[Boycott - Euro News]

Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel gains momentum in Germany

Saeid Najar Nobari, IRNA
19 April 2007

"The BDS call is an important demand. A large number of church and human rights groups are backing the (BDS) campaign," said Christina Pfestroff Wednesday evening during a round-table discussion at the educational center of the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Berlin.

"Israeli target killings, collective punishment, torture, destruction of property, dispossessions, building the security fence and having illegal settlements mark Israeli occupation," she added.

Pfestroff who is an activist for the Protestant Development Service (EED), pointed out that it was the impact of the BDS campaign which finally sealed the end of the former South African apartheid regime.

She called on the the European Union to review its association agreement with Israel amid ongoing violations.

The EU-Israel Association Agreement was signed on 20 November 1995, and entered into force on 1 June 2000.

Article 2 of the association agreement, between the EU and Israel is widely referred to as the 'essential element's clause', commits the EU and Israel, to base their relations on the respect for human rights and democratic principles.

Pfestroff pointed out that the EU is neglecting its own human rights obligations and commitments by ignoring Israel's violation of humanitarian international law.

She stressed that Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Accord allows the suspension of the accord if there are massive human rights violations.

The EU should draw "a clear red line" vis-a-vis Israel's continued human rights violations, Pfestroff added.

"A suspension of the association accord should indicate this red line."

She said that Israel has been benefitting from its special free trade status with the EU, despite the ongoing violations.

The activist criticized that many Israeli products from illegal settlements in the West Bank are being sold in German supermarkets.

The Protestant German church had earlier supported international call for a gradual and selective boycott of multinational firms which took part in "illegal activities" in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Multinational companies were involved in the demolition of Palestinian homes and the construction of Jewish settlements and the so-called 'security wall'.

There are numerous German websites which have listed dozens of Israeli firms which do business in Germany, urging Germans to boycott these companies.

While the German government remains a staunch defender of the Zionist regime, almost all opinion polls indicate that Germans have a negative stance towards the activities of the illegal Jewish state.

Source: http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-239/0704193108190430.htm

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