The Israelis want to celebrate Britain giving away someone else’s land. We want to demand justice for the Palestinians. Telephone 07415251055 for ticket. 8 am Paternoster Row Saturday 4th November
The Israelis want to celebrate Britain giving away someone else’s land. We want to demand justice for the Palestinians. Telephone 07415251055 for ticket. 8 am Paternoster Row Saturday 4th November
The Appeal Launch of the Khuza’a Gaza Trauma Centre
7 PM Wednesday 18 October – Sheffield Town Hall – First Floor
Hosted by the mayor of Sheffield- Councillor Anne Murphy
Sheffield PSC are putting on a number of events around Balfour this year as will other organisations, offering a range of perspectives. Please see below for details.
David Cronin is a contributing editor with The Electronic Intifada, a website focused on Palestine.
His new book is Balfour’s Shadow: A Century of British Support for Zionism and Israel is out now and he is engaged in a tour to speak about how Britain has gone from giving declaratory backing to the Zionist movement to becoming actively complicit in Israel’s crimes.
Please come and join this discussion to open out the Balfour season in Sheffield.
Location: Quaker Meeting House, St.James. Sheffield
Time: 7.30pm
Chai for All, the Bristol based jazz-tinged klezmer and Middle Eastern music ensemble will be bringing their new work, Longing, Belonging & Balfour to Sheffield on the Saturday 23rd September for a 7:30 pm performance at the Sheffield Library Theatre, Tudor Square. This is new musical perspective on the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the letter which can be said to have set in train the facts on the ground in today’s occupied Palestine
Chai for All will be joined by virtuoso clarinetist and kaval (Bulgarian flute) player Katie Stevens, renowned storyteller Michael Loader, British-Israeli platinum record producer Mark Smulian and the voice of Palestinian poet Alissar Amali – melding klezmer Arabic and other idioms together in music composed and arranged by German-born Knud Stuwe.
There will be a post-show panel discussion to explore the various perspectives on the Balfour Declaration and give an opportunity for audience members to share their personal stories evoked by the performance.
Full booking details for the show are available on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/longing-belonging-and-balfour- tickets-36222883620
In the first of a series of events to understand the impact (and certainly not celebrate) the Balfour declaration, Sheffield PSC are partnering with Kairos Sheffield, to welcome Robert Cohen who offers an anti-Zionist but religious Jewish perspective. Mr Cohen is an engaging and provocative speaker and blogger and well worth coming to see.
He will be speaking at the Quaker Meeting House on October 23rd from 7.30pm. Full details here
Wed 20th September 7.30 Quaker Meeting House, 10, St James Street, Sheffield S1 2EW
As part of our continuing campaign to highlight complicity from major corporations with the Irsaeli arms industry we will be assembling outside HSBC on Fargate, Sheffield city centre.
We are calling on them to end its support for the Israeli Arms industry.
Elbit 5 court case.
The Hearing on August 23rd was a travesty.
The CPS complained that the police had not spoken to them about the charges they had decided on and the CPS were not ready to proceed and might be considering another charge. They had given the defence no notice about this.
The case was therefore adjourned until 13th September to allow the CPS to sort itself out, but with no pressure on them to do anything other than to tell the defence ‘before the hearing’ what they planned to do. This means they can leave it until 7.30 a.m. on the day of the hearing, giving the solicitor no time to discuss things with the 5 people charged. the magistrates were completely uninterested in putting any pressure on the CPS to make a decision in good time.
So: another court hearing on Wednesday 13th Sept at Cannock magistrates court.
Cyclists in Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Sheffield and elsewhere are getting ready for the Big ride for Palestine from Liverpool to Sheffield. You can cycle all the way from Liverpool, join the ride in Meadowhall (Barrow Road 4pm Sunday 6th August) or Join Lord Mayor and Louise Haigh MP to welcome the riders into Sheffield 5pm Sunday 6th August Sheffield town hall steps.
How do we persuade people to support BDS? We point out the ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Palestinians in 1948. We point out the systematic theft of Palestinian land in 1967 to today with a further 25,000 new illegal dwellings in occupied East Jerusalem, announced in June. We point out the theft of water in the West Bank and possibly the most serious is the establishment of an Apartheid state in the West Bank. Finally we point out that the people who are oppressed by Israel, the Palestinians, via their organisations have asked us to do something non-violent to enable them to get basic human rights.
We rightly expect scrutiny of what we claim. The most controversial is that Israel has established an apartheid state. Are there separate roads for Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank? Are there separate schools? Are there separate law enforcement systems for Palestinians and Israelis? Are there separate residential areas? As a matter of observable fact the answers to all these are yes. These are sufficient for the system to be designated Apartheid. Many of us opposed the South African Apartheid, as racist and oppressive, and see the same with Israeli Apartheid.
We meet opposition. Douglas Murray is associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society. (Last Wednesday, 5th July, the BBC Today program called it a “highly respected” think tank, I beg to differ.) The objectors raise three strategies. The first is insult/slander.
“There are a lot of Nazi caparisons being thrown around these days. Where might they be most accurately directed? Toward the State of Israel? Or against the growing number of people who believe that it is permissible to boycott any herb, any product or indeed any tune if it comes from the hand or the heart of a Jew?”
I know of no individual or organisation that proposes a boycott of Jewish products. The nasty piece of misinformation slanders us, and if taken seriously, spreads fear within the Jewish community. It is pollution in the arena of public debate.
Secondly there is “Israel is wonderful” approach. This is Douglas Murray again. “How can a man as brilliant as Hawking boycott Israel when it makes the microchip that enables him to talk?” This is called a non sequitur. Israel has created some wonderful products therefore it can create an Apartheid state, really?
Finally there is the “other places are worse” here and here.
Can a burglar say let me go because there is a murderer free? Or can a murderer say “Ah but I only killed one person. Why pick on me when Assad/Bush/ Blair killed tens or even hundreds of thousands?” Of course not.
Douglas Murray believes the solution is a Palestinian state beside Israel with only some of the illegal settlements being removed. Why on earth would Israel accept even this miserable compromise? It is taking chunks of Palestinian land because it has the military power to do so. It is robing Palestine of its natural capital, Jerusalem, by systematic building of Israeli estates because it has the power to do so. It ignores the ICJ ruling on the illegality of the Apartheid wall because it has the power to do so. Israel can do these things while ever it has Western Governmental support and cheerleaders like Douglas Murray. He makes me think of a man on the flying Scotsman who professes to want to go to London, while heaping coal into the boiler of the Edinburgh bound train.
Israel has created an Apartheid state. It robs Palestinians of land, water and freedom of movement. Israeli Apartheid is not the only bad thing in the world. But it is one that anti-racists, anti-Apartheid activists, and people who want dignity for everyone should campaign against. Join us.
Lord Mayor Anne Murphy started the Small Park Big Run Saturday 10th June at 12 noon.
It took place Meersbrook Park and continued through the night.
More Pictures are here.
On Saturday 20th May there was a strong protest
We were joined by the Sheffield Samba Band. They helped draw an interested crowd.