This BBC film has been withdrawn because, they say, they need to find out about how a film got made where a 13 year old protagonist’s father worked as a minister in the Hamas government.
It is clear that had a similar film been made about children in Israel and one of them had a father who worked as a general in the IDF or more parallel, a minister in say the education department (albeit the education department provides key cultural and thought infrastructure for the occupation and apartheid) – this sort of complaint would not have stood.
Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund and supporters of Palestine in Sheffield are organising a number of solidarity events in Sheffield on IWD on Saturday 8th March:
We will hold a vigil at 5.30 pm in the Peace Gardens. The Solidarity ‘walks of return‘ will all finish there and anyone else wishing to join us is asked to arrive at 5.15pm so that we can start our vigil at 5.30 pm. All are welcome.
We will be remembering all those martyred in Palestine and paying tribute to the resilience, courage and steadfastness of the women of Palestine.
There will be songs of solidarity and we will read out testimony by Palestinian women. We ask people to bring candles, and white flowers to lay in tribute. We will also have dates and water available for our walkers and for anyone opening their fast at sunset (6pm).
Shortly after 6pm. we will walk together in solidarity from the Peace Gardens to the Broomhall centre for our evening social. Bring lanterns, lights and flags for our walk to the Broomhall centre.
As well as a weekly protest and celebration of Palestinian resistance every Friday at the train station, we have
a march to the mayoral office on Tuesday 12th November,
a trip to Elbit in Shenstone to be in solidarity with those demanding an end to the Israeli arms companies activities in the UK and on Saturday an opportunity to join in a concert with SEEDS in Nablus.
a joint march with XR on Saturday 16th during the day and in the evening an online event based at the Broomhall Centre with SEEDS in Nablus
Mandla Mandela attended a meeting via zoom at SADACCA. Over 250 people attended a very successful and vibrant event. This zoom is available here.
Below is a statement from Sheffield Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid on the denial of entry to the UK.
STATEMENT ON MANDLA MANDELA MEETING OCTOBER 10th 2024
We deeply regret to announce that Mandla Mandela has been prevented from traveling to the UK. He will be addressing, therefore, tonight’s meeting at Sadacca via Zoom.
British officials had initially told him that his South African government passport did not require a visa to enter the UK. However, on Monday, Mandla was informed that he did require a visa. So far, despite high level approaches from senior ANC figures, the British embassy has not relented or issued a visa. As a result, he was unable to catch his plane yesterday. By contrast, the Irish authorities have waived the visa requirement for him.
This is not the first occasion that pro-Palestinian speakers from abroad have been obstructed from addressing audiences in this country. We will make every effort to have Mandla come to Sheffield in the near future but tonight’s meeting with him will go ahead. We will not allow expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people to be silenced.
We very much hope that you will still come to hear what Mandla has to say. 10TH October 2024
A magnificent Sheffield Demo on Saturday October 19th
Over 500 people marched from Endcliffe Park to the Town Hall to display their outrage at the continued apathy from politicians with regard to the genocide in Palestine.
Rally speeches are available here – https://tellthetruthsheffield.org/
National solidarity demo
On 5th October 2 coaches from Sheffield and Chesterfield went to the national demo. A compilation is on Instagram here
Every Friday we gather outside Sheffield train station. This is an important shout for Palestine ensuring that while the media will look elsewhere for ‘disastertainment’ we keep Palestine in our hearts and in our minds. It is greeted by amazing support from motorists.
Friday 4th October
As well as our protest outside, we had a station sit-in as well to and made it clear we stand with Lebanon too.
Come and join us on this short family friendly ride round the city centre raising the flag and chanting for Palestine.
We will be starting at the bottom of Cemetery Rd, behind Waitrose, at 11.45am, and finishing at Nursery St Pocket Park by 1pm.
For those who wish to join in, there’s also an event starting at 1pm at the Pocket Park to commemorate those who disappeared during the Pinochet regime following the coup in Chile 50 years ago.
Really good turnout to our call to protest the inclusion of Israeli Premier Tech team in the Tour of Britain.
It is a disgrace that Sheffield City Council (Sheffield City Council) and the Mayoral Authority have allowed this to go ahead while the International Court of Justice has declared Israels occupation and West Bank settlements illegal.
While the Israeli government continues to back its International sports teams in order to ‘sportswash’ its crimes, it does everything it can to deny Palestinian participation in sport. Arrest, torture and denial of travel permits to Palestinian sports people are commonplace.
It is no coincidence that the most famous Palestinian cycling club is the Gaza Sunbirds, started by a Palestinian Olympic hopeful whose leg was shot to pieces by the IDF. Gaza Sunbirds is a para cycling team which has shown incredible strength in delivering emergency aid to displaced people on Gaza and even greater resilience in having a team train abroad to get near fit for the para Olympics.
