After an excellent campaign by the Bradford group United 4 Palestine, with some help of members from the PSCNorth group of branches, Terry Rooney, MP for Bradford East has been unseated. Rooney, a Bradford MP for 19 years, was a member of Labour Friends of Israel despite the fact that his electorate is largely Muslim. When he realised that we were campaigning against him he started signing pro-Palestinian EDMs in a desperate attempt to save his skin. He initially agreed to attend the United 4 Palestine hustings, but in the end he sent an acolite to check the meeting (there ...
Israel’s Intimidation Tactics Won’t Stop Us: First Ship Sets Sail for Gaza!
http://www.freegaza.org/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
London – 14 May 2010 – At 22:45 local time tonight, the MV Rachel Corrie, a 1200-ton cargo ship, part of the eight-vessel Freedom Flotilla, set sail from Ireland on its way to the Mediterranean Sea. There, ships from Turkey and Greece will join her, then sail to Gaza.
This past week reports from Israel have indicated that the Israeli authorities will not allow the Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza with its cargo of much-needed reconstruction material, medical equipment, and school supplies. According to Israeli news sources, clear orders have been issued to prevent the ships from reaching Gaza, even if ...
Support
Gaza Demonstrators Support Campaign http://gazademosupport.org.uk
Hundreds of thousands of people across the world demonstrated against Israel’s war crimes. Motivated by images of violent death and destruction, and a desire to express solidarity with the people of Gaza, British adults and children spontaneously gathered at the Israeli Embassy in London on December 2008 and January 2009 to demand justice and protest their own complicity in the massacre.
The police did not facilitate justice. Instead, they took names, addresses and photographs of as many demonstrators as possible, including children. Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) were deployed on these demonstrations, and people were physically blocked in ...
Boycott Israeli Dates
Below information thanks to Friends of Al-Aqsa. Leeds PSC will actively promote the boycott of Israeli dates this year.
This Ramadhan, DON'T break your fast with Israeli Dates.
Ramadan is a time of year when we remember those who are less fortunate than ourselves. When we break our fasts with dates, it would be an affront to us all if these dates were the produce of Illegal Israeli settlements built on land stolen from Palestinians.
Israeli produced Medjoul dates are grown in the Jordan Valley within Illegal Israeli settlements. They form a large part of the agriculture from these settlements and they are ...
De-CRIMINALISING SOLIDARITY: “RACISM” CASE THROWN OUT
Legal attempt to stifle solidarity through boycott has failed
5 spsc activists were accused of "racism" after disrupting a concert by Israel's cultural ambassadors, the Jerusalem Quartet
Sheriff James Scott ruled the protest was “clearly directed at the State of Israel, the Israeli Army, and Israeli Army musicians”, and not targeted at “citizens of Israel” per se. “The procurator fiscal’s attempts to squeeze malice and ill will out of the agreed facts were rather strained”, he said.
“And if persons on a public march designed to protest against and publicise alleged crimes committed by a state and its army are afraid to ...
Stop the Jewish National Fund
Leeds PSC is working on "Stop the Jewish National Fund" campaign.
Essential Reading on Jewish National Fund
Scottish PSC: Electronic Book (e-book): "JNF: Colonizing Palestine Since 1901," Edited by Mortaza Sahibzada (With contributions from Ilan Pappe, Abe Hayeem, Ghada Karmi, Uri Davis, Susannah Tarbush, Sonja Karkar, Ben White, Rahela Mizrahi, Rob Williamson and John Gross)
Call for an international campaign to Stop the Jewish National Fund
http://stopthejnf.bdsmovement.net The Jewish National Fund (JNF)[1] was instrumental in the ethnic cleansing[2] of Palestine in the 1948 Nakba, and continues to play a central role in maintaining Israel's regime of apartheid.[3] The JNF provided political, financial and intelligence[4] support ...
Herald Scotland. A sheriff has ruled that criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism after Palestinian protesters disrupted a recital of the Jerusalem String Quartet in Edinburgh.
Prosecutors had claimed that the actions of five members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign were racially aggravated when they interrupted the performance.
They had cried out “they are Israeli army musicians ... end ge...
Indymedia Ireland
Dr David Landy of the IPSC welcomes the vote as a significant development
The international Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement today scored a major victory as Dublin City Council passed a resolution calling on the City Manager not to sign or renew any contracts with French multinational Veolia[1] – the operators of the LUAS who have also tendered for the Metro North p...
EI.
For the first time in US history, a peaceful protest was able to stop workers from unloading an Israeli cargo ship on Sunday, 20 June, in the San Francisco Bay area. From 5:30am until 7pm, social justice activists and labor union organizers blocked and picketed several entrances at the Port of Oakland, preventing two shifts of longshoremen with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to come to...
Leeds Student.
On Friday April 30, the freedom of this paper came under threat.
The freedom of speech, from ideology, from the establishment, and from mainstream media, has upheld Leeds Student throughout its 40-year history. It is a freedom that has allowed this paper to print interviews, articles and opinions that may not be liked, are sometimes disclaimed, and frequently bring fierce debate.
Jak Codd,...
Once Again the BBC Published a Zionist Press Release first and Asked Questions afterwards
(But this time they were found out by a video!)
On Friday 4th December a public meeting was held at the School of Oriental & African Studies in London with a number of speakers including Ronni Kassrills a Jewish ex-ANC-Cabinet Minister in South Africa and Bongani Masuku of the Congress of South African Trade Unions....
EI.
There is one video Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, must be regretting. The 10-minute segment was originally broadcast in Hebrew on Israel's Channel 10.
Its contents, however, threaten to gravely embarrass not only Netanyahu but also the US administration of Barack Obama.
The film was shot, apparently without Netanyahu's knowledge, nine years ago, when the government of Ariel Sharon had...
After an excellent campaign by the Bradford group United 4 Palestine, with some help of members from the PSCNorth group of branches, Terry Rooney, MP for Bradford East has been unseated. Rooney, a Bradford MP for 19 years, was a member of Labour Friends of Israel despite the fact that his electorate is largely Muslim. When he realised that we were campaigning against him he started signing pro-Palestinian EDMs in a...
EI.
Last New Year's Eve, Debbie Mardon did not celebrate with noise makers or confetti -- instead, she headed to Cairo's main square to participate in the Gaza Freedom March with her daughter Jenna Bitar, 18, and son Joel, 23.
Amid police violence aimed at protesters and Egyptian security forces blockading them inside their hotel, Debbie, 55, a native New Yorker, said that protesting in Cairo "was the scariest...
The Zionists are at it again! Two pro-Israeli letters have been published in the Yorkshire Evening Post regarding Johnny Rotten protest in Leeds few days ago.
ACT NOW, WRITE TO THE EDITOR
Reply by writing, email or ring the YEP.E-mail: eped@ypn.co.uk Tel: 0113 2388536 Write to:The Editor, Readers Letters, Yorkshire Evening Post, Wellington Street, Leeds. LS1 1RF.
REMEMBER: You must put your name address and phone number. It will not be published but the YEP needs to confirm you are not a Spoof.
Surely music, like sport, should be neutral when it comes to politics which is why I cannot understand the Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) for supporting boycotting the concert of John Lydon in Israel.
The PSC planned to demonstrate to support this boycott. This sort of behaviour goes to confirm why the Middle East is finding it so difficult to come to a peaceful solution.
The stage is for entertainment, not a political platform.
I personally put my hands together and applaud John Lydon for ignoring any outside pressure and just going on stage to play his music and support his fans.
About ten people from Scottish PSC and Friends of Al Aqsa turned out at the Glasgow O2 ABC yesterday evening (26th) to leaflet the audience arriving for the PIL/John Lydon gig. Despite hostility from a few, most took leaflets and many expressed support, including a BBC Radio Scotland presenter. Spare leaflets were put to good use decorating the tour bus.
Liverpool:
Liverpool Friends of Palestine picket of the PIL concert at the 02 academy featuring the Liverpool socialist singers.
John Lydon plans to play in Tel Aviv on August 31. Don’t cross an international picket line! More >
PSC groups protested outside of Leeds Academy to raise awareness amongst gig goers. There was a great turn out, heat is on him all over the UK now. Next stop Liverpool Saturday & Glasgow Sunday; Ask Johhny NOT to play in Israel 31/8 via sfs@johnlydon.com / (agent ) adam.cotton@outside-org.co.uk & info@pilofficial.com. Oh and do mention fellow musician pals have now seen the light http://www.haaretz.com/culture/u-k-musicians-leftfield-cancel-israel-show-due-to-production-problems-1.303713#article_comments
Israel depends on and has benefited greatly from the immense influence of Jewish elites in the west, particularly those who operate in lobbies such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC. These pressure groups give Israel unlimited support for its policies, even when they are in blatant violation of international law and flagrant defiance of moral and humanitarian values, such as when Israel attacked the Gaza aid flotilla. However, there is evidence of a shift in such “Israel, right or wrong” attitudes in recent years, with members of the Jewish Diaspora now feeling able to criticise the Jewish state. A notable feature of this shift is the emergence of a new American Jewish lobby called “J Street” and, to a lesser extent, its European sister, “J Call”.
While it is essential for readers to keep track of these changes for they constitute an effective component of the overall struggle for justice – attainment of the historical, legal and moral rights of the Palestinian people remains distant. More >
(The Lancet) In January, 2009, an 18-year-old man presented to the emergency department after suffering an attack with an incendiary shell. He had many painful patches of full-thickness burns, which were surrounded by sloughed tissue. His wounds covered 30% of his body surface area, and were distributed on both upper and lower limbs, and his right shoulder.
There were no signs of inhalation burns. After a clinical diagnosis of white phosphorus burns was made, the airway was secured, resuscitation fluid was initiated, and wounds were irrigated with diluted sodium bicarbonate solution before wet dressing.
1day after admission to the burns unit, white smoke was noticed emanating from the wounds, which now contained extensive necrotic tissue and had extended into the underlying tissue. More >
NABI SALAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) – Palestinian activists are being jailed, Israeli activists are under surveillance, and the Israeli military is increasingly targeting journalists who cover West Bank protests.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel issued a statement recently condemning what it sees as a change in the Israeli military’s policy in their treatment of journalists covering the growing number of West Bank protests against Israel’s wall, illegal settlements and land expropriation. More >
Haaretz.
Vice PM Shalom slams Palestinian terms for direct talks, AFP reports; Abbas expected to tell Arab League that indirect talks have not progressed enough to justify face-to-face negotiations.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has laid down “impossible” conditions for moving to direct peace talks, Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said on Wednesday, according to French news agency AFP. More >
David Cameron, the British prime minister, has urged Israel to lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip, describing the current state of the Palestinian enclave as a “prison camp”.
Speaking on Tuesday at a meeting of a Turkish business association in Ankara, Cameron said: “Let me be clear that the situaion in Gaza has to change … Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.”
Cameron, who also held talks with with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Turkish counterpart, defended his harsh description, saying that “even though some progress has been made we’re still in a situation where it’s very difficult to get in, it’s very difficult to get out…”
“We’ve long supported lifting the blockade of Gaza,” he said.
But the prime minister acknowledged Israel’s security concerns, pointing to rocket attacks from Gaza, run by Gaza rulers Hamas. More >
MONTREAL – The teacher’s union at Dawson College, Quebec’s largest CEGEP, recently voted in favour of the Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Quebec’s (FNEEQ) decision to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
While the Fédération represents teachers at 41 CEGEPs province-wide, the fact that Dawson supported it has many people smarting. Dawson happens to have a significant Jewish faculty and student body. Calls and emails by the Jewish Tribune to the Dawson union have gone unanswered.
In the spring issue of the Fédération’s newsletter, three pages were devoted to putting Israel in a bad light and to supporting the BDS movement – the worldwide campaign for boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel, its scholars and academics, products and those who invest in its burgeoning economy. More >
SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — The elected leader of Australian Jewry blasted his Christian counterpart over an “ill-considered” resolution asking churches to boycott goods produced by West Bank Jews.Executive Council of Australian Jewry President Robert Goot, in a letter last Friday to the National Council of Churches in Australia’s general secretary, the Rev. Tara Curlewis, said the resolution passed by Australia’s top ecumenical body “revived painful memories for Jews in Australia of earlier times in Europe when churches allowed themselves to be swept up in the tide of popular prejudices against the Jewish people.”
• State playing with fire, says member of Knesset
• Zoabi cites anti-democracy bills as ‘undermining’
Israel could ignite a third intifada if it continues to push its 1.2 million Arab citizens into a corner, claims Haneen Zoabi, the Arab member of the Knesset vilified for joining the Gaza aid flotilla.
The Shin Bet summonses for questioning which Israel Defense Forces soldiers serve Palestinians will be written in Arabic in addition to Hebrew from now on. The development stems from orders handed down by the IDF’s West Bank division commander, Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon. More >
Every June, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) releases its Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights. According to a press release that accompanied the 2010 publication (which reports on events in 2009), “the Middle East remains among the regions of the world where union rights are least protected.” The report describes repression meted out to Palestinian workers and trade unionists by both the Israeli authorities and the Palestinian factions. But ITUC’s omissions and brevity both disguise the complexity of life for Palestinian workers, and reveal some of the union confederation’s own biases. More >
ACTION ALERT: The Government has announced that it is to press ahead with changing the law on universal jurisdiction
The proposed change would make it harder to issue arrest warrants against war criminals, meaning the likes of Tzipi Livni (Israel’s foreign minister during Operation Cast Lead) and Ehud Barak (Israel’s defence minister) could enter the UK freely without fear of arrest.
This would seriously hamper the work of human rights lawyers in this country who are attempting to bring these war criminals to justice, and would deny the Palestinians yet another chance at justice.
Between September and December 2009, lawyers issued arrest warrants against three Israeli ministers who were planning to visit Britain. Two of them – Livni and Moshe Ya’alon – cancelled their visits as a result. The third – Barak – had his status upgraded by the then Labour government, so that he could attend the Labour Party Conference in Brighton.
If the Government’s plans become law, warrants such as these will become much harder to serve.
Write to your MP now and ask him or her to sign Early Day Motion 108, which opposes any attempts to change the law on universal jurisdiction.
It’s essential that you contact your MP before Monday 26th July, when Parliament breaks for the summer.
Viva Palestina 5: A lifeline to Gaza – registration now open
The terrible massacre aboard the Mavi Marmara has brought a sea change in international opinion against the inhumane siege on the Palestinians of Gaza andPSC are once again working in partnership with Viva Palestina to organise the largest ever attempt to break – and end – the siege. More >
Constant power cuts in the Gaza Strip has left hospital patients relying on electricity generators that produce ten minutes worth of electricity every now and again.
Hospital units have had to manage surgery and emergency aid in dire conditions. Patients on dialysis are also suffering from lack of electricity meaning they are unable to have regular dialysis sessions. More >
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ACTION ALERT: The Government has announced that it is to press ahead with changing the law on universal jurisdiction
The terrible massacre aboard the Mavi Marmara has brought a sea change in international opinion against the inhumane siege on the Palestinians of Gaza and PSC are once again working in partnership with Viva Palestina to organise the largest ever attempt to break – and end – the siege. 
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