Vancouver

Gaza Freedom Flotilla Global Day of Action

Please join us, and stand with Palestine!

1:00pm
Saturday June 5 2010

Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Global Day of Action: Saturday, June 5

On Saturday, June 5, human rights and community organizations will
mobilize to join an emergency Global BDS Day of Action called by the
Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee
(BNC). In Vancouver, join us to protest the fatal attacks by apartheid
Israel on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the
occupied and besieged Gaza Strip (please see full BNC call-out below).

R A L L Y & M A R C H
Date: Saturday, June 5
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Vancouver Art Gallery (Georgia Side) - 750 Hornby Street,
Vancouver, BC

June 5 also marks the 43rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of
Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Our action aims to
draw the world’s attention to Israel’s continuing illegal occupation,
its refusal to abide by international law, and its massacre of
innocent humanitarian workers.

Please join us, and stand with Palestine!

Tell your friends and family. Bring Palestinian flags.

Organized by:

Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) – UBC
Canada Palestine Association (CPA)
Independent Jewish Voices (IJV)
Canada Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet)
Boycott Israel Apartheid Campaign (BIAC)
No One Is Illegal (NOII)
StopWar

Endorsed by:

Jews for Just Peace (JJP)
Pakistan Action Network (PAN)

To endorse, please email sphr.ubc@gmail.com or call 604-379-4050
604-379-4050

Call for Action by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
1 June 2010

Palestinian civil society calls for intensifying boycott and sanctions
as Israel massacres humanitarian relief workers and international
solidarity activists

Occupied Palestine, 1 June 2010 - The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) strongly condemns last night’s
fatal attack by the Israeli navy on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla carrying
humanitarian aid to the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. The BNC
conveys Palestinian civil society’s condolences to the families and
friends of those killed by the Israeli assault and warmly salutes the
principled solidarity and moral commitment of all those involved in
the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

In response, the BNC calls on international civil society to:

• Mobilize for an emergency Global BDS Day of Action on Saturday 5
June 2010 -- the 43rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Gaza
and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

• Pressure governments to start implementing trade sanctions and arms
embargoes.

We call specifically on transport and dock workers and unions around
the globe to:

• Refuse to load/offload Israeli ships and airplanes, following the
historic example set by the South African Transport and Allied Workers
Union (SATAWU) in Durban in February 2009 and endorsed by the Maritime
Union of Australia (Western Australia).

The Flotilla, which was attacked in international waters in violation
of international law, was carrying relief supplies that Israel has
persistently prevented from entering Gaza, including medical supplies,
cement and food. Israel’s siege is considered a form of collective
punishment, a war crime under Article 33 of the Geneva Convention. All
of the relief workers and activists on board the Gaza Flotilla ships
were unarmed.

In legal terms, Israel’s military assault against the Flotilla is an
act of aggression against the countries whose flags the ships were
carrying; politically, it is an assault against human decency and all
people of conscience around the world who support freedom and justice.

Israel’s impunity is the direct result of the international
community’s failure to hold it accountable for its ongoing occupation,
colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people. Israel’s
most recent war crimes committed in Gaza and documented in the
Goldstone Report as well as crimes committed in 2006 against the
Lebanese people did not trigger any UN or official sanctions,
entrenching Israel’s feeling of being above the law.

In fact, Israel’s grave violation of international law was recently
rewarded when the OECD voted unanimously to accept its membership. The
BNC urges international civil society to end this deep and fatal
complicity.

The BNC also welcomes and affirms the call of the UN expert on human
rights Prof. Richard Falk who stated, “It is time to insist on the end
of the blockade of Gaza. The worldwide campaign of boycott, divestment
and sanctions against Israel is now a moral and political imperative,
and needs to be supported and strengthened everywhere.”[1]

The UN Security Council has, unsurprisingly, failed to hold Israel
accountable for its aggression against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.[2]
The BNC calls upon the UN General Assembly, the European Union, the
Arab League and their member states to undertake practical measures
which will end Israel’s impunity for its massive and systematic
violation of international law, including by:

• Immediately ending all collusion with Israel’s unlawful blockade of
the Gaza Strip and pressuring Israel’s to guarantee unrestricted
humanitarian access and freedom of movement of people and products
into and out of the Gaza Strip.

• Bringing to justice all Israeli officials and military personnel who
took the decision and/or implemented this latest massacre as well as
earlier war crimes.

• Pressuring your government to immediately suspend arms trade with
Israel, and to implement trade sanctions and arms embargos against
Israel.

• In particular, we call on the EU to suspend the EU-Israel
Association Agreement, the Mercosur to suspend the FTA, India to
reverse the decision to hold negotiations around an India-Israel FTA
and to stop arms deals with Israel, and Turkey to impose an arms
embargo on Israel.

The BNC also calls on people of conscience and citizen groups all over
the world to intensify BDS campaigns against Israel as the most
effective means of holding it accountable to international law and
ending its fatal impunity.