Sinking ship? Israeli invests in UK! Is Boycott working?

Israelis are increasing their investments in the UK, topping Russia, Hong Kong, Greece and South Africa in the number of companies setting up operations there

The news, comes against the backdrop of recent threats from UNISON, the UK's largest trade union and UCU, the university lecturers' union, to boycott Israel for occupying Palestinian land.

"For the fourth consecutive year, the UK has attracted a record number of investment successes, maintaining its position as the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in Europe and second only to the US world-wide,"

12 Israeli companies set up operations in the UK, creating 147 new jobs in 2006/2007.

The report added that Israel was the UK's 29th largest export market and was becoming increasingly attractive to UK businesses. Companies including HSBC, British Gas and Rolls Royce invested $13.2 billion in Israel last year, up from $5.6b. in 2005.

the UK recorded its highest number of inward investment projects to date, which rose 17

Only last month, the Israel - Britain Chamber of Commerce and had to cancel and postpone indefinitely the seminar "Putting Your Business in the UK," because of a lack of a sufficient number of participants. "We decided to postpone the conference as we were not happy with the registration of participants,"

TERRORISTS: Lavon Affair, USS Liberty, King David Hotel bombing, Swallows & Ravens Monica L

The King David Hotel bombing (July 22, 1946) was a bombing attack against the British government of Palestine by members of Irgun — a militant Zionist organization.

Members of the Irgun, dressed as Arabs, set off a bomb in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which had been the base for the British Secretariat, the military command and a branch of the Criminal Investigation Division (police).

Ninety-one people were killed, most of them staff of the secretariat and the hotel: 28 British, 41 Arab, 17 Jewish, and 5 other. Around 45 people were injured.

clipped from en.wikipedia.org Lavon Affair refers to the scandal over a failed Israeli covert operation in Egypt known as Operation Susannah, in which Egyptian, American and British-owned targets in Egypt were bombed in the summer of 1954. It became known as the Lavon Affair after the Israeli defense minister Pinhas Lavon, who was forced to resign because of the incident The goal of the Operation was to carry out bombings and other acts of sabotage in Egypt with the aim of creating an atmosphere in which the British and American opponents of British withdrawal from Egypt would be able to gain the upper hand and block the withdrawal. On July 2, a post office in Alexandria was firebombed, and on July 14, the U.S. Information Agency libraries in Alexandria and Cairo, and a British-owned theater were bombed. Israeli agent Avraham Seidenberg (Avri Elad ) was sent to oversee the operations. Seidenberg assumed the identity of Paul Frank, a former SS officer with Nazi underground connections.

To boycott or not - the new Israeli question

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk Pressure for sanctions on Israeli goods is widening. Forty years after the Six-Day War, unions, academics and journalists are locked in furious debate about the tactic. at one of Israel's major road junctions, in a silent vigil, carrying a placard that says simply: 'Stop the occupation.' Those in her group - Women in Black - have been abused, sometimes violently, since they began their protests almost 20 years ago. In Britain's churches too it has become an increasingly important issue. A survey for the Catholic weekly The Tablet last year showed 70 per cent of respondents backed disinvestment. Church of England's General Synod debated removing investments from the US company Caterpillar, its bulldozers were used to level Palestinian houses. the Methodist conference in the UK will consider whether or not its £1bn funds can be invested in companies operating in the occupied territories. protest against the Israeli occupation in British society emerged in the run-up to the UCU conference

Counter-Boycott threat by Knesset. Bring it on!

clipped from www.gairrhydd.com Israel retaliates to British academics’ plans to boycott Israeli universities Israel’s proposed counter-boycott includes an email campaign to convince North Americans to reject British goods and services and a threat by union workers to refuse to unload British exports to Israel. In 2005, Britain exported £1.35 billion worth of goods and services to Israel, with Israel itself exporting about half that amount to the UK. “If the British decide to go ahead with the boycotts, we will stop unloading cargo from British Airways aircrafts and imports from Britain.” Reports from Israel show fears that a British boycott could have long-term consequences for the Israeli economy, as well as encouraging other European unions to implement their own boycotts. Danny Yatom, a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, said: “If a state boycotts any products of Israel there will be a retaliation the exact same way. This is not a one-way street.”

British MP: Israel employed Nazi tactics in Lebanon

Turner said, “There had been plenty of words of condemnation of suicide bombers, but few on the Israeli attacks in Gaza, in particular the attacks on civilian installations.”

clipped from www.ynetnews.com British MP Andrew Turner of the Conservative Party “Those were the tactics of the Nazis in 1939 and 1940 – attacking fleeing civilians from the air,” “Human Rights Watch condemns both sides pretty unequivocally for breaches of international law and of internationally recognized human rights. It condemns Hizbullah for taking hostage and using the soldiers as pawns to negotiate the release of prisoners held in Israel…and it condemns Israel over the lawlessness of its attacks on south Lebanon, for the extraordinarily high level of civilian casualties that followed. asked in response: “Is the honorable gentleman seriously comparing Israel’s defending itself to the genocide of the Holocaust? “What a stupid intervention; of course I’m not comparing it to the Holocaust; if the honourable lady was a little more careful in the way in which she listened to other honourable members instead of parading her prejudices, she would have heard what I said, which was that Israel attacked fleeing civilians;

Report: Jews behind campaign to boycott Israel

“What we are asking for is not violent. It is civil action against a military occupation.”

“It really isn’t good enough to attack the messenger as anti-Semitic or a self-hating Jew rather than deal with the message that Israel’s conduct is unacceptable.”

clipped from www.ynetnews.com Jewish Chronicle investigation reveals Jewish, Israeli academics justify their activity as part of struggle for Palestinian rights, ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories Hagit Klaiman Published: 06.15.07, 14:04 / Israel News Many of the key players in the escalating British campaign to boycott Israel are Jewish or Israeli, the Jewish Chronicle revealed in an investigation published Thursday. According to the investigation, the Jewish academics justify their stance as part of the struggle for Palestinian rights and ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. The report stated that a high proportion of the academics were deeply involved in UCU, the University and College Union, which last month sparked an international outcry by voting to facilitate a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jews for the Boycotting of Israeli Goods, and Bricup, the British Committee for Universities of Palestine.

U.K.'s boycotters of Israel support a single-state solution

"We tried working with the Israeli public in the past, but we did not manage to make any headway there,"

says Jeff Halper, who heads the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions in the U.K.

"The Israelis as a whole believe there is no partner on the Palestinian side, and are thereby making themselves politically irrelevant. This is why we've had to address the civil society, represented by human rights groups, churches, universities and other organizations to warn against the Israeli apartheid regime," he says.

"The recent success we have experienced in the field is serving to unite different left-wing organizations. Halper says that the 40-year anniversary of the six Day War created a unifying effect on the front against the occupation; the next milestone will occur in 2007 when Israel celebrates its 60th birthday."

the U.K. has seen a multitude of organizations devoted to protesting Israel's occupation of the territories, who organized a mass rally last weekend in the center of London attracted thousands of participants.

Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, opened a stand at the rally

the Islamic Council for Human Rights, handed out flyers listing international corporations with branches in Israel,

Palestine Solidarity Campaign handed out flyers calling for the British government to cease its weapons deals with Israel, under the banner "Palestinian blood on British hands."

The activists at these groups may differ on issues such as religion and gender equality, but they are united in their perception of Israel as an apartheid state. They all advocate boycotting Israel and believe in diverting funds from it.

The organizations subscribe to the belief that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be resolved in the form of a single-state solutions, and granting the Palestinian refugees the right of return

clipped from www.haaretz.com