Posted on: November 10, 2014
And the Wall of Shame in Palestine will come down: A symbolic opening was cleared
Palestinian activists affiliated with local popular resistance committees in the villages northwest of Jerusalem on Saturday broke open a hole in the illegal apartheid wall to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
“No matter how high walls are built, they will fall. Just as the Berlin Wall fell, the wall in Palestine will fall, along with the occupation,” the popular committees said in a statement.
The activists said that their aim in destroying the wall was also to stress that Jerusalem is an Arab and Palestinian city, and that neither the construction of the apartheid wall nor Israeli military reinforcement could prevent Palestinians from reaching Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa mosque.
The activists also called upon Palestinians to unite and take part in the battle for Jerusalem, and to defend the al-Aqsa mosque and all Islamic and Christian holy sites.
They also called upon people to be ready to take part in the “intifada” of Jerusalem, which they said would be “the final, fateful intifada to liberate Palestine.”
The Berlin Wall officially fell on November 9, 1989, after having divided the German capital for nearly 30 years.
The illegal Israeli apartheid wall (illegal by the UN and world communities, except by the USA) is in many places more than double as high and nearly six times as long, as it cuts across the West Bank to divide Palestinians from other Palestinians ostensibly in order to ensure Israeli “security.”
Israel began building the apartheid wall in 2002, and the route has been the target of regular demonstrations by border towns whose land is cut off by its path.
Israel has regularly confiscated large plots of Palestinian land in order to build the wall. When the barrier is complete, 85 percent of it will have been built inside the occupied West Bank.
In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled that the apartheid wall was illegal and “tantamount to annexation.”
Critics believe the wall to be a part of “a land grab” designed to ensure that Zionist-only settlements built on occupied territory, housing around 550,000 Israelis, will become part of “Israel” de facto despite the lack of a peace agreement, which will in reality legalize land confiscation.
(Israel had a psychological consequence to this wall: No see Palestinians, Palestinians do not Exist and No fear from occupation of Palestinian lands”
The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-infamous “Balfour Declaration,” called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.
(Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)
Note: In 1930, the Palestinians surged against the constant influx of immigration policies for the Jews and many casualties were witnessed in Jerusalem. Edmond de Rothschild, the main funder of colonies in Palestine, and who invested $100 million in just a decade, wrote: “The Palestinians are using religion as a weapon. The Jew should not fall prey to that trap and behave politically.”
The cycle has turned: It is the Jews used religion as a weapon and the Palestinians demanding equal rights in a civil society.
Posted on: July 20, 2014
Timeline: boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli products in occupied territories
The antidote to apathy is success. For the cynical among us and those who have become jaded over the years regarding the possibility of effecting positive change in Palestine and holding Israel accountable for its various atrocities and violations of International Law since its inception in 1948, please check out the following link:http://www.bdsmovement.net/timeline
It’s a graphical timeline that highlights the successes and victories of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement since July 9th 2005, when the overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society issued a call for BDS until Israel complies with International Law.
Some of these victories are small, others are larger, but all of them count. Get informed and consider participating.
The global movement for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights was initiated by Palestinian civil society in 2005, and is coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), established in 2007.
BDS is a strategy that allows people of conscience to play an effective role in the Palestinian struggle for justice.
For 6 decades, Israel has denied Palestinians their fundamental rights of freedom, equality, and self-determination through ethnic cleansing, colonization, racial discrimination, and military occupation.
Despite abundant condemnation of Israeli policies by the UN, other international bodies, and preeminent human rights organisations, the world community has failed to hold Israel accountable and enforce compliance with basic principles of law. Israel’s crimes have continued with impunity.
In view of this continued failure, Palestinian civil society called for a global citizens’ response. On July 9 2005, a year after the International Court of Justice’s historic advisory opinion on the illegality of Israel’s Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), a clear majority of Palestinian civil society called upon their counterparts and people of conscience all over the world to launch broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives, and to demand sanctions against Israel, until Palestinian rights are recognised in full compliance with international law.
The campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) is shaped by a rights-based approach and highlights the three broad sections of the Palestinian people: the refugees, those under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinians in Israel.
The call urges various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law by:
The BDS call was endorsed by over 170 Palestinian political parties, organizations, trade unions and movements.
The signatories represent the refugees, Palestinians in the OPT, and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Boycotts target products and companies (Israeli and international) that profit from the violation of Palestinian rights, as well as Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions.
Anyone can boycott Israeli goods, simply by making sure that they don’t buy produce made in Israel or by Israeli companies. Campaigners and groups call on consumers not to buy Israeli goods and on businesses not to buy or sell them.
Israeli cultural and academic institutions directly contribute to maintaining, defending or whitewashing the oppression of Palestinians, as Israel deliberately tries to boost its image internationally through academic and cultural collaborations.
As part of the boycott, academics, artists and consumers are campaigning against such collaboration and ‘rebranding’. A growing number of artists have refused to exhibit or play in Israel.
Divestment means targeting corporations complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights and ensuring that the likes of university investment portfolios and pension funds are not used to finance such companies.
These efforts raise awareness about the reality of Israel’s policies and encourage companies to use their economic influence to pressure Israel to end its systematic denial of Palestinian rights.
Sanctions are an essential part of demonstrating disapproval for a country’s actions. Israel’s membership of various diplomatic and economic forums provides both an unmerited veneer of respectability and material support for its crimes.
By calling for sanctions against Israel, campaigners educate society about violations of international law and seek to end the complicity of other nations in these violations.
The BDS National Committee
The efforts to coordinate the BDS campaign, that began to grow rapidly as soon as/once the 2005 Call was made public, culminated in the first Palestinian BDS Conference held in Ramallah in November 2007.
Out of this conference emerged the BDS National Committee (BNC) as the Palestinian coordinating body for the BDS campaign worldwide. See the BNC page for more details.
The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement called for by the majority of Palestinian civil society has made huge strides since it was launched in 2005.
People of conscience around the world are taking effective action to end Israeli impunity and hold Israel accountable under international law.
This timeline, launched at the occasion of the 8th anniversary of the BDS call, charts the key successes of the movement.
You can view the timeline in full screen here.
Adonis Diaries 