British architects call for boycott of Israeli counterparts

British architects call for world boycott of Israeli counterparts

March 20, 2014

Britain’s Zionophile prime minister, David Cameron, might be spellbound by Zionism and Israel, but back in the real world things are moving in the opposite direction.

The Guardian newspaper reports that the UK’s top architectural body has called for its Israeli counterpart to be excluded from the International Union of Architects (IUA) in protest at Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestine.

In what the paper described as a further indication of the growing momentum of the boycott Israel movement, the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) has demanded the suspension of the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) from the international body on the grounds that it is complicit in the construction of illegal Jewish squatter homes and colonies in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and other violations of international law.

The Guardian quoted Riba’s president, Angela Brady, as saying at a meeting of the the body’s council on 19 March that failure to support the motion “would send a clear message to the world that we as an institution turn a blind eye or by inaction support what’s going on – land grabs, forced removals, killing the state and human rights, and reinforcement of apartheid”.

The motion – backed by 23 votes to 16, with 10 abstentions – was welcomed by the Palestinian BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement.

“Architects and planners are central to Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land and the forced displacement of Palestinian people,” Rafeef Zaidah, of the Palestinian BDS national committee, said. ”Given the complicity of the [IAUA] in Israel’s construction of illegal Israeli settlements, it is only right that it is excluded from international forums,” he added, according to the Guardian.

Little by little and day by day, Israel, the world’s only surviving apartheid state, is becoming increasingly isolated.

ENDS

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