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Public meeting: Stop The JNF - Not In Our Name
Saturday 12 March 3pm
Join us at the White Rock Hotel, Hastings TN34 1JU
or take part online. Register here for the Zoom meeting: REGISTER HERE
 We are meeting again! Join us at White Rock Hotel on 12 March to hear our speakers and learn more about the JNF UK and its central role in Israeli Apartheid. Or join us online via Zoom by clicking on the Register button above.
The JNF (Jewish National Fund) is an organisation that has spent 100 years and millions of pounds uprooting Palestinians.
Today Amnesty International condemns JNF's actions in its denunciation of Israeli Apartheid.
Yet the JNF continues to act as a global fundraiser for Israeli ethnic cleansing, occupation and apartheid, enjoying charitable status in over 50 countries including here in the UK.
There is even a 'British Park' in Israel, created by the JNF UK on the lands of seven ethnically cleansed Palestinians villages. The owners and their descendants are still living in exile.
Our speakers, via Zoom, are Kholoud al Ajarma (a Palestinian academic and refugee, whose land lies under British Park), Kathy Brooks (Chair of Montgomeryshire PSC and Stop the JNF / British Park Campaign) and Annie O'Gara (Sheffield PSC and Stop the JNF/British Park Campaign).
Find out more about our meeting and the JNF at our website. This is the Facebook event page. Please share widely
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Puma Day of Action
 Our picket in Hastings was part of a global series of actions to highlight PUMA's sponsorship of the Israeli Football Association (IFA). The IFA includes teams in Israel's illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
All of Israel's settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Syria's Golan Heights are illegal under international law and are considered a war crime.
Protests across the world are working. A leaked internal memo showed PUMA admitted its celebrity ambassadors and business partners are increasingly questioning its support for Israeli apartheid, while a PUMA lawyer told the campaign it was making their lives "miserable."
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University of Manchester attacks Palestine solidarity
In our last newsletter we linked to an article about the University of Manchester's attempt to force Director Alistair Hudson to resign from the Whitworth Art Gallery after pressure from the Israel lobby. This was after an exhibition the gallery hosted last year, in the wake of Israel's assault upon Gaza, which included a statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
There is a campaign to get the University to back down. Call on the University to end its pressure on the Director to resign his position and to confirm that in future no pressure will be placed on staff or students for work they do in support of Palestinian rights.
Take Action: Write to Manchester University
More than half of the artists participating in the "British Art Show 9" have said they are withdrawing their work from the Manchester leg of their touring art exhibition in support of Hudson, Palestinians, political freedom and artistic expression.
Artists' Solidarity: against censorship, against dismissal, for Palestine.
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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. We're always happy to have members and supporters to stay and help.
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International Women's Day Online Meeting Tuesday 8 March 6.30pm
Chaired by Louise Regan. Speakers: Dr Nada Elia, Roba Al-Salibi, Sara Gowen and Dr Jennifer Mogannam.
Organised by South East Kent Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
More information.
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Hastings Friends of Al-Mawasi:
Fundraising Walk & Cycle Saturday March 26th
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. Please get in touch if you can make it so we have an idea of the numbers taking part.
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.
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Africa's biggest street festival drops ties with Israel after boycott
Africa's biggest public arts festival in Cape Town has dropped its sponsorship from the Israeli government following numerous withdrawals from their events. The South African BDS coalition stated: "For anyone that truly cares about human rights, dignity and freedom, there can be no collaboration with an apartheid state." Article here.
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Israel's ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah
This is a useful video by Middle East Monitor giving the background to the Israeli evictions and demolitions in the Sheikh Jarrah area: Article and video here.
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Boycotting Russia compulsory, while boycotting Israel is punished
Tamara Nassar, writing in the Electronic Intifada, shows how hypocrisy is rife with the present crisis in Ukraine. She writes of the ban on Russia from participating in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. "The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Tel Aviv despite repeated calls and an international campaign to boycott it over Israel's crimes against Palestinians." European diplomats paraded their insensitivity by hosting a party in celebration of the contest at Charles Clore Park in Jaffa, which is built atop an ethnically cleansed village, on the day that Palestinians commemorated that crime. She also writes of the economic sanctions imposed on Ukraine, but when the US (backed by the UK and by - Ukraine) illegally invaded Iraq in 2003 with the ensuing one million plus dead, there were no sanctions. Article here.
The musician Lowkey wrote in a Twitter post: "Sky News admiring a molotov cocktail making workshop in Ukraine. It was only 4 days ago that the Israeli occupation killed 13 year old Palestinian child Mohammad Rezq Salah, claiming he had thrown one of these. His killing went unreported by Sky News." This is the story that was unreported by Sky News: Israeli forces fatally shoot child, block ambulance.
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 More news:
Israel Surpasses 1,000 Demolitions In The Occupied West Bank Since Joe Biden Took Office: Article here.
Israel sprays skunk water at Palestinians marking Israa and Miraj: Article here.
Mohammed El-Halabi, Palestinian aid worker remains in Israeli jail after six years and 167 court sessions: Article here.
'The Green Girls' turn to agriculture amid economic crisis in Gaza: Article here.
France to ban two Palestine solidarity groups: Article here.
Gazan photographer wins Pictures of the Year award: Article here.
Senior Hamas delegation meets Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon: 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:
26 February 2022
9 February 2022
17 December 2021
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