Below is a letter published in March by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network that endorses the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
The letter was issued in response to a February 15 statement by Zionist (pro-Israel) groups that said the BDS campaign was anti-Semitic and 鈥渁ntithetical to freedom of speech鈥.
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Because academic, cultural and commercial boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israel:
鈥 are being called for by Palestinian civil society in response to the occupation and colonisation of their land,
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When Australian Football League player Nathan Lovett-Murray was growing up, his favourite record was 鈥淏lack Boy鈥 by Coloured Stone. 鈥淏lack boy,鈥 goes the song, 鈥渂lack boy/The colour of your skin is your pride and joy/Black boy/Black boy/Your life is not destroyed.鈥 Lovett-Murray still marvels at its power.
Residents on Camp Road, Broadmeadows, were surprised to see 300 people marching down their street on April 2, calling for an end to the mandatory detention of asylum seekers. The march ended with a rally at the Broadmeadows detention centre, known as Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation.
About 150 young asylum seekers between the ages of 13 and 17 are held in this centre. All of them are unaccompanied: meaning that they have no families with them.
鈥淎s Palestinians were preparing for their weekend this Thursday afternoon,鈥 ElectronicIntifada.net said on April 7, 鈥渁ll of a sudden barrages of Israeli artillery fire and air raids by warplanes struck several regions of the Gaza Strip鈥.
鈥淔ive Palestinians were killed and about thirty more injured. Israeli shells struck farm land, homes, a mosque and an ambulance.鈥
Israel has threatened to escalate its military assault on the Gaza Strip. ElectronicIntifada.net said on April 4 that more than 20 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli attacks since the start of March.
The Australian鈥檚 pro Israel bias
The letter below was sent to The Australian on March 8.
How apt that The Australian (7/4/2011) has front page photos of placards demanding 鈥楽top the massacre in Gaza鈥 and 鈥楽top killing children鈥 and then Israel launched a new massacre (Operation Scorching Summer) of Palestinians in Gaza the next morning.
At an insurance public forum attended by more than 150 people in Ipswich on April 5, victims of the Brisbane floods of early January shouted, sobbed and pleaded for help from elected council and federal representatives, and the head of the Insurance Council of Australia, Rob Whelan.
The suicide of Mohammed Asif Atay in Curtin detention centre on March 28 was 鈥渢ragic news鈥 to Prime Minister Julia Gillard. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure all Australians hearing this news would feel very sorry,鈥 she said on March 29.
He was the sixth known refugee to die in detention in the past seven months and one of hundreds of refugees suffering under the system of mandatory detention.
Refugee advocates told 91自拍论坛 Weekly that self-harm happened daily at the Curtin detention centre.
The Israeli feminist organisation Coalition of Women for Peace released an open letter to Justice Richard Goldstone on April 6. It is published below. It is in response to Goldstone鈥檚 recent statements retracting some of the findings of the United Nations-commissioned Goldstone report into Israel鈥檚 2008-09 war on Gaza that were critical of Israel. It is abridged from Coalitionofwomen.org.
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Dear Justice Richard Goldstone,
Michael Arnold was born in country Victoria. He became politically active in Perth when he was 15. This was when he joined the socialist youth organisation Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Party.
When he was in his twenties, Arnold became active in the Harm Reduction Movement. He set up Rave Safe in Melbourne in the 1990s and produced a magazine called Flying Frequencies for the Harm Reduction Movement.
Arnold was also active in community radio, producing a program for Harm Reduction on 3CR Community Radio, and being a DJ on PBS.
Below is an extract of a letter Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent to the student leaders at UC Berkeley in March 2010 regarding Berkeley鈥檚 decision to divest from Israel.
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I am writing to tell you that, despite what detractors may allege, you are doing the right thing. You are doing the moral thing. You are doing that which is incumbent on you as humans who believe that all people have dignity and rights, and that all those being denied their dignity and rights deserve the solidarity of their fellow human beings.
Transport Workers Union national secretary, Tony Sheldon, has condemned Qantas鈥檚 training of overseas strikebreakers after the company鈥檚 chief executive, Alan Joyce, admitted to the practice in media reports.
Sheldon said in an April 5 media release: 鈥淭hey really need to come clean on who they are training, who is doing the training and why it has to be done in secret in another country? Why are they hiding it around the other side of the world?
One hundred and thirty people packed out a room in the Crowne Plaza hotel to hear traditional owners and nuclear experts call for the closure of the Ranger uranium mine in the world heritage-listed Kakadu national park.
Yvonne Margarula condemned the mine for its presence on land that is sacred to her people 鈥 the Mirrar people. 鈥淭he promises never last,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut the problems always do.鈥
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