Going beserk for Bezeq

IssueNovember 2010
News by David Polden

Part of the British “boycott, divestment and sanctions” (BDS) for Palestine movement attended the British Olympic ball on 24 September, to put pressure on the ball’s sponsor, BT, to cut its ties with Bezeq, supplier of telecommunications services to Israeli checkpoints, bases and illegal settlements.

Among the great and good in the world of sport and sports-sponsorship arriving at the red carpet at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London was a long pink stretch limo.

Out stepped the uninvited Rhythms of Resistance samba band, bearing banners and giving leaflets to guests squeezing past a line of guards trying to keep the band away from them. Then the police arrived and pushed the protestors away.

After the guests were in and the gates locked, the samba band continued to entertain the guests loudly from outside; bolstered later by the Friday night “critical mass” of cyclists.

Aha Ahava

On 2 October, Palestine solidarity activists blockaded Israeli settlement company Ahava’s Covent Garden shop for four hours with a concrete lock-on.

The cosmetics company profits from the occupation of Palestine, selling Dead Sea mud and mineral products which all originate in the illegal Kibbutz Mipzte Shalem settlement in the West Bank.