Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind.(Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)
We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948) With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last.(Friends of Israel Initiative)
Showing posts with label Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Show all posts
"From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free!" blared the hordes of Israelphobes who rallied in London on 11 May for a bumper anti-Israel rally addressed by Israel-hating poster girl Ahed Tamimi herself.
"Resist! Exist! Return!" proclaimed their placards.
Yes, even those with a Room Temperature IQ must realise what the demonstrators have in mind for the plucky little State of Israel.
In the Grauniad, a brief sanitised description of events here
Glean the mood and tone of the demonstrators on BDSer Seymour Alexander's 16-minute video below.
Some photos of the marchers, the usual mishmash of Muslims and Far Leftists and Judeophobic old dears:
Spot a familiar face in the crowd, in that last one? Yes, that is indeed flamboyant Welsh Greens ex-leader and veteran Israel basher Pippa Bartolotti, appropriating the Welsh flag for the ignoble cause:
"When I say Free you say Palestine ... Yes, yes BDS"
"O Jeremy Corbyn!"
On 30 March, outside the Israeli Embassy in London (with a bunch of those Shabbat-breaking "authentic Jews" the Neturei Karta lending the support of their presence) anti-Zionist ferals marking the first anniversary of the "Great March of Return", scream and cheer a succession of leftist speakers claming Netanyahu and "Apartheid Israel" and advocating the "Right of Return".
Speakers include Jewish flotilla alumnus Glyn Secker, Amos Trust director Chris Rose, and Stop the War Coalition's Lindsey German, and Joyce Hurndall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMPMja0Wgp4
More odious sentiments, from, among others, a trade union representative, from a member of the truly egregious Jewish Voice for Labour, and a pro-BDS song from a choir of elderly dames, as well as a talk by the PSC's Hugh Lanning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzVzui7X-rg
And yet more vile bile, including notice of another demo planned for 11 May:
Outside the Israeli Embassy in London on 11 May, an anti-Israel "Solidarity With Gaza" rally staged by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (and others) is challenged by vociferous pro-Israel counter-demonstrators.
At 8:50 on the video enter, stage right, none other than the loathsome Baroness (Jenny) Tonge, whose tongue-lashing of the pro-Israel crowd is barely audible, since they all but drown her out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vcKjhJolOQ
Video by Alex Seymour aka Seymour Alexander (whose sentiments regarding this event are, of course, very different from mine).
In the leafy London suburb of Richmond (not to be confused with Richmond, Yorkshire, of which the "Sweet Lass" was a denizen), a nutty piece of Israel-demonising "street theatre" featuring old codgers in camouflage gear, elderly ladies swathed in what resemble the cast off medieval-style garments of that great English eccentric Dame Edith Sitwell, and bewildered-looking kids doing their best to follow the choreography.
Most busy shoppers give this bizarre Israel-demonising performance, the brainchild of the Kingston & Richmond Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) branch, a wide berth, cursorily glancing with puzzled looks, and then moving swiftly on, leaving the players and their keffiyeh-wearing cheerleaders to waste their sourness on the suburban air.
Vile as this sicko little drama is, I reckon the spectacular ham acting of the lady with the
"heart attack" deserves a British Comedy Award!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr_cOdAZUG4
(A MrAlexSeymour video; his spiel about the performance can be found beneath the video on YouTube)
Following on from my previous post, here's another video of Palestine Solidarity Campaign Israel-haters in London being challenged by the truth-tellers from the Israel Advocacy Movement:
Oh, and since some of the Israel-haters seem to be getting their underwear in a twist over the perceived "Zionism" of Britain's prime minister designate Theresa May, here's her speech last year that's making the Israel-haters so unhappy:
In London last week, a mob of abusive Palestine Solidarity Campaign activists taunt an unexpected showing of pro-Israelis, standing in dignified fashion in silent counter-protest while the PSCniks raise fists in the air, rasp familiar chants, sound a silly shrill trill, and even indulge in a taunting improvised rhyme that includes da Joo word.
The doughty David Collier gives the context (and another video) here
And in Toronto on Al Quds Day teacher Nadia Shoufani reminds her fellow Israel-haters of another Israel-hater's words ("... We are here to urge you all to believe ... that the Palestinian cause is not a
cause for Palestinians only but it's a cause for every revolutionary whereever he
[sic] is, a cause for the exploited and oppressed masses in our era ...") before launching into a full-scale rant against the Zionist Entity.
There's a very able refutation here of her damaging nonsense
(Hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog)
Meanwhile, an old friend of ours, Jeremy Moodey, CEO of Engage the Middle East, surfaced in the correspondence columns of the Church of England newspaper (12 May) to argue against its behind-a-paywall editorial of the previous week. (Hat tip: reader P)
Notice that Moodey has the spiteful audacity to consider Israel a "rogue" state. He implicitly favours an end to Jewish statehood.
Shame, shame, shame on him.
On social media, another old friend of ours, Stephen Sizer, likes the dissembling Israel-bash, and incorrigible antisemite and 9/11 troofer Tony Gratrex (founder of Reading PSC) seems equally pleased, sharing the article.
In defiance, I think we should give this fine fellow with the magnificent moustache a twirl:
The shocking and horrendous murder of British Labour MP Jo Cox in her Yorkshire constituency is of course a tragedy and an outrage that has caused widespread revulsion and an outpouring of grief both from those who knew the 41-year-old personally and those who did not.
It goes without saying that all decent people, irrespective of creed and political complexion, deplore the evil that took her life, and sympathise with her friends and family, not least her two small children.
As the Jewish Chronicle reports,
'Jewish communal leaders have paid tribute to Jo Cox, the Labour MP who was shot and stabbed in a shock attack in her constituency on Thursday afternoon....
Mrs Cox’s Jewish colleagues expressed sadness at the news. Luciana Berger, the Shadow Minister for Mental Health, tweeted: “Jo Cox was one of the best. A kind, wonderful, passionate, super talented colleague. My deepest condolences to Brendan and the family.”
Paying tribute to her human rights work, Labour MP Ivan Lewis, who is running for Manchester Mayor, tweeted: “Jo Cox changed the world for mums at risk of dying during childbirth and Syrian refugees. We pray for her family and must learn from her humanity.”....
Jeremy Newmark, chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, knew both Mrs Cox and her husband Brendan socially.
He said he had come across Mr Cox, who worked in international aid and development, on projects looking to bridge relations between Jewish community institutions and NGOs like umbrella group Crisis Action.
Mr Newmark said: “She was a very human politician in every sense. She cared. She cared about issues and people....
UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis paid tribute to Mrs Cox. He said: "We're united in grief today at the terrible loss of Jo Cox. Brutally murdered as she served constituents. May her memory be for a blessing."
Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies, the representative body of British Jews, said: “We send our condolences and prayers to all of Jo Cox's family after her senseless and tragic murder.”
Tweeted 23 June 2015
The Jewish Leadership Council tweeted: “The JLC is shocked and appalled at the senseless and tragic murder of Jo Cox MP. We send our sincere condolences to her husband and family.”
The Community Security Trust tweeted: "We are shocked and appalled at the attack on Jo Cox MP and our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family."....
In a vigil after her death, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to her work as a parliamentarian and human rights activist.
In a statement, Mr Corbyn said: “Jo was dedicated to getting us to live up to our promises to support the developing world and strengthen human rights.”....'
MPs have closed ranks and prime minister David Cameron has also paid tribute:
"This is absolutely tragic and dreadful news. My thoughts are with Jo's husband Brendan, their two children and their wider family. We've lost a great star, she was a great campaigning MP with huge compassion and a big heart."
Ms Cox has been recalled as a great humanitarian whose memory can best be served by embracing the causes that mattered to her and emulating her in her compassion.
Yet it has to be asked: "How compassionate was she towards Israel in its struggle against Palestinian Arab rejectionism and terror?"
Here's a tweet from 16 April 2015:
And here's a current comment on it from someone in Pakistan, from where so many of the late MP's constituents originate:
As the Jewish Chronicle notes in the above-mentioned report:
"In the course of her career, she called for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and submitted a piece on the issue for Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.
In her ‘Unlocking Gaza’a potential: beyond conflict and crisis’ article, she wrote: “The international community should prioritise efforts to stabilise and extend the current ceasefire, end the blockade to kickstart Gaza’s economy and allow greater freedom of movement both into and from Gaza.”
She called on her party to: “encourage the Israeli government to open up all crossings into and out of Gaza, and urgently allow free and unfettered access to Gaza for goods.”
She also said the Labour Party should “pledge to support a Palestinian national unity government, with Hamas and Fatah ministers, operating in both Gaza and the West Bank,” adding that it should also: “Press for an end to rocket or mortar attacks into Israel. Press for accountability for human rights abuses and violations of international law committed by all sides.”
Ms Cox was sometimes spoken of as a potential Foreign Secretary. We will of course never know, now, what that would have meant for Israel had she attained that position.
But this and the tweets I have included on this blog suggest that friends of Israel may well have felt dismayed.
In Cardiff, the Welsh capital, a gaggle of mainly middle-aged and rather elderly women, accompanied by a few men and surrounded by Palestine Solidarity Campaign banners, join with gusto in singing the Arabic song Mawtini (dating to the time of the 1936 Arab Riots in Mandate Palestine and since adopted by the PA and Iraq as their anthems).
Watch the fervour with which some of these women trill out the lyrics (it's almost like some religious revival meeting in John and Charles Wesley's day).
The choir mistress, swathed in a large keffiyeh, has a spring in her step that belies her years.
What, I wonder, is it about the anti-Israel cause that makes their juices flow so? After all, many of them are old enough to remember when Arab armies almost wiped the tiny Jewish State off the map, as well as Palestinian Arab atrocities against Israel such as the Ma'alot massacre.
However, not so fervent, it appears, are passers-by, to judge by the forlorn look of that red bucket strategically placed to receive donations.
The things the PSC clowns on the High Street say! It would be laughable if it weren't so despicably ignorant.
Here, in this video by arch-BDSer Alex Seymour (whose rather pleasant tones can be heard off-camera) a woman from the Slough PSC spouts nonsense and holds those equally nonsensical maps.
That's right, the maps that the contemptible Jewish Voice for Peace have been challenged by David Singer over. No surprise that David (whose wise words regarding combatting lies against Israel including those mendacious maps can be read near the top of my sidebar) still awaits an answer from those demons.
Oh, and if you want to see my latest post regarding British Greens leader Pippa Bartolotti and her take on antisemitism (a post which landed in an unexpected spot!) please scroll back to here!
The London Jewish News (the Jewish Chronicle's giveaway rival) reports, inter alia:
'The BBC has said it was “inadvisable” for former director of television Danny Cohen to oppose cultural boycotts of Israel.
In an astonishing statement, BBC chief complaints adviser Dominic Groves sent in January said: “The BBC agrees that it was inadvisable for him to add his signature given his then seniority within the BBC as director of television.” Groves admitted that “in practice, it had no bearing on his ability to do his day-to-day job, a role which does not involve direct control over BBC news.”'
The paper goes on to quote Board of Deputies' president Jonathan Arkush thus:
“Sadly, we don’t expect much from the BBC given its lack of balance on issues concerning Israel. It was therefore thoroughly hypocritical to criticise its former director of television for allegedly not being impartial. Moreover, to talk of BDS as an issue of current political controversy is wrong. The bigotry against Israel, not repeated in relation to any other country in the world, is not a political but a moral issue, on which people should be free to speak their mind. Fortunately the boycotters are rejected by mainstream political parties and most sections of our society, so Danny Cohen was on the right side of the argument."
When is Britain's ultra-arrogant thumb-nosing leftist-infested publicly-funded national broadcaster going to tell Bowen, Danahar, Donnison and the rest of its claque of reporters and correspondents who show their partiality towards the anti-Israel narrative again and again and again without censure that their partiality is "inappropriate"?
Well, we know what worldview the successful traineeship applicants will be expected to hold, among other politically correct attributes. But I wonder whether it still helps to have a daddy in the Corporation (I mean, as Jezza will be well aware, there have been an awful lot of father-son and occasionally father-daughter teams in the BBC, which presumably would frown on nepotism and the hereditary principle elsewhere!)
Update: Courtesy of BBCWatch, yet another brazen example of the BBC's odious bias against Israel:
That mendacious set of four maps (you know the one!) has made an appearance on mugs sent to various members of the BBC's staff by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign!
Clicking on the relevant link we read, inter alia among the predictable Israel-demonising nonsense:
'The BBC’s head of news and current affairs, and some of the organisation’s most senior presenters, have received innovative reminders this week that the Palestinians are an occupied people whose land is still being stolen from them.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign has sent its mugs, printed with maps showing just how much of their land Palestinians have lost to Israel since 1948, to BBC Broadcasting House in London.
James Harding, the BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs, Evan Davis, presenter of Newsnight, Today presenters, John Humphrys, Mishal Husain, Sarah Montague and James Naughtie, and News at Ten anchors, Fiona Bruce and Huw Edwards, were sent the mugs this week, along with letters reminding them who is the occupier and who is the occupied....'
How anyone could possibly consider the BBC, with that coterie of reporters that includes Bowen, Donnison, Guerin and Knell, to be biased in favour of Israel strikes me, and countless others, as truly baffling and bizarre.
Evidently, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have never examined the compelling evidence against the Bowenites compiled by BBC Watch.
(Well, they wouldn't, would they?)
Essentially, the difference between those of us who despair at and deplore the BBC's bias against Israel and the PSC is that we merely want the BBC to report from the region in neutral, objective fashion as the BBC's Charter and Producers' Guidelines warrant, whereas the PSC and other Israel-haters evidently want the BBC to shill for the anti-Israel cause all of the time.
After all, the logo of the PSC is a map that completely obliterates Israel.
Enough said.
On that topic.
For the moment.
But while I have your attention, please note that an old chum of ours is back on Facebook. He's been there for about a week, I learn from reader P.
So far, our old chum appears to be not only an older but a wiser man:
Thanks, Your Reverence. Very worthy stuff. Pray keep it up!
Tony Gratrex, who was (I'm not sure whether he still is) organiser of the Reading Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) branch, has veered into antisemitism on several occasions. See, for instance, here and here
I've drawn attention in a couple or more posts to the antisemitic stuff that he tolerates on his Facebook wall.
On January 27, Holocaust Memorial Day, this vile antisemitic post appeared on Facebook, from a group that specialises in antisemitic anti-Israel material that make its way to Mr Gratrex's wall. Shame to say, Mr Gratrex seems to approve:
Gratrex's Facebook friends, in addition to overt antisemites, include the vicar of Virginia Water (account at present suspended), members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the CEO of a well-known Israel-criticising NGO, and members of Jewish Israel-bashing fringe organisations.
Surely these people don't want to be associated any longer with a man who approves of such posts as that.
Isn't it high time for them to de-friend him?
Meanwhile, from the new Bishop of Guildford on Twitter:
Like its counterpart across the Irish Sea, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign exhibits an especially virulent strain of the antisemitic anti-Zionism virus.
This weekend, like the anti-Israel movement in English cities (take a look here) as well as here (some familiar as-a-Jews and others in this Alex Seymour/Seymour Alexander video, where the "apartheid" slur is freely made, and in which the London constabulary breaks up the party in the end)
it's been staging anti-Israel marches in s number of Scottish localities, as seen, for instance, in these sample photographs:
We all know what that so-called "right of return"demanded on this banner held by allied marchers would entail for Israel (and just look at that logo), while the stupid analogy with events in Ferguson has been imported from leftist ratbags across the Herring Pond, and has been further inspired, it seems, by the following cartoon that the Scottish PSC posted on social media:
On hand as usual in Brighton to counter the Israel-haters there was Jill the Poster Girl from Sussex Friends of Israel.
It seems Jill is really getting under the haters' skin. Certainly, they are unable to refute the good sense contained in Jill's that they've photoshopped it with a pathetic hate-motivated message of their own.
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", as the old saying goes.
And, as a certain Home Guard corporal used to say in a certain British sit com: "They don't like it up 'em!"
Carry on, Jill!
As a reviewer of an important new book entitled The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel remarks, inter alia, in his review here,
"[T]o single out the Jewish state for boycotting, while ignoring every other state on the planet engaged in human rights violations generally far, far worse than those allegedly committed by Israel – many of them Islamic states – is antisemitism in the nastiest, most odious, most deplorable sense of the term. No amount of disingenuous obfuscation will change this fact. On the contrary, most advocates of BDS are virtually apologists for the incalculably greater record of human rights violations carried out in the Third World, and especially in the Islamic world...."
Update: Jill's famous! The Israel-haters have also got a spoof site about our heroine, here (Hat tip: Shirlee) Oh, how well you're doing, Jill, to have such an impact upon their tiny hate-filled minds.
Spare, nimble, and loquacious, Sean Clinton is an Irish anti-Israel activist who spends a great deal of time and energy campaigning about what he insists are Israeli "blood" diamonds.
He turns up not infrequently in videos of anti-Israel demonstrations in Dublin and elsewhere, some of which have appeared on this blog from time to time. (This one's my favourite)
I imagine that the volubly anti-Israel Mr Clinton would protest at any suggestion that he's antisemitic. But, I'm afraid, he's one of the anti-Israel crowd on Facebook whose name appears in connection with the promotion on Facebook of a rather squalid video film that indulges in antisemitic tropes – it even has a Rothschild giving a (manufactured-for-video) cackle of demonic laughter at the end, as he contemplates the (alleged) world power and influence his mega-riches have (supposedly) bought him.
This rich-Jews-rule-the-world-and-decide-its-destiny genre video is hardly something for which the "It's not antisemitic to be anti-Zionist" crowd should be expressing a liking or to which such individuals should be linking. I'm not sure what precisely Mr Clinton's part on Facebook has been, but it would appear from this that he has had some hand in aiding its promotion on the social media site. I hope that's not the case.
Rubina Khan's Facebook page is a slough of antisemitism and conspiracy theories.
Nor should this piece of racism, found on the Facebook page of Stephen Sizer's mate Tony Gratrex, of Reading Palestine Solidarity Campaign infamy, merit endorsement (hat tip: reader P):
Time – high time – to review that Facebook wall of yours, Tony Gratrex, and delete the antisemitism that's posted there. Oh, and "unlike" stuff while you're at it, dude. (See also my post here)
And, as I've repeatedly noted, the time's long long overdue for you. Reverend Sizer, to make a cull of some of your Facebook "Friends"
Tony Gratrex, an anti-Israel activist in the UK, has long been associated with the Reading branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (unambiguous Israel-delegitimising logo at left). It's a branch that, despite the apparent disapproval by the PSC top brass of branches linking on their websites to articles in the Redress online rag, since Redress is blatantly antisemitic, does so.
'Gratrex is an organiser for the Reading Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Reading PSC keeps tabs on the Viva Palestina convoys, and is very supportive of their work.
Gratrex has also been a guest speaker at Oxford PSC, attended a branch meeting at Bristol PSC, and was affiliated with the Bristol Convoy of Viva Palestina....
Here is what Gratrex thinks about “the Jews”, in a comment addressed to Jenny Tonge:
I admire the work you do and am in agreement with virtually everything you say except for your attitude regarding the media.
You state that the jews do not control the media but that it is under self censorship.
This is patently wrong and only a cursory glance using the internet will show that a majority of the media is jewish owned or controlled.
During the interview you use the expression “who pays the piper calls the tune” and that is precisely the problem when one considers who controls the international banking system.
So Jews control the media, global financing, and the world.
Gratrex left the comment on the blog of Alan Hart, a 9-11 truther.
Here’s Gratrex on reading about the Holocaust in an article about an Israeli spy in Germany:
With the mention of the holocaust in this article I can only think again of Norman Finkelsteins book; The Holocaust Industry (Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering). How much longer is Israel going to continue to blackmail the world?
So Israel = Europe’s Jews. The surviving Jews are blackmailing the world....'
'Here’s another comment, not in the original report, that Gratrex left on an overtly anti-Semitic blog:
Not all adherents to the Torah are enemies of humanity.
You are forgetting the Neturei Karta Jews
Aside from the obvious anti-Semitism of calling all but a tiny handful of Jews “enemies of humanity”, one wonders what attracted Mr Gratrex to this particular blog… '
Gratrex's eyebrow-raising record has been mentioned on my blog before; most recently here
His Facebook page over the past few days includes a number of items that give the lie to the notion that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has no truck with antisemitism.
Here are a trio of examples that should make the PSC ashamed, and which should have at least one of Gratrex's Facebook buddies, the Rev. Stephen Sizer, pushing the de-friend button.
Do we assume that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign approves Gratrex's flirtations with this crude antisemitism?
Perhaps PSC director Sarah Colborne can enlighten us.
Britain's
Labour Party is based in the trade union movement, with most Labour MPs
being sponsored by various unions. "Red Ed" Miliband, the party's leader (and occasional avowed "Zionist", from a Communist background), is thus in thral to the unions, like his predecessors in the job.
Yesterday (10 September) the Trades Union Congress (at present headed by Bradford bus driver Mohammed Taj) which represents fifty-four of the largest unions in Britain and accounts for some six million members, voted
overwhelmingly at its meeting in Liverpool to adopt its General Council's Statement on Gaza, which
reads as follows (emphasis added):
'Congress deplores the fact that since 7 July,over two thousand
Palestinians have been killed, two thirds of them civilians and
including many people going about their daily work, as well as nearly
500 children, and 69 Israelis, four of whom were civilians. Tens of
thousands of residents of Gaza have fled their homes or seen them
damaged or destroyed, and have nowhere to go.
Congress welcomes
the ceasefire negotiated between the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and
the Israeli Government, as called for in the General Council statement
in July, and recognises the partial relaxation of the blockade of Gaza,
but recognises that it will not be sufficient unless the blockade of
Gaza and occupation of the West Bank are resolved in line with UN
resolutions. Congress deplores the announcement by the Israel Defence
Forces’ Civil Administration on 31 August of further annexations of land
for settlement construction in the West Bank, allegedly as a response
to the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teens by Hamas militants
in the area in June. This is a shocking provocation that will redraw the
map of the West Bank and can only stoke up further resentment.
Congress
particularly deplores attacks on UN facilities, including the attacks
on seven UNWRA schools between 21 July and 3 August which killed more
than 50 people and injured over 300, and notes the UNOCHA’s regular
reports of the terrible damage done to properties, infrastructure and
people.
Congress believes that international law against the
targeting of civilians must be enforced, and that those responsible for
breaches of such law should be dealt with in the International Criminal
Court. We welcome the UN Human Rights Council’s announcement of an
independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate purported violations
of international humanitarian and human rights laws in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and particularly in
the Gaza Strip since the conflict began. We reiterate our condemnation
of the collective punishment of the residents of Gaza.
Congress
welcomes the creation of a unity government for the Palestinian
Authority, which necessarily involves both Fatah and Hamas, and urges
the UK government and the European Union to support this development,
in the context of the TUC’s longstanding support for a two-state
solution based on security for both Israel and Palestine and justice for
the Palestinian people. Congress resolves to step up the campaign for a
free Palestine, and welcomes the ITUC Day of Action for Gaza held on 7
August and the demonstrations for peace organised across the UK by the
Palestine Solidarity Campaign and others.
We deplore racism, descrimination and hate crimes of any form, including antisemitism, such as attacks on synagogues.
Congress
considers the response of the UK government, the EU and the UN to
Israel’s attack on Gaza has been unacceptable. We join with Amnesty
International, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and others in calling
on the UK government and the EU to end immediately arms trading with
Israel including all military-industrial collaboration. The TUC should,
working with the relevant unions, press those companies involved in
supporting Israel’s military to cease to do so.
Congress
reiterates its call for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association
Agreement until the rights of the Palestinians are established, and
calls on the Israeli state to pay for humanitarian assistance and
rebuilding Gaza. We encourage unions and their members to give
generously to international trade union humanitarian aid funds aimed at
providing assistance to the people of Gaza and urge Global Union
Federations to seek affiliation from Palestinian unions, as many already
have.
Congress commits to raise the pressure on corporations
complicit in arms trading, the settlements, occupation and the wall by
organising a seminar for affiliated unions to consider strategies – such
as worker capital strategies including pension funds – to put pressure
on complicit corporations to cease to do so and withdraw from the
Occupied Territories. Congress agrees to work with the international
trade union movement and workplace representatives to co-ordinate such
action against complicit corporations.
We reiterate our
encouragement to unions to affiliate to the Palestine Solidarity
Campaign, urge union members to join the PSC Trade Union network, and
agree to organise, jointly with the PSC, a trade union conference in
2015 to review progress on the action points listed above.
Congress
reiterates its solidarity with the Palestine General Federation of
Trade Unions, and our commitment to visit Gaza with the PGFTU as soon as
is practicable. We will continue to be guided by the PGFTU and
encourage unions to revitalise their contacts with sister organisations
in Palestine, especially to assist them in rebuilding their
organisations in Gaza. We will seek the support of the ETUC and ITUC for
the policies set out in this statement, and support the calls of the
ETUC and ITUC for a just settlement to the problems of the Middle East. '
Needless to say, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (logo above; note that Israel-free map), is jubilant, as the statement by its director, Sarah Colborne, shown above, indicates
The PSC notes:
'Speakers from the major unions were lining up during today’s debate to endorse the General Council’s statement on Gaza....
Following
the debate, Billy Hayes, CWU [Communication Workers Union] General Secretary, said:
‘TUC General
Council Statement is a recognition of the central importance of the
struggle of the Palestinian people for Justice. The CWU greatly
welcomes this statement and believes it will contribute to strengthen
the international campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian People.’
Christine
Blower, General Secretary of the NUT [National Union of Teachers; see here for its campaigns, including this], said:
‘NUT is very pleased to
support the General Council statement on Gaza. We were absolutely
prepared to put in an emergency motion, but the fact that there is a
General Council statement, demonstrates that the move towards the
Palestine cause has been not just in the TUC, but in the British public
as a whole. The job now is to make sure that everybody begins to take
the action urgently needed to ensure that there is a free Palestine and
that Israel desists from all military activity.’
Len McCluskey,
General Secretary of Unite, said:
‘I welcome the General Council
statement on Gaza as an expression of the widest support from the
British labour movement with the Palestinian people. There is much to be
done in building practical solidarity not least in mobilising our
workplace representatives to take action against companies which have
profited from the war in Gaza, the occupation of the West Bank and the
construction of the ‘separation’ wall.’ ....
The General Council statement encourages unions to affiliate to PSC and urges union members to join the PSC Trade Union network.'
The London Jewish News (a giveaway rival to the Jewish Chronicle) reports:
'News
that delegates at the annual Trade Union Congress (TUC) conference in
Liverpool had done so was greeted with disappointment from the Jewish
community, which warned the umbrella group against double standards.
[The
TUC] condemns anti-Semitism while speaking positively about
anti-Semitic Hamas, and it doesn’t even mention rocket attacks on
Israel,” read a statement from the Fair Play campaign, a cross-communal
initiative to fight boycotts.
It supports a two-state solution,
but refuses to work to make the two-state solution a reality… The TUC’s
actions are instead focused on pulling Israeli and Palestinian workers
further apart.
With union activists targeting the EU Israel
Trade Agreement, the Fair Play spokesperson charged that the TUC
decision would lay the groundwork for the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) campaign in the UK.
Today’s decision will
mean that the TUC will provide the infrastructure of the anti-Israel
boycott movement, funding and organising its conferences and
coordinating its campaigns.”
The TUC vote to boycott Israeli
goods comes after UNITE, the country’s biggest union with 1.7 million
members, opted to do likewise in July this year.
In Liverpool,
delegates were presented with figures from the Gaza conflict, with one
slide titled “Devastation” listing the number of homes, schools,
hospitals, health centres and mosques destroyed.
Kathy Dyson, of
the Musicians Union, spoke in support of the General Council statement
on the situation in Gaza, which said Israeli action amounted to
“collective punishment of a population suffering the blockade”.
Shortly
before the vote, Tory chief whip Michael Gove MP had warned against the
dangers of boycotting Israel in a high-profile speech in London.
“What began with a campaign against Jewish goods in the past ended with a campaign against Jewish lives,” he said.
“We need to spell out that this sort of prejudice starts with the Jews but never ends with the Jews.
We need to stand united against hate, now more than ever.”' [Emphasis added]
A Malaysia Airlines plane goes down over the eastern Ukraine, apparently shot down by rebel separatists, and inevitably some of the more pernicious of the antisemites on social media and elsewhere attribute the disaster to Israel, just as they accuse Israel as being complicit in 9/11.
Inevitable, really, this new canard, a contemporary updating of the medieval "The Jews have poisoned the wells" obscenity during the Middle Ages, and of that centuries-old "blood accusation" that historian Norman Cohn termed a "warrant for genocide", given that Israel has long been cast as"the Jew among the nations".
And Hamas fired 50 during the 6-hour ceasefire
Inevitable, too, since one of the consequences of the air disaster has been to push the situation in Gaza out of the "top story" spot in news bulletins just as Israel begins a ground invasion.
Writes a young female IDF soldier in the current Australian Jewish News:
'The #gazaunderattack hashtag on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is
flourishing - filled with horrible, heart-wrenching pictures of women
and children wounded from Israeli airstrikes. What is missing, however,
is [sic] the videos of Hamas leaders calling on Gazans to "love death
like rhe Israelis live life". Of their appeals to citizens to form a
human shield around the martyrs and their bombs. Of their pride in
their peoples' [sic] united industry of terror....
Hamas is well-versed in propaganda. I couldn't help but laugh at the preposterousness when I saw a screen shot from the horror movie Final Destination 2 of a blown apart corpse declared as a photo of a Gazan civilian killed by the Israeli retaliation strikes. And yet, there are those gullible enough not to see through the lies....
My appeal is to all Israel's supporters living outside the blue and white borders. You can help Israel fight this online war.
Post the truth through hashtags such as #freegaza, #gazaunderattack, #freegaza, #freepalestine ..."
Here's a new video that deserves publicity; the barbaric sentiments expressed by this gentleman were aired on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV on 11 July:
See, incidentally, a British blogger's excellent, compelling post that describes the propaganda encountered at a recent fair in Richmond, South London, at which the local Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) branch was out in force (there is a video of the event by rabid anti-Israel activist Alex Seymour aka Seymour Alexander here ; The Bilateralist's post really is a corker, and concludes of the mendacious malignant mischief spread by Israel's foes:
"It is that evil which we must confront if we are to be saved from an
escalation of a magnitude similar to events that have arisen over the
last few days in Toronto, Paris and Antwerp. In Toronto the police
stood by while a man was beaten up by Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, the
same righteous souls who threatened an old and frail woman. In Paris
hundreds of demonstrators rioted outside Synagogues, trapping Jewish
worshippers inside their buildings. In Antwerp dozens of men shouted
slogans about slaughtering Jews while three local (socialist, labour and
green) politicians blissfully looked on.
In World War
II, the Nazis set fire to synagogues with the local Jewish population
trapped inside. In Africa, Muslims have done the same to Christian
communities.
Immigration officers, governments run by
elected officials who are more concerned with the powerful Muslim vote
than with making a moral choice, and the police: They are all inactive.
This is where populist democracy fails.
This is Nazism
– it does not matter whether it is inspired by the Right, by the Left,
by the Liberal Democrats in Britain, or the Greens; by the Islamic
faithful or by frustrated Arabs.
The propaganda war is violent; its intent from the Palestinian camp is terminal.
Needless to say, all decent people view the fate of young Mohammed Abu Khdeir (reportedly burnt alive) as a monstrous act of wickedness, and believe that those responsible should suffer condign punishment, applied with the full force of the law.
But the fact remains that the perpetrators of this vile act still remain unknown.
Indeed, there are suggestions that since burning people alive is a hallmark of ISIS, that brutal organisation may have killed the unfortunate Palestinian boy in order to foment all-out conflict with Israel.
The assumption that "Jewish settlers" abducted and killed the youngster in retaliation for the murders of the three murdered Israel teenagers has been widespread, beginning from the minute he was reported to have been kidnapped.
Complicit in this have been elements of the mainstream media (including, of course, the Quislingesque rag Ha'aretz) as well as the usual suspects in the West, such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which has all along taken Jewish settler culpability as a given.
(There is a good post about the widespread attitude to the killing, and the fact that that killing might not be what the Israel-bashers assume, here. For some British parliamentary reactions to the entire kidnapping crisis, click here)
Yesterday, in London, members of the PSC were joined by a number of other Israel-delegitimising groups (Friends of Al-Aqsa, the London Palestine Action, the British Muslim
Initiative and the Palestinian Forum in Britain, Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and inevitably Israel-hating Jews) in demonstrating outside the Israeli Embassy.
'Pro-Palestine campaigners held a 'die in' protest in west London today to highlight what they see as the "horrific escalation of racism and violence" in the country by the Israeli authorities.
Protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy close to Kensington High Street to call on Israel to stop attacks on Palestinian citizens and to end its occupation of Gaza.
At one point they brought traffic to a standstill and had to be moved along by police....
The event was sparked by the recent killing of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdair....'
The event was captured on video by Alex Seymour (aka Seymour Alexander), himself a rabid critic of the Zionist Entity:
.
