*Why you should join the BDS campaign > Meet Saturday the 14th of August 10 AM Post Office Square.*
Three weeks ago about 30 Palestine solidarity activists disrupted the normal days business of the Israeli Dead Sea Cosmetic company Seacret. The Apartheid system restricts Palestinian access to the Dead Sea with checkpoints, Israeli only roads and closed military zones. In the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea Palestinian land has been occupied by colonists and Palestinians are routinely evicted from their homes and their houses demolished.
The youtube video of the Brisbane action has been viewed over 3700 times by people mostly in Australia but also in significant numbers by people in Palestine/Israel, the USA and many other countries such as Ireland, South Africa, and Egypt.
Watch it here
The action was recorded by the ABC but not broadcast as the election was called that day. In the last three weeks individual supporters of the Boycott have also challenged the Seacret stalls at various locations around Brisbane and also at some of it stalls interstate.
The local BDS strategy is to focus the initial campaign on a single product and try and make and impact on the sales of that product while also raising awareness of the broader BDS campaign. In the spirit of the weekly actions that take place across Palestine against the Apartheid Wall, house demolitions, closures and sieges, actions are proposed to occur about every six weeks at various locations and take less then 2 hours to unfold.
The idea is to provide and avenue for a proactive ongoing expression of solidarity with the people of Palestine, not just mobilisations in times of crisis. The grassroots boycott campaign also works along side BDS initiatives in the Unions and other institutions such as the National Council of Churches in Australia (which recently passed a BDS motion).
In Queensland the QTU and the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) recently joined the CFMEU and ETU and passed BDS motions.
http://auspalestine.org/news/
Just over five years ago the people of Palestine made a call for international solidarity and support.
It is time for the ordinary people of Australia to honour the BDS call with ongoing and determined activity.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=dk-jmti_F4U]
Sunday, August 08, 2010What Leftwing Organizers don’t tell their female “peace” activists
Posted by JoeSettler at 8/08/2010 02:29:00 AM
If you happen to get emails from the radical left telling you when and where the Friday protests are going to be (like I do), you’ll have noticed that they’ve been telling (“asking” according to some organizers) female participants to dress modestly at the protests in Sheikh Jarrah, Bi’ilin and other places. No tanks tops, no shorts, etc.
Please note that appropriate dress, including pants that go down to your ankles and shirts that do not show your chest would be greatly appreciated.
For more information contact:
Some leftwing female protest are upset with this openly anti-feminist, sexist attitude and demands of the organizers. It’s becoming a dividing issue between the various leftist groups and protesters who regularly show up to protest the existence of Israel, the settlers, the fence, or whatever they claim it is about that day and place.
The female protesters have been told that it for cultural sensitivity reasons. The Arabs are from a more modest culture. The Arab elders are afraid the Arab youth will be corrupted. Blah Blah Blah.
Unfortunately, what they’re being told is a lie. The real reason is far more insidious.
Back in July, Ha’aretz reported the story of a former Arab convict named Alladin who would find these young female peace activist staying in nearby villages, he would tell them he was on the run from the Shabak (Israel security), and ask them to hide him.
These young female dupes would of course be happy to help an Arab on the lam from the Israeli authorities and let him sleep in their rooms.
So far one girl initially came forward about the attempted rape against her. She was found wandering the village of Umm Salmuna (near Bethlehem) in a state of shock, so who knows if the attempt actually failed. But in the end retracted her story due to pressure to “not hurt the cause”.
Pressure that came from the PA and the leftwing protest organizers.
Haaretz had learned that representatives of both the popular protest movement and the PA have since applied pressure on the American peace activist as to prevent her from making the story public.
The story could have ended there, except that there’s more.
Apparently, quite a number of female protesters have been sexually assaulted and molested by the Arabs they are protesting for.
One attack occurred just recently in Bil’in.
After the army fired smoke gas towards the rioting crowd of “peace” activists and Arabs, the protesters ran. One Arab decisively used the smoke cover as an opportunity to sexually assault one of the more seasoned female activists.
The problem has gotten so bad, that some female protesters have stopped showing up to the protests.
What’s going on here is that Rachel C. (name randomly picked to illustrate the point) calls her friends telling them she going out to protest for the Arabs, meanwhile Alladin calls up his friends in the village and tells then he knows where they can get easy women. And everyone show up with some very different expectations, but with Alladin and friends apparently getting what they came for.
Two months ago, some of the radical leftwing organizers started running secret workshops.
The workshops are organized by the radically left Dr. Yvonne Deutch and Dorit Gorny.
The subject?
“How to deal with sexual harassment during direct activities against the occupation”.
The workshop is for female and transgender activists. (Seriously, it says that.)
The document isn’t available online to the public, but can be found in the Google cache.
The stated goal of the workshop is how to deal with the sexual assaults and harassment of activists at the Friday solidarity protests.
You’ll note that this workshop was announced in the beginning of June. Almost 3 months ago. They’ve been aware of this problem for a long time already.
And if rape and sexual assault weren’t enough, one female Arab from of Sheikh Jarrah has been telling the protesters to stop bringing their Gay Pride flags to the protest because they don’t like gays and she would like to kick them all out of the country. I assume the protester she told this to was gay.
Where once the Arabs would only say these activists are their dogs while the leftists (if they understood the Arabic) would have no problems with the put-down, it has gone way beyond that now.
Rape and sexual assault are serious issues, but these leftists organizers have been knowingly expanding the boundaries of what it means to be a tool. And these foolish protesters who keep showing up to help the “victims of the occupation”, learn quickly enough that these “victims”aren’t interested in their protesting as much as they are interested in simply using the activists for personal gratification.
Dr. Yvonne, according to the workshop description, blames it on the occupation, and the activists not knowing enough about boundaries and personal/group responsibility.
For someone protesting against a security fence meant to keep out Arab suicide bombers from killing innocent civilians, I’d say these protesters and organizers know nothing about boundaries at all.