Hastings and Rye Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Newsletter   30 September 2022
 
Barclays - Don't Bank On Apartheid
Saturday 1st October 12 noon - 2pm
Barclays Bank, Queens Road, TN34 1QP


Demand the bank stop investing in arms companies supplying Israel with weapons used to assault Palestinians.
Barclays has more than £1 billion invested in companies supplying weapons and military technology to Israel.
This will be one of more than 25 actions taking place throughout the UK.
Please share our Facebook event page. More information on the PSC website.
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Instro Not Welcome in Sandwich
Thanks to everyone who made the journey to Sandwich. There was a really good turnout from Hastings and Rye PSC along with supporters from our south coast sister branches at Brighton and Hove and Eastbourne.

Instro Precision, part of Israeli arms giant Elbit, makes targeting equipment that enables Israel's military to kill Palestinian people and destroy homes, clinics, schools and media offices in the besieged and densely populated Gaza Strip. Its weapons are manufactured, tested and perfected in close cooperation with the Israeli army using Palestinians as their test subjects. Elbit's weapons are sold as "battle tested" to numerous oppressive and despotic regimes across the world.

There were a number of speeches including one from Israeli activist Ronnie Barkan who described Elbit as a 'murder facility.' For information about Ronnie, the campaign against Elbit and the Crowdfunder to support his legal fees: Support My Legal Battle Against Elbit. There's an interesting article about Palestine Action in the Investment Monitor.

 
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Information stalls

This Saturday our stall will be outside Barclays Bank. On following Saturdays it will be in the town centre near Millets 12.00 noon until 2 pm (weather permitting). Please pay us a visit. We're always happy to have members and supporters come to visit or stay and help.
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MPs must reject suggestions to move the UK embassy to Jerusalem

The UK Prime Minister's suggestion to move the UK embassy to Jerusalem is "a flagrant disregard for international law. Moving the embassy would reward Israel for its apartheid policies and encourage further colonisation of Palestinian land." Press your MP to clearly reject any plans of an embassy move. Write to your MP.

Avi Shlaim: "Liz Truss moving UK embassy to Jerusalem would be disastrous." Article here.
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#FreeAhmadManasra

This petition calls for the immediate release of the Palestinian Ahmad Manasra to his family after six years of profound systematic abuse in an Israeli prison. Back in 2015 when Ahmad was 13-years old, videotape showed an Israeli interrogator insulting him and torturing him for hours with an electronic bracelet pressing on his hands. Since then his mental and physical health have deteriorated considerably. Petition here.
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Wikileaks Documents Show Top Hollywood Producers Working to Silence UK Filmmaker Ken Loach

Leaked emails show that both the Israeli government and the IDF liaise with some of the most powerful people in the US entertainment world in order to promote a pro-Israel message and silence any support for the Palestinian people. The emails show how powerful Hollywood producers use their financial influence to pressurise others into toeing their line. They tried to use their influence by trying to stop the showing of Ken Loach's film "Jimmy's Hall" at the 2014 Cannes Festival - by trying to get the entire festival cancelled! Article here.

Hollywood adds Israeli superhero Sabra to its cast of superheroes
"The introduction of an Israeli Mossad agent as the latest Marvel movie character crosses the line, even by Hollywood's poor moral standards. However, the Israeli superhero, Sabra, must be understood within the rational progression of the Israelification of Hollywood, a phenomenon that is surprisingly new."
Ramzy Baroud: A Brief History of Hollywood's Justification of Israeli War Crimes: Article here.
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Hands Up Project in Belfast

We like the Hands Up Project a lot and regularly promote its work. Two years ago our online fundraiser for Medical Aid for Palestine featured an example of 'remote theatre' called 'The Farmer Who Followed His Dream.' This was performed by four school children in Gaza, organised by the Hands Up Project. 'Remote theatre' became popular through the Covid period, but is well established in Gaza because of 15 years of Israeli blockade.

Three children from Gaza, including Yara Al Sabe, 13, who performed for us in the play 'The Farmer Who Followed His Dream' two years ago, along with youngsters from the Czech Republic, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan and Thailand, have just performed two plays at the St Louise's Comprehensive College in Belfast. Here's a great article about the performances, with conversations with Yara, Rahaf Alkafarna, 15, and Malak Alkafarna, 14: Children deliver a message of hope.
The Hands Up Project JustGiving Page.
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Israeli Forces Deliberately Killed Palestinian-American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

A report published last Tuesday showed that the journalist was deliberately and repeatedly targeted, along with her colleagues, despite being clearly identified as a member of the press.

The report is from the UK-based research group Forensic Architecture and Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq. It confirms the findings of half a dozen earlier independent reviews of the incident, including by the United Nations, which have found that Israeli forces were responsible for Abu Akleh's killing. Israel "intended to kill" Shireen Abu Akleh - probe.
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Labour officials laughed at death of member accused of anti-Semitism

A new three-part series examines the bitter internal war fought by unelected officers of the Labour Party in silencing supporters of Jeremy Corbyn and supporters of Palestinian rights. It examined the trove of internal Labour Party materials described as "the largest leak of documents in British political history." Article here.

It is in part two that a former Labour officer described the occasion when Labour officials laughed at the death of a member accused of anti-Semitism: The Labour Files - Part 2 - The Crisis. The series has been made by an investigative unit of Al Jazeera - the same team that produced two series that exposed the work of the Israeli lobby - the 2017 series The Lobby UK and the censored 2018 series The Lobby - USA.

The Labour Files: Part 1 - The Purge.      The Labour Files Part 3 - The Hierarchy.

Links to The Lobby UK and The Lobby USA can be found on our website.
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More news:

7-year-old Dies During Israeli Army Activity in West Bank, Palestinians Report: Article here.

Boat disaster hits Palestine refugees in Lebanon hard: Article here.

Israeli forces kill four Palestinians and injure scores more in Jenin raid: Article here.

Israel sets up AI-controlled machine gun in occupied Hebron: Article here.

Palestinian Authority steps up arrests in Nablus under Israeli, US pressure: Article here.

Palestinians in West Bank's Masafer Yatta decry settler attacks: Article here.

The Female Photographer Who Captured Palestinian Lives 100 Years Ago: Article here.

Sentencing Of Chair Of The Freedom Theatre In Jenin Is A Serious Human Rights Violation: Article here.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud: Will The United Nations Finally Deliver Justice For Palestine? Article here.

Miko Peled: Failing To Count The Arabs: The Myth Of The "DEMOCRATIC" Jewish State: 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:

21 September 2022
2 September 2022
10 August 2022

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