Memorable moments from the 17 minute long video include a man at the beginning saying “200,000 illegals walking around here as though it’s the USA”; a woman screaming about how could she be living in the State of Israel when the situation there is worse than in Gaza; a young man chanting how the Filipino-African occupation of Israel must come to an end and, of course, what racist mob video wouldn’t be complete without the mob confronting and taunting the subject of their hate?

There is something deeply wrong with any society -and unfortunately there are many – which shows this kind of hatred. If this is the best the Middle East can get in democracy, liberty, and freedom – then I think the Arab Spring revolutionaries and protesters should rethink their efforts.

The video itself is disturbing: images aside, the language used repeatedly throughout sounds far too resonant of a group of murderers made infamous for their crimes 70 years ago. Infestations? Diseases? Incompatibility with “our” way of life? Destroying a country’s infrastructure?

To refer to Israel as anything but Apartheid is to diminish the truth; to fear lowkey ostracization over committing an injustice. Were this an isolated incident of racism against an ethnic minority, the crime would have been forgivable for the society. But time and time against, Israel has shown itself to be anything but tolerant. Perhaps unsurprising for a state built on an ultra-nationalist, racist ideology; built on the stolen land of others, the blood of others and sustained through systematic oppression and cleansing of others.

The racism runs deep within this society – being even just Jewish is not enough to be an Israeli.

Jewish Extremists Attack Parliament Member Hanin Zoabi

More evidence of Israel flying off the handle… Knesset, Apartheid’s Legislative Body, lifted Member Hanin Zoabi’s parliamentary immunity after she sailed on the humanitarian aid ship Mavi Marmara towards Gaza. Just another step in the witch hunt towards her and other Palestinian-Israeli leaders that have been challenging the Apartheid rule.

Lawmakers voted 34 to 16 for a motion that would allow the authorities to bar Haneen Zoabi, 41, from leaving the country, and lift her right to a diplomatic passport.

Zoabi is the only female member of parliament from a party representing Israeli Arabs that has called for Israel to redefine itself as a multi-ethnic rather than Jewish state.

Speaking to Reuters after the vote, Zoabi said the move, though mostly symbolic, was a potential irritant to already strained ties between Jews and Arabs, who make up about a fifth of Israel’s population.

Very soon this will be all the “cultural” activities Israel has to offer.

[Tarboush Tip: Fadi, Niko]

Another cultural bombing rocks Israel.. British Rock band “Archive” remove Israel from their concert tour, rather unmistakably.

Palestinians have resisted Israeli Apartheid and oppression in all possible ways. The goal has always been to achieve justice and freedom that was also the call when some Palestinian factions employed armed struggle. Israel and the west called it terrorism, but that does not take away from the fact that the goal was to resist oppression and achieve freedom by making Israel feel pain, reflect, and change.

BDS is a non-violent strategy that has teeth and can be painful, it is also designed to make Israel feel pain through isolation, reflect, and change. If it is terrorizing Israelis, then call me a cultural terrorist, because I’ll do every thing I can to make sure Israel is culturally isolated, for that we may be closer to a just and lasting solution.

The week before the attack on the aid ships, Bob Dylan, quietly canceled his appearance; he also had received many letters calling for him to cancel. Others canceling appearances in Israel in recent weeks include Gil Scott Heron and Elvis Castello. Castello’s wife, talented jazz singer, Dina Krall is still scheduled to perform there later this summer, but feel free to contact her.

Roger Waters is apparently remorseful for playing to apartheid and his naiveté that his group hug approach only served to white wash Israeli crimes, surprise surprise.

Elton John is still planning to perform in Israel, many have called on him to cancel, but I personally don’t expect the man who just performed at Rush Limbaugh’s wedding to take a stand for Justice for Palestine.

Other developments in cultural isolation, or terrorism in Hebrew, include the cancellation of a youth soccer match between Israel and Turkey, Sweden’s demand to do the same for its match, banning Israel from Spain’s Gay Pride parade, in addition to other boycott actions in Norway and Sweden.

During two appearances on CNN yesterday and today, on-again off-again American and currently Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, made the claim that the commandos who helicopter-dropped and stormed the humanitarian aid ships going to Gaza were armed with paintball guns.

You may be laughing now, and I agree, it is almost funny, except the Stepford wives and other dumb fucks posing as journalists at CNN eat that shit up and take it at face value. As a matter of fact they did let the claim pass unchallenged and as a matter of fact.

Not only is it ironic and oxymoronic for any commando unit to claim carrying toy guns, but Israel commandos were voted in the year book of murder camp as the least likely to use non-lethal force… of all commandos and criminal gangs out there, period.

Look closely; Oren barely concealed a smirk when he made the claim. Other pro-Israeli propagandas outlets and mouthpieces have also claimed that those commandos were actually carrying Super Soakers filled with pepper spray. And who could blame them, spitting on America’s brain was too much fun not to try to outdo. What are the next claims? Commandos spray boat with hand sanitizer? Death-by-chocolate cake results in actual death of 9? What ever happened, it can’t be that Israel used excessive, lethal force, unprovoked, because that has never happened, right out friends at “Most trusted name in News”?

Oren was also not challenged for making unsubstantiated, slanderous claims about the activist delivering the humanitarian aid to Gaza such as chanting death to Jews and being members of terrorist organizations (I assume he excludes state-run ones). Nor was he challenged for his claim that Israel offered to deliver the supplies, because had that been true, we would not have a siege on Gaza.

Another ironic exchange took place when Oren was asked if the latest incident puts a strain on US-Israel relations. Oren indicated utmost satisfaction with the bilateral coordination, how could he not, when you have former Israel soldiers sitting on both sides of the board game where American troops are being endangered and strategic interests are begin compromised. Israel’s grip on American politics is pretty tights, and will remain so for a long time, long enough for America to be seriously harmed by it.

I think it’s also safe to predict that when Israel and its representatives make claims that weapons have been found on the ships, CNN clowns will not challenge them that the weapons could have been planted by the IDF after they were seized.

Here is the testimony of activist Huwaida Arraf who was on one of the ships and was arrested by the Israeli commandos.

The chains have said they are boycotting all Israel products because they cannot distinguish between colony-originated produce and mainstream apartheid oranges, so they chose to boycott all.

This may sound incidental, as Israel insists on ambiguity with regard to the origin of its exports so that settlement products are not met specific, targeted boycott. This “joke-is-on-you” approach by Israel has worked for a long time, because the EU, among others, has been too cowardly to stand up to Israel’s arrogance. But the tide is turning and we are beginning to see a case of the “arrogance backfires” as the grassroots take matters into their own hands and put the onus on Israel.

Speaking of onus, this may sound fun and a good strategy, it’s certainly effective in dealing with Israel, but be careful: When the pressure on Israel starts to bite, its very likely that they would agree to minimal demands such as marking West Bank and Golan products allow them to targeted with boycott, after all their volume is minimal. I hope that is not enough to lift boycott.

Israel should be boycotted for being Israel, for being the apartheid regime it is, and if we fall into the trap of conditioning and qualifying BDS we will never win. We can’t outfox Zionists. What if they sell colony produce in Tel Aviv and export similar produce from Jaffa instead to Europe, then it’s back to joke-on-you games, believe me, Israel has a whole book of them.

It would be funnier than when the US asked them to allocate aid from the US to building settlement… they probably smiled and used it to build weapons, and took the weapon money and build settlements with it.

[Tarboush Tip: Layth]

Sent from Emily Schaeffer, human right lawyer in Israel/Palestine, who asked Archbishop Tutu to write the letter.

Dear Student Leaders at the University of California – Berkeley

It was with great joy that I learned of your recent 16-4 vote in support of divesting your university’s money from companies that enable and profit from the injustice of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and violation of Palestinian human rights. Principled stands like this, supported by a fast growing number of US civil society organizations and people of conscience, including prominent Jewish groups, are essential for a better world in the making, and it is always an inspiration when young people lead the way and speak truth to power.

I am writing to tell you that, despite what detractors may allege, you are doing the right thing. You are doing the moral thing. You are doing that which is incumbent on you as humans who believe that all people have dignity and rights, and that all those being denied their dignity and rights deserve the solidarity of their fellow human beings.

I have been to the Ocupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid. I have witnessed the humiliation of Palestinian men, women, and children made to wait hours at Israeli military checkpoints routinely when trying to make the most basic of trips to visit relatives or attend school or college, and this humiliation is familiar to me and the many black South Africans who were corralled and regularly insulted by the security forces of the Apartheid government.

In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime. Students played a leading role in that struggle, and I write this letter with a special indebtedness to your school, Berkeley, for its pioneering role in advocating equality in South Africa and promoting corporate ethical and social responsibility to end complicity in Apartheid.I visited your campus in the 1980’s and was touched to find students sitting out in the baking sunshine to demonstrate for the University’s disvestment in companies supporting the South African regime.

The same issue of equality is what motivates the divestment movement of today, which tries to end Israel’s 43 year long occupation and the unequal treatment of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government ruling over them. The abuses they face are real, and no person should be offended by principled, morally consistent, non-violent acts to oppose them. It is no more wrong to call out Israel in particular for its abuses than it was to call out the Apartheid regime in particular for its abuses.

To those who wrongly accuse you of unfairness or harm done to them by this call for divestment, I suggest, with humility, that the harm suffered from being confronted with opinions that challenge one’s own pales in comparison to the harm done by living a life under occupation and daily denial of basic rights and dignity. It is not with rancor that we criticize the Israeli government, but with hope, a hope that a better future can be made for both Israelis and Palestinians, a future in which both the violence of the occupier and the resulting violent resistance of the occupied come to an end, and where one people need not rule over another, engendering suffering, humiliation, and retaliation. True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, national origin or any other identity attribute. You, students, are helping to pave that path to a just peace. I heartily endorse your divestment vote and encourage you to stand firm on the side of what is right,

God bless you richly,

+Desmond Tutu.
Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town.

According to your sources, what other conspiracies is the young, global movement is responsible for?

1. The Assassination of JFK
2. It Shot John Lennon and the sheriff, also shot J.R.
3. Created the HIV virus and infected it into monkeys
4. Plans to orchestrate an Islamic Awareness Week
5. September 11th, 1997
6. The ultimate goal of BDS, which is to impose sharia law in the U.S
7. Planted the stain on Monica’s blue dress
8. Increase Palestinian birth rates with foreign aid money
9. Speidi
10. Formation of the original Bavarian Illuminati Council
11. The wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.
12. Operating the eye on the back of the dollar bill
13. Fabricated a Hawaii birth certificate for Kenyan-born Barack Hussein Obama
14. The changing of ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’ to ‘KFC’
15. The DaVinci code, now that we know Da Vinci is half-Arab

[Tarboush Tip: Will, Fadi, Sana, Diana, Mohammed, Jillian, Sunbula, Chaim]

The “University Center of Ariel in Samaria” (AUCS) has been excluded from a prestigious university competition about sustainable architecture in Spain. With this move, Spain joins the growing number of European governments taking effective, even though preliminary, steps to uphold international law by boycotting or divesting from institutions and corporations involved in or profiting from Israel’s illegal Wall and colonial settlements built on occupied Palestinian land..

“Ariel University Centre of Samaria” was one out of 21 teams selected last April to compete for the Solar Decathlon-Madrid 2010, the most prestigious competition for sustainable architecture in the world, organized by the Spanish Ministry of Housing together with the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid .[1]

Selected teams, formed by architects and engineering students are asked to design and build a real house entirely driven by solar energy. Every house should be built in one of the 20 sites in the “Solar Villa” planned in Madrid to host them. To facilitate participation of the various teams, the Spanish Ministry of Housing allocated a sum of 100,000 Euros to every project.

Last Wednesday,September 16th, Sergio Vega, General Director of Solar Decathlon Europe addressed all participant teams to inform them of the exclusion of AUCS:”The decision has been taken by the Government of Spain based upon the fact that the University is located in the [occupied] West Bank. The Government of Spain is obliged to respect the international agreements under the framework of the European Union and the United Nations regarding this geographical area.” It represents the first case of sanctions against an Israeli academic institution in Spain and one of the very first such actions in the West.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) in Palestine has taken up the campaign against official Spanish support of the illegal Israeli university in occupied Palestinian territory following an initiative of the UK based professional association, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP). The support of many individuals and organizations in Spain for the cancellation of AUCS’s participation in the Solar Decathlon had culminated in a parliamentary question in the Spanish Parliament [2] and the eventual exclusion of the illegal settlement academic institution from the competition.

This move of the government of Spain follows the decision of the UK government not to rent offices from Israeli settlement builder Lev Leviev and the divestment of the Norwegian Pension Fund from Elbit Systems, an Israeli company providing surveillance equipment to the Wall.

The BNC congratulates the Spanish university teachers, parliamentarians and organizations for this principled stand with the Palestinian people and international law and calls for sustained support of the Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions(BDS) against Israel and all its complicit institutions, including universities, until it fully complies with its obligations under international law and respects universal human rights, specifically by ending the occupation, facilitating the UN-sanctioned right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes of origin and ensuring equal rights for all Palestinian citizens of Israel.