Tuesday 20 August 2013

Follow the kids visit on the 'common ground' blog - http://2013commonground.blogspot.co.uk/

and here are the kids in Wales!  Well done CADFA for finding a way for them to travel out of the West Bank and Gaza!


Sunday 7 July 2013

WFPSC Annual General Meeting 2013 - All Welcome!


We look forward to welcoming you to our AGM!

Monday 08 July 2013
7.30pm - 9.30pm

Hornbeam Centre
458 Hoe Street
Walthamstow
E17 9AH

Agenda

1.  Apologies
2.  Minutes of 2012 AGM
3.  Reports from Chairman, Treasurer and other officers
4.  Elections of Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and six other officers including the BDS and friendship links/twinning focussed roles.
5.  Dates for 2013 AGM and 2013/2014 Branch Meetings
6.  Initial plans for 2013/2014
7.  AOB

We had wanted to have a speaker from the charity CADFA (Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association) to speak to us about 'Common Ground', a project taking place in late August bringing 16 Palestinian teenagers to the UK from both the West Bank and Gaza, to spend two weeks on a music and education project with 16 UK teenagers of the UK, culminating in London with day in Waltham Forest.  Our friendship links team is really looking forward to supporting this project.

However, CADFA is immersed in an over-running school children's visit from Abu Dis, having experienced extreme difficulties when the children's Headmaster was blocked from leading their school expedition to the UK by Israeli authorities, for no apparent reason.  A week was spent frantically campaigning to try to get the Israeli Authorities to let the Headmaster travel with the children.  The kids became stuck in limbo in Amman awaiting the outcome.  All pleas to the Israeli Authorities fell on deaf ears.  The children with their youth leaders managed to make it to the UK to fulfil their project commitments, but their travel plans have been thrown into disarray and they are currently having to stay in the UK for a few extra days before being able to try to get back to the West Bank, still without their Headmaster, at the end of this week.  All this means CADFA cannot offer us a speaker, and our sympathies are with Nandita and the CADFA team. 

Our AGM is open to all to attend, so please do come along!  However, do note that in order to vote, or be elected, you have to be a paid-up member of PSC.

Light refreshments will be available for a small donation.

Many thanks
WFPSC Team

Waltham Forest Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Patrons:  Neil Gerrard, Jean Lambert MEP, Prof Nur Masalha
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/walthamforestpsc
Twitter:  @wfpsclondon
Web:  http://wfpsc.blogspot.com
Post:  WFPSC c/o Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe St, Walthamstow, E17 9AH
Email:  wfpsc@yahoo.com

Saturday 18 May 2013

Give Israeli Racism the Red Card!  
International campaign to kick Israeli Apartheid and Racism out of UEFA.
 

Tomorrow, Sunday 19th May - 1pm Kick Off - 'RED CARD ISRAELI RACISM' 6-A-SIDE FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT - Mabley Green Hackney, E9 5RN - Men's Tournament - For Ages 16+, on Hackney Marshes just by the great new visitor centre. Really easy to walk to from Walthamstow Marshes.  Enjoy a day out on the marshes and support Palestinian sport at the same time!

IMPORTANT - This Friday, 24th May from 11am-4pm - 'RED CARD ISRAELI RACISM' DEMONSTRATION - outside the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, W1K 7TN.  Do make every effort to attend this important demo and support Mahmood Sarsak - http://www.foa.org.uk/events/kick-israeli-racism-out-of-uefa

On Friday 24th evening, after the big demo - 'RED CARD ISRAELI RACISM' SOCIAL NIGHT.  See this link for details - http://www.palestinecampaign.org/events/green-card-justice-social-evening/

Please try to join the protest on 24th May even if you can't do anything else!

Thursday 25 April 2013

WALTHAM FOREST Branch of PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN - http://www.palestinecampaign.org/support/join/
=======================================================

'Red Card' Israeli Racism Leafletting
Sat, 27 April 2013
2.15pm-3pm (pre-kickoff)
Leyton Orient Football Club
Meeting at the corner of Buckingham Road / High Road Leyton, E10 5NG

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=538008&Y=186460&A=Y&Z=110

As part of the international 'Red Card' Israeli Racism campaign to stop UEFA holding the 2013 European Under-21 Championships in the Apartheid state in June - http://redcardapartheid.weebly.com/ - WFPSC has organised an awareness action for Saturday afternoon at the last 'O's match of the season.  Not only will we be talking to fans and raising their awareness as they enter the ground, encouraging them to sign up to kick racism out of the beautiful game, but we'll also take the time to support our local team and watch the match!  We will be joined by local trade unionists and anti-football-racism campaign activists from around London to help get the message across.  It'll be a tremendous afternoon - really inspiring - so please come along with bags of enthusiasm and energy!  To confirm you are coming, please email wfpsc@yahoo.com, or message us on www.facebook.com/walthamforestpsc or twitter @wfpsclondon 

You can buy match tickets in advance here - http://www.leytonorient.com/fixtures-results/match-preview/index.aspx?MatchId=3520316

In addition, please sign the important related petition here - https://www.change.org/petitions/uefa-president-michel-platini-remove-uefa-2013-european-under-21-championship-from-israel - and forward the link on to your friends and colleagues to sign too!


'An Evening for Palestine Solidarity' Fundraising Evening
Thu, 02 May 2013
6pm-10pm
London Muslim Centre, 46-92 Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1JX


Roll up!  Roll up!  We're really pleased to encourage you to purchase your tickets for this special PSC fundraiser organised by East London PSC.  Top-notch speakers will inspire you to get active and participate in pro-Palestinian campaigning and you will enjoy a gorgeous three-course dinner.  You can purchase tickets direct online for £10 per person here - http://www.palestinecampaign.org/support/donate/psc-fundraising-dinner/ - or to join the special WFPSC table at a reduced rate of £8.35 per person please email wfpsc@yahoo.com / contact us via facebook.com/walthamforestpsc or twitter @wfpsclondon

See the promotional video here - http://www.palestinecampaign.org/video-an-evening-for-palestine-solidarity-campaign/

SPEAKERS INCLUDE
His ExcellencyManuel Hassassian
Palestinian Ambassador to the UK
 

Lutfur Rahman
Mayor of Tower Hamlets
 

Jeremy Corbyn
MP for Islington North
 

Dr Anas Altikriti
Founding member, British Muslim Initiative
 

Baroness Jenny Tonge
Independent Liberal Democrat
 

Naila Ahmed
Federation of StudentsIslamic Societies
 

SPECIAL FUNDRAISING APPEAL BY
Ajmal Masroor
 

Join us for a packed evening of talks, poetry, entertainment, videos, fundraising appeal, auctions, hamper and a traditional three course Palestinian menu.  Learn more about the work of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and how you can get involved.
 

THURSDAY 2nd MAY 2013 | 6PM
LONDON MUSLIM CENTRE
46-92 WHITECHAPEL ROAD, LONDON E1 1JX
Nearest tube: Aldgate East / Whitechapel

TICKETS: £10 | £100 FOR Table of 12
book online or for more information 020 7700 6192 | 07847 223 508 |
ALL PROCEEDS TO THE WORK OF PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN




See you on Saturday and Thursday!

Best wishes
WFPSC Team

Sunday 7 April 2013

Branch meeting tonight, Mon 08 April 2013, Hornbeam Centre, Walthamstow

Do join us tonight to plan for a hectic schedule of events and campaign activities coming up:

Mon, 08 April 2013
7.30pm-9.30pm
WFPSC Branch Meeting
Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe Street, E17 9AH

Agenda

1. Apologies

2. Feedback on actions from last meeting

3. Palestinian Christianity awareness campaign - review of our very successful event on Palm Sunday at lovely St Barnabas Church, and further awareness activities with local christian denominations.

4. Finance update - including WFPSC fundraising dinner plans, and stalls update

5. 'No to G4S' - campaign outline from local activist and key international BDS campaigner, Diana Neslen, including building for the Solidarity Protest on International Palestinian Prisoners Day on Wed 17th April, 4.30pm-7pm, at the G4S UK & Ireland Head Office, 105 Victoria Street, SW1E 6QT - http://www.palestinecampaign.org/events/solidarity-protest-on-international-palestinian-political-prisoners-day/

6. 'Red Card' Israeli Racism - http://redcardapartheid.weebly.com/ - organising local football match leafletting action on Sat 27th April, 2pm-5pm at a local football ground.  Building teams for the FOA's 'Goal4Peace' football tournament on Sun 19th May, kickoff 1pm - http://foa.org.uk/events/goal-4-peace-football-tournament - men-only 6-a-side teams aged 16+.  Demonstration 'No to UEFA U21 Finals in Israel' on Fri 24th May, 11am-4pm outside UEFA Annual Congress, Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, W1K 7TN.  Famous Gazan Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak's UK Tour on it's English leg from Thu 16th to Sun 26th May, at locations tbc. Gather signatures on The Red Card Petition - https://www.change.org/petitions/uefa-president-michel-platini-remove-uefa-2013-european-under-21-championship-from-israel

7. 2013 Leytonstone Festival - set up event during the festival from Thu 11th to Sun 21st July - http://www.leytonstonefestival.org.uk/pages/

8. Updates on other local and national issues

9. AOB

Thursday 21 March 2013


Updated line-up for our amazing afternoon on Sunday!

Palm Sunday,  24th March 2013,  2pm-5pm
Palestinian Culture & Christianity
St Barnabas Church, St Barnabas Road, Walthamstow, London E17 8JZ

Free entry & family-friendly celebration of Palestinian diversity and hope on Palm Sunday:

+ Learn Nanor Arakelian's story, an Armenian Palestinian Christian participating in OneVoice
+ Hear Meg Wroe walk you through her art display and schools art exchange experiences
+ View insights into Palestinian life under occupation in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza through Rada Daniell's lens
+ Share Holy Week prayers with parish priest Rev Steven Saxby
+ Discover Palestinian Christian life with information from Friends of Sabeel, Amos Trust and Embraceme (Biblelands)
+ Browse beautiful artefacts from Haringey Justice For Palestinians; literature and organic/fairtrade Palestinian oils, olives and other Zaytoun goodies from Palestine Solidarity Campaign
+ Sip on delicious arabic teas & coffees
+ Enjoy freshly baked bread from Pilar Lopez and the team from Organic Lea & Hornbeam Cafe Baking Collective
+ Sample delectable fresh Palestinian falafel, humous and knafa from West London's famous Palestinian Maramia Cafe
+ Join in with infectious Palestinian music and dabka dancing from the fantastic RAAST Collective

Come along to discover what it means to be Palestinian - that Palestinians are one distinct and yet amazingly diverse people, standing together as Muslims, Christians and many other religions and none.  Learn from fascinating speakers, visual displays and literature; sample some delicious Palestinian food, music and dance; and celebrate Palestinian fortitude and humanity. 

Bring your enthusiasm and a bit of cash to enjoy all the goodies!

Do join us for a wonderful and fascinating afternoon - all welcome!

Tuesday 5 March 2013


March 2013 - local WFPSC activity

Sat 9th March, at 11am - 2pm:
Street Stall at Tesco on Leyton High Road, just along from Baker's Arms.

Mon 11th March, at 7.30pm-9.30pm
Branch Meeting
Monthly catch-up at Hornbeam Centre, Walthamstow with a speaker from the anti-G4S campaign and other campaigning activities.

Sat 23rd March, at 11am - 2pm:
Street Stall at Walthamstow Arcade site corner nearest the Library, on Walthamstow High Street. 

Palm Sunday, 24th March, at 2pm-5pm
Palestinian Culture & Christianity Event
Our special cultural event at St Barnabas Church, Walthamstow.  Taking place on Palm Sunday, it's the day Catholic Palestinian christians celebrate the start of Holy Week (Orthodox christians follow on two weeks later) marking when Jesus returned to Jerusalem, riding into the city on a donkey symbolising peace and humility, passing over palm leaves symbolising victory, peace and immortality. 

Some view Jesus' dramatic gesture as an act of resistance to encourage the local population to overcome of the oppressive colonial occupation of that time by peaceful means.  This has some resonance for Palestinians in contemporary times.  For believers, Jesus was dead and immortalised by the end of that week, and nowadays that sacrifice is eerily evoked in microcosm every Friday by the largely muslim Palestinian population, in the same occupied East Jerusalem streets and surrounding occupied villages and fields all over the West Bank, by Palestinian non-violent resisters trying to overcome another colonial occupation, suffering their own imprisonment and murder this time at the hands of Israeli occupation forces, at Bil'in, Ni'lin, Nabi Saleh, Jayyous, Salfit, Al-Khader, Hebron, Qalandia, Anata, Abu Dis, Nablus...  For some you can stretch the resonance as far as the Palestinian hunger strikers, like Samer Issawi, barely clinging on to life after over 200 days without food, as gentle and steadfast as ever.

This Palm Sunday we will be exploring the reality of Palestinian diversity: approximately 20% of the diaspora/shatat worldwide is Christian but fewer than 2% are left in Palestine today.

 + Despite Israeli propaganda to the contrary, Palestinian Christians are treated exactly the same as all Palestinians of any faith or none - with implacable discrimination by Israeli authorities.  Particularly with their Muslim brothers and sisters, Christian Palestinians are subjected to a vicious game of destruction and humiliation by Israeli Authorities, with monasteries and churches being partitioned off, graffitied and arson-attacked, families harassed, farms destroyed, livelihoods ended. 

+ In the face of unusually outspoken UK Government intervention, currently near Bethlehem the famous Palestinian Cremisan vineyards and monastery are gradually being torn apart and the Christian community there decimated by Israeli civilian and military forces building an extension to the illegal Apartheid separation Wall - http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/12/265931.html - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/04/william-hague-vincent-nichols-west-bank-barrier

+ Again, in the face of international opprobrium, Recently in Gaza, Israeli authorities made no difference whom they 'carefully' bombed - Muslims and Christians alike were slaughtered - http://ocl.org/the-funeral-of-salem-paul-sweliem-in-gaza-city/ - http://www.euronews.com/2012/11/20/death-then-funerals-in-gaza/ 

Come along to discover what it means to be Palestinian - that Palestinians are one distinct and yet amazingly diverse people, standing together as Muslims, Christians and many other religions and none.  Learn from fascinating speakers, visual displays and literature; sample some delicious Palestinian food, music and dance; and celebrate Palestinian fortitude and humanity. 
Do join us for a wonderful and fascinating afternoon! All welcome!

Sat 6th April, at 11am - 2pm:  
Street Stall at Leytonstone ASDA paved way, opposite Leytonstone Tube station.

Also, take a look at this video about Israeli Apartheid - http://apartheidweek.org/ - read this latest example of Israeli secret services putting Apartheid into action against internationals - http://bit.ly/WnS1hE - and extraordinary Apartheid segregation in action in the West Bank - http://yhoo.it/WE9eOF

Many thanks
WFPSC Team

Monday 14 January 2013

Happy New Year!  Join us tonight for:

Mon, 14 January 2013
7.30pm-9.30pm
WFPSC Branch Meeting
Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe Street, E17 9AH


Agenda
1. Apologies
2. Feedback on actions from last meeting
3. Finance update
4. 'No to Veolia!' - postscript after campaign win
5. Twinning/friendship links - introduction to 'Palestine Trauma Centre' by David Harrold plus feedback from Twinning Network Conference
6. "Unity" church service and Palestinian Christians event at St Saviours Church, Walthamstow (Fri 25 Jan, eve)
7. Updates on other local and national issues
'4 Years on from Israel's 'Operation Cast Lead' with Andy Slaughter MP, Sarah Tether MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP and others (Tues 15 Jan, 6.30pm-8pm at House of Commons, Westminster but obligatory to email palsolcam@gmail.com to attend).  PRC Conference 'Britain's Legacy in Palestine' with Alison Weir, Mohammed Othman and others (Sat 19 Jan, 9.30am-5pm - at Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London, NW1 2JB).  WFPSC stall at Walthamstow Arcade Site volunteers needed (Sat 19 Jan, 11am-2pm).  PSC Annual General Meeting 2013 with Karma Nablusi, Ben White and others for PSC paid-up members only (Sat 26 Jan, 10am-5pm - at The London Irish Centre, 50-52 Camden Sq, London, NW1 9XB).  WFUAF's 'A night of music and words for the Holocaust Memorial Week' with Steve White and the Protest Family and others (Sat 26 Jan, 7.30pm, at Ye Old Rose & Crown Pub, Walthamstow).  Palestinians' Call For BDS Action Against Farming (Sat 09 Feb, all day).  Convoy to Gaza (end of Feb, for 1 month).
8. AOB