Today Lena Mussa started her hunger strike. She has been buoyed by visit from Labour councillors yesterday and green councillors today (see slides below). As she started her hunger strike she told us

“it is clear what is happening in Gaza is not colateral damage as claimed by Israel but ethnic cleansing, a genocide”.

In a conversation in the morning, both Lena and Sahar expressed extreme disappointment that having both said they would come, Look North and Calendar failed to turn up – ” a clear case of anti-Palestinian racism” they said. But they did get interviewed by the Islam channel.

Later in the day, a delegation of green councillors came to meet with Lena and Sahar to express their support.

Alexi Dimond (Gleedless ward) issued this statement:

“Sheffield Green Party Councillors visited the Peace Camp today to show our solidarity with the Palestinian people and the campers outside the Town Hall. We are pushing for the Council to reaffirm its historic pledge for Sheffield to be an apartheid-free zone, and for the government to support South Africa’s submission to the ICJ.“

We are urging all Sheffield residents to write to their MPs and insist that their elected representatives visit the camp and listen to Sahar and Lena. Their absence on an issue that has clearly got so much local support is neglectful at best and complicity with genocide at worst.

Some councillors have visited notable the head of the Green Party and some Labour councillors.

You can find a template letter as pdf here and as rtf here

A busy day at the camp with constant stream of visitors.

A lovely visit from Sheffield Families for Gaza who set up an Arabic writing workshop, and , one of the highlights, was Tadhamon choir coming to sing, prompting Sahar to do some much loved dabke

We also had group visit from Sheffield councillors and two Church of England priests. All listened hard to both Lena and Sahar and showed support for their stance.

We need Sheffield council to look at the lack of humanity in Gaza just now, the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli state and lack of food and shelter. This is the key symbolism of this camp.

Late Sunday night the camp was pleased to welcome visitors from Rotherham and do a short workout as Lena prepares to start her hunger strike on Monday.