Solidarity from people in Sheffield with the Sumarin family – part of a growing internationa; mobilisation by civil society groups against Israel’s systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians
“While the JNF says it is only trying to protect its property, it is acting as a proxy for settler groups in this and similar cases. Months ago, a Palestinian family living on ground owned by the JNF near Bethlehem was evacuated following a request by the organization: several days later,a settler outpost was set up in the same spot. The practical effect of the JNF’s campaign against the Sumreens is that this family of 18, guilty of no crime and accused of no wrongdoing, may soon find itself without a home, bereft and bankrupt. ” Rabbi Michael Marmur.
Support the Sumarin Coalition – write a letter to the JNF Here
Join guest speakers and experts in a monthly webinar series to explore the role of the Jewish National Fund in the historic and ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. From the Nakba to today, the JNF has been a key agent in the colonization of Palestine. We will also explore how the JNF has helped to forge the racist ideology of the state of Israel, financing a discriminatory system whilst, at the same time, being accorded charitable status across the world. The campaign against the JNF likewise reaches across the world – we invite you to join us , wherever you are, in this campaign for justice.
You will receive instructions on how to join via e-mail.
Saturday 2nd May: What is the JNF (Jewish National Fund)?
The JNF functions as an arm of the Israeli state, yet presents as a charity in scores of countries. Our expert guests will discuss the JNF as a pioneer of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and its ongoing activities to expel Palestinians from their homes. We’ll look at the JNF’s claims to act on behalf of Jews worldwide and show how this racist organisation can be challenged wherever you are.
Saturday 6th June: The JNF as a Pillar of Israeli Apartheid (1948-1967)
This webinar will reveal the part played by the JNF in this momentous period: the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the seizure of Palestinian land, the erasure of evidence of this land theft and the prevention of Palestinians’ Right of Return. With eminent authorities, we will also explore the ways in which the JNF helped to forge the racist ideology and practices of the emerging state of Israel.
Saturday 4th July: The JNF as a Pillar of Israeli Apartheid (1967-present)
Once established as a parastatal organisation, the JNF has continued to facilitate Israel’s apartheid system. This webinar will focus on the Naqab, and the JNFs role in contemporary land confiscation.
Saturday 1st August: From Prawer to the JNF 2040 Plan
The JNF was involved in ethnic cleansing of the Negev through the Prawer Plan. Now, the JNF has an ambitious 2040 Plan to settle 1.5 million Israelis in the Galilee and Negev through the development of hi-tech industries. In the Negev, where destruction of Bedouin villages continues, the 2040 Plan involves collaboration with IDF Technology Units, including the notorious Unit 8200 which spies on Palestinians.
September 5th 2020: Nexus of Forces Allied with the JNF
To advance the Zionist movement’s conquest of land strategy, the JNF has relied on extensive fundraising among Jewish communities abroad, allowing the Israeli state to shift more of its resources to its military sector. In this session we examine the methods deployed by Western governments, the JNF and pro-Israel lobby groups to shield the Israeli state from criticism and actions coming from the BDS movement. We aim to explain how the JNF and its extensions in various countries pass off ethnic cleansing as charitable and explore ways to oppose them.
October 3rd 2020: Greenwashing and the JNF
Environmentalists beware. The JNF, which was established for the purposes of colonial dispossession, and has been executing ethnic cleansing for over 100 years, has re-branded itself as the “oldest green organization in the world” and is infiltrating the environmental movement. From biodiversity conservation to energy generation, from water conservation to climate change, the JNF has been causing environmental devastation and greenwashing crimes against the Palestinian people.
Please note: the running order of the webinars after July may be subject to modification.
Speakers Include:
Salman Abu Sitta, groundbreaking Palestinian researcher and historian
Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement
Jonathan Cook, journalist based in Nazareth
Ilan Pappé, Israeli historian and activist.
Ghada Karmi, Palestinian doctor, author and academic.
Joseph Schechla, coordinator of Habitat International Coalition’s Housing and Land Rights Network.
Kholoud al-Ajarma, Palestinian activist
Aziz al Touri (pre-recorded), activist from al-Araqib
Shir Hever,economic researcher and author
The Stop the JNF UK campaign is part of an international campaign to end the Jewish National Fund ‘s role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. It is made up of a coalition of activists from Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Scottish PalestineSolidarity Campaign and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.
We hope all our supporters are well in these difficult times.
We have just sent out a newsletter highlighting the Covid epidemic as it hits Gaza. Sadly the current link for sending money to Middle East Children’s Alliance, our preferred long time partners, will not work from this country. We urge all our members and supporters who wish to donate, please do it via Medical Aid for Palestinians
Other Items in the newsletter are the plight of Palestinian Prisoners in the time of Covid 19, the continuing campaign to Give Puma the Boot and the coming day of protest on the Naqba.
We have printed a report on our work with children’s projects in Gaza which your support has enabled. We cannot distribute these at present but it is available here.
Regretfully, we have had to postpone a number of meetings due to Covid 19
Lowkey, tonight (Monday 16th March) , Postponed
Labour Party, Antisemitism and the Media, 7pm Wednesday 18th March Postponed
Professor Salman Abu Sitta, The Right of Return: Sacred, Legal and Feasible March 27th Postponed
Two events are low risk since they are outside and are going ahead (but check Facebook Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign) Wednesday 18 th March 12 noon Hallam Square Sheffield Hallam University Gathering to support Anti Israeli Apartheid Week, called by Palestine Solidarity Society
Saturday 28th March 12 noon Sheffield Town Hall – Palestine Land Day
All of us are thinking of the impact of Covid 19 on our network of friends, neighbours and relatives. We would like you also to think of the impact on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. They have a weak economy, few resources, a very weak health service and an unsympathetic occupying power. The impact on them will be far worse.
Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign welcomes that the UN has at last published a list of companies colluding in Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank. There are currently around 600,000 illegal settlers, part of a systematic policy to remove the Palestinian people from the land and expand Israel. Their number has been growing over the last 50 years. Some are economic settlers looking for cheap, state subsidised accommodation, others believe that they have a God given right to Palestinian land. The settlements exist because Israel is the dominant regional military power and is backed by the world’s only super power, the United States.
Stealing another people’s land is a throwback to colonial times. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, Britain intervened militarily, and when Russia annexed parts of Ukraine, Britain supported sanctions. By contrast, illegal Israeli settlements have been accompanied by mild rebuke but no sanctions. Consequently Israel has continued to expand with impunity and has been rewarded with aid and lucrative trade deals.
Now, the United Nations Human Rights Commission has produced a report that lists 112 companies that are active in these illegal settlements.The companies that profit from building and sustaining settlements, must be banned from trading in the UK. The UN’s list of complicit companies is far from complete but it is a start. It is time for everyone committed todemocratic values to rally behind Palestinian civil society’s call for boycotting all trade with Israel until it abides byinternational law and ends the oppression and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
We in PSC fight for justice for Palestinians. Jews in this country are not responsible for the oppression of Palestinians. We object to the structures and policies of the state of Israel that lead to the oppression of Palestinians inside Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.
We do not object to the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. We do strongly object to the clauses. One states that saying that Israel is racist can be taken as evidence of anti-Semitism. This clause has led to the banning of basic Palestine solidarity activities. Please read our statement and make representation to your councillor. Our comments during the council debate can be seen here after an hour.
There was a meeting on Friday 27th at the Showroom. .
Sadly, due to the chaos in London Louise Haigh, MP for Heeley, could not attend. She did send a message of apology to the meeting and a strong supporting statement.
According to International Law, a child is defined as a human
under the age of 18 years. Under Israeli military detention, Palestinian
children as young as 12 are routinely:
• Taken from their homes at gunpoint in night-time raids by
soldiers. • Blindfolded, bound and
shackled.
• Interrogated without a lawyer or relative being present and with no audio-visual recording.
• Put into solitary
confinement.
• Forced to sign confessions (often in Hebrew – a language
they do not understand).
The treatment of Palestinian children is in marked contrast
to the treatment settler children. There
are separate courts, separate treatments and separate laws for Palestinians and
Israelis.
