Free Republic

Interior Minister: The Israeli franchisee of Ben & Jerry's need not be punished, action should be taken against the global company. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked on Monday vowed to take action against Ben & Jerry's following the company's decision Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria. "It is not the Ben & Jerry's Israeli franchisee who should be punished. On the contrary, he should be rewarded for his determination and proud and true Zionism." Shaked wrote in a post on Facebook. "The owners of the company, auto-antisemitic Jews, should be boycotted and action should be taken against them, not only in...

German public broadcasters have dropped plans to air concerts next year by ex-Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters, citing what they call “accusations of antisemitism against him”. Waters, part of one of the world’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful rock bands from 1965 to 1985 before going solo, is a member of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) that targets Israel over its occupation of territories where Palestinians seek statehood. Five state television and radio affiliates of the national ARD network have pulled out of broadcasting concerts by the 74-year-old Waters in Berlin and Cologne scheduled next summer...

Germany has rejected a definition of anti-Semitism that labels the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) as anti-Semitic. Responding to a legislative questionnaire released Thursday by leading Green Party MP Volker Beck, the Merkel administration wrote that “there does not exist a general academic definition” of anti-Semitism. Beck, who heads the German- Israel parliamentary group in the Bundestag, sharply criticized the Merkel administration: “Here the federal government has cowered,” he said. “There is no doubt of the anti-Semitic motivation within the spectrum of the BDS campaign. BDS aims essentially against Jewish Israelis and is therefore anti-Semitic. Whoever aggressively boycotts Israeli...

They’re just hurting themselves, but one has to feel for them – nothing else they've tried has worked. Pity they never tried to build a functioning economyThe Palestinian boycott of Israeli food makers began last week, with roughly equal amounts of brutality and confusion. Yet for all the bravado its organizers broadcast, there was a much bigger element of despair. The brutality was expressed in the bands of Fatah activists marching into groceries and checking shelves to see whether packages of Bamba peanut-flavored snacks or Tnuva milk were still on display, and issuing thinly veiled threats to reluctant store owners...

Since January of last year the European Union has been threatening to boycott any company or entity that does business with the West Bank of Israel. The sanctions, perversely designed by Secretary of State John Kerry, were meant to punish Israel for its settlements in the West Bank and encourage the Jewish nation to adopt Kerry’s peace process framework. The economic boycott threat was entirely one-sided against Israel. Because there were no consequences for the Palestinian Authority should they abandon the peace process, it gave the PA every reason to harden their position and wait for the EU to act...

Israel’s policies cannot be compared to the racist internal policies of Apartheid South Africa. The Afrikaans word “apartheid” means “the state of being apart.” As well, apartheid was a system of racial segregation, through legislation, by the National Party of South Africa between 1948-1994. Under this system of governing, political representation for non-whites in South Africa ceased in 1970. Furthermore, in that same year, non-whites were denied citizenship. This racist policy forced the majority of non-white people to live in, and become members of, 10 tribally-based bantustans, or “homelands.” The white-led minority, represented by the National Party, also segregated education,...

The US State Department issued a travel warning Monday on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, strongly warning US citizens against travel to the Gaza Strip. The advisory was updated due to what the State Department said was the complex security environment in the region.

Two of the largest banks in northern Europe have announced they will boycott Israeli banks because they operate in “occupied territories”, the Walla! Hebrew-language news website reported on Saturday. The two banks in question are the Swedish Nordea Bank, which is the largest bank in Scandinavia, and the Norwegian Danske Bank, which is the largest bank in Denmark. Danske Bank, which serves five ​​million customers in Denmark and Northern Europe , publishes on its website a list of companies which are boycotted for legal and ethical reasons. Two weeks ago the list was updated and, according to Walla!, for the...

Yaakov Berg, CEO of Psagot Winery, revealed to Arutz Sheva that the international boycotts of Israel products began precisely in Tel Aviv. There, the discrimination by Israelis against domestic produce from over the 1949 Armistice line opened the international floodgates. “Today everyone is attacking the countries that boycott us, but I want to say that the true boycott began from among us,” emphasizes Berg. […] Berg noted that he is convinced the Tel Aviv boycotters will in the end be boycotted as well, a prediction borne out by reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry is manipulating the EU...

A resolution calling for the boycott of Israeli firms will not be put to a vote at TIAA-CREF’s upcoming shareholders meeting. The move comes after the pension fund giant received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to “take no action” on a submission by pro-Palestinian activists. This followed the company’s warning by an Israeli civil rights group that passage of the resolution would violate NY and Federal law. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, stressed that the development was “a major defeat for the extremist Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement taking aim at Israel.”...

Arab and leftist radicals are again talking Israel boycott. To assist my fellow man, I decided to create a list of all the products they should immediately stop using. A. COMPUTERS 1. Do not buy a computer with an Intel chip, by far the most common one. 2. Do not buy a laptop developed in the 20th century because their chips were all invented in Israel. 3. Do not buy any computer with a Windows NP, XP or Vista, as they were developed by Microsoft's Israel division. 4. Do not use the latest version of Microsoft Office. 5. Do not...

'Humiliation and intimidation' of Palestinians behind decision to scrap Caesarea concerts, British singer says. British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello this week became the latest in a list of stars to cancel performances in Israel as a political protest. Costello, who was due to play two shows in Caesarea on June 30 and 31, posted a message on his website in which he announced that he would scrap the concerts in protest at what he termed the intimidation and humiliation of Palestinians by Israel.

Next Week (February 24) the Food Coop of Park Slope Brooklyn will having their monthly meeting at Congregation Beth Elohim Social Hall (Garfield Temple) 274 Garfield Pl. at 8th Ave. One issue brought up last month may loom large on the Agenda..Boycotting Israeli Products.

SELECTIONS In the aftermath of Wednesday's attack on American personnel in Gaza, the US announced that the FBI will conduct a thorough investigation. ........... Last week, WorldNetDaily reported that the FBI has rejected, apparently systematically, applications from Jewish Arabic speakers to serve as translators for the Bureau. ............. Two weeks ago, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, the Muslim-American responsible for for vetting and accrediting candidates for Islamic chaplaincy positions in the US military, was arrested on terrorism-related charges. ............... Last year, in the face of public protests, FBI Director Robert Mueller spoke at Alamoudi's American Muslim Council's annual dinner. FBI spokesmen have referred...