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 Israeli policy of erasing memory is cutural as well as physical. Aside from
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.
Many of you will know that there are actions around the world as part of an extended Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) – that have been taking place since February. This is an international series of events that seek to raise awareness of Israel’s apartheid system over the Palestinian people and to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
This year will be 70 years since the Nakba and over 50 years of occupation. Palestinians still have the keys to the buildings their families fled from all those years ago, symbols of hope, of yearning and of resistance.
The IAW actions are part of a global resistance to stand with Palestinians and take action in our daily lives.
Join us on Saturday 7th April at noon outside HSBC on Fargate
On March 9th, Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund and Northern Women for Palestine (NWfP) jointly staged an event called “Women of Palestine: the ongoing Nakba” at the Central United Reform Church. The event was also staged in 7 other northern towns by NWfP.
Find out more about the event here.
The talk by Ramzy Baroud this afternoon has been cancelled
Apologies to all
On 22nd February we will welcome Dr Mona Al Fara from the Middle East Children’s Alliance to Sheffield.
Dr Al Fara will talk about the desperate need to help children in Gaza traumatised by war, and siege and seeing their parents and wider families devastated by Israeli aggression.
Additionally, 11,000 were injured, one third with permanent disabilities and more than 18,000 Palestinian homes were destroyed. Israel’s siege and the periodic bombardments of Gaza have prevented people rebuilding their lives. Many still live in tents and makeshift homes. Water and electricity are still only available for a few hours a day. For schools, hospitals, workshops, farms and homes to be restored Palestinians need international solidarity. These accounts were corroborated by the Israeli human rights organisation, B’Tselem. Khuza’a was one of the three areas that suffered particularly badly during the 2014 Israeli attack on the
Gaza Strip. Hundreds of its civilians were killed and large areas of the town were wiped out. Some residents were used as human shields by the invading Israeli army. As a result, thousands of children are still traumatised and in need of psychological help.
A great rally on the City Hall Steps on Saturday yesterday, 9th December.
Over 100 people there – including many different faces and many students. The banner – which read ‘Trump: Jerusalem is not yours to give away‘ made a great focus and made it really clear to all why we were there.
Amongst those holding the banner were a man from Syria, a man from Algeria, a young Yemeni woman, a British Jew, a Palestinian, two students – Sheffield’s humanity in action.
There were some excellent speeches from students, from a representative from Labour Friends of Palestine Pearn,who has just returned from her first visit to Palestine, and a beautiful song by a Yemeni teenager were highlights .
So the clear thing here is, just like Palestine itself was not Britain to give away, so Jerusalem is not Trump’s to dispose of.
Keeping our spaces inhabitable for future generations is a problem world wide. For Palestine and Palestinians, the devastating impacts of occupation is no better demonstrated than with the imperilled state of the water supply in Gaza.
All this and more is fantastically demonstrated in our new calendar pictures from Gaza and infographics from Visualizing Palestine
How to get the calendars
Cost:
Sheffield PSC are putting on a number of events around Balfour this year as will other organisations, offering a range of perspectives. Please see below for details.
David Cronin is a contributing editor with The Electronic Intifada, a website focused on Palestine.
His new book is Balfour’s Shadow: A Century of British Support for Zionism and Israel is out now and he is engaged in a tour to speak about how Britain has gone from giving declaratory backing to the Zionist movement to becoming actively complicit in Israel’s crimes.
Please come and join this discussion to open out the Balfour season in Sheffield.
Location: Quaker Meeting House, St.James. Sheffield
Time: 7.30pm
Chai for All, the Bristol based jazz-tinged klezmer and Middle Eastern music ensemble will be bringing their new work, Longing, Belonging & Balfour to Sheffield on the Saturday 23rd September for a 7:30 pm performance at the Sheffield Library Theatre, Tudor Square. This is new musical perspective on the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the letter which can be said to have set in train the facts on the ground in today’s occupied Palestine
Chai for All will be joined by virtuoso clarinetist and kaval (Bulgarian flute) player Katie Stevens, renowned storyteller Michael Loader, British-Israeli platinum record producer Mark Smulian and the voice of Palestinian poet Alissar Amali – melding klezmer Arabic and other idioms together in music composed and arranged by German-born Knud Stuwe.
There will be a post-show panel discussion to explore the various perspectives on the Balfour Declaration and give an opportunity for audience members to share their personal stories evoked by the performance.
Full booking details for the show are available on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/longing-belonging-and-balfour- tickets-36222883620
In the first of a series of events to understand the impact (and certainly not celebrate) the Balfour declaration, Sheffield PSC are partnering with Kairos Sheffield, to welcome Robert Cohen who offers an anti-Zionist but religious Jewish perspective. Mr Cohen is an engaging and provocative speaker and blogger and well worth coming to see.
He will be speaking at the Quaker Meeting House on October 23rd from 7.30pm. Full details here
