Press Release
For Immediate Release: April 10, 2008

National BDS Conference in Chicago, May 9-11
A National Conference on Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions will take place in Chicago (Illinois) from May 9-11. The purpose of the conference is to develop the strategies and tactics of a coordinated, national BDS campaign; not to debate whether a national BDS campaign should be adopted. Accordingly, every representative of an attending organization must have the authority to vote on these matters and bind his/her organization to the resulting decision. The national conference is being organized by Chicagoans Against Apartheid in Palestine (CAAP).

CAAP is a coalition of organizations and individuals who have worked on issues of justice in Palestine. Specifically, we have been involved in the “StopCat Coalition,” which focused on stopping sales of militarized bulldozers by Caterpillar to Israel. We decided that even though the campaign against Caterpillar remains valid, the focus was too narrow given the recent events in the Middle East.

We believe that after decades of occupation, the only appropriate description of the political situation in Palestine is that of apartheid. By using the term apartheid, borrowed from the pre-liberation regime in South Africa, we mean a regime that applies separate systems of law and practice to people occupying the same territory based solely on their nationality/race/religion. The world community rose in response to the apartheid regime in South Africa by imposing sanctions against both South Africa and countries aiding and doing business with the apartheid regime; boycotting South African goods and national cultural institutions (art, music, sports, etc.); and divesting from both South African companies and companies doing business with the South African regime.

Our goal is to make it untenable for Israel to do business in the world and for the world to do business with Israel until it dismantles the apartheid system imposed on the Palestinians.

To achieve this goal, we will initiate targeted campaigns: to boycott Israeli goods and cultural institutions; to divest from Israeli companies and those companies conducting business with Israel; and for international sanctions against Israel and countries aiding the Israeli government.

Organizations wishing to participate in this National BDS Conference should visit our website www.caapweb.org and send a message to caap_mail (at) yahoo.com.

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