Merav Amir and Dalit Baum, both members of the Coalition of Women for Peace, describe their project ‘Who Profits from the Occupation?’: “As we complete our mapping, one fact becomes very clear: any clear-cut distinction between the Israeli economy as a whole and the economy of the occupation can no longer be justified. The Green Line border has all but disappeared from the corporate activity map…”

On 17 June 2010 Swansea City Council took the historic decision to bar future contracts with Veolia on the grounds of its illegal activities in the West Bank. It is the first resolution of its kind to have been passed by any UK authority making explicit its reasons for ruling out any future contracts with Veolia…

The quarrel that the ‘Jewish community’ has picked with the Methodist Church (see last week. “Methodist report carried”, at http://jfjfp.com/?p=14990) rumbles on. A JfJfP letter to the JC was not published but is reproduced here, together with a letter that did appear…

500 academics, including two former education ministers, have signed a protest petition following recent comments by Israel’s education minister, Gideon Saar, that the government intends to take action against those who support the campaign for BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions). While the vast majority of the signatories do not support an academic boycott of Israel, they have joined forces over what they regard as the latest assault on freedom of expression in Israel…

In the past two years I have been invited to take part in many conferences hosted by the American Anthropological Association …[on] the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… Alas, I have no plans to accept similar invitations in the future. In the past year, I have lost the conviction that I can truthfully speak for the current Israeli government’s suicidal behavior…
Plus a Haaretx story on the same topic: “Education Minister defends decision to penalize Israel professors who back boycott”.

Despite heavy pressure not to do so, the Methodist Church Conference overwhelmingly adopted a working group report on ‘Justice for Palestine and Israel’ which includes strong condemnation of the occupation, the settlements, the wall and the Gaza blockade…

Miri Weingarten writes: “A new “anti-boycott bill”, the third in a series of proposed laws that aim to curtail the ability of civil society to criticise Israeli government policy, will punish Israelis or foreign nationals who initiate or promote a boycott of Israel…” Under the proposed legislation, the EU would qualify as a “promoter of boycott”, and Israel could be seen to be breaking the terms of the EU-Israel Association Agreement…

Jeremiah Haber on why he feels the need to take Bernard Avishai, ‘one of few consistently interesting writers on Israel/Palestine on the left’ seriously when he uses economic considerations to oppose boycott and divestment – and why he disagrees with him…

Maariv business section reports that targeted boycott and divestment actions — Israeli, Palestinian and international — are pushing an increasing number of Israeli companies out of the West Bank settlements and into Israeli proper:..

Stéphane Frédéric Hessel is a diplomat, former ambassador and French resistance fighter who participated in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.
He writes: “Non-violent citizen-led initiatives, exemplified by the Flotilla and the various boycott and divestment campaigns around the world, present the most promising way to overcome the failure of world governments to stand up to Israel’s intransigence and lawless behavior…”