Is settlement trade "lawful activity" ?

Sam and Laura | 19.01.2006 09:16 | Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco | Social Struggles | London

Defendants in UK criminal court case to be joined by Israeli academic Uri
Davis in the call for an economic boycott of apartheid Israel.
_____________________________________________________________

Seven Palestine solidarity protesters from London and Brighton were
arrested on 11th November 2004 after they took part in a non-violent
blockade outside the UK base of an Israeli agricultural export company
Agrexco (UK) Ltd, Swallowfield Way, Hayes, Middlesex.

Agrexco is Israel’s largest importer of agricultural produce into the
European Union, and it is 50% Israeli state owned. It imports produce from
illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The protestors will face trial at Uxbridge Magistrates Court, between the
23rd-31st January 2006. They are each charged with two offences
under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. Section 68:
(Aggravated Trespass) and Section 69: (Failure To Leave Land). The defence
team will be advised by Palestinian QC Michel Abdel Massih of Tooks
Chambers.

The protesters will argue as a defence that they were acting to prevent
crimes against international law, that are also offences in the UK under
the International Criminal Court Act. The defendants will argue that these
offences are being supported by Agrexco (UK) .

don't buy dem fruits

THE BLOCKADE

In a well planned operation, using wire fences and bicycle D-Locks the
protesters succeeded in blockading the Agrexco (UK) distribution centre,
blocking all motor vehicle traffic in and out of the building for several
hours before being arrested.

THE TRIAL

One of the Israeli expert witnesses in the trial, Dr Uri Davis, will be
calling for a boycott of apartheid Israel at a press conference and public
meeting on Weds 25th January along with defendants of the trial. They will
be joined by Sue Blackwell, who recently spearheaded the AUT campaign in
the UK for an academic boycott of academic institutuions.

Other witnesses at the trial will include Professor George Joffe (Centre
for International Studies, Cambridge University) and Palestinians affected
by the occupation who will be present in court to give first hand
testimony about the effect of Agrexco’s business in the occupied Jordon
Valley.

BACKGROUND

Carmel-Agrexco is 50% owned by the state of Israel, and imports produce
from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. At the same time
Israeli forces have blocked Palestinian exports on grounds of ‘security’.

Israeli state sponsored settlements have appropriated land and water
resources by military force from Palestinian farmers in a deliberate
policy of colonial settlement.

In a hearing in September the judge ruled that Agrexco (UK) must prove
that their business is lawful.

Before taking part in this action many of the defendants had witnessed
first hand the suffering of Palestinian communities under the brutal
Israeli occupation, having served as volunteers with the International
Solidarity Movement (ISM), documenting human rights abuses by the IDF in
the West Bank and Gaza, and taking part in non-violent civil resistance to
the occupation organised by Palestinian civilian committees.

The international campaign to boycott Israeli goods is growing across
Europe. In December 2005 a whole region of Norway voted to cut economic
relations with Israel. The US administration has threatened ‘serious
political consequences’ against Norway if the boycott should develop into
a national policy.

EVENTS RELATED TO THE TRIAL

Monday 23rd January 2006. 1 - 2: pm
PALESTINIAN MEAL AGAINST APARTHEID AND DABKA (Traditional Palestinian
dancing) (Press Photo Op) OUTSIDE UXBRIDGE MAGISTRATES COURT(Uxbridge
Tube)

Wednesday 25th January 2006. 6.30pm – 7.30pm
PRESS CONFERENCE
ULU, Room 2c, Malet Street, LONDON WC1
with Uxbridge Seven Defendants, Dr Uri Davis and Sue Blackwell

Wednesday 25th January 2006. 7.30pm -
PUBLIC MEETING: 'WHY WE NEED TO BOYCOTT APARTHEID ISRAEL'
ULU, Room 2c, Malet Street, London WC1, SPEAKERS INCLUDE DR URI DAVIS, SUE
BLACKWELL, LENA GREEN, GHADA KARMI, AND ONE OF THE UXBRIDGE 7

Tuesday 31st January, 6.30pm - POST VERDICT PRESS CONFERENCE WITH THE
UXBRIDGE SEVEN, Conway Hall, Artists Rooms, 25 Red Lion Square, WC1R4

NOTES FOR JOURNALISTS

DR URI DAVIS is a Palestinian-Hebrew citizen of Israel and the UK, He was
born in 1943, when Palestine was still undivided and his autobiography,
published in 1995, is entitled "Crossing the Border: an autobiography of
an anti-Zionist Palestinian Jew". For over thirty years, he has worked to
expose the truth about Israeli "democracy". He is probably best known for
his book, "Israel: An Apartheid State" (Zed Books) and its sequel
"Apartheid Israel: Possibilities for the Struggle Within (Zed Books) which
analyses Israeli legislation establishing that Israel is little short of a
herrenvolk democracy -- a state which offers first-class rights only to
those recognised as 'Jews'. He is an anthropologist who, in addition to a
PhD in Philosophical Anthropology, also holds a BA in Arabic and
Philosophy and an MA in Philosophy. Dr. Davis is an honorary research
fellow at the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (IMEIS) in
the University of Durham and at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
(IAIS) inthe University of Exeter.

PROFESSOR GEORGE JOFFE is a visiting professor in Geography at Kings
College London, and lecturer at the Centre for International Studies at
Cambridge University. Prof. Joffe is considered to be one of the foremost
authorities on the Middle East politics in the UK, being widely published
in academic journals, as well as quoted in mainstream print, television
and radio
journalism.

The professor was one of a handful of experts invited by PM Tony Blair to
give advice about the effects of a possible Iraq war before it took place.
Prof. Joffe has been outspoken in his criticism of the decision to go to
war, as well as Israel’s expansion of illegal settlements in the West
Bank.
He says in a report commissioned for the Uxbridge case; "There is no doubt
that, under international law, the complex of settlements, interlinking
road systems and the Separation Wall are considered to be illegal. Many
aspects of them are illegal under Israeli domestic law as well."

SUE BLACKWELL is a lecturer at Birmingham University. She will speak at
the press conference and public meeting in support of the defendants call
for a boycott of Apartheid Israel. Sue Blackwell spearheaded the AUT
motion to boycott Bar Ilan because of violations of the 4th Geneva
convention in the illegal settlement of Ariel, Haifa University because of
its attacks on academic freedom when a student's thesis exposed a massacre
of Palestinians, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem because of its
evictions of Arab families to expand its student accommodation.

GHADA KARMI author of 'In Search of Fatima' will speak at
the press conference and public meeting in support of the defendants call
for a boycott of Apartheid Israel. Ghada Karmi was born in what is now
Jerusalem and left as a refugee in 1948.

For information on the web about the growing economic boycott of Israel see:

IMC UK