rihabcharida charida's List: Marrickville BDS

• Marrickville Council in Sydney's inner west passed a motion in December pledging to effectively sever all commercial, sporting, cultural, academic and government links with Israel.
• The council undertook to identify links with any organisations or companies that "support or profit from the Israeli military occupation of Palestine

• We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• The following letter was sent to Marrickville councillors by the BNC on April 18.
• Faced with on-going Israeli impunity on the one hand, and the failure of the international community to take any meaningful steps in support of justice for Palestinians on the other, BDS is an indispensable and uniquely effective, non-violent tool in holding Israel accountable for its violations of international law and furthering the demand for Palestinian rights.
• This movement is deeply inspired by the South African struggle for freedom, equality and justice.
• It is disappointing but perhaps not surprising that your stand in support of freedom and equality has come under such intense scrutiny. This can only be seen as an attempt by Israel and its supporters  to whitewash Israel’s system of occupation, colonisation and apartheid, and to character-assassinate or smear those who challenge it.

•  

  Local communities are increasingly filling the void left by governments and institutions that, far from pressuring Israel to respect universal principals of human rights, are unwilling to even end their own political and financial complicity in Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian rights. 
• The BNC has always encouraged supporters of Palestinian rights to implement BDS gradually and in tactically and strategically well thought-out forms that are sensitive to the local political context and practical restraints.
• implementing the boycott need not be expensive, overly time-consuming or have negative effects on local residents. Instead, they reflect a concern among the public for upholding ethical principles in local government, investment and procurement.
• Not only does local implementation of BDS not violate law or overstep the mandate of a local authority, but taking reasonable steps to ensure that state authorities are not involved with businesses that are violating human rights is best practise, according to the UN Special Representative on business and human rights John Ruggie.
• Israel maintains its medieval siege on Gaza with impunity, operating a system of collective punishment that is unique in the history of the modern era. Palestinian citizens of Israel face systematic, institutional and legalized discrimination, according to successive U.S. Department of State human rights reports[9] and a recent report published by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network[10]. The denial of the right of Palestinian refugees to return home has been described by former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory John Dugard as “perhaps the greatest injustice of the post-World War II period”.[11]
• In light of this on-going  denial of basic rights, in response to the decades old failure of the “international community” to end and hold to account Israeli infringement of international law, conscientious citizens and communities are taking simple but effective steps under the framework of boycotts, divestment and sanctions.
• You need not decide at your upcoming meeting what concrete BDS steps to take, and you are certainly not expected or called upon to implement an immediate, blanket boycott that would harm local residents. We simply ask that you keep your support for BDS in place, pending further discussions and investigations, so that you may explore ways of contributing to our struggle for freedom, justice and equality, as many Australians did in the South African anti-apartheid struggle.

9 more annotations...

• Among others, the Murdoch press, the Labor Party, the Jewish Board of Deputies, and now the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, appear to have enjoyed attacking me and Marrickville Council, in a furore of half-truths and misinformation.

    

  To call this circus ''news'' is absurd.
• All these actions are consistent with section 232 of the Local Government Act 1993, which states one of our roles is "to provide leadership and guidance to the community".
• On December 14 last year, 10 out of 12 Marrickville councillors expressed support for the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign, to exert peaceful pressure on the government of Israel to honour its human rights obligations to the Palestinians under Israel's jurisdiction.
• To this effect I will be tabling a mayoral minute tomorrow night recommending that the council maintain in-principle support for the campaign, while rescinding the part of the original motion which called for the council to implement the policy in our local area.

2 more annotations...

• After fifteen speakers and nearly three hours of heated debate, councillors voted not to pursue the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions policy against Israel ‘in any shape or form as called for in the December resolution’.
• However, the motion also included a clause to state they remained ‘concerned about Palestinian human rights, and call on Israel to dismantle the wall.’
• The motion recieved support from eight councillors with four councillors- three Greens (Cr Byrne, Cr Kontellis, Cr Peters)  and one Independent (Cr Thanos) - voting against the motion.

• In closing, Mayor Fiona Byrne urged councillors not to be swayed by intense media pressure.

    

  ``Certainly we have put the BDS on the map, whatever that means,’’ Cr Byrne said.

    

  `` I personally don’t know why we’ve had a sledge hammer used to crack the little egg that is Marrickville Council on this issue.’’ 

2 more annotations...

• A Sydney council has dropped its boycott of Israel at a meeting tonight.
  
• Greens Mayor Fiona Byrne attempted to continue the boycott, but only three of the 11 councillors supported her.
• Several councillors said they had been under enormous pressure from media and lobby groups.

1 more annotation...

• When a report was released by the council showing the boycott would cost Marrickville ratepayers $3.7 million, it went from a controversial policy to an expensive, controversial policy.

• Some of the biggest cultural and academic names in the world have thrown their support behind Marrickville Council's controversial boycott of Israel.

    

  Journalist John Pilger, author Naomi Klein, filmmaker Ken Loach and Nobel peace prize laureate Mairead Maguire are among 16 prominent figures who signed a letter of support for the Sydney council, which has come under fire for supporting the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.