holiday boycott and more
Andrea Whitmore
Kansas City, October 19, 2012
In this newsletter (no more than two a month), the following:
· The U.S. Campaign meeting in September and a holiday boycott
· A new sister group for CJME on the University of Kansas Campus,
· An event for KKFI featuring Amy Goodman
Dear Friends of Peace,
In late September I attended a meeting in St. Louis called by Sydney Levy of Jewish Voice for Peace, Anna Baltzer of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, and the Rev. Don Wagner, Chair of Friends of Sabeel North America. In attendance were representatives of all mainstream churches as well as Jews and Muslims. It was truly an interfaith event.
The point of the meeting was to discuss what actions we could bring to our various congregations to further the movement against the Israeli occupation of Palestine (commonly called the West Bank and Gaza, or 22% of historic Palestine).
Israel-Palestine is the major foreign policy issue of our time, and it affects each of us. While our government’s ostensible policy (regardless of which party holds the White House) is opposed to the settlements as the obstacles to peace that they are, nevertheless the U.S. Congress appears unable to stand up to Israel’s continued seizure of still more land.
A review of “Israel-Palestine 101” can be found at Jewish Voice for Peace: (http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/content/israeli-palestinian-conflict-101)
A review of loss of land maps since 1947 is attached.
Earlier this year
(May), the United Methodists voted at their policy-making body, the General
Conference, to boycott all products made in illegal Israeli settlements on
Palestinian land. All such settlements are illegal according to international law.
In July, the
220th Presbyterian
General Assembly also voted to boycott all Israeli settlement
products.
In August 2012
the United Church of Canada called for a boycott and asked that their
government clearly label such products because, as in this country, many items
are mislabeled as being from Israel.
The Quakers have gone further. Always in the vanguard of social justice movements, the Friends Fiduciary Corporation announced they would divest from Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Veolia Environment.
We and others plan to post a complete list of illegal settlement products soon—but for now, back to the St. Louis interfaith meeting of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation:
A sub-committee from those interfaith
groups has since decided to establish a boycott of just one product at this time in order to make it easier for
non-activists to join in.
The
product is SodaStream, an item that makes carbonated water
from tap water and is widely available at Costco, Target, Macy’s, Bed Bath
& Beyond and various other outlets. In addition to NOT purchasing a
SodaStream machine this holiday or any other season until the company leaves
the occupied territories, we hope you’ll print out the “dear manager” cards attached
and hand them to cashiers at stores where SodaStream may be sold. SodaStream
is aware that it’s being boycotted and has noted how problematic it is, and
that they may have to move back into Israel proper (within the internationally
recognized border, or Green Line). That would be great! Then we’d call off
the boycott.
We hope you’ll join in to help. Our interest is in ending the occupation not only for its moral repugnancy but also for the very practical peace that will benefit both Israelis and Palestinians and will also help end an enormous problem for U.S. national interests around the world.
Two more things:
Citizens for Justice in the Middle East (CJME) has a sister group in Lee’s Summit called Citizens for Peace and Justice in the Holy Land.
*Now, we also have a sister group on the University of Kansas campus. A few of the Students for Justice in the Middle East (SJME) hope to attend a major conference in Michigan coming up very soon. Please click on their video to meet them (they’re lovely and lively) and to donate $5, $10 or whatever you can to help them get to the conference. http://vimeo.com/51594319 You won’t be able to help smiling at their energy and dedication, and I hope you’ll send them a little something.
*And don’t forget the
great KKFI event coming up November 1.
Amy Goodman is coming to speak. What an opportunity to hear her in person. Here’s
the link.
http://www.kkfi.org/ai1ec_event/democracy-nows-amy-goodman-with-denis-moynihan/?instance_id=
Hope to see you there!
Thanks for all you do in the interests of peace and justice,
Andrea
