Big walk for Palestine Dec 2nd
Category Archives: Campaign
Sheffield Emergency Funds for Gaza -November update
Above: flats in Khan Yunis destroyed by F16 missiles on October 14th 2023.
If you would like to know how to send funds to help with emergency relief in Gaza please visit this page:
https://bit.ly/Shef-Gaza-ER and share this QR code
Update December 2nd
In spite of the intensive horrific and large scale bombing of Khan Younis today the team managed to distribute clothes for 100 children as follows:
Prices of food in Gaza are now extremely high. The work Musheir has done on the ground has enabled volunteers to access supplies and so far 1831 families have had parcels of food or blankets or clothes.
- 30 families sheltering in Khan Younis
- A further 150 food parcels were distributed as well as 40 blankets since my last report
- 75 for the small community of fishermen and women who are from The Beach, a camp and sheltering in Khan Younis.
The team on the ground deserves our utmost respect and appreciation ; the photo is of the team after finishing their work; they look really tired.
UPDATE November 20th:
Every £400 pounds raised will feed 1000 people with rice and lentils.
You can read a report of the funds’ distribution here, written on November 4th
Bike Ride 4 Palestine
On Sunday November 5th The Big Ride for Palestine organised rides right across the country. One of them in Sheffield. Over 100 riders took part and encountered great joy from passers by and motorists some of the dancing as the riders went past.
Discussing Palestine
As Israel launches yet another major military offensive against the 2.3
million residents of the Gaza Strip, many in the UK will want to show their solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine.
However, it is important to understand how to voice your protest in a way that is measured, responsible, and most importantly, that serves to support, rather than undermine, the cause of Palestine.
Here is a short guide on how Palestine activists should navigate this sensitive discussion from Muslim Engagement and Development
Legal advice at a demo
Kara Firth (Leeds)
Ison and Harrison
0113 200 7438
Chris Peace (Sheffield)
GWB Harthills SolicitorsMonday – Friday 9am – 5pm
0114 2909500
Out of hours 07654318616
Rally Wednesday 18th October
Please join us outside the train station in Sheffield 4.30pm to demand an end to all Israeli army violence in Palestine and that the UK government end its backing for that violence.
Sheffield and Nakba at 75
A great turn out tonight ; many many passing cars honked in support; and great singing too from Tadhamon.
Please make sure you come to see Saif Kassis tomorrow too.
BADIL UK Tour
We are really pleased to be able to announce a two week tour in England and Scotland, by Saif Kassis, international advocay officer for BADIL.
The tour is a collaboration between BADIL and several Palestine Solidarity Campaign branches.
As we mark 75 years of Nakba, Israel continues to forcibly displace the Palestinian people.
Saif will provide insights into the current situation of Palestinian refugees, the ongoing denial of Palestinian collective rights to self-determination and return, and the responsibility of the international community.
The full schedule is here.
Ongoing Nakba talk 16th May 2023
We are really pleased to be able to welcome Saif Kassis, international advocacy officer for refugee rights organisation, Badil, as part of a UK-wide tour.
Saif will speak at the Showroom 5 on 16th May at 7pm
On the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, Saif will show how through arbitrary arrest, house demolitions, restrictions on movement and denial of access to clean water, the Israeli state ensures the Nakba continues each and every day.
When we meet Saif, we will be able to
- get an update of the situation from a trusted source
- hear about Badil’s work and campaigns, especially the importance of the Right of Return
- find out more about their deeply principled stand in refusing funding from the EU
- see how we might be able to support them.
Please distribute this leaflet
Facts Are Stubborn Things
On 3rd December a group of us were leafletting outside Barclays Bank. We were pointing that Israel is an apartheid state. Apartheid is a crime against humanity. The bank finances the Israeli military via eg Elbit and its demolition of Palestinian homes via eg JCB. We were pointing out that Barclays supported the South African Apartheid and it is supporting the new Israeli Apartheid.
One man refused to take a leaflet. I asked him why not, and he replied that he does not hate Jews and was gone.
It would have been nice if he spent time with the Jews that were with us or listen to our speakers that were saying we oppose anti Semitism, it is a crime. We in Palestine Solidarity Campaign have a material interest that Jews do not live in fear in the UK. A wave of anti Semitism in the UK can only lead to more Jewish colonisers in Palestine, and deepen the idea that Jews can only live with Jews and Palestinians have no rights in their homeland.
Is there any hint of anti Semitism in what we are saying? Only a minority of Jews live in Israel. Of that minority only a minority consciously support the policy of apartheid.
Yet this man “knows” we hate Jews. So much so that he would not take our leaflet nor discuss with us. This man’s closed set of ideas came from a brilliant but dishonest campaign by a combination of the Israeli Embassy, right wing Labour, a cowardly media and the Tories. The right wing campaign endlessly repeats “Israel is democratic” “Israel represents all Jews” “Only Jew haters oppose Israel’s policies”. The fruits of the campaign are in the routine claims of anti Semitism, the expulsions of Jews and others from the Labour Party, the lack of honest reporting, and the huge number of closed minds
We have a hard task – but facts are stubborn things. Israel practises Apartheid. Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Apartheid is anti-democratic. Look at the facts of domination by one group over another land and water thefts, the police checks, the jailings.
Over time Starmer’s “I don’t believe that Israel is an Apartheid state” will go the same way as “I believe the earth is flat” and for the same reason. Facts are stubborn things.
Appendix
Here are a few organisations that looked at Isreali reality and came to the conclusion that Israel practices apartheid.
Yesh Din is an Israeli human rights organisation that came to the conclusion that Israel practised Apartheid in the West Bank in July 2020 The Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid: Legal Opinion – Yesh Din (yesh-din.org)
B’Tsalem is another Israeli human rights organisation. Apartheid | B’Tselem (btselem.org) Jan 2021
Human rights watch A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution | HRW 213 pages
Amnesty international produced a 280 page report Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity – Amnesty International