The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) was launched in Ramallah in April 2004 by a group of Palestinian academics and intellectuals. One of the founders was Omar Barghouti . [1]
PACBI is a member of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and National Sanctions Committee (BNC).
History
The “Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel” was launched in Ramallah in April 2004 by a group of Palestinian academics and intellectuals, to join the growing international boycott movement. The Campaign built on a call for an economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel issued in August 2002 and a statement made by Palestinian academics and intellectuals in the occupied territories and the Diaspora calling for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions in October 2003. The Campaign is inspired by people who support the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through various forms of boycott. [2]
In 2005 PACBI worked closely with the British Committee for Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) which lobbied the Association of University Teachers (AUT) to adopt an academic boycott of Israeli universities. [3]
PACBI argues that “Israel’s colonial oppression of the Palestinian people included:”
- Denial of ict responsibility for the Nakba -in Particular the waves of ethnic cleansing and dispossession That created the Palestinian refugee problem-and therefore refusal to accept the inalienable rights of the Refugees and displaced Stipulated in and protected by international law; [4]
- Military occupation and colonization of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem ) and Gaza since 1967, in violation of international law and UN resolutions; [4]
- The system of racial discrimination and segregation against the Palestinian citizens of Israel , which resembles the defunct apartheid system in South Africa to form an Israeli apartheid ; [4]
PACBI’s supporters believe that a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions will contribute to the dismantling of “Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid”. [4]
Activities
In July 2009, (PACBI) led the call for the boycott of a Proposed concert in Ramallah by Jewish Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen Who HAD entertained Israeli troops for three months During the Yom Kippur war and Expressed a desire to be Drafted, [5 ] which was later canceled. PACBI opposed the concert because it would be held after Cohen performed in Israel. The organizer of the event, decided to cancel the concert in Ramallah because it was becoming too politicized. [6]
In February 2011, Mazin Qumsiyeh wrote an opinion piece for Al-Jazeera that mentioned the PACBI-led boycott of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra . [7]
See also
- Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
- Economic and political boycotts of Israel
- Academic boycotts of Israel
- Reactions to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Notes
- Jump up^ Academic boycotter to study in Tel Aviv . Anshel Pfeffer, The Jewish Chronicle, April 23, 2009
- Jump up^ History , PACBI website, 21 December 2008. Archived 3 December 2014.
- Jump up^ Al Majdal ArchivedJune 6, 2007, at theWayback Machine., Issue No. 28 (Winter 2005)
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d Call of Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel , PACBI website, accessed 27 May 2007.
- Jump up^ http://www.ohsweetnothing.com/2009/11/leonard-cohen-idf-entertainer.html
- Jump up^ Leonard Cohen’s Ramallah gig called offby Rachelle Kliger, Jerusalem Post, July 13, 2009.
- Jump up^ From Sykes-Picot to Mubarak-Suleiman