AGM Report 2006

Report by Musheir El-Farra - Chair

Comrades, Brothers and sisters:

We meet today in a time were the Palestinians continue to suffer the horrors of the Israeli occupation. 

Daily attacks are being carried out by the Israeli occupation army on Palestinian civilians’ targets, as will as military ones, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 

Collective punishment is continuing; in the recent invasion of Beit Hanoun; the Israeli occupation army killed 85 people mostly civilians including 30 minutes bombardment of civilian houses while sleeping.  45 houses were completely damaged; more than 100 houses were partially damaged; many had to be demolished later for safety reasons. 

Collective punishment in form of siege of 1.40 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as well as depriving most parts of proper electrical and water supplier continues.

Collective destruction of vast area of agricultural land continues in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

In the West Bank, the construction of the illegal Apartheid wall is on going creating severe hardship for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians on top of steeling their land and live hood.  People of the West Bank are subjected to daily humiliation on hundreds of Israeli check points which are scattered between different cities, towns and villages.

Theft of Palestinian water supplies in the West Bank continues.

10, 000 Palestinian political prisoners remain in jail with no intention on the Israeli occupying power to release them.

Israel continues to deny of the right of Palestinian refugees to return or even accept moral responsibility for their forceful uprooting.

All this confronts us with a lot of challenges ahead of us; especially with the fact that the level of knowledge of the British public of these crimes against humanity is very modest.

AGM Report 2006 - Our Campaign

Our campaign has concentrated on two fronts during the previous three years; first the political which is our main purpose; raising awareness among the British public of the Israeli occupation crimes against humanity in Palestine. 

Second providing practical help for the Palestinians through establishing links with grass root organisations in Palestine.

AGM Report 2006 - Summary of activities over the last three years

Follow the links below for a summary of the Sheffield PSC's activies over the past three years......

AGM Report 2006 - Activities: Campaigns

Activities: Campaigns

• Vigils in Sheffield city centre.  Not as many as there should be; this is an area which we must improve on and plan carefully on more regular basis.
• Promotion of Boycot of Israeli products.  Again I think that there is a lot of room for improvement of campaigning more for this issue.
• Organising and Taking part in many Demonstrations/protests against the Israeli atrocities in Palestine, Lebanon and against the War on Iraq.

AGM Report 2006 - Activities: Fundraisers and culutral events

Activities: Fundraising and culutral events

• Esablishement of Yorkshire Palestine Culutral Exchange (YPCE) as a sister organisation
• A concert for Al Fonoun Folk Dance Group form Gaza - February 2005.
• The very successful tour of Al Asria Folk Dance Group from Jabalia refugee camp. - June/July 2005.  ShefieldPSC is currently working on a new film centred on Al Asria Folk Dance Group Tour in June/July 2005 with background to the Palestinian Catastrophe (Nakba) and the continuing suffering of the Palestinian people. 
• Many small Concerts for Palestine leading to the main Concert for Palestine which was held on 17.10.2006 with Roy Bailey and Marten Simpson.
• Production and successful launch of “Voices through the Rubble” A film about the situation in the Gaza Strip under Israeli occupation.  The film was also shown in many areas around Sheffield and nationally in cinemas and public meetings.  Our sincere thanks to Jenni Vine and Steve Jinks for their hard work towards the production of”Voices through the Rubble”.
• Showing of many films about Palestine in Sheffield: “Frontiers of Fears and Dreams”, “Jeremy Hardy Verses the Israeli Army”; “Jenin Jenin”, “ Arna’s Children” with the director Juliano Mer Khamis”, “ Paradise Lost” with the director Suad George and the Iron Wall.
• A successful concert by a young band organised by our young supporters Daniel and Kirin; this followed the visit by Al Asria.  Hopefully this will be the start of more involvement of young people in our activities.
• Taking part in festivals around Sheffield.
• Sponsored walks and Basketball event.
• Brunches and Birthdays for Palestine.  I would like to thank to Chris Woods; Dick Pitt, Carolyn Leary, Heather Hunt, Joe Tomalin and Liz for organising their birthdays in support of our children projects.  These events proved to be essential for our fundraising.
• Regular fund raising socials.

AGM Report 2006 - Activities: Meetings

Activities: Public meetings with many speakers including

• Fadwa Bargouthy, Palestinian human rights lawer and wife of the imprisoned leader Marwan Bargothy
• Professor Ilan Pappe from Haifa University and author of many books on Palestine
• Dr Mona El-Farra UHWC and the board of Directors of the Palestinian Red Crescent
• Hassan and Jawad Qasrawi on their visit the West Bank
• Dr Swee Chai Ang, a doctor who witnessed the Sabra and Shatila massacres and a founder of Medical Aid for the Palestinians
• Gareth Gleed and Mais Warrad from Al Haq centre for Human Rights
• Numerous meetings with activist from the ISM on their experiences in the West Bank
• Sheffield PSC provided speakers for many public meetings and debates on Palestine

AGM Report 2006 - Activities: Promotions

Activities: Promoting the campaign and Palestine

• Setting up our web site: Thanks to Jonny, Dave, Jawad and Cath.  I believe that there is always room for developing the web site further.
• Sale/promotion of Palestinian olive oil from “Zayton” in the West Bank.  Jonny Feldman’s determination to get this project going is worthy of our sincere appreciation.
• Production of the Freedom, Justice and Return mugs.
• The establishment of Sheffied Plestinian Women Scholarship Fund.
• Establishing Links with woodcraft folk groups around Sheffield.  This lead to the very impressive fundraising dinner in aid of children in Palestine which was organised by woodcraft folk youngsters in the summer of 2005.

AGM Report 2006 - Helping the children's projects

We also continued with our efforts to establish links support for the children projects in the Gaza projects. Follow the links below to find out more:

Gaza Projects - Afaq Jadeeda

Afaq Jadeeda (New Horizons) - Nussairat Refugee Camp

• May 2005 - Provision of 9 Play ground equipment including three slides - Merry -Go -Roundabout - Two swings - Seesaw - Three little animals on springs) - Construction, plastering and painting of the front concrete boundary wall for the playground
• May 2006: Equipment for Scout group within the centre including 7 drums of three different sizes, flags and a bugle.

Gaza Projects - Al Asria

Al Asria Children Centre - Jabalia Refugee Camp.

• July 20004 - we provided the centre with the needs to establish a Child Theatre Project including Baravans (Partitions), Spot lights, Curtains and Carpet.
• June 2004 and June 2006 : of Material required for children summer camp including Pottery pots (Three different sizes), paint tins, Spray paint, Painting brushes, Glass Panes and special paint, Drawing Board, Embroidery material, Artificial roses, A1 Drawing papers of three different colours, Colouring pencils and Crayons, Colouring books, Glue sticks and tins, Note pads, scissors and other stationary material.
• Full sponsorship of Al Awda Summer Camp 04 -18 June 2005 for 150 children (boys and girls) - Jabalia Refugee Camp including: T shirts - blouses and trousers - Hats - Shorts - Track suits for supervisors - - All stationary needed for children activity during the summer camp (Liquid colours and brushes - Pottery pots - Glass panes - Paper sheets of different sizes and colours - Scissors - Glue) - Food (Meals) - Presents for 12 youth supervisors - Excursions including visits to Gaza fun fair - Closing ceremony
• December 2005 - Full costume for the Folk Dancing group, (20 boys and girls), including: Palestinian embroided dresses (Girls), Waist Coats and trousers (Boys), Scarfs and belts for boys and girls - Dancing Shoes for boys and girls - Track suits and trainers for boys and girls (For Training/Rehearsal)

Gaza Projects - Never Stop Dreaming

Never Stop Dreaming Children Centre - Khan Younis Town

This is a project which we started from the scratch. In June 2004 we started the moving /travelling children library in Khan Younis town. This developed to the establishment of a new children centre called Never Stop Dreaming. We sponsored the full cost of establishment of this centre as follows:

• Shelves for the children library including labour
• Table Tennis
• House rent including water and electricity bills
• Furniture for the centre including 11 Desks and 40 plastic chairs for children - table, three fans, fridge and carpet for the play area
• Miscellaneous for running of the centre on monthly basis - Allowance for three volunteers - TV set+ Video/DVD Player + Mini High Fi System - Puppet theatre.

Gaza projects - Sunrise and Hope

Sunrise and Hope Centre:

• In December 2003 we, constructed a play house within the children library
• In July 2004 we provided the centre with L.C.D projector H.P 6110 for the Children Library (For display of recreational and educational videos and DVD’s for large groups of children, 40 to 50 at a time)
• In December 2005, we refurbished the ball pool which SPSC constructed in 2002 including: The installation of two protective canopies on the east and west sides replacement of the lining and carpet - Provision of 2500 new balls

Gaza projects - More contributions

All the above centres...

• Regular Consignments of toys; books, colouring books, encyclopaedias, easy reading stories, colouring pencils, crayons, paint, Painting sheets, brushes and videos.
• We also supported tens of Needy Families through the Palestinian Women Union and the Union of health Work Committees. (Our sincere thanks to Tasbeeh, a group of Pakistani woman in Rotherham who donated part of the money.)

Mini Bus for the Palestinian Women Union.

December 2005 - Contribution towards buying a mini bus for Palestinain Womens Union. We did not manage, due to closure and siege to extend this very successful project to include one children project in the West Bank. This is some thing we should consider in future.

AGM Report 2006 - Growth of support for PSC

Support for our campaign

Our campaign has been strengthened over the last three years by the contribution of so many new activists who have added so much positive input; we are so proud to have them on board: Johnny Feldman, Hilary Smith, Dick Pitt, Flis Calow, Jusvinder Kosha; Pamela Walton, David Campbell, Jawad Qasrawi, Cath Ager, and Fiona Balaban.

My sincere thanks to all members of Sheffield PSC committee; Hilary Nelson, Lynda, Snowden, Marten Jordan and Sara Gowen for their efforts over the last three years. I feel also obliged to thank Paul Keleman for the support and commitment he gave to Sheffield PSC.

On Behalf of all members of Sheffield PSC, I would like to thank Stop the War Coalition, the Yemeni Community Association and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) for their continuous support.

AGM Report 2006 - Final words from Musheir

Comrades Brothers and sisters:

I am so proud to have worked with all of you; I am so happy that I had the chance to get to know you all. It has been a period which I value a lot; a period where we all worked together against miscarriage of justice in Palestine. We can all be proud of the fact that our campaign has been working in a very democratic and transparent way. This has been the strength of our campaign in the past few years; let’s make sure it continues to be so.

We also managed, despite the painful injustice that we campaign against, to maintain a good sense of humour. I regard this as a positive attitude which I hope will continue.

Let what we achieved together be a challenge for us to do more. We simply can not be complacent. We can not afford to be pessimistic; nor passive about what is happening in Palestine. We have a duty to carry on campaigning regardless of the balance of power which is heavily against us. To stop campaigning is simply joining the American administration, the British government and other world big powers, in turning a blind eye and deaf ears to the horrific crimes against humanity which are perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people.

We have a lot of tasks ahead of us next year. Let this AGM be the beginning of a new year of serious campaigning for Palestinian right to freedom justice and return.

Musheir El-Farra - Chair