Corporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupation. Evidence from the London Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine

This book contains a selection of the most vital evidence and testimonies presented at the London session. It includes the papers submitted to the tribunal, written by expert witnesses, based on their detailed research into the companies that prop-up Israeli occupation.

Examining the involvement of corporations in the illegal occupation of Palestinian land by Israel, the tribunal of 2010 generated widespread media coverage. The book identifies companies and corporations participating in such illegality and possibilities for legal action against them are discussed.

Released to coincide with the South Africa session at the end of 2011, Corporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupation is a vital resource to lawyers, journalists and activists hoping to take informed action against Israeli war crimes and occupation.

Author:

Asa Winstanley is a journalist who has lived in occupied Palestine. He writes for Electronic Intifada, the New Left Project and Ceasefire. He worked for two years in the occupied West Bank and was managing sub-editor of the Palestine Times, an English language daily newspaper.

Frank Barat is a human rights activist and the coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. He has written for Electronic Intifada, Counterpunch, Z Magazine, New Internationalist, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and the Palestine Chronicle. He is the editor of Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War against the Palestinians (2010).

You can buy the book here

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German version of book:

Nicht zuletzt durch den israelischen Angriff auf Gaza im Dezember 2008 konstituierte sich am 4. März 2009 das Russell Tribunal zu Palästina. Zu den Unterstützern zählen u. a. Tarik Ali, Breyten Breitenbach, Judith Butler, Eduardo Galeano, Johan Galtung, Costa Gavras, Ken Loach, Harold Pinter und Jean Ziegler.

Das erste Tribunal tagte vom 1. Bis 3. März 2010 in Barcelona, die zweite Sitzung fand vom 20. bis 22. November 2010 in London statt. Weitere werden in Südafrika und den USA folgen.

Der Laika-Verlag veröffentlicht in Zusammenarbeit mit der Russell Peace Foundation und dem englischen Verlag Pluto Press die Ergebnisse des Russell-Tribunals zu Palästina.

Mit Texten von:

Asa Winstanley, Frank Barat und Alice Walker

You can buy it here

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Responsibility of the European Union, its member states and corporations in the ongoing occupation of Palestinian Territories providing illegal assistance to Israel?

Executive summaries of the findings of the international sessions of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine organised in Barcelona in March 2010 and in London in November 2010

This 70 pages RToP publication sets out the executive summaries of the conclusions of the first two sessions of the RToP organised in March 2010 in Barcelona and in London in November 2010.

In English and in French. Foreword by Stéphane Hessel, introduction by Pierre Galand.

If you wish to buy this book, please use the “contact” tab on this website to place and order.

Cost: 2€ (+ postage)

JOHANNESBURG, 05 Oct 2011 – South Africa is set to host the Third International Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine “Are Israel’s practices against the Palestinian People in breach of the prohibition on Apartheid under International Law?”

With the spotlight on Palestine’s bid for statehood before the United Nations, the 3rd international session couldn’t come at a more opportune time. The gathering, which is to be held in Cape Town in November, will examine whether Israel’s practices against the Palestinians is in breach of the prohibition on Apartheid under International Law.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is a public awareness tribunal set up by international civil society to investigate violations of international law perpetrated against the Palestinian people.

World renowned experts and witnesses are to participate in the event. Amongst those due to attend are:

Stéphane Hessel: Diplomat, ambassador, writer and concentration camp survivor

Alice Walker: Pulitzer Prize Winner, Author and Poet.

Ronald Kasrils: South African writer, politician and activist.

Mairead Maguire: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and peace activist

John Dugard: South African international law professor and former Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian territories.

Several other high profile South Africans are also likely to join the discussions, namely Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Zwelinzima Vavi.

The Third International Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine

Date: 5-7 November 2011

Venue: District Six Museum

Cape Town

For more information on the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, please visit: http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en

https://www.facebook.com/russelltribunal

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Attached is the programme for the 3rd International session on Palestine.

The media accreditation process is now OPEN.

Attached is the accreditation form.

Completed forms must please be email to RTOPCapeTowngmailcom  RTOPCapeTowngmailcom   , by 1 November 2011.

ENDS

Issued on behalf of:

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine

Issued by:

Claude Colart

Mobile: + 27 83 6258649 & OR

+27 82 370 6731

Email: RTOPCapeTowngmailcom

]]> http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/1597/press-release-south-africa-is-set-to-host-the-third-international-session-of-the-russell-tribunal-on-palestine/feed 0 http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/1595/the-third-international-session-of-the-russell-tribunal-on-palestine-is-to-be-held-in-south-africa-next-month http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/1595/the-third-international-session-of-the-russell-tribunal-on-palestine-is-to-be-held-in-south-africa-next-month#comments Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:25:57 +0000 webmaster http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/?p=1595 The gathering will examine “Are Israel’s practices against the Palestinian People in breach of the prohibition on Apartheid under International Law?”

World renowned experts and witnesses are to participate in the event, to be held in Cape Town from 5-7 November 2011.

Among the high profile delegates attending are Stéphane Hessel, Alice Walker, Ronald Kasrils, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, to name a few.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is a public awareness tribunal set up by international civil society to investigate violations of international law perpetrated against the Palestinian people.

The Third International Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine

Date: 5-7 November 2011

Venue: District Six Museum, Cape Town

Media accreditation for the third international session is now open. See attachments for further details (Programme, Media Invite, Media Registration).

** For further media information contact:

Claude Colart – media manager RToP Cape Town

+27 82 3706731

RTOPCapeTowngmailcom  RTOPCapeTowngmailcom  

Stephane Hessel and Alice Walker confirmed as members of the jury

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine will convene in District Six, Cape Town, site of a brutal apartheid-era forced removal. The land has remained undeveloped on the edge of the city since it was declared “a white group area” and the homes of black residents were demolished in the 1970s.

The Cape Town session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine – to be held on 5-6 November – will consider whether Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people fits the international legal definitions of the crime of apartheid.

In the jury, confirmed by international co-ordinator of the Tribunal, Mr Pierre Galand, at a press conference in Cape Town today, are:

• Mr Stephane Hessel, 93, the Nazi concentration camp survivor who helped draft the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. He is an Ambassador of the French Republic, and honorary president of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine; and
• Ms Alice Walker, the African American author, poet and human rights activist best known for the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Colour Purple.

The Cape Town session, in November 2011, follows sessions in Barcelona and London last year. The final session will take place in New York in 2012.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is an international people’s tribunal created in response to the international community’s inaction with respect to Israel’s recognised violations of international law.

Ms Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, activist, former South African cabinet minister and member of the South African Support Committee organising the Cape Town session, told today’s press conference that the United Nations and International Criminal Court findings that apartheid was unlawful and criminal did not only apply to apartheid South Africa.

Although there were clear differences between the State of Israel today and South Africa under apartheid, the question to be answered was whether the policies and practises of the State of Israel fit the international legal descriptions of the crime of apartheid.

“May this tribunal that is being held in our country later this year end the crime of silence,” Ms Madlala-Routledge said.

Mr Galand, a retired Senator from Belgium and lifelong human rights campaigner, said the fact that the Tribunal sought to engender human rights for Palestinians did not mean it had an anti-Semitic agenda. Many friends of the Tribunal were Jewish, he said, and many members of the Jewish faith were fierce proponents of human rights for all.

“I believe strongly the Russell Tribunal is an important contribution to the international civil society movement to rehabilitate international law, rehabilitate humanitarian law, and rehabilitate human rights,” Mr Galand said.

The Israel-Palestine conflict was central to global divisions between Europe/America and the Arab world, and between members of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.

Because of the calibre of its patrons, members of the international support committee, jurors and witnesses, the findings of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine were used as important tools to lobby governments and international organisations, such as the European Union and United Nations.

Mr Ronnie Kasrils, former South African cabinet minister and juror of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, said that although South Africa had since 1994 taken a strong stance against human rights abuses in Israel, including withdrawing its ambassador for a period, many South Africans felt that the government could do even more.

“The world expects South Africa to champion the rights of other people. That is the yardstick for South Africans to live up to,” Mr Kasrils said.

Among South Africans who will participate in the Russell Tribunal on Palestine are Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Professor John Dugard.

Ends…

Media students from Coventry University (UK) came to the London session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine in November 2010.

Here is the film they made about their experience.

http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745331591&CID=pluatw

Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal Martínez (born January 20, 1925) is a Nicaraguan Catholic priest and was one of the most famous liberation theologians of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, a party he has since left. From 1979 to 1987 he served as Nicaragua’s first culture minister. He is also famous as a poet. Cardenal was also the founder of the primitivist art community in the Solentiname Islands, where he lived for more than ten years (1965–1977).

May 3rd 2011

IPSC complaint to the OECD against CRHplc (PDF)