At least 15 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,400 others wounded by Israeli forces as thousands marched near Gaza’s border with Israel in a major demonstration marking the 42nd anniversary of Land Day.

Israeli forces fired live ammunition at protesters and used tear gas to push them back from a heavily fortified fence, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Adalah, a legal centre for Palestinian rights in Israel, condemned the Israeli army’s use of force and stated:

“Live gunfire on unarmed civilians constitutes a brutal violation of the international legal obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants.”

The demonstration commemorates Land Day, which marks the day – March 30, 1976 – when six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces during protests against the Israeli government’s decision to expropriate massive tracts of Palestinian land.

End Arms sales to Israel/ Boycott Israeli goods/ don’t invest in Israel/help get the Government to put sanctions on Israel

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.

On March 7th Omar Kiswani , chairman of the student union at Birzeit University was kidnapped by an armed Israeli undercover unit.  The newly registered Sheffield Hallam Palestine Solidarity Society called  a protest last Tuesday.  (See photo)

What would be the media coverage if armed soldiers from any other country in the world kidnapped a student leader from a university in a neighbouring country?

The violent kidnapping by Israel of a Palestinian was business as usual for the media.  Like the theft of land, like the theft of water, and like the establishment of an Apartheid regime.  Israel is backed by the USA and Britain so whatever it does is accepted by the media.

Like the South African Apartheid, this tolerance of the intolerable will only end when enough ordinary people stand up and demand that it ends.

The talk by Ramzy Baroud this afternoon has been cancelled

Apologies to all

A public talk by Ramzy Baroud will be on Sunday 18th March  5pm Umix Centre

Ramzy Baroud is an activist and author of My Father was a Freedom Fighter.

His visit to Sheffield comes a fewmonths after a United Nations Committee reported that ‘the strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian people is the principal method by which Israel imposes an Apartheid regime’.  In his new book, Last Earth a Palestinian Story, Ramzy uncovers memories that have resisted fragmentation and are reclaiming history for the Palestinian people.

It would be impossible for Israel to steal land from the Palestinians if it was not militarily superior.  That superiority is maintained by the aid budget from the USA and military trade with the West.  That trade could not go ahead without the support of the banks.  On Saturday we were on the streets to point out that HSBC profits from an arms trade that  helps Israel steal Palestinian land.

After the protest some of us went into the bank to complain to the manager that we had had no reply to three letters that we had previously delivered.

These protests, as well as putting pressure on HSBC, allow us to put our case to the general Sheffield public.  It also allows us to inform sympathisers of our next meeting.  In this case a talk by Ramzy Baroud 5pm Sunday March 18 at UMIX Centre 7 Asline Rd, Sheffield, S2 4UJ

Ramzy Baroud is an activist and author of My father was a Freedom Fighter.

As well as public meetings we have smaller working groups.  On Thursday 22 February 2018  at Friends Meeting House we had one such meeting.  It was about the Khuza’a Healing Centre for children in Khuza’a. 

The more public part of the meeting was led off by Mona al-Farra who movingly described the work of Mecca, and Never Stop Dreaming.

Sheffield PSC, in cooperation with women from the Yemeni Association in Sheffield are constructing a play and healing centre in Khuza’a, aimed at helping traumatised children in the area and beyond. The project will be run by one of our partner children centres; Never Stop Dreaming in Khan Younis.

This is a hugely ambitious project.  The second half was aimed at some of the detailed work that we need to do to firstly to spread
 awareness of the need for the centre within the wider community of Sheffield and beyond and secondly to establish a steady stream of cash for the running of the centre.

On Saturday10th February we had a successful fundraising meal at St Andrews Church Hall.

There was delicious home made Palestinian food and  a talk from Majd Abu Shawish – a Palestinian student at Sheffield University who, if you remember from last year,  was not able to join his course for three months because of Israeli collective Punishment of the people of the Gaza Strip .