Knight, Gill

Going to Cuba, for me, is a journey both in space and time. It’s 45-odd years since I wrote a thesis on Fidel Castro and the revolution as part of my certificate in education – the 1970s were definitely a more liberal age!

Over the decades, travel to Cuba has been on ‘my list’ and at last I go, prompted by the accounts of Unite the Community Union comrades.

Like them, I join a tour with ICAP, the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, an organisation that…

Since September 2000, Israeli security forces have killed a Palestinian child every three days, on average. Estimates of the death toll among Palestinian children range from 1,398 (children’s charity, Defence for Children International) to 1,518 (the Palestinian ministry of information in Ramallah). Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, stated in May 2011 that Israeli forces had killed 1,335 children in the…

The olive harvest, it’s not as romantic as it sounds, emailed my Aussie friend and fellow IWPSer before I set off for my second ‘tour’ volunteering with the International Women’s Peace Service, based in the village of Deir Istiya in the Salfit governate, in the West Bank.

And in a way my friend was right: gruelling sun, long hours in the sun, and a bit monotonous sometimes. Returning, eating and showering were all we were fit for, but there were clothes to hand-wash (olive-picking…

The jubilant celebrations I witnessed in Palestine when the UN General Assembly voted for an observer state status are in direct conflict with the grim reality on the ground.  All non-violent demonstrations that resist the occupation of Palestine are deemed illegal and suppressed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) – relabelled to reflect its real role as the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF). Any place where a demonstration…

Israel’s 45-year occupation of Palestine’s West Bank and Gaza Strip has witnessed its establishment as a ‘legitimate’ player in the global economy and its crippling of Palestinian livelihoods.  These two books explore this process of  ‘normalisation’ and the apartheid nature of the Israeli state.

The first draws its inspiration from Bertrand Russell’s 1966/67 investigation of the Vietnam War, and  contains evidence and testimonies from prominent activists, lawyers and human rights…

Bradt commissioned Sarah Irving to write this updated version in 2010, and it is gratifying to read a travel guide entitled Palestine rather than Israel and the Occupied Territories.

A seasoned campaigner, Sarah has been a frequent visitor to Palestine since 2001, and the result is a meticulously-researched book that offers the visitor a mine of information, suitable for both activists and inquisitive travellers.

The West…

“Peace without justice is hollow, a sham, the deathly stillness of tyranny triumphant,” writes Michael Riordon, as he shares his stories of Israelis and Palestinians resisting the occupation, all of whom have experienced harassment from the authorities, sometimes death threats and imprisonment.

The Israelis, immigrants or children of immigrants, all initially supported a Zionist state as a home for Jews, but gradually came to see Israel as a colonialist oppressor. Riordon, a Canadian…

“Our South Africa moment has finally arrived,” is Omar Barghouti’s rallying call for a global BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement to support the struggle for human rights in Palestine. In this book he eloquently and persuasively sets out the arguments for BDS against Israel in order to end its oppression of the Palestinians that is in defiance of both UN resolutions and international law.

Academic and co-founder of BDS, Barghouti draws on the South African anti-apartheid…

Village Life
by Gill Knight
from PN 2532, April 2011

During my time working with the International Women’s Peace Service I have witnessed many human rights abuses in the West Bank Palestine – house demolitions, settler violence, army and settler destruction of olive trees and fields, army intimidation of workers – the list goes on.

But none has been more heart rending than the Israeli attempt to crush the nonviolent Popular Resistance to the Occupation in the small…

During my time working with the International Women’s Peace Service I have witnessed many human rights abuses in the West Bank, Palestine – house demolitions, settler violence, army and settler destruction of olive trees and fields, army intimidation of workers – the list goes on. But none has been more heart - rending than the Israeli attempt to crush the nonviolent Popular Resistance to the Occupation in the small village of Nabi Saleh. The objectives of the resistance are to end the…

Nabi Saleh is still on my mind and so is the new word I have learnt – “sumoud”. Picture this, during the afternoon of the demo, when things were quiet a group of us gathered under the water tower in the main square and sat on some pipes in a u-shape to chew the fat. Ben, an Israeli activist, appeared with a coffee pot and glass cups from a nearby house and we had a welcome coffee break.

Just as we finished and the cups collected, three soldiers appeared at the edge of the square and…

The jubilant celebrations I witnessed in Palestine when the UN General Assembly voted for an observer state status are in direct conflict with the grim reality on the ground. All non-violent demonstrations that resist the occupation of Palestine are deemed illegal and suppressed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) – relabelled to reflect its real role as the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF). Any place where a demonstration takes place – village, street or field can be decreed a Closed Military…

I have a friend who's daughter became a peace activist. She was sending emails back from Palestine, and this focused my mind on what was happening there.

When she returned she start ed selling Zaytoun products with the Olive Coop in Manchester. They were distributing Palestinian olive oil, soap, knickknacks, and organising tours to visit the producers.
I started using their olive oil as a way of positively supporting communities under threat. The sales help to sustain the…