Photo: 1066 Drone Photography
Hastings and Rye Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Newsletter   26 February 2022
  In this newsletter we have...
  • Fundraising Walk & Cycle.
  • Samir Mansour Bookshop and Library in Gaza Reopens.
  • Weekly Information stalls.
  • UK Parliament votes to ban boycott of Israel in public pension funds
  • Shahd Abusalama Reinstated.
  • Tantura village - the Israeli resort that covers up a massacre.

    Hastings Friends of Al-Mawasi:
    Fundraising Walk & Cycle     Saturday March 26th

    We're raising money to buy laptops and other equipment for the 'Safe Space' Community Centre in Al-Mawasi in Gaza, to provide more opportunities for education and entertainment as well as international friendship and solidarity.

    Walkers will start from Glyne Gap at 12noon and walk 4.5 miles to the Stade for 2pm
    Cyclists will start at Lewes and cycle 40 miles via Easbourne and Bexhill to the Stade - 40 miles is the length of the wall which Israel have built surrounding Gaza, blockading people in Al-Mawasi, and everywhere else in Gaza.

    Sign up to walk or cycle however far you are able - and download a sponsorship form to collect money from friends and family for your efforts.

    If you can't take part but want to support, you can make a donation online here: Fundraising Walk & Cycle. This is the Facebook event page. Please share widely
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    Books For Gaza: Bookstore Reopens Months After Israeli Military Destroyed It

    Last week the Samir Mansour's Bookshop and Library in Gaza was reopened. Last May the Israeli military targetted and destroyed large areas of housing, media centres and bookshops in Gaza. This included the destruction of the Mansour Bookshop.

    After a campaign to fund a new bookshop and to organise the collection of books, including from the Hastings and Rye area, it has now reopened with 400,000 books and about three times its original size.

    Photos: Above. Unloading the first shipment to arrive in Gaza from the UK. This included the books we collected locally.
    Left. The reopening last Thursday.

    Article in Haaretz: 'Destruction Made Us Stronger.'

    Short video of the reopening: Gaza bookshop destroyed in air strike reopens.

    Here's a video of the English section. Do you recognise any of the books you donated or bought for the appeal last Summer? Video here.
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    Information stalls

    We run our information stalls every week (weather permitting) 12 'til 2pm in the town centre near Millets. Please pay us a visit. Here's a short video of a recent stall.
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    UK Parliament votes to ban boycott of Israel in public pension funds

    The UK parliament has voted in an amendment to the Public Services Pension and Judicial Offices Bill. This will ban public sector employees from divesting from companies that are complicit in Israeli apartheid from their pension funds. It was made clear that this is targeted at the BDS movement, but the vaguely worded amendment is so broad it can be weaponised against any human rights campaign, raising concerns about a country not formally on a UK sanctions list. Labour MPs were whipped to abstain; however, 22 Labour MPs voted against, joining the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party.
    UK Parliament votes to ban boycott of Israel in public pension funds.
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    Palestinian Academic Shahd Abusalama Reinstated at UK University

    A smear campaign by the Israel lobby led to the Sheffield Hallam University suspending the appointment of Shahd Abusalama as an associate lecturer. We met Shahd at our Palestine on the Pier event last September. She is a co-founder and member of the Hawiyya Dance Company. Shahd was born in the Jabalia Refugee Camp in Gaza and grew up under Israeli occupation, siege and military assaults. Her father was a long time political prisoner. Shahd has been a very active and vocal opponent of Israel and its apartheid policies.

    The university alleged that Shahd had broken the university's rules, specifically the controversial and discredited IHRA working definition of antisemitism.

    Shahd was quoted as saying that these actions show how "even when we [the Palestinians] think that we broke free of Israel's oppression, we are still chased by the discourse of violence that has infiltrated most of the Western institutions."

    After a massive support campaign and public outcry, including emails from local PSC members, the university relented, apologised, re-instated Shahd and offered her a more secure employment contract. "Victory: Palestinian teacher defeats Israel lobby smears" Article here.

    Shahd stressed that she will not be silenced and she is "going to be driven ever louder after these hate campaigns" against her.

    The Israel lobby continues to stifle criticism of Israel - Whitworth gallery director forced out over Palestinian statement

    The director of the Whitworth Art Gallery Alistair Hudson has been "asked to leave his post" by the University of Manchester after complaints by the Israel lobby group UKLFI. Article here.
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    Tantura village - the Israeli resort that covers up a massacre

    It has taken more than 70 years for the world at large to acknowledge the Tantura massacre. In 1948 the Israeli Defense Force massacred more than 200 people of the Tantura village south of Haifa. This was part of the Nakba (the Catastrophe) where the majority of the indigenous Palestinian population was forced out of their lands. The mass grave lies under the car park of the beach resort where Israelis swim and sunbath.

    Over the years there have been concerted efforts to cover up this atrocity. This included the campaign to silence a student Teddy Katz at Haifa University. In 1998 he submitted his Masters thesis some of which was based on 60 hours of taped interviews with both soldiers involved and Palestinian survivors. His thesis received a grade of 97%. But the Israeli campaign against him was so intense that he ended up retracting his work and signing a letter of apology.

    But over the years historian Ilan Pappé, author Jonathan Cook and others have kept the story alive. In January Alon Schwarz' film Tantura was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Liberal Israeli paper Haaretz has written about the issue, but Israeli society seems to have totally ignored the massacre.

    The academic character assassination of Teddy Katz (2016).
    Jonathan Cook: Sunbathing at the crime scene: the Israeli resort that covers up a massacre (2015)
    Ilan Pappé: Israel can no longer bury the Tantura massacre (2022).
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    Iconic Palestinian activist succumbs to wounds sustained after he was run over by Israeli police truck

    Haj Suleiman Hathalin, aged 75, died of his injuries sustained in a deliberate run-over incident by an Israeli police truck. He was a highly respected community leader in Umm al-Khair and had been at the heart of the incredible resistance by the local villagers. This is a village where "nearly every building has already been demolished at least once and rebuilt." He was well-known not only throughout occupied Palestine but by solidarity activists from overseas. This branch of the PSC passed on our condolences to the family and friends of Haj Suleiman. RIP.
    Elderly Palestinian anti-occupation activist succumbs to wounds.
    Legacy of Palestine's Suleiman al-Hathalin: Defiance.
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    Basma Relief Society

    The Basma Relief Society provides humanitarian services throughout the Gaza Strip. Donations can be made at the Basma Relief Society website.
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    More news:

    Sheikh Jarrah: Israeli assault on Palestinian with Down syndrome sparks outrage: Article here.

    Finland bill would outlaw Israeli settlement goods: Article here.

    Palestine Action wins magnificent victory over Elbit with closure of its death factory in Oldham: Article here.

    Historical documents reveal Israel's plan to empty Negev of Palestinians: Article here.

    The new hasbara campaign Israel doesn't want you to know about: Article here.

    On Teaching the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Conversation with Professor Avi Shlaim: Article here.

    Gaza Opens 1,700-Year-Old Byzantine Church to Public: Video here.

    Ramzy Baroud: How Palestinian hunger striker Abu Hawash forced Israeli concession: Article here.

    BDS Victories in 2021: Article here.

    Israel is Tightening Its Grip on Syria's Golan Heights by Creating "Facts on the Ground": Article here.

    Haaretz; First Settlers Beat Them Up, Then Ismail and His Family Were Jailed: Article here.

    Christians feel defenseless, Israeli extremists want to drive them out: Article here.

    Jewish signatories endorse boycott of Sydney Festival over 'art-washing' of Israeli apartheid: Article here.

    The 'free world' cannot eulogize Desmond Tutu's greatness and support Israeli apartheid: Article here.

    Ramzy Baroud: As Israel Plots Endgame in Occupied Golan, Bennett Must Remember Lessons of the Past: Article here.

    Cherie Blair advising security firm accused of helping Saudis spy on Jamal Khashoggi: Article here.

    Miriam Margolyes Stands Up for Emma Watson as Support for Palestine Grows Among Harry Potter Cast: 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 February 2022
    17 December 2021
    6 December 2021

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