Archive for June 23rd, 2017
Israel boycott restrictions thrown out by UK’s High Court
Asa Winstanley Activism and BDS Beat 22 June 2017
The High Court in London ruled on Thursday that the Conservative government acted unlawfully in trying to prevent local councils in the United Kingdom from divesting from firms involved in Israel’s military occupation.
The successful legal challenge for the right to boycott was brought by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in March, and was supported by War on Want, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade and the Quakers.
”We couldn’t be happier that this right has been upheld by the court,” said PSC Director Ben Jamal.
Recent UK polling showed that two in five people consider BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions – a reasonable Palestinian response to Israel’s crimes.
“Today is a victory for Palestine, for local democracy and for the rule of law,” PSC Chair Hugh Lanning, said. “Absolutely everyone has a right to peacefully protest Israel’s violation of Palestinian human rights.”
In a judicial review published on Thursday, judge Ross Cranston overturned part of a guidance document issued in September by local government minister Sajid Javid.
The court ruled that the government had acted improperly by seeking to use pension law to pursue its own foreign and arms industry policy.
Freedom to protest
Jamie Potter, one of PSC’s lawyers, said, “this outcome is a reminder to the government that it cannot improperly interfere in the exercise of freedom of conscience and protest in order to pursue its own agenda.”
The full ruling can be read below.
The minister’s guidance had stated that local authorities must not use “pension policies to pursue boycotts, divestment and sanctions against foreign nations and UK defense industries … other than where formal legal sanctions, embargoes and restrictions have been put in place by the government.”
Although the document did not specifically name Israel, it was part of a series of measures, launched at a press conference in Jerusalem, explicitly intended to target BDS campaigners.
Although the government trailed it to the media as a “BDS ban”, legal analysis of the new documents showed there was nothing new in them “aside from some overblown rhetoric clearly intended to scare campaigners.”
BDS gets the goods
Local government bodies in the UK have for years been urged by Palestine solidarity campaigners to divest from companies that are involved in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
French multinational Veolia withdrew from most Israeli businesses in 2015 after being the focus of a years-long BDS campaign.
Municipalities around the world had dropped it from contracts worth more than $14 billion, according to the BDS National Committee.
Veolia lost contracts with public bodies in London, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Canterbury, East Sussex and Winchester as a result of BDS campaigns.
Councils in Tower Hamlets, Leicester, Swansea and Bristol are among those that have passed resolutions in support of BDS or condemning companies involved in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.
Adonis Diaries 
Notes and comments on FB and Twitter. Part 44
Posted by: adonis49 on: June 23, 2017
Notes and comments on FB and Twitter. Part 44 : June 23, 2017
Les hommes, n’ayant pu guérir la mort, la misère et l’ignorance, ils se sont avisés, pour se render heureux de n’y point penser. Ca marche toujours pour tous les systèmes politiques
There is nothing there, after death. Try to avoid pains et strive to alleviate the pains of others: pains of thirst, famine, diseases, torture, collateral damages…
1217 letters later, late French president Francois Mitterrand to his secret love Anne Pingeot. They beget the “illegitimate” daughter Mazarine. From 1962 to 1995, the correspondences never stopped.
Have Russia and the 7 colonial powers decided on the next President to Syria? Is that the kind of “democratic system” to be instituted for the Syrian people in the foreseeable period?
Demanding to lift Marie Le Pen immunity in EU parliament, at this junction of the election, is tantamount to bring a tsunami of new voters for the Front National
Erdogan of Turkey is now Officially a Dictator: What changed? By a tiny small margin that the “No opposition” are contesting the results. All Turkish TV stations never gave the opposition the luxury of exposing their opinions.
If I still can daydream of a performing Me it is that I suffer of no pains nor major aches
The US never attacks a State who can deliver on weapons of mass destruction. It attacked Iraq when it was sure Saddam had No deliverable nuclear bombs. It attacked Syria when made sure it has Not the means to deliver chemical weapons. If it attacks North Korea it means North Korea has Not the means to deliver on its threat
We all knew that Erdogan referendum was meant to appoint himself Khalif: He paid a visit to all the shrines that Ottoman Sultans visited to pray when inaugurated
Un juif dans un train de samedi: ses pieds baignaient dans une cuvette d’eau. Sa religion lui défendait de se déplacer le samedi, sauf sur l’eau (True story from Louise Weiss, 1919)
Pourquoi je n’es pas d’enfant Rabbin? Retourner á la maison et exercisez vous á faire l’amour
If you want to comprehend current Europe, read “Memoires d’une Européenne” by Louise Weiss. Two volumes: period (1893-1919) and (1919-34)
Reporter Louise Weiss covered most European States and central Europe, the wars, the tribulations of peace treaties, the Society of Nations and the conditions and divisions of Europeans after the treaties
Le spectacle du ghetto de Varsovie en 1919: Levites et calottes, barbes et tortillons, nez ronds insuffisamment mooches, mauvaises habitations, grouillement de l’intelligence et la pauvreté. Le concert des apostrophes yiddish (Louise Weiss)
US missile attack on Syria airfield was actually a message to Turkey: Desist from supplying chemical weapons to the Islamic extremists factions of Al Nusra and Daesh. The US is convinced that its engaged contingents in Syria and Iraq will be attacked chemically.
Soon after the missile attack on Syria airfield, the US bombed 3 chemical depots belonging to Al Nusra and Daesh in Syria and Iraq.
Only 13% of German/(Turks and Kurds) voted on the referendum: Claiming that they have Not been integrated is far fetched
If Macron becomes France President, consequences far worst than Le Pen: 1) he never served in an elected post, 2) lacks cultural complexity, 3) a stooge to the financial institutions, 4) will drive France deeper in debt (Hariri type of economic development), 5) follow Israel policies in Middle-East, 6) lacks comprehension of the intricate manoeuvring of political parties
Two kinds of details: Details of the interested parties in a treaty, and details interpreted and applied by the professionals. The Devil in the details: Interest of initial parties change, but the practices and interpretations of the professionals don’t.
Within 8 years after the end of WWI, 125,000 Germans committed suicide. Though Germany didn’t have to fight within its land
Le problem de base est cerebral pour les unions des Etats: Il manque d’universités internationals pour s’ organiser
On ne concoit pas d’organization entre Etats, meme transformés, sans justice et sécurité. La sécurité mine l’ EU et la justice entre les etats est trop complex que le citoyen la comprend comme injustice, especiallement des petits états qui n’ont pas les facilities financieres et professionelles necessaire pour contester
Pouquoi désarmer? Quand et comment désarmer? 3 committés d’études se sont organises a Paris au Trocadero (1933) lors du Congré International. Il y avait 1098 délégués representant 395 associations. Nothing was resolved until now.
Since all your predictions turned false, your latest of a calamity generated by France election induces me to sleep serenely
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