Thursday 13 December 2018

Stop adoption of IHRA antisemitism definition by our Council


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Tonight Waltham Forest Council will vote on whether to incorporate the controversial International Holocaust Memorial Alliance definition of antisemitism into the Code of Conduct for the Councillors and staff.

• Rather than to combat racism, the definition is tailored specifically to silence criticism of Israel.
• It potentially criminalises non-violent and anti-racist activity in support of human rights and international law.
• It severely restricts the right of Palestinians to speak up and to describe and define their own oppression.
• It could potentially leave the Council in breach of the 1998 Human Rights Act and of the European Convention on Human Rights.
• This has apparently been discussed with no consultation with the unions involved, whose members face potential dismissal for falling foul of a problematic document that they have not even signed up to.

Hopefully, Councillors will find the courage to do the right thing and reject the proposed amendment to the Council’s Code of Conduct, and we encourage everyone to urge their councillor to do so.
Tonight at 6.30 WFPSC, together with a number of Jewish organisations and trade unions, will lobby WFC outside Walthamstow Town Hall, against adopting IHRA definition and at 7.30 we will attend the Council meeting where several activists will speak against it.

Some of the reasons for rejecting IHRA definition are given below:

• The text of ‘definition’ is so vague that it fails to define antisemitism and antisemitic acts and behaviours.
• Majority of the ‘working examples’ accompanying the ‘definition’ equate between criticism of policies of the state of Israel and antisemitic hatred.
• The definition conflicts with the freedom of speech, which is a basic right in democratic societies.
• By focusing on obstructing discussion and activism regarding Israel-Palestine conflict, IHRA definition diverts attention from the real threat of violent antisemitic racism coming from the far right.
• The IHRA document has been criticised by many leading lawyers and by authorities on antisemitism who described it as ‘so flawed it should be abandoned’, ‘bewilderingly imprecise’ and even dangerous.
• More than 40 Jewish organisations find IHRA definition unacceptable.
• By adopting it, WFC would fail to make the connection between the struggle against antisemitism and other sorts of prejudice.
• Adopting and implementing the IHRA definition would have significant negative implications for Waltham Forest councillors, employees, and for all residents of, or visitors, to the borough which the Council fails to recognise.

Friday 11 May 2018

Join us at the stall tomorrow 11.30-2pm outside Matalan



We will be in Leytonstone, outside Matalan tomorrow with our stall.

Please, pop over between 11.30 - 14.00 to see our latest publicity materials about 70 Years of Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), Gaza siege, inhuman conditions and violence suffered by its population, about Great Return March and the weekly carnage inflicted on the unarmed Gazan demonstrators by the Israeli snipers, about BDS, child prisoners and more.

See you there.

Thursday 10 May 2018

Important dates for your diary


On this coming Saturday, 12 May, between 12.00-14.00, we will be outside Matalan in Leytonstone with our stall.

Please, pop over to see our latest publicity materials about 70 Years of Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), Gaza siege and inhuman conditions and violence suffered by its population, about Great Return March and the weekly carnage inflicted on the unarmed Gazan demonstrators by the Israeli snipers, about BDS, child prisoners and more.



On 15 May, with a number of Waltham Forest human rights and faith organisations, trade unions and political parties, we will come together to remember and show our solidarity with the Palestinian people on the 70th anniversary of their dispossession. There will be speachess and leaflets to pick up and we hope to have Palestinian music too. Join us and show that you care about this longest injustice in the modern time.




Saturday 5 May 2018

Its AGM time again



Our 2018 AGM will take place on Wednesday 9 May starting at 19.30 in Hornbeam Centre Café, 458 Hoe St, Walthamstow, E17 9AH.

If you are interested in our Palestine solidarity work and wish to get involved, you are most welcome to join us at the AGM.

Please confirm your attendance by email on wfpsc@yahoo.com and we will send you the Agenda and relevant reports.

Hope to see you there,

Free Palestine and don't forget to boycott Israel


Friday 27 April 2018

HSBC Walthamstow protest, 26 April '18

HSBC Stop Arming Israel!

The pictures are from our protest yesterday, 26 April ’18, outside Walthamstow branch of the HSBC Bank.

WFPSC is working on raising awareness in our local area and mobilising support to put pressure on HSBC to abandon its involvement in financing military industry and to stop arming Israel, which uses its military might to maintain five decades long illegal and violent occupation of Palestine.

Protests against the HSBC are UK-wide with this bank is targeted for holding shares and providing loans to military and technology companies arming Israel. For example, the HSBC Bank holds £3.64m worth of shares of Israeli arms producer Elbit Systems, which markets it’s his deadly wares as ‘field-tested’ on Palestinians.
We leafleted and sang outside the HSBC asking HSBC customers to demand from the HSBC to stop its complicity and support for the Israeli war machine.

Saturday 14 April 2018

Our Palestine stall outside Matalan in E11, 14 April '18


See the photos from our successful stall today outside Matalan in the Leytonstone High Street.

The weather was great, with lots of people in the street and quite a few of them chose to examine our stall and talk about Palestine and our activities.

The traffic on the High street was heavy and we had drivers honking in support and even stopping to give us a donation.

We have numerous offers of support and solidarity and expressions of interest in volunteering with us.



We need to join forces as people within the Palestine Solidarity movement. Please consider joining as a member https://www.palestinecampaign.org/

Decades long illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel, is becoming more brutal by the day.

Unarmed people of Gaza have been mowed down in their hundreds by Israel, one of the most heavily armed countries in the world and residents of the West Bank are executed daily in their towns and villages.

Land grab for the illegal Israeli settlements is gaining pace and Trump continues with the colonialist behaviour of the only world empire, by presenting Israel with the gift of Jerusalem, illegally occupied since 1967.

While all this is happening, there is little reporting and reactions by the, otherwise trigger happy, UK Government are muted if not non-existent.

In fact, to a a great extent, the Israeli occupation is only made possible by the Western support, including in the most devastating modern weapons available.

Our next stall is on Saturday 28 April 11.30 -14.00. Please pencil the date in if you want to visit us and we will confirm the location nearer to the date.

Show that Palestinian lives matter to you.

Justice for Palestine!

Monday 19 March 2018

WFPSC protests outside Walthamstow HSBC Bank, 17 March’18


Please see the video of our singing protest outside Walthamstow HSBC against Bank's involvement in financing Israel's military.


Friday 16 March 2018

Singing for Palestine: HSBC protest, 17March'18

Waltham Forest Palestine Solidarity Campaign (WFPSC)

Singing for Palestine


Join us and demand that HSBC stops financing Israel’s arms industry

Tomorrow, Saturday 17 March ‘18
11.00-13.00

Meet outside HSBC Bank’s Walthamstow branch, 192 Hoe Street, E17 4QN

See you there!



I HEAR MUSIC
(adapted from “Crater Boys” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjvjsqN9x6U)

1st CHORUS
I hear music, I hear music
Whoaoa-oah FREE PALESTINE
I hear music, I hear music
Whoaoa-oah FREE PALESTINE
Israel’s arms-and-tanks
Are paid from BRI-TISH banks
Of the HSBC, the HSBC, of the H—S-B-C kind. (SHAME on---H-S-B-C!)
I hear music, I hear music
Whoa-oah FREE PALESTINE
VERSE (solo)
Mr Settler Man, why do you steal our land?
Why don’t you get back, get back, get back from Pale-stine!
You steal our nation, with your occupation
Though it’s ours, it’s ours, it’s ours, ours, it’s ours
Not your promised land
2st CHORUS
I hear music, I hear music
Whoaoa-oah FREE PALESTINE
Israel’s arms-and-tanks
Are paid from BRI-TISH banks
Of the HSBC, the HSBC, of the H—S-B-C kind. (SHAME on---H-S-B-C!)
I hear music, I hear music
Whoa-oah FREE PALESTINE

VERSE (solo)
You steal our water
Arrest our daughter (FREE AHED NOW!!)
We’ll make you get back, get back, get back from Pale-stine
With your Wall and fencing, for your ethnic cleansing
You want to drive us out, just to drive us out
From our promised land.
3st CHORUS
I hear music, I hear music
Whoaoa-oah FREE PALESTINE
Israel’s arms-and-tanks
Are paid from BRI-TISH banks
Of the HSBC, the HSBC, of the H—S-B-C kind. (SHAME on---H-S-B-C!)
I hear music, I hear music
Whoa-oah FREE PALESTINE
SOLO
VERSE (everybody)
Just like birds of a feather, we got to stick together
And spread our love, our love and justice for Palestine
Repeat: And spread our love, our love and justice for Pale-stine
Whooa, FREE PALESTINE
Whoa, shame on H-SBC
Whoa, FREE PALESTINE

Whoaaaaaa, SHAME on H-SBC

END

You can find more about HSBC Bank's involvement in financing Israel's military here https://www.palestinecampaign.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/HSBC-ActionCards-Online.pdf



Friday 19 May 2017

Pictures from our vigil last night in Walthamstow

Balfour Declaration centenary - 69 years of Israel's illegal and brutal occupation of Palestine - 1500 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for over a month.


Time to acknowledge, apologise and act!



Join us and work with us on achieving justice and human rights for the Palestinians.

Thursday 18 May 2017

Join WFPSC vigil tonight 6.30 in Walthamstow Town Square


Tonight we will remember:
- 100 years of the fateful Balfour Declaration which promised Palestinian land to the Zionist movement.


- 69 years of the Nakba (Catastrophe) when up to 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes during the creation of the state of Israel.

- 1500 palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails on hunger strike for more that 30 days demanding their rights and protesting against mistreatment, occupation and dispossession of Palestinian people.
Show your solidarity!



Find out more on
https://www.palestinecampaign.org/campaigns/balfour2nakba/
https://www.palestinecampaign.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/Nakba-Factsheet-2017.pdf
https://www.palestinecampaign.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/Palestinian-Prisoners-PSC-Factsheet-0517.pdf
https://www.palestinecampaign.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/hunger-strikers-leaflet-A4.pdf

Friday 12 May 2017

Visit our Palestine Solidarity stall in Walthamstow



Tomorrow, Saturday 13 May ’17, we will devote our stall to Balfour Declaration and 69 anniversary of dispossession of the Palestinians.


We now have new Palestine Solidarity Campaign info materials on the Balfour Declaration and British involvement in Palestine, which we will be handing out.


History cannot be unlived but injustices have to be acknowledged and apologies made.

This year marks a centenary of British Foreign Minster Arthur Balfour’s promise of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, which materialised on 15 May 1948 depriving Palestinians of their homeland.

Palestinians called this a Nakba, (Catastrophe) which resulted in the mass ethnic cleansing, violence and decades of occupation of Palestinian people.



Come and have a chat about these important issues which impact on the world we live in to this day.

Demand justice and equal rights for Palestinians

See you there.


Friday 21 April 2017

Palestine stall on Saturday 22nd April in E10


You will find us with our Palestine stall near the Leyton tube in the shopping area between the TK Max and the Poundland, tomorrow, Saturday the 22nd April.

Come between 11.30 -14.00 for a chat, to pick up your leaflets and stock up on Palestinian produce.


Looking forward to see you there!