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Meeting with Miko Peled - the Israeli insider who became a supporter of Palestinian rights
 It was standing-room only at our meeting with Miko Peled last Saturday. Miko gave an inspiring and powerful speech about the Israeli injustices inflicted on the Palestinian people, and the necessity to change it. 'We have a moral obligation to do everything we can to stop this. It is crucial that we demand action.' Miko stressed the action that we can all support and take part in - BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions).
Miko demolished a number of misconceptions: 'It's not two countries fighting over a piece of land. It's not two armies at war. It is a process of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the cruellest kind. It's a destruction of a people and destruction of a country that has been ongoing for seven decades and will not stop.'
Miko's speech was followed by a very lively Question and Answer session involving a wide range of topics - parallels between the collapse of apartheid in South Africa and the ultimate collapse of apartheid in Israel; Israel's de-Arabising of Palestine; Israel's treatment of ultra orthodox refuseniks; 'antisemitism' and the Labour Party and much more.
Report of the meeting at our website. We've had numerous requests to hear the recording of Miko's speech. This is the audio loaded onto YouTube including the Q&A. Miko's speech lasts 1 hour, Q&A 49 minutes. Well worth listening to it all. Listen here.
This is the written transcript of Miko's talk.
Article in the Hastings Observer:
Palestinian rights activist gives impassioned speech to Hastings audience (image download).
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 Give Puma the Boot. International Day of Action Saturday 26 October 2019.
Please join our picket on Saturday 26 October 12.00 - 14.00 / 2pm outside Sports Direct.
We will be joining actions in countries across the world with pickets and demonstrations outside Puma stores, offices, and stores which stock Puma.
Puma is the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA), which includes football clubs based in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land. More than 200 Palestinian teams have called for Puma to end its support for Israel's military occupation by terminating its sponsorship deal with the IFA.
Send an email to UK football clubs with partnerships with Puma: UK Football Clubs - Give Puma the Boot. More info (BDS website).
This is how Israel treats Palestinian football: Match called off for the second time as Israel bans entry for Gaza players to the West Bank.
This is the second time this Palestinian national championship has been called off, having already been postponed from July, when Israel refused travel permits for 31 of the Gaza club's 35 players.
Israel bans entry for most players on Gaza soccer team.
Israel Canceled the FIFA Palestine Cup for No Apparent Reason.
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British unions vote unanimously to boycott Israel This was a major victory for the boycott movement - ignored by the British corporate media. The motion, which was passed unanimously: affirmed the collective rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to return to their homes
called for a stop to the British arms trade with Israel
and reaffirmed the union movement's call to boycott companies complicit with the Israeli settlement industry. Boycott Israel campaign grows among UK unions.
This is from an Australian website which lists boycott victories from unions in South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Norway, Spain, New Zealand and Australia: British unions vote 'unanimously' to boycott Israel.
More BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) victories:
The Southern African provincial synod of the Anglican Church (ACSA) represents over 4.5 million members in South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique and Angola: Anglican Church In Southern Africa Adopts BDS of Israel.
Nobel Prize winner George P. Smith calls for BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) at every opportunity: Nobel Prize winner calls for boycott of Israel.
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 Grim reality of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon
There are twelve refugee camps dispersed around Lebanon. The infrastructure and facilities in all of these camps have seriously deteriorated (photo right: Shatila camp in Beirut). Unemployment among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon runs at more than 60 per cent, and 72 professions are denied to them beyond the confines of the camps.
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) does some excellent work in the refugee camps in Lebanon. Here's a brief article by Dr Swee Chai Ang, consultant orthopedic surgeon at St. Bartholomews and the Royal London hospitals and co-founder of MAP:
The voice of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon must be heard.
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Hastings and Rye PSC in the News
Article in the Hastings Online Times about our recent MAP benefit 'Come Dine For Palestine:' Benefit for Palestine raises £1,000.
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Hundreds of authors protest after Kamila Shamsie's book award is revoked
More than 250 fellow writers have defended her stance stating that the organisation behind the award has chosen to "punish an author for her human rights advocacy." Article here.
Interview with the author Kamila Shamsie where she explains BDS: Video: Hundreds of authors defend novelist.
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Hastings and Rye PSC online membership and donations
Becoming a member of Hastings and Rye PSC is an important way of supporting our work.The annual subscription is £10 waged, £5 unwaged. We now have an online membership payment form. It can also be used to renew membership. The work of Hastings & Rye Palestine Solidarity could not continue without the generous donations from members of the public. If you would like to support our work without becoming a member please visit our shop page here and see the right hand column: Donate to Hastings & Rye PSC.
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Brighton: Public film screening 'Imprisoning a Generation'
Thursday 24 October 2019 at 7.30pm, Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton BN1 1AF. Free admission - donations welcome. Imprisoning a Generation is a documentary film following the stories of four young Palestinians who have been detained and imprisoned under the Israeli military and political systems.
More information. Trailer here.
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Saturday information stalls - in Hastings and Rye.
Hastings Our weekly information stalls are in the Hastings town centre outside Debenhams.
Our next stalls:
Saturday 12 October, Saturday 19 October, Saturday 26 October will be the Puma picket outside Sports Direct. Saturday 2 November back to the town centre.
Rye We run stalls on the cobbles at the top of Conduit Hill, where it meets the High Street. 11 - 1 pm. For information about our next stall (or for anyone in the Rye area who wants to help out), please email.
Please come along to either (or both!) of our stalls to say hello and support us: any amount of time is appreciated.
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 News from and about the occupation:
Dutch court hears war crimes accusations against Israel's Benny Gantz.
Anti-BDS group backed by Adelson heads to 6 countries outside US.
Video: Saying NO to apartheid at Seret film festival, Berlin!
Israeli artist warned in Germany not to support BDS.
Israel prepares to deport BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti.
Our Boys: Another story of Israel's superior morality.
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Recent Hastings PSC newsletters:
22 September 2019
12 September 2019
26 July 2019
Keep up to date with our website and Facebook pages:
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