3,000 lobby their MPs on Palestinian child prisoners and arms ban

The Ambassador for Palestine speaks at the Palestine Lobby

Three thousand people contacted their MPs yesterday at a mass lobby of Parliament.  Their focus was securing government action on the issue of Israel's detention and maltreatment of Palestinian child prisoners and a stopping the bilateral arms trade with Israel.

Warm reception at #PalestineLobby for @NEUnion speaker who have done so much to raise abuse of Palestinian children - 'Something as a union and as teachers we could not ignore. This is institutionalised abuse. Families living in a vortex of fear.' @PSCupdate

 .@lisanandy working with refugee children in UK thought she had seen everything then went to #Palestine. Says @UKLabour has come a long way. Recognition of Palestine is a 'right to be realised' not a concession. #PalestineLobby @PSCupdates Time to #StandUpToTrump

 'As the going gets harder (in the Palestinian struggle) we are going to get LOUDER!' @lisanandy says of #justiceforpalestine supporters in Parliament.

 .@CarolineLucas speaking at #PalestineLobby calls for #StopArmingIsrael and congratulates @PSCupdates for their tireless week in, week out, campaigning. Important that people in UK are campaigning for lifting of the blockade

 .@CarolineLucas reiterated the UK must press for end of Israel's military detention of children #PalestineLobby @PSCupdates

 Emily Thornberry flanked by Caroline Lucas MP and Lisa Nandy MP

 @EmilyThornberry says essential question how many more generations of Palestinian children must grow up under occupation in fear and violence ? #PalestineLobby @PSCupdates

 .@EmilyThornberry says @UKLabour once in government will immediately recognise state of Palestine. Shame on UN that Israel has ignored resolutions on illegal occupation and settlements. Will call for action and pursue 2 state solution. #PalestineLobby

Brent people pledge solidarity with Palestinians at crowded impassioned meeting

A crowded meeting on 'Solidarity with the Palestinian People'organised by Brent  & Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Brent Trades Council yesterday (September 27th) showed the commitment of local people to supporting Palestinians in their struggle for justice. The meeting ended on a high note with participants urged to deepen and widen the Palestine solidarity movement.


Hugh Lanning, Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign speaks, introduced by Mary Adossides, Chair of Brent Trades Council. 


Kiri Tunks President, National Union of Teachers section of the National Education Union.



David Rosenberg, Jewish Socialists' Group


Salma Karmi Ayyoub, criminal lawyer and external consultant for Al Haq, Palestinian human rights organisation


Graham Durham of Brent Central Labour Party


Questions and discussion part 1


Questions and discussion part 2

Hear excellent speakers on solidarity with the Palestinian struggle Septemver 27th

Early notice of a local meeting organised by Brent Trades Council and Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign at a time when support for the Palestinians is more important than ever.

Brent and Harrow PSC will be joining other London PSC groups on Saturday 11am-1pm outside HSBC Bank in Kensington High Street (opposite the station and to the right) to protest at HSBC financing companies manufacturing arms used against Palestinians.  Support welcome - placards provided.

Do not silence the Palestinian voice

Corbyn, antisemitism & justice for Palestine

Barnet Council motion uses IHRA examples against BDS campaigners

From Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Barnet Councillor Brian Gordon is to propose a motion effectively outlawing organisations that support Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The motion [below] cites the hotly disputed International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) document on antisemitism as justification for the move. The meeting is at Hendon Town Hall, 7pm tonight.

The motion calls for the London Borough of Barnet to ‘consider the legality of ensuring’ it does ‘not to provide or rent any space’ to individuals and groups supporting the BDS movement – effectively seeking a ban on events promoting sanctions against Israel for its violations of international law.
Councillor Gordon’s motion specifically quotes the contentious guidance notes to the IHRA document in order to claim that BDS is antisemitic, because other countries are not similarly targeted. 

However no other country that the UK treats as an ally has been in illegal occupation of another country for over 50 years, suppressing the human rights of its inhabitants.

The motion has national significance because the Labour Party – which has adopted the 38-word IHRA definition of antisemitism – has been criticised for not fully adopting the guidanceattached to it, including the two examples cited in the motion.

Jonathan Rosenhead, Vice Chair of Free Speech on Israel, said:

Those criticising Labour for failing to adopt the full IHRA guidance claim the document poses no threat to freedom of expression. This motion being put forward in Barnet clearly demonstrates that they are wrong and vindicates the adjustments made by Labour’s National Executive Committee.

Ben Jamal, Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said:

Palestinians have a right to describe their history and the continuing racist injustices that deny them their rights, whether as unequal citizens of the State of Israel, living under military occupation in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, under siege in Gaza, or as refugees denied the right of return. Others have a right to hear this information and, in line with a commitment to fighting racism in all its forms, to respond to the Palestinian call for global action via Boycott Divestment and Sanctions.

Despite the clear warning from distinguished lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC in his legal opinion on the IHRA document, groups lobbying for Israel have continued to press public bodies both to adopt the IHRA definition and to use it to suppress both legitimate criticism of Israel, and calls for action on behalf of the Palestinian people. In March, a delegation including Joan Ryan MP, Chair of Labour Friends of Israel , Matthew Offord MP of Conservative Friends of Israel petitioned Theresa May at 10 Downing Street, calling for action to  prevent events on UK campuses that describe Israel as an apartheid state, citing the IHRA document as justification.

Campaigners for Palestinian rights including Free Speech on Israel, Jewish Voice for Labour and Palestine Solidarity Campaign are calling for the motion to be withdrawn. They have also called for the UK government to issue a clear statement that no public body should use the IHRA definition to prevent legitimate criticism of the state of Israel (which includes describing its laws and policies as “racist” and meeting the legal definition of “apartheid”). Nor should they use it to prevent calls for peaceful actions including boycott divestment and sanctions in response to Israel’s continuing violations of Palestinian human rights.

Administration motion in the name of Cllr Brian Gordon Boycott the antisemitic BDS movement 

On 31^st January 2017, Barnet became the first local authority to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s definition of antisemitism and its corresponding guidance, which recognises that antisemitism takes many forms including, in certain circumstances, targeting of the State of Israel. 

The IHRA’s guidance rightly points out that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled [sic] against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic”. However, Council believes the aims, methods, and rhetoric of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and believes its go well beyond this, and are consistent with the IHRA’s guidance on the definition of antisemitism. Specifically: 

·      A completely disproportionate focus on the State of Israel to the exclusion of all other territorial disputes and ethnic conflicts in the world, e.g. the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, the Chinese occupation of Tibet, or the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus; 

·      “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour [sic]”; 

·      Frequently reported incidents of BDS activists “Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” and “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism to characterize Israel or Israelis.” 

·      “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” 
Following similar action taken by the City of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on 25^th August 2017, Council instructs the Policy & Resources Committee to produce a Use of Council Premises policy and to consider the legality of ensuring:
·      The London Borough of Barnet does not provide any space or areas for clubs, organizations or even individuals who support the activities of the antisemitic BDS movement. 

·      The London Borough of Barnet instructs its companies not to provide or rent any space for affiliates, organizations or individuals who support the activities of the antisemitic BDS movement. 

·      The London Borough of Barnet appeals to landlords of event venues in the borough not to provide or rent any space for clubs, organizations or even individuals who support the activities of the antisemitic BDS movement. 

·      The London Borough of Barnet does not make any donations or grants to associations, organisations or other groups which support the activities of the antisemitic BDS movement. 

Council also reaffirms its commitment to fight all forms of prejudice, whether against religion, race, sex, gender, or age. 


Ahed Tamimi's message to the world

Ben Jamal on Donald Trump and Israel

Join Free Palestine Bloc at Together Against Trump demo July 13th

Stop Arming Israel - Stop the killing - London Protest June 5th

London Protest Tuesday 5th June

Free Palestine - Stop the Killing - Stop Arming Israel

5.30pm. Assemble Opposite Number 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London - March to Old Palace Yard.

Organised by: Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Muslim Association of Britain.

Supported by: Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Europal Forum, Amos Trust, Lib Dem Friends of Palestine.

Join us on this National day of solidarity actions for the Great Return March in Palestine, with events around the country.

From Nakba to Free Palestine May 21st Speakers and Performers

From the Nakba to a Free Palestine

Monday 21 May at 7pm-9pm

Somers Town Community Centre

150 Ossulston St., London NW1 1EE

(Kings Cross or Euston tube)

Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Brent & Harrow PSC and Haringey Justice for Palestinians join together to commemorate the Nakba after 70 years and consider the ongoing dispossession and struggle for freedom of the Palestinian people.

With Ghada Karmi, author and refugee; Maisa Shquier, Palestinian activist; Ben Jamal, PSC director; and actor David Calder will be reading Palestinian poetry. Palestinian oud player Zaid Sabbubeh will perform.

All those supporting the Palestinian people welcome.

Israel and the Question of Apartheid

Venue : Rivercourt Methodist Church, King Street, Hammersmith, London, W6 9JT (Google map link : https://goo.gl/maps/QtqZ6xGAoeT2 )

Date : Saturday 21 April 2018. 1030 hrs. start. 1530 hrs. end.

Registration in advance required :  £5 waged or £1 student/unwaged use this link  https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/471957

Stop the Killings - Protest for Gaza: Saturday April 7th 1pm Whitehall

Stop the Killings Protest for Gaza

 Assemble this Saturday, April 7th in Whitehall (Downing Street) at 1pm.  Called by Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Friends of Al Aqsa and supported by Stop the War UK.

JOIN THE NATIONAL PROTEST FOR GAZA: STOP THE KILLING Saturday 7th April, 1 PM - 3 PM Downing Street, London, SW1A 2, United Kingdom In the worst single day of violence since the assault on Gaza in 2014, Israeli forces shoot 773 unarmed Palestinians taking part in a Land Day demonstration. Thousands of Palestinians congregated in Gaza to start a series of protests called “The Great Return March”. Organised as a non-violent demonstration supported across Palestinian society, the protest is reaffirming the Palestinian right of return (grounded in International Law), and calling for an end to Israel's illegal decade long blockade of the coastal strip. Last week Israel deployed hundreds of snipers along the border of Gaza, who opened fire using live ammunition on unarmed Palestinian civilians. Over 1,400 Palestinians were injured, with 773 being shot, leaving 18 fatalities. There was not a single Israeli casualty. “Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations.” - Human Rights Watch. Videos emerging of the shootings show Protestors being shot whilst running away from the border, and in the act of praying. But most devastating perhaps are the images of young men, and women, walking calmly towards the border, waving the national flag, before being felled by sniper fire. The Great Return March will continue until May 15th  (coinciding with the 70thanniversary of the 1948 “Nakba”), with more largescale demonstrations planned. The Israeli government, protected from international censure by the shield of western governments, has announced that it will continue to meet demonstrations with live fire. The only thing that can prevent more Palestinians being gunned down in the coming weeks is the force and weight of international public opinion. Have your voice heard by writing to the Foreign Office, and by joining the Saturday demonstration in London. The organisers of the Great Return March asked that the only flag to be raised during the march is the Palestinian flag with no partisan or factional symbols. We are asking all those attending the demonstration on Saturday to respect this and bring no flag other than the flag of Palestine.

Write to Boris Johnson

PSC Fundraiser Willesden Green March 11th 2018

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Brent Stop the War and Brent & Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign

                                    are jointly organising a

                Spring Fundraising Party

                        Sunday 11th March 2018 4.30 - 9.00 pm

                                PERFORMERS INCLUDE

    Socialist Magician and MC Ian Saville www.redmagic.co.uk

    Satirical singer-songwriter Leon Rosselson www.leonrosselson.co.uk 

    and Serendipity with Alan Johnson

Price includes all entertainment and food.

Our fundraisers are renowned for the quality and variety of the food on offer and there are plenty of vegetarian options.

There will be a bar and raffle. 

Tickets: full price/solidarity £15, low income £12, benefit claimants £8, children 7+ £5 (under 7 free) 

Advance booking is strongly advised – numbers are limited and prices will be higher on the door.  

 The venue is near Willesden Green station and the address will be revealed when you buy your ticket                                               

                                                            To book

(PSC) email martinrfrancis@virginmedia.com
   

Pay by electronic transfer putting your name as a reference and email Martin with your address and ticket type. Tickets and venue address will be sent by post.

Brent & Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Sort Code: 60-83-01

A/C number: 20363280