All posts by Dick Pitt

Facts Are Stubborn Things

On 3rd December a group of us were leafletting outside Barclays Bank.  We were pointing that Israel is an apartheid state.  Apartheid is a crime against humanity.  The bank finances the Israeli military via eg Elbit and its demolition of Palestinian homes via eg JCB.  We were pointing out that Barclays supported the South African Apartheid and it is supporting the new Israeli Apartheid.

One man refused to take a leaflet.  I asked him why not, and he replied that he does not hate Jews and was gone.

It would have been nice if he spent time with the Jews that were with us or listen to our speakers that were saying we oppose anti Semitism, it is a crime.  We in Palestine Solidarity Campaign have a material interest that Jews do not live in fear in the UK.  A wave of anti Semitism in the UK can only lead to more Jewish colonisers in Palestine, and deepen the idea that Jews can only live with Jews and Palestinians have no rights in their homeland.

Is there any hint of anti Semitism in what we are saying?  Only a minority of Jews live in Israel.  Of that minority only a minority consciously support the policy of apartheid.  

Yet this man “knows” we hate Jews.  So much so that he would not take our leaflet nor discuss with us. This man’s closed set of ideas came from a brilliant but dishonest campaign by a combination of the Israeli Embassy, right wing Labour, a cowardly media and the Tories.  The right wing campaign endlessly repeats “Israel is democratic” “Israel represents all Jews”  “Only Jew haters oppose Israel’s policies”. The fruits of the campaign are in the routine claims of anti Semitism, the expulsions of Jews and others from the Labour Party, the lack of honest reporting, and the huge number of closed minds

We have a hard task – but facts are stubborn things. Israel practises Apartheid.  Apartheid is a crime against humanity.  Apartheid is anti-democratic.   Look at the facts of domination by one group over another land and water thefts, the police checks, the jailings.   

Over time Starmer’s “I don’t believe that Israel is an Apartheid state”  will go the same way as “I believe the earth is flat” and for the same reason.  Facts are stubborn things.

Appendix

Here are a few organisations that looked at Isreali reality and came to the conclusion that Israel practices apartheid.

Yesh Din is an Israeli human rights organisation that came to the conclusion that Israel practised Apartheid in the West Bank in July 2020 The Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid: Legal Opinion – Yesh Din (yesh-din.org)

B’Tsalem is another Israeli human rights organisation. Apartheid | B’Tselem (btselem.org) Jan 2021

Palestinian, regional, and international groups submit report on Israeli apartheid to UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (alhaq.org)

A/HRC/43/NGO/185 (un.org)

Human rights watch A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution | HRW 213 pages

Amnesty international produced a 280 page report Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity – Amnesty International

Sheffield Anti Israeli Apartheid Zone

On Saturday 26th November four organisations came together to make Sheffield an anti Israeli Apartheid zone, the Sheffield Trades Council, Labour Friends of Palestine, Kairos and Sheffield PSC.
This is the first in the country. We hope more cities will adopt a similar position. The speakers were Dr Haider Eid (from Gaza), Manal Shqair (Palestinian recently moved to Scotland) Andrew Feinstein (Ex ANC MP) and Mike Reed from Amnesty international.
There were 90 people at the event.
The initiative was very well received. After the event most of the people who attended went to the Town Hall. The light was poor, so we decided to stage the event again following the Protest at Barclays Bank where we could display the banners of the four organisations, Trades Council, PSC Labour Friends of Palestine and Kairos.

Sheffield Anti Israeli Apartheid

On Saturday 26th November four organisations came together to make Sheffield an anti Israeli Apartheid zone, the Sheffield Trades Council, Labour Friends of Palestine, Kairos and Sheffield PSC.
This is the first in the country. We hope more cities will adopt a similar position. The speakers were Dr Haider Eid (from Gaza), Manal Shqair (Palestinian recently moved to Scotland) Andrew Feinstein (Ex ANC MP) and Mike Reed from Amnesty international.
There were 90 people at the event.
The initiative was very well received. After the event most of the people who attended went to the Town Hall. The light was poor, so we decided to stage the event again following the Protest at Barclays Bank where we could display the banners of the four organisations, Trades Council, PSC Labour Friends of Palestine and Kairos.

Sheffield Launch Anti Apartheid Zone

On Saturday four organisations came together to make Sheffield an anti Israeli Apartheid zone, the Sheffield Trades Council, Labour Friends of Palestine, Kairos and Sheffield PSC. This is the first in the country. We hope more cities will adopt a similar position. The speakers were Dr Haider Eid (from Gaza), Manal Shqair (Palestinian recently moved to Scotland) Andrew Feinstein (Ex ANC MP) and Mike Reed from Amnesty international. There were over 83 people at the event. The initiative was very well received.

Opposition to Israeli Apartheid is not opposition to Jews

Sheffield and the weaponization of antisemitism.
Those of us who have opposed South African Apartheid, the various Nazi and fascist groups all our lives take an accusation of racism very seriously. Three cases have come up recently that highlight how accusations of antisemitism are used not to counter racism but to silence expressions of sympathy and support for the Palestinians and to restrict criticism of Israel. 

Case one: Sheffield University Palsoc used the word Holocaust.  They did not claim that it didn’t happen.  They did not state that it was not a crime, both of which would be grounds for an accusation of antisemitism.  Palsoc’s position is that it was a terrible thing and that they did not want genocide to be inflicted the on the Palestinians.  The placard was, in fact, not displayed but a complaint was made by a student. The Students Union’s disciplinary panel accepted that the placard did not intend hostility to Jews but, nevertheless, instructed Palsoc to make a public apology for it and for Palsoc members to go on an antisemitic awareness course.
Case two:  Shahd Abusalama was a PhD student at Sheffield Hallam.  We cannot go into the full details due to a non disclosure agreement. Three issues are in the public domain mainly as a result of a scurrilous article in the Jewish Chronicle.

1.        Shahd was accused of antisemitism and was found not guilty in February. She was subsequently, given a job as associate lecturer..
2.       “However, shortly afterwards she became the subject of a fresh complaint by a Jewish student, and the university commissioned a second investigation by human rights barrister Akua Reindorf.”

3.       The article does not reveal the outcome of the investigation, but tells us that Sheffield Hallam’s deputy vice chancellor, Richard Calvert said “She is no longer an employee of the university. She’s not worked for us for a number of months.”  Calvert and the paper did not mention the fact that she was cleared of antisemitism.  Thus, two failed accusations of antisemitism ended with her not having a job and a gagging clause.
Case three: Edward Sutherland, religious education teacher and ex-Convenor of the Confederation of Friends of Israel in Scotland (COFIS), used a pseudonym to post antisemitic material on Facebook in a fruitless attempt to insinuate that they came from  Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC). At Sutherland’s disciplinary hearing in front of the Scottish Teaching Council, Hallam law lecturer Lesley Klaff defended him circulating blatantly antisemitic material .  Clearly protecting a fellow Zionist was more important for Klaff than opposing antisemitism and she has not
been censured by Hallam for bringing the university into disrepute.

After many discussions between four organisations, we are pleased that there will be a launch conference on November 26th, Sheffield Victoria Hall We recognise that Sheffield played an important role in the battle to break South African Apartheid. We aim for Sheffield to play its part in breaking the new Apartheid – the Israeli Apartheid. There is a letter here that anyone can take to their trade union branch, sporting club, study group, and religious group.

Lovely words – shame about the Hypocrisy


We are bombarded with fine sounding ideas. “NATO is a defensive Alliance and poses no threat to any country” and “We are united in our commitment to democracy, individual liberty, human rights, and the rule of law.  We adhere to international law and to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.  We are committed to upholding the rules-based international order.”
So sad that these are based on lies. We could spend hours on the history of the dominant NATO country, the USA on the theme of “Deterring Democracy”. Let us look at NATO’s most recent efforts.
We are told that Russia was imperialist when it invaded Afghanistan. Yet when NATO did exactly the same thing and occupied Afghanistan with 100,000 soldiers, we are told it was defending democracy. If an organisation wants to help develop a country it sends in a mix of educators, engineers, and doctors not soldiers and bombs.
Nearly a year ago, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met at NATO Headquarters with H.E. Yair Lapid of Israel. The following is from the NATO press release: “Israel has been an important partner to NATO for more than 20 years, as well as an active member of NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue. NATO and Israel cooperate in different domains, including science and technology, civil emergencies preparedness and management, resilience, counter-terrorism, military medicine, countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and women, peace and security.”
Israel is an Apartheid state. NATO in its twenty years of cooperation with Israel has chosen to ignore the imposition of Apartheid on the Palestinians. So much for a rules based order and the rule of law (Apartheid is a crime against Humanity).
The press release goes on to say: “Furthermore, the NATO Secretary General restressed the Allies’ continued calls on Iran to uphold and fully implement all its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons”
NATO closes its eyes to Israeli nuclear bombs just as it closes its eyes to Israeli Apartheid.
So much for beautiful words hiding ugly practices.