ONE STATE: The Palexpo a couple of weeks ago in London had a highlight with this speech from veteran Israeli journalist Gideon Levy when he espoused the One State Solution for Palestine: he says "Those who today talk about a two-state solution are the biggest supporters of occupation".
Sadly, Labour continues to espouse this policy. But whilst the Palestinian Authority also calls for this, most Palestinians I’ve spoken to disagree. They see that they will always be a beggar state, now that Israel has taken so much of the prime land and divided their homeland into so many little pieces. We must work to change Labour policy and one of the things we plan to try is for LAZIR (Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism) to run a Fringe event at Labour Conference in Brighton 21st -25th Sept. This 2015 Poll report showed that 90% Jews support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state – we have a mountain to climb.
Israel is trying to pretend the land was always theirs. See this article from Haaretz of early July “Burying the Nakba: How Israel Systematically Hides Evidence of 1948 Expulsion of Arabs” Since early last decade, Defence Ministry teams have scoured local archives and removed troves of historic documents to conceal proof of the Nakba.
We’d also like our event to focus on that and the bogus anti-Semitism charges that continue to be flung against great politicians such as Chris Williamson MP. If you’d like to help out with this event, please get in touch with me at postmaster@roseburn32.plus.com I'll be speaking on the subject at the Harlequin festival on 2nd August.
CHRIS WILLIAMSON
That he remains suspended is tragic and we at LAZIR have been issuing press releases in his defence. “The Vilification of Chris Williamson Must Stop” was published in Redress Information & Analysis
Lord Falconer’s attack on him was especially unsavoury. I have made up this e-mail generator: if you want to complain, click here. It will take you to a word document. Click on the link in that to generate an email to the Labour HQ with complaining text you can use. Amend and add more text as you like. You’ll need to add your own paragraph breaks. I’ve set it up that I’ll get a copy too – that way I can see how many of you have done an email. The Labour complaints unit will reply saying they want you to use their online form at https://labour.org.uk/members/my-welfare/making-a-complaint/ So you’ll need to do that as well. The advantage about using the generator is that it sends an email to Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson’s office- which I think is important to show our support for Chris.
Also read the letter in support of Chris Williamson from Noam Chomsky, etc that the Guardian pulled here in Redress
Whilst we are talking about the UK media: This article includes a very sharp analysis of that awful Panorama programme “An Open Letter about the Labour Tribune MPs Group Statement on antisemitism in the Labour Party”
LAZIR NEWS
The website isn’t ready yet- to see the aims & policies of this new group, go to www.tinyurl.com/laziwork
The minutes of the inaugural meeting are here. There are presently 49 members; the office bearers are me (chair), Ian (vice-chair), Gerry Dowling (Secretary), Jon de Rennes (Comms) and Dee (Event co-ordination/letter-writing campaign co-ordinator). We have set up a Facebook page here; if you “Like” it, you’ll get updates in your news feed.
Please feel free to forward this update onto others who you think may be interested in LAZIR and encourage them to find out more about us and join by clicking on this link If you're in Labour you get to be a full member, otherwise you can be an associate.. joining is free.
GIG FOR GAZA
The Gig for Gaza was beleaguered by bad weather. Held in the city centre’s Princes St Gardens, under the Castle, we could have had 500 there (I’d given out 12,000 flyers, after all). It was a free gig, with a bucket collection. But on the night Edinburgh got one of its rare torrential downpours. The location was practically flooded. It was the sort of rain that left you drenched in seconds. The stage was dry, but no-one else was. Still everybody who came really enjoyed it and we made many useful contacts. These activists will help lobby our Cllrs to progress the twinning idea. You can see the video of our call to arms- WHY TWIN WITH GAZA? There is a link to a valuable 3-minute video of a collection of quotes at the end, “Palestine belongs to the Arabs”.
Please also look at this other film if you have time. It is a great short film (11 mins) by Iqbal Mohammed from Huddersfield. It is about the Israeli practice of "roof tapping" whereby Gazans get a 3-minute warning before their homes (a block of flats, for example) are destroyed- see it here Iqbal would be very pleased if you could organise local screenings of his short film. Get in touch with him though me.
The last act of the night was the incredible Stoned Holy Rollers – see the film of their performance here
Whilst the event was a washout, the Council petition to get Edinburgh twinned with Gaza now has sufficient signatures to ensure the City’s Policy Committee discuss the twinning. Find out more here
The Weekly Worker published my arguments for doing this in their last issue- see 3rd letter down here "Twins and Sneers"
SLANDER
There was a really nasty article about me in the Sunday Herald (a Scottish Publication). The newspaper refused to print my response letter or even allow me to refute the slander on their comments string. I spent £300 for advice from a lawyer, as I intended suing for slander. But he said I had little chance of winning. It seems newspapers can say whatever they like and get away with it under the cloak of “fair comment”. You can read all about it here
A NEW GROUP OF THE LEFT
A new group that could replace Momentum is being set up. I’ve joined; please consider doing the same https://labourleft.org/appeal/
And finally, some great Steve Bell cartoons here about Tom Watson and AS that you'll never see in print. He’s written to tell me we can use them in the new LAZIR website.
Best wishes
Pete Gregson, Edinburgh