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About BDS Italia
BDS Italia is a movement supporting boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel's occupation and system of apartheid until Israel respects international law and human rights, comprised of associations and groups throughout Italy that endorse the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society. The BDS movement supports equal rights for all and is therefore opposed to all forms of racism, fascism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, ethnic and religious discrimination.
Although most of the content of our web site is in Italian, this section contains articles, press releases and action items in English.
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BDS Italy supports the statement by the Italian Forum of Public Water Movements criticizing the Festival of "privatized" Water being held in L'Aquila, Italy this week. The event is organized by Federutility, the federation that has continuously worked to undermine the referendum against the privatization of water, with 96 percent voting in 2011 to keep it public. The Italian movement for public water condemned this re-branding operation aimed at creating a positive image of those whose goal is to commodify a precious common good.
A look at the sponsors of the festival also reveals companies complicit with and profiting from the violation of human rights and international law: Sodastream and Veolia.
Sodastream is an Israeli company that produces home carbonators for tap water. The company’s main production plant is located in the Israeli settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law by the UN Security Council , the International Court of Justice , the International Red Cross and all European institutions.
Letter sent to FIFA ahead of Executive Committee meeting where the first report of the Task Force Israel Palestine will be discussed
International Federation of Association Football
FIFA-Strasse 20
P.O. Box 8044
Zurich, Switzerland
Attention: Mr Sepp Blatter, President; Members of the Executive Committee
Re: Task Force Israel Palestine
Dear Mr Blatter and FIFA Executive Committee members,
We have been following with interest the new Task Force Israel Palestine and consider it a first step in confronting the grave difficulties Palestinian football endure due to severe limitations on movement. It demonstrates your awareness of the conditions that make a normal sporting life impossible for Palestinians. We appreciate your efforts, however, we feel certain that you are also aware of the fact that it is impossible to separate the problems faced by athletes due to restrictions on movements from those encountered in the daily lives of each and every person living in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. Footballers struggle against the same conditions as all Palestinians and it would be wrong to consider them as special citizens, separated from their people. To do so would go against the sporting values of equality and anti-discrimination.
We ask you to call the attention of Task Force members to the injustices suffered by the entire Palestinian people and the necessity to work towards eradicating them, for everyone. Any measures that fall short of this goal will damage the credibility of FIFA and contribute to furthering the very conditions you aim to change.
Yours sincerely,
Cartellino Rosso all'Apartheid Israeliana
Red Card Israeli Apartheid – Italy
The Palestinian human rights organization Al Haq has issued a legal opinion regarding Italian firm Pizzarotti’s involvement in the construction of Tel Aviv - Jerusalem high-speed train crossing the occupied Palestinian territories. Italy has an obligation under International law to act.
According to the legal opinion published by Al Haq, noted Palestinian organization dedicated to protecting human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, there are “substantial grounds on which to determine that Pizzarotti & C. S.p.A. could be held responsible … in acts that can amount to serious violations of international law such as the war crimes of pillage and of destruction and appropriation of property” according to both the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC ).
Pizzarotti was contracted by Israel Railways for the excavation of two tunnels as part of the new high-speed rail line that will link Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, crossing, for over 6.5 km, the occupied Palestinian territories. The construction of these tunnels, one of which will be the longest in Israel, has already led to the illegal confiscation of Palestinian land in the villages of Beit Iksa, Beit Surik and Yalu. The company is therefore being targeted by the lobbying campaign of the Italian Coalition Stop That Train [1] until it ceases to operate in violation of international law.
Leggi: Al Haq: Substantial grounds for holding Italian firm Pizzarotti responsible for war crimes
On June 19, we protested the Fourth Conference on Cyber Warfare, the second such conference hosted by the University of Rome "La Sapienza". The conference (www.infowar.it) was organized by research centers at "La Sapienza" as well as the University of Florence, together with private partners including Vitrociset, Finmeccanica (Italy’s top arms manufacturer) and Maglan (an Israeli defense and information company, leader in the field of cyber warfare and initiator and financer of the conference).
The aims of these conferences are to strengthen cooperation between universities, government and weapons producers in order to develop the field of cyber weapons, which has become crucial in global conflicts.
From the early morning, we made ourselves heard with lively protests in front of the rector’s office, "shelling" the conference with recordings of bombings, under the watchful eyes of numerous police agents guarding and defending the building.
Leggi: Protests at Fourth Conference on Cyber Warfare at University of Rome La Sapienza
Tuesday, May 21, ahead of Uefa’s annual congress in London, thirty activists from the Red Card Israeli Apartheid campaign demonstrated in front of the national headquarters of the Italian Football Federation (Federcalcio) in Rome to reiterate the call for the Under-21 championships to be moved from Israel.
A delegation met with General Director Antonello Valentini, who was given a dossier on the condition of sport in Palestine as well as highlights from the European campaign against rewarding Israel with an international sporting event. Included in the dossier were also the latest letters in support of the campaign by Luisa Morgantini, former vice president of European Parliament, and former Senator Vincenzo Vita, both calling for the championships to be moved from Israel.
I fully support the petition to UEFA to reverse the decision to hold the under 21 championships in Israel. It is unacceptable that an important sporting event be held in and by a country which displays colonial and repressive behavior towards the Palestinian people. In particular, I refer to the very unacceptable actions towards Palestinian sportsmen who have been impeded in their activity or even jailed for prolonged periods of incarceration without charge or trial. Or to the many circumstances in which players and the public are denied entry or movement within the occupied territories or in and out of Palestine for competitions.
Sports must operate in equality, fairness and according to a common democratic sense. It cannot be used to validate as protagonists those who violate the elementary rules of civil living.
UEFA must not turn its head away. What message are you sending to the younger generation?
Vincenzo Vita
Former Vice-President of Education, Scientific Research, Cultural Heritage and Sports Commission in the Italian Senate
Rome 20.05.2013
To the President
Michel Platini
On June 5, the UEFA Under 21 Championship is due to kick off in Israel. On 5 June, 1967, Israel, in a preemptive war, attacked and occupied the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and the Sinai.
On June 5, a day of conquest for Israel and of suffering and denied rights for Palestinians, Uefa plans to reward Israel for its contribution to sport. For 46 years, the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza have been living under military occupation. No generation born after that date has ever lived in freedom. Every day they suffer under the violence of military occupation. Every day land cultivated with difficulty is stolen to be transformed into settlements. Houses demolished to prevent the growth of the Palestinian population, construction of colonial annexation wall, apartheid roads that only settlers, Israeli citizens and East Jerusalem ID cardholders can use, thousands of political prisoners, including children, torture.
In the hills south of Hebron just as in the Jordan Valley, land belonging to the Palestinian state, the Israeli army forcibly evacuates shepherds and farmers for military exercises, which in reality pave the way for new settlements.
But you Mr. Platini, are aware of the situation. You know about the rampant discrimination Israelis practice toward Palestinian sports: football players arrested and held in administrative detention, permits denied to Palestinians players even for "dialogue" games with Israelis, stadiums destroyed in Gaza, but also in the West Bank, checkpoints, the Wall. I could go on, but allow let me get to the point.
During Salone del Mobile 2013 in Milan, the historic Bar Basso in via Plinio was a protagonist of the FuoriSalone events organized by SodaStream, from April 9-14.
The event, publicized on various magazines, consisted in displaying SodaStream products throughout the bar and in its windows as well as the preparation of cocktails and drinks using their carbonation machines.
BDS Milano organized a boycott action on Friday, April 12, appearing at Bar Basso equipped with Palestinian flags, posters and flyers calling for a boycott.
Leggi: Milan's historic Bar Basso removes Sodastream products from display
Italian National Stop Sodastream Day of Action
Saturday, December 22 in several Italian cities, including Rome, Milan, Bologna, Pisa, Parma and Trieste, BDS Italia activists organized boycott actions against the sale of Sodastream products, informing both retailers and potential customers of the very real human rights violations behind Sodastream's phony environmentalism.
Sodastream, an Israeli company that produces home carbonation systems, passed off as "eco-friendly", hides an ugly truth: it operates in blatant violation of international law. Sodastream's main production plant is located in the Israeli settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, built illegally in the Occupied Palestinian Territories according to international law.
See below i reports, photos and videos of the actions.
Leggi: For an Apartheid-Free Christmas… Boycott Sodastream! Boycott Israel!
Province of Bologna: Sasso Marconi votes against the participation of Pizzarotti & C. Spa in the construction of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem high-speed railway that crosses the occupied Palestinian territories. Medicina commits to take measures to prevent relationships with companies that violate international law.
As the Israeli government continues unabated in its violations of international law, announcing plans for the construction of an additional 3,000 housing units in the West Bank in response to Palestine obtaining recognition as an observer to the UN, two Italian town councils take concrete steps to hold complicit companies accountable.
Following Rho (MI), Naples, Corchiano (VT)[1], the Town Council of Sasso Marconi, in the province of Bologna, voted to condemn Pizzarotti & C. Spa for the company's participation in the high-speed train between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Leggi: Italian Town Councils take a stand for Palestinian rights, oppose companies violating...