IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
The U.K. government today announced that it is now illegal for “local [city] councils, public bodies, and even some university student unions … to refuse to buy goods and services from companies involved in the arms trade, fossil fuels, tobacco products, or Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.”
on February 16, 2016
Correspondent Deborah Potter reports on the BDS (boycotts, divestment and, sanctions) movement, intended to pressure Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories, and the support it is receiving from some US churches. Last year, the United Church of Christ became the largest Protestant denomination to divest its pension funds from companies doing business in Israeli-occupied territories.
on February 12, 2016
A few months ago the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Omar Barghouti, told me that he felt this rights-based movement had reached “the South African moment.” By that he meant that world opinion had begun to swing in favor of the Palestinians in their fight for rights and justice.
on February 10, 2016
New York lawmakers, seemingly baffled by the global boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign for Palestinian freedom, are despairing for the good old days of McCarthyism, when speech was suppressed and activists’ livelihoods endangered with the simple creation of a blacklist.
on February 10, 2016
Our Virginia General Assembly is considering a bill, HB 1282, that would waste the money of Virginia taxpayers by requiring the secretary of commerce and trade to spend valuable time and resources compiling information on the Palestinian civil society-led campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), a nonviolent movement for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality.
on February 8, 2016
Much of the impetus for enshrining the First Amendment within our Constitution was to protect dissidents: people who opposed popular or powerful political opinion. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, our founders and authors of the Federalist Papers, were dissenters.
on February 8, 2016
The pension board of the United Methodist Church — one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States, with more than seven million members — has placed five Israeli banks on a list of companies that it will not invest in for human rights reasons, the board said in a statement on Tuesday.
on January 12, 2016
The pension fund for the United Methodist Church has blocked five Israeli banks from its investment portfolio in what it describes as a broad review meant to weed out companies that profit from abuse of human rights.
on January 12, 2016
Palestine rights campaigners are hailing a major victory after France’s Orange confirmed that it has met their key demand to end its relationship with its Israeli affiliate. The news that the multinational telecom is ending its contract with Israel’s Partner Communications had been reported earlier this month in Israeli media.
on January 11, 2016