SF P&F Condemns Congress On Israeli Terror-Supports Labor Boycott Action Against Israel

U.S. Congressional Leadership Stand Before the World with Blood on Their Hands.
THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT
A statement by the San Francisco Peace and Freedom Party

The Peace and Freedom Party stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their courageous resistance to the ongoing bombardment of the Gaza strip. Further, we place primary responsibility for the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the United States government and the militaristic policies of the corporate-controlled Democratic and Republican parties. Since World War II, the U.S. has fostered both Israeli and Arab militarism. It has opposed openly and covertly every move toward peace, secular democracy or social justice in the region. Congressional leader, Nancy Pelosi has already issued her standard unapologetic recognition of the “Special Relationship” between Israel and the United States and perpetuates the lie that Israel's actions are defensive when even a superficial examination of the facts would prove that to be a lie. We demand that the U.S. permanently end all military aid to all governments everywhere as the first step toward world peace. We further call on the U.S. government to stop financial, economic and diplomatic support for Israel until

 There is an immediate end to the indiscriminate shelling of the Gaza Strip;
 Israel withdraws all military and paramilitary forces from the territories occupied in the 1967 war;
 Israel releases all prisoners seized in its current invasions;
 Israel stops building new settlements and begins the immediate and rapid relocation to the pre-1967 borders

of Israel of the over 400,000 illegal settlers now in the occupied lands;
 Israel publicly renounces its policy of assassination and attacks on civilian populations; and Israel stops land and water seizures and other violations of the rights of the Palestinian, Bedouin and Druze minorities within Israel.

We support equal rights and security for all peoples. We believe that in the long run such rights can only be guaranteed by a democratic, secular federation of peoples within the Middle East. We recognize that this is unlikely in the near future and probably impossible within the capitalist world order, but we support all steps toward it and oppose all policies which fight against it.

We support the movement in Israel to refuse military service in the occupied territories. We oppose acts of violence against individuals or groups based on their religion, ethnicity or politics such as Israel's calculated policies of assassination and terror and Palestinian bombings directed at civilian targets. We recognize the legitimate rights of self-defense of both Palestinians and Israelis, but these do not include attacks on civilians.

Boycott, divestment and sanctions worked to end apartheid in South Africa. The Peace and Freedom Party asks the working people of this country to join us in calling for employing the same tactics to put an end to apartheid in the middle east.



San Francisco Peace & Freedom Party
For more information call: 415-637-3787

http://www.peaceandfreedom.org

Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees Urges Labor/Education Boycott Of Israel, Divestment Of Bonds Stocks

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10075.shtml

Union urges immediate boycott following Gaza university bombing
Appeal, Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees, 30 December 2008

The following appeal was issued on 29 December 2008:

The Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees condemns in the strongest possible terms the bombing today of the campus of the Islamic University in Gaza. This wanton destruction of an academic institution is only the latest in the ongoing lethal campaign launched by the Israeli government and army against Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip. This murderous rampage has caused more than 300 deaths and the injury of close to 1,500 Palestinians. And the carnage continues with impunity.

We add our voice to the urgent appeal issued two days ago by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) urging international civil society not just to protest and condemn Israel's massacre in Gaza, but also to join and intensify the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel to end its impunity and to hold it accountable for its persistent violations of international law and Palestinian rights. We agree that, without sustained, effective pressure by people of conscience the world over, Israel will continue with its gradual, rolling acts of genocide against the Palestinians, burying any prospects for a just peace under the blood and rubble of Gaza, Nablus and Jerusalem.

Today, at the height of the lethal Israeli assault against the Palestinian people in Gaza, we are met with deafening silence emanating from the Israeli academy. Does it condone the murderous bombing campaign that its government is carrying out in the name of all Israelis? Are the members of the academy dutifully preparing for the reserve call-up just approved by their government, ready to serve in the death squads committing war crimes around the clock? Are Israeli universities willing to call for an end to the occupation? Are they going to cut their organic and deep-rooted ties with the military-security establishment? There is no doubt that the aggression against the Gaza Strip has reached horrendous proportions, described by many international public figures as constituting war crimes and a continuation of the ethnic cleansing unleashed 60 years ago.

We urge academics around the world to intensify their boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and to isolate the Israeli academy in international forums, associations of academics, and other international venues. Israeli academic institutions are complicit in the entrenched system of oppression practiced by the Israeli state, and their silence at this critical moment is only the most vociferous indicator of this complicity.

Dr. Amjad Barham
President
Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees