On Saturday we held our regular monthly protest. We were thin on the ground but we gave out a large number of flyers. here.
At the Stop the War protest on Sunday, we had a speaker, who pointed out the Hypocrisy of our politicians. They are gathering evidence for crimes against humanity, now, against Putin’s bloody invasion. Excellent, but what about the crime against Humanity of Apartheid. Israel’s Apartheid has been growing for over 50 years. The West has been rewarding Israel with subsidies and preferential treatment. A system of justice cannot simply be wheeled out to deal with the West’s enemies. Had Israeli leaders been punished with guilty verdicts at an International Criminal Court, it is likely that Putin would believe that such a fate is waiting for him.
This is the meeting we were advertising. We are particularly pleased to welcome Kholoud al Ajarma. She is from the village of Ajjur. The JNF British Park sits on the ruins of her village. When she complained to a British Court, it ruled that she had no standing to complain. It is our first physical meeting in two years, so we are a bit nervous. Please come (unless you have Covid!!)
On Saturday Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign held its monthly protest. Come along next time 12 noon Sheffield Town Hall first Saturday of the month. We gave out leaflets highlighting the Amnesty report which documents Israeli Apartheid. It is a 274 pages long. It took four years to produce. Join our campaign.We defeated the South African Apartheid, if we work together we can defeat Israel’s Apartheid.
Amnesty International has just brought out a report on Israeli Apartheid. It says
“Our report reveals the true extent of Israel’s apartheid regime. Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights. We found that Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid. The international community has an obligation to act”
On 28, 29, 30 January 2022, we call for a global mobilization in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their steadfast resistance against Israel’s forced displacement in Jerusalem’s neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, in Al-Naqab, the Jordan Valley, the southern Hebron Hills and beyond.
These Global Days of Action are in response to the call by the Bedouin-Palestinian community of Al-Naqab for international solidarity to support their struggle against Israel’s ongoing Nakba.
The last week has seen a dramatic escalation in the intensity and brutality of Israel’s relentless policy of expulsion that still threatens to expel thousands of Indigenous Palestinians more from their homes and lands. As Human Rights Watch and other international human rights organizations have said, this wave of forced displacement is yet another manifestation of Israel’s system of apartheid against all Palestinians. Apartheid is a crime against humanity in international law.
We call for intensifying our efforts to end international complicity by states, corporations and institutions in Israel’s policies of apartheid, settler colonialism and military occupation. In other words, we call for meaningful solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli attempts to dehumanize them and to criminalize their popular resistance to cultural erasure and the ongoing dispossession and displacement.
Let’s demand effective accountability for complicity in war crimes now.
Take the lead from Palestinians in Al-Naqab as they organize another mass protest this Sunday.
Be inspired by the sumud of the Palestinian community in Sheikh Jarrah, and by the words of Mahmoud Salhiya: “We’d rather die in our land with dignity than surrender.” They embody the determined resilience of the entire Palestinian people, including Palestinians besieged in the Gaza Strip since 2007.
Palestinian women, men and youth continue to rise up for their rights, whether in their homeland or in exile, where they’ve lived as refugees ethnically cleansed from their homeland in the 1948 Nakba and denied their inherent and UN-stipulated right of return.
On 28, 29, 30 January – the Global Days of Action to #EndEthnicCleansing, let’s:
Organize/join protests, vigils and rallies across the world.
Pressure governments and parliaments to take action, including lawful and targeted sanctions and military-security trade bans, and call out those who are complicit with apartheid Israel.
Build support for the UN to investigate and end Israeli apartheid, as was done with South African apartheid.
Storm social media with the hashtags #EndEthnicCleansing and #UnitedAgainstApartheid as well as #SaveSheikhJarrah, #SaveAlNaqab, #UNInvestigateApartheid.
Initial Signatories:
Save Al-Naqab Campaign
Save Silwan Committee, Jerusalem
Jordan Valley Solidarity
Stop the Wall Campaign
The BDS National Committee (BNC)
Palestinian NGOs Network
Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network- Friends of the Earth Palestine
The leadership of the JNF UK has made racist comments. This has led to complaints by important sections of Jews in the UK. This has led to an investigation by the Charity Commission. Up to now the Commission has covered up the racism of the JNF. This time it will be a harder task. More information here.
Students from Sheffield Palsoc have been found guilty of anti Semitism and ordered to attend an anti Semitism awareness course. The accusation arises from a placard stating “stop the holocaust of Palestinians”. The placard was not used but could be seen on Facebook in a video clip showing the students making banners.
There will be a considered official statement from Sheffield PSC on the case in due course.
Protestors gathered at the Head offices of JCB World HQ today, Wednesday 15th December 2021, calling for JCB’s Directors to end sales of bulldozers to Israel. JCB exports equipment to its sole dealer in Israel, Comasco, who in turn have a contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defence. JCB’s bulldozers are used by the Israeli military to demolish Palestinian homes, schools, health centres and even its olive groves and animal shelters.
The protestors held up graphic photographs of Palestinian families standing in shock and despair around the rubble of their homes, with JCB equipment shown clearly in the photographs. They sang ‘Homes Torn Down’ a song specially composed for the occasion focussing on the broken Palestinian lives and dreams as a direct result of JCB sales to Israel.
JCB have been regularly criticised for its actions in exporting its equipment to Israel, in full knowledge that their equipment is used by the Israeli military. Last month an investigation by the UK Department of Trade concluded that JCB was failing take any measure to check on the end use of its equipment, and that, in spite of its position as a major, prestigious global company, it had no human rights policy. Last week Amnesty International published a major report JCB Off Track on the sale of JCB equipment to Israel, concluding that JCB did not appear to care that its products have been used for years to destroy Palestinian homes and communities.
Natalie, one of the protestors, said:
JCB know perfectly well the destruction wreaked by its bulldozers in Palestine. There is a mountain of evidence and even the Department of Trade is now calling JCB to account. And yet JCB continues to treat with contempt any attempt to engage with them over this issue. For years it has ignored letters, reports and constructive attempts by NGOs to discuss with them measures that JCB could easily take to end its complicity with Israel’s war crimes. JCB exports its products to over 150 countries and could choose to suspend its policy of exporting to Israel without a dint in its profits. The Bamford family are always keen to highlight their philanthropic work, including its charitable donations to the biggest child welfare charity in the country, the NSPCC. And yet the family are utterly blind to the suffering of Palestinian children, living in the rubble of their lives after yet another JCB bulldozer ploughs through their homes.Today we handed in a letter to Graeme Macdonald calling on JCB to finally listen to the multitude of voices calling on the company to prove that it does care about human rights and the welfare of Palestinian children. We are not optimistic, as we have sadly seen the heartlessness of this company and its Directors over a number of years. But we do care, and we will continue to protest until the owners of this company finally come to their senses and show some humanity.
The protestors held a one minute’s silence to remember the Palestinian children who would be homeless this Christmas as a direct result of the Israeli Army’s use of JCB bulldozers and for all victims of Israeli war crimes.
Key machinery to carry out these actions is provided by JCB. They have their headquarters in Rocester.
Today, members of Sheffield PSC and others made sure everyone knew that behind the clean facade was a company actively engaged in ethnic cleansing. Read about their day here
Please join us on Saturday 11th December at midday outside the Town Hall in Sheffield for a boycott vigil.
We will also be remembering our beloved Qayis, who died 40 days ago. As well as being a wonderful person and great company, Qayis was a fabulous young comrade.
We are pleased to have worked with the Showroom Cinema to put on 200 mètres a film that premiered at the 77th Venice International Film Festival in September 2020, where it won the BNL People’s Choice Audience Award as part of the Venice Days competition.
Mustafa (Ali Suliman) and his wife Salwa (Lana Zreik) are from two Palestinian villages only 200 metres apart, but separated by the WALL and their different ID permits. Their three children live with their mother in Israel, and Mustafa lives with his mother in the West Bank, refusing to exchange Palestinian for Israeli ID. Every night, they signal goodnight across the divide. Only occasionally can they be together.
One day, his son is in an accident, and Mustafa rushes to the checkpoint where he is denied entry. Desperately, he resorts to hiring a people smuggler and the 200 metres distance becomes a 200-kilometre odyssey full of absurdity and danger.
Showing at the Showroom this coming Sunday, December 5th at 6pm.
