Tag Archives: Unsettling Goods

A reminder that apartheid can be ended…

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Recently, an Honorary Elder within The Elders, wrote a letter for the United Church of Canada, as it gathers for its triennial General Council in August 2015 in Newfoundland. In the letter, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu encourages the UCC to “join with other denominations around the globe who have decided to boycott and divest from companies that benefit from the occupation.” He refers to the Israeli government’s occupation of Palestine, an occupation that is illegal according to international law. He writes from a first-person stance and knowledge that political apartheid can be ended, as it was in South Africa. Tutu encourages the UCC to continue with the Unsettling Goods campaign (click here).

To read Tutu’s letter, click here. To read the press release by the United Network for a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI), click here.

With each day, we grow increasingly aware that we, collectively, are interdependent on and with this planet we call home. We could carry on with ‘business as usual’ and feel powerless as we move from crisis to crisis. Or, we could act with hope; we have opportunities to act with intention to shape a great transformation (for more click here and here). We could listen to elders in our local, regional, and global lives. They are stepping up, like David Suzuki when he says to himself, ” ‘it’s time to admit you’re an elder and start getting on with doing what elders should be doing, which is speaking out without fear of being fired’ ” (as he was quoted in a recent review of Suzuki’s book, Letters to My Grandchildren; click here). Globally, the Elders, founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, are “independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights” (click here). Our elders have experienced and witnessed much in their lives, including long-time effort toward various types of justice.

This summer, let’s listen to their voices…to inform our intentions… and actions… as the United Church of Canada during the General Council and beyond, in local and global communities…

Consumers choose and hope grows

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Hope grows, as we begin to gather on a common path…

Parallels are being made increasingly between global responses in the 1970s and 1980s to South African apartheid and how the world might respond to the Israeli government’s apartheid. With thanks to Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta for sharing the link from Sid Shniad,  here is an excerpt from an article by Chemi Shalev in Haaretz on 11 Dec. 2013 (here):

“Israel inches closer to ‘tipping point’ of South Africa-style boycott campaign”

“This has happened in recent days: The Dutch water company Vitens severed its ties with Israeli counterpart Mekorot; Canada’s largest Protestant church decided to boycott three Israeli companies [Sherry Ann’s note: This appears to refer to the United Church of Canada’s campaign, Unsettling Goods: Choose Peace in Palestine and Israel – an economic action in support of clear labelling of goods produced in the illegal Israeli settlements – click here]; the Romanian government refused to send any more construction workers; and American Studies Association academics are voting on a measure to sever links with Israeli universities.

Coming so shortly after the Israeli government effectively succumbed to a boycott of settlements in order to be eligible for the EU’s Horizon 2020 scientific cooperation agreement, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement is picking up speed. And the writing on the wall, if anyone missed it, only got clearer and sharper in the wake of the death of Nelson Mandela.

… When the United Nations passed its first non-binding resolution calling for a boycott of South Africa in 1962, it was staunchly opposed by a bloc of Western countries, led by Britain and the United States. But the grassroots campaign that had started with academic boycotts in the late 1950s gradually moved on to sports and entertainment and went on from there to institutional boycotts and divestment. Along the way, the anti-apartheid movement swept up larger and larger swaths of Western public opinion, eventually forcing even the most reluctant of governments, including Israel and the U.S., to join the international sanctions regime.

In a 1998 article entitled “International Norms, Dynamics and Political Change,” political scientists Martha Finnemore, now of George Washington University, and Kathryn Sikking of the University of Minnesota laid out the foundations of the “life cycle” by which certain norms develop to shape the behavior of states and then of the international community as a whole. The first step, they claim, is “norm emergence,” when a new norm is championed by NGO’s and “norm entrepreneurs.” The second stage is a “norms cascade,” when states fall into line to embrace the new norm. And a prerequisite for evolution from the first to the second stages is a “tipping point” that occurs when a critical mass of events and opinions converge to create the norms cascade.

In the case of South Africa, the first “tipping point” probably came in the Soweto riots of 1976, which sparked the protest and disinvestment campaigns that ultimately swept American universities, pension funds and multinational corporations. The second “tipping point” came after the black South African rebellion against the racist 1983 constitution and the imposition of a permanent State of Emergency in 1984-1985, which brought the rest of the world into line.

…  the only thing that may be keeping Israel from crossing the threshold and “going over the cliff” in the international arena is Kerry’s much-maligned peace process, which is holding public opinion and foreign governments at bay and preventing a “tipping point” that would dramatically escalate the anti-Israeli boycott campaign.

Which only strengthens Jeffrey Goldberg’s argument in a Bloomberg article on Wednesday that Kerry is “Israel’s best friend.” It also highlights, once again, how narrow-minded, shortsighted and dangerously delusional Kerry’s critics, peace process opponents and settlement champions really are (though you can rest assured that if and when the peace process collapses and Israel is plunged into South African isolation, they will be pointing their fingers in every direction but themselves.)”

To learn how you might choose to participate in the Unsettling Goods campaign:

Information about the campaign (here)
Choose how to participate (here)

Fact sheets regarding the three manufacturers (here): (i) Ahava; (ii) Keter Plastic; (iii) SodaStream

Letters for four Canadian retailers carrying the products of these three manufacturers (here): (a) Canadian Tire; (b) The Bay; (c) Home Depot; (d) Walmart Canada.

Map showing settlements, from Peace Now (here)

Information about the Israeli settlements (here)

Zatoun – Learn about fair trade olive oil and other products, in support of the Palestinian economy (here).

Independent Jewish Voices Canada (here)

Learn about other companies that are profiting from the Israeli government’s occupation of Palestine (here)

US Campaign to End the Occupation (here)

Unsettling Goods – a consumer choice

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Once upon a time – no scratch that. That suggests a fairy tale, and this is no fairy tale. This is reality. This blog posting is about a reality that is “unsettling”…. To be unsettled, though, is not a bad thing. That feeling can move us into identifying hope and taking steps toward that hope (see Active Hope). Please see the end of this posting to learn about “Unsettling Goods: Choose Peace in Palestine and Israel” (click here). Learn how you can take action.          ~~~~~~~~~~

We live in an increasingly politically and economically interdependent, global society. This means that what we purchase in one part of the world will have an effect in another part of the world.

For example, yesterday (‘Black Friday’), I, in a western Canadian city, was presented with an advertisement, in a Hudson’s Bay flyer, for SodaStream – “Appealing to foodies and environmentalists alike, SodaStream’s simple-yet-sleek system makes perfectly carbonated water and soda at the touch of a button.”

For ‘only’ $199.99, a consumer can buy this NEW Revolution Black by SODASTREAM. It’s a sleek, compact, and fancy looking appliance that appears to carbonate water. Add a bit of SodaStream cocktail syrup and voilà – you have a fancy, fizzy drink. No plastic bottle to deal with. All in the comfort of your own home.

Here’s the reality check:  SodaStream is a company that manufactures its products in Israeli-government occupied Palestinian territory but labels these products as though they’re made in Israel. Nothing on that sleek Revolution Black indicates that it was made in illegally occupied territory. Nothing indicates that that Revolution Black was made just east of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank – next door to where my friends, long-displaced Bedouin families, have been relegated to live (next to the reek of the Jerusalem garbage dump) . Because the Israeli government wants the land. For political and economic gain (click here).

Much like the British Empire wanted ‘the land’ of Turtle Island a few centuries ago and granted the Hudson’s Bay Company rights to occupy that land. Building up trade for products that citizens might buy.

How would anyone know that by ‘taking advantage’ of “Black Friday” (weekend) sales of snazzy looking items that are mislabeled, that that would help to shore up the Hudson’s Bay in Canada and SodaStream in the occupied West Bank and the Israeli government?

Yet, this is the reality. Now what do we do?

Why not re-claim the name of that Revolution Black? On this “Black Friday” weekend, let’s join a new consumer revolution. Consider the following hopeful shift.

Imagine that consumer conscience will grow and consumers will refuse to buy Revolution Black because it is not properly labeled. They/We will realize that we are able to influence Hudson’s Bay to pressure the Canadian government to require the Israeli government to label all products accurately – whether from Israel or from the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

Who would have thought that by refusing to buy mislabeled products, people in one part of the world could join a revolution in another part of the world – to grow a just peace in Palestine and Israel?

How to join this hopeful revolution? Check out the action list at the end of this posting and listen to this new song (click here): Unsettling Goods  by Tony Quarrington

“This soda machine was made in a factory
Which stands in an old land where olive groves grew,
Made in a place where homes were was ploughed under
That now is a settlement, thriving and new.
Built on a site from which people were scattered,
Driven away from their history and place,
Whose traces have vanished, whose name is deleted,
Whose story is written in each suffering face

CHORUS
Unsettling goods that are not good for all,
Made in the shadow of checkpoint and Wall,
Built with guns and with prisons, bulldozers and fists,
Justice means crossing these goods off your list …”

ACTION LIST:

The United Church of Canada’s campaign, Unsettling Goods – Click here.

A fact sheet about SodaStream, from the Unsettling Goods resources – Click here.

Contact Hudson’s Bay to ask them to stop selling SodaStream products and to ask Hudson’s Bay to ask SodaStream to label clearly the products it makes in Israeli settlements. Invite Hudson’s Bay to join The United Church of Canada in asking the Canadian government to require all settlement-made products that are sold in this country to be labelled clearly. Click here.

The United Network for a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI) launch of the Unsettling Goods campaign is on December 3, 2013. Please participate as you can! See how here.

Canadian Boycott Coalition for Justice in Palestine/Israel – Re: settlement products. Click here.

“I do not like SodaStream [with apologies to Dr. Seuss].” Click here.

Boycott SodaStream – Click here.

Global Exchange – Click here.
Postcard – Click here.

Joint Tweet – Click here to participate in a joint Tweet to Target which distributes SodaStream in the US. The joint Tweet “will automatically be sent out on the last day of [this] action — December 10, Human Rights Day — by all who sign up. This will help amplify the message to Target that buying products that profit from abuse of Palestinian rights isn’t our kind of holiday.”