Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT)

Profile

Country/TerritoryUnited States
Websitewww.cpt.org
Founded1986

Funding

Activities

Political Advocacy

No Way to Treat a Child

BDS Activities

  • On February 23, 2010 CPT-Palestine endorsed BDS against Israel “because sixty years of negotiations and diplomacy have only enabled Israel to solidify its military occupation of Palestine. The international community has long called for Palestinian society to resist the violence of the Occupation nonviolently, so we, as members of an international peace organization, believe that when Palestinians mount nonviolent campaigns against the Occupation, we are morally obligated to support them.”
  • CPT encourages “individuals, companies and states to engage in divestment and in an economic and commercial boycott of everything produced by the Israeli occupation.”
  • CPT “started making videos answering ‘why do we boycott Israel? ’,” urging followers to do the same.
  • In May 2021, CPT participated in a “National March for Palestine” to “build support for Palestinian rights and the effort to sanction Israel for violating these rights.”
  • In November 2020, CPT held a webinar titled “From Turtle Island to Palestine: Unite to Decriminalize Indigenous Struggles,” discussing how “Indigenous leaders face colonial governments attempting to criminalize their resistance” and the “impacts of settler-colonialism on their lives.”
  • In September 2020, CPT called for the UN General Assembly to “Launch international investigations into Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole, as well as associated State and individual criminal responsibility,” to “Ban arms trade and military-security cooperation with Israel,” and “Prohibit all trade with illegal Israeli settlements and ensure that companies refrain from and terminate business activities with Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.”
  • In June 2020, CPT was a signatory on a letter to then Presidential candidate Joe Biden calling for “support for conditioning U.S. military funding to Israel on an end to Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights and adherence to all relevant U.S. laws, including the Arms Export Control Act and the Leahy Law.” The letter further called for Biden to “promise to provide full U.S. cooperation with the International Criminal Court’s investigation into alleged war crimes committed by all sides in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.”
  • In July 2018, CPT was involved in a campaign calling to boycott Hewlett Packard due to its “complicity in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
  • In April 2018, during the violence on the Gaza border, CPT was a signatory on a statement calling for the “imposition of appropriate economic sanctions by the Canadian government and UN on those parties who are complicit in the violation of Palestinian human rights.”
  • In June 2017, CPT signed a statement “condemn[ing] JNF Canada’s role in entrenching Israel’s fifty-year-long military occupation” and called on the government of Canada to “Ensure that Canadian taxpayers are no longer subsidizing these activities, which are making Canada complicit in violations of international law (sic).”
  • On June 14, 2017, Rachelle Friesen, the Canadian coordinator of CPT, wrote an op-ed in the Canadian Mennonite stating, “The time has come to take up the call of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) unapologetically. This support means not only condemning the settlements or the occupation; it means the entire BDS framework of liberation is adopted, including: Ending the colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the wall.”
  • In April 2017, CPT was a signatory on a letter to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra calling on them to “reconsider your participation in the TSO’s planned ‘Arabian Nights’ tour of Israel,” as “Israel instrumentalizes culture to cover up its violations. When international artists perform at Israeli cultural venues and institutions, they help to create the false impression that Israel is a ‘normal’ country like any other. This visit by the world-renowned TSO will be paraded as an endorsement of Israel’s actions.”
  • In March 2017, CPT, alongside the Canadian BDS Coalition, signed a letter to HP calling on them to “speak out against the violations of International Humanitarian Law and abuses of human rights associated with HP/HPE technology infrastructure that Israel uses to maintain its system of apartheid and settler colonialism over the Palestinian people… We expect you to show just leadership and stand on the right side of history to end your company’s complicity with Israeli oppression” (emphasis added).

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