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Hastings and District Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Newsletter 14 December 2023
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In this newsletter:
Permanent Ceasefire Now! Speak Out For Palestine! Saturday 16 December
Stop Arms to Israel From Hastings. General Dynamics Monday 18 December
Boycott Israel: Ravenside Retail Park Saturday 23 December
Report: Al-Mawasi : Solar Panels Are Up And Running
Report: Permanent Ceasefire Now Rally. Plan Dalet
Report: Gig For Gaza
Puma: BDS win
PERMANENT CEASEFIRE NOW! SPEAK OUT FOR PALESTINE!
 Saturday 16 December 12 noon
Hastings Town Centre
"There is no safe place in Gaza. 2.2m people are living in a state of terror." This is Monday's statement from MAP.
There has never been a more important time to turn up for Gaza and show your support.
Join us on Saturday for:
The latest messages from our friends in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza;
Speak Your Mind - a chance for you to speak out and share your thoughts. The mike's all yours. Message us first to add your name to the list with a word about what you want to say so that we can introduce you;
Tribute to writer and poet Professor Refaat Alareer who was assassinated last Wednesday by the Israeli military. He was killed, not because his weapon was a gun - but a pen;
Add to our Solidarity Book. A chance to give your message of support and solidarity so we can send it to the people of Gaza.
Action. What we can do, how we can get involved.
Please share our Facebook event page and our Instagram post.
STOP ARMS TO ISRAEL FROM HASTINGS
 General Dynamics, Sidney Little Road Hastings TN38 9PU
Monday 18 December 7 am
Join us to protest against all arms sales to Israel from the UK and to stop General Dynamics profiteering from Israel's war against Palestine
7am start; we will stay as long as we have people willing to stay, so check our social media for updates if you are planning to join us later in the day.
General Dynamics provides the Israeli military with BLU-113 5,000 pound 'bunker buster' bombs, BLU-109 'hardened penetration' bombs and MK-82 and 84 'general-purpose' bombs. The firm also provides weapons systems for Israel's fleet of F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.
Please share our Facebook event page and our Instagram post.
BOYCOTT ISRAEL : RAVENSIDE RETAIL PARK
Ravenside Retail Park, Bexhill-on-Sea TN40 2JU Saturday 23 December 10.00 am
More details to follow.
2024 : DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES
Planning meeting. Tuesday 2 January 6pm. White Rock Hotel TN34 1JU Everyone is welcome who supports the demand 'Ceasefire Now! We want to organise more boycott actions, more protests targetting local companies who are complicit with Israel's apartheid, also more fundraising events.
National March for Palestine - Ceasefire NOW - January 13. 12 noon Central London.
Come Dine for Palestine. Date to be announced.
AL-MAWASI : SOLAR PANELS ARE UP AND RUNNING
 We are very pleased to announce that the community at Al-Mawasi has now bought four solar panels, installed them and they are up and running. We send our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed funds for this.
The community is now generating electricity to pump fresh water from a well and also to use it for charging phones and lights.
We are receiving reports which show that they have opened their doors to displaced people so that now the community centre is full up with people. They have been distributing some of the money we've sent amongst the local community to buy seriously needed medications. This is required because of widespread diarrhoea and vomiting amongst the children caused by drinking the unhealthy water (Israel having turned off Gaza's supply of electricity, water, food and fuel supplies on October 13). At least this is a problem that should now be reduced with fresh drinking water. But clearly with 1.9 million homeless people forced into such a small area in southern Gaza the risk of diseases is very high.
Unfortunately they can't collect the most recent funds we've sent because the nearest banks are in Khan Younis which is now a war zone. We're still collecting money: we will send this at some point when it's safe for them to pick it up.
PERMANENT CEASEFIRE NOW! RALLY IN HASTINGS
History is the key to understanding the nightmare unfolding in Gaza today
Our rally on 2 December was one of more than 40 organised throughout the UK calling for a permanent ceasefire. Unfortunately, after a brief 'humanitarian pause,' this was the day after Israel resumed its murderous attacks against the people of Gaza.
One of the speakers gave the background to the present campaign of ethnic cleansing against the people of Gaza. "The goal from the very beginning was to take as much land as possible and remove as many Palestinians as possible.......What we're witnessing in Gaza today can look, on the face of it, barbaric and senseless. And while it is certainly barbaric it is not senseless."
This was explained as part of Plan Dalet carried out by the Zionist movement. "It called for the systematic and total expulsion of Palestinians."
The talk is in full here. A version of the talk is worth watching on our TikTok channel.
Thank you everyone who came and supported our fundraiser Gig for Gaza for Hastings Friends of Al-Mawasi and Medical Aid for Palestinians. 170 of you!
It was a wonderful evening of solidarity, music and love, raising nearly £3,000 to help support the struggling community of Al Mawasi, as well as the healthcare needs of all Palestinians in Gaza suffering from 70 days of war and siege.
Thanks to all our incredible musicians for bringing such beautiful, soulful, moving, mesmerising, entrancing and uplifting music - Frank Moon, Juliet Russell, Bellza, Arfrit Nebula, Woodland Folk Sian and Mike Willis.
Special thanks to the East Hastings Sea Angling Club for hosting, organiser extraordinaire Jess Luby, prize-getter Mark Caffrey, tech & sound man Julian Humphries, artwork designer Dick Hogg, our helpers on the night and all the generous businesses and artists who donated to our raffle.
Thanks one and all! Two short videos of the night on Facebook and on TikTok.
BDS/BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS WORKS!
Puma has announced that it won't be renewing its contract with the Israel Football Association. This is great news proving that boycotts do work. Thanks to everyone who has joined us in our pickets outside (and inside!) retailers stocking Puma goods. Puma forced to drop sponsorship of Israel Football Association.
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PALESTINE - ISRAEL - FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Much of the 'information' in the corporate media is often misleading. Some useful sources:
Middle East Eye. Electronic Intifada. Al Jazeera. Middle East Monitor.
Mondoweiss. Palestine Chronicle. Al Mayadeen. Mintpress. The Grayzone.
The Cradle.
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Hastings and District PSC online membership and donations
Becoming a member of Hastings and District 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 & District 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 & District PSC.
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Recent Hastings and District PSC newsletters:
30 November 2023
24 November 2023
21 November 2023
Keep up to date with our website and social media:
Website Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Channel TikTok.
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