General Election and Palestine- this is the time to find out how your candidates feel about Palestine. Please write to them using this link from PSC. The survey helps monitor and promote those who support justice there. This is about the only time you can be sure of getting a response from politicians, because they want your vote! I just sent this through to the candidates for my constituency. https://palestinecampaign.eaction.online/votepalestine2019 Maybe you could do the same.
PAINTING FOR PALESTINE
Zohar's meditations upon contemporary human existence capture the suffering of the Palestinians. His work is currently on show in Chester;see it at https://chesterartcentre.co.uk/events/the-palestinian-paintings-by-zohar/ and his paintings could come to your city. If you can find a gallery for this exhibition, email me at postmaster@roseburn32.plus.com
TWINNING WITH GAZA
Our efforts to get Edinburgh to twin with Gaza continue. See this article in Redress which explains why: www.redressonline.com/2019/11/why-edinburgh-should-twin-with-gaza We were able to secure an interview with Norman Finkelstein who has campaigned to end the illegal blockade for many years. We had faced challenges from Councillors to to support the people of Gaza City was to support Hamas. Finkelstein gave us an idea of what to say in this 4 minute video “Why Twinning with Gaza has Nothing to do with Hamas”. See it at https://youtu.be/UmeraZ3SGh0
PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
If you agree with me that the PSC has been dozy about challenging the IHRA and is hopelessly wedded to a two-state solution that nobody thinks is viable any more then we need activists in there who share these views. I’m not mad about Tony Greenstein, but if he wants to be secretary of PSC to put a rocket under them, then I think we should support him. See http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2019/11/i-have-decided-to-stand-for-secretary.html
LABOUR AND BOGUS AS IN THE MEDIA
Here are letters to the press supporting Corbyn. "As British Jews, we are not prepared to be used as cannon fodder in what is really a political siege of the Labour party", say 14 signatories.https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/nov/17/a-vote-for-labour-is-not-a-vote-for-antisemitism
"New letter supporting Jeremy Corbyn signed by Roger Waters, Robert Del Naja, Brian Eno, Vivienne Westwood and Mark Ruffalo are also among the 30 signatories declaring their support for the Labour leader ahead of next month’s general election.The support follows the release of a letter from other celebrity names who oppose Corbyn’s position as leader of the party, denouncing what what they feared to be “the prospect of a prime minister steeped in association with antisemitism,” and comes less than a month before the UK general election on December 12. https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/support-for-jeremy-corbyn-from-roger-waters-robert-del-naja-and-more
In Septemeber a group of academics published the book “Bad News for Labour” (by Greg Philo et al) which looks at anti-Semitism, the Party and public belief. The authors had surveyed public views and found most considered that 25-40 % of Labour Party members had had complaints made about them for anti-Semitism. These judgements had been made on the very high level of media coverage, which they assumed meant that many people were involved. As pointed out by Labour’s General Secretary in February of this year, less than 0.1% of Party members have been accused. (see https://skwawkbox.org/2019/02/12/labours-antisemitism-data-release-exposes-media-narrative/ ). So if you want to get somebody a Xmas present.. buy the book!
VIRTUAL REALITY TOUR OF PALESTINE
Many Palestinians are prevented from travelling around their homeland and an app has been created that helps them see it all in this 360 virtual tour of the West Bank and Gaza. Click the link to the film above to get an idea. The inspiration for the idea came when Israel decided in August to bar Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American, and Ilhan Omar from entering Israel. The story behind it is at https://www.972mag.com/palestine-vr-occupation-tlaib-omar/
Cheers
Pete Gregson (Edinburgh)