Thread: The Boycott Israel Movement scores again

Adam Horowitz at Mondoweiss notes that Ha'aretz has reported that the big French firm Veolia has pulled out of the Jerusalem light rail project directly as a result of the BDS Movement:

Ha'aretz is reporting that French company Veolia is pulling out of a controversial project to build a light rail system in Jerusalem. The rail is planned to connect West Jerusalem to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, making life in the settlements more viable and sustainable.

[...]

This is a important victory showing that nonviolent grassroots action can help challenge and impede the infrastructure of occupation. The movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel will continue to grow until Israeli expansionism ends and Palestinian rights are honored.


Mondoweiss: Landmark BDS victory: Veolia pulls out of Jerusalem light rail project

And:

In November 2006, ASN, a Dutch bank, broke off financial relations with Veolia on account of the light rail contract. Veolia also runs Luas, Dublin's light rail system, but has been forced by Trade Union pressure in Ireland to cancel a proposed deal to train drivers and engineers for the Jerusalem light rail. In 2007 AFPS, a French NGO, and the PLO, started court cases in France against Veolia Transport and Alstom, another CityPass partner, to get their contract for the tramway invalidated on the grounds that its aim breached the French Civil Code as being in contradiction with public order and good morals

The Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign - Veolia

Another interesting factor is the number of important contracts that Veolia had to lose to finally make the only sensible business decision:

Recently, Diakonia in Sweden organized protests calling on the Stockholm Community Council to exclude Veolia from bidding for the subway contract. The council received thousands of signatories from people demanding that the council choose an operator that was not associated with violations of international humanitarian law. On 20 January, the council announced that Veolia, after operating the subway for the past 10 years, had lost the contract to Hong Kong-based rail operator MTR. When Veolia was not re-awarded the contract to run bus services outside Stockholm in 2007, Veolia Transport Manager Joachim Ytterstene stated that "We are very sad to hear this. We worked hard on this offer during the whole year and it feels really heavy to receive this decision." If the loss of a contract to run a bus service with about 650 employees and 180 buses is painful, then it is obvious how painful the loss of the biggest European public contract procurement process will be. The recent bidding experience in Stockholm should help to get the message across that Veolia should withdraw from the Israeli tramway project.

ei: Time to hold Veolia to account

And:

The US protests are part of a growing global movement that has taken international law into its own hands because governments have not. [...]

The light rail project was cited by the Swedish national pension fund in its decision to exclude Alstom from its $15 billion portfolio, and by the Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in its decision not to consider further Veolia's bid for a $1.9 billion waste improvement plan. There were active grassroots campaigns in both areas.

Other hits: Veolia lost the contract to operate the city of Stockholm subway and an urban network in Bordeaux. Although these were reportedly “business decisions” there were also activist campaigns in both places. The Galway city council in Ireland decided to follow Stockholm’s example. Meanwhile, Connex, the company that is supposed to operate the light rail, is being targeted by activists in Australia.

The “Derail Veolia” campaign has been the movement’s biggest success to date. Veolia and its subsidiaries are estimated to have lost as much as $7.5 billion.

Middle East Online

Or alternately, until the Obama administration presents them with some brass tacks.

This has more chance of influencing the normally recalcitrant and pig headed folks surrounding Benny N. at the moment, eh.

This is from the Jersalem Post. I don't agree with the statement on Carter. And the rest of the article discusses Hamas and other Muslim groups.

My point, as it relates to this thread, is that Israel is not getting an American free pass, 100% anymore. There is more awareness and discussion.

And Obama is not kissing the feet of AIPAC as much as the former Presidents. Obama is still soft with AIPAC and Israel, handing out $3 billion per year ($2 Billion for arms) and $1 Billion to spend on whatever.

But yes, people are finally waking up to the Jewish Zionist, as even some of the Xtian support via Xtian Zionism is slipping.

EVEN EVANGELICAL SUPPORT is eroding. A vocal minority remain effusive on Israel's behalf. But the broader community is not monolithic. Many of its members are hungry for change, not unlike the political appetite that won Barack Hussein Obama the presidency.

Among evangelicals the religious equivalent is a movement led by people like Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian; Stephen Sizer, a pastor who has gained popularity by condemning "Christian Zionism"; and, of course, Jimmy Carter, who accuses Israel of committing a "holocaust." How widespread is the erosion of evangelical support for Israel? Google this: "Letter to President Bush from Evangelical Leaders." Look at those who signed it - and the organizations they represent. Their claim to "represent large numbers of evangelicals" is true.

The writer is director of radio broadcasting for Israel World TV.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...icle%2FPrinter

Originally Posted by Milkman

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...icle%2FPrinter

Correct link:

Israel is losing the PR war so badly that even evangelical support is eroding | Jerusalem Post

"Connex, the company that is supposed to operate the light rail, is being targeted by activists in Australia."

Well, that has now turned into another victory:

"Connex is the private contractor for suburban rail services in Melbourne Australia. It has just failed to have it's contract renewed as a result of a strong BDS campaign."

Australian - Connex Dumped | Global BDS Movement

And another boycott, this time in Belgium:

The Belgian-French financial group Dexia has announced it will no longer finance Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories through its Israeli branch, Dexia Israel. This is the result of a months-long campaign in Belgium, supported by non-governmental organizations, political parties, local authorities, trade unions and other organizations. Dexia's management has stated that financing Israeli settlements is indeed against the bank's code of ethics and thusly, it will stop giving loans for this activity.

In 2001 Dexia Group bought the Israeli bank Otzar Hashilton Hamekomi and renamed the bank Dexia Public Finance Israel. Just like other Dexia subsidiaries, Dexia Israel is specialized in financing municipalities and other local authorities.

It wasn't until October 2008 that a few Belgian solidarity groups discovered that Dexia Israel was not only financing regular Israeli municipalities but was also granting loans to illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories. In a Knesset (Israeli parliament) document, the director of Dexia Israel, David Kapah, confirmed that the bank had indeed granted credits to seven settlements and three regional authorities in the occupied West Bank between 2003 and 2007.

This "smoking gun" evidence entailed the start of a fast-growing campaign in Belgium. United under the slogan "Israel colonizes, Dexia finances," the campaign achieved its first successes. In the following months, petitions were being launched, MPs were questioned and local actions were started up. Significant was the support of local Belgian authorities such as municipalities and provinces, as they hold a vast amount of shares in Dexia Group.

[...]

(Jean-Luc Dehaene, chairman of the board of Dexia and former Belgian prime minister said) "In the past, Dexia Israel granted 5 million euros of loans to the settlements; this was only one percent of the total budget of Dexia Israel. The loans to the Jerusalem municipality are not included in this amount, as Dexia Group feels that Jerusalem is not contested territory," Dehaene stated.

However, East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory under international law. Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem in June 1967, and extended Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration to this part of the city. In response, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 252 stating that it "Considers that all legislative measures by Israel, including expropriation of land and properties thereon, which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem ... invalid and cannot change that status."

In 1980 Israel declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, including East Jerusalem. That same year the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 476, in which the Security Council "Reconfirms that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which purport to alter the character and status of Jerusalem have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East."

ei: Belgian campaign forces financial group to cancel settlement loans

I'll have nothing made from, by, or in Israel. They are a rogue nation who have forgotten many things and are now the enemy they used to fight.

Originally Posted by THX 1133

I'll have nothing made from, by, or in Israel.

Here's how to tell:

Sampling of BDS creativity - Ireland, UK, France, US and Canada




"The creative energies of BDS activists, academics, artists, intellectuals and community organizers are exploding! So is Israel's feeling of isolation despite continued official-level complicity from the West and most of the Arab world. The following quick sample (sorry for missing so many other activities out there, H&M, Ahava, etc.) of only the latest innovations in BDS activism tells volumes. So does the first item, how we are already defeating Israel's propaganda efforts!"




Maariv: Foreign Ministry considering stopping lectures in US and UK because of heckling Coteret

To watch a sample of this "heckling" at Manchester University (against Deputy Israeli Ambassador) see:

Student protests force Israeli hasbara retreat

Not to forget the powerful protest (non-violent disruption taken to the level of art) at the University of California at Irvine against the Israeli ambassador to the US:

Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s Speech Disrupted at University of California, Irvine

And lest we should be accused of short memory, who can forget the classic case of "heckling" against Israeli president and war criminal, Shimon Peres at Oxford in 2008?

YouTube - Shimon Peres at Oxford University

Canadian filmmaker John Greyson's BRILLIANT video message to Elton John, urging him to cancel his June 17 "pink-washing" concert in Tel Aviv and to respect the Palestinian civil society's boycott against Israel:

HEY ELTON on Vimeo or
YouTube - Hey Elton

French BDS activists protesting INSIDE the headquarters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) against consideration of accepting Israel's membership despite its war crimes and occupation:
Dailymotion - Action BDS à l'OCDE - une vidéo Actu et Politique


More information on BDS efforts to make Israel accountable to international law and human rights at:

Hold Israel Accountable

Is there a global Jewish conspiracy to take over the world?

Originally Posted by Mr Pants

Is there a global Jewish conspiracy to take over the world?

Seems like you put this in the wrong thread.

English singer Elvis Costello has cancelled two performances in Israel because of political motives, and due to his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Costello was scheduled to perform on June 30 and July 1 in the amphitheatre in Caesarea.

Elvis Costello calls off Israel gigs - Israel Culture, Ynetnews

Well done EC. You're in good company: Gil Scott-Heron and Carlos Santana have also decided to boycott Israel.

Now what about you, Reg?

Israel’s emerging state of psychosis
by PAUL WOODWARD on MAY 23, 2010
Gideon Levy writes:

Let us imagine the dream-country of most Israelis – without criticism, neither from within nor from without. It speaks in one voice and is eternally united, with devotion and cohesion; all-Jewish, that goes without saying. It stands unanimously behind its government, every government, and also, of course, behind its army, the Shin Bet security service and the Mossad espionage agency – Israel’s heroes.

There is not even a single “snitch,” no human rights organizations or peace movements, no nonprofit associations and no critical reports that are published here, or, heaven forbid, abroad. Its press never criticizes, never exposes, never investigates, publishing nothing but praise and admiration for the government and the state. It recites official statements and quotes from government and security briefings.

Every war that this dream-country wages is met immediately by nothing but cheers of approval. Any atrocity it commits in the occupied territories automatically earns across-the-board support – the most moral, the most just, the most security-oriented, in harmony. All residents must swear their allegiance, all those who wish to visit, too. Those who are faithful to Israel are welcome. All the rest must take the first plane (or truck ) out. In short, the country of one’s dreams.

But now let’s answer truthfully. Is that really the country we would want to live in? Moreover, would the world that is always-against-us appreciate and like Israel better if that was how we looked and spoke, uniform and devoid of all self-criticism?

The benchmark upon which all psychological health and pathology can be assessed is the relationship between self and other. The breakdown of this relationship at its extreme results in psychosis: a condition in which an unbridgeable chasm has opened between the individual and the world he inhabits.

Is this where Israel is heading? A nation so deranged that the only source of comfort it finds is in a conversation that it mutters to itself? A nation that lashes out at anyone who ventures to close? A nation whose existence rests on a foundation of fear?

PLUNDERING ICELAND

The looting of much of the wealth of Iceland is one such mega-crime in which we find Israelis involved at the highest level. The First Lady of Iceland, Dorrit Moussaieff, is an Israeli Jew, which adds a significant wrinkle to the whole plot.

The Israeli Dorrit Moussaieff is the "fabulously wealthy socialite wife of the President of Iceland." So why did a "fabulously wealthy" Israeli Jew marry the president of a small Nordic nation in the North Atlantic?

Iceland recently arrested several former executives of the former Kaupthing bank, the largest Icelandic bank involved in the collapse of the Icelandic economy in the fall of 2008. Kaupthing and a couple other banks were responsible for the looting of much of the wealth of Iceland (and other nations). Two of the former executives of the bank were recently held in solitary confinement to facilitate the Icelandic investigation.

Iceland’s special prosecutor is investigating a number of former Kaupthing executives for alleged market manipulation and forgery. Before its collapse, Kaupthing lent more than $12 billion in shady deals that were “if not illegal, completely unethical,” Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said. When Kaupthing, Glitnir Bank, and Landsbanki Islands collapsed in October 2008 they had amassed debts equivalent to 12 times Iceland’s gross domestic product.

After taking control of the three banks, the government was forced to seek a $4.6 billion International Monetary Fund-led loan to stay afloat. If an intelligence agency of a foreign government were involved in bankrupting Iceland, a member of NATO, it should be considered an act of war.

Kaupthing’s loan book (leaked on the Internet) shows that around one third of its $20 billion in corporate loans went to a small elite connected to the bank’s owners and management. One of Kaupthing’s owners and the bank’s largest debtor when it collapsed is an Iraqi-Iranian Jew named Robert Tchenguiz (pronounced like Genghis, as in Khan). The bank’s leaked loan book shows that Tchenguiz borrowed some $3 billion from the bank to finance his private investments. Tchenguiz and his brother Vincent are London-based business tycoons. Robert was an owner of Kaupthing as one of the largest shareholders in Exista, a company that was the largest shareholder of the bank.


Robert Tchenguiz - "I can't comment on what Hrediar did or didn't do. It is very difficult for me to discuss this. I don't know why he was arrested. I don't know anything about the case."


Tchenguiz siblings Vincent and Lisa

Tchenguiz claims that he lost everything with the bank’s collapse. “I lost all my money with the collapse of Kaupthing and I am suing the bank so I have to watch what I say,” he said recently. High-profile “losers” like the Tchenguiz brothers, who lose billions of dollars, are typical of Mossad financial scams. Like Bernard Madoff, the Tchenguiz brothers claim to have lost billions of dollars, but where did the money really go?

As I pointed out in the Madoff scam, the missing billions probably went to secret Zionist-controlled bank accounts, for example at the Swiss branch of Israel Discount Bank where Madoff’s friend and business partner Sy Syms (a.k.a. Seymour Merinsky) was a long-time director. In the Tchenguiz case, the Israeli partner-in-crime was probably his father, Victor, whose original surname is reported to be Kedourie Molaaem, and who has lived in Israel since at least 2003.

Victor Tchenguiz, an Iraqi Jew from Baghdad, has evidently worked with the Israeli Mossad for decades, and was reported in the British press in 2003 to be “the brains” behind the Tchenguiz business empire: “One reason that Victor Tchenguiz was long supposed to be the brains behind Rotch was that his Ferrari-driving sons didn’t seem to spend much time at their desks,” Conal Walsh wrote in the Observer of May 25, 2003.


The Tchenguiz kids, Vincent, Lisa, and Robert are well known for living high on other peoples money. As the Observer noted in 2003: The (Iranian Jewish) community is also legendary when it comes to shopping and partying. One reason that Victor Tchenguiz was long supposed to be the brains behind Rotch was that his Ferrari-driving sons didn't seem to spend much time at their desks.

About the Israeli connection with the Tchenguiz family, Walsh wrote:

Victor Tchenguiz, 80 and now living in Israel, is a larger-than-life figure who apparently traded in his original surname of Kedorie for Tchenguiz, Persian for ‘Genghis’, in honour of the great Mongol warlord.

An Iraqi-born Jew, he reportedly fled Baghdad to avoid persecution in 1948, landing in Iran and swiftly becoming a favourite of the Shah. How Victor did this is unclear – Robert has hinted that he married well – but by the Seventies he was jeweller to Iran’s royal family and, it has been reported, in charge of the royal mint. When the Shah was deposed in 1979, Victor fled to London, with his fortune seemingly intact.

The British press seems to be quite clueless about Victor Tchenguiz’s high-level connections to the Shah of Iran and how he got there, as Chris Blackhurst wrote in his MT interview with Robert Tchenguiz:

Somehow, despite being a foreigner, Victor became a member of the Shah’s inner circle, becoming the royal jeweller and also head of the country’s mint. The family were in the elite of Iranian society – the children were pupils at the International School in Tehran and the sons went to university abroad – Robert to Pepperdine in California.

Then the Shah fell. Victor moved the family to London, again displaying enormous dexterity by managing to bring their money over as well.

While the press reports are quite sketchy, the name suggests that the Tchenguiz family may originally be Iranian Jews, perhaps named Molayem (i.e. soft), which would fit the unusual “Molaaem” spelling of the family name. Although Victor and Violet met in Baghdad, they were married in Iran after a very short courtship, apparently in 1955 according to a 2009 interview with their daughter Lisa. There would be no reason for Iraqi Jews to be married in Iran if they did not have family there:

Lisa’s own parents, who are both Iraqi Jews by origin, had a semi-arranged marriage. Her father spotted her mother walking beside the canal in Baghdad, and introduced himself to her father at a café. Several coffees later, the deal was done. ‘My mother was at home when her mother came in and told her that she was having an engagement party the following week.’ The couple ‘dated’ for five days, heavily chaperoned, then married in Iran.

Fifty-four years later, they are still together and, says Lisa, happily so.

It is well known that the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, played a key role in supporting the Shah of Iran and his secret police, the SAVAK, as the Wikipedia article on the Mossad notes:

Prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1978 79, SAVAK (Organization of National Security and Information), the Iranian secret police and intelligence service was created under the guidance of United States and Israeli intelligence officers in 1957 to protect the regime of the shah by arresting, torturing, and executing the dissidents (especially Leftists). After security relations between the United States and Iran grew more distant in the early 1960s which led the CIA training team to leave Iran, Mossad became increasingly active in Iran, “training SAVAK personnel and carrying out a broad variety of joint operations with SAVAK.”

As the Jew who headed the Iranian mint and served as court jeweller for the Shah, Victor Tchenguiz would have worked closely with the Mossad. The Mossad connection would explain why Victor lives in Israel while his “billionaire” children and grandchildren all live in Britain. Why would Victor leave his family and home to retire in a country where he has never lived? The evidence suggests that Victor is indeed “the brains” behind the looting of Iceland and probably needed to be in Israel – close to his Israeli partners-in-crime – to pull off the mega-heist.

Yet more racial discrimination from the worlds leading Racist state.

Published 13:26 23.05.10Latest update 13:26 23.05.10.

Tibi: Lieberman is an immigrant who's racist against the native Arabs
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi criticizes Lieberman, says he's worse than late extreme Austrian politician Jorg Haider.

By Haaretz Service
Tags: Israeli Arab Ahmed Tibi

In an in-depth interview with the Los Angeles Times, Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi criticized Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, saying that as opposed to late Austrian extremist Jorg Haider, who was "an indigenous politician who was racist against foreigners," Lieberman is an "immigrant politician [Lieberman was born in Moldova] who is racist against the indigenous [Palestinian] people...."

Tibi, who described himself as a "Palestinian-Arab citizen of Israel" said to the Los Angeles Times "look at what Avigdor Lieberman and his party are saying and doing. Their motions and proposed laws are pure racism. The so-called loyalty motion demands that we be loyal to Zionism and to Israel as a Jewish state or we won't be allowed to be a candidate for the Knesset or receive our budget allocation from the state. They say Arabs should be transported to the Palestinian Authority...."


Tibi lamented the fact that only 6% of Israel's public servants are Arab, and that there are no influential Arab officials in the Israeli government. Regarding the "loyalty oath" bill, a bill initiated by Lieberman's party requiring public figures to swear allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state, Tibi said that "We are described as betrayers. But I can't betray something I'm not part of. I'm not part of the army. I'm not part of the Zionist ideology. I'm a victim of Zionism.... It's inhumane to demand that we be loyal to Zionism or accept Israel as a Jewish state. I can't accept a definition that strengthens the discrimination against non-Jews in Israel."

Asked in what way Israeli Arab citizens don't have equal rights, Tibi replied that "There is discrimination in every field of life except one. There is one man, one vote. In elections, all are equal. But in budget allocation, industry, education, land, religious places, employment there are huge gaps between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority."

The Israeli Arab MK added that the Israel Lands Authority, which controls most of the land in Israel, allows land to be sold or rented only to Jews, not to Arabs. "Non-Jews are not allowed. And we are talking about land that was ours in the past and confiscated. In the early 1950s, we owned 80% of the private land. Now we own 3% of the private land."

Tibi was asked whether he accepts Israel as a Jewish state, to which he replied that "I want it to be a state of its own nationalities, and the Arab minority to be recognized as a national minority. Israel is, according to the law, defined as a Jewish and democratic state. But there is a contradiction between the two values. If you are democratic, you should believe in equality. But if you define the nation by a Jewish ethnicity, you are saying any Jewish person is superior to a non-Jewish person."

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