Olivia Blake (pictured left, and below holding a Palestinian flag) is Labour councillor for the Walkley, Netherthorpe and Upperthorpe wards in Sheffield.
She's deputy leader of Sheffield Council and Labour's candidate for the parliamentary seat of Sheffield Hallam.
She's on record as saying “I fully support the work of Jeremy Corbyn ... to rid our party of antisemitism...."
(Yes, you read that correctly!)
But along with the rest of the Labour-dominated city council she evidently thinks that the council has a mandate over and beyond its obligation to keep roads free of potholes, to ensure rubbish is collected on time, and to collect rates.
For Sheffield Council has made a foray into the realm of foreign policy. Not foreign policy in general, but foreign policy aimed at undermining the State of Israel. And aspiring MP Olivia thinks that's a really grand idea.
As outlined here (with a photo, different from the one above, showing Olivia raising the flag) Sheffield Council's recognition of "Palestine" as a sovereign state
came after Sheffield Labor Friends of Palestine gathered nearly 20,000 signatures on a petition calling on the city council to recognize Palestine.
Labor Friends of Palestine, who supported this move, said they will pass on this decision to the British Parliament to discuss it in September.
Palestine's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Hussam Zomlot, welcomed the move and praised the Sheffield Labor Friends of Palestine for their efforts to get their city to recognize Palestine and raise its flag.
He said this support is not only symbolic, but rather is a step toward British recognition of Palestine, which he said is long overdue and a duty for Britain which participated in the tragedy of the Palestinian people with the infamous Balfour Declaration of 1917 that promised a homeland for the Jews in Palestine totally disregarding its indigenous Palestinian population.
Julie Pearn, of the Sheffield Labor Friends of Palestine, played a big role in winning this recognition. “The time for recognition is long overdue. The state of Palestine is already recognized by 138 other nations," she said two weeks ago at a rally outside Sheffield Town Hall.
“We believe public recognition of the Palestine state by the council would be a powerful and influential statement of solidarity which we hope other councils will envy."
Council[l]or Olivia Blake, deputy leader, also said then that “Sheffield is just one city but we can make this symbolic gesture and hope to put pressure on government to do likewise.”Meanwhile, further mischief is afoot, on the part of the British Trade Union Movement, with which Corbyn and the Corbynistas are of course hand-in-glove.
Inter alia:
A PSC Trade Union Conference: Developing Palestine as a core issue for UK trade union members to grow the international solidarity movement.
Supported by Unite the Union, UNISON, GMB, NEU, ASLEF, UCU, RMT, FBU, TSSA, CWU and TUC.
This conference will feature Palestinian and UK speakers, and provide the space to explore new avenues and provide tools for trade unionists to further our solidarity work for Palestine.
The collective rights of the Palestinian people are under unprecedented assault. The Palestinians need our solidarity now more than ever, and the trade union movement is a crucial part of building lasting solidarity with the Palestinian people. We need to take forward solidarity campaigns, including BDS, to pressure Israel into complying with international law and the universal principles of human rights.
Featured sessions include the situation of Palestinian workers under occupation, how to take BDS action, how we can make a stronger case for Palestinian rights, and the ways we can build on the existing solidarity work by Trade Unions in the UK.
This conference is designed for trade unionists who want to further their solidarity work, to make further progress for Palestine in their unions and beyond.
Join us to skill up, to learn from each other, to hear from inspiring speakers, to attend seminars and to build the power of Palestine solidarity across the UK trade union movement. [Emphasis added]
QUESTION:
ReplyDelete"What is the Israeli-Arab conflict really about?"
ANSWER 1:
Mr. John Rossomando said:
“[IUMS Trustee Sheikh Hassan Ould] Aldo
and the [Muslim] Brotherhood use language
similar to what Hamas used in its original
charter, which rejected any peaceful coexistence.
To them, Palestine is part of
a waqf, a holy Islamic trust,
that no person can negotiate away.”
SOURCE: Muslim Brotherhood,
Hamas: No Peace as Long as Israel Exists
by Mr. John Rossomando, 2019 July 1
www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/01/muslim-brotherhood-hamas-no-peace-as-long-as-israel-exists/
ANSWER 2:
The Koran teaches that Jews are
the worst enemies of Muslims.
The Koran’s 5th chapter, verse 82 says:
“You will find that the people most
hostile towards the believers [Muslims]
are the Jews and the polytheists...”
ANSWER 3:
At a [year] 1937 [CE] lecture to the British
Foreign Ministry, the King of Saudi Arabia said:
“Verily, the word of Allah teaches us,
and we implicitly believe this...
for a Muslim to kill a Jew...
ensures him immediate entry into Heaven...”
SOURCE:
The Holocaust’s Most Vicious Killers
by Edwin Black, The Jewish Press,
2011/1/21, pages 1 and 91.
ANSWER 4:
Louis René Beres said:
“For Hamas, the Israeli enemy is more
than just a geo-strategic opponent.
It is, rather, a delegated religious target
slated for annihilation, one whose obligatory
and violent elimination will confer blessedly
eternal life upon the Islamic sacrificer”.
SOURCE: Radical Islam:
Terrorism as Power Over Death
by Louis René Beres, 2019 January 3
www.algemeiner.com/2019/01/03/radical-islam-terrorism-as-power-over-death/
ANSWER 5:
“If one or more of the parties knows that peace
implies the end of its existence, it has no motive
to return to peace. That is how the radical Islamists
of Hamas view the future of Muslim society.
A wealthy and successful Jewish state next to
a poor and dysfunctional Palestinian state
may imply the end of the moral authority of Islam,
and some Palestinians would rather fight to
the death than embrace such an outcome.
Rather than consign their children to the
Western milieu of personal freedom and sexual
license, radical Muslims will fight to the death.”
SOURCE: How Civilizations Die
(chapter Introduction, page xiv) by David P. Goldman,
year 2011 CE, Regnery Publishing, ISBN 978-1-59698-273-4
ANSWER 6:
The Koran requires the "abasement and poverty" of Jews:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Islam
CONCLUSION: Contrary to popular belief, Israeli-Arab conflict is NOT ABOUT LAND. It is about Arab schools and Islam’s most sacred books teaching hate against Jews.
Yigal Carmon [President of MEMRI dot org] said:
ReplyDelete...Qatar cultivates anti-Semitism, even allowing Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, hosted and protected for decades by Qatar, to call on its airwaves for a NEW HOLOCAUST to be carried out “at the hands of the Muslims.”
SOURCE: Americans are good people —
just ask the Qatari Emir by Yigal Carmon, 2019/7/14
www.jns.org/opinion/the-americans-are-good-people-just-ask-the-qatari-emir/
Yigal Carmon [President of MEMRI dot org] said:
ReplyDeleteTwo months before 9/11, on Qatar’s
state-run Al-Jazeera TV, bin Laden
was lionized in a show dedicated to him.
He was called “the No. 1 Arab and Islamic hero”
and “the conscience of the Arab and Islamic world.”
The program host underlined that as
“the [Muslim] nation thirsts deeply
for someone who will confront America...
not with words and slogans,”
and said that bin Laden was
“the right man for this important role.”
And indeed he was.
SOURCE: Americans are good people —
just ask the Qatari Emir by Yigal Carmon, 2019/7/14
www.jns.org/opinion/the-americans-are-good-people-just-ask-the-qatari-emir
Yigal Carmon [President of MEMRI dot org] said:
ReplyDelete“For over two decades, Qatar has been fostering and advancing nearly every terrorist organization that has murdered Americans.
It praised Osama bin Laden, and after him Ayman Al-Zawahiri [leader of Al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden], to the skies.”
SOURCE: Americans are good people —
just ask the Qatari Emir by Yigal Carmon, 2019/7/14
www.jns.org/opinion/the-americans-are-good-people-just-ask-the-qatari-emir/
Yigal Carmon [President of MEMRI dot org] said:
ReplyDeleteA popular Arab saying goes,
“The Americans are good people
— they can easily be deceived.”
SOURCE: Americans are good people —
just ask the Qatari Emir by Yigal Carmon, 2019/7/14
www.jns.org/opinion/the-americans-are-good-people-just-ask-the-qatari-emir
Josep Borrell Fontelles, the newly elected
ReplyDeleteChairman of the European Union,
recently said in an interview in Politico:
“Iran wants to wipe Israel out,
nothing new about that.
You have to live with it.”
SOURCE: Lessons in the appeasement of Iran
by Sarah N. Stern [President of the Endowment
for Middle East Truth] 2019 July 12
www.jns.org/opinion/lessons-in-the-appeasement-of-iran/
Mr. Ross Perot
ReplyDelete(two-time USA Presidential candidate) said:
“Israel is a beacon in its part of the world
in terms of its democratic government.
It is a role model to the others there...”
SOURCE: Remembering Ross Perot’s
relationship with Israel and the American Jewish
community by Jackson Richman, 2019 July 10
www.jns.org/remembering-ross-perots-relationship-with-israel-and-the-amreican-jewish-community/
Mr. Sean Savage said:
ReplyDelete“...the ADL has uncovered virulently
anti-Semitic passages in Qatari state textbooks.
These books claim that:
Jewish people are treacherous,
seek to conquer the world and follow
a perverted, invalid religion.
The books also contained numerous
examples of anti-Christian bigotry,
as well as incitement against the West.”
Qatar’s government also funds the
International Union of Muslim Scholars,
whose Secretary-General openly denies
the Holocaust, according to the
Middle East Media Research Institute.”
SOURCE: Qatar’s ‘big win’ in
White House visit unlikely to bridge vast policy
differences, by Mr. Sean Savage, 2019 July 9
www.jns.org/qatars-big-win-in-white-house-visit-unlikely-to-bridge-vast-policy-differences/