Boycott Israel campaign starts in WA

PERTH — Friends of Palestine WA (FOPWA) protested outside a function organised by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC) on March 20.

This was the first action organised by FOPWA as part of a "boycott, divestment and sanctions" campaign that started at the 50-strong annual general meeting of the group on February 28.

FOPWA is calling on businesses to dissociate from the AICC and withdraw investments from Israel.

Three out of four WA universities are members of the AICC, providing a campaign focus on university campuses. Another target of the campaign is the considerable amount of Caterpillar equipment brought into WA to be used in the state's mining industry.

Caterpillar is notorious for supplying the Israeli military with specialised military bulldozers designed to flatten houses in war zones.

The March 20 business seminar was addressed by Lewis Tripper who has a long association Israel's military and Israeli arms firms.

In a March 17 media statement FOPWA said "the AICC can no longer expect to act with impunity". The group is "determined to hold them to account [and] that is why we have decided to call a protest every time we receive word of a public event being hosted by the AICC".

From GLW issue 788