Tag: zionism

Support striking Namibian workers against Israeli diamond magnate

Posted on By 3arabawy

Via General, Your Tank is a Powerful Vehicle:

The Congress of South African Trade Unions pledges its support for the 153 diamond polishers employed by the Lev Leviev Diamond (LLD) Polishing Company in Windhoek, Namibia, who have been on strike since June 19th to protest abusive managers as well as job appraisals and promotions, wages and outstanding overtime.
Adalah-NY, the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, report that the company, owned by Lev Leviev, whose companies are already a target of global condemnation for building Israeli settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law, has suspended the 153 strikers and is threatening to begin disciplinary hearings leading to firings, claiming the strike is illegal, according to the Namibian newspaper the New Era.
“The relevant employees will be issued with notices to appear before a disciplinary hearing committee, upon which if found guilty they may face severe penalties and possible dismissal,” LLD Managing Director K. Kapwanga threatened in the newspaper The Namibian.
The workers have been camped outside night and day a few hundred yards from the factory gates, after a court injunction forced them to move there from their original picket line.
Lev Leviev’s companies have been building of settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law, as well as his abuses of workers and communities from Angola to New York City. One fruit of Adalah-NY’s campaign has been UNICEF’s announcement on June 20th that it would no longer take donations from Leviev, which followed a similar decision by Oxfam International.
COSATU urges unions, supporters of human rights for Palestinians, and all other social justice groups to send messages of protest to LLD management, demanding that the strikers not be fired and that their demands be met (addresses and phone numbers to send messages to are below).
The company’s threats take on added weight because of support the government gave to its claim: Labour Commissioner Mathew Shinguadja has also claimed that the strike is illegal according to the New Era.

International Resistance to Zionism

Posted on By 3arabawy

I’ll be speaking on July 11th, in an event organized by the IJSN. If you are in London, please stop by:

The International Jewish Solidarity Network
Invites you to its first public event
International Resistance to Zionism
In solidarity with 60-plus years of Palestinian resistance to the founding of Israel
Friday 11 July 7-9.30pm
Trinity United Reformed Church, Buck St, London NW1
(near Camden tube) wheelchair accessible (accessible toilets nearby), refreshments
ALL WELCOME

Speakers include: Hossam El-Hamalawy, Egyptian journalist, blogger and activist; Liliane Kaczerginski, IJSN member, based in Paris; Professor Moshe Machover, co-founder of Matzpen, an anti-Zionist Israeli organization founded in 1962 and active until the 1980s; Daniel Machover, lawyer working to indict Israeli army officers for war crimes; Sue Blackwell, Birmingham University, prominent advocate of the academic boycott against Israel; and others.
Presenters will give some of the history of the region and resistance to Zionism and share a range of initiatives against the Zionist state of Israel including the vital boycott / divestment / sanctions movement, followed by discussion.

For the past two years IJSN has been building an international network of anti-Zionist Jews to support existing and seed new Jewish anti-Zionist organizing in solidarity with Palestinian resistance. As with any other anti-imperialist struggle or struggle for social justice, working locally or even nationally is not enough. The enemy we face is international, and what we can do is limited unless we find ways to work together across boundaries and regions. We are building an international voice which challenges Zionism and its claim to speak on behalf of Jews worldwide. As an international force, we can contribute to the movement to defeat US-backed Israeli imperialism.