This is a guest-post by Gavin Gross

I was at Elton John’s sold-out concert last night at Ramat Gan stadium, and thought this greeting he delivered was spot-on and deserves wide distribution.

Elton told the crowd that he was happy to be back in Israel (he played here in 1993), and in a reference to anti-Israel boycotters who called on him to cancel the show, proudly proclaimed “ain’t nobody gonna stop us from coming here.” He said that as a musician his job was to spread love and peace, and that “we don’t cherry-pick our conscience,” a line for which he received extended applause.

I took this to be a sharp dig at the hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness of figures in the West who focus their ire almost exclusively on Israel, and particularly at his fellow musicians who have recently cancelled their shows here, such as Elvis Costello, the Pixies, Gil Scott-Heron and others.

How many musicians have cancelled their concerts in America because of the thousands of civilians the U.S. military has killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and in drone attacks in Pakistan?

This is a guest-post from Stop the Boycott

• UCU Congress begins this weekend, running from 30th May – 1st June, in Manchester
• This year, UCU Congress will debate three motions that relate to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

• The first of these, SFC14, encourages the Union to build links with Palestinian academics and unions

• The second motion, SFC15, is called “Palestinian Solidarity, BDS, and Histadrut”
• It reaffirms UCU’s support for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel “within legal constraints”
• It forces UCU to establish and fund a “research centre into complicity with Israeli breaches”, a BDS website, and an annual pro-boycott conference
• It demands UCU severs all ties with the Histadrut, the Israeli TUC
• An amendment to this motion would refer the decision on Histadrut to a special committee

• The third motion, SFC16 “Ariel and West Bank Colonisation”, formally starts the procedure to institute an academic boycott against Ariel College

• Additionally, a motion SFC17, called “UCU invitation to Bongani Masuku of South Africa”, comes from Oxford University’s UCU branch
• It was submitted in response to UCU’s invitation of Bongani Masuku to a UCU boycott conference this winter
• It dissociates UCU from his views and actions, and formally censures those who invited Masuku to the conference

• Stop the Boycott’s 2007 polling showed that the Union’s membership is largely moderate and neutral on the Middle East
• However, UCU Congress is always unrepresentatively hostile to Israel and has a record of supporting discriminatory policies

• If the motion “Palestinian Solidarity, BDS, and Histadrut” passes, UCU will be converting itself from a Trade Union into am organisation focused on promoting division and discrimination
• Sally Hunt holds the international portfolio on the Trades Union Congress’ General Council
• She cannot hold this position, which requires her to work closely with the Histadrut, while her Union is undermining these ties

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Last week we highlighted PSC’s new boycott campaign, and how its publicity was targeting some companies whose only link to Israel is to have Jewish owners.

Yesterday the PSC quietly amended the advert for their campaign.

Spot the difference:

Before

After

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is the leading organisation pushing the boycott of Israel in the UK.

Its website currently has a graphic (below) which says “Get Involved: Boycott Israeli Goods”. The words are on top of the logos of various companies which people are supposed to boycott.

PSC's boycott graphic - Click for larger version

What are these companies? Some are a bit unclear, but we could recognise the following names or logos:

Continue reading ‘Who does PSC want you to boycott?’ »

Once again the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is targeting Israeli goods in Waitrose and now Tesco. Their campaign will take place during the week beginning 9th January, and we need your help to limit the effect of the calls for a boycott. The PSC are likely to send emails and letters to Waitrose and Tesco, hold demonstrations outside local stores, and inundate their Head Offices with phone calls.

It seems clear that these campaigns will be ongoing and supporters of Israel need to respond.

To join the BUYcott facebook group, Click here.

Continue reading ‘Buycott at Waitrose and Tesco’ »