Mass Lobby of John Leech MP
Friday the 4th of June, 3pm Withington Library, Wilmslow Road.

End the Siege of Gaza

No to an Israeli enquiry, yes to an International enquiry

Sanctions on Israel – End the EU-Israel Association Agreement

The massacre of at least 9 international humanitarian activists illustrates to the world the extent to which Israel’s words are at odds with its deeds. Despite its professed commitment to democratic ideals and international cooperation in pursuit of long lasting peace in the region, Israel’s assault on the Free Gaza Flotilla adds to its record of putting obstacles in the way of Justice.

This massacre comes in the aftermath of Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon, Israel’s three year siege of Gaza, its assault on Gaza in 2009, recent political assassination abroad, as well as the continuation of illegal settlement building in the West Bank, all of which has continued to hamper the development of regional stability and thus undermined the prospects for real peace with Justice in the Middle East as well as for Palestine.

In light of this record we feel that it is our duty to not simply speak out against Israel’s policies but also now imperative to take inspiration from the anti- apartheid struggle in South Africa and step up our grassroots campaign for solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for Justice and Peace.

Called by: Action Palestine
Supported by: Manchester PSC, Manchester Green Party, MPACUK,

The University of Manchester Palestine society (Action Palestine) today condemned the “Islam on Campus” report carried out by the Centre for Social Cohesion.

On page 21 the report says:
“Islamic societies often work in conjunction with other university societies generally. For example, at the University of Manchester, the ISOC works closely with the Palestinian Society, often co-hosting events and sharing email subscription lists.”

The University of Manchester Palestine society seeks to cooperate with all like-minded students and students’ groups over the last year and have co-hosted several events with several students’ groups and university departments, the University of Manchester Islamic Society is not one of them. We have never shared mailing lists with the Islamic Society nor any other group for that matter. We are also careful to only publicise our own events and actions organised by our own society. We don’t send out emails on our mailing list from other groups.

Having said this, we have a good relationship with many of our fellow students’ groups in the University of Manchester including the Islamic Society. We look forward to working with as many fellow students groups in the University of Manchester and beyond, when ever the opportunity arises for joint campaigns and events.

We are not in a position to provide a statement about the full content of the report but we have clearly shown that is has included inaccurate information. Also the language of the report appears to seek to attack Muslim students and provoke anger and suspicion towards Muslims on campus. Therefore we commend NUS and Wes Streeting (NUS president 08-09) for taking a clear position against the report, We also support the FOSIS statement against the report.

University of Manchester Palestine Society Committee

*End*

CSC “Islam on campus” (PDF) (HTML)

FOSIS statement on the CSC report

End the Siege on Gaza
Northern Demonstration

Saturday 2nd Feb 12 noon

BBC Building, Oxford Road, Manchester

Action Palestine, with the support of Stop the War and Palestine Solidarity Campaign, has called a northern demonstration in solidarity with the people of Gaza. The Israeli blockade of Gaza has made life in the world’s most densely populated region in the world even worse in recent weeks. The blockade is an obvious case of collective punishment.

Much of Gaza is once again in darkness, as Israel cut off the fuel to its only power plant. Hospital patients have reportedly died, communications are out, and movement and commerce in an already beleaguered economy have come to a near halt.

Michele Mercier, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said Gaza hospitals still had medications “but it won’t last for more than two or three days.” Now, Gazans must also contend with the possibility of already scarce food supplies being cut off. Christopher Gunness of UNRWA, the UN relief agency, said the agency could be forced to suspend food distribution to 860,000 people because of the shortage of fuel and plastic bags.

The New York Times, always to be counted on to provide the right euphemisms, reported that “Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, ordered a temporary halt on all imports into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip late last week. The measure, along with stepped-up military operations in Gaza, was meant to persuade Palestinian militants there to stop firing rockets at Israel.” (Isabel Kershner, “Fuel Shortage Shuts Gaza Power Plant, Leaving City Dark,” 21 January 2008.)

Terms like “measures” and “persuasion” sound so gentle. But they cover up a brutal reality that Israeli leaders are keen to boast about: they are acting with premeditation to inflict suffering on the Palestinian civilian population, and they display an extraordinary degree of callousness for their victims.

“We are impacting the overall quality of life in Gaza and destroying the terror infrastructure,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak boasted.

As news of mounting suffering came out of Gaza, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert provided further confirmation that civilians were on Israel’s target list: “We are trying to hit only those involved in terrorism, but also signaling to the population in Gaza that it cannot be free from responsibility for the situation.” With fuel running out, he scoffed, “As far as I’m concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no fuel for their cars because they have a murderous terrorist regime that doesn’t allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace.”

The punishment of Gaza’s population is apparently succeeding beyond Israel’s wildest dreams. Unnamed Israeli “defense officials” told The Jerusalem Post on 20 January “that food supplies were running low in Gaza and would dry up by the middle of the week.” (“Gaza food will run out by midweek,” 20 Jan 2008). Meanwhile, the Israeli daily Haaretz cited “Israeli security officials” who said “that the electrical supply difficulties in the Gaza Strip were greater than Israel had previously expected when it cut off fuel to the coastal territory earlier in the day.” (“Barak: Gaza to get one-time fuel, medicine delivery,” 21 January 2008.)

Israeli leaders are usually careful to lace their statements with pro forma denials that they are deliberately trying to create a “humanitarian” crisis — though they never define what level of deliberately inflicted suffering might cross that threshold. Gaza’s residents “are hostages of a deranged regime, but there is no real humanitarian crisis there,” said housing minister Zeev Boim, apparently referring to Hamas, not his own government.

The logic seems to be that Israel can do whatever it wants, as long as officials use euphemisms to describe it. As Dov Weissglas, Olmert’s advisor, so notoriously put it when Israel began its strangulation of Gaza in early 2006, “It’s like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won’t die.” But they do die, in large numbers.

Some top Israelis make it clear that they do not actually believe that Palestinian civilians even exist. Yuval Diskin, head of the Israel Security Agency (ISA), or Shin Bet secret police, responsible for hundreds of extrajudicial executions of Palestinians, told the cabinet on 13 January that the army and Shin Bet agents had “killed 1,000 terrorists in the Gaza Strip in the past two years.” By B’Tselem’s count Israel had killed 816 Palestinians in Gaza in the previous two years, of whom 152 were children and many others were adult civilians “who took no part in the hostilities.” Thus, B’Tselem concluded, the “head of the ISA defines every Palestinian killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip as a terrorist.” (B’Tselem, “Head of ISA defines a terrorist as any Palestinian killed by Israel,” 13 January 2008.)

From electronic intifada
—-

Action Palestine

End the Siege on Gaza
International Day of Action
Saturday 26th January

The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition will hold a protest at 10am in Adderley Street, Cape Town, on 26th January 2008.

This has been declared as an International Day of Action to End the Siege on Gaza.

Action Palestine is organising a coach from Manchester to go to London
for the protest outside the Parliament
Leaving from outside the Students’ union at 9am
The coach will be returning on the same day.
Tickets: £5

Tickets available from the Campaigns office in UMSU.

Join us in protesting against Israel blocking desperately ill Palestinians from accessing medical treatment and its escalating military attacks on Gaza.

Saturday 26 January, 4-6pm Parliament

We are particularly appealing to medical staff to join us in uniform to visibly express their opposition to Israel preventing Gazans from travelling for lifesaving medical treatment.

‘The human catastrophe deliberately inflicted on Gaza by western policies over the past two years is one of the great crimes of the century so far’. Jonathan Steele, Guardian 11 January.

Israel’s illegal, brutal siege of Gaza is tightening, restricting fuel and electricity, and preventing even medical supplies, food, essential construction materials and paper for UN schoolbooks from entering Gaza . With lethal military strikes being launched on Gaza , and Ehud Barak has warned that an Israeli invasion of Gaza is nearing.

Even those who desperately need medical treatment are prevented from leaving. Over 65 Palestinians have died as a direct result of Israel ’s prevention of access to medical treatment. Miri Weingarten from the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said ‘ Israel intends and wishes to punish the general population in Gaza , and they’re not hiding it — in fact, they’ve stated it clearly.’

Dr Ahmed Abu Tawahineh, deputy director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, has pointed out that since last June, only a hundred patients have been allowed out of Gaza to seek treatment – less than 10 per cent of the more than 1,000 applicants.

How long can this inhuman treatment continue unchallenged by international leaders?

Collective punishment is being inflicted upon the Palestinians for voting for a government against the wishes of Israel , the US and the EU.

Call on the British government to end its collusion with these policies, which are imprisoning Gazans and attempting to destroy their lives by limiting access to food, electricity, clean water supplies and medical treatment.

Action Palestine

Manchester Students reaffirm their commitment to the Palestinians’ Right to Education.

Yesterday (Wed 14th) Manchester Student’s Union held it’s General Meeting with attendance of over 1100 students and strengthened their commitment to the Palestinian’s Right to Education and their twinning with An-Najah University with almost a two-thirds majority.

A motion called “Peace through Education” was proposed which aimed at undermining the twinning of Manchester Student’s Union with An Najah. It gave the Palestinian university the ultimatum of signing a statement condemning terrorism within two months or the twinning would be abandoned.

It was a racist motion that caused vast indignation amongst the student population by stereotyping Palestinians as terrorists and accusing An-Najah University of actively supporting terrorism. The writers of the motion cited an unreliable website as a resource which included many inaccuracies and racist quotes.

The movement against the motion involved a very wide layer of groups and societies from different backgrounds and interests, who were unified by the will to defeat the racist motion and support UMSU’s stance on solidarity with Palestinian students under occupation. One student who attended the meeting said, “The motion shows that the racism against the Palestinians is one of the last forms of acceptable racism. If we had been twinned with a black university during apartheid in South Africa and they had been given them the ultimatum asking them to condemn gun crime there would have been international outrage, and rightly so.”

With over 16 500 students enrolled in its 19 faculties and two colleges, An-Najah is one of the largest Universities in Palestine. It is located in the city of Nablus, part of the territories that, according to the United Nations, the state of Israel has been illegally occupying since 1967. On 11th November, members of the Right to Education Campaign at An-Najah University published a response to the motion in question – through it, they stated: “Neither the University nor its Student Council is a terrorist organisation, and the implication that they are is insulting” and further “The motion ‘Peace Through Education’ is defamatory because it repeatedly implies that ANU and it’s Student Council promotes, facilitates or has links with terrorism”.

It is a fact that the Israeli occupation and the apartheid policing tactics that they uphold cause great suffering to the Palestinian people. Moreover, the Palestinian youth’s basic human right to education has been systematically denied by the state of Israel: Universities have been shelled, broken into and forced to close for large periods of time – not to mention the very practical difficulties students must face when trying to pursue their degrees against the backdrop of a military occupation.

The motivation for our Union’s twinning with An-Najah University was based around the ideal of showing solidarity with fellow students enduring acute hardship in Palestine and helping to break the isolation imposed on the Palestinian people. Also it highlights the importance of a right to education globally, and how it should be fought for. These beliefs are something that is part UMSU’s long history of internationalism and it’s excellent commitment to supporting just causes all across the world.

The motion resolved to accept the invitation made by An-Najah University for an olive tree from the university to be planted on campus at Manchester as a gesture of peace and as a symbol of life, and allow for a fortnightly article from An-Najah University students to be printed in Student Direct, the students’ official news paper.

The reaction from An Najah after the new amended motion was passed was very positive. A statement from them included, “we are very pleased that the amended motion was passed. The solidarity from Manchester Students Union is something we are glad to have. We hope that this will help us to get more attention to our right to an education”.

The strengthening of the twinning in Manchester is part of a nationwide movement for solidarity with Palestinians students. Many universities in the UK are now twinned with Palestinian Universities and many others are in the process of finding a twin. A student from Leeds University who was involved with the campaign to get Leeds University twinned with Berzeit University said, “This is an exceptionally significant victory, and can only help other forms of solidarity with Palestinian.”

Action Palestine

Right to education campaign of An-Najah National University
our RESPONSE to uMSu motion ‘peace through education’

Our concerns

We at the Right to Education Campaign of An-Najah National University (ANU) are concerned that students of the University of Manchester are being asked to vote on a motion that is defamatory and unrepresentative of the actual situation. We urge the University of Manchester Student Union to remove it from the agenda of the General Meeting on 14th November 2007.

Introduction to An-Najah National University

The motion ‘Peace Through Education’ is defamatory because it repeatedly implies that ANU and its Student Council promotes, facilitates or has links with terrorism. ANU is a non-governmental public university governed by a board of Trustees located in the West Bank city of Nablus. With over 16,500 students enrolled in its 19 faculties and two colleges, it is the largest university in the West Bank. ANU has been active in the service of the Palestinian community at the local and national levels and it is an integral part of local community development in almost all fields. ANU has become a cradle and an incubator for a plethora of social and civic activities. Each year the university hosts tens of activities for local and national NGOs: lectures, workshops, conferences, exhibitions, and artistic performances.

Moreover, ANU is the only university in the West Bank that has a full-fledged FM Radio Station that offers a multitude of educational, cultural, and news programs. The FM station is being utilized to enhance the interaction between the university and the local community and has a wide listenership in the Governorate of Nablus and throughout the Northern West Bank.

Likewise, ANU main library has a video conference facility that is open for the use of students and community organizations to conduct seminars and workshops with other students and organizations in other parts of Palestine and around the world thus sharing valuable experiences gained in different localities and districts in several fields and build bridges between communities in Palestine and around the globe (see www.najah.edu). Each year, a student council is voted in by the student population. Neither the University nor its Student Council is a terrorist organisation, and the implication that they are is insulting.

Occupation

The motion ‘Peace Through Education’ fails to be representative of the actual situation because it omits any reference to the occupation. The West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem (named the Occupied Palestinian Territories) are under military occupation by Israel. Regardless of UN resolutions deeming the occupation illegal and demanding Israel’s withdrawal, and the International Court of Justice’s July 2004 finding that the Separation Wall is illegal, 8th June this year marked the occupation’s 40th anniversary. Israel, as an occupying power, has the responsibility under international humanitarian law to protect its occupied population and to not allow its citizens to settle on occupied land.

Yet, the following statistics accumulated since September 2000 indicate Israel’s flagrant disregard for the law, human life and dignity, and clearly show the high human cost of the Israeli military occupation:

4,345 Palestinians killed by Israelis (1,027 Israelis killed by Palestinians)
971 Palestinian children killed by Israelis (119 Israeli children killed by Palestinians)
31,531 Palestinians injured by Israelis (7,633 Israelis injured by Palestinians)
4,170 Palestinian homes demolished (0 Israeli homes demolished)
40% Palestinian unemployment (9% Israeli unemployment)
223 ‘Jewish-only’ settlements and outposts built on Palestinian land
65 UN resolutions issued to Israel, none to OPT.

(Sources: If Americans Knew – www.ifamericansknew.org, B’Tselem, the Israeli Human Rights Information Center – www.btselem.org, Peace Now – www.peacenow.org.il)
The above figures place side by side Palestinian and Israeli deaths and injuries to show the disproportionate use of force against the Palestinian population. All deaths and injuries are to be regretted, indeed no single death or injury is any less devastating than another, but Palestinian casualties often go under-reported or not reported at all.

Education under occupation

The motion ‘Peace Through Education’ is additionally unrepresentative of the situation because it speaks merely of ‘students being regularly disrupted on their way to university by Israeli checkpoints’, education ‘being infringed upon’ and ‘hindered’. The impact of the Israeli military occupation on higher education can be measured in many ways, all of which defy this mild description. Here is a brief summary of the ways in which the educational process is obstructed at An-Najah as a direct consequence of the occupation:

56 students killed as a result of the occupation; 1 lecturer, Professor Khaled Salah, and his son (16) shot dead in their home by Israeli military;
According to today’s estimates, over 100 students and six members of staff are in prison, some held without charge;

Approximately 10,000 students daily or weekly subjected to degrading and humiliating treatment at checkpoints;

Thousands of hours lost waiting at checkpoints; Approximately 30 students of Palestinian origin living in Israeli with Israeli identity cards having to enter Nablus illegally to study (Israeli ID holders are not permitted to enter Nablus); Prevention of students from Gaza from studying at An-Najah, which is the only West Bank or Gazan university to offer some subjects such as Optometry; Denial of visas to foreign students and lecturers and Palestinian lecturers with foreign nationalities to take up teaching posts or places on courses; Barring of the importation of educational equipment and material.

The accusations of radicalism against ANU and its students show total ignorance of the real situation and belittle the unbearable suffering endured by Palestinian society under the yoke of the Israeli military occupation. ANU students and staff regularly express their condemnation of the atrocities committed by the Israeli military occupation authorities and they have the right to do so. Many students and employees lost family members, or have family members in Israeli jails. Many of our students and staff members have been injured themselves, tortured, and are humiliated on a daily basis on checkpoints. The expressions of condemnation are not the source of violence but are a direct result of the violence practiced on Palestinian society. The Israeli military occupation is the ultimate manifestation of violence and terrorism against an unarmed, defenceless, civilian population.

We urge the proposers of the motion ‘Peace Through Education’ to inform themselves more about the impact of the occupation upon the Occupied Palestinian Territories by reading, for example: the UN’s ‘The Humanitarian Impact on Palestinians of Israeli Settlements and Other Infrastructure in the West Bank’ -
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/TheHumanitarianImpactOfIsraeliInfrastructureTheWestBank_full.pdf), or Amnesty International’s 2007 report ‘Enduring occupation: Palestinians under Siege in the West Bank‘ – (http://www.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_17772.pdf) or
B’Tselem’s 2007 report ‘Ground to a Halt: Denial of Palestinian’s Freedom of Movement in the West Bank’ -

http://www.btselem.org/english/publications/summaries/20070807_ground_to_a_halt.asp

Additionally, we urge the University of Manchester Student Union to withdraw the motion ‘Peace Through Education’ because it is unrepresentative and defamatory.

Right to Education Campaign
An-Najah National University
Nablus
11th November 2007

Dear Brothers, Sisters and Comrades,

I am honoured to invite you, as the representatives of the students of Al Najah University (Students Union and Zajel Program) to twin with the University of Manchester Student Union (UMSU). At a recent UMSU General Meeting, our members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a twinning of our two student unions and I would like to formally invite you to enter into that partnership with us.

We hope that this twinning will help to give students at Al Najah a voice on our campus so that we can raise awareness of the struggle of Palestinian students simply to realise their right to an education. We also see the twinning as a cultural exchange where students here can learn about Palestine and Palestinians can learn about Britain. To this end we would also like to set up a website where students from both Unions can interact. We will also try and find a way of funding some sort of exchange, hopefully fairly soon.

I hope that this twinning agreement can be the start of a close relationship between our two Unions and a platform from which we can help the struggle for a free Palestine.

In solidarity,

Rob Owen,
General Secretary
University of Manchester Student Union

University of Manchester Students Union twins with An Najah university Nablus Palestine University of Manchester Students Union passed a motion to twin their Students Union with An Najah University in Nablus Palestine.

The Student Union General Meeting on Wednesday 7th March 2007 was attended by over 600 students and the motion which acknowledged the detrimental effect of the Israeli occupation on the right to education of Palestinian students was passed by a majority of over 50 votes.

The motion stated that students in Palestine have had their right to education consistently denied by the Israeli Occupation: checkpoints, attacks on Universities and limitations on movement which seriously hinder the ability of students in Palestine to learn and that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that everyone has the ‘right to education’.

The union will now lobby Manchester University to provide at least 3 scholarships to Palestinian students who wish to study at the university of Manchester as well as to support the Palestinian students in their “Right to Education” campaign and for their basic Human Rights within the territories of mandate Palestine and refugees.

For more information contact:
Action Palestine
info@actionplestine.org
www.actionpalestine.org

This article is from the students news paper (student direct)

Dear Editor,

This is a quick letter in response to the letter published last week in Student Direct to give a completely different account about the Action Palestine Society.

I have attended many of the public events hosted by Action Palestine, the documentaries they have shown, their informative meetings and the imaginative art exhibitions. I wish to congratulate the society on the great work that has been done with very little recourses, also taking into account that it is a relatively new society but is growing in numbers quite rapidly and becoming more and more popular after every event!

The purpose of the society is to educate people about the Occupation of Palestine – to enlighten them about the situation there and to give a voice to Palestinians, who are so often ignored by the media and the world. The society has managed to put on a wide variety of events: educational, discussion forums, documentary and film showings, video links with people in Palestine and the amazing cultural events. They have allowed Palestinians, Jews and British activists to stand up against the Occupation and racism.

I found the events very informing and useful; a wide range of speakers and organisations shared their experiences and opinions with audiences. As well as this, the audience was able to comment and have their questions answered by the speakers. I felt at ease and not at all inhibited to put my hand up and ask questions as the atmosphere is always so relaxed and every one is open minded and ready to share their views. There is no doubt that Action Palestine has had a positive impact on campus, as the society allows all sorts of people to join in and feel welcome, in helping out or even just enquiring as to what Action Palestine is all about. I would encourage every student to go along to one of their meetings and make your mind up for yourself.

Ahmed Hadad