Archive for News
FILM: Jaffa at our March Meeting
March 9th, 2012 • Events, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: cannes, film, meeting, november, oscar, Salt of This Sea
As part of our March branch meeting we’ll be showing Eyal Sivan’s film “Jaffa, the orange’s clockwork”:
… narrates the visual history of the famous citrus fruit originated from Palestine and known worldwide for centuries as “Jaffa oranges”.
The history of the orange is the history of this land. Through photography and cinema, poetry, paintings, workers of the citruses’ industry and historians, memory and present mythologies, Palestinians and Israelis cross and combine. The close reading of the Jaffa brand’s visual representation is a reflection on western orientalist phantasms surrounding the ‘holy land’ and the ‘State of Israel’ and a tool to reveal the untold story of what was once a commune industry and symbol to Arabs and Jews in Palestine.
When? 8pm Thursday 15th March 2012
Where? Room 3, RISC, London Street, Reading , RG1 4PS (above the Global Cafe)
FREE Talk & Film: Valley of Hope and Despair, 3 March 2-5pm
February 17th, 2012 • Events, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: film, Friends Meeting House, Quakers, reading, talk, The Friends of Wadi Fuqeen, Valley of Hope and Despair
Friends of Wadi Fuqeen will be holding a free talk and film-show about the Palestinian village of Wadi Fuqeen.
When? 2-5pm Saturday March 3, 2012
Where? The Friends Meeting House, 2 Church Street, Reading, RG1 2SB
Download: Event Flyer – Event Poster
- 2.30pm: Joe Odell speatks about his recent experiences in Palestine
- 3.15pm: Film “Valley of Hope and Despair: The Director’s Cut”, trailer:
- Fairtrade tea and coffee will be available from 2pm to 5pm and Fairtrade Palestinian handicrafts and foodstuffs will be on sale throughout the afternoon.
The event is part of Fairtrade Fortnight
FILM: Gaza Lives On at our February Meeting
February 9th, 2012 • Events, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: cannes, film, meeting, november, oscar, Salt of This Sea
UPDATED: Thanks to all those that attended the meeting. Please share the film, embedded above.
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As part of our February branch meeting we’ll be showing Ashraf Mashharawi’s film “Gaza Lives On”: The Israeli blockade may have taken a heavy toll on Gazans, but this film reveals life and hope among the devastation.
Some have said of the film: “… it is very precious and captures the beauty, struggle and spirit of Gazans in a very intimate way.”
“I just wanted by this film to show how people here have a nice building spirit and to show their love of life and peace so we can see this nice color pictures despite the hard conditions that they have.” – Ashraf Mashharawi
When? 8pm Thursday 16th February 2012
Where? Room 3, RISC, London Street, Reading , RG1 4PS (above the Global Cafe)
CELL 36: The Palestinian children – alone and bewildered – in Israel’s Al Jalame jail
January 28th, 2012 • News
Tags: B'Tselem, cell 36, children, Harriet Sherwood, israel, jail, special report, the guardian, youth
Special report by Harriet Sherwood in The Guardian: Israel’s military justice system is accused of mistreating Palestinian children arrested for throwing stones
The Palestinian children – alone and bewildered – in Israel’s Al Jalame jail
The room is barely wider than the thin, dirty mattress that covers the floor. Behind a low concrete wall is a squat toilet, the stench from which has no escape in the windowless room. The rough concrete walls deter idle leaning; the constant overhead light inhibits sleep. The delivery of food through a low slit in the door is the only way of marking time, dividing day from night.
This is Cell 36, deep within Al Jalame prison in northern Israel. It is one of a handful of cells where Palestinian children are locked in solitary confinement for days or even weeks. One 16-year-old claimed that he had been kept in Cell 36 for 65 days.
The only escape is to the interrogation room where children are shackled, by hands and feet, to a chair while being questioned, sometimes for hours.
Most are accused of throwing stones at soldiers or settlers; some, of flinging molotov cocktails; a few, of more serious offences such as links to militant organisations or using weapons. They are also pumped for information about the activities and sympathies of their classmates, relatives and neighbours.
At the beginning, nearly all deny the accusations. Most say they are threatened; some report physical violence. Verbal abuse – “You’re a dog, a son of a whore” – is common. Many are exhausted from sleep deprivation. Day after day they are fettered to the chair, then returned to solitary confinement. In the end, many sign confessions that they later say were coerced.
Read the full report here…
Related:
Craig Murray: Get Your Banned News Here
November 15th, 2011 • Awareness, News
Tags: britsh ambassador, craig murray, iran, israel, uk
Craig Murray, Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Diplomat and Human Rights Activist, has published an article on the plot to attack Iran. He pre-announced the publication on his blog after the mainstream media refused to publish.
Matthew Gould and the Plot to Attack Iran
This is Matthew Gould, second from right, British Ambassador to Israel, who was pictured speaking at a meeting of the Leeds Zionist Federation that was also the opening of the Leeds Hasbarah Centre. The Leeds Zionist Federation is part of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, motto “Speaking Up for Israel.” A collection was made at the meeting to send packages to members of the Israeli Defence Force.
On 29 May 2011 The Jerusalem Post reported: “British Ambassador Matthew Gould declared his commitment to Israel and the principles of Zionism on Thursday”.
Remember this background, it is unusual behaviour for a diplomat, and it is important.
The six meetings between British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould and Minister of Defence Liam Fox and Adam Werritty together – only two of which were revealed by Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell in his “investigation” into Werritty’s unauthorised role in the Ministry of Defence – raise vital concerns about a secret agenda for war at the core of government, comparable to Blair’s determination to drive through a war on Iraq..
This is a detective story. It begins a few weeks ago, when the Fox-Werritty scandal was first breaking in the media. I had a contact from an old friend from my Foreign Office days. This friend had access to the Gus O’Donnell investigation. He had given a message for me to a trusted third party.
Whistleblowing in the surveillance state is a difficult activity. I left through a neighbour’s garden, not carrying a mobile phone, puffed and panted by bicycle to an unmonitored but busy stretch of road, hitched a lift much of the way, then ordered a minicab on a payphone from a country pub to my final destination, a farm far from CCTV. There the intermediary gave me the message: what really was worrying senior civil servants in the Cabinet Office was that the Fox-Werritty link related to plans involving Mossad and the British Ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould.
Read the full article on Craig Murray’s website…
BBC Three: Mixed up in the Middle East
November 14th, 2011 • 1 comment Awareness, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: bbc, BBC Three, Mixed Up in the Middle East, Reya El-Salahi, tv
Watch on iPlayer (UK) or Youtube (above)
Reya’s half Arab, half Jewish. Her parents fell in love across the Middle East divide, but she’s grown up in Britain. So what happens when she goes to Israel and the Palestinian territories for the first time?
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Read Reya’s blog: Reya El-Salahi: Mixed Up in the Middle East
9pm Monday 14 November 2011 BBC Three Repeated 1.05am Tue / 4am Wed
BBC Press Office:
This is a journey of understanding for the BBC Three audience as Reya gets to meet people from both sides of the divide – whose shattered lives are the fallout from the conflict. Spending time with her own cousins, she’ll reveal how everyday life for them has been made shockingly different – often very dangerous – by the long-running hostilities they were born into. It’s a world away from the life she knows but one all too familiar for her ancestors. She’ll explore what the two sides have in common, as well as what divides them; and explore the prospects for peace as the Arab world undergoes its most radical change for generations.
TV: Going for Gold in Gaza
November 10th, 2011 • News
Tags: channel 4, docu, gaza, london 2012, olympics, paralympics, tv, unreported world
Don’t miss this eye opening documentary on Channel 4 tomorrow night!
Unreported World meets members of the Palestinian Paralympic team hoping to qualify for London 2012. They find athletes struggling to train in the conflict zone. In a territory where those who die fighting the Israelis are considered the true heroes, the Paralympic team goes completely unrecognised by its own people – read more…
Palestinian atheletes have one 3 medals at previous paralympics:
- Bronze – Husam Azzam – 2000 Sydney – Shot put
- Silver – Husam Azzam – 2004 Athens – Shot put
- Bronze – Mohammed Fannouna – 2004 Athens – Long jump
FILM: Salt of this Sea at our November Meeting
November 10th, 2011 • Events, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: cannes, film, meeting, november, oscar, Salt of This Sea
As part of our November branch meeting we’ll be showing the award-winning film “Salt of this Sea” – a 2008 Official Selection at Cannes and Palestine’s OSCAR entry for Best Foreign Language Film.
When? 8pm Thursday 17th November 2011
Where? Room 3, RISC, London Street, Reading , RG1 4PS (above the Global Cafe)
Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather’s savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of “returning” to Palestine. Once there, slowly she is taken apart by the reality around her and is forced to confront her own anger. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even if it’s illegal.
- Find out more at the Official Website…
RIF2011 Event: PALESTINE: A People in Resistance.
October 20th, 2011 • Events, News
Tags: 2011, Barnard-Boecker Foundation Centre, Events, festival, free, reading, Reading International Festival, risc, Steven Sizer, Theresa Wolfwood
Click to download the flyer
Monday 24th October 2011 @ 7.30pm
PALESTINE: A People in Resistance.
Don’t miss this powerful and moving presentation of a story of non violent resistance and the amazing resilience of a people who live daily under Israeli occupation by Theresa Wolfwood. Theresa is Director of the Barnard-Boecker Foundation Centre in Canada and a longstanding human rights activist. She has over the years built up deep contacts in all areas of Palestinian society, in the villages and cities of the West Bank to the refugee camps of Lebanon and Jordan. Often at the cutting edge of that resistance, she has been tear gassed and threatened by Israeli soldiers.
7.30pm Monday 24th October 2011 – Room 3, RISC (Above Global Cafe), 35- 39 London Street, RG1 4PS.
Free Entrance. A Joint RISC/Reading Palestine Solidarity Campaign Event.
Join us for the Reading International Festival 2011!
September 29th, 2011 • Events, News
Tags: 2011, Barnard-Boecker Foundation Centre, Events, festival, free, reading, Reading International Festival, risc, Steven Sizer, Theresa Wolfwood
We’re happy to announce two FREE events as part of the Reading International Festival 2011!
Click to download the flyer
Wednesday 19 October 2011 @ 7.45pm
THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT: A Christian Perspective
A free talk by the Reverend Dr Stephen Sizer, author and frequent visitor to the Middle East discussing the negative roll of the USA on the Israeli/Palestine peace process. He will discuss the negative and perverse way these beliefs distort the American political understanding of the Israeli/Palestine conflict. The Reverend Stephen Sizer is a leading expert on Christian Zionism especially in the USA.
7.45pm Wednesday 19th October 2011 – Large Hall, RISC (Above Global Cafe), 35 – 39 London Street, Reading, RG1 4PS
Refreshments, Palestinian Fairtrade Goods And Handicrafts Will Be Available.
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Click to download the flyer
Monday 24th October 2011 @ 7.30pm
PALESTINE: A People in Resistance.
Don’t miss this powerful and moving presentation of a story of non violent resistance and the amazing resilience of a people who live daily under Israeli occupation by Theresa Wolfwood. Theresa is Director of the Barnard-Boecker Foundation Centre in Canada and a longstanding human rights activist. She has over the years built up deep contacts in all areas of Palestinian society, in the villages and cities of the West Bank to the refugee camps of Lebanon and Jordan. Often at the cutting edge of that resistance, she has been tear gassed and threatened by Israeli soldiers.
7.30pm Monday 24th October 2011 – Room 3, RISC (Above Global Cafe), 35- 39 London Street, RG1 4PS.
Free Entrance. A Joint RISC/Reading Palestine Solidarity Campaign Event.
