Message from Louise, 27/9/19
I’m so sorry that I can’t be with you this evening; due to turbulent events in
Westminster I have to be down in London but as ever I send solidarity to the
campaign and to all that you are trying to achieve.
Many things struck me on my visit to Palestine last year but one thing that will never
leave me is my experience in the military courts in Ofer.
Guided by Military Court Watch, our group attended sessions of the Israeli Military
Court where we met with families of defendants, many of them children, and saw
close up many of the well-documented ways in which the system abuses the rights
of juveniles and others.
We saw first-hand children being tried without an interpreter, not understanding what
was going on around them, we saw the sheer numbers of children being processed
through the courts, we met with families who had to travel for many hours, leaving
their livelihoods on hold to wait for the trial of their children only to be told the trial
wouldn’t take place that day and over and over again we saw children passed
sentences of six months for throwing stones.
Several people told us that child and other defendants would “confess” to offences
they had not committed and for which no evidence was often provided, knowing that
the system works against them and to seek to challenge invariably leads to a longer
time in prison.
But the one thing that will never leave me and which still brings tears to my eyes
even when writing to this message to you now is the moment when a 13 year old boy
was sentenced to prison for throwing stones, his parents had travelled from Hebron
at the back of the room only six or so feet behind him. Upon sentencing the young
boy asked if he could shake his father’s hand before he was sent to prison, he’d
already been on remand for several weeks and hadn’t seen him, but he was simply
told no and dragged out of the courtroom. This was under the eye of international
observers.
That simple action demonstrated to me the cruelty and inhumanity of the system
they have created to collectively punish the Palestinians, to wear them down and to
complete the occupation. We know that the Israeli Government breaches
international human rights law and the laws of war and we know that every day they
are pushing at the boundaries still further in their attempts to annex the Jordan
Valley.
Anything that we can do to offer solidarity and to challenge the actions of the Israeli
Government will help expose and hold to account the casual cruelty at the heart of
the child detention system and the illegal occupation of Palestine.
Thank you again for coming out to support this important cause, I’m sorry I can’t be
with you but I look forward to standing by your side in this crucial fight for human
rights.
All posts by Dick Pitt
Palestinian Child Prisoners
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.
See here for more information.
The following films were shown.
“Children in Chains” Jon Pullman 22 mins
Child Prisoners Meeting
Protest HSBC – No arms to or From Israel
Photographic Display
Labour Friends of Palestine have organised a photographic in Sheffield’s Winter Gardens. It started today 8th July, and is on for a week. Please try to see it.
Gaza journalists seek a voice
By Musheir El Farra and Dick Pitt
When the Israelis stop mass killings in Gaza, the media turns its unblinking eyes away. Life goes on in, what David Cameron called, a huge prison. Why do we not hear about life in Gaza? What is their daily life like? What are the day to day discussions? What are the shortages? How is people’s mental health? What are the political discussions?
On Friday 14th June, a group of local journalists from Sheffield were in a video discussion with journalists from Gaza.
The Gaza journalists had got together and approached Palestine Solidarity Campaign Chairman Musheir El Farra about how they can contact British journalists to talk to them about their work in blockaded Gaza. Over a period of two hours we got to hear bits of the story that they want the world to know.
The journalists pointed out that they were non-combatants. They were there to report the facts. The demonstrations, ‘The right of Return’ was not an invasion, not organised by any faction. They were the march of a people who wished to return home from forced exile.
The Journalists’ tools are cameras not guns. They need to write and become witnesses for a voiceless people. They need to be able to show their photographs in exhibitions and tell their stories free from harassment arrest, wounding or killing. Journalists wear very distinctive, easily identifiable gear. Yet 200 journalists had been injured by various projectiles, tear gas canisters, and bullets since the start of the protests, March 2018. The journalists were clear that they felt Israel has targeted Journalists. It was also pointed out that Israel is holding 40 journalists in prisons.
A representative present from Human Rights organisation explained the frustration of getting no results to their hundreds of complaints to the Israeli authorities regarding attacks on Palestinian journalists.
There is also repression by the Hamas authorities. One journalist described how she obtained a story on corruption in the obtaining exit permits for medical treatment. The result was that she was arrested, and four separate charges were filed against her, including one of impersonation (she had worn a face veil to avoid recognition). The case against her collapsed. Reports of demonstrations against Hamas were repressed.
One Palestinian journalist described how he built up a following of 35,000 people and 5000 friends. His website was cyber attacked by the Israelis leaving him to restart the hard grind of building it up again from nothing. In total, 100 Facebook accounts for journalists in the Gaza Strip were cyber attacked by Israel in an identical way.
Some of the journalists present explained how they received threatening phone calls and text messages from unknown numbers to try to intimidate them to stop covering attacks by the Israeli army against civilians.
They pointed out that they needed to get to journalist conferences to share knowledge and experiences. To do their work properly that have to have freedom of movement.
They needed to challenge the bias of programs like the BBC A day in Gaza. At present they are not able to.
Everyone agreed that further such conference calls would be very useful.
One journalist explained the frustration of being in his thirties and being unemployed as a result of the Israeli blockade. However, this doesn’t stop journalists from rushing to places were Israeli attacks are happening.
The Palestinian journalists present; asked the British journalists to work on a plan to create a mechanism by which they, the British journalists, become their voice among the British people. The British journalists promised to do their best to try to pass the message to as many journalists as possible within the NUJ.
It was agreed that this meeting was the start of cooperation between journalists in Palestine and Britain. Campaigning work should start to organise a tour in Britain to repeat similar meeting format with audience from the media and the public.
It was also agreed that Sheffield PSC and the South Yorkshire branch of NUJ will try their best to help with supporting small projects like short videos made by the Palestinian journalists to counter bias Western media reporting such as the BBC programme “A day in Gaza “ and others.
Small Park Big Run
Small Park Big Run
At the end of the Small Park Big Run, some of the runners posed behind the huge Palestinian flag (on their way to tea and cake.). One runner was given a special welcome, Becky had walked the whole 24 hours!!. After the run there was a telephone greeting with co runners in Palestine. A special moment was shared when Palestinians in Gaza wished their friend and comrade Graham well. His health has prevented his running. At the end of the run there was a fun run/walk open to all. Naturally the kids set it off. We were very pleased to have Sheffield Lord Mayor, Tony Downing, attend and start the fun run.
HSBC Protest
On Saturday 1st June we protested outside HSBC on Fargate. HSBC ptofits from the arms industry. Specifically it profits from arming Israel. A presence on the street enables us to talk to members of the public and explain the nature of the oppression of Palestinians, and the British Government’s support for Israel. Join us the first Saturday of each month.
BDS and Justice for the Palestinians
I signed up for Future Learn. They run a huge collection of on-line courses on a vast section of subjects from different Universities. I thoroughly recommend them.
I believe that people learn from people they disagree with. (On the grounds that it if two people agree, there will not be much learning going on.)
I signed up to an on-line course on Anti-Semitism at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Centre. I believe that the holocaust was an incredibly evil act. The process by which an advanced first world country can be organised for the industrial slaughter of six million Jews should never be forgotten and never be repeated. (The process is, I believe, at the start of being repeated today, with a new target, Muslims.)
However, the course is irredeemably Zionist. That is, the course ceased to be educational and flipped over to propaganda. I only want to talk about one example.
Here is a video on Boycott Sanctions and Disinvestment, BDS. The description promises us – What is the BDS movement, what are its goals and what characterizes its activity?
We are given bland material about Boycotts and South Africa, and that choosing a Spanish orange rather than an Israeli one is not anti-Semitic. We are told that the aims of BDS are deliberately kept vague, in order to bring in a wide variety of people. This is not true. Then we are told that behind the nonviolent campaign of BDS is a global invitation to mass violence. No individual, or organisation is quoted as supporting any violence let alone mass violence.
The key questions are “who called for BDS?” and “What are their demands?” The presenters both have PhDs. It took me about 5 seconds to look up BDS on Google and find the answers. So why would academics with honed research skills not look it up? I cannot believe that they do not know. That is when they moved from objective academics to pro-Israel propagandists. So what do they want to hide?
- The BDS movement was launched by 170 Palestinian unions, political parties, refugee networks, women’s organisations, professional associations, popular resistance committees and other Palestinian civil society bodies in 2005.
- There are three demands
A Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
B Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality
C Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194
The demand comes from a people who have lived under Israeli oppression for 71 years. Palestinians do not like the occupation, the Apartheid Laws, the kidnappings, the daily humiliations let alone water and land thefts.
These academic spokespeople for the oppressor refuse to even accept that the oppressed have made demands. They refuse to discuss those demands.
It is much easier for them to attack people who answer the call for solidarity with the smear of anti-Semitism than discuss why Palestinians are oppressed and how we can end it. It is clear to me that we need to build BDS till Israel starts to listen. <
Rally – 71 years since Naqba
On Saturday 18th of May there was a rally outside Sheffield townhall to commemorate 71 years since the Naqba.