The trade treaty that threatens democracy and the right to boycott
This posting has these items:
1) Project Censored author TTIP Threatens International BDS Campaign against Israel;
2) Popular Resistance: Pro-Israel Clause Added To Trade Debate Unanimously;
3) Times of Israel: Congress moves to pressure Europe against BDS steps;
4) EU Observer: US to vote on pro-Israeli provisions in EU free trade, the legislation could tie EU-US free trade to prevention of EU action on Israeli settlements.;
5) Notes and Links includes Petition against TTIP and a few of the many links to other articles on the TTIP;
Stop the Trojan treaty – Brussels February 4th, 2015. Photo by Lode Saidane, Friends of the Earth Europe
TTIP Threatens International BDS Campaign against Israel
From Project Censored (The news that didn’t make the news)
March 18, 2015
A proposed US-Israel Trade and Commercial Enhancement Act presented to Congress on 10 February by Representatives Peter Roskam (R-IL) and Juan Vargas (D-CA) is designed to “counter the BDS movement against Israel and strengthen the US-Israel economic relationship.” Reporting for the Electronic Intifada, Ryvka Barnard and John Hilary analyze how the proposed US-Israel trade bill might combine with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is currently under negotiation by the European Union (EU) and the US, to “compel all 28 EU member states to crack down on European groups participating in the growing movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
According to the congressmen, the US bill would “ensure that American free trade partners never engage in this harmful and illegitimate political protest against Israel, while also protecting US companies from foreign lawsuits targeting their associations with Israel.” The bill is specifically linked to any and all persons, or groups of persons, that prohibit or opt out of business deals with Israel or Israeli controlled territories. This would ultimately grant immunity to and allow continuance of Israel’s operations in Palestinian territories such as their violent occupation of the West Bank. “In order to combat the increasing isolation of Israel in global public opinion,” Barnard and Hilary write, “European governments would effectively be turned into police agents for the US state.”
The TTIP is controversial in Europe, with many opposed to its ratification on grounds that it will significantly enhance corporate power. However, US-Israeli lobbyists and political figures are actively pushing for its enactment. Critics fear that the TTIP will subvert governmental protections, including labor rights and environmental regulations, and undermine democracy by legitimizing the extension of US surveillance programs to include Europe nations. As Barnard and Hilary conclude, “The introduction of this new anti-BDS bill in the context of the TTIP negotiations is a clear statement that anyone entering into trade agreements with the US must expect to forfeit their right to express solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
Source: Ryvka Barnard and John Hilary, “How EU-US Trade Deal Could Thwart ‘Boycott Israel’ Campaign,”
Pro-Israel Clause Added To Trade Debate Unanimously
By Sarah Lazare, Popular Resistance
April 24, 2015
U.S. lawmakers are quietly advancing legislation that would penalize international participation in the growing movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction (BDS) Israel for human rights abuses against Palestinians.
With little notice, anti-BDS directives were injected into the “Fast Track” legislation that passed the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday night, despite broad opposition to the bill, which gives the administration of President Barack Obama authority to ram though so-called “free trade” deals.
‘We’ll fight them on their TTIP breaches’ Bob Cardin, Democrat, here addressing AIPAC March 1, 2015, Photo by Cliff Owen/AP.
An amendment, included in the bill and sponsored by Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), stipulates that, as a principle of trade negotiations, the U.S. should put pressure on other countries not to engage in BDS against Israel of any kind, including refusal to do business with settlements.
The passed amendment has not yet been made public, but Josh Ruebner, policy director for the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, told Common Dreams that Cardin’s office confirmed that the language was based on the Senate legislation S.619, which states:
To include among the principal trade negotiating objectives of the United States regarding commercial partnerships trade negotiating objectives with respect to discouraging activity that discourages, penalizes, or otherwise limits commercial relations with Israel, and for other purposes.
“They tried to sneak it through,” said Ruebner, explaining that the Campaign only found out about the legislation late Monday afternoon through “happenstance.”
According to Ruebner, the legislation is a “centrepiece” of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) policy agenda and likely targets theTransatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement, currently under negotiation between the United States and European Union, which would also be affected by Fast Track legislation.
“This is putting pressure on the U.S. Trade Representative and whoever else is doing the negotiating to discourage attempts to enforce the European Union’s guidelines of not doing business with Israeli settlements,” he said.
This federal push is not only taking place in the Senate.
A similar piece of legislation was submitted last month to the House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. The United States-Israel Trade and Commercial Enhancement Act (H.R. 825) would require the U.S., in trade agreements, to “discourage politically motivated actions to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel and to seek the elimination of politically motivated non-tariff barriers on Israeli commerce.”
The potential implications of such legislation extend far beyond the ongoing negotiations with the EU, as its language refers to all trade agreements.
Furthermore, it appears to be part of a nation-wide strategy to pass legislation at the state and federal level to criminalize the call for BDS, which emerged from Palestinian civil society organizations in 2005 in a bid to win self-determination and freedom from occupation, using tactics similar to those levied to transform apartheid South Africa.
The U.S.-based organization Jewish Voice for Peace released a statement on Thursday condemning the advance of the legislation in the Senate: “From South Africa to the grape boycott to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) tactics have been essential tools used to create a more just society.”
But some say that the legislative push at the national level may, in fact, be an indication of the growing power of BDS movements.
Rabbi Joseph Berman, federal policy organizer for JVP, declared, “This legislation, which actually encourages illegal settlement building while strengthening the far right in Israel, shows that BDS is an increasingly powerful means to challenge Israel’s impunity when it comes to Palestinian rights.”
Photo: Popularresistance.org
German farmers and consumer rights activists take part in a march to protest against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), mass husbandry and genetic engineering in Berlin, January 17, 2015. Photo by Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
Congress moves to pressure Europe against BDS steps
Amendments in Senate and House to bill on historic US-EU trade deal reject actions targeting Israel
By Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, Times of Israel
April 23, 2015
WASHINGTON — The powerful Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday unanimously adopted language targetting European anti-Israel activities as part of negotiations over a historic trade deal with the EU.
The amendment to the authorization for negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will add the discouragement of BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) actions as a principal objective for US envoys in the talks with Europe.
The committee voted in a roll-call vote to approve the amendment stating that the “principal negotiating objectives of the United States regarding commercial partnerships” include to “discourage actions by potential trading partners that directly or indirectly prejudice or otherwise discourage commercial activity solely between the United States and Israel” as well as “discourage politically motivated actions to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel and to seek the elimination of politically motivated non-tariff barriers on Israeli goods, services, or other commerce imposed on the State of Israel.” The US would also “seek the elimination of state-sponsored unsanctioned foreign boycotts against Israel or compliance with the Arab League Boycott of Israel by prospective trading partners.”
The amendment will come to a floor vote when the Senate votes on the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), the underlying bill. The administration is pushing hard for the TPA, which is expected to come to a vote as early as next week and has bipartisan support.
The amendment only applies to the TTIP negotiations with Europe, and not the companion Trans-Pacific Partnership talks — a response, sponsors say, to a tide of BDS-related initiatives in the European countries with which the US hopes to negotiate a historic agreement.
“Unfortunately, some of our European allies are engaged in (BDS)”, one of the amendment’s two original sponsors in the senate, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), told colleagues before the late Wednesday vote. “Banks from from Sweden, Denmark and the largest pension fund in the Netherlands have divested from israel’s financial institutions. Denmark has actually threatened sanctions against Israel unless the Israeli government takes actions with regard to Gaza. There was a threat in the European Union to boycott meat and dairy products from certain areas of Israel depending how those products are labeled.”
Republican Senator Rob Portman waves goodbe to evil EUropean boycotters as he addressses the Republican National Convention. Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
In order for the free-trade deal with the EU to be brought to fruition, Congress must pass legislation enabling the president to negotiate such a deal. Such authorization comes with a series of major objectives for negotiations — and the Senate vote makes it likely that rejection of BDS will be one of them.
The stakes are high for the Europeans — EU estimates suggest that such an accord could add some 0.5 percent to the EU’s annual economic output.
The amendment’s sponsors say that there is ample precedent for such legislation. Senator Portman noted that in his previous role as a US trade representative, he negotiated key deals with Bahrain and Oman that required that both countries reject boycotts of Israel.
“From the time it was founded, Israel has been the target of a lot of attacks from militaries and terrorist groups but now there’s also this other attack,” said Portman. BDS, he said, “is in some ways more pernicious because it is economic warfare.”
“Other countries have attempted to weaken one of our strongest allies and embolden Israel’s enemies and have done so by this campaign that says somehow we should isolate Israel,” he added. “Fortunately these kinds of campaigns and boycotts have been beaten back before.”
When Saudi Arabia sought to join the World Trade Agreement, the kingdom had to grant Most Favored Nation status to all other members, including Israel.
Although the amendment sailed through the committee with a 26-0, it was not without its detractors. Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, condemned the amendment in an essay in the Baltimore Sun — the local newspaper for the bill’s other sponsor, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland).
“Senator Cardin’s initiative would effectively tie the hands of US trade negotiators by requiring them to defend Israel’s violations of international law,” Munayyer complained.
“The European Union has been moving in the direction of a stronger stance against Israel’s half-century long occupation and pro-Israel interest groups would like to use US trade policy to prevent this,” he added. “These interest groups have unfortunately succeeded in enlisting Senator Cardin in their cause of defending Israel’s heinous practices even at the expense of free speech and US business interests.”
The House of Representatives is expected to vote in the coming days on parallel legislation, which is identical in its wording to the Senate bill. The House sponsors, Representatives Peter Roskam (R-Illinois) and Juan Vargas (D-California), have been working for almost a year on preparing legislation to combat BDS.
The original House version of the bill contained a number of other provisions, including language that established as US policy opposition to politically motivated actions by states or international institutions that penalize or otherwise limit commercial relations specifically with Israel. It also prohibited American courts from recognizing or enforcing judgments made by a foreign court against US companies for the sole reason that such companies were conducting business in Israel.
The bill was pared down, its sponsors said, in the interest of getting it through Congress more quickly. The remaining section, they said, represents the heart of the original bill, and they hope that the identical House version will pass easily this week.
Protest outside Manchester Town Hall, 18 April 2015. Photo by Jonathan Nicholson / Demotix
US to vote on pro-Israeli provisions in EU free trade
By Andrew Rettmen, EU Observer
May 12, 2015
BRUSSELS The US Senate [on May 12th began] voting on legislation which could tie EU-US free trade to prevention of EU action on Israeli settlements.
One of the two items, the Israel Trade and Commercial Enhancement Act, instructs the US Trade Representative, to “utilise free trade negotiations to discourage potential trade partners from participating in or promoting politically motivated acts of BDS [boycotts, divestment, and sanctions] against Israel”.
The second one, the US-Israel Trade Enhancement Act, obliges the US to “discourage politically motivated actions by foreign countries” and “international organisations … that are intended to penalise or limit commercial relations with Israel”.
The legislation was introduced by Republican and Democratic party senators: Peter Roskam; Juan Vargas; Rob Portman; and Ben Cardin.
It’s being tied to Congressional approval of the Trade Promotion Authority bill, which allows the White House to fast-track passage of the EU-US free trade treaty, also known as TTIP.
A source in Washington, who asked not to be named, told EUobserver, the initiatives were set in motion “following reports that European countries are considering additional labelling of West Bank settlement products”.
He added that “passage of these provisions as part of the larger trade bill would legislate US protection for illegal Israeli settlements and constitute a massive reversal of US policy” on countering settlement expansion.
Israel, last week, announced plans to build 900 new homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in East Jerusalem, on the Palestinian side of the 1967 border.
The move is part of a surge in settlement expansion under Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, which, the EU said on 8 May, “not only threatens the viability of the two-state solution but also seriously calls into question its [Israel’s] commitment to a negotiated agreement with the Palestinians”.
The EU added that it’s “committed to ensure continued, full and effective implementation of existing EU legislation … applicable to settlements”.
The statement refers to European Commission work on an EU code on labelling settlement products in European shops in order to help consumers boycott them if they want to.
For her part, Maja Kocjiancic, a spokeswoman for the EU foreign service, told EUobserver “there is no boycott, but the EU is bound to implement its legislation, including regarding rules of origin and labelling”.
Israel sees things differently, however.
“It’s clear that BDS organisations draw support from measures such as labelling and use them to validate BDS arguments”, an Israeli source told this website.
Gaza
The EU’s mounting frustration with Israel is also linked to violence in Gaza.
Israel, in Operation Protective Edge, an air and ground assault on the strip last summer, killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, injured 10,000, and forced half a million people to flee their homes.
Sixty six Israeli soldiers and five civilians were also killed.
EU foreign ministers at the time said Israel “has the right to protect its population” from Gaza rocket fire so long as it acts “proportionately”.
But testimony from Israeli soldiers, published earlier this month by the Jerusalem-based NGO Breaking the Silence (BtS), indicates it didn’t.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) reservists and regulars said they were allowed to kill civilians in the conflict zone even if they posed no threat.
One first sergeant told the NGO: “The idea was, if you spot something – shoot … Whether it posed a threat or not wasn’t a question, and that makes sense to me. If you shoot someone in Gaza it’s cool, no big deal”.
Indiscriminate shelling by Israeli tanks and artillery also contributed to the high number of civilian dead.
A first sergeant in the armoured corps described one attack on the neighbourhood of al-Bureij: “All the tanks were standing in a row, and I personally asked my commander: ‘Where are we firing at?’ He told me: ‘Pick wherever you feel like it’.”
Another tank corps sergeant said that, three weeks into the ground incursion, gunners got bored and started trying to hit cyclists for fun.
“Suddenly I saw a cyclist, just happily pedaling along. I said OK, that guy I’m taking down. I calibrated the range, and didn’t hit – it hit a bit ahead of him and then suddenly he starts pedaling like crazy, because he was being shot at, and the whole tank crew is cracking up, ‘Wow, look how fast he is’.”
So what?
For the Israeli authorities the BtS revelations mean little.
The IDF said the NGO’s report doesn’t constitute legal evidence because the soldiers’ statements are anonymous.
An EU diplomatic source noted that the Gaza testimony “won’t cause a crisis” in EU-Israel relations.
“You might see a reference to it in a paragraph in the next European Neighbourhood Policy report on Israel”, he said.
But he added that “EU states will be watching to make sure Israel and the UN conduct a proper investigation” into other complaints related to the Gaza war.
Notes and Links
38 degrees petition, 1,958,082,signatures at time of posting.
THE PETITION TEXT:
To the European UnionWe call on the institutions of the European Union and its member states to stop the negotiations with the USA on the- (TTIP) and not to ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada.
We want to prevent TTIP and CETA because they include several critical issues such as investor-state dispute settlement and rules on regulatory co-operation that pose a threat to democracy and the rule of law. We want to prevent lowering of standards concerning employment, social, environmental, privacy and consumers and the deregulation of public services (such as water) and cultural assets from being deregulated in non-transparent negotiations. The ECI (European Citizen’s Initiative) supports an alternative trade and investment policy in the EU.
Stop TTIP uk, on Facebook
London: Occupy London protesters say ‘no’ to TTIP agreement
12 September 2014, Protesters gathered in London outside the offices of the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills to rally against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on September 12, 2014.
Activists at the emergency demonstration organised by Occupy London are concerned that the secretive agreement will give more power to corporations, particularly in the healthcare industry.
See also Why we’re protesting against TTIP, Rob Edwards, Sunday Herald, Scotland and TTIP: the ugly acronym that mobilised a mass movement.
Divestment and Sanctions movement
Amendments in the House and Senate target the BDS movement. It must be doing something rightBy David Palumbo Liu, Salon May 7th, 2015
What is TTIP? And six reasons why the answer should scare you
The trade negotiations are an assault on democracy. I would vote against them except… hang on a minute, I can’tThe Independent, October 2014.
TTIP: A Threat to democracy, standards and jobs, Global Justice Now (formerly WDM, World Development Movement).
In Stealth Move, Congress Backs Israeli Right’s War on Settlement Boycotts
By J.J. Goldberg, Jewish Forward, April 24th, 2015
AIPAC behind new US/EU trade legislation designed to thwart BDS
Annie Robbins, Mondoweiss, February 11, 2015
