Last year the Co-opertaive Bank closed Sheffield PSC Bank account and the Scholarship Fund account.
On Saturday, Sheffield PSC supporters make sure that they cannot simply brush this under the carpet and have it forgotten.
Co-opertiave Bank protest
Scholarship Fund has new bank account
The Scholarship Fund has a new account as of this week – just in time before the Co-Operative Bank closed down our account.
We have opened an account with Yorkshire Building Society, They have a special ‘registered charities account’ which pays a small amount of interest. So that will only add to the amazing contributions you send to us.
These are the details of our new account:
Name: Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund
Bank: Yorkshire Building Society, Yorkshire House, Leopold Street, Sheffield S1 1RQ
Sort Code: 60 92 04
Account number: 98676538
Reference: 07
In solidarity
Sara Gowen
Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund
Blog on Syria
The core belief of Palestine Solidarity campaign is anti racism. We hate the fact that Palestinians are denied basic rights because of their ethnicity and religion.
Everyone in SPSC opposes the oppression and murder of Kurds, Yazidis, Moslems, Christians, Jews and Parisians, by ISIS. The question is, will the bombing of Syria by Britain help defeat them?
What are the lessons from the Iraq war?
The JIC [Joint Intelligence Committee] assessed that al-Qaeda and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest terrorist threat to western interests, and that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq[i].
A report from the Ministry of Defence stated
“The war in Iraq … has acted as a recruiting sergeant for extremists across the Muslim world … Iraq has served to radicalise an already disillusioned youth and al-Qaida has given them the will, intent, purpose and ideology to act.”[ii]
Spy Chief Eliza Manningham-Buller stated
The Iraq war ” increased the terrorist threat by convincing more people that Osama Bin Laden’s claim that Islam was under attack was correct.”[iii]
There was a statement by the UK think tank Chatham House reported “It [Iraq War] gave a boost to the al-Qaeda network’s propaganda, recruitment and fundraising”. This and many more references can be found here.[iv]
Some may claim that perhaps Cameron was ignorant of these conclusions. It is hard to claim that he was not aware of a joint statement by France, Turkey, the United States, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Britain which expressed concern that Russia’s actions would “only fuel more extremism and radicalisation”[v]. That was in October.
According to the BBC a man wielding a knife attacked three people at a tube station yesterday (5th December) shouting ‘this is for Syria’. The police have called it an act of terrorism.
Four things come out of such acts. First is the tragedy for the innocent victims. Secondly fear grows that any of us could be next, it makes all our lives a little sadder. Third, the Government’s line that Moslems tolerate ideas that lead to terrorism will appear vindicated. There will be more attacks on Moslems. Fourth the various repressive arms of the state will descend even more on the Moslem community.
Nothing good comes of these mad acts, but the war mongers in the West helped him go mad.
What has this to do with Palestine Solidarity Campaign? Under the ‘Prevent’ strategy children who wear PSC badges have been told that this could be extremist. Cameron told MP’s that they should not join Corbyn and ‘a bunch of terrorist sympathisers’.
The Telegraph reported that PSC ‘has had its accounts closed down over fears that it may be inadvertently funding terrorism’.
In Sheffield, we who raise funds for modest projects, a children’s ball pool, a mobile library, and scholarships for women in Gaza are having our accounts closed under accusations of terrorist sympathies, while a factory that makes drones for use in killing people in Gaza is modern business.
We are in a battle of ideas. We can sit back under a sea of abuse of terrorist sympathies and Islamophobia or we can campaign.
The Tory agenda is three fold – move money towards repression (and targeting the Moslem community) bombing Syria so they can be at the Imperial carve up at the end of hostilities, and using the clouds of war, hope to get away with more cuts in welfare.
I think we should oppose all three.
Right to roam 2016
Why not join us in the right to roam walk in 2016?
We are raising funds for:
Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund and Children’s Projects in Gaza
We will be starting this leg on April 25th 2016 where we finished last year, at Morvich; and we will be arriving at the end of our Right2Roam Walk, at John-o-Groats, on Saturday 21 May. The full itinerary is here.
Solidarity & fund raising walks along the R2R route (e.g. Bristol & Edale) are being organised for the final day
As in previous years, there will also be a solidarity walk in Gaza, also the same day: we will all be with the people of Palestine in spirit even though they are unable to be with us.
Elbit charges dropped!
The charges against those protesters at Elbit have now been dropped by the prosecution and they do not have to go to court next week.
This is all charges dropped, including the 2 people charged with assault.
While it would have been good to get Elbit in the witness box in front of a jury, realistically that was never going to happen.
Congratulations though to all involved and those who have shown such great support !
Meanwhile – the campaign against Elbit goes on and this is the second collapse of the factory’s attempts to stop us protesting against them.
Let’s get that factory closed down!
Protest against co-op closure of the Palestine solidarity accounts
As many as thirty protesters gathered outside the Co-Operative Bank on Pinstone Street in Sheffield today to protest against their politically inspired action to close solidarity accounts.
Ranging from campaigning account of the Sheffield PSC to donation funds such as the Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund, the claim has been that funds will go to ‘terrorist organisations’ as this is a conflict zone. No mention made of funds going to Israel which is also in the conflict zone.
Closing your co-op account
Co-op banks ‘ethical’ reputation in tatters- ACT Now
Many of us have banked with the Co-op for years. We do so not because of their financial wizardry, but because of their reputation as an “ethical bank”. We need to think again.
Over recent weeks, the Co-op has decided to close accounts connected with Palestine.
In Sheffield, the PSC account, the Yorkshire Palestine Cultural Exchange account and the Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund (a Registered Charity) have all been given notice of closure.
Across the country, twenty accounts belonging to groups which support the Palestinian cause are to be closed, including national PSC. PSC’s legal challenge to the Co-op is in the pipeline.
The Co-op has decided to define accounts which support legitimate, morally valid work for justice as incompatible with their “risk appetite”. There is more than one kind of risk for a bank. What if all of us who currently bank with Co-op decide that their business is incompatible with our “ethical appetite”?
The Scholarship Fund have issued this press release
BBC claims Israel under attack (again)
As a lifelong student of mathematics, I take an interest in the use and misuse of bar charts. I found one under a headline
‘Is Palestinian-Israeli violence being driven by social media?’
There is the usual veneer of objectivity
‘Both Israel and the Palestinian authorities have accused one another of doing nothing to protect each other’s communities.’
Later comes the bar chart.
The fact that there are over 50 Palestinian dead is of course downplayed. By any measure of objectivity there should be corresponding figures of Palestinians attacked or killed by Israel. After three seconds of research I found this on Wiki.
Last year’s figures of 2,205 (UNOCHA) Palestinian and 71 Israeli dead have not been added yet, so you need to add a huge spike for last year.
Anyone killed leaves a network of friends, workmates, and relatives sad and wanting vengeance.
But the BBC’s constant portrayal of Israel as defenceless victim of Palestinian violence is a gross misrepresentation of reality.
PS
My last complaint drew the reply below.
This is my reply to that.
The evidence is that the BBC has a systematic bias towards Israel.
I spend time and effort showing that the BBC considers the landing of a rocket in an open field in Southern Israel much more important than the deaths of six protesters.
The headline and the first two sentences paint a false picture that Israel is under attack.
Only after this comes the Palestinian deaths.
I asked for a reason for downplaying of Palestinian deaths and the highlighting of a rocket landing in an empty field.
Instead I received a bland statement that the BBC tries to be impartial.
You are failing. When you choose to have a bar chart showing “Stabbing attacks on Israelis by Palestinians” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34513693
you are surely obliged to have one “Military attacks by Israel on Palestinians”.
I could not find it.
Dear Dr Pitt Thank you for contacting us about the recent escalation in violence in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. We have received a wide range of feedback about our coverage of this subject across our television and radio programmes, and the BBC News website. In order to use our TV licence fee resources efficiently, this response aims to answer the key concerns raised in complaints received by us, but we apologise in advance if it doesn’t address your specific points in the manner you would prefer. We appreciate you believe our coverage of this story has shown bias in favour of Israel and against the Palestinians. In this response we hope to explain why we feel this has not been the case. Across our news bulletins and programmes we have reported on the increasing number of Palestinian deaths and casualties following the actions of Israeli security forces. We have broadcast reports where our reporters have spoken to the families of Israelis and Palestinians killed in the recent violence and have heard their respective stories and own specific takes on the conflict. We have reported on criticism of Israel’s response to the attacks, which has included the implementation of curfews in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and the destruction of homes of Palestinians Israel claims are connected to the attackers. We have tried to explain how the current situation has come to pass from the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. This has included reporting on the tensions around the holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem, the building of settlements and on the daily realities faced by Palestinians living under occupation. We have explored the apathy held by many Palestinians toward the impasse in reaching a lasting peace settlement, and on what many see as Israel’s unwillingness to end the occupation which would see the creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state. BBC News tries to report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an accurate and duly impartial manner. Sometimes this means we can’t always reflect the full extent of the complexities of the conflict during one standalone report or bulletin. We try to tell the story of the conflict as experienced by both sides, across programmes and bulletins and over time. We believe this has been the case during our coverage of this recent spike in violence. We have raised your concerns with senior editorial staff at BBC News, who consider the range of feedback received from our audience when deciding how they approach reporting on stories. Thanks again for taking the time to contact us. Kind Regards BBC Complaints www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
Vigil in solidarity with Palestinian people
In the face of increasing colonialist violence, Palestinians continue to resist the occupation and ethnic cleansing. Shallow reporting in the main press ignores the illegality of the occupation and portrays the conflict as one between people of equal strength and rights.
Abut 70 people from Sheffield and Rotherham gathered at Sheffield Town Hall today in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of this renewed onslaught.