Occupied Ramallah, March 23, 2011

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), representing a wide spectrum in the Palestinian academy, salutes our South African colleagues at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) for their principled support for the cause of justice in Palestine by upholding the 29 September 2010 UJ Senate resolution to sever its links with BGU [1].  The UJ press release notes that:

In a protracted and

Palestinians everywhere were jubilant when two of the most tyrannical regimes in the Arab world were overthrown by youth-initiated people’s revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Palestinian civil society has enthusiastically stood with both revolutions' demands for full freedom, rights, dignity, social justice, sustainable development, and emancipation from Western economic and political hegemony.

If 2010 witnessed an exceptional growth of the global BDS movement, especially in the cultural and consumer products fields, one of the main challenges facing the movement in 2011 will be to start putting into effect concrete boycott measures against Israeli universities and to further spread the artists’ boycott of Israel.

With world renowned artists, bands and writers refusing to perform, exhibit or speak in Israel, cultural boycott took off in 2010, especially following Israel’s bloody attack on the Freedom Flotilla.

[PACBI] - It has come to our knowledge that TED, a non-profit organization carrying the slogan “Ideas Worth Spreading” has started a program called the “TEDxHolyLand.” This is supposed to be an experience which seeks to “bring together the people of Palestine and Israel who do not ordinarily meet to share a half day together hearing and discussing TED talks on a wide range of topics of common interest.”[1] The Palestinian Students' Campaign for the Academic boycott of Israel and University Teachers' Association in Palestine c