Join us at the amphitheatre behind Sheffield station on 23rd for a massive displays of flags to show solidarity with Palestine.
This is a South Yorkshire wide rally and march to the City Hall where we will have speakers from Sheffield PSC and other SY and Derbyshire groups.
Large flags (bring your own poles to raise them high) & medium flags available on the day: special event price £3/donation. Small flags free for children.
Join us please for two solidarity events this weekend. with people forced to starvation in the North of Gaza and the constant threat of a land force invasion of Rafah we must continue to stand with Palestinian people.
In particular the boycott action at Waitrose is essential. They have taken a commercialist position without morals. They seem to be happy to be complicit with a genocide we are witnessing today.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
As we have reported elsewhere the council has tried to duck any action and responsibility for setting a moral climate in this city by referring the petition signed by 7500 people to the Strategy and Resources Committee.
We are sending three questions to Strategy and Resources Committee March 12th 2024:
As we understand it, Strategy and Resources is the committee charged with debating matters of “significant strategic importance” and for considering “any policy matter not otherwise allocated to a committee.”
In the light of this, we note that the drafting of a statement of unity and solidarity, agreed in full Council on March 6th, has not been referred to a committee per se, but to a “cross-party group”. Our questions relate to that group.
Matters pertaining to the composition of the group:
In a previous cross-party group of three, a decision was taken by two of the three members to fly the Israeli flag on October 10th 2023. Other West Yorkshire Councils chose to fly the peace flag, so discretion was an option.
Does this committee agree that those utterances suggest a lack of understanding of:
Can we assure petitioners that the composition of the cross-party group will be made up of members who:
At the full Council meeting on March 6th , the petition signed by some 7,500 people was discussed. After some intense and revealing debate, it was decided to refer the petition to this committee. Petitioners expressed strong concerns about further delays to the Council’s response to this important petition. They had no option but to
contrast the numerous supportive measures, offered without let or hindrance by the Council, to the Ukrainian people, clearly demonstrated on the city Council’s website.
Unnecessary delays will exacerbate concerns about what is seen as the Council’s selective morality when it comes to some sorely oppressed people, in contrast to others, like Ukrainians.
Community cohesion, often referred to as a priority by Council leadership, cannot be achieved by failure to oppose genocide, apartheid or by flagrant double standards on whose lives we value.
This committee now has the weighty responsibility of discussing further the petition. Our questions today require urgent answers which must then be communicated to the large number of petitioners.
I note that this committee is today considering a report recommending a new flag protocol, and that the report contains a number of days which will be marked by specific flags being flown each year. I note the absence from that list of the United Nations Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, marked on November 29th each year.
General Assembly resolution 32/40B, passed in December 1977, introduced the day of solidarity, and the UN has marked the day ever since. The UN resolution also encourages Member states to continue to give the widest support and publicity to the observance of the day of solidarity.
Some of you may not be aware that Sheffield City council flew the Palestinian flag on 29th November each year between 1995 and 2000 but has failed to do so since then.
Recently the leader of the Council has reaffirmed that the Council recognises the State of Palestine. If this is to mean anything at all, it is surely time for the Council to commit to fly the Palestinian flag each November 29th. Will this committee agree to do so?
Yesterday we presented the petition signed by at least 7500 people both online and on paper, but the council at the behest of leaders and advice of senior officers, hid behind procedural barriers to avoid having to face the strength of support on this issue and delegated the issue to the Strategy and Resources Committee.
Below is the press release issued by Sheffield Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid as a result of this cowardly approach.
Here are questions being sent by the Coalition to the Strategy and Resources Committee.
PRESS RELEASE: Sheffield City Council sells itself short
Sheffield City Council was presented with a petition this afternoon calling on them to stand in unity and solidarity with Palestinians currently faced with a genocidal assault in Gaza following years of living under occupation by Israel which Amnesty International, among several international organisations, has designated an apartheid state.
“Supporting the International Court of Justice ruling on genocide, accepting Amnesty’s designation of Israel as practising apartheid, and issuing a statement of unity and solidarity with Palestinians is the next crucial moral step which recognises the reality of life in Palestine and the legally incontrovertible explanations for it. That would be a major step.” Annie O’Gara summing up in support of the petition.
The petition was signed by over 7,500 people, collected in less than two weeks; it represents the overwhelming view of Sheffield citizens
Offered this opportunity, the Council neglected their duty to set a moral climate, hiding behind narrow legalistic “advice” which they couldn’t adequately explain. But even this advice would have allowed them to make a decision in “exceptional” circumstances. What more “exceptional circumstances” do they need than genocide in Gaza?
As Jonny Feldman said in presenting the petition “For these reasons the council must step up and not be silent. Do not betray your humanity, your basic decency by looking the other way or by kow-towing to external pressures and then pretending that what is happening is justifiable”.
That is precisely what the leadership of the Council then did. Every speech from the floor of the Council gave moving and powerful support to the petition and in favour of accepting it. As Councillor Peter Price said, in his last meeting after 53 years as a Councillor, said: “if this was Russia we’d be screaming the room down…. I don’t accept that we don’t have influence. Our history is built on this Council taking leads, whether it’s on apartheid or Vietnam, always took a stance and made a statement. It doesn’t change the world but it helped to change minds”.
But the leaders, the Lord Mayor, and senior officers of the Council called an adjournment and then instructed all Councillors, except the Greens, to kick the discussion into the long grass by referring it to the Strategy and Resources Committee that next meets in June! How many more Palestinians have to die before they can decide that this is genocide?
“At the end of their joint statement on Ukraine, the 3 party leaders said the Town Hall would be lit in Ukrainian colours and promised Sheffield will do all it can to “be a light in the darkness.” How dark does life for Palestinians have to get before you do the same for Palestine? You can do it today” said Annie O’Gara speaking to the Council today.
Following on from our other justice now camps, there will be camp a further Peace and Justice Now Camp in order to celebrate International Women’s Day to stand in solidarity with Palestinian Women.
Please join us :
Sheffield Peace Gardens on Friday 8th March between 3pm and 8pm
Please circulate these flyers
For the last 10 years the University of Sheffield has offered an annual taught postgraduate scholarship to a student from Gaza. Since 2013, the University has offered tuition, accommodation and a small maintenance grant.
Despite this legacy, the University has not made any public statements about the welfare and wellbeing of any current or past Gazan students.
As a result of this, on the 7th February 2024, a group of 27 Students Union sabbatical officers – who are elected to represent students – published an open letter to the University’s senior leadership sharing their profound concern and dismay due to the absence of a public statement or evident action to support Palestinians who have graduated from, or are studying at the University.
The University of Sheffield has not replied to this request despite the continuing Israeli attacks on every university in Gaza, and the killing of over 80 professors and academics.
The University must support its students and alumni, and respond to the open letter.
If you are or have been part of the University of Sheffield, please email their alumni department using our template letter.
Despite providing an annual scholarship to a student from Gaza since 2013, the University had been silent – it has not responded to the open letter sent in Feb ‘24 by over 25 former and current Student Union Sabbatical Officers, who requested confirmation of the support available for Palestinian students and alumni.
Insist that the University make: a public statement on its support for Gazan students and alumni!
https://scholarsagainsthewar.org
https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6108
https://palestine.un.org/en/258658-un-agencies-end-conflict-imperative-return-learning-palestine
Do you live, work or study in Sheffield? If so, please read, sign and circulate this petition today – we must reach our target of 5,000 signatures in a fortnight!
The people of Gaza have been under barbaric genocidal attacks for weeks. Over 30,000 people have been killed – 11,000 of them are children. Yet still there is no ceasefire.
In the West Bank, Palestinians continue to to be forcibly removed from their homes and face daily threats from settlers and the military. Over 7,000 Palestinians are detained in Israeli jails, without charge or trial.
It’s time for Sheffield City Council to show leadership once more. We call on Sheffield City Council to declare our city an Israeli Apartheid-free zone and to issue a statement of solidarity with Palestinian people.
Zechariah Deutsch, an Associate Chaplain at the University of Sheffield and several other universities travelled to Israel to serve as an IDF reservist.
Deutsch sent a video to students stating that “what Israel is trying to do is destroy the evil”. He is an active participant in Israel’s merciless campaign of occupation, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
We charge him with genocide! He has the blood of Palestinians on his hands!
Deutsch has now returned to the UK, and is visiting the universities he is associated with. He has already been to Leeds and now he is planned to visit our campus on this Wednesday.
Our university has done nothing in response to our letters! They have failed to cut ties with this genocidal maniac! STAND WITH US AND SAY NO IDF ON OUR CAMPUS! THE UNIVERSITY MUST CUT TIES WITH DEUTSCH AND BAN HIS PRESENCE!
Join us and say no to war criminals on campus!
Time: Wednesday 14th February 2024, 12:30pm
Location: University of Sheffield, SU concourse
Bring banners and placards. Stay safe and use a face mask!
FREE PALESTINE!
