Editor's Note

2011 has been, and continues to be, an unprecedented year in globalized grassroots organizing. It marks an extraordinary international resurgence of people’s movements demanding the fundamental values of liberty, democracy, and economic justice. Drawing inspiration from the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall St. demonstrations are linking these global struggles against the ravages of neoliberalism, imperialism, and U.S.-sponsored tyranny.

From the remarkable overthrow of the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes and the first Nobel Peace Prize given to an Arab woman for her activism in Yemen, to Palestine’s historic recognition as a full-fledged member by UNESCO, this year has seen historic events that highlight the connections between seemingly disparate movements for freedom and justice.

As 2011 draws to a close, the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) notes the monumental gains of the expanding cultural and academic boycott movement, which is an integral part of the larger, global BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement against Israeli occupation and apartheid. World-renowned American scholars, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and athletes have joined this movement-- by refusing to participate in events sponsored by the state of Israel and in the whitewashing of its military violence, colonization, and racism, and by making powerful statements about the call to delegitimize this exceptional regime.

Highlighted in USACBI’s 2011 bulletin are just some key moments related to this campaign. These events are linked by a common thread: the belief that we cannot challenge the institutions and policies that propagate the illegal occupation and racism in Palestine if we do not challenge the cultural and academic legitimacy of the structures that perpetuate these colonialist policies. Therefore it becomes imperative to expose, and rewrite, the exceptional violations of human rights and international law enacted by what has increasingly come to be viewed as a rogue state aiding in the suppression of burgeoning democracy movements in the region.

This bulletin also features a collection of a few, key milestones this past year that illustrate the growing strength of the cultural boycott movement in the U.S., in particular. There is a great need to build the academic boycott movement, arguably more difficult given campaigns of censorship and silencing of the Palestine question in the U.S. academy. But as our growing list of endorsements illustrates, the tide is turning, so we end with a call to you to support our work in any one of a number of ways. Join us, today!  And if you have already endorsed USACBI, ask 5 academics or cultural workers you know to endorse by January 1, 2012! (Endorse online:  http://www.usacbi.org/about/)

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Become a USACBI endorser or affiliate today!

Academics, students, cultural workers, activists, and community members in more than 50 cities and communities across the US are organizing dozens of academic and cultural boycott campaigns against Israel. It is imperative for us in the U.S. to strengthen and expand the academic and cultural boycott of Israel, given its centrality to the larger BDS movement.

The Organizing Collective of USACBI is a small but growing group of volunteers that are continuing to build a network of local Affiliates. We are looking to coordinate with academics, cultural workers, and activists across the U.S. who will keep us informed about local campaigns related to ACBI and whose organizing we could also support and publicize nationally. We also want to expand our list of Endorsers.

If you are interested in contributing to our efforts- we’d love to work with you! Please follow the link below to endorse USACBI or become an Affiliate today:
http://www.usacbi.org/about/

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Academic and Cultural Boycott Day is Coming: March 30, 2012!

USACBI is calling for a National Academic and Cultural Boycott Day on March 30, 2012, which is Land Day, the Global BDS Day of Solidarity with Palestine. On this day, which commemorates the murder of Palestinians inside Israel as they fought against the theft of their land in 1976 and has become an ongoing day to honor and strengthen the struggle of indigenous Palestinians to exist on their land throughout all of historic Palestine, we ask you to join us in solidarity actions through cultural boycott of Israel. We ask students, academics, artists, poets, hip hop MCs, and all others to stand in support of the Palestinian call for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel by

(1) performing poetry, screening films, displaying art and sharing cultural production related to the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and the global struggle against imperialism and war and for social justice;
(2) opposing Study Abroad programs in Israel, wherever they are established, and challenging the complicity of US academic institutions with Israel through other programs, such as scientific research that directly or indirectly supports the Israeli military establishment, etc.

More information and ideas for activities will follow at: http://www.usacbi.org/2011/12/action-alert-national-day-of-action-for-academic-and-cultural-boycott-march-30-2012/ ! Please stay tuned or contact us at: usacbi@usacbi.org. 

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Buy a tote bag and support USACBI!

For those of you who may not have the time to get involved in organizing with USACBI, here is another way you can support our efforts: the Palestine Online Store has created just the thing to carry your BDS-compliant purchases, books and anything else – the Boycott Israel tote bag! The bag carries the slogan “Boycott Israel – End Apartheid” and features a cartoon by renowned Brazilian artist, Carlos Latuff. This unique bag will help you carry the message of solidarity while you go about your daily chores and help build our movement. We are generally not in the business of hawking wares, but a portion of the proceeds will benefit USACBI's volunteer-organized work as we struggle to grow and organize nationally.

This is a wonderful gift to share with friends over the holidays and in 2012!

To check it out, please visit: http://www.usacbi.org/2011/11/buy-a-boycott-israel-tote-bag-and-support-usacbi/ or buy directly at http://palestineonlinestore.com/shop/boycott-israel-bag/

Hurry--supplies are limited! 

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Jerusalem String Quartet Boycotts Across North America

October 2011: USACBI initiated a call for North America-wide protests against a tour of the Jerusalem String Quartet. The Quartet, a project of the Jerusalem Music Centre, and a longtime part of “Brand Israel” efforts to associate Israel with art and culture rather than apartheid and occupation, was met by protests in Costa Mesa, California; Vancouver, BC; Toronto, Ontario; and Louisville, Kentucky.

USACBI helped launch an effort to picket the tour in the wake of international protests of the Quartet throughout Australia, the UK and Europe. In Vancouver, at the protest organized by the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign, protesters carried signs and created banner displays throughout the walkway into the Chan Centre at the University of British Columbia, where the concert was held. A parody program for the concerts, distributed to nearly all attendees with great success, included information about the reality of Israeli apartheid.  In Costa Mesa, near Los Angeles, a protest was organized by a local coalition, including USACBI. This protest also differentiated between demonstrators and ‘ushers’, who successfully, once again, presented almost every concert-goer with a mock program.

The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto protested the Quartet’s appearance in their city. While some CAIA members handed out informational flyers to patrons and passersby, others staged a mock string duet playing cacophonic music (by design) under placards that read “No Harmony In Apartheid”. In addition, CAIA members handed out the mock programs to concert-goers.

In Louisville, Kentucky, the Louisville Committee for Peace in the Middle East was joined by members of Occupy Louisville to picket the Quartet and distribute mock programs.
For more about the protests and a link to the mock program, read more: http://www.usacbi.org/2011/11/jerusalem-quartet-protests/

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Protests of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra North America Tour

February 2011: Protesters in seven major cities across the US picketed performances by Israel’s Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) earlier this year. In cities such as Seattle, New York, and San Francisco, activists blew whistles and banged on pots and pans outside IPO’s venues in an attempt to “Drown Out Apartheid.”

In addition to these demonstrations, concert attendees were met with mock checkpoints guarded by soldiers with weapons shaped like musical instruments, linking IPO’s direct role in normalizing Israel’s continued military aggressions against the Palestinians.

IPO programs in the US are part of the cultural front of the “Brand Israel” Initiative. Launched by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2006, this initiative is described by the ministry as “soft warfare” to “show Israel’s prettier face so we (Israel) are not thought of purely in the context of war.”

Learn more: http://www.usacbi.org/2011/03/bay-area-community-members-say-%E2%80%9Cdrown-out-apartheid%E2%80%9D-at-israeli-philharmonic-in-san-francisco/

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@USACBI's Twitter Campaigns

This past year, USACBI has been stepping up its use of social media, including Facebook and, especially, Twitter alerts to disseminate information related to cultural boycott campaigns.

Twitter campaigns have focused on the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jello Biafra, Interpol, Roxette, Wikimania, the Doors and many more.

To see the alerts and updates about the numerous campaigns related to U.S. artists and cultural activities, please visit us at:http://www.usacbi.org/category/take-action/ or follow @USACBI on Twitter!

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 Groundbreaking Filmmaker and Academic Withdraws from Israeli Fellowship

July 2011: The prolific US professor and film director, Barbara Hammer, withdrew from an artistic fellowship from the American Academy in Jerusalem. Hammer is legendary for producing the first lesbian films in the 1970’s and is widely regarded as a pioneer of queer U.S. cinema. In an open statement addressed to the Foundation of Jewish Culture, Hammer wrote, “I do oppose the occupation and do not want to normalize it. I accept and exercise my social responsibility as an artist not to lend legitimacy to the State of Israel as long as it continues the occupation.”

Link: http://www.usacbi.org/2011/07/filmmaker-barbara-hammer-pulls-out-of-israeli-fellowship/

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NBA's All-time Leading Scorer Refuses To Visit Israel

June 2011: Retired LA Lakers player and 2011 Lincoln Medal Award Recipient Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reversed his decision to participate in the 28th Annual Jerusalem Film Festival that took place in July. Abdul-Jabbar was invited to participate in the festival because his film, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” was a candidate for the “Spirit of Freedom Award.”

Abdul-Jabbar’s documentary chronicles the segregationist policies that existed in professional basketball during the 1930’s.

The Jerusalem Film Festival’s foreign office said Abdul-Jabbar’s reasons for cancelling were due to his “concerns arising after the Nakba Day violence,” referring to the events that occurred on May 15, 2011. The Nakba – commemorated annually on May 15 – is the 1947-48 dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist military forces, in which over 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their lands and made refugees.

Inspired by the Arab revolutions this spring, thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon marched over the mountain in Maroun Al-Ras and across a landmine infested field to the Israeli-Lebanese border, chanting for their right to return. They were met with M16’s and tear gas canisters fired by the Israeli and Lebanese armies. Palestinian refugees and Syrians also marched on the borders of the occupied Golan Heights on Nakba Day and were met with Israeli military forces; marches by Palestinian refugees in Gaza also marched to the borders of the besieged Strip. 13 Palestinian refugees were killed and hundreds more injured.

Over 100 different civil rights and advocacy organizations signed a letter thanking the American NBA star for refusing to participate in the festival. They cited Israel’s own racial and religious discriminatory practices against Palestinians as worthy grounds for boycotting the Israeli festival.  See the letter: http://www.usacbi.org/2011/06/101-organizations-thank-kareem-abdul-jabbar-for-slam-dunking-israeli-apartheid/

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Call to Support Campaigns Against Study Abroad Programs in Israel

December: An open letter was sent to California State University Chancellor Reed, urging him not to restart the Study Abroad program in Israel at CSU-Northridge, by USACBI Organizing Committee members David Klein and Manzar Foroohar, and other CSUN faculty. The letter has over 130 endorsements from CSU faculty, students, alumni and several deans and administrators.

The letter argues that "CSU participation with the government of Israel in the proposed study abroad program could be interpreted as an endorsement of the international crime of apartheid." Study Abroad to Israel has increased 60% in the last year, supported by funding to foster new programs, and as is one of the ways that Israel has been trying to use the academy to enhance "Brand Israel" while violating the US State Travel Advisory for Israel, and in the face of discriminatory treatment of Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim students who attempt to travel through Israeli borders.

The California State University (CSU) system has nearly half a million students on 23 campuses.  It is the largest university system in the world. The CSU-Israel Study Abroad Program was suspended in 2002 because of costs and safety concerns, but the CSU leadership has been under constant pressure since then from pro-Israel groups and politicians to restart it. Last spring the CSU conducted a study on the saftey of Israeli universities at the behest of, and in collaboration with, the Israel Campus Coalition, in order to clear the way to restart the program. 

For more about the CSU campaign, and to endorse the open letter, visit: http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth00m/studyabroad.html

We urge students, scholars, and others to support this campaign and mobilize against Study Abroad Programs in Israel on other campuses. These programs are part of a larger effort to ignore the ongoing and systematic violation of the academic freedom of Palestinian students and academics, and not just their right to education and freedom of expression, but also of their human rights as well.

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Linking with Student Movements at SJP National Conference

October 2011: USACBI was represented in the first Students for Justice in Palestine  (SJP) National Conference in New York. At this historic conference, which was the first initiative to gather SJP activists from across the country and form a national body, a USACBI organizing collective member facilitated a workshop on the academic and cultural boycott of Israel (ACBI).

Over forty students attended the workshop and were eager to hear about different ACBI tactics, ask clarifying questions about the PACBI guidelines and strategize how to incorporate ACBI work into campaigns on their campuses. To get a copy of the program please visit: http://sjpnational.org/program-2/

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Omar Barghouti's 2012 US tour, co-sponsored by USACBI

January: Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, is visiting the US in January 2012 for a tour, organized by David Lloyd of USACBI. He will be giving talks in Seattle on January 4-6, in Oakland, Alameda and Santa Cruz on January 7-8; in Sacramento on January 9, in San Diego on January 10, in Phoenix, Arizona on January 11; and in Los Angeles on January 12.

For a detailed itinerary, please see:
http://www.usacbi.org/2011/12/omar-barghouti-west-coast-itinerary-january-2012/

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USACBI On Anti-Palestinian Verdict Against the Irvine 11

October: In an unprecedented criminal case against student activists by the Orange County District Attorney, 10 undergraduate students from UC Irvine and UC Riverside were convicted of criminal misdemeanor acts because they interrupted a speech of the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, in 2010.

For exercising their First Amendment rights and for participating in peaceful civil disobedience, these students were brought to trial and 10 were found guilty. This case very troubling because it has a potential to create a chilling effect on student organizing and Palestine solidarity activism within the U.S. academy and has a direct impact on the political culture related to the academic boycott. Many Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim American students today say that they are too afraid to openly express their political views on Palestine and to engage in public politics due to the Irvine 11 case.

USACBI issued a letter opposing the verdict and the selective and systematic repression of pro-Palestinian student activism as well as the intimidation of Palestine solidarity groups within the UC system and on US campuses: http://www.usacbi.org/2011/10/usacbi-condemns-anti-palestinian-criminalization-of-political-expression/

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Building bridges to Palestine

February: In a concerted effort to build bridges to Palestinian student activists who are involved in BDS groups and campaigns in Palestine, USACBI launched a project to connect US activists with Gazan students in the Palestinian Student Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI).

By promoting their work and connecting them with American BDS groups, USACBI hopes to improve coordination on BDS initiatives and solidarity with besieged Gazan students.

For more information on this project or if you would like to participate in this collaboration please visit us online  at: http://www.usacbi.org/connect-with-the-palestinian-students-campaign-for-academic-and-cultural-boycott-of-israel-pscabi.

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Arizona State University Students Reject Collaboration with Ben Gurion University

January: Citing the historic 2010 report by the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, documenting Ben Gurion University’s (BGU) direct role in aiding Israel’s violations of international law against the Palestinians, Arizona State University (ASU) students launched a campaign against their Study Abroad in Israel program and its collaboration with BGU. ASU students are rejecting their university’s partnership and cooperation with this institution as part of the academic boycott movement. Undergraduate student Oday Shahin stated:

“At ASU we do not criminalize political dissent nor do we support racist and discriminatory policies against Palestinians, Ethiopian Jews, non-Jews or anyone. But our cooperation with such a university sends the wrong message about policies that go against our values. I ... urge administrators to disband academic connections with Ben Gurion for its lack of respect for human rights and dignity.”

There has been a national outcry against relations with BGU that involve multiple universities in the US, and petitions have been endorsed by hundreds of prominent American faculty, students, and university labor unions. For more information please visit ASU’s SJP website at: http://sjpalestine.com/?p=477

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December: ISRAEL DIVESTMENT CAMPAIGN (IDC-California) delivered 5,321 signatures to California Public Employee Retirement System (PERS)

Since the March 30th International BDS Day, activists in the IDC campaign, including five members of the USACBI Organizing Committee, have been collecting signatures calling on the two state public retirement funds to engage with companies that profit from or facilitate Israeli violation of human rights, international law, and UN Resolutions.

On December 12th, members of the Israel Divestment Campaign submitted its petition to the California Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) calling on it to honor its own policy of responsible investing and begin investigating Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Caterpillar, Elbit and Veolia. Speaking on behalf of  5,321 petitioners, including 837 who are members of PERS and 545 who are members of the State Teachers Retirement Fund (STRS), three IDC coordinators gave compelling evidence of the complicity of these five companies in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights and international law. For a full report and copies of the statements made to the Board, go to: http://www.israeldivestmentcampaign.org

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USACBI in solidarity with Palestinian Freedom Riders

On November 17th, six young Palestinians challenged Israeli apartheid by boarding the Veolia-operated bus reserved for Jewish settlers, which crosses through occupied Palestinian lands on segregated roads, in a campaign modeled on the US Freedom Ride fifty years ago. Like the US Freedom Riders, the Palestinians were roughly removed from the bus and detained.  These Palestinian Freedom Riders were not only following in the footsteps of the US Freedom Riders, but also activists involved in the historic anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. They called on people around the world to engage in the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

BDS activists across the US joined in solidarity actions and called for divestment from Veolia. In Los Angeles, California, 20 members of different BDS groups, including two USACBI Organizing Committee members (David Lloyd and Sherna Berger Gluck) boarded the Veolia-operated DASH buses, distributed literature, and engaged in discussions about Israeli apartheid and BDS with passengers: http://www.usacbi.org/2011/11/usacbi-in-solidarity-with-the-freedom-riders/  

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International Right To Education Week:

The international Right To Education (R2E)  week was a week-long schedule of lectures, concerts and workshops about the right to education in Palestine, in solidarity with the Right 2 Education campaign based at Birzeit University in the West Bank. The supporters of the R2E Campaign this year were from 26 educational institutions worldwide, including:

- University of Edinburgh (UK)
- University of Leeds (UK)
- School of Oriental and African Studies (UK)
- University of Middlesex (UK)
- University of Westminster (UK)
- University of Virginia (USA)
- University of California Berkeley  (USA)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands)
- University of Lille (France)
- University Paris 13 (France)
- University of Brussels (Belgium)
- Ecole normale supérieure (France)
- General Union of Palestinian Students (France)
- Plataforma de Solidaridad con Palestina (Spain)

Events at these universities ranged from  hosting dabke workshops and fundraiser concerts to hosting photo exhibitions, film showings, and video conferences with R2E Campaign students at Birzeit University . All of these events were highly successful, and the societies pledged to make the International R2E Week a permanent annual event within their respective society.

For more information, and to organize R2E events on your campus, please visit: http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/

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Announcing the Launch of Punks Against Apartheid

USACBI is thrilled to congratulate Punks Against Apartheid on the launch of their website and campaign. Their announcement follows:

After months of planning, re-planning, and sending ourselves back to the drawing board countless times, we are thrilled and proud to announce the official launch of the Punks Against Apartheid website and network.
Lots has happened since late June when we stumbled onto the scene asking Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine to cancel their show at Tel Aviv’s Barby Club. That campaign took on legs that even we ourselves didn’t anticipate it growing, which stunningly confirmed the world-wide support that the movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is gaining against Israeli apartheid.

Some of the summer and fall’s events have been heartening; others discouraging. There’s been the crystallization of the Arab revolt, the diplomatic and legal wrangling over the season’s Freedom Flotilla, the debate over Palestinian recognition in the UN, the release of political prisoners from Israeli prisons, and the incredible, courageous initiation of the Palestinian Freedom Rides

Likewise for the BDS and cultural boycott fronts. On one hand, there have been victories–the cancellation of Tuba Skinny’s appearance at the Red Sea Jazz Fest and Natacha Atlas’ own cancellation. There have also been setbacks, such as the decision of concert promoters to sue Lebanese BDS groups for their boycott of Placebo’s show in Beirut last summer.

What all of these point to, however, is that the struggle, as always, continues. Add into this mix the global Occupy movement (“Occupy Wall Street! Not Palestine!”) and we’ve got fertile ground for real, substantial cultural resistance–including the ongoing BDS campaign. We sincerely hope, brothers and sisters, that you’ll join us as we grow and continue to forge links between this movement and the global punk movement that we know and love so much.

As you browse the new-and-improved site, check out our new Points of Unity–which have already been endorsed by Propagandhi, Angelic Upstarts, Tanzila Ahmed, the Oppressed, Oi Polloi, the Shondes, Sabina England and others in the punk-activist community. Consider signing on yourself! And stay in touch for our upcoming campaign to convince Moldovan punkers Zdob si Zdub to cancel their own show in Tel Aviv that’s been rescheduled for March.

Spread the word, join us, and remember: racism ain’t punk, and apartheid deserves no entertainment. Viva le punk! Viva Palestina! For more information: http://punksagainstapartheid.com

PACBI’s October 2011 Editorial on Normalization:

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) recently published an editorial on the politics of normalization, “Israel’s Exceptionalism: Normalizing the Abnormal.” This important critique draws attention to the existence of global political efforts to “normalize” the colonization and oppression of the Palestinians.

The editorial explains why USACBI is necessary for challenging the very underpinnings of the normalization of the state of Israel. We urge you to read the full statement: http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1749

Excerpts follow:

“In the Palestinian and Arab struggle against Israeli colonization, occupation and apartheid, the “normalization” of Israel is a concept that has generated controversy because it is often misunderstood or because there are disagreements on its parameters.  This is despite the near consensus among Palestinians and people in the Arab region on rejecting the treatment of Israel as a “normal” state with which business as usual can be conducted. Here, we discuss the definition of normalization that the great majority of Palestinian civil society, as represented in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has adopted since November 2007, and elaborate on the nuances that it takes on in different contexts.

“It is helpful to think of normalization as a “colonization of the mind,” whereby the oppressed subject comes to believe that the oppressor’s reality is the only “normal” reality that must be subscribed to, and that the oppression is a fact of life that must be coped with. Those who engage in normalization either ignore this oppression, or accept it as the status quo that can be lived with.  In an attempt to whitewash its violations of international law and human rights, Israel attempts to re-brand [1] itself, or present itself as normal -- even “enlightened” -- through an intricate array of relations and activities encompassing hi-tech, cultural, legal, LGBT and other realms.

“A key principle that underlines the term normalization is that it is entirely based on political, rather than racial, considerations and is therefore in perfect harmony with the BDS movement’s rejection of all forms of racism and racial discrimination.  Countering normalization is a means to resist oppression, its mechanisms and structures.  As such, it is categorically unrelated to or conditioned upon the identity of the oppressor….

“The normalization of Israel – normalizing the abnormal – is a malicious and subversive process that works to cover up injustice and colonize the most intimate parts of the oppressed: their mind.  To engage in or with organizations that serve this purpose is, therefore, one of the prime targets of boycott, and an act that BDS supporters must confront together.”

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