Media Contact: info[at]boycottisraelnyc.org
New York, NY, June 28 – Twenty New York activists performed near a street fair at Greeley Square in Manhattan on Saturday, calling for a boycott of communications giant Motorola until it stops providing technology to the Israeli army and settlement movement. It was the third action organized by the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (NYCBI) and the first of a planned series of summer actions around the city to publicize the campaign. Motorola has been targeted for boycott by the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation and groups throughout the country because of their business with the Israeli army and illegal Israeli settlements.
“Motorola technology enables the theft of Palestinian land and the abuse of Palestinian human rights,” said Riham Barghouti of NYCBI. “We are asking New Yorkers to pledge not to purchase Motorola equipment until Motorola and its subsidiaries fully divest from these activities.”
The chorus of diverse New York human rights activists entertained the crowd with “Mama Said (Don’t Build Settlements)” to the tune of the song by the Shirelles and “Don’t Buy Israeli Goods” to the tune of “Hava Nagila.” A skit hosted by “Mr. Moto” and his “daughter”, “Tzipi Golda Moto-Israel”, compared the history of European colonization of North America, the Apartheid regime in South Africa, and the dispossession of the Palestinian people from their land.
Motorola Israel provides an encrypted cellular network to the Israeli army, whose routine and severe violations of Palestinian human rights is well-documented by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, among others. It also supplies the Israeli military with the Wide Area Surveillance System (WASS), radar devices and thermal cameras that are installed around Israeli settlement/colonies and the apartheid wall, which are built on Palestinian land in violation of international law. In April 2009 Motorola stated that it would sell a controversial unit that manufactured bomb fuses for Israel by May or June, but there has been no confirmation that the sale has occurred. Previously, Motorola was the target of a successful boycott campaign for its support of Apartheid South Africa.
In 2005 hundreds of Palestinian civil society organizations called on the world to implement Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israeli institutions and businesses.
Photos available HERE
Video available on request
