Taysir Abarsi is a Palestinian farmer and organiser with al-Zaytouna, a co-operative, which sell its organic fair trade olive oil to the UK not for profit Zaytoun.

 

Zaytoun in turn sell its olive oil, via Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign to people in Sheffield.

Taysir started practical activism during the first Intifada when he was 15 years old, resisting occupation with everyone else in his community. More recently he has been involved in grass roots projects to resist 'the wall' which annexed so much Palestinian agricultural land to Israel.

Now Taysir, who has been working with Zaytoun since early 2004, and lives in Salfeet, West Bank, Palestine, as part of a UK tour during Fairtrade fortnight, is coming to Sheffield. This is a great opportunity to hear a community activist talk about his experiences under occupation.

Asked what his message was to us in Europe Taysir has said: My message as a farmer is: buy Palestinian Olive Oil – buy it promote it. It is the life of a nation concentrated in that bottle. If you help in selling, it means that you are helping to find some food for vulnerable families and milk for those kids living in isolated ghettos. By the oil, promote it.

Come and see Taysir and buy some oil too!

The New Imperial Hotel in the Old City is owned by the Dajani family and is a wonderful museum of Palestinian presence and visibility - in its own way an amazing symbol of resistence. It literally drips with pride about everything Palestinian but there are no political slogans here. Instead there are wall hangings, photographs and everywhere beatiful embroidered dresses hanging, many of them clearly very old.

Even in our bedroom (which isnt' cluttered, cos i'm travelling very light!) are two dresses hanging on the wall; and the settees in the comfy lounge are upholstered in a beautiful material which just happens to be the colours of the Palesitnian flag. There are also old tourist posters on the walls dating back to pre-1948.

The hotel is a symbol of one Palestinian family getting on with their lives and being proud of their land.....sounds great, but the other side of the story is that like thousands of other Palestinians they are having to fight to keep hold of what is rightfully there's. The land on which the hotel stands was owned by the Greek Orthodox Church, which is nearby, and the Church in its wisdon sold the land to some Israelis. I think about three years ago. And ever since, the hotel owners have had to be involved in a court proceedings, which continutre to wend their way through the Israeli court system, to keep hold of their hotel and to continue to run it.

This is the sort of thing that happens in microcosm throughout Jerusalem and is one of the reasons why so many Palestinians have to leave the city. But the Dajani family are still here - and the hotel is actually full, with a real wide range of guests - so if you ever come to Jerusalem - make sure you stay here.

Tuesday 16th October

I've always been the sort of person to get involved in international  issues, but I'm not what you'd call a big traveller. I've never thought that you necessarily needed to go to a place to be able to feel a sense of empathy with a people, or a cause, and I also think that in lots of ways there's more to be here, in Britain, than by travelling to another country, whether that's Palestine or anywhere else. When I left school I did some voluntary work in this country because I was determined not to be one of those do gooder young middle class people who swanned off to another country, to 'make a difference'. Also, I've never wanted to be seen as a sort of 'disaster tourist' one of those people who's goes to places to see 'how terrible things are' and I certainly don't want to become the story - 'Brave British woman travels to help poor Palestinian farmers', 'British mother stopped at checkpoint' when the real story is, of course, 60 years and more of injustice and inhuman treatment of a whole people.

Oh, and there's another reason not to go - I'm scared of flying.....which makes it really easy to be one of those slightly superior beings who says, 'I've never used my air miles and I've never been on Easy Jet, Ryan air/ Flights for a penny.dot.com.

So why on earth am I going to Palestine?

Good question. Well, its been ticking away in my head ever since I got empassioned about the injustive meted out to the Palestinian people and made myself find out about a load of injustice that I really should have known about years ago. (So why didn't I and millions of other people, really try to understand what it was that the 'Middle East conflict' really meant ???)

But its pretty hard to speak assertively about a cause that's quite as controversial as  Palestine- Israel, even when you feel reasonably confident about the key facts....there's often that point when people ask you 'so have you been ?' and when you answer no it sort of hangs in the air - do you really know what you're talking about ?

The other undeniable thing is that people are inevitably more interested in what you have to say if you have been there yourself. I know very clearly that my political activism is going to be a lot more effective after I come back - and that I will be more confident about making my points.

And what about the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories - these days I'm experiencing that thing that evey second person I speak to seems to have been out to Palestine (a bit like when you're pregnant and suddenly you see babies and other pregnanat women everywhere!) - but I know, in reality, that a tiny, tiny number of people actually go to the West Bank (and these days, pretty much no-one gets inside the prison called the Gaza Strip). So - without being egotistical about it, I know that many Palestinians are really really surprised/ pleased that a few people manage to find their way (I suspect we're pretty entertaining too - what do we know about picking olives?).

Sunday 14th October 2007.

So, I've just had my olive harvest brunch, raising a bit of money and letting people know a bit about my plans to go olive picking in the West Bank. 5 days to go til I fly to Tel Aviv....olive trees, here I come....!

Gaza: Women into Education 2006

'The Sheffield Palestine Women's Scholarship Fund'

Thanks to the success of our International Women's Day events in 2006 we have initiated a project to help young women living in the Gaza Strip to benefit from higher education. Our friend and partner in Gaza, Dr. Mona el Farra has set up a scholarship process for young women to apply to. These are women whose family circumstances mean that they would not otherwise be able to go on to university education. This year we are able to offer four scholarships, each of which will cover the cost of three years higher education.

October 2006: Update on the Scholarship fund!

Due to the hard work of our partners in Gaza, all working under intolerable stress as the seige of Gaza continues, the fund is now up and running and supporting its first four students through the academic year 2006 - 2007:

 - Our first sponsored student has been nominated by the Never Stop Dreaming centre in Khan Younis. She is now at Alazhar University studying Journalism. She comes from a family of 11 children - all girls.

 - Our second student is from the Jabalia Refugee Camp, proposed by the Al Asria Centre. She is studying Architectural Engineering. Her father is paralysed due to a war injury and she is one of eight children.

 - Our third student is from Rafah Refugee Camp and has been proposed by the Rachel Corrie Centre. She is one of 8 children and will be studying either IT or Pharmacy at Al Azhar University.

 - Our fourth Student is from Nussairat Refugee Camp and has been proposed by the Kanaan Centre. She is studying English at Al Aqsa university.

Scholarships for women in education 

International womens day conference: Palestinian women speak

Following on from the AGM in November 2006, where Sheffield PSC resolved to make sure we increased and diverisfied the information we provide for our supporters, every quarter Sheffield PSC will bring out a newsletter for download. Copies of the newlsletter will also be available at all our public events.

Issu one came out in February 2007.

Issue Two will be produced in April 2007

Issue One is now available via the link below! 

Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign is a group of people living in the Sheffield area who are deeply concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people.

We are committed to supporting the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination. We are affiliated to the national Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which is based in London.

Next planning meeting:

All supporters welcome to come along to our planning meetings:-

Date of next meeting: Tuesday January 6th 2008 at 7.30 p.m.
Venue: Quaker Meeting House, James St, Sheffield city centre. 

Subsequent meetings will be held on the first Tuesday of the month.

Central to our work is raising funds for childrens projects in Gaza which we have supported for a long time either by putting on events  or selling Palestinian craft goods, fairtrade Palestinian olive oil or mugs, films and posters produced here in England.

How does Sheffield PSC operate?

The campaigning and humanitarian activities of Sheffield PSC are planned and organised by Sheffield PSC's committee and other committed supporters who meet on a monthly basis at the Friends' Meeting House in the city centre.  These meetings are open and any supporter of PSC is welcome to attend our meetings. We always welcome new supporters and anyone who wishes to get involved, either in our activities as a whole or to commit themselves to a particular project or campaign.

Supporters are generally kept informed of events and activities by e mail. We hope to initiate in 2007 a quarterly newsletter to improve our communication with supporters and to provide a more effective means of supporters becoming more actively involved in campaigning activities. 

Sheffield PSC committee elected November 2006.

Chair: Musheir El farra

Secretary: Hilary Nelson 

Treasurer: Pam Walton

Publicity team: Jawad Qasrawi, Cath Ager, Hilary Smith, Jonny Feldman, Dave Campbell, Jasvinder Khosa

Stall and merchandise: Fiona Balaban and Hilary Smith 

Outreach worker: Dick Pitt

Olive oil sales: Jonny Feldman

Media watch team: Although individual supporters often contact the medai in response to bias or inaccurate reporting, we have not had the time to set up a local team to monitor the press. if you would be interested in helping with this area of work, please contact us.

Email from Steve on return from the ride, 20 September 2006, to his fellow cyclists

Dear all,

Thank you for your continued interest in my “epic adventure” with the Peace Cycle. As I expected, I grew up a lot (I am 48), and have been appalled by some of the things I have seen, not starvation or extreme sickness, as we are used to seeing on the TV, but just the insidious nature of the subjugation of one nation by another. I am struggling to deal with all my thoughts at present, but there is a lot to say, and I want to say it. The experience has been simply fantastic. I have attached a letter received just tonight from Marcia Cooke, an American working at the wonderful Najah university in Nablus, an educational institution the equal of our own SHU here in Sheffield, just to show the stark reality of life in the West Bank at present.

Her story reflects what we heard from the mayor of Nablus, and from several of the other towns we visited. I include it to show how participating in The Peace Cycle has opened my eyes and is changing my life. I have included a couple of the 250 pictures I took as well.

Please keep in touch, there is a fantastic story here, I need your help to tell it in a way that the people of Sheffield can understand.

Steve

First picture , is at the Jamalia checkpoint. Mohammed, the Palestinian Peace Cyclist, is unable to join the Group. We got into the Independent with this story.

A few short weeks ago, I was nervously contemplating my decision to rejoin “the Peace Cycle” to ride my bike through Palestine. As well as my own doubts, I had to deal with family, friends and colleagues questioning my judgement and asking the question “Is it safe?”

I have safely returned home, and now I am struggling to settle back into my old life whilst I deal with the myriad of images in my memory from this incredible experience.

This August, as part of a group of four S8 residents, including 15 year old Newfield student, Kieran Smith, his mum Hilary, and my wife Melinda;  I took part in the first week of the 2500km “Peace Cycle” London to Jerusalem bike ride and rode from London to Bastogne in Belgium, along with 22 other cyclists from a range of age, background, nationality and religion.