divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli Apartheid in North
America took place in Toronto last weekend. The final press release from
the conference is included below - a report will be coming out shortly.
Members of Tadamon! Montreal participated & mobilized other Montrealers to
attend the Toronto conference. Tadamon! also hosted Jamal Juma for a public
event & series of meetings in Montreal. Juma is a spokesperson for the Stop
the Wall Campaign, based in the occupied West Bank, & was featured as a
key-note speaker at the landmark Toronto conference.
* To listen to an audio interview with Jamal Juma recorded at CKUT Radio
in Montreal visit: http://tadamon.resist.ca/index.php/?p=250
Tadamon! Montreal will be actively organizing in Montreal as part of the
growing campaign against Israeli Apartheid, through popular
education, political action & community organizing. If you are interested in
getting involved, please contact us.
in Solidarity, - Tadamon! Montreal
http://tadamon.resist.ca / tadamon[at]resist.ca / +1 514 690 8499
******
(Official press release from the Conference Organizers)
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign against Israeli Apartheid Moves
Forward as 600 People Attend Landmark Conference in Toronto
October 9, 2006
(Toronto, October 9, 2006) -- Over 600 people attended the landmark
conference, Boycotting Israeli Apartheid: The Struggle Continues, held from
6-8 October in Toronto, Canada. The conference represents a watershed moment
in the Palestinian solidarity movement, with leading anti-apartheid
activists from Palestine, South Africa, Canada and England addressing the
way forward in the global campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions.
Jamal Juma, coordinator of the Stop the Wall Campaign in Palestine, told
the opening night that the burgeoning boycott, divestment and sanctions
(BDS) movement represents a powerful and practical act of solidarity with
the Palestinian struggle. He emphasized that this movement would succeed as
it had in South Africa, "We promise you we will not give up. We will stand
firm on our land; Israeli apartheid will fall."
Salim Vally, chair of the Palestine Solidarity Committee in South Africa,
gave a powerful analysis of Israeli apartheid and its resemblance to the
South African situation. He stressed that the solidarity movement to isolate
the South African apartheid regime was built by grassroots and popular
forces organized throughout the world. That same challenge faces the
Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions movement today.
Betty Hunter, General Secretary of the UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and
Jonathan Rosenhead, Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics and
member of the British Committee for Universities in Palestine, spoke to the
conference on the lessons of Palestine solidarity work in England.
Discussions focused on the boycott campaign launched by British academics
against Israeli apartheid as well as the growing support amongst British
trade unionists for a BDS campaign.
The conference was organized by the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
(CAIA), a broad movement formed in response to the call by 171 Palestinian
civil-society organizations in July 2005 for the international community to
implement a comprehensive boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) strategy
against apartheid Israel as the focal point of solidarity efforts with the
Palestinian people.
The conference developed a detailed program to move the BDS campaign forward
in different sectors. Over 75 people attended a lively session on labor and
the campaign against Israeli apartheid, in which veteran anti-apartheid
activists from the South African struggle presented lessons on how to build
support for the campaign among workers and in trade unions. A Canada-wide
student network was launched to deepen the BDS movement on campuses across
the country. Individuals from different areas throughout Toronto formed
neighborhood committees to carry the campaign forward at a local level.
Workshops were also held on media, research, art and cultural boycott, and
faith-based communities.
Robert Lovelace, Co-Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, closed the
conference with a powerful comparison of the experience of colonialism in
Canada and Palestine. He expressed his solidarity with the Palestinian
movement for self-determination, and pledged to continue to strengthen the
links between indigenous activists in Canada and the Palestine solidarity
movement.
To become involved in the campaign against Israeli apartheid, contact CAIA
at endapartheid@riseup.net or through www.caiaweb.org.
- 30 -
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid - MEDIA
(647) 831-5516
media@caiaweb.org
www.caiaweb.org
