![Making A Sexy Pitch For Israel [video]](https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/6-13-17-D-728x410.jpg "Making A Sexy Pitch For Israel [video]")
A new anti-BDS campaign called 4il.org enlists Israel’s supporters as Internet foot soldiers. The two-pronged campaign is geared toward digitally savvy millennials, and uses an interactive website and a smartphone app to turn Israel advocacy into a competitive game.
The National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine pleads for Western churches to take a stand: “As we meet this month in Bethlehem in occupied Palestine, we are still suffering from 100 years of injustice and oppression…we need you and we need you now more than ever. We need your costly solidarity…This is no time for shallow diplomacy Christians. We urge you to hear our call.”
Ha’aretz’s Gideon Levy writes: Isn’t it time to do away with the artificial distinction between the Israelis who view themselves as nice and just and the brutal occupation they are responsible for? Hasn’t the time come to punish them in a nonviolent manner for the crimes that each and every one of them is party to?
A full page ad turned reality on its head, suggesting academic boycott of Israel endangers children–when in fact BDS opposes an occupation and apartheid structure under which indigenous children are being shot, imprisoned, tortured, traumatized, deprived of basic necessities and denied medical care.
The governor of Texas just signed a law that forbids state agencies from contracting with companies participating in boycotts of Israel. Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina already passed similar laws.
Analyst Jack Dresser discusses the Israel connection to Mideast wars, the injustice of a “two-state solution,” Israel’s loss of full control, the role of Jewish organizations in the Palestine rights movement, JVP President Vilkomerson’s husband’s employment at Israeli security company Check Point, and to what degree such groups will embrace a “transformative vision”…
In the meantime, the newspaper has published seven opinion columns that took a clear position against the Palestinian-led boycott movement, including two during the month of March. One is titled “Why Israel Is Nothing Like Apartheid South Africa.”
![Ben & Jerry’s: Stop selling ice cream in illegal Israeli settlements! [ACTION ALERT]](https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/benjerrys-724x410.jpg "Ben & Jerry’s: Stop selling ice cream in illegal Israeli settlements! [ACTION ALERT]")
Phone Ben & Jerry’s Vermont headquarters this week at (802) 846-1500 (8:00 am to 4:00pm EDT) to demand an immediate stop to the marketing and sales of its “peace & love” ice cream in illegal, Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
![Alison Weir: Israel’s New Travel Ban [video]](https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Israeli-troops-guarding-West-Bank-checkpoint.jpg "Alison Weir: Israel’s New Travel Ban [video]")
Israel recently banned foreigners who support boycotts against Israel from being allowed to enter Israel. People have objected in outrage to the law, particularly Westerners with family in Israel. Alison Weir writes on Dissident Voice that she also objects, but for a different reason: She’s not trying to visit Israel, she wants to go to Palestine…
Ha’aretz interview with actor Richard Gere: “Obviously this occupation is destroying everyone,” he says. “There’s no defense of this occupation. Settlements are such an absurd provocation and, certainly in the international sense, completely illegal – and they are certainly not part of the program of someone who wants a genuine peace process.”