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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/This-is-What-Solidarity-Looks-Like-Major-BDS-Victories-in-2018-20181129-0014.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/This-is-What-Solidarity-Looks-Like-Major-BDS-Victories-in-2018-20181129-0014.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">This is What Solidarity Looks Like:
Major BDS Victories in 2018</h1>
November 29, 2018</div>
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<p>Four decades ago, in 1977 the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA) named Nov. 29 as the International Day
of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Since then,
every year on this day the U.N., different countries,
rights groups, and activists express their solidarity
with Palestine.</p>
<p>Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, the President of the
73rd Session of the <a
href="https://twitter.com/UN_PGA/status/1068098685312094209">UNGA
wrote on Twitter</a>, "Let us demonstrate our
commitment to the Palestinian people by strengthening
multilateralism and making the @UN work for all people -
For human rights, peace and security and sustainable
development.”</p>
<p>Thirty years prior to the declaration of Nov. 29 as the
international day for solidarity with Palestinians, in
1947, the U.N. adopted resolution 181 (II), which called
for the establishment of an independent Israeli and
Palestinian state as well as a Special International
Regime for Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reaffirmed
the 1947 resolution Wednesday, saying that the
leadership of Israel and Palestine should take “bold
steps and restore faith in the promise of Resolution
181, of two states living side-by-side in peace and
security, fulfilling the legitimate national aspirations
of both peoples, with borders based on the 1967 lines
and Jerusalem as the capital of both states - East
Jerusalem being the capital of the Palestinian state."</p>
<p>India and South Africa also showed their solidarity
with Palestinian people.</p>
<p>While this symbolic message of solidarity with
Palestinian people is seen every year, the reality and <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Israeli-Attack-Kills-Four-And-Injures-232-In-The-Gaza-Strip-20181026-0015.html">brutality
of Israel’s occupation</a> remain unchanged.</p>
<p>Diplomatic delcarations and resolutions may not affect
Israel's ongoing occupation, human rights violations,
and outright colonization of Palestinian land, as they
represent no tangible cost for Israel.</p>
<p>However, far away from diplomatic centers, the
Palestinian-led <a
href="https://bdsmovement.net/what-is-bds">Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement</a> has
scored major victories that threaten Israel's
normalization of the occupation of Palestine through
economic pressure and increasing cultural and
academic isolation.</p>
<p>The non-violent BDS movement, founded in 2005 by 170
Palestinian unions, political parties, refugee networks,
and among others, women organizations has gained such
renown that it was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. </p>
<p>Inspired in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, BDS
calls for non-violent pressure on Israel through
boycotting organizations linked to Israel, withdrawing
investment from Israeli companies, and sanctioning the
county until Israel 1) recognizes the right of
Palestinian refugees to return, 2) ends the military
occupation of Palestine, and 3) ending the apartheid
regime by recognizing Palestinians equal rights.</p>
<p>Here are five of the BDS Movement's main victories this
year: </p>
<p><strong>1. Meteor Festival Dropped by 15 Artists </strong></p>
<p>After calls by BDS activists, 15 artists boycotted
Israel’s Meteor Festival in September. Among the most
important artists to cancel their performance in Tel
Aviv was Lana Del Rey from the United States and Of
Montreal from Canada. </p>
<p>Del Rey was reluctant at first, arguing that her
performance was not political. </p>
<p>Yousef Munayyer, responded: "When a civil society
movement of oppressed people asks you not to play in the
state that oppresses them and uses cultural performance
to whitewash their image, rejecting their request *IS* a
political statement and it is not one history will judge
kindly."</p>
<p>After enough pressure she and 14 more artists refused
to "whitewash" the Israel occupation. </p>
<p><strong>2. Filmakers Boycott Tel Aviv LGBT
International Film Festival</strong></p>
<p>In June, the BDS movement celebrated that 14 film
directors from Brazil, France, Ireland, Spain, Pakistan,
and more canceled their participation in the Tel Aviv
LGBT International Film Festival citing BDS.</p>
<p>"In total, fourteen filmmakers and other artists
canceled their participation or declared their support
for boycotting the festival because it is sponsored by
the Israeli government, and is therefore clearly subject
to the Palestinian call for cultural boycott until
Israel ceases its systematic violations of Palestinian
human rights. Filmmakers also expressed their opposition
to the festival’s “pinkwashing,” or cynical use of
LGBTQI rights to cover up and normalize Israel’s regime
of oppression against Palestinians," BDS stated. </p>
<p><strong>3. Argentina Cancels Friendly Match with Israel</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>RELATED: <br>
<a
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/How-BDS-Non-Violence-Not-Threats-Led-Argentina-to-Cancel-Match-With-Israel-20180607-0008.html">How
BDS' Non-Violence, Not 'Threats,' Led Argentina
to Cancel Match With Israel</a></strong></em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Under the hashtag #NothingFriendly BDS activists and
footballers in Gaza who had sustained injuries due to
Israeli use of live ammunition against Palestinian
protesters taking part in the Great March of Return,
urged the Argentine team to cancel a friendly match with
Israel. </p>
<p>After announcing the decision to cancel the match,
Israel tried to spin the story as the result of
freightened football players and violent Palestinians.
However, days after the announcement the president of
the Argentine Football Association Claudio Tapia said “I
hope everyone understands this decision I made as a
contribution to world peace” and player Gonzalo Higuain
said in an interview with ESPN “I think at the end we
were able to do the right thing.”</p>
<p>In July Adidas stopped sponsoring the Israel Football
Association (IFA). The decision came after over 130
Palestinian football clubs urged the company to end its
sponsorship to IFA, which includes clubs based in
settlements, "stolen land."</p>
<p><strong>4. Ireland's Ban of Goods Produced in Illegal
Israeli Settlements</strong></p>
<p>BDS secured another victory when in July, Ireland
became the first country to approve a ban on all trade
with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West
Bank.</p>
<p>The Irish senate approved the Occupied Territories
Bill. The Irish government opposed the legislation, but
25 independent and opposition lawmakers secured its
approval.</p>
<p><strong>5. Academics Turn Their Backs of Apartheid</strong></p>
<p>This May students of the Department of Philosophy and
Humanities of Chile’s largest public
university, Universidad de Chile, voted to endorse BDS. </p>
<p>As the Israeli army was shooting and
killing Palestinian protesters in Gaza and the United
States inaugurated their new embassy in the occupied
city of Jerusalem, students in Chile voted to sever ties
with the University of Tel Aviv and the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.</p>
<p>In the U.S., in September, a professor and a teaching
assistant from the University of Michigan denied writing
recommendation letters to two students whose destination
of the study was Israel. They cited BDS. </p>
<p>BDS supporters have faced growing criticism by Israeli
officials and Zionist organizations that insist in
accusing them of being anti-semitic. Pink Floyd’s former
member Roger Waters and BDS promoter has responded to
this accusations arguing that defending the human rights
of Palestinans cannot be called <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/BDS-Isnt-AntiSemitic-AntiSemitism-Is-Obscene-Roger-Waters-20180603-0009.html">anti-semitic</a>.</p>
<p>Its most symbolic endorsement this year was by
prominent Israeli theatre actor and director, Itay
Tiran, who came out in defense of the BDS movement in
September, calling it “a perfectly legitimate form of
resistance.”</p>
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