Humanitarian group endorses boycott, divestment, and sanctions in support of human rights

Web links:

• Official statement from No More Deaths
• Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement endorsed by No More Deaths

Media contact: Gabriel M. Schivone 520-302-6006

TUCSON, AZ—On July 31, 2014, Tucson-based No More Deaths released a statement condemning Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians and calling for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against the Israeli occupation.

No More Deaths’ statement is released during the fourth week of Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in which at least 1,400 Palestinians, the majority civilians (including 251 children), and 59 Israelis, all but three of them soldiers, have been killed.  Up to 440,000 are now displaced and 7,100 wounded, while critical civilian infrastructure in Gaza related to electricity, water, and sanitation has been targeted and destroyed.

By happenstance, “no more deaths” has been taken up as a slogan of the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement opposed to the assault on Gaza. In the Arizona group’s statement, the organization calls on allies and supporters “to join the international community in directly pressuring institutions and businesses to sever economic ties with companies implicated in Israeli human rights violations until Israel ends the siege of Gaza and comes into full compliance with international and domestic law.”

Although the Israel-Palestine conflict may seem remote from the Sonoran Desert borderlands, there are many southern Arizona companies and partnerships directly connected with the Israeli occupation. No More Deaths cites Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems and Elbit Systems of America as two examples and possible targets for political pressure. “The U.S. government and U.S.-based companies have played a huge role in sustaining Israeli militarism and occupation.  And Israeli firms are directly involved in the militarization of our own communities,” said NMD volunteer Gabriel M. Schivone, the statement’s coauthor and researcher. “In the face of this human rights crisis, we have a responsibility to act.”

No More Deaths is a humanitarian organization aimed at ending death and suffering on the U.S.-Mexico border through civil initiative: the conviction that people of conscience must work openly and in community to uphold fundamental human rights. Volunteers engage in direct humanitarian intervention, providing food, water and medical aid to people in need.  The organization has released two reports documenting widespread abuses related to U.S. Border Patrol short-term detention and repatriation practices, available at www.cultureofcruelty.org.