Manchester Action Palestine’s Tanzil-Zaman Chowdhury has started publishing articles on the occupation, Israeli law and Middle-East Affairs.

His first article (http://www.e-ir.info/?author=1125) deals with the impact of the anti-boycott law on ‘democracy in Israel’.

Tanzil-Zaman’s second publication (http://www.eurasiareview.com/legal-rights-legal-wrongs-palestine-and-the-perils-of-international-law-oped-04082011/) looks at how International Law is the flase Messiah of the Palestinians.

Please feel free to read, comment, criticise and spread.

Many Thanks

If you have any articles you would like published on this website please send them to mmu@actionpalestine.org

*Manchester Palestine Week 2011*

Peace All,

MMU and UMSU Action Palestine societies have teamed up to bring a whole week of events dedicated to Palestine.

8 Events, 2 Universities, 1 Cause: Palestine

Programme of Events:

Monday 21st:

Film Showing and Talk from LIFESOURCE: A Palestinian water rights charity working to document and prevent abuses of water rights committed in Israel and Palestine. The documentary will look at the issues surrounding the Jordan River, and will be followed by a discussion about water rights and LifeSource.
6:00pm – 9:00pm, UM North Campus SU, Conference Room.

Tuesday 22nd:

A photo exhibition “Committing Memory” by the Palestinian Photographer Ahmad Daghlas about life in Palestine with a stall selling all sorts of Palestinian goodies. All profits go to LifeSource.
All Day, UMSU Foyer

Art and Humanitarian Aidas Resistance: A talk from  artist Shahid Iqbal about how art is used as a form of resistance to the illegal Israeli occupation. He will also touch on the importance of the Gaza aid convoys and the role they play.
6:00pm – 8:00pm MMU, John Dalton Building, Room T0.03

Wednesday 23rd:

Charity Stall: A stall selling all sorts of things Palestinian, from scarves and necklaces to sweets, cakes and Palestinian embroideries. Definitely worth popping to see whats on offer.
All Day – MMU Students’ Union Foyer

BDS, The Case for Boycotting Israel: Jill Lovecy from Manchester University will be talking about the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions for Israel, it’s importance, and how we in Britain can help the Palestinian cause.
6:00pm – 8:00pm, John Dalton Building, Room T0.03

Thursday 24th:

Film Showing- Jerusalem, East Side Story: A film that explores the issues of settlements and life in East Jerusalem, the proposed capital for any Palestinian state.
6:00pm – 8:00pm, MMU, John Dalton Building, Room C0.14

Friday 25th:

Fundraiser Social of LifeSource: A night filled with food, friends, music, poetry and a chance to meet everyone involved in Palestine week. Come to relax, taste some delicious goodies, ask any questions you may have.
8:00pm – 11.30pm – Happiness Café

So there you have it, one jam-packed week. We look forward to seeing you there. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch, mmu@actionpalestine.org

In Solidarity,

MMU and UMSU Action Palestine.

Map of Event Locations: http://tinyurl.com/5rc29gh

On Wednesday 20th of October, students at the University of Manchester voted overwhelmingly to maintain its union’s twinning with An-Najah National University in the Westbank. General Meetings are the most powerful decision making body in the union in which all students are invited to vote on motions which the union executive must enforce. The twinning, set up back in 2007 has been key in giving the silenced majority of Palestinian students a voice, making them feel less isolated and able to communicate their struggle to our campus. Through the years, the twinning has resulted in several articles being published in the union paper, delegates from the Palestinian university visiting our union as well as web links and other events. The twinning has come under attack by an extremist minority which have tried to undermine the twinning by forcing An-Najah to condemn terrorism; something which it had done explicitly in its original twinning declaration and also which was tacitly implied. Appalled, students came out in their droves to attend what was one of the largest then general meetings in which 800 students voted to protect the twinning and reject what was essentially a racist amendment. Since then, the Palestine movement has become stronger and more resolute, passing a ‘Gaza Crisis’ Motion which compelled the union to boycott Israeli products and explicitly referred to their state practice as apartheid in a general meeting which has been the largest in the union’s recent history. Now the Palestine movement’s resolve is as strong as ever as students made it loud and clear they wanted to continue their solidarity with the students of occupied Westbank.

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