Halifax, NS

TELL MOUNTAIN EQUIPMENT CO-OP TO STOP SUPPORTING ISRAELI APARTHEID!

UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

11:00am
Saturday November 28 2009

On Saturday, November 28, in recognition of the UN's International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, information pickets will be held outside Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC) stores across Canada, asking shoppers not to buy Israeli goods at MEC.

During its brutal 3-week long assault on Gaza earlier this year, the Israeli military killed 1387 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Israeli human rights group B'tselem. Judge Goldstone's recent 500-page report to the UN concluded that Israel's attack was "designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population."

Since the Gaza massacre, the global movement calling for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions until Israel complies with international law has accelerated. In Canada, members have been asking MEC to end its "partnerships" Israeli factories, including military contractors, that produce MEC brand seamless underwear and hydration systems. These partnerships are antithetical to MEC's promotion of itself as an organisation with "rigorous ethical sourcing requirements," and its professed belief that "business can advance human rights."

MEC’s house brand "partner" for hydration systems is Source Vagabond, an Israeli military designer and supplier that boasts on its website (http://source-military.com) “[Founder] Yoki and most of the members of our R&D team are experienced ex officers of elite IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) units.” Also, “50,000 [of its hydration packs] have been purchased by the IDF” and were almost certainly used during Israel's recent assault on Gaza that killed more than 430 Palestinian women and children, according to B'tselem.

Source’s slogan is “Hydration is Essential In the Heat of Battle.” But apparently not for the more than 500,000 Palestinian civilians who had no running water in Gaza during January 2009 because of the deliberate Israeli military attacks on civilian infrastructure such as power plants, wells and water lines, as documented in the Goldstone report.

As Naomi Klein said in January 2009, “The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.”

Until MEC reverses it's position on sourcing from Israel we are asking MEC members to take action from a range of options below that they are personally willing to commit to:

========> WHAT YOU CAN DO

* Do not buy products made in Israel at MEC

* Leaflet at a MEC store (please join us for the information picket on Saturday, November 28).

* Ask friends and relatives not to buy Israeli goods at MEC.

* Vote for board members who support a boycott of Israeli suppliers

* Boycott MEC until they stop carrying Israeli goods.

* Whatever else you do, please write/fax/phone the board of MEC telling them of your actions and asking that MEC halt all dealings with Israeli companies. Please cc any emails to parker@resist.ca

http://boycottisraeliapartheid.org

or email us:

parker@resist.ca