2015 was a landmark year for the BDS movement. The list below is a detailed round-up of victories over the past year. Not only did the movement demonstrate BDS can have a real economic impact on Israel, Justice for Palestine has become a key issue for students and youth across the world and Israel’s reaction has shown this “soft” power is having a real impact.
A novel about a love affair between a Jewish woman and a Palestinian man has been barred from Israel’s high school curriculum, reportedly over concerns that it could encourage intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews. The rejection of Dorit Rabinyan’s novel Borderlife, which was published in 2014, created an uproar in Israel, with critics accusing the government of censorship.
By Zeina Azzam
For the West Bank city of Bethlehem, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, the juxtaposition of hopes and fears is the stuff of everyday life. That Palestinians of all faiths in Bethlehem and throughout the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza, Israel, and the diaspora hold onto hope and have faith in a better future is a challenging feat indeed. Starting with the violent dislocation of three-quarters of a million Palestinians in 1948, Israel’s military occupation in 1967 of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, and a number of major wars, military assaults, and oppressive policies, Palestinians have endured lifetimes of injustice.
PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat touched off a sizable media storm when he asked to remove an Israeli flag hanging above his head as he addressed the Haaretz conference in New York this week. Veteran journalist Dan Margalit from the pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom called the conference organizer’s decision to comply a “burning and outrageous mistake.”
[George] Jackson, a Black Panther and an author, was one of the Soledad Brothers, three African Americans charged with the murder of a white guard at Soledad Prison, California, in 1970. The incident occurred shortly after a marksman who had shot dead three Black men in the prison’s recreation yard was exonerated in a “justifiable homicide” ruling. Less well-known is the fact that Jackson also turned to the Palestinian struggle for inspiration during this time, and that the Palestinian prisoner writings that influenced him would continue to have an impact in the US Black community for decades to come.
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The World Bank on Monday announced $5 million worth of funding to go toward job creation across the occupied Palestinian territory. The international finance institution said in a statement that the money would go toward the ‘Development Impact Bonds’ project, aimed at providing private sector skills in Palestinian youth aged 18 to 29 years old. “Jobs are among the most pressing issues in Palestine,” said Steen Lau Jorgensen, the World Bank’s country director for the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem (OPT), is rich in oil, gas a shale oil resources, al-Haq claims in its 2015 report, Annexing Energy. If these resources were to be developed, Palestine would be economically self-sufficient and relieved from dependence on international aid. However, as expected, Israel has a history of systematically preventing Palestine’s development of oil and gas in the OPT. Since 1967, the OPT’s natural resources have been governed by Israel’s government, allowing Israel to manage its natural resources to the benefit of Israeli citizens and corporations – not the local population.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Activist Hekmat Bessiso recently wrote on her Facebook page, “If the birthplace of Jesus Christ does not celebrate Christmas, who in the world will? I hope Palestine remains full of lights every December. Our struggle is enduring, and this is why we should preserve our joy.” Bessiso’s comments were in protest of a Nov. 23 declaration by the Council of Churches of Ramallah city and municipality to cancel the annual Christmas tree lighting and limit Christmas celebrations to religious rituals because of the current unrest. It said the decision had been made out of respect for victims and the wounded. As of Dec. 8, the number of Palestinians killed during the two-month-old intifada stood at 117.
The new prominence of Ayman Odeh, the dynamic and popular Palestinian Israeli political leader, means that the apologists for Israel can no longer even pretend that there are no significant non-violent movements for justice there. Odeh is the 40-year-old head of the Joint List, the coalition of Arab parties which won 13 seats in last March’s elections, making it the third-largest political group in the Knesset. He is on a busy 2-week tour of the United States, and he made a point of visiting the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s home congregation, where he was introduced from the pulpit to a standing ovation.
Through educational events, humanitarian support, and cultural preservation, the Jerusalem Fund is helping build the movement for Palestinian liberation.
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