Successful BDS action in Utrecht (the Netherlands)

Start of the Campaign: Don”t buy Israeli dates for Ramadan

On July 9, the international BDS day of action, over 25 people handed out flyers to the visitors of the Turkish Ulu Mosque in Utrecht. The flyers said: Don”t forget Gaza, Don”t buy Israeli dates for Ramadan. The group was wearing t-shirts saying I love Palestine and Don”t buy Israeli Apartheid. The Mosque is located at the end of a street that has many vegetable stores owned by Turkish, Moroccan, Iranian and Iraqi shop owners. They have been informed recently about this campaign and they were offered Palestinian dates to sell in their shops.

The group went into this multicultural street, while a percussion group played the drums. Shop owners that decided to sell Palestinian dates were rewarded with a nice poster and lots of cheering by the group.

Special “date girls” handed out free Palestinian dates to the public. People responded very positively to the action.

This is the first year that the BDS platform, a platform of 30 Dutch organisations, is joined by a group of Muslim Organisations in Holland in support of the BDS call by the Palestinian Civil Society. On the 9th of July, 5 years after this call was issued, these groups joined forces to launch the campaign “Dont buy Israeli dates”.

During the next weeks, the flyers will be handed out at mosques, markets, stores and organisations and publicity will also be done on internet.

A video of the action will soon be on Youtube and will then also be posted on our website: www.bdsnederland.nl

See also Facebook: BDSNederland

Short interview with Kristel: http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/say-no-israeli-dates (half way the page, audio file with Ms De Wit )