IMRA Newsletter
Oxfam International: Website changed, promoting Boycott of Goods from Territories
From: Information@oxfaminternational.org
Date: Thursday, July 17, 2003 15:26:17
Subject: Clarification from Oxfam International
Wednesday, 16 July, 2003
Thank you for your email. We appreciate your correspondence and would like to respond to your concern.
Oxfam's mission is to respond to the suffering of people, without regard to race, religion or ethnicity. Oxfam supports the Road Map for peace. We condemn Palestinian suicide bombings and all other acts of terror and violence. We call for the occupation of the Palestinian territories to end.
Oxfam is pro-peace and pro-rights, for both Israelis and Palestinians. We have five affiliate groups who are working in the region on long-term development programs, and with peace activists on both sides of the conflict.
We want our campaigns to be challenging, but never offensive, and we apologize for any offense that has been caused. Our Belgium affiliate, Oxfam-Solidarity, has amended the campaign page of its website, removed the link to the poster image and introduced a new front-page that gives a more measured explanation of its own involvement in this Belgian campaign. Oxfam in Belgium has also apologized for any offense given.
Its website also now makes clear - where it didn't before - that Oxfam-Solidarity's involvement in the campaign was to target only those goods grown in the occupied territories and exported into the EU. As such, the campaign is against certain actual policies of the Israeli government. It is not against the Israeli or Jewish people. Oxfam condemns prejudice, discrimination and violence toward any racial, ethnic, religious or political groups.
Oxfam hopes that the changes we've made reflect this more clearly and help to answer your concerns.
Yours sincerely, Ian Anderson Chairman Oxfam International
See also:
Oxfam Belgium produces political Poster