An emotional address from a number of Palestinians was given in front to the town hall on Saturday 12th May as part of the Nakba vigil in Sheffield.
Re-telling their family stories of escape in 1948 and determination to return – and to remember – showed us how pathetic was the prediction from Ben Gurion – and how stupid its current proponents – that ‘Palestinians will forget’ .
Palestinians do not forget and nor do their supporters.
The right to remember is indivisible and cannot be demolished however many houses are raised to the ground.
A great turn out day saw HSBC in Sheffield’s Fargate shut.
Bank security hurriedly closed the doors when they realised boycotteers were going to do an action.
Two of Shefield PSC managed to be in the bank. Meanwhile outside, about 20 others ensured that shoppers and walkers got to understand what the noise was about.
Even HSBC customers locked out of the bank showed awareness and understanding when it was explained how this is similar to the Barclays boycott so many years ago.
the Nakba law, deprives Israeli public institutions, including schools, universities and libraries, of funding should they mark the Nakba, and is aimed at erasing memory.
70 years from the Nakba, let’s defy Ben Gurion’s prediction that while many have died, those alive will not forget.
Over 100 people turned up to protest against the creation of Apartheid Israel. The Balfour declaration was signed 100 years ago and led to a catastrophe for the Palestinian people. More pictures here.
A group of Zionists wanted to celebrate 100 years since the Balfour Declaration. We believe that the creation of a new Apartheid state is nothing to celebrate. A group of us went from Sheffield. One of our sisters fell and broke some bones in her wrist and shoulder. Our thoughts are with her. We wish her a full recovery.
Join us this Friday 3rd November 5pm Sheffield Railway station. Bring a light.
As part of our continuing campaign to highlight complicity from major corporations with the Irsaeli arms industry we will be assembling outside HSBC on Fargate, Sheffield city centre.
We are calling on them to end its support for the Israeli Arms industry.
Elbit 5 court case.
The Hearing on August 23rd was a travesty.
The CPS complained that the police had not spoken to them about the charges they had decided on and the CPS were not ready to proceed and might be considering another charge. They had given the defence no notice about this.
The case was therefore adjourned until 13th September to allow the CPS to sort itself out, but with no pressure on them to do anything other than to tell the defence ‘before the hearing’ what they planned to do. This means they can leave it until 7.30 a.m. on the day of the hearing, giving the solicitor no time to discuss things with the 5 people charged. the magistrates were completely uninterested in putting any pressure on the CPS to make a decision in good time.
So: another court hearing on Wednesday 13th Sept at Cannock magistrates court.
Saturday 6th May. There was a lively protest outside Sheffield Town Hall in support of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. We were joined by Paul Blomfield, MP (till a week ago and current candidate) for Sheffield Central constituency . The prisoners are on hunger strike over such things as jailed children, family visits restricted to one a year, and administrative detention (jail with no trial). For more information go here.
Possibly the worst thing a newspaper can do to a Muslim woman is to publish a picture of her under the headline “I am proud to be called a terrorist”. This is exactly what the Mail on line has done to Malaka Shwaikh.
Malaka is currrently at Exter University, studying under Ilan Pappe , a Jewish Israeli Professor; she is in no way anti-semitic. Before she moved from Sheffield, Malaka was a member of Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign. She is an intelligent articulate active anti-racist.
What has stirred the ire of the Pro Israeli and Zionist campaigners is that she is Palestinian, articulate and effective.
The full sentence she used was: “If terrorism means protecting and defending my land, I am so proud to be called terrorist. What an honour for the Palestinians!” This was said in the context of Israel’s 2014 bloody onslaught on Gaza. The wilful ripping out of part of the sentence completely misrepresents her position.
The attack on Malaka is part of a coordinated attempt to discredit pro-Palestinian campaigners. Israel has become increasingly right wing and xenophobic. It is feted by white supremacists and Islamophobes. Its supporters desperately hope to drown out criticism of Israel’s illegal land theft by false allegations of terrorism and anti Semitism.
If the Daily Mail’s malevolent distortion is allowed to stand Malaka’s ability to travel, to return to Gaza, and live a normal life will be made near impossible. It will also embolden the Mail for further attacks.
Lajee dancers spend some time off in the Peace Gardens
On 9th July this summer, over a hundred people saw at Sheffield’s Broomhall Centre a performance by 20 Palestinian teenagers, from Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.
The previous day, Sheffield’s Deputy Mayor had welcomed the group, the Lajee Dance Troupe, at the Town Hall. On Wednesday, October 5th, three of the 14-year- old dancers, Mustafa Bdair, Mutaz Barakah and Omar Radi were arrested by masked Israeli soldiers.
Attacks by the Israeli army on the Lajee centre have escalated since Celtic football fans raised over £170,000 divided between Medical Aid for Palestine and the Lajee Centre in Aida Camp.
These night raids by Israeli soldiers fit into a pattern of reprisals that have followed international gestures of solidarity with the Centre under an Israeli military occupation that the UK and other governments consider to be illegal.
Israeli soldiers attacked the Lajee Centre with teargas and rubber bullets on 19 Sept while the children were inside. The following night they forced open the gate of the centre, threw teargas grenades inside and closed the gate, trapping the children inside, forcing them to inhale toxic teargas.
Mutaz, Mustafa and Omar have been released on bail but will be tried by an Israeli military court where defendants are routinely found guilty.
In total, 440 children under 18 are currently held in military detention almost two-and- half times the number imprisoned a year ago. According to the Defense for Children International–Palestine (DCIP), no other country in the world systematically prosecutes hundreds of children in military courts each year.
Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign are urging Sheffield MPs to call on the Foreign Office to condemn the Israeli government’s campaign of intimidation against the Lajee Centre and to press for the dropping of the charges against the teenagers.