vjp-global

3-10-2018 WA Court Dismisses Seven-Year Lawsuit Over Boycott of Israeli Goods – If Americans Knew   https://israelpalestinenews.org/wa-court-dismisses-seven-year-lawsuit-boycott-israeli-goods/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=de932b3f-16ac-4dc8-9ea1-167becfe8052   Today, a Washington State court ended a seven-year litigation battle against former volunteer board members of the Olympia Food Co-op over their decision to boycott Israeli goods. The lawsuit was first filed in 2011 by five co-op members seeking to block the co-op's boycott and to collect monetary damages against the board members. Two of the five members pulled out of the case, and none of the defendants originally named in the case remains a board member of the co-op. The court granted the motion for summary judgment from the former board members, who were represented by Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and co-counsel, finding the plaintiffs had no standing to bring a case because they fai...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/opinion/gaza-stay-israel-life.html   …I teach political science at Al-Azhar University. Even the brightest [of my students] wind up jobless, or at least careerless, scratching a living from dirt….It's [my daughter] Jaffa's hope that makes me stay in Gaza. It belongs here, this hope, not elsewhere. It belongs to Palestine.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/who-profits-from-keeping-gaza-on-the-brink-of-humanitarian-catastrophe/133549/ ...Keeping Gaza on the verge of collapse keeps international humanitarian aid money flowing exactly to where it benefits Israeli interests. ...Despite the ever-deepening national hatred for the Palestinians, the Israeli government has clearly acted to prevent this kind of scenario, allowing emergency deliveries of medicine and desalination machines (internationally funded) to prevent mass death in Gaza... Despite numerous protests from the Palestinian side, the Paris Agreements signed in 1994 continue to constitute ...Israeli security regulations require aid organizations to use Israeli transportation companies and vehicles, since Palestinian companies are not allowed to enter Israel to pick up goods from airports or sea-ports. Even more significant is the fact that the Palestinians do not have their own currency or central bank: financial assistance must be given in New Is...

https://forward.com/scribe/395245/the-israeli-settlement-movement-is-failing/ …Contrary to [settlement movement leader] Yaakov Katz's] assertions, the real data show that the settlement enterprise has failed to achieve its central aim of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state by creating irreversible physical facts on the ground...Contrary to Katz's claims, the data shows [sic] that his movement has not created the demographic or physical conditions necessary to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. It remains feasible to create an Israeli-Palestinian border, with minimal land swaps, that will allow the vast majority of both Palestinians and Israelis living beyond the Green Line to remain in place.   The obstacle to a peaceful two-state outcome is not Yaakov Katz, or the numbers. It's the continued failure of leadership and vision by the current Israeli government. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/seeds-of-resistance-the-woman-fighting-occupation-through-agriculture/133677/ Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, talks to +972 Magazine about Palestinian agricultural heritage, the occupation in global context, and the movement to preserve local farming techniques and biodiversity… ."Farmers who can produce their own food and make their own seeds represent a threat to any hegemonic power that wants to control a population. If we are autonomous, we really have a lot more space to revel, to create our own systems, to be more subversive."… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-opposes-federal-bill-aimed-boycotts-israel-free-speech-violation   The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the Senate today opposing a revised version of a bill that would criminalize supporting certain boycotts of companies doing business in Israel and its settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The ACLU had voiced objections to the original bill last July on First Amendment grounds. Last weekend, Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) released a revised version . "This bill is unconstitutional because it seeks to impose the government's political views on Americans who choose to express themselves through boycotts," said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. "The proposed changes are improvements, but the revised bill continues to penalize participants in political boycotts in violation of the First Amendment. .. Posted by Judith Ferster, ...

https://israelpalestinenews.org/former-president-modern-language-association-resigns-following-decision-ban-debate-bds/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a50d11e1-4a0d-49a0-8654-80e06c47b31c …By passing  Resolution 2017-1 , which closed the door in a constitutionally unprecedented way on future debate about the Palestinian call for boycott of Israeli academic institutions, the Association has sent a message to the world that it wants protests about the conditions of teaching and learning in Palestinian universities off the table. Because the resolution misrepresents the MLA's purpose in its opening clause, leaving out the Association's long-standing efforts to advocate for humanities educators' rights; and because the resolution prohibits future discussion of an issue of public concern, eleven past presidents with different views on boycott asked the Council not to treat the resolution as business as usual at its meeting last February. The decision to do just th...

https://israelpalestinenews.org/study-least-78-humanitarian-aid-intended-palestinians-ends-israeli-coffers/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a50d11e1-4a0d-49a0-8654-80e06c47b31c   Israel has been outsmarting the West, says Israeli economist Shir Hever, making a profit on the occupation instead of paying its bills. Hever's study indicates that the international community in its generosity has so incentivized the occupation, that Israelis – not Palestinians – have become "the most aid-dependent people in the world."  … What the international community has done over the past 20 years of the Oslo process – inadvertently or otherwise – is offer Israel financial incentives to stabilise and entrench its rule over the Palestinians. It can do so relatively cost-free… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member