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2022 Round Up: 30 impacts for the Palestinian liberation struggle!

As we work towards a broad, global, Palestinian-led anti-apartheid movement, we take a look back at some highlights in our struggle for Palestinian rights in the second half of 2022.

In 2022, Palestinians faced one of the bloodiest years on record. Yet, despite apartheid Israel’s intensified repression, massacres and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians, solidarity with our liberation struggle reached new heights. 

As we work towards a broad, global, Palestinian-led anti-apartheid movement, we take a look back at some highlights in our struggle for Palestinian rights in the second half of 2022.

Here are 30 highlights of this unprecedented solidarity:

1. Artists and arts organizations withdrew en masse from the prestigious Sydney Festival over its partnership with apartheid Israel.

2. HPE ended its contract providing servers for the computerization of Israel’s population database, known as Aviv System–a pillar of apartheid. The #BoycottHP campaign continues, however, to compel it to end its ongoing complicity with Israeli police and prison services.

3. Several Arab authors from Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia withdrew from the “Emirates Airline Festival of Literature” which was a clear attempt to whitewash the UAE regime's human rights atrocities and to normalize its shameless military-security alliance with apartheid Israel.

4. Australia's Future Fund excluded investments in Elbit Systems, apartheid Israel’s largest private arms company.

5. The UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk confirmed Israel is perpetrating the crime against humanity of apartheid. In April, five UN human rights experts endorsed this conclusion.

6. Activists from 21 African countries gathered in Dakar for the first ever Pan-African Anti-Apartheid Conference in support of Palestinian liberation, organised by  Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network (PAPSN). Participants committed to organize until Israeli apartheid is dismantled. 

7. Arab and international athletes and teams from Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria, Iran and Spain refused to normalize Israeli apartheid and denounced the hypocrisy of selective action by Western-dominated international sporting bodies.

8. The Argentina football team canceled a planned "friendly" match in apartheid Israel, after public campaigning and an open letter from Palestinian football team Al Khader.

9. CUNY Law School unanimously endorsed BDS, joining hundreds of academic departments, programs, unions and societies worldwide standing for Palestinian rights and calling to end complicity in Israeli apartheid.

10. The Harvard Crimson editorial board endorsed the Palestinian-led BDS movement, and 50 Harvard faculty members pledged their support.

11. A delegation of South African clergy representing the World Council of Churches, the South African Council of Churches and The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa issued a call on Christian communities and institutions as well as governments to recognize and denounce Israeli policies as apartheid and to end all support to Israeli apartheid.

12. General Mills announced the sale of its stake in its joint venture in apartheid Israel, following several years of BDS pressure.

13. Norway's largest trade union federation (LO Norge), with almost 1 million members, declared its support for boycotting apartheid Israel and called on Norway to endorse #UNinvestigateApartheid.

14. Historic motion passed unanimously by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) endorsing the Palestinian call to boycott Israeli academic institutions complicit in Israel’s regime of military occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.

15. The Parliament of Catalonia passed a resolution making it the first parliament in Europe to recognize Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people. In the same week, Polish political party “Razem” recognised Israel as an apartheid state and endorsed the BDS movement.

16. US band Big Thief announced the cancellation of its two scheduled concerts at Barby in apartheid Tel Aviv after heeding the appeals of thousands of their fans.

17. The organizing Committee of Lisbon Pride refused the participation of apartheid Israel’s ambassador in this year’s march.

18. Following a months-long highly-effective campaign led by local Uruguayan groups and compelling letters from Palestinian football teams, including those whose players have lost lives and limbs to Israeli bullets, Uruguay’s national football team canceled its World Cup training in apartheid Israel.

19. Hundreds of #MusiciansForPalestine endorsed our call to boycott apartheid Israel’s complicit cultural sector.

20. Australia’s National Tertiary Education Union voted to support the right of its 26,000 members to engage in BDS for Palestinian rights, to refuse Israeli government-sponsored tours to apartheid Israel, and to oppose adoption of policies prohibiting criticism of Israel, including the IHRA definition.

21. After hearing from fans, fellow artists, and human rights defenders, Mexican acoustic guitar duo, Rodrigo y Gabriela, canceled their Tel Aviv concert. This came just hours before apartheid Israel had launched its brutal assault on the besieged Gaza Strip, killing more than 40 Palestinians, including 15 children, and injuring hundreds.

22. Two firms from Oman and Kuwait withdrew from the 2022 Bahrain Air Show which gave six Israeli companies the opportunity to promote weapons and tech "field-tested" on Palestinians.

23. The Palestine solidarity movement gained another Nobel Prize laureate: French author Annie Ernaux won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She is a supporter of our nonviolent struggle for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality, and endorses impactful measures to hold to account Israel’s apartheid regime and complicit cultural institutions.

24. Also in France, 38 deputies tabled a resolution in parliament "condemning the institutionalization by Israel of an apartheid regime against the Palestinian people”.

25. After a year of engagement with local grassroots groups and fan clubs, including the Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC) and La Brigada Del Pueblo, the Oakland Roots Sports Club became the first US sports team to heed the Palestinian call to drop PUMA.

26. Also in the US, Case Western Reserve University Undergrad Student Government voted to divest from companies complicit in Israeli apartheid, including Elbit Systems, HP, PUMA, AXA, and G4S.

27. Following a thorough consultation process, the University of Melbourne Student Union, representing 30,000 students, endorsed the Palestinian BDS call, including the boycott of complicit Israeli academic institutions. UMSU thus maintained its "130-year tradition of students standing up for human rights”.

28. Six US-based queer and trans artists refused lucrative work with PUMA’s Pride campaign in solidarity with the Palestinian call to Boycott PUMA over its complicity in Israeli apartheid. The organisation these artists work with, Queer|Art, stood with them and endorsed the Palestinian BDS call.

29. In solidarity with Palestinians, multiple artists withdrew from Berlin’s Pop Kultur festival due to its partnership with apartheid Israel.

30. Hundreds of Israeli filmmakers pledged to boycott the so-called Shomron/Samaria Film Fund, stating it “is part and parcel of the mechanisms of apartheid”.

These BDS impacts are just a snapshot of where we stand today. Thanks to your support, our BDS movement continued to grow in reach and impact in 2022. Join with us in 2023 as we march onwards to freedom, justice and equality and in our struggle to #DismantleApartheid!


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