HP knowingly provides technology that enables Israel’s denial of freedom of movement for Palestinians living under its occupation regime — from checkpoints to illegal settlements to prisons to the devastating blockade of 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The BDS movement is poised to send a powerful message to HP with more than 90 actions planned worldwide during this Week of Action.
In Sheffield today a great rally outside John Lewis and singing from the Sheffield socialist choir
Sheffield’s cinema Palestino film season has been a fixture for 8 years now. This year we are showing 3000 Nights, an award winning film set in a Israeli women’s prison contratsing the britality of her treatment with the care given to new life and community
We are also showing a documentary by Hind Shoufani about her father, Elias Shoufani, academic, activist and exile. Winner of Best Non-European Documentary at the European Independent Film Festival, Paris this film is a personal, poetic and political archive and interview journey to discover family history.
More about these films is here;
About 80 people were at this very enjoyable meal. Jews, Christians, and Muslims and others enjoyed the dancing of Shahd Abu Salama and the fantastic music. In these dark times it is inspirational that people can come together in solidarity to raise money for children’s charities in Gaza. We have just sent moneys to Gaza so our coffers are bare.
Shahd Abu Salama was a young girl when she was first here in 2005 so it was delightful to see how she has grown into a such strong confidant singer and speaker. More pictures are here
Calendars are £5 to individuals and £3 to branches. P&P is £1/calendar.
To buy a calendar:
we will have them on sale at all our events or
if you are ordering on behalf of a branch please fill in this form (pdf) or this one (Word format) and send with a cheque to Sheffield PSC, 118 Upperthorpe, S6 3NF
If you are an indivudal please complete this form (pdf) or this form (in Word format) with a cheque to Sheffield PSC, 118 Upperthorpe, S6 3NF
One of our members, Caroline Poland walked from Land’s End to John o Groats to raise money and spread awareness of the oppression of Palestinians. Some forty people joined her for parts of the walk. In this country people struggled to get access to our beautiful countryside. In Palestine movement is severely restricted by the Israeli Army. The calendar shows the contrast.
Watch out for it at vigils and meetings.
Two years ago, Sheffield PSC and others lobbied the council vigorously, concerned that the council persisted in purchasing good and services from organisations complicit in the occupation and denial of basic human rights to Palestinians
As a result, Sheffield City Council voted unanimously to adopt an Ethical Procurement policy. Such a policy tries to ensure that the best, most trustworthy companies are used to provide local services.
But, after two years, Sheffield still does not have an Ethical Procurement Policy.
Please add your name to this petition saying two years is long enough to carry out what the Council voted to do.
[emailpetition id=”2″]
About thirty people joined our Saturday Vigil on 29th October. We were pointing out how Palestinian farmers were being oppressed by Israel. There is land theft, water theft, olive trees uprooted and much else in the Israeli imposed Apartheid state.
There was very little hostility in spite of a wave of right wing propaganda falsely claiming that we are anti Semitic. We oppose the Government of Israel and its supporters for the imposition of an Apartheid state. These words are not just terms of abuse they are the simple honest assessment of facts on the ground.
The Home Affairs Committee has just produced a report into Anti-Semitism. There is a huge amount of confusion about the subject. This report does not help. National PSC has given a reply here.
I want to take up just one point.
Under conclusions and recommendations (page 50) there is this sentence ‘The word Zionist or worse Zio as a term of abuse however has no place in civilised society.’
The practice of Zionism as implemented by successive Israeli Governments includes the following
1. Ethnic cleansing of about 700,000 Palestinians in 1948.
2. Systematic land theft in Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1967.
3. Theft of water from Palestinian lands.
4. A systematic illegal house building program for Israelis on stolen land.
5. The blockade of Gaza, the destruction of its economy and periodic devastating attacks.
6. A systematic system of barriers in the West Bank that make travel for Palestinians very difficult.
7. The establishment of an Apartheid regime in the area that Israel controls.
Let me expand on the last one. There are roads that Palestinians are not allowed to drive on. There are areas that Palestinians are not allowed to live. There is a separate system of law for Palestinians.
Three fourteen year olds who came to dance in Sheffield have been arrested. We think it is for throwing stones. They will be charged in a military court. In the unlikely event that an Israeli was charged for the same act, (s)he would be tried in a civilian court.
There is a set of clauses from the UN that define what is Apartheid. The clauses of freedom of movement alone shows Israel is imposing an Apartheid state.
Desmond Tutu said “I am especially urging the Assembly to adopt the overture naming Israel as an apartheid state through its domestic policies and maintenance of the occupation [of Palestinian lands]….”
“In the situation that exists today, until a Palestinian state is created, we are actually one state. This joint state — in the hope that the status quo is temporary — is an apartheid state,” Alon Liel Ex Israeli Ambassador to South Africa
We in the Palestine Solidarity Campaign oppose all racism. The claim of the Israeli Government that it represents all Jews, and that it acts in the interests of all Jews is manifestly untrue, deeply offensive and breeds anti-Semitism. Jews are not responsible for Apartheid Israel. Probably the most important figure in the establishment of Israel was the Anti-Semitic Balfour. He introduced the Aliens Act of 1905 to prevent Jewish refugees from coming to Britain.
I regard the practice of Zionism in creating Israeli Apartheid deeply offensive. How do I use the word in a non abusive way?
The Tory Party supported South African Apartheid till very late.
It would be very nice if it did not wait as long to oppose Israeli Apartheid.
On 9th July this summer, over a hundred people saw at Sheffield’s Broomhall Centre a performance by 20 Palestinian teenagers, from Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.
The previous day, Sheffield’s Deputy Mayor had welcomed the group, the Lajee Dance Troupe, at the Town Hall. On Wednesday, 
October 5th, three of the 14-year- old dancers, Mustafa Bdair, Mutaz Barakah and Omar Radi were arrested by masked Israeli soldiers.
Attacks by the Israeli army on the Lajee centre have escalated since Celtic football fans raised over £170,000 divided between Medical Aid for Palestine and the Lajee Centre in Aida Camp.
These night raids by Israeli soldiers fit into a pattern of reprisals that have followed international gestures of solidarity with the Centre under an Israeli military occupation that the UK and other governments consider to be illegal.
Israeli soldiers attacked the Lajee Centre with teargas and rubber bullets on 19 Sept while the children were inside. The following night they forced open the gate of the centre, threw teargas grenades inside and closed the gate, trapping the children inside, forcing them to inhale toxic teargas.
Mutaz, Mustafa and Omar have been released on bail but will be tried by an Israeli military court where defendants are routinely found guilty.
In total, 440 children under 18 are currently held in military detention almost two-and- half times the number imprisoned a year ago. According to the Defense for Children International–Palestine (DCIP), no other country in the world systematically prosecutes hundreds of children in military courts each year.
Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign are urging Sheffield MPs to call on the Foreign Office to condemn the Israeli government’s campaign of intimidation against the Lajee Centre and to press for the dropping of the charges against the teenagers.
