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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.
Contact information
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On, Wednesday, November 28, the day of the draw in Tel Aviv for the 2013 UEFA Under-21 finals, a protest was held at the national headquarters of the Italian Football Federation (IFF) to demand that the championship be moved from Israel.
The protest was organized by the Italian "Red Card Israeli Apartheid" campaign and a delegation was received by IFF General Manager Antonello Valentini, along with the members of their Press Office.
During the meeting, the delegation called upon the IFF to put pressure on UEFA so that Israel is not granted the privilege of hosting the championship, stressing that the privilege would be in strong contrast to sport values given Israel’s decades-long militarily occupation of the Palestinian territories, making Israel a rogue state flouting international law.
Leggi: Italy: "Red Card Israeli Apartheid" campaign meets with Italian Football Federation
Protest at the national headquarters of the Italian Football Federation
(via Gregorio Allegri, 14)
Rome, Wednesday, November 28, date of the Under 21 draw in Tel Aviv, at 11:30 am
In June 2013, the final stage of the European Under-21 Championship is expected to be held in Israel, a privilege in sharp contrast with the values embodied in sports. Israel has illegally occupied the Palestinian territories for decades, obstructing the Palestinian people’s chances for a future, for self-determination and, more generally, of simply living. A bloody and cruel occupation, consisting in daily negations of freedom and rights. Young Palestinians, in fact, are unable to study, move about, work and play sports as their peers from around the world. A recent emblematic case is that of Mahmoud Sarsak, a young Palestinian footballer with the Palestinian national team, who served three years in Israeli prison, obtaining his freedom only after a 92-day hunger strike and a significant mobilization of international sports figures.
Leggi: No to the UEFA Under-21 Championship in Israel - "Red Card Israeli Apartheid"
Stephanie Westbrook
On Saturday, 13 October 2012, over 2000 people marched from the Northern Italian provincial town of Venegono (Varese) to the headquarters of Alenia Aermacchi to protest the sale of 30 M-346 trainer jets to Israel. Alenia Aermacchi is part of the Finmeccanica Group, a partially state-owned conglomerate and one of the world’s top ten weapons producers.
Under an unusually heavy police presence – six police vans, police in riot gear and a helicopter overhead – demonstrators marched around Alenia Aermacchi’s 274,000 m² facilities, which include air and water tunnels as well as a landing strip, calling for revocation of the sale to Israel of M-346 trainer jets as well as the 2005 military cooperation agreement between the Italian and Israeli governments. These “trainer” jets are designed to carry a weapons payload of up to 3000 Kg. The very real possibility of the Palestinian people living under a brutal decades-long Israeli military occupation as targets for “field-testing” the M-346 escaped no one.
Leggi: Italians protest weapons sales to Israel at Alenia Aermacchi Headquarters
On November 9 in Rome, for the second night in a row, protests were organized against the Israeli Embassy sponsored performance of the Batsheva Dance Company at the RomaEuropa Festival. Over 50 activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign demonstrated outside the Auditorium Santa Cecilia against the decision of the dance company to lend itself as cultural fig leaf to conceal ongoing Israeli violations of Palestinian rights.
In addition to being financed by the Israeli government as well as the Jewish National Fund, which plays a key role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, Batsheva is also a central figure of Brand Israel, a marketing campaign developed by the Israeli government, in consultation with US public relations experts, with the declared intention of diverting the attention of world public opinion from a decades-long brutal occupation and Apartheid regime. The direct links that Batsheva maintains with the Israeli government makes it impossible to describe the company as 'apolitical'.
An open letter by Turin artists to Gigi Cristoforetti, Director of TorinoDanza
Dear Gigi Cristoforetti,
We realize this is a sensitive subject, but please do not become an accomplice to a rebranding operation, specifically commissioned and financed by the Israeli government, aimed at hiding the crimes the State continues to perpetrate against the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people behind a reassuring image. We write asking you to revoke the decision to host the Batsheva Dance Company in Moncalieri (Turin) for the following reasons.
Many colleagues, artists and intellectuals, openly opposed to Israeli policies, even willing to discuss the boycott of Israeli products, reject the idea of academic and cultural boycotts of Israel.
There are two reasons for this. The first is that a cultural boycott is basically considered a form of censorship, and art is censored only in totalitarian systems where they fear the message of freedom. The second is that art spans boundaries of nations and conflicts and with its universal ideals reconciles men, feeds mutual understanding and builds bridges between cultures.
Leggi: Turin artists write to Director of TorinoDanza: Withdraw invitation to Batsheva Dance Company
On November 8, during the opening performance of the Batsheva Dance Company at the RomaEuropa Festival, human rights activists interrupted the show, sponsored by the Israeli Embassy and in the presence of the ambassador, to denounce the dance company’s role in providing a fig leaf for a decades-long brutal occupation and apartheid regime.
Batsheva is a central figure of the Brand Israel marketing campaign launched and financed by the Israeli government following three years of consultations with US public relations experts. The aim of the campaign is to divert attention of world public opinion from the continuous human rights violations committed by the Israeli government.
Chanting "Batsheva, you're an accomplice! Say no to Occupation!", the protesters called on the dancers to cut ties with Brand Israel, refuse funding from the Israeli government and take a stand, in words and in deed, against violations of Palestinian rights. Since 2010, similar appeals have been ignored by Batsheva, which continues to act as cultural ambassador for Israeli Apartheid.
The activists, while stressing the importance of international cultural events that promote music, dance and theater, insisted that there can be no place for art as propaganda. The direct links that Batsheva maintains with the Israeli government makes it impossible to describe the dance company as 'apolitical'.
Three protesters were removed from the theater, taken to a nearby police station and released shortly afterwards.
The protest action in Rome is part of the international campaign Don’t Dance With Israeli Apartheid, which in recent weeks has seen protests at every Batsheva performance in the UK and has involved noted choreographers and public figures.
On November 8 and 9 at 8:30pm at Rome’s Santa Cecilia Auditorium in Via della Conciliazione, the Israeli dance company Batsheva will perform as part of a tour sponsored by the Israeli Embassy in Italy.
Batsheva performances, from New York, to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Edinburgh, have been met with protest by supporters of the global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign because
Batsheva is part of BRAND ISRAEL,
the campaign launched and financed by the Israeli government, following three years of consultations with US marketing experts, to create a positive image of Israel as a highly civilized country that excels in the arts, science and sports. "Showing Israel’s prettier face" to hide the shame of a brutal occupation based on Apartheid and torture: This is Brand Israel’s intent.
Batsheva, as with all Brand Israel activities, aims to divert the attention of world public opinion from serious violations of human rights and international law committed daily by the Israeli government.
Despite years of open letters calling on Batsheva to cut ties with Brand Israel, refuse funding from the Israeli government and take a stand against Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, Batsheva continues to act as cultural ambassador for Israeli Apartheid.
Art, science and sports, when serving oppression, ethnic cleansing and Apartheid, becoming an accomplice of a decades-long military occupation in defiance of countless UN resolutions, must be contested and boycotted.
Don’t be fooled by the graceful moves of the dancers. There is no grace or beauty in the Israeli occupation: it is absolutely brutal!
The BDS campaign launched by Palestinian civil society is an effective and nonviolent means of struggle in support of the resistance of the Palestinian people defending the right to live in freedom on their own land.
Boycotting Batsheva is a responsibility for all human rights defenders, alongside those who struggle against oppression. Rome is mobilizing.
Rome BDS Group
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Maugeri’s role as Sodastream “PR Ambassador ”at odds with Oxfam position on Israeli settlements
The campaign targeting Sodastream marketing initiatives continues to achieve results. Sodastream, a private Israeli company producing home carbonation systems, is object of international boycott campaigns highlighting the company’s illegal activities: the main production facilities are located in the Israeli settlement of Mishor Adumim, built illegally in the occupied Palestinian territories in violation of international law and human rights.[1]
In response to a letter from the Italian Stop Sodastream Campaign,[2] Oxfam Italy cut ties with Paola Maugeri, "PR Ambassador" for Sodastream Italy. Oxfam Italy had previously engaged Maugeri in their fundraising campaign “A future without hunger.”
The promotional video featuring Paola Maugeri, a well-known radio personality and author of the book "My Life at zero impact," was immediately removed by Oxfam Italy.[3] The NGO confirmed that they had notified Maugeri of the reasons behind their decision and are working to convince her to terminate her collaboration with Sodastream, as requested in the letter from Stop Sodastream. In their reply, Roberto Barbieri, General Director of Oxfam Italy, reiterated the organization’s position "against the trade of products from the settlements in the occupied territories, which are considered illegal under international law and one of the main obstacles to achieving a just, lasting and stable peace in the area," regarding "the sales of such products a means for legitimizing the settlements’ existence."
Leggi: Oxfam Italy cuts ties with Paola Maugeri over involvement with Sodastream
Stop the War Machine, No M-346 or any other weapons to Israel
On Saturday, October 13, 2012, a national demonstration will be held in Varese, Italy, where most of the country’s military aircraft production is located, to denounce the weapons industry, in particular the sale of 30 M-346 trainer jets to Israel. The protest will take place at the Alenia Aermacchi headquarters, manufacturers of the M-346 and part of Finmeccanica Group, one of the world’s top weapons producers.
The M-346, defined as a “technologically advanced trainer jet,” is in fact designed to be armed with missiles or bombs. These weapons will undoubtedly be “tested” first and foremost on Palestinians. As a trainer jet, the M-346 is designed to prepare fighter pilots in the use of the most “technologically sophisticated” attack aircraft, such as the “netcentric” and “invisible” F-35 from US weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Israel has signed on to purchase 19 F-35 fighter jets, with an option for 56, and Italy is also unfortunately in line to purchase the combat aircraft for future wars.
Leggi: Italians protest weapons sales to Israel at Alenia Aermacchi Headquarters
Nicola Zingaretti, president of the Rome Province, invites Israel as "guest of honor" for the Province’s “Days of Creativity and Innovation”, sparks protests organized by Palestine solidarity activists
Nicola Zingaretti presented Israel as a "model to be emulated", despite its systematic violations of human rights, at the Days of Creativity and Innovation held on July 4-5 in Rome, with the scope of inspiring young Italians, the brightest of which would be rewarded with a trip to Israel.
Prior to the event, the Italian Network Jews Against the Occupation called upon Zingaretti to revoke the invitation, reminding him that Israel was created by "occupying Palestinian land and expelling, at gunpoint, the inhabitants, Palestinian Arabs."
An appeal to exclude Israel also arrived from Palestine, from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), who urged the President of the Rome Province to "to be true to [his] mission of innovation and creativity in the service of humanity”, otherwise it “would be synonymous to promoting oppression and violations of human rights.”
But such calls went unheeded. Therefore, on July 3rd, the eve of the initiative, activists from Un ponte per… and the Rome Palestine Solidarity Network distributed leaflets at the festival of the Italian Democratic Party where Zingaretti was speaking, recalling the most significant violations and crimes committed by Israel since its creation. When asked to explain the reasons underlying his decision, Zingaretti gave no answer and quickly fled the activists.
That same night, the area surrounding the event venue was plastered with posters featuring aspects of the "Israeli model" that Zingaretti had knowingly omitted: Palestinian homes demolished by Israeli bulldozers, Gaza during the terror of Cast Lead, oppression of the Palestinian people and the Apartheid wall. Photos: www.flickr.com/photos/81931077@N08/sets/72157630416375144/