Boycott Israel Event Calendar: [2008-05-09] CAAP National BDS Conference 2008

CAAP National BDS Conference 2008

A National Conference on Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions will take place in Chicago (Illinois) from May 9-11. The purpose of the conference is to develop the strategies and tactics of a coordinated, national BDS campaign; not to debate whether a national BDS campaign should be adopted. Accordingly, every representative of an attending organization must have the authority to vote on these matters and bind his/her organization to the resulting decision. The national conference is being organized by Chicagoans Against Apartheid in Palestine (CAAP).

CAAP is a coalition of organizations and individuals who have worked on issues of justice in Palestine. Specifically, we have been involved in the “StopCat Coalition,” which focused on stopping sales of militarized bulldozers by Caterpillar to Israel. We decided that even though the campaign against Caterpillar remains valid, the focus was too narrow given the recent events in the Middle East.

We believe that after decades of occupation, the only appropriate description of the political situation in Palestine is that of apartheid. By using the term apartheid, borrowed from the pre-liberation regime in South Africa, we mean a regime that applies separate systems of law and practice to people occupying the same territory based solely on their nationality/race/religion. The world community rose in response to the apartheid regime in South Africa by imposing sanctions against both South Africa and countries aiding and doing business with the apartheid regime; boycotting South African goods and national cultural institutions (art, music, sports, etc.); and divesting from both South African companies and companies doing business with the South African regime.

Our goal is to make it untenable for Israel to do business in the world and for the world to do business with Israel until it dismantles the apartheid system imposed on the Palestinians.

To achieve this goal, we will initiate targeted campaigns: to boycott Israeli goods and cultural institutions; to divest from Israeli companies and those companies conducting business with Israel; and for international sanctions against Israel and countries aiding the Israeli government.

Organizations wishing to participate in this National BDS Conference should visit our website www.caapweb.org and send a message to caap_mail@yahoo.com.

For more information on the BDS Conference: http://caapweb.org/id13.html

Page URL: http://www.inminds.com/event.php?id=19

Featured MP3 Podcast

"Scalp bounties were the payment of a fee for proof of death of an Indian, any Indian, on a graduated scale. At the top of the scale they would pay the highest amount for proof of death by way of the production of a scalp, or bloody red skin - origin of the term 'red skins' - of an adult male Indian. Half that fee would be payed for proof of death by the same means of a adult female, quarter to be payed for proof of death of a child, child being defined as as a human being under 10 years of age down to and including a fetus.. every single colony on the east coast, every state of the Union and territory of the United States within the confines of the 48 contiguous states, had in place, in some period of its history, a scalp bounty - removed usually when there were no longer sufficient number of Indians left to kill to warrant its continuation..that's as absolutely clinical a genocidal policy as is possible to envision, they weren't interested in any particular Indians, any Indians would do and they would pay for proof of death - they wanted all of us dead."

Ward Churchill

American Indian scholar, activist in the struggle for liberation of Indigenous Peoples in America

Genocide of Indigenous Peoples in North America, Action for Social and Ecological Justice on December 2, 2001, in Burlingotn, VT [50min / 11Mb]

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