Hastings and Rye Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Newsletter   9 July 2021
 
Boycott Puma Day of Action

Saturday July 10 Hastings Town Centre outside Debenhams 12pm
Join us as we draw attention to the sportswear brand Puma: sponsor of the Israeli Football Association (IFA). The IFA operates in illegal Israeli settlements on land stolen from Palestinians. Every settlement is a war crime under international law - pushing indigenous Palestinian families off their land, robbing natural resources, and denying Palestinians their right of movement. By sponsoring the IFA, Puma is complicit in supporting these crimes.

We will be visiting local stockists of Puma goods where we plan to stage a couple of eye-catching demonstrations to illustrate Puma's complicity in Israeli apartheid. There will be similar events throughout Britain.

Our Facebook event page. Please share widely.
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Our Giant Letter To Sally-Ann Hart

 

Thanks to everyone who signed our giant letter to MP Sally-Ann Hart. We collected more than 100 signatures. Over 385,000 people had signed a petition demanding sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel prompting a Parliamentary debate. We called on Hart to attend the debate and support sanctions. We delivered our letter to the MP's office - although we couldn't get it through the letter box!

The reply she sent us contained the standard phrases "I know the Government takes its export control responsibilities extremely seriously and operates one of the most robust export control regimes in the world. All export licence applications are rigorously assessed on a case-by-case basis......" The UK has sold over £400 million worth of military equipment to Israel since 2015. The government has admitted that it does not collect data on the use of equipment after sale, meaning that it was taking Israel's guarantees at face value.

The government has a history of refusing to answer questions on the use of UK military equipment: 'Foreign minister James Cleverly accused of breaking UK Ministerial Code over arms to Israel.'  Article here.
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12-year-old MC Abdul from Gaza: "two million prisoners living in this location"

'Shouting At The Wall' is MC Abdul's first release on the Empire label. Some of his lyrics 'Wondering 'how does the fighter pilot sleep at night?' Knowing he can turn the city upside down all of a sudden slaughtering families with the push of a button.' The video was shot in one take - it follows MC Abdul as he raps his way across the destruction left by Israel's bombing. The music was produced and mixed by Irish producer Garraí Mac (aka GMCBeats). The video was made by his dad.

This is a must watch. Video: MC Abdul.
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Port workers refusal to unload Israeli cargo ships and Block the Boat campaign

As a response to Israel's recent attacks on Gaza, members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union in Durban answered a call from the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions by refusing to unload cargo from an Israeli ZIM ship. Italian dockworkers in Livorno and Ravenna also protested and refused to offload ships transporting weapons to Israel. This was followed by dockworkers in Oakland blocking the Israeli ZIM Volans cargo ship, with pickets at Seattle, Prince Rupert and Vancouver.

Block the Boat has received over 100 endorsements from labour unions, faith, and community organizations around the world, including the anti-apartheid Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the largest federation of trade unions in South Africa, representing 1.8 million workers.

Interview with Lara Kiswani (AROC) about the US protests, the background to the ZIM Israeli shipping company, and how BDS is growing within the US labour movement. How Bay Area activists Blocked the Boat.
More US labour unions join alliance against Israeli apartheid: Article here.
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BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) news

Lancaster City Council supports BDS
The council will write to Lancashire County Pension Fund and the Local Pensions Partnership "urging that they adopt policies requiring them to divest from all companies active in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine and all arms companies which supply weapons to Israel." Article here.

Norway: KLP fund divests from firms linked to Israeli settlements
Norway's largest pension fund announced it has divested assets in 16 companies which are complicit in Israel's illegal settlement industry. Article here.

Chilean Parliament's Introduction of a Bill Prohibiting the Import of Illegal Settlement Goods
The bill, if passed, will prohibit the importation of goods produced in and sourced from illegal settlements in occupied territories. The penalties on violators will be fines up to five times the customs value of the illegally sourced goods. Article here.
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Why We Took Direct Action Against Apartheid

Ethan Murphy from Palestine Action explains the campaign against Elbit Systems, a major Israeli armaments manufacturer which has ten sites in England, including five factories. Article here.
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Nizar Banat killing: Why the PA's days are numbered

Joseph Massad explains how the Palestinian Authority acts as a collaborating body with the Israeli apartheid regime under US sponsorship.
Article here.
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Silwan: Israel wants to demolish 100 homes to build a settler park

This is part of the wider Israeli plan whereby six Palestinian neighbourhoods in Jerusalem are subject to demolition orders to be replaced by illegal Israeli settler projects. In the past decade, Israel has issued at least 6,817 demolition orders to the Palestinian residents of these neighbourhoods. Article here.
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Israel shuts down office of Palestinian agricultural union in Ramallah

The Israeli army has shut down the headquarters of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) in Ramallah after breaking down the office door and confiscating computers and documents. The shutting down of the UAWC office comes a month after Israeli forces raided the Union of Health Workers Committee (UHWC) headquarters in Ramallah. Article here.
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The Palestinians' Inalienable Right to Resist

Article by Louis Allday asking serious questions of the Palestine solidarity movement - what exactly is the movement about? 'Palestine is not simply a human rights issue, or even just a question of apartheid, but rather an anti-colonial fight for national liberation being waged by an indigenous resistance against the forces of an imperialist-backed settler colony.' Article here.
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More news:

Israeli forces shoot and kill 15-year-old Palestinian boy in Beita: Article here.

Knesset member calls for murder of people in mixed marriages: Article here.

West Bank: Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian being attacked by settlers: Article here.

Jerusalem icon Muna El-Kurd highlights Sheikh Jarrah struggle in graduation speech: Article here.

Death Defying!! 69 yr-old pro-Palestine activist Nick Georges mounts crane to highlight Israeli crimes: Video here.

Belfast City Council Backs Expulsion of Israeli Ambassadors over Apartheid: Article here.

How Beita's 'night confusion' rallies are fighting Israeli settlers: Video here.

Is it time for committed antiracists to 'Stand Up To Racism?': Article here.

Labour bans Israel sanctions debate: Article here.
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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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Recent Hastings and Rye PSC newsletters:

11 June 2021
4 June 2021
28 May 2021

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