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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=000300702-07122010>Woops. we need to tell Costco.
Lee</SPAN></FONT></DIV><BR>
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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B>
ufpj-activist-bounces+leeloe=igc.org@lists.mayfirst.org
[mailto:ufpj-activist-bounces+leeloe=igc.org@lists.mayfirst.org] <B>On Behalf Of
</B>Matthew Graber<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, December 06, 2010 7:49
PM<BR><B>To:</B> ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org<BR><B>Subject:</B>
[ufpj-activist] Philly BDS Continues Boycott of Apartheid
Hummus<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">For
Immediate
Release<SPAN> </SPAN><SPAN> </SPAN><SPAN> </SPAN>Contact:
Nathaniel Miller (610) 209-1447/ <A style="COLOR: rgb(25,107,123)"
href="mailto:phillybds@gmail.com"
target=_blank>phillybds@gmail.com</A></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 3in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><SPAN> </SPAN>Photos:<SPAN> </SPAN><A
style="COLOR: rgb(25,107,123)" href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/phillybds"
target=_blank>http://www.flickr.com/groups/phillybds</A></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><SPAN> </SPAN><SPAN> </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><B></B></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><B>Community Members Urge Boycott of Apartheid
Hummus</B></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Philadelphia, PA
12/5/2010.<SPAN> </SPAN>Members of Philly BDS (Boycott
Divestment and Sanctions) staged a weekend “Mime-In” at the Fresh Grocer
supermarket’s flagship store at 40th and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia on
Saturday.<SPAN> </SPAN>The action was the latest public demonstration
in a growing international campaign to boycott Sabra and Tribe hummus brands
because of their owners’ support for human rights abuses in Israel and
Palestine. Two mimes stood outside with a banner urging patrons not to “be
silent about Israeli apartheid” while other members shopped inside wearing
duct-tape over their mouths and placards that also called on shoppers not to be
silent.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Most
shoppers reacted to the caravan with curiosity, and some expressed strong
support of the boycott.<SPAN> </SPAN>After one activist was seen
photographing the caravan inside the store, security personnel detained him for
over an hour and threatened to have him arrested unless he destroyed the photos
on his camera. He was released and his camera returned to him only after a call
to the Fresh Grocer corporate offices.<SPAN> </SPAN>Though police were
summoned, no arrests were made.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Saturday’s
“Mime-In” is the latest public action of a growing national movement to boycott
Sabra and Tribe. Six weeks ago in the same West Philadelphia store, Philly BDS
staged a flash dance to a Lady Gaga hit and sang lyrics urging shoppers to
support the boycott.<SPAN> </SPAN>The video of that action, which to
date has been viewed over 34,000 times on YouTube, sparked a rapid expansion of
interest in the hummus boycott, particularly on college and university campuses
in the United States.<SPAN> </SPAN>Students at Princeton and DePaul
Universities have recently initiated calls for boycott of Sabra on their
campuses, and groups at several other campuses are considering doing
so.<SPAN> </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Sabra
Hummus is jointly owned by Pepsico and by the Strauss Group, an Israeli
corporation that has proudly supported a unit of the Israeli military, known as
the Golani Brigade, which is known as particularly brutal toward
Palestinians.<SPAN> </SPAN>The Golani Brigade has been cited for
numerous human rights violations since 1948, including Israel's 2008-2009
assault on Gaza that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, most of whom were
unarmed civilians, in just three weeks. The Jerusalem Post reported last month
that Strauss’ support for the Golani Brigade had been deleted entirely from the
English-language portion of its website in response to pressure from the
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, though the Hebrew portion of
the site remained unchanged.<SPAN> </SPAN>The Strauss Group has since
modified their English-language website to reassert the company’s support for
the Golani Brigade.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">In addition
to Sabra Hummus, the boycott also targets Tribe Hummus, which is owned by the
Osem Group, a key corporate supporter of the Jewish National
Fund.<SPAN> </SPAN>Because by Israeli law all land owned or
administered by the JNF is reserved for the exclusive use of “the Jewish people
in perpetuity,” the JNF has played a key role in the “judaization” of Palestine
and the ethnic cleansing of its indigenous people.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">In 2005,
Palestinian civil society representatives issued a call for a global boycott,
divestment and sanctions movement against Israel until Israel complies with
international law by ending its occupation of Palestine lands, dismantling the
“separation barrier” in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, granting full and
equal rights to Palestinian citizens of Israel, and recognizing the right of
exiled Palestinians to return to their
country.<SPAN> </SPAN>Organized along the lines of the Anti-Apartheid
movement against South Africa, the BDS movement has burgeoned globally over the
past five years, with hundreds of separate campaigns targeting Israel’s
economic, academic, and cultural institutions.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Philly BDS
is a creative partnership working for human rights in Israel/Palestine. We
support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign called for by Palestinian
civil society in 2005.</SPAN></P>
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