The Lotus

We are working at university of Michigna to Boycott Israel..

Yes Niloufar, it can be done here is what we are doing at Michigan to boycott Israel:

---------------------------

Come tell Michigan Student Assembly to BOYCOTT ISRAEL!

Tuesday January 13th, 7:00 PM 3rd floor of Michigan Union; 530 S State St., Ann Arbor, Michigan

PEOPLE OF GAZA ARE LITERALLY BEING TORN
LIMB FROM LIMB.

"This is a new generation of very powerful small explosives that detonates with an extreme power and dissipates its power within a range of five to 10 metres (16-98 feet)," said Gilbert, 61.

"We have not seen the casualties affected directly by the bomb because they are normally torn to pieces and do not survive, but we have seen a number of very brutal amputations... without shrapnel injuries which we strongly suspect must have been caused by the DIME weapons," he added.

The Israeli barcode starts with 729

Even though I'm very sceptical of any practical progress on this boycott unless we can bring a large segment of the Jewish population on board, here are some suggestions about boycotting Israeli products: 

//bdsmovement.net/?q=node/9

Remember, in case of South Africa, there wasn't a large population of expatriate South Africans who were so dedicated about supporting South Africa. The situation with Israel is totally different. There are some Jewish groups and personalities who support the boycott, but the majority of Jews still help Israel.

30,000 Spaniards in Barcelona demande sanctions against Israel

Police estimated that 30,000 people protested in the northern Spanish city of Barcelona, some carrying bloodstained blankets and mock dead bodies of children.

The demonstration had been called by around 300 Catalan groups who have asked the Spanish government to back cease-fire initiatives and to stop all trade, especially arms, with Israel.

Demands for sanctions against Israel is growing in Europe. These voices are heard clearly in Britain, Italy and Spain. Read the complete report by AP: //news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090111/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_mideast_protests

Anonymous eruni jan

i respect your position.

only i think you slightly confuse an international boycott of israel as somehow connected to iran. i don't see the connection. when i was an anti-apartheid activist in the 80s i didn't do it because i was iranian. this case is the same.

Peace!

Sorry Nilo,no can do?

It is almost impossible to boycott every Jewish owned business in the world.The one that you mentioned only represent a small portion of them.As matter of fact USA is run by Jews.May be Iranians or Muslims could boycott those companies that you mentioned,but what about rest of the population.Even though they have destroyed Lebanon and Gaza, I have nothing against them as long as they have not attacked Iran,and I hope they won't.Israel is the most powerful military force in the middle east and the weaker countries have to be careful not to play with lion's tail, otherwise the would get beaten.

Q jan

i don't care what she thinks, but i must respectflly challenge your position there. sanctions imposed by the military might of hegemonic powers through their hypocritical 'international' institutions are a million miles away from a globally popular civil society boycott of goods from a rouge apartheid state that has enraged the whole world. you would know that the world was against iran if ordinary people everywhere decided to shun all its products.

we have a historical parrallel in the case of south africa where 90% of the local population engaged in the resistance encouraged a globally popular boycott of south african goods knowing that it would hurt the victims of apartheid first. in fact, i am not aware of any real damage to the whites in south africa as a result of the sanctions. on the contrary, as soon as they realised that their game was up, they totally changed their tact, and even shared the nobel peace prize with nelson mandela.

i do not really think that palestinians would be against a global boycott of israeli products. quite the contrary, they would prefer the whole system to collapse, knowing the initial pain involved. the pain for israeli citizens would be far less per the south african case. all that would happen is that the conciliatory side of them would be a little encouraged, 'doves' would suddenly emerge from among them with some influence, and there would be a speedy end to the affair.

this is nothing like US imposed sanctions on iraq killing off half a million iraqi children over 13 years followed by a mass slaughter starting on new year's eve in 2003 and continuing until this very day.

and it also nothing like a corrupt security council imposing sanctions on iran over a nuclear issue that is trumpeted up in contrvention of the NPT. the whole world can see its emptiness apart from a couple of rouge states engaged in regional mass slaughter. 

Peace!

I'm glad Zion is against boycotts for Iran

She's right, an open ended "all products" boycott will hurt ordinary Israelis and Arabs. Although, we all know if Iran did anything even close to this kind of genocide comprehensive boycotts would be followed by nuclear bombs.

But a boycott of any defense related business or industry, and valuntary travel bans (by academic conferences, etc.) is well called for and legitimate. Stopping free tax payer handouts to Israel for "security" goes without saying. This needs to stop, even if a small percentage of that money is funneled back in the US to bribe Congress for more of it.

I suggest we concentrate on those narrow and symbolic areas which are military related and which will yield the greatest publicity anyway. I will have more on this later.

Once again, I'm shocked and delighted by the support of our Zionist firends who are against hurting ordinary citizens in Iran.

Hundreds of thousands protest against Israel all over the world

Demonstrators rallied across Europe on Saturday in protest against Israel's assault in the Gaza Strip, calling for an end to the attacks on the Palestinian territory.

In London, celebrities and left-wing politicians addressed crowds in central Hyde Park before marching to the Israeli embassy, which has been the scene of rowdy protests since the Jewish state's offensive against the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza began on December 27.

Some carried banners reading "Stop the holocaust in Gaza," "Freedom for Palestine," while others waved Palestinian flags. Read the complete report by AFP:

//news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090110/wl_afp/mideas...

Zion: I'm convinced that

Zion: I'm convinced that Israel and Palestinians both have a death wish as a people, given their historical background. Both groups need to seek theraputic measures to eliminate their lesser-instincts. Both side need to denounce violence. That is the only way they can survive as a people.

Both Israel/zionists and Palestinians fundamentalists suffer from severe PTSD and are on a path to self-destruct.

There is also another way.

but peace is possible. The Israeli people need to start thinking about a radically different approach to solving their security problems: Extreme Generosity.

An excerpt:

...

Perhaps it would help if they began by re-examining the most fundamental aspects of their situation. Forget about the immediate threats that you perceive at the moment, Israel, and ask yourselves what kind of peace would you ideally like to experience in the future? Do you want to arrive at a point where you are actually able to live without fear? Do you want to some day see smiles on the faces of your Palestinian neighbors? Do you want to feel a warmth of Good Will radiating from their hearts? If that’s what you want, then you are going to have to try a much different approach from the one you’ve been embracing.

EXTREME GENEROSITY

In order for the Palestinian people to ‘let go’ of all the bitterness and resentment they feel now and start having positive feelings of friendliness for the Israelis, it is absolutely essential that they be able to walk away from the negotiations table feeling as though they had won a tremendous victory. They need to end up with a settlement that is so incredibly generous, and so filled with face-saving Israeli [and American] concessions, they won't be able to contain their joy at their good fortune. They need to feel as though they have won a great victory and their Muslim sympathizers around the world need to see that the Palestinians are delighted with their good fortune.

What the Israeli people need to understand is that this is the kind of Peace Settlement they are going to want the Palestinians to end up with because it is the only kind of settlement that is going to give them the Lasting Peace---the freedom from fear---that they truly want. They need to change the hearts of the Palestinians with something dramatic. The Israelis will know that they have finally achieved true peace when they start seeing smiles on the faces of the Palestinian people, smiles that reflect authentic feelings of gratitude and friendliness toward them.

It’s your choice, Israel. Endless war, with the likelihood of nuclear devastation in the future, or a true and lasting peace with your neighbors. What will the Israeli people get for the high price they might ultimately have to pay? Only their "Right to Exist" from the only people who can legitimately grant them that right, the people who used to own the land before Israel's founding fathers took it from them at gunpoint. Yes, the Palestinians will be willing to grant the Israelis the right to inhabit and rule the land they once owned, but only if they feel as though they have been handsomely compensated for it.

All of the hatred that half the world currently feels toward Israel would come to an end. The Israeli people may feel as though their founding fathers achieved a great thing when they resurrected the state of Israel from the dustbin of history, but they really haven’t achieved a thing, yet. How about impressing the world with a dramatic and historically unprecedented move to change the deeply resentful feelings that your current enemies have toward you? How about giving the children of Israel a future that is cleansed of their fear of annihilation?

Do you want all of these things, Israel? If you do, then you're going to have to do something like this:

Agree to a compensation package that overwhelms the Palestinians with its generosity. Give them [virtually] everything they’ve been demanding for the past forty years plus a little bit more. Pre-1967 borders. Jerusalem becomes either an international city, or a multi-capital city. If it becomes supremely important to Israeli negotiators to turn some of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank into Israeli land, then the Palestinians must be given twice as much pre-1967 Israeli land in compensation. The way to win the good will of the Palestinian people is by shocking them with your ‘new leaf’ commitment to astounding generosity.

The Israelis need to get over the urge to get the best deal they can, by bargaining "tough" with the Palestinians and threatening them with more pain if they don’t give the Israelis the things that they want. Instead, they need to stun the world with an amazing display of good will and a generous spirit. On top of all the territorial concessions, throw in a huge amount of cash at the Palestinians. Make them feel as though they had all just "won the lottery." Would $30,000 per family be enough? $50,000? Pour an equally generous amount of money into the construction of new businesses, industries, and modern infrastructure in the new Palestine.

Where would all the money for this come from? Well, if we were to take all the money that Israel and the United States are now spending on their Wars on Terror and then solicit big contributions from Europe, Japan, China, and the rich Arab states, it should not be difficult to put together a pot of around $500 billion, which should be more than enough to overwhelm the Palestinian people and instill within them a feeling of great pride and satisfaction. They would finally have Peace With Honor."

//www.dailykos.com/story/2008/12/30/32833/199...

British telecom company boycotts Israel's products

Richard Ramsey, the managing director of a British telecom company, sent an e-mail to the Israeli tech firm MobileMax. "As a result of the Israeli government action in the last few days we will no longer be in a position to consider doing business with yourself or any other Israeli company."

Boycott of Israel is one of the most effective tools that we all have and can use at this stage against Israel' attack on Gaza. The links provided on this thread by Ms Parsi are very useful. The boycott of Israeli products along with contacting our representatives in congress, writing letters to our local media and demonstrations are very useful for showing our opposition to the war crimes committed by Israel. 

Moderate Arabs are grateful to Israel

Hamas has absultely received no sympathy from Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Golf states, Marakko, Libya, Tunesia and many others as Hamas has made himself a fool by following Mullahs. Presently anyone follow Mullah regime would be isolated and disliked by the world community.
Egypt is now trying to bring about some sort of peace agreement as Egypt is worried about his borders with Gaza.
Every body is glad that at the end of this conflict the Hamas will be reduced to nothing. IRI will fail in making Gaza another base to attack Israel. Let us hope that Hizbollah will follow the same fate.

Israeli goods barcode 729

Apparently, Israeli goods have barcodes starting with the digits '729'.

can anyone confirm pls? this makes them much easier to identify.

Peace!

But...

...but wouldn't that only hurt ordinary Israeli people and not the evil leaders. ;-) Isn't that exactly what you guys parrot when it comes to your regime in Iran?
Oops.

from the Guardian, yesterday: enough!

Enough. It's time for a boycott

The best way to end the bloody occupation is to target Israel with the kind of movement that ended apartheid in South Africa

It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa. In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on "people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era". The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions was born.

Also, see:

The global BDS movement

Peace!

The UN cares, but the Security Council is corrupt

Prof. Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and international law expert at
Princeton University, described Israel 's siege of Gaza last year, when it was still not comparable in its severity to the current situation, as follows:

"Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment
of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective
atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially
disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on
the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community
to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty. The suggestion that
this pattern of conduct is a holocaust-in-the-making represents a
rather desperate appeal to the governments of the world and to
international public opinion to act urgently to prevent these current
genocidal tendencies from culminating in a collective tragedy." 

Peace!

worldwide boycott call gathers pace

Malaysia's current Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has called for
sanctions on Israel, saying the international community has a "moral
duty" to save the Palestinian people.

TORONTO (JTA) -- Canada's largest union said it will seek a ban on Israeli academics working at Ontario universities.

Leaders of the union...  say the proposal is in response to Israel's
Dec. 29 attack on Islamic University in Gaza, which Israel claimed was
affiliated with Hamas.

"Attacking an institution of learning is just beyond the pale," said
the union's Ontario president, Sid Ryan. "They deliberately targeted an
institution of learning. That's what the Nazis did."

Turkish sports fans and angered citizens took their fury over Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip to the basketball court. 

another basketball match never happened when the Greek team Larissa backed out of a game in Jerusalem this week. 

AP reports that the Islamic Mission Party (Da'wa) of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on all Muslim countries to cut off relations with Israel in response to the air strikes on Gaza.

Peace!

safa jan

mokhleseem :)

this really can be done. in my opinion, there is greater global support for this Boycott than there was for dismantling South African apartheid. i will be listing some common household shopping items with links to israel soon.

i urge others to help identify them too. lets help each other work this out.

a global shift is taking place

quote from Naomi Klein's call for Boycott, submited by anonymous8:

Several days into Israel's Gaza assault, Richard
Ramsey, the managing director of a British telecom company, sent an
e-mail to the Israeli tech firm MobileMax. "As a result of the Israeli
government action in the last few days we will no longer be in a
position to consider doing business with yourself or any other Israeli
company."

When contacted by The Nation, Ramsey said his decision wasn't
political. "We can't afford to lose any of our clients, so it was purely
commercially defensive."

It was this kind of cold business calculation that led many companies to
pull out of South Africa two decades ago. And it's precisely the kind of
calculation that is our most realistic hope of bringing justice, so long
denied, to Palestine.

Further Reading: Disengagement and the Frontiers of Zionism

Peace!

Dear Niloufar, People like

Dear Niloufar,

People like you and Setareh Sabeti are awesome!
Thanks for the suggestion. I will surely keep that in mind.

I just do not know how the world is letting Israel to do so much crime. I hate religious based governments.

Boycott is ALREADY happening

Naomi Klein's call for BOYCOTT, DIVEST, SANCTION
//www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/09-0
//blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/northwestlaw/ar...

Greece pulls out of sports game with Israel. Israeli team chased out of Turkey
//latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009...
//www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JP...

Boycott calls in Malaysia and Africa
//www.thoughtleader.co.za/bilalranderee/2009/...
//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7819561.st...

Canadian, British and Italian unions call for boycott
//jta.org/news/article/2009/01/06/1002027/can...

I have a dream that one day

all governments lead by racist  and religion leaders are wiped out.

Boycott of Israel is the only way forward for these warmongers

We are powerless, but we can let our pocket book talk. And

quiet frankly that is the only thing which will get their attention:

Economic pressure.

(This includes asking your local government not to do any trade

 deals with Israel.) 

Huge demonstration called to protest Israel's war on Gaza

Ramsey Clark, Cynthia McKinney and Code Pink are among the organizers of a huge demonstration called for Saturday, Jan 10 in Washington D.C. Their statement says:

"Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world. It receives more than $15 million every day from the United States. The F-16 fighter jets and apache helicopters that have rained down more than hundreds of tons of bombs and missiles on Gaza are made in the United States by the Pentagon and provided to the Israeli government.

It is inconceivable that this military equipment and the Israeli aggression in Gaza could have taken place without the explicit consent of the U.S. government.

It is urgent that people in the United States take to the streets to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and to demand
an immediate end to the murderous attacks carried out by the U.S.-backed Israeli military against the people of Gaza.

Check out the flyer: //answer.pephost.org/site/DocServer/DC_flyer_...

MRX1

That was funny my friend.

Food/Retail workers Union in Itay calls for boycott of Israel

The proposal came from the Rome chapter of the retail services and food sector, Flaica CUB. the union's local secretary Giancarlo Desiderati said:

''Our proposal is to boycott products made in Israel because anyone who uses military might against helpless civilians, be they Palestinians or Israelis, commits a crime against human life. The economic boycott seeks to stop the acquisition of more weapons,'' Desiderati explained."

No one but Islamist Hamas

is responsible for all this death. I don't understand how can People of Palestine be so blind not seeing that this terrorist faction has taken the Gaza into conflict for their own agenda and Islamist ideology. At least these people have the chance to stand up to them without getting killed unlike our own country where standing up to the racist and fascist regime will be met with death.

Rajab.... Well said... Unfortunally its sad to see that some iranians care more about others than its own people.

I tried but

I tried but the local walmart did not have anything made by the bad disgusting zionists war mongerer neocons bably killers or what ever you compassionate people call Isreali's these days. everything said : made in china, go figure!

Niloufar--Perhaps This Will Convince Them

to support a boycott. Here are some pictures of the children of Gaza:

//www.alalam.ir/site/manual%20gallery/current...

let's see

this might be a matter of semantics, BUT.

your comment "and i didn't just boycott the mullahs. i left the country".

now. the way this is worded implies that "leaving the country" was WORSE than boycotting. as in "i didn't just beat him, i beat the crap out of him".

so. you're saying that your big contribution to objecting or protesting the mullahs was to "leave".

boy. they must be shaking in their boots. and how proud you must be for your efforts.

Kaveh

I beg to differ. Israel lobby is very sensitive when it comes to boycott. They are very quick to respond to it because they are very afraid of it. In Europe they fought a lot against boycotting west bank settlers products. Israeli companies never brag about being from Israel, they are very quiet about it exactly because of their fear of being subject to boycott.

But that being said, it is not realistic to boycott everything israeli since world economy is so tangled to each other. Israeli zionist sit and chew on Rafsanjanis pistachio nuts at home and Hizbollah fighters buy computers with Israeli technology inside. 

/Bidar bash ke ma bekhabim