Brighton & Hove Palestine Campaign

Supporting the struggle to achieve a just and lasting peace for Palestine

Local News & Reports

Sign the petition! Arms embargo now!

A new petition has been posted on the UK government website, calling on the government to impose an immediate two-way arms embargo between the UK and Israel. Follow this link to sign online.

Once the petition has been signed by 10,000 people the government is required to respond.

Palestinian civil society has called on the international community to give priority to the campaign to Stop Arming Israel.

Israel uses military force and sophisticated technology to maintain its oppression of Palestinians. Much of this militarised technology is provided by UK arms manufacturers, benefiting from loans and share dealings by UK banks such as HSBC.

Human rights organisations have documented that Israel violates international law and carries out war crimes during its frequent attacks on Palestinians.

Israel is only able to act with such impunity because governments and companies around the world cooperate with its military and with its military companies.

Palestinian civil society has called for a comprehensive and immediate military embargo on Israel. BDS campaigning is starting to have an impact on Israeli military companies such as Elbit Systems.

Web links for Haim Bresheeth

We were fortunate enough to welcome Haim to Brighton on the 12th of April. He enlightened us with his talk the history of the so-called ‘left’ in Israel. 

Many in the audience were so inspired by Haim’s talk that they asked for links to his website, and to related websites.

The links are provided below, together with some of the background information about Haim that was included in the advance publicity.

You can also access the Powerpoint slides from Haim’s talk by clicking this link: The Israeli Left

Haim has been a prominent critic of Zionism, the Occupation and Israeli apartheid for many years. He was Professor of Film Studies and Chair of Cultural and Media Studies at the University of East London and is Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
 
Haim is a prolific writer and filmmaker. His books include the bestselling ‘Introduction to the Holocaust’ and his edited publications include ‘The Gulf War and the New World Order’ and ‘The Conflict and Contemporary Visual Culture in Palestine and Israel’. His films include ‘London is Burning: Painful Conversations’.
 
Personal Website: http://www.haimbresheeth.com http://www.haimbresheeth.com/> 
Gaza Website: http://haimbresheeth.com/gaza/
One State website: http://www.1not2.org/One_State_in_Palestine/Welcome.html
Film website:http://www.haimbresheeth.com/lib/London_is_Burning/Welcome.html
 
“Most of my family was destroyed in the Holocaust – in concentration camps and in the Warsaw Ghetto.  I was born in a refugee camp in Italy immediately after the War.  I’m not saying this in order to elicit sympathy … but in order to explain why it is so easy for me to understand the Palestinians in Gaza and in the rest of Palestine.  It is easy for me to understand because they live in a combination of concentration camp and Warsaw Ghetto for so many years that we have stopped counting.”

Protest Israel’s violence against unarmed Palestinians in Gaza

Today (April 5) Palestinians prepare for a second Friday of mass demonstrations in what Palestinians are calling the “Great March of Return”. 

A total of 22 Palestinians have died on Gaza’s border since the protests were launched – 17 were shot by Israeli soldiers on Friday, two others killed in shelling, and two more have died since last Friday, including one killed in an air strike early on Thursday. Many hundreds have been shot and seriously injured.

The UK government remains silent, refusing to condemn Israel’s aggression. Once again, Israel massacres Palestinians with impunity.

The Israeli defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said on Thursday that “open-fire rules for the Gaza border will remain unchanged”.

“If there are provocations, there will be a reaction of the harshest kind like last week,” Lieberman, a Moldovan-born Israeli, told public radio.

Organisers of the protests have set up a tent city with media posts, portable toilets, electricity and water supplies, and shaded areas for crowds in five locations near the border fence that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Protests are planned on Saturday (April 6th) in London and in Brighton. Click here for details of the London protests. In Brighton, we’ll be at the Clock Tower from 12-2pm to raise awareness about the crisis, and to call on local people to write to the Foreign Office to demand action by the UK government.

Join us in writing to the Foreign Office, and demand action is taken to hold Israel accountable for its actions!

False rumours of ‘pro-Palestine protest’ trigger security alert at Hove Town Hall

The Argus ran a story this afternoon about a security crisis at Hove Town Hall. The Argus reported that the City Council and local police were concerned about the threat posed by ‘a planned pro-Palestine protest’ to the lighting of the Chanukah Menorah – so concerned in fact that the ceremony had to be held ‘behind closed doors’. 

The Argus also reported that ‘two sources close to the city’s pro-Palestinian movement told The Argus no demonstration was ever planned’. In later online updates the Argus reported that ‘there was no demonstration’.

Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign wishes to state clearly that no such protest was ever planned by local campaigners for Palestinian rights. Religious ceremonies would never be targeted by pro-Palestine groups. BHPSC is naturally sorry to learn that concerns over security disrupted the Menorah-lighting ceremony. 

Questions must be asked about the source of this unfounded rumour, as they appear to be using religious sensitivities to discredit legitimate political protest. The Argus judged that the security alert was newsworthy: what was newsworthy was that rumours about a non-existent protest were spread in order to create a security crisis. The important questions for the press to ask are: who spread them? and why?

Another successful protest at HSBC Bank: “Stop Banking on Apartheid!”

Saturday 30 September 2017

Once again, dozens of local people protested today at the main Brighton branch of HSBC Bank, angry over the bank’s complicity in the deadly two-way arms trade between the UK and Israel.

 

 

The protest was part of the UK-wide STOP ARMING ISRAEL campaign. The campaign is co-ordinated by a coalition of human rights organisations, including Palestine Solidarity Campaign, War on Want, Campaign Against Arms Trade, the Boycott Israel Network and the Palestinian BDS National Committee. 

Hundreds of leaflets were distributed to the public, and scores of people signed our petition demanding that HSBC immediately cease its business dealings with Israel’s deadly arms trade.

Many HSBC customers were shocked and angry to discover that their bank helps to fund the UK arms trade with Israel, and made a commitment to demand that the bank divest from this deadly business. They were especially concerned to learn that HSBC’s business with BAE Systems, Raytheon, Caterpillar and United Technologies actually contravenes their own Defence Equipment Sector Policy, as well as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Any HSBC customers wishing to protest to their branch managers are welcome to use our template letter as a basis for their own.

Further protests are planned.

We say: Don’t support Pretenders gig in Brighton on October 10th till they cancel their Tel Aviv gig

Rock legends The Pretenders are scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv on September 23rd. They are also due to play in Brighton on the 10th of October.

Chrissie Hynde and her band are being urged by people of conscience all over the world to to cancel their Tel Aviv gig, and by doing so to support the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel. 

Israel overtly uses culture as a form of propaganda to whitewash or justify its regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people. You can find out more about the worldwide cultural boycott here and here.

The Pretenders are also due to perform in Brighton on Tuesday October 10th. We urge all local supporters of the Palestinian struggle for justice to ignore the Pretenders when they come to Brighton unless and until they heed the call from civil society in Palestine and cancel their Tel Aviv gig.

Don’t buy tickets for The Pretenders’ October 10th gig in Brighton, and tell your friends to do the same. And make your feelings known about The Pretenders’ support for israeli apartheid by tweeting @ThePretendersHQ and via Facebook at facebook.com/pretenders.