Over 100 orgs call for boycott of "Israel at 60" celebrations

The "Boycott-Divest-Sanctions" National Committee has called for a boycott of celebrations planned by Zionist regime to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Israel's fake creation in 1948.  

104 organizations have signed on to the appeal, including civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, trade unions, popular committees and political organizations.  

The appeal challenges the celebration of the creation of Zionist regime, saying that the project of regime is a colonial project that completely disenfranchised the indigenous Palestinian population.  

In addition, the appeal urges “international civil society in all its components, particularly institutions and individuals working in the arts, academia, sport, trade unions, and communities of faith” to boycott any events associated with the “Israel at 60” celebrations. The appeal states that support of these events undermines the Palestinian resistance, while strengthening the Israeli Occupation’s hold on Palestine.  

The following is the text of the appeal, and the list of signatories:   

Palestinian Appeal to International Civil Society  

Sixty Years of Dispossession and Ethnic Cleansing  

Boycott the "Israel at 60" Celebrations!  

30 March 2008  

How can you celebrate? The establishment of the State of Israel sixty years ago was a settler-colonial project that systematically and violently uprooted more than 750 thousand Palestinian Arabs from their lands and homes. Sixty years ago, Zionist militias and gangs ransacked Palestinian properties and destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages. How can people of conscience celebrate this catastrophe.   

Israel at 60 is a state that continues to deny Palestinian refugees their UN-sanctioned right to return to their homes and receive compensation, simply because they are "non-Jews." It still illegally occupies Palestinian and other Arab lands, in violation of numerous UN resolutions. It persists in its blatant denial of fundamental Palestinian human rights, in contravention of international humanitarian law and human rights conventions. It still subjects its own Palestinian citizens to a system of institutionalized discrimination, strongly reminiscent of the defunct apartheid regime in South Africa. And Israel gets away with all this, thanks to the unprecedented immunity granted to it by the unlimited and munificent US and European economic, diplomatic, political, and academic support.   

In view of this multi-faceted oppression that is the reality of Israel today, we regard any Arab or international participation, whether individual or institutional, in any activity that contributes, either directly or indirectly, to the "celebrations" of Israel's establishment, as collusion in the perpetuation of the dispossession and uprooting of refugees, the prolongation of the occupation, and the deepening of Israeli apartheid. Inviting Israel as a "guest of honor" to the Turin and Paris book fairs, for example, is not only a deliberate betrayal of basic principles of human rights, including those enshrined in the laws of the European Union itself, but is also a deliberate attempt to cover up Israel's crimes against the Arab people, especially its successive war crimes in Lebanon and Palestine, and its acts of slow genocide against a million and a half Palestinians in the besieged and collectively punished Gaza Strip. In short, celebrating "Israel at 60" is tantamount to dancing on Palestinian graves.  

We urge international civil society in all its components, particularly institutions and individuals working in the arts, academia, sport, trade unions, and communities of faith to boycott the "Israel at 60" celebrations wherever they are held in the world. These celebrations, by definition, insult our history, violate our rights, and deepen our oppression. They also render the path to justice, freedom, equality, and sustainable peace based on international law longer than ever before.  

 Institutional Endorsers:

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)  

Department of Refugee Affairs - PLO  

Beit Ul Moqaddas-The Arab Cultural Capital Project, Beit Ul Moqaddas  

Higher National Committee for the Defense of the Right to Return  

The General Union of Palestinian Women  

Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, PGFTU  

Palestinian Farmers' Union  

Popular Committee Against the Siege (PCAS), Gaza 

Federation of Palestinian Refugee Camp Youth Centers 

Higher National Committee for the Commemoration of the Nakba, Palestine  

Refugee Affairs Department, Mobilization and Organization, Fatah Movement 

Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) 

Ittijah-Union of the Arab Community Based Organizations, Haifa  

Palestinian Lawyers' Syndicate  

Palestinian Journalists' Association, Beit Ul Moqaddas 

Palestinian Engineers' Syndicate, Beit Ul Moqaddas 

Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, UPWC, Ramallah  

Stop the Wall-the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign  

Union of Employees at Private Schools-West Bank  

Association of Residents of Depopulated Villages and Cities, Ramallah

 General Federation of Cultural Centers, Gaza  

Beit Ul Moqaddas Center for Social & Economic Rights JCSER, Beit Ul Moqaddas 

Federation of Independent Workers Committees, Gaza

 League of Palestinian Refugees in Europe  

BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Beit lahm  

Occupied Palestine Golan heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI)  

Al-Aswar Organization for Cultural and Social Development, Acre 

University Teachers Association, Gaza  

Joint Advocacy Initiative of the YMCA-YWCA (JAI), Beit Ul Moqaddas  

General Union of Health Service Workers, Gaza  

Aida Refugee Camp Social Center, Aida Refugee Camp  

A'idoun Group, Syria  

Palestinian Community in Scandinavia  

Canadian Arab Federation  

Palestinian Counseling Center, Beit Ul Moqaddas  

Land Research Center, Palestine, Beit Ul Moqaddas  

Muwatin the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy  

Palestinian Association of Brantford--Canada  

Center for the Defense of Freedoms and Civil Rights (Hurriyat)  

Wihdah Democratic Action Institute (Wa'ad)--Beit lahm  

Federation of Agricultural Action Committees  

Canada Palestine Association, Vancouver  

Addameer, Ramallah  

Ma'an Development Center, Ramallah  

Gaza Center for Culture and Arts  

Voice of Palestine, Canada  

Canadian Palestinian Association, Ontario, Canada 

Taghrid Association for Culture, Development and Reconstruction, Gaza  

Jabalya-al-Nazaleh Cultural Center, Jabalya Camp, Gaza 

Federation of Agricultural Work Committees, Gaza  

Turathuna Charitable Society, Gaza  

The Popular Committee at al-Burayj Camp, Gaza  

El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe, Al-Bireh  

Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, New York  

General Union of Services and Trade Workers, Gaza Governorates  

The National Council of Arab Americans - Metropolitan New York Chapter, NY  

The Arab Muslim American Federation  

The Palestinian American Congress, New York 

Dramatists' Federation  

Society for the Development of Women, al-Burayj Camp, Gaza 

Yanbou' Cultural Forum, al-Reina 

Palestinian Human Rights Monitor (Rassid), Gaza  

Yabous Productions, Beit Ul Moqaddas  

The Arab Student Observatory of Victims of Occupation and Blockade of the General Union of Arab Students (GUAS(  

Arab Culture Society  

Al-Siwar-Arab Feminist Movement to Support Victims of Sexual Assault, Haifa 

Popular Art Centre, Al-Bireh  

Federation of Working Women's Committees  

Palestinian Federation of Women's Action Committees  

Al-Najda Association for the Development of Palestinian Women 

Teacher Creativity Center, Ramallah 

Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art (PACA)  

Al-Quds Information Bank, Gaza 

Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counseling, Ramallah 

The Palestinian Working Women's Society for Development  

Jimzo Charitable Society  

Al-Lidd (Lydda) Charitable Society, Ramallah-Al-Bireh Governorate 

Al-Lidd (Lydda) Social Association, Beitunia  

Lifta Charitable Society, Palestine 

Committee of Residents of Greater Masmiyya, Ramallah-Al-Bireh Governorate 

Falsteen Al Gaad association – Deheisha refugee camp  

Meethaq Center for Development, Alkahder  

Women Development Center, Addoha, Beit lahm  

Al Feeneeq Center, Duheisheh Refugee Camp  

Palestinian Progressive Youth Union, Gaza  

Palestinian Women's Information and Media Center, Gaza 

Said Mishal Foundation for Culture and Science, Gaza  

Assala Association for Heritage and Development, Gaza  

Beit Ul Moqaddas Center for Arabic Music, Beit Ul Moqaddas 

International Academy of Art Palestine, Ramallah  

Juthourr Cultural Society, Gaza  

Women's Research and Legal Counseling Center, Gaza 

Media Forum for Women Affairs Advocacy, Gaza  

Palestinian Cultural Center, Gaza  

Refugees Popular Committee, Gaza  

Workers Resource Center, Gaza  

Progressive Union Work Society, Gaza 

Friends of An-Nour Center Society, Gaza 

Al-Aqsa Charitable Youth Welfare Society, Gaza  

The One Democratic State Group, Gaza  

Arab Cultural Forum, Gaza  

Palestinian Democratic Union-Fida  

http://www.imemc.org/article/