British-Danish multinational security and prison profiteering firm G4S is to pull out of Israeli prisons completely, the Financial Times reports this morning.

Campaigners have given a cautious welcome to the news, but emphasize that pressure on the company must continue until the abuses it is complicit in end.

This morning I appeared on Democracy Now!

Luxembourg’s state pension fund FDC has excluded nine major Israeli banks and firms and one US company because of their involvement in Israeli settlements and human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The move follows similar steps taken by other major financial institutions including the Dutch pensions giant PGGM and Norway’s state pension fund.

FDC

While Israeli hasbara (propaganda) initiatives continue to bravely deny that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is having any impact, two statements from prominent politicians indicate otherwise.

Israeli justice minister and war crimes suspect Tzipi Livni, who is in charge of the moribund negotiations w

Palestine solidarity activists in France are celebrating a victory in the country’s highest criminal appeals court this week, affirming the earlier acquittal of an activist in a case stemming from protests calling for the boycott of Israeli goods.

The ruling strikes a severe blow to efforts – supported by the government – to use legal repression to outlaw boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns in France.

The court victory comes as France’s Left Party became the first political party in the country to openly endor

Israel is not only one of the world’s most negatively viewed countries, but its reputation is deteriorating, according to the BBC World Service’s latest global survey.

The US is now the only Western country that holds favorable views of Israel and in some European countries, including Germany, positive views of Israel are in the single digits.

The 2013 Country Ratings Poll, conducted by GlobeScan/PIPA for the BBC among 26,299 people