Services, a company previously known as EDS Israel.

“The biometric data of nearly every Palestinian over the age of 16 is held by the Israeli authorities as part of Israel’s system of control and repression,” the Palestine Solidarity Campaign noted in an Aug. 13, 2014 post.

WikiLeaks’ Podesta Emails Reveal Hillary Clinton’s Anti-BDS Strategy

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

Contained within some of WikiLeaks’ latest dumps of John Podesta’s emails are details on Hillary Clinton’s efforts to oppose the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement amid mounting U.S. opposition to Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

Clinton is well known for her opposition to the BDS movement, which seeks to put financial pressure on Israel to end its apartheid policies toward the indigenous Palestinian population. WikiLeaks’ growing archive of emails taken from the Gmail account of Clinton’s campaign chairman show the candidate carrying out a difficult balancing act in order to placate both her pro-Israeli backers and liberal Americans.

“I was talking to HRC today about the idea of having her meet with some Jewish leaders later this week about BDS/delegitimization efforts,” wrote Jake Sullivan, the top foreign policy advisor to the Clinton campaign, in a June 21, 2015 email sent to Stuart Eizenstat, a former U.S. diplomat and a lawyer at the powerful Washington-based law firm Covington & Burling.

Boycott, But Then What? CodePink Wants You To Build A New, Local Peace Economy

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Boycotts are a powerful tool in the arsenals of those seeking justice and a better world.

And while financial divestment from corporations can successfully pressure them to change their most harmful practices, divestment represents just the beginning of the long, difficult work of building a new, alternate economy that puts people and sustainability first.

“What we’re trying to do is encourage people to be more aware of and reflect on how we’re all invested in a war-like, violent, capitalist economy,” Mendoza Castillo, director of Economic Activism at CodePink, told MintPress News in an interview about her Local Peace Economy initiative.

Evangelical Lutheran Church In America Becomes 9th Denomination To Divest From Israel

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

On Saturday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America became the ninth Christian denomination in the United States to vote for divestment from Israel.

The resolution, which the ECLA calls a “memorial,” requires the church to end its current investments in companies that support Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and to rigorously screen all future investments as well.

It’s another major victory for the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement, now over a decade old, which faces growing opposition even as it makes further inroads into American society.

Black Lives Matter Coalition Demands US Divestment From Israel

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Controversy is swelling over a policy platform published by a coalition of Black Lives Matter activists that includes calls for the United States to economically divest from Israel.

“The US justifies and advances the global war on terror via its alliance with Israel and is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people,” The Movement for Black Lives noted in its policy platform. Published last week, the document was co-signed by over 50 black civil rights organizations.

Among other demands, the coalition is calling for the U.S. to redirect investments in policing, prisons, and the military-industrial complex — including the over $3.1 billion offered in foreign aid to Israel annually — into services that benefit black people and other oppressed Americans, such as health care, education, and treatment for mental illness.

Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Movement Urges Carlos Santana To Cancel Tel Aviv Concert

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Opponents of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine are urging superstar guitarist Carlos Santana to support their boycott of Israel’s apartheid policies.

Santana’s Luminosity Tour is scheduled to stop in Tel Aviv’s HaYarkon Park on July 30, but activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement are hoping he’ll change his mind at the behest of his peace-loving fans.

If he follows through with his plans, it would be Santana’s first performance in Israel in 29 years.

The Mexican-American musician canceled a 2010 appearance, although reports diverge over whether the cancellation was due to scheduling difficulties or pressure from pro-Palestine activists.