International solidarity

In the wake of so much loss, grief and destruction, it is sometimes difficult to imagine how Gaza will ever recover. This is compounded by the fact that despite Israel’s massive assault officially ending in January, the Israeli military continues to attack the strip almost daily. Most of the international journalists have left and the international community considers the war as being over, but Palestinian civilians are still being killed and injured on a regular basis. Fishermen and…

More news on the disruption of the Israeli Jerusalem Quartet’s concert at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival (see PN 2502).

Campaigners from Scottish Palestine Solidarity (SPS) stopped the string quartet from playing several times during a concert in August 2008. They were protesting against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and in support of a cultural boycott of Israel. Four were arrested and charged with “breach of the peace”. This charge was dropped, in favour of the more serious…

Part of a delegation from the European Parliament sent to report on the humanitarian situation in Gaza following 22 days of Israeli bombing, I prepared myself for the worst but the reality still shocked me. In parts of Gaza City whole streets had been reduced to rubble and survivors lived in tents on the sites of their former homes.

In the Al Hajaj house in Zeitoun, a young man told how his father and baby sister had been killed before his eyes when a bomb came through the roof. He…

The Free Gaza Movement is, at the time of going to press, preparing to break the Israeli siege on Gaza again. They hope to send a cargo ship (with building supplies and medical equipment), and a passenger boat (with at least 50 passengers), and are appealing for funds to enable this to happen. Whether or not they succeed in acquiring additional boats, they will be des Spirit of Humanity, which was turned back by Israeli gunboats in January, intends to depart for Gaza in mid-March.

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As Israel commits brutal war crimes in Gaza, it also continues to covet the land of Palestinians living in the West Bank. The 790km-long apartheid wall snakes through the occupied West Bank annexing Palestinian land to Israel.

Israel is also progressing with the annexation of the entire eastern section of the West Bank, known as the Jordan Valley, the most fertile region of the West Bank, which constitutes a further 28.5% of the land inside the 1967 green line.

Israel already…

Over the past month or so, in the wake of Israel’s brutal bombardment of Gaza, the UK’s student population has witnessed a widespread political awakening. Campus occupations or sit-ins have been staged at some 20 universities around the country, by hundreds if not thousands of students, demanding action to help the people of Gaza and an end to the complicity of UK educational institutions in Israel’s crimes.

On the evening of 28 January, around 200 students had just finished…

Visiting the West Bank in 2003, one young Palestinian girl, above all others, touched my heart. This was Hiba, in the Aida refugee camp, who dreamed an impossible dream: she wanted to be a nurse. No income was coming into her home, so college fees were totally out of the question.

When I came back to Glasgow, I helped to found the Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign (GPHRC), a grass roots solidarity campaign to support Palestinian students.

As a result of the GPHRC’s…

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde students ended occupations, after winning demands to fund scholarships, disinvest from military industries and boycott Israeli companies including Eden Springs water. These actions were part of a wave of over 20 student occupations across Britain.

Edinburgh students started their action on 10 February, just as the Glasgow occupation finished, and were able to end their occupation of the University’s George Square Theatre on 16 February.

On…

Parliament Square peace protestor Maria Gallastegui fasted for 30 days to protest against the escalating military assault and in solidarity with the people of Gaza .
Her liquid-only hunger strike, which began on 12 January, ended after 30 days when friends and family became concerned about Maria’s health. She has had no lasting health effects.

How do you make yourself heard in the political climate we are in? “People just don’t take any notice,” Gallastegui said. “You want to…

Over 700 people from around the UK have now signed up to support the Gaza Freedom March. Timed to coincide with the first anniversary of Israel’s brutal 22-day assault, this will involve hundreds of internationals marching nonviolently alongside the people of Gaza on 1 January 2010, breaching the illegal Israeli blockade (see PN 2513).

PN is organising a training for people intending to go on the march. Assuming sufficient demand, this will take place in London on the weekend of 31…

In 1963 a young Gene Stoltzfus, Mennonite conscientious objector, found himself working with International Voluntary Services in Saigon, Vietnam. Daily faced with the carnage of the Vietnam war, he had to ask himself “whether I was as willing to die for my convictions as the Vietnamese and American soldiers all around me were being asked to do.”

His answer led him to a 45 year career in peacemaking, first with a succession of Mennonite organisations, and latterly as co-founder of…

On 10 January 100,000 people from all over Britain joined a march in London to protest at the Israeli embassy against the continuing relentless attacks on Gaza’s civilian population.

Ray Davies, 79-year-old vice-chair of CND Cymru, sustained head injuries, concussion and cuts when he was trapped with hundreds of others against the embassy gates by the Metropolitan Police.

The march had gone peacefully until it reached the embassy. Many shoes were thrown over the fence in a…

The Free Gaza Movement has broken the siege of Gaza twice since the last issue of PN.

On 29 October, the SS Dignity, carrying 27 people from 13 countries, including member of the Palestinian legislative council Mustapha Barghouti, Israeli peace activist Gideon Spiro and Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire, landed with 500kg of medicine.

Then on 8 November, the Dignity landed with 11 journalists, human rights and peace activists and 12 European parliamentarians, including…

The Scotland Zimbabwe Group was founded in 1996: the group seeks to develop social, cultural and human rights awareness between Scotland and Zimbabwe. This is identified in its constitution as being done through education, networking and raising funds for particular projects (currently a Murambinda Hospital outreach programme in Buhera, and Nhimbe Trust, a Theatre for Development organisation in Bulawayo).
The SZG is independent of any government or political party and is keen to…

118 Days celebrates the “explosion of goodness” that arose from the kidnapping of four peace activists in Baghdad on 26 November 2005.

In 22 articles by 24 different authors, the book explores how this terrible event touched so many people in positive ways – from increased cooperation between peace and faith groups in Britain, to demonstrations of solidarity in the West Bank, and from discussions on the value of self-sacrifice in a US penitentiary to the media frenzy in the UK, the…