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Hastings and District Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Newsletter 16 August 2024
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In this newsletter:
Saturday 17 August 12 noon - Information Stall
Saturday 24 August - Swim With Gaza
Sunday 25 August - Hastings Pride
Tuesday 27 August 9 am - Rally at the Trial of the #HASTINGS3
Tuesday 27 August 7 pm - Gig For Gaza
Report: Hastings Brings Water To Al-Mawasi
Report from the West Bank
Email David Lammy: Stop the Torture of Palestinian Prisoners
Plus....local news and books for sale.........
SATURDAY'S INFORMATION STALL
Saturday 17 August 12.00 noon until 2pm Town Centre. 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 and our Instagram page. Swim With Gaza website.
Sunday 25 August 12 11.00. The Stade - Hastings Old Town. We plan to have a contingent at this year's parade. Please join us. More details to follow. Hastings Pride website.
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.
In a clear attempt to deter future protests, the #Hastings3 are facing trial for aggravated trespass. The #Hastings3 are not guilty - Genocide Dynamics is guilty.
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.
Tuesday 27 August. Doors open 7 pm. The Pig, 37 White Rock Hastings TN34 1JL.
Amazing line up of Hastings talent to raise funds for our friends in Gaza and our comrades on trial for protesting against genocide.
Don't miss the chance to get involved in Palestinian solidarity on a local level and hear some incredible acts in the process.
Inclusive pricing £5-£15. If you can't come but want to support the cause, please consider paying it forward by buying a ticket for another guest. Pay on the door or buy tickets through Eventbrite. More information at our Facebook event page.
2 - 31 August. Rogue's Gallery, 65 Norman Road TN38 0EG 'We are all Mothers' is a Jessica Brox solo exhibition, 'a series of drawings and paintings that are telling the stories of the Gazan people over the past several months. The charcoal drawings and oil paintings focus on the insufferable experiences of the Palestinian people and ask us to acknowledge our shared connection and our common humanity.' More information: Instagram.
National March for Palestine - End the Genocide. Central London. 12 noon. Saturday 7 September. More information.
BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Tour. Saturday 14 September. Details to follow. Previous tours: Hastings town centre and Ravenside.
Meeting with Ghada Karmi. 21 September. Our previous online meeting with Ghada Karmi and Ilan Pappé here.
HASTINGS BRINGS WATER TO AL-MAWASI
These are the pictures that made us smile this week - incredible images of free-flowing, fresh water in Al Mawasi, from a new well that our funds helped to dig.
Thanks to your generosity, the community in Al Mawasi have a supply of fresh drinking water once more.
We can never overstate the difference that our support is making right now to the people on the ground suffering 17 years of siege and 10 months of genocide. Thanks to everyone who has helped with fundraising - please keep up the support. It means so much.
 
'WE WILL BE GAZA SOONER OR LATER' - REPORT FROM THE WEST BANK
During a Zoom call with members of Hastings & District PSC earlier this month we heard troubling reports about the latest developments in the West Bank, as well as moving firsthand testimony from an elderly activist, imprisoned by the Israeli authorities for six months. Full report can be read here. We are growing our links and solidarity with our friends in the West Bank.
If you want to join the next call, either as an individual or on behalf of a group, on 12 September at 6pm, please email us
STOP THE TORTURE OF PALESTINIAN PRISONERSI
****Warning - this section contains references to sexual violence****
Last week deplorable footage emerged of Israeli prison guards raping a Palestinian prisoner, leaving the victim hospitalised with severe injuries. Shockingly, the response within Israel has been to rally behind the prison guards who committed this horrific crime - with media figures and high-level politicians inciting further violence and abuse against Palestinian detainees.
Whilst deeply disturbing, this is far from being an isolated incident. UN experts stated last week that the widespread and systematic torture of Palestinian prisoners is a crime against humanity, and that at least 53 Palestinians have been killed since October as a result of abuse while in custody.
There are countless testimonials of detainees kept in cage-like enclosures, tied to beds blindfolded and in nappies, stripped naked, deprived of adequate healthcare, food, water and sleep, and subjected to electrocutions, blackmail, and cigarette burns. Victims have also spoken of loud music played until their ears bled, attacks by dogs, waterboarding, suspension from ceilings and severe sexual and gender-based violence. Israel's leading human rights organisation, B'Tselem, has described the prison system as a network of torture camps.
EMAIL DAVID LAMMY/THE FOREIGN OFFICE: STOP ISRAELI TORTURE
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.
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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.
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Recent Hastings and District PSC newsletters:
9 August 2024
2 August 2024
26 July 2024
Keep up to date with our website and social media:
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