Hastings and District Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Newsletter   2 August 2024
  In this newsletter:
  • Saturday 3 August 12 noon - National Demonstration, London
  • Saturday 3 August 12 noon - Information Stall
  • Saturday 24 August - Swim With Gaza
  • Tuesday 27 August 9.00 - Rally at the Trial of the #HASTINGS3
    Plus....reports from our recent activities, local news, books for sale........


    NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION:
    STOP ARMING ISRAEL. END THE GENOCIDE


    Saturday 3 August noon. Park Lane, London. Meet 10.15am at Hastings Train Station to catch the 10.31 train to London. If you would like to go but need help towards the cost of a ticket, contact us directly. We match donors with marchers.

    SATURDAY'S INFORMATION STALL

    Saturday 3 August 12.00 noon until 2pm Town Centre (weather permitting). Please visit and support our soldarity stall. All the usual information, petitions, plus keffiyehs, books, badges and boycott stickers.

    SWIM WITH GAZA
    SATURDAY 24 AUGUST 3 PM


    The Harbour Arm, Hastings. Join us for this year's solidarity swim with Gaza. Show the people of Gaza that they are not alone - that we are with them in mind, heart, spirit and in the sea! Last year we joined with swimmers from over 40 global locations. So far this year, groups have signed up from Malaysia, Italy, Dublin, Orlando (Florida), Salt Lake City, Nablus and towns along the UK south coast.

    We're working with several local groups including Parentsforfuture-Hastings, so we're planning a range of family-friendly activities for the day. Please share our Facebook event page.

    RALLY AT THE TRIAL OF THE #HASTINGS3


    Tuesday 27 August 9.00 Hastings Magistrates' Court The #Hastings3 were arrested during a peaceful protest of the General Dynamics arms factory in February when a coalition of community groups came together to highlight the ongoing complicity of the company in Israel's genocide in Gaza.

    The #Hastings3 are not guilty - Genocide Dynamics is guilty. All three will plead not guilty to the charge of aggravated trespass when they come before magistrates.

    Join us - bring your voices, your banners, placards, friends, family and energy to raise an almighty howl against this outrageous injustice. Please share our Facebook event page.

    REPORT: ART RAFFLE RAISES £1670 FOR AL-MAWASI

    We are delighted to report that the Art Raffle for Al Mawasi raised £1670, which has been sent to the community to fund digging of a desperately-needed well. Thanks to everyone of you who bought tickets, donated artworks and supported these efforts.

    Particular thanks to our amazing partners Stella Dore Gallery, Hastings Art School and Hastings Friends of Al-Mawasi for making this happen. Report continues: Facebook, Instagram.

    REPORT: 'WHY IS PALESTINE A FEMINIST ISSUE?'

    It was a full house for our meeting 'Why is Palestine a Feminist Issue?' jointly hosted with Hastings Women's Voice.

    We were treated to amazing Palestinian vegetarian food, catered by Chef Roa, followed by an introductory speech by Hastings & District PSC Chair Katy Colley and then a presentation by a speaker from MAKAN, a Palestinian-led educational organisation, on understanding gender binaries and the Palestinian experience under settler-colonialism and imperialism.

    We looked at the way colonialism weaponises sexuality and gender to fragment Palestinians. Report continues: Facebook, Instagram.

    TELL THE ROYAL ACADEMY:
    NO TO CENSORSHIP ON PALESTINE!

    The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) has disgracefully removed artworks by young artists challenging Israel's genocidal violence against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. This is after the Israel lobby had objected to the inclusion of these works. One of the artworks the RA removed is a photograph of a protestor at a PSC demonstration holding a placard that reads "Jews Say Stop Genocide on Palestinians. Not In Our Name."

    EMAIL THE ROYAL ACADEMY NOW!

    HANNIBAL DIRECTIVE: SILENCE IN THE WESTERN MEDIA

    It has been clear that the Israeli military carried out its policy of the Hannibal Directive on October 7th. This is the policy that instructs its military to open fire and kill its own soldiers and civilians to prevent them from being taken captive. Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in its analysis of October 7th, accepted that Israel's army had employed the Hannibal Directive. Despite this, western corporate media has refused to mention this. The dishonesty of the corporate media is just one more example of why alternative websites (see below) are indispensable.
    Article here (Mondoweiss).

    BOOKS AVAILABLE AT OUR STALLS AND MEETINGS

     

    Now available at our stall, two great books to deepen our knowledge of the history of Palestine and Israel leading up to October 7. We're grateful to Lee at Printed Matter in Hastings, for generously discounting the price for us in support of the work of PSC.

  • The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oneworld, 2007) £13 by Ilan Pappé, renowned Israeli historian, scholar and author who was forced from his position at the University of Haifa after publishing this book, and is now Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter. In this book he exposes the facts behind the Nakba of 1948 with meticulous research into Israeli archival documents, making clear that ridding the land of its Palestinian inhabitants was always central to the founding of the State of Israel.

  • The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, Rashid Khalidi (Profile Books, 2020) £12. Khalidi is Palestinian American and the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York City. He tells this history from the perspective of his own prominent Jerusalem Muslim family using his family's extensive archives in Jerusalem, along with multiple other sources, documenting the extensive Palestinian resistance to colonization that began with the arrival of European Jews to Palestine and has continued to the present.

    ........................................

    PALESTINE - ISRAEL: FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

    Much of the 'information' in the corporate media is misleading. Here are some useful sources:
    Middle East Eye.    Electronic Intifada.    Al Jazeera.    Middle East Monitor.
    Mondoweiss.    Palestine Chronicle.    Al Mayadeen.    Mintpress.    The Grayzone.
    The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.       Jonathan Cook.
    The Cradle.       MediaLens.       Declassified UK.
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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. If you would rather not use Paypal, you can pay directly to our bank: please contact us for the details. Or alternatively pay at one of our events.

    The work of Hastings and District PSC could not continue without the 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 and District PSC.
    ........................................

    Recent Hastings and District PSC newsletters:

    26 July 2024
    19 July 2024
    14 July 2024

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