Palestine

Strauss Group, the Israeli company that co-owns the Sabra Hummus brand, softened language on its website relating to its support of the Israeli Defense Force elite unit, the Golani Brigade.  The Jerusalem Post reported last week that Strauss support for Golani had been deleted entirely from its English site (but kept up in Hebrew) in response to pressure from the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement (http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=195963).    This stirred up a maelstrom of controversy for Strauss, with boycott threats from Zionists in and out of Israel, furious that Israel’s second largest food and beverage company would bow to the global BDS movement.

At the 2001 NGO forum against racism in Durban South Africa, 3,000 international organizations signed on to Article 425 advocating “the imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel.” In July 2005, 171 members of Palestinian Civil Society—including political parties, unions, associations, coalitions and organizations—created the global Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, calling for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israe

Israeli commandos attacked a flotilla of ships from the Free Gaza Movement carrying food, medical equipment, and building materials to besieged Gaza. Gaza has been blocked by Israel and Egypt since June 2007, denying basic goods to 1.5 million people.

With a population just shy of 2.4 million and a labor force of 640,000, the West Bank exists in perpetual economic depression. This reality, according to a 2009 United Nations report on trade and development, is “rooted in the relentless Israeli internal and external closure policy, the attrition of the Palestinian productive base and the loss of Palestinian land and natural resources” that has occurred since 1967 under the Israeli occupation. In reality, these policies result in crippling unemployment and generations of unrealized economic potential.