Another BDS Success : John Michael McDonagh Cancels His Attendance at the Haifa International Film Festival

John Michael McDonagh has contacted the Cultural Boycott Officer of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), Raymond Deane to say that he has pulled out of attending the screening of his film The Guard at the Haifa International Film Festival “in view of the political situation”.

Although the film will still be screened, such victories are significant and illustrative of how appearing at Israeli cultural events is becoming increasingly unattractive to artists, filmmakers etc as the BDS campaign goes from strength to strength.

I’m sure the PACBI, IPSC, DPAI calls, the Haifa International Film Festival: A Call to Boycott Facebook page and everyone’s great efforts, helped to persuade John Michael McDonagh that “the political situation” of apartheid is not something anyone should endorse.

SOURCE

Let’s hope McDonagh also withdraws the film and others follow his principled lead.

Palestine / Israel Links

Qordoba School Protest and interview with 11 year old Palestinian boy assaulted by the Israeli Police.
IMEU: Palestine in Photos: A Palestinian mayor says Israeli army starves his little village of water
Calls for Cambridge to cut ties with Veolia | Varsity Online
Diplomacy: Making the case against Palestinian statehood
Don’t just stand there, let’s get to it, strike a pose, there’s nothing to it
http://www.inminds.com/img/mohomed-abou-trika-gaza-t-shirt2.jpg
Israeli sources: Hamas linked prisoner swap to moving headquarters to Cairo
Israeli forces ‘block olive harvest in Nablus’
Letters from Jews and Israelis in the Islington Tribune deploring the Board of Deputies disgusting attack on the Palestinian Literary Festival.
Is ‘deeply concerned’ more significant than ‘deeply disappointed’ @UN_Spokesperson? what about some action, like sanctions?

The Secretary-General is deeply concerned at continued efforts to advance planning for new Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. Recent developments in this regard have been unacceptable, particularly as efforts are ongoing to resume negotiations, and run contrary to the Quartet’s call

‘Israel’s Apartheid regime over the Palestinian people is a system that separates and discriminates against the Indigenous people. It is a system that is institutionalised by laws and military force.

Artists Against Apartheid in Australia is part of an international alliance committed to human rights and justice, and to the elimination of Apartheid in our world, including in Australia. ‘
New four part documentary: ‘featuring the accounts of a Palestinian teenager forced to share his house with settlers, an American-born Israeli mother who gets drawn into the demonstrations after her children’s arrest, a Palestinian community organizer who brings local women to the forefront of the struggle, and a veteran of the Israeli army who becomes one of the campaign’s leaders, Home Front chronicles the resolve of a neighborhood, and the support it receives from the most unexpected of places.’
Declaration of a Bantustan in Palestine

‘Ultimately, what this intended “declaration of independence” offers the Palestinian people is a mirage, an “independent homeland” that is a Bantustan-in-disguise. Although it is recognised by so many friendly countries, it stops short of providing Palestinians freedom and liberation.’

Hedge Fund-Bankrolled Emergency Committee For Israel Smears Occupy Wall St. Protests As ‘Anti-Semitic

Other Links

Collateral Repair Project – Helping you help Iraqi refugees

Werrity and Liam Fox

Fox resignation leaves too many questions unanswered
Rightwing Tories rally to Liam Fox’s side

‘A not-for-profit company linked to a friend and employee of Michael Hintze, the Tory party donor and multimillionaire hedge fund boss, is alleged to have bankrolled the jet-set lifestyle of Werritty.

Oliver Hylton, an employee of Hintze’s CQS hedge fund, is the only director of a company called Pargav Ltd which, according to financial records obtained by the Times, paid thousands of pounds to companies linked to Werritty. Hylton told the paper he had not had any role in running the company and had been “naive” in helping Werritty to set it up.

The paper reported that G3 Good Governance Group, a strategic advisory company, Tamares Real Estate, an investment company owned by Poju Zabludowicz – the chairman of Bicom, a pro-Israeli lobbying firm which has already been shown to pay for some of Werritty’s trips to Israel – all paid up to £35,000 into the fund.

Records at Companies House show Hylton, who runs Hintze’s charitable foundation, is the only director of Pargav, which is registered at 60 Goswell Road, London. The company has yet to file any accounts.

Hylton has already been linked to Werritty via their directorships of Security Futures, a global risk consultancy that was dissolved last year. The company secretary of Security Futures was Iain Aitken Stewart, the Tory MP for Milton Keynes and a close friend of Fox and Werritty.

Hylton is also the manager of Hintze’s charitable foundation that has donated £51,000 to the Atlantic Bridge, a charity set up by Fox and run by Werritty.

Critics claim Fox has been conducting what a senior Whitehall source called a “maverick foreign policy” and it is this which will ultimately decide his political fate, according to government officials. ‘

From Media Lens forum:

?’The answer is that Werritty is paid by representatives of far right US and Israeli sources to influence the British defence secretary. It has been discussed within the MOD whether Werritty is being – knowingly or otherwise – run as an agent of influence by the CIA or Mossad. That is why the chiefs of the armed forces are so concerned, and why there is today much gagging at the stitch up within the Cabinet Office.

This has parallels to the Christine Keeler case but is much, much worse.

That the British Defence Minister holds frequent unrecorded meetings in the Ministry and abroad with somebody promoting the interests of foreign powers is much, much worse than a little cash-grubbing. That the person representing the foreign powers is actually present, apparently to all as a ministerial adviser, at meetings of Fox with important representatives of foreign nations is simply appalling. ‘

From Craig Murray: ?

‘A mainstream media source has finally plucked up the courage to publish the widespread concern among MOD, Cabinet Office and FCO officials and military that the Werritty operation was linked to, and perhaps controlled by, Mossad – something which agitated officials have been desperately signaling for some days.’

Werritty attended talks about arms deal with Israel and China

Phillip van Niekerk is a founder & North American head of G3, the Good Governance Group is.gd/vVP2Jl #werrity
G3 chaired by Chester Crocker, former US polly under Ronald Reagan, also on US board of Bell Pottinger Communications. is.gd/Jor888
Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon is advisor to the G3 Good Governance Group is.gd/88erQx #werrity #dominoes
‘Proven’ is the sister company of strategic intel firm G3 Good Governance Group is.gd/v43Mxl
Zabludowicz, chairman of Bicom, has a stake in a shopping centre in Ma’ale Adumim is.gd/hrNbYG #werrity
Zabludowicz, major donator to Tories, is said to own 40 per cent of downtown Las Vegas including half-a-dozen casinos is.gd/hrNbYG
How the UK Tories are bought and paid for by the Conservative Friends of Israel is.gd/FfuQB2