Hastings and Rye Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Newsletter   9 August 2021
 
Palestine on the Pier

Sunday 5 September 12pm - 6pm

Join us for a day of celebration of the best of Palestinian culture onboard Hastings' pier. Live music, dance, storytelling as well as food, craft, gift stalls and activities for kids.

It's a FREE event - held without any arts funding or grants. So we're fundraising in two ways:

  • Asking for donations from supporters. We have a 'donate' button on our website. Any donations, however small, would help fund this and future events.
    More information on our website.
  • Inviting local businesses and other groups to take out advertising on our printed programme. If you know any business or group that might be interested, please get in touch for rates.
    Dabke dance workshop
    Along with our storyteller there will be live music from the Levant on the Oud and percussion, followed by a performance by the Hawiyya dance company (below). The dancers of Hawiyya will also give a dabke dance workshop for anyone who wants to have a go at dabke. Timings to follow.

    Please share on social media: our website page and Facebook event page. The event poster can be downloaded here.


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    St Leonards Festival 2021

    Warrior Square Gardens TN37 6BS Saturday 14 August Starting 12:00pm

    As usual we will have a stall at the festival, The St Leonards Festival is a wonderful community arts festival with storytelling, circus acts, live music, dance and even a light show in the evening. We're delighted to be part of this great local event once again so come along to say hello and enjoy the carnival atmosphere!
    More information: Facebook event page.
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    Boycott Puma Day of Action

    Thanks to everyone who supported our actions drawing attention to Puma's complicity in Israeli apartheid.

    Puma sponsors 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.

    We livestreamed the events on Facebook. We received widespread support on social media, particularly on Twitter where our post received more than 24,000 hits.
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    Israel's Pegasus spyware targets 50,000 phones

    Phones belonging to journalists, activists and senior officials have been targeted by Pegasus spyware operated by the NSO Group, an Israeli company staffed and founded by former operatives of Unit 8200 - the Israeli military's cyberwarfare branch.
    The spyware can be used to access call logs, contacts, emails, photos, documents, videos, texts and can switch on the phone's microphone and camera.
    Pegasus scandal turns spotlight on Israel's controversial military tech sector.
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    Israel: the killing continues

    11-year-old Palestinian boy Mohammad Moayyad Bahjat al-'Allami was shot and killed by Israeli forces as he sat in his father's car near the entrance to the town of Beit Ummar north of Hebron. Muhammad is the 11th child to be killed by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank this year. Video footage contradicts Israeli army account of firing on Palestinian family's car, killing 11-year-old boy.
    At Mohammad's funeral, the Israeli military opened fire killing 20 year old Shawkat Khaled Awad and injuring at least 12 mourners with gunshot wounds. Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Youth at Funeral.

    Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in Nabi Saleh

    17-year-old Muhammad Munir al-Tamimi was 'executed in cold blood,' according to his mother Ruba al-Tamimi. Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Youth at Funeral.

    Settlers and soldiers teamed up to kill four Palestinians

    How settlers and soldiers have been attacking villages in apparent cooperation, with live ammunition (image right).

    Israeli settlers and soldiers have acted as a combined fighting unit, effectively working as a joint militia attacking civilians and firing interchangeably at Palestinian residents. Article here.

    Palestinian beaten to death in Israeli custody

    Abdo Yusuf al-Khatib al-Tamimi, 43, died at the notorious Moskabiya detention centre. His pregnant wife Rana said detainees had told the family that Abdo had been beaten by Israeli forces before his death. Article here.
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    Water apartheid: Israel blocks Palestinian infrastructure

    While the illegal Israeli settlements have unlimited quantities of water not only for drinking but enough to fill swimming pools and run intensive-irrigation farms, Palestinians across the West Bank struggle to find enough water when their water taps literally run dry for weeks at a time. Palestine runs dry: 'Our water they steal and sell to us.'
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    BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) news

    Ben & Jerry's announce that it will stop selling ice cream in Israeli settlements
    The move comes after years of pressure from activists in the company's home state of Vermont. 'This BDS win is because of our people power.'
    Ramzy Baroud writes: "the more Israel attempts to use its allies to illegalize, delegitimize and suppress dissent, the more it actually fuels it." "Any global debate on Israel's military occupation and apartheid is a BDS success story." How Ben & Jerry's Exposed Israel's anti-BDS Strategy.

    FC Barcelona calls off its match with Beitar Jerusalem
    Beitar is the club whose fans proudly claim to support 'the most racist team in Israel.'
    Beitar Jerusalem vs Barcelona: Match called off.

    2021, the year of Israeli apartheid: More than 1000 academics have signed a Declaration of the Crime of Apartheid
    More than 1000 academics, artists and intellectuals have signed a "Declaration on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid in Historic Palestine," in a sign of the growing acceptance of the term in the west. Article here.

    25 Artists Disaffiliate From London Collection
    25 artists and cultural workers who have exhibited at or collaborated with the Zabludowicz Collection have disaffiliated from the contemporary art museum and its project spaces, citing its ties to pro-Israeli lobbying and the Israeli air force. Article here.
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    Support for Israel is declining among US Jews

    A new poll of Jewish voters in the United States found that a quarter of them believe Israel is an apartheid state. Among younger Jews (under 40) the views against Israel are stronger still: 33% agree that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians; 38% agree that Israel is an apartheid state. Article here.
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    Israel authorities refuse political prisoner Khalida Jarrar to attend her daughter's funeral

    Khalida's daughter Suha lost her life after suffering a heart attack. Despite numerous appeals from Palestinian rights groups, the Israel Prison Service denied the request for Khalida to be released from prison in order to attend her daughter's funeral. Khalida was allowed to send this message: 'I am in So Much Pain, My Child.'
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    An hour's notice before residents of a Gaza apartment block see their home turned to rubble

    Countdown to the airstrike: the moment Israeli forces hit al-Jalaa tower, Gaza. First comes the warning call - then the race to evacuate. Countdown to the airstrike: the moment Israeli forces hit al-Jalaa tower, Gaza.
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    The Christian Roots of Zionism

    Miko Peled shows that Israel's political ideology of Zionism stems, not from Judaism, but from Christianity. "Once it is made clear that the Zionist claims to the Land of Israel, or Palestine, are not only not Jewish, but come from Christian Protestant theology, we understand why opposing Zionism cannot possibly be anti-Semitic." Article here.
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    Israeli evictions of Palestinian homes intensify - resistance through art

    Article listing the demolitions that have taken place and those that have been threatened: "residents of the neighborhood are ordered to raze their own homes; otherwise, Israeli forces carry out the demolition and charge them a $20,000 fine." Resistance takes many forms. Here it takes the form of art: A Silent Protest Against Displacement.

    Whether it's a case of Israeli air strikes reducing bookstores to rubble in Gaza; or the Israeli military raiding an arts centre in Bethlehem, artists are calling out the occupation and Israel's attempt to silence dissent: The artists fighting Israel's crackdown on culture.
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    Esther Bejarano: the corporate media re-writing history

    Esther Bejarano, survivor of the Auschwitz and Ravensbrueck concentration camps, recently died aged 96. Esther had an incredible life. There were tributes in much of the media - the BBC, the Statesman and the Mail - explaining how she survived the Holocaust and dedicated her life fighting xenophobia. All this media missed out the facts that: she and her husband left Israel because they 'could not stand Israeli politics;' she said of her husband: "He had seen what the Israelis had done to the Palestinians and he could not stand it;" she called Netanyahu a fascist; she supported BDS; of the 6000,000 settlers, she said: "They have no business there." Strange that the corporate media missed all this out! Here is an article from 2018 describing the life of this amazing woman: Why Auschwitz survivor Esther Bejarano supports BDS. RIP Esther.
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    Local Government Pension campaign: "Pro-Palestine campaigners await 'victory'"

    Article about the campaign in Hackney calling for the local government pension fund to divest from companies complicit in Israel's war crimes. With a mention of the East Sussex campaign. Article here.
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    More news:

    How the world's oldest masks tell a story of Palestinian dispossession: Article here.

    How British pro-Israel groups are rewriting Middle East history textbooks: Article here.

    Syrian air defenses intercept Israeli attack over Aleppo: Article here.

    Marc Wadsworth wins libel case against Jewish Chronicle: Article here.

    The Israelis challenging the German left's anti-Palestinian politics: Article here.

    Israel bans entry of fuel for Gaza power plant: Article here.

    Canada: How the IHRA definition of antisemitism is used to muzzle criticism of Israel: Article here.

    The IHRA Definition At Work - how the IHRA has been used to cancel events or silence Palestine solidarity: Article here.

    Israel lobby group ADL teams up with PayPal: 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:

    9 July 2021
    11 June 2021
    4 June 2021

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