From Jerusalem to Gaza: BDS is our beacon of hope
From Jerusalem to Gaza: BDS is our beacon of hope
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Dear supporter of Palestinian rights,
We are writing today from occupied Jerusalem and besieged Gaza, two places that attest to Israel’s abuse of Palestinian human rights and the brutality of its regime of settler-colonialism, occupation and apartheid. But we are writing with hope.
We have hope because Israel’s decades-old colonial oppression has failed to break the will and the inspiring popular resistance of the Palestinian people, including our BDS movement. Despite Israel’s ongoing, serious violations of international law, we continue to build the BDS movement as a pillar of our struggle for freedom, justice and equality.
We take great pride in the achievements of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the broadest coalition in Palestinian civil society, and our network of global partners.
We urge you to support our movement!
As our round-up of the year shows, 2016 has been another hugely significant year for the BDS movement.
Israel’s attempts throughout 2016 to undermine and sabotage our movement through repression and legal action have largely backfired. The European Union, Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union have declared BDS activism to be a form of protected free speech.
We’ve seen BDS campaigns prompt major corporations like Orange and CRH to end their role in Israel’s violations of international law.
Dozens of cities have declared themselves “Israeli Apartheid Free Zones”.
Major churches in the US have divested from companies and banks targeted by the BDS movement.
In a sign of how the BDS approach has grown in the mainstream, the UN Human Rights Council decided in March to establish a database of companies that are involved in Israel’s occupation regime.
11 years since the launch of the BDS movement, international grassroots solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for rights has never been as effective.
There are now strong and strategic BDS campaigns developing in countries across the world, from South Africa to South Korea, from Brazil to Chile, and from Morocco to Kuwait, not to mention Europe and North America.
Thanks to the tireless, creative organising of BDS campaigners in Palestine, the Arab world and globally, our movement for Palestinian rights is now more vibrant and more global than ever, and Israel is recognizing its strategic impact.
As in the struggle against apartheid South Africa, BDS gives us hope that Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid, too, can be defeated.
Help us keep this hope alive and donate to the BDS movement today
Your support can help us continue to lead and expand our movement for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality. Please donate today to the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the Palestinian leadership of the global BDS movement.
In friendship,
Abdulrahman Abunahel
Gaza Coordinator, BNC
Rama Yousef
Communications Officer, BNC
