Archive: Action / Reading Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Archive for Action

UK: 48 hours to Recognise Palestine

September 1st, 2011 • Action, News

Call the Foreign and Commonwealth Office switchboard and ask for William Hague’s office.

020 7008 1500

Also try Hague’s Parliamentary office: 020 7219 4611

In less than 48 hours, the UK will decide if it recognises Palestine at a critical EU Foreign Ministers meeting. Our global petition has nearly 900,000 signers, 79,000 from the UK, but the Foreign Minister is still undecided. We can ramp up the pressure now to ensure the UK gets behind a Palestinian state.

Foreign Office officials have said the Minister could be swayed to make the right call, and his support for Palestine could provide the EU leadership needed to push the bid through at the UN. But to counter intense US and Israeli lobbying, he needs to hear from all of us now.

Let’s flood the Minister’s office with phone calls today and give him a public mandate to call for an independent state of Palestine, which could break the deadlock in talks and bring peace a little closer. The next few hours are critical — make an urgent call now.

Here is the number to call: Foreign and Commonwealth Office switchboard: 020 7008 1500 — ask for William Hague’s office. You can also try Hague’s Parliamentary office: 020 7219 4611

The talking points below will help guide you in what to say:

79,000 UK citizens and nearly 900,000 people across the globe have signed the petition for the UN to recognise Palestine.
This is a moment for the UK to stand on the right side of history — this is a legitimate, non violent, diplomatic proposal to open a new path towards peace.
This is a fragile time. If we support this proposal we could open up hope for the majority of Palestinians who want a peaceful resolution to the conflict. If we don’t support it, this could spiral into violence and will play right into the hands of extremists.
The far-right Netanyahu government is making a return to peace talks harder by approving more settlement building in the West Bank, but most Israeli citizens want a two state solution. This is a opportunity to show that the world is serious about finding a solution where two peoples can live in peace side by side.
The Arab Spring has opened the door to a new, exciting era of UK relations with the Middle East. We are supporting people across the region struggling for self-determination and freedom. This is the Palestinians’ call, and our response should be consistent. If the UK does not support the Palestinian bid at the UN, we could lose that momentum and be pushed back into the dangerous divisions of the last decade.
This bid is consistent with European policy which has invested heavily in building the capacity of the Palestinian state. It would be contradictory to now oppose the founding of that state at the UN.

Remember to be polite — we’ll be far more convincing if we are reasonable and courteous. If you don’t get through, it probably means we’re jamming their lines — a good sign! Keep calling! If you do get through but they cannot transfer you, make sure your call is officially registered by the switchboard and follow up with an email to: ainagcorrespondence@fco.gov.uk and haguew@parliament.uk and private.office@fco.gsi.gov.uk

Most government offices work from 9am – 5pm — if you miss office hours please try again tomorrow.

Jewish-American Harassed, then Arrested, in Jerusalem

June 11th, 2011 • Action, Awareness, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: arrest, harass, jersualem, jewish american

from Youtube:

American-Jewish young man is being harassed and treated unfairly he is then arrested in Jerusalem for speaking out against the Israeli occupation. How sad ,he had the courage to speak out but then was arrested … so unfair.

Leave a comment if you know more about this story.

Gaza Global Day of Action – 18 Jan 2011

January 18th, 2011 • Action, Events, News
Tags: amnesty, anniversary, gaza, Global Day of Action

From Amnesty UK:

Demand justice for all victims of the 2008-2009 conflict in Gaza and southern Israel

18 January 2011 marks the second anniversary of the end of the conflict in Gaza and southern Israel but the victims have yet to receive justice or reparations.

Between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, a brutal conflict between Israel and Palestinian armed groups took place in Gaza and Israel.

Months later, the victims of this conflict are still being denied justice, truth and reparations due to the ongoing failure of the international community to effectively challenge impunity. Both Israel and Hamas have been allowed to fail in fulfilling the recommendations of the Goldstone report.

We need you to help us successfully challenge the attitudes and arguments that support the continuing impunity by lobbying for the UK Government to support an international justice solution such as a referral to the International Criminal Court.

John Lewis Stops Stocking Ahava Products

January 16th, 2011 • Action, News
Tags: BDS, boycott, john lewis

A significant victory for the BDS campaign!

John Lewis’ Managing Director, Andy Street, wrote to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in a letter dated 7 January:

Andy Street

As a socially responsible retailer, John Lewis takes very seriously the treatment of workers and their working conditions. We expect all our suppliers not only to obey the law, but also to respect the rights, interests and well-being of their employees, their communities and the environment.

[...]

In relation to your specific enquiry about Ahava Dead Sea products, I can confirm that John Lewis has ceased stocking these particular products.

Read the full press release on the PSC website: John Lewis Stops Stocking Ahava Products in Britain

Find out more about Ahava at CODEPINK’s Stolenbeauty.org

Unsuprisingly, Jpost has a different interpretation of the letter(!): British retailer denies boycotting Israeli cosmetics

Reply to Our Open Letter on Universal Jurisdiction

December 31st, 2010 • Action, Awareness, News
Tags: alok sharma, amnesty international, human rights watch, justice, ken clarke, MP, open letter, parliament, reading, rob wilson, uk, universal jurisdiction, vote

The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill was debated recently in the Commons. Within the bill is Clause 151: “Arrest warrants : Restriction on issue of arrest warrants in private prosecutions”, which gives the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) a veto over whether or not an arrest warrant can be issued for war crime suspects.

As part of our effort to defeat this change, we sent an open letter from Members of Reading PSC to Rob Wilson (Con), Member of Parliament for Reading East.

This is the reply from Rob Wilson, sent 23 December 2010:

Thank you for contacting me about universal jurisdiction.

I believe it is vital for Israeli Government Ministers for example to be able to travel to foreign capitals. A country such as the UK needs to be able to tell Israelis that their actions are not acceptable, and this would not be possible if their travelling to western capitals was prohibited. I do not think it is advisable to further reinforce a bunker mentality within Israel.

As you know, the United Kingdom has asserted universal jurisdiction over war crimes under the Geneva Conventions Act, and over a few other offences of exceptional gravity, because of our international obligations and our commitment to ensuring that there is no impunity for those accused of such crimes. This commitment is unwavering.

It is important, however, that universal jurisdiction cases should be proceeded with in this country only on the basis of solid evidence that is likely to lead to a successful prosecution, otherwise there is a risk of damaging our ability to help in conflict resolution or to pursue a coherent foreign policy. It is unsatisfactory that, as things stand, an arrest warrant for these grave offences can be issued on the application of a private prosecutor on the basis of evidence that would be insufficient to sustain a prosecution.

Currently, anyone can apply to the courts for an arrest warrant. That is a right that the Government wants to protect. However, because the evidence necessary to issue an arrest warrant may be far less than would be needed for a prosecution, the system is open to possible abuse by people trying to obtain arrest warrants for grave crimes on the basis of flimsy evidence to make a political statement or to cause embarrassment.

The Government’s has, after careful consideration, decided that it would be appropriate to require the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions before an universal jurisdiction arrest warrant can be issued to a private prosecutor. The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill includes provisions to introduce this change. As such, I will not be signing EDM 108.

However, let me reiterate that this will interfere as little as possible with the existing rights of private prosecutors, and will not prevent them from initiating prosecutions for these offences where the evidence justified that course.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.

ROB WILSON MP
Member of Parliament for Reading East

Our original letter can be read here…
Watch coverage of the commons debate here…

“WHAT CAN I DO?”

It is important that you send a message to YOUR MP asking them to vote against the proposed changes. PSC have set up an easy to use e-tool to allow you to send a model letter to your MP: click here…

Background Information

PSC Briefing: No Change to Universal Jurisdiction
UK Government announcement, 22/7/10: New rules on universal jurisdiction
Amnesty International UK, 1/12/10: War crimes arrests: New measures show UK is ‘soft’ on war crimes and torture
The Guardian, 1/12/10: Amnesty International say police bill will let war criminals go free
Human Rights Watch, 27/1/10: Briefing to Parliamentarians by the UK Universal Jurisdiction Group
HRW, 10/01: The Case For Universal Jurisdiction

Comment: Nick Clegg, human rights, Palestine and amnesia

December 18th, 2010 • Action, News
Tags: amnesia, comment, Gareth Epps, human rights, liberal democrats, Liberal Democrats Friends of Palestine, MP, nick clegg, palestine, Reading East

Gareth Epps‘, 2010 Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Reading East and new member of the Liberal Democrat Federal Policy Committee, recent post on his blog:

In the past, Nick Clegg has unequivocally condemned the blockade of Gaza, called for the EU/Israel Association Agreement to be suspended.

Now, he’s making speeches saying he got it wrong on Israel, speaking to pro-Israeli audiences while giving Palestinian campaigners the cold shoulder (see http://www.ldfp.eu/2010/11/15/mr-clegg-the-lib-dems-and-the-small-case-of-international-law/) and is about to author a change in the Universal Jurisdiction law to protect human rights abusers including representatives of the Israeli regime from attempts to bring them to justice.

I have raised at senior level the dangers of this stance, which runs the risk of unpicking years of carefully balanced and thought-out statements on Israel/Palestine (which in my view and that of many others could have gone a lot further in criticising discrimination and flagrant breaches of international law by successive Israeli governments, which have pandered to and increasingly contain people with outrageous extremist views).

We know that the Conservatives of the major political parties have the most one-dimensional view of this conflict, and will take the side of Israel. That does not legitimise the stance the Coalition government is taking on a fundamental issue of human rights. Rather than believe the spin that the change is ‘technical’, as I have been told by senior Liberal Democrats, I think it’s right to go public on this. Call it Conservative influence in Government, call it what you want, but Universal Jurisdiction is supposed to ensure that there is no hiding place for war criminals. The change of law has been condemned by a cluster of human rights groups including Amnesty who say it “will undermine the capacity of victims of serious international crimes to hold accountable alleged perpetrators who come within the UK’s jurisdiction by making all arrest decisions in such cases subject to political considerations rather than being based on the legal merits. Suspects may therefore find a safe haven in the UK, and the already considerable barriers to bringing such suspects to justice will be heightened.

“Instead of making it more difficult to arrest with a view to prosecuting such suspects, the UK should be seeking to enhance its capacity to do so, and mooted legislative changes are a step entirely in the wrong direction.”

There is no political sense in Nick Clegg pandering to the friends of the Israeli regime. These are people who are not Liberals and who would never consider voting for a party that gives the other side the time of day. He will gain no votes. Indeed, he will lose credibility among the many people such as myself who believe that the Palestinian people are long overdue justice, not collective punishment.

Oh, and Nick? If you’re really serious about being even-handed, then maybe you could answer positively to requests to speak to Lib Dem Friends of Palestine. It’s only fair.

Please contact Gareth to thank and congratulate him for this statement…

OPEN LETTER: Universal Jurisdiction

December 9th, 2010 • Action, Awareness, News
Tags: alok sharma, amnesty international, human rights watch, justice, ken clarke, MP, open letter, parliament, reading, rob wilson, uk, universal jurisdiction, vote

UPDATE #1 – Monday 13/12/10

The police reform bill debate started at 6pm, watch live on BBC’s Democracy Live or BBC Parliament on Freeview 81, Freesat 201, Sky 504, Virgin 612.

Also, a letter was published in The Guardian today: “Grave dangers in police reform bill” – signed by Baroness Jenny Tonge, Jeremy Corbin MP, Michael Mansfield QC, Betty Hunter, Hugh Lanning, Gerald Kaufman MP and many others.

On Monday 13th December the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill will be debated in the Commons. Within the bill is Clause 151: “Arrest warrants : Restriction on issue of arrest warrants in private prosecutions”, which gives the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) a veto over whether or not an arrest warrant can be issued for war crime suspects.

As part of our effort to defeat this change, we have sent an open letter from Members of Reading PSC to Rob Wilson (Con), Member of Parliament for Reading East. The open letter appears below:

Dear Rob,

You are receiving this open letter on behalf of the members of the Reading branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). We are sure you are aware of our organisation as you have met several of our members in the past to discuss our concerns about the treatment of Palestinians at the hands of the State of Israel.

Our organisation represents a wide spread of people in both Reading East and West. We are men and women. We are young and old. We are people of faith and no faith. We are the people of Reading.

We spend our time trying to raise awareness of the issues surrounding the catastrophe that has befallen the Palestinians, not because we enjoy it, but because we feel compelled by our conscience and simple human understanding and empathy to do so.

We understand that you are planning to support changes to the current Universal Jurisdiction laws in the UK. As we are sure you are aware, the current position is that a private individual may apply to a magistrate for an arrest warrant if a war crimes suspect is visiting the country or a visit is anticipated.

The issue of an arrest warrant for a war crime is decided only by specialist and legally qualified magistrates. In any case, the consent of the Attorney General is currently required for any prosecution to go ahead, but, in the absence of consent, a warrant may be issued if the magistrate considers that:

there are reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence under such legislation has been committed;

admissible evidence has been presented which (if uncontradicted) establishes the elements of the offence alleged;

s/he has jurisdiction to issue the warrant and has ruled out the immunity of the suspect.

Any belief, therefore, that arrest warrants have ever been – or can still be – issued with little or no evidence to support a legitimate prosecution is a fundamental misconception of the existing law. If you think otherwise, we invite you to cite a single case in which an arrest warrant has been issued under Universal Jurisdiction law which could reasonably be considered an abuse of the existing system.

In the case of visiting Israeli ministers or leaders, the Goldstone Report, accepted by the UN, concluded that war crimes had been committed in Gaza by Israel during Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 – January 2009. It is not surprising, therefore, that a senior magistrate found there was enough evidence to warrant the arrest of former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had she visited the UK.

The argument that we must allow elected ministers to visit the UK and be immune from our laws in order to engage them diplomatic talks is misleading. There is nothing, for instance, to stop British ministers from visiting the home countries of suspected war criminals where they are immune from prosecution. Additionally, the serving Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of Defence of any sovereign country can visit the UK under the principle of sovereign immunity.

Any attempt to involve the Attorney General in the decision to issue the arrest warrant would be a regressive step in many ways. You must surely agree that the independence of the judiciary in the UK from political interference is critical. In fact, your voting record, Rob, proves this. In the past you voted against giving Ministers the right to intervene in inquests. But you apparently now think that the Attorney General – not exactly a wholly independent branch of Government – should have the right to intervene in cases brought by private individuals against people reasonably suspected of war crimes. How do you explain or justify this stance given that there is no case that you can cite where an arrest warrant was issued under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction which was not a valid use of the legal process?

Having to wait for an Attorney General decision on issuing an arrest warrant will simply allow suspected war criminals time to flee the country as well as the possibility of political interference in the rule of law.

Our views are not outlandish. They are supported by many other respected Human Rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights, Global Witness, Justice and REDRESS who issued a joint statement saying they were:

“… gravely concerned that any changes to existing law and procedure will undermine the capacity of victims of serious international crimes to hold accountable alleged perpetrators who come within the UK’s jurisdiction by making all arrest decisions in such cases subject to political considerations rather than being based on the legal merits. Suspects may therefore find a safe haven in the UK, and the already considerable barriers to bringing such suspects to justice will be heightened.

Instead of making it more difficult to arrest with a view to prosecuting such suspects, the UK should be seeking to enhance its capacity to do so, and mooted legislative changes are a step entirely in the wrong direction.”

The Conservative party itself advocates the Big Society, a society where power is removed from a central political entity, and given to local people and communities. It seems it is fine for the general public to on the one hand ‘share the pain’ of budget cuts, but on the other they can not be trusted to share the responsibility of holding war criminals to account. A responsibility which you apparently wish to now restrict to a small but elite minority in Government.

In the the past the point has been made to us by you, Rob, to different members of our organisation, at different times, that not enough ‘pressure’ is being applied on parliament on the issues that we discuss with you. Please consider this letter as pressure. Please also consider the fact that the major Human Rights related organisations in the UK do not support any change to Universal Jurisdiction as pressure – and we know that they are undertaking to lobby MPs across the political spectrum. Consider the fact that no one has yet produced any example of a case where the existing Universal Jurisdiction law can be said to have been abused as further pressure upon your judgement.

We implore you to oppose any change to the law on Universal Jurisdiction on behalf of the people of Reading. We believe this is an issue that fundamentally alters the moral integrity of our country, and could well call your personal integrity into question should you support the changes.

Kind Regards,
Reading PSC
info@readingpsc.org.uk
http://readingpsc.org.uk
Sent via email @ 3.40pm Thursday December 9th, 2010

All replies to this letter will be posted on the Reading PSC website.
The Open Letter will also be sent to Alok Sharma, Member of Parliament for Reading West.

“WHAT CAN I DO?”

It is important that you send a message to YOUR MP asking them to vote against the proposed changes. PSC have set up an easy to use e-tool to allow you to send a model letter to your MP: click here…

Background Information

PSC Briefing: No Change to Universal Jurisdiction
UK Government announcement, 22/7/10: New rules on universal jurisdiction
Amnesty International UK, 1/12/10: War crimes arrests: New measures show UK is ‘soft’ on war crimes and torture
The Guardian, 1/12/10: Amnesty International say police bill will let war criminals go free
Human Rights Watch, 27/1/10: Briefing to Parliamentarians by the UK Universal Jurisdiction Group
HRW, 10/01: The Case For Universal Jurisdiction

Road To Hope Convoy Reaches Gaza!

November 27th, 2010 • Action, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: convoy, gaza, ken o'keefe, road to hope

Special report from Press TV:

Ken O’Keefe’s blog from the Road…

Road to Hope Convoy website…

Lifeline to Gaza: The Return

September 5th, 2010 • Action, Events, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: convoy, film, hassan ghani, presstv, viva palestina

Hassan Ghani’s Press TV documentary following Viva Palestina’s third convoy which started in December 2009.

[6-part playlist - direct link]

BDS: Criticisms of Israel not anti-Semitic

August 6th, 2010 • 1 comment Action, Awareness, News
Tags: BDS, boycott, concert, johnny rotten, leeds, picket, protest, PSC

Letters published in the Yorkshire Evening Post in response to the Leeds PSC picket at Johnny Rotten’s concert:

IN response to Kevin Hartley’s letter (below), Palestine solidarity supporters do not demonise Israel – there is much that Israelis should be duly proud of. This does not mean there are not criticisms of Israel and that these are anti-Semitic.

The criticisms are that Israel violates international law and human rights as recognised by the UN – by continued expansion of its settlements in the Palestinian West Bank (as commented on by Barak Obama re: East Jerusalem), the blockade on Gaza (which even David Cameron described as a prison) and the system of check points, lack of freedom of movement and the apartheid wall that makes Palestinians’ lives and livelihoods acutely difficult in the West Bank and in Israel.

Many of the most active Palestine campaigners in the UK are Jewish and we are clear that it is the Israeli State (and not Jews) that we are critical of.

This anti-apartheid boycott campaign is the peaceful one, in which we can all take part, to collectively pressurise Israel to stop the above violations and to start a peace process with Palestine.

Whilst John Lydon may or may not boycott Israel, many other artists have (Carlos Santana, Elvis Costello, Ian Banks etc).

For Mr Hartley’s information, I do campaign and support campaigns against injustice and poverty here and abroad and don’t just boycott Israeli goods. I also promote fairtrade and buy fairtrade products, including Zaytoun Palestinian olive oil. I believe we can use our consumer power by supporting and boycotting and hope others will consider doing the same.

– C MacDonald, Leeds (Published Date: 05 August 2010)

in response to:

Further to your report of July 22 regarding the Palestinian supporters’ campaign to boycott Israel and urge entertainers like rocker John Lydon not to perform, this is saddening.

Israel is not an “apartheid” state as was suggested; all of its citizens have equal rights under the law regardless of race or religion despite what these misguided campaigners say.

Israel’s situation is totally unique and her need for security is paramount.

The attempt by these campaigners to demonise Israel and portray it as malign is an obvious form of distasteful anti-semitism which we can do without.

I suggest these campaigners turn their attention and efforts to far more worthwhile causes, such as the real poverty and injustices that exist right here in the UK.

– Kevin Hartley, by email (Published Date: 28 July 2010)