Global Cities Rally for Justice in Palestine
Courtesy David Baldinger
This weekend will see a campaign of a host of global cities calling for justice and peace for Palestinians and Israelis and an end to the longest running military occupation in modern history.
Why now? This week marks the 40-year anniversary of the June 1967 War when the Israeli army took military control of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Since that time the government of Israel has built illegal ‘settlements’ in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and subsidised Israel’s citizens in setting up homes and businesses using land and resources stolen from the Palestinian people.
This situation has continued to the current day despite Israel being in violation of international humanitarian law and over 60 UN resolutions.
This weekend cities around the world will rally to say ‘Enough!’ to the occupation. Click HERE for information about your city.
SYDNEY – LONDON – WASHINGTON – DUBLIN: Sample of Rally poster thumbnails (click on thumbnail for rally sites—opens in a new window):
I’ll be there (London)!
I wonder if things are starting to change. Boycotts against Israel have been discussed for yonks, but I think the ball is starting to roll.
Boycotts from Britain’s large academic and journalistic unions are highly visible, and clearly starting to worry the Israeli establishment.
Meanwhile South African unions, with their experience of fighting apartheid, are also turning up the heat. If they, as a major diamond exporting nation, are able to instigate a boycott of the Israeli diamond-processing industry, it will really hurt; importing, processing and reselling diamonds accounts for almost a third of Israel’s GDP.
And today’s front page on Al Jazeera carries a story on how ethical boycotts are hindering progress on an illegal light railway from Israeli territory into annexed East Jerusalem.
It’s only a tiny fraction of what’s needed, but then every journey starts with one step.
Dave, great to hear and I wholeheartedly agree that it gets the ball rolling.
If I had my global pick, I’d love to be at the London one as well. There’s a great line-up of speakers for the day. I will be at the Sydney one and hope to write up a post with photos.
Thanks for the observations and the pointers to the Al Jazeera article.
Well! Isn’t that special! I’m totally chuffed now, Ms. Geography. Gonna ‘member that when you visit Washington DC, which is where I’ll holding down my corner of the quilt this weekend.
So they got a Queen in London. Big deal. They don’t got cold beer!
:P
Cheers M8s
:D Queen, Schmeen, I hope England becomes a republic before Australia does. I so look forward to visiting DC, and it surely isn’t going to be a march that’ll be the magnet ;)
On the pull of speakers, I still say London has the pick — Mustafa Barghouti, Mairead Corrigan Maguire and George Galloway, to name but a few.
But I’m happy to be attending Sydney’s this weekend, and its great that between us all we have more than a few cities covered … the time diff means I can lodge some piccies in early to encourage you guys ;) Just hope it doesn’t rain. We’ve got some autumnal rain today in Sydney, hopefully it’ll clear by the weekend.