Meetings

 

In the run up to the European elections, we continued with our programme of major public meetings when we invited members of the European and UK Parliament to speak. Under the chairmanship of Professor David Maughan Brown, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of York St John University, we were privileged to hear Chris Davies MEP from the Liberal Democrats, Richard Corbett MEP from Labour and our local Labour MP Hugh Bayley. A representative from the Conservative party was also invited, but due to pressure of time, was unable to come. Chris Davies gave us a detailed, first-hand account of his recent visit to Gaza, when he was able to enter during the Israeli bombardment in January. All the speakers gave their thoughts as to the prospects for justice for the Palestinians, what part they have played in working to achieve this within their Parliaments and discussed with us the ways in which we can direct our campaign to be most beneficial in this. Particular discussion focussed on the refusal of various banks to allow banking facilities to the charity Interpal, despite the Charity Commission declaring it innocent of all the accusations its opponents have directed against it. The speakers promised to do what they could to persuade the British Government to ask the US authorities to take Interpal off a US Treasury blacklist, a list which seems to be the source of the banks reluctance to support them.

 

As with previous years, several members of York PSC have been busy giving talks to various community groups across the city and further afield. These are a vital outreach to allow us to explain the situation faced by the Palestinians to new people. Many people who have heard our activists speak have indeed been shocked and have promised to spread the word to their friends. Some members have also been asked to share their campaigning skills in talks to national activists training days.

 

Demonstrations

 

Tragically, large demonstrations were necessary in January as a result of Israel’s awful attack on the people of Gaza. As the death toll, first from the aerial bombardment and then from Israel’s ground attack mounted, so member’s anger had to be expressed. We held 2 demonstrations on Saturdays and several during weekdays. The largest Saturday demonstration attracted 150 – 200 people. Representatives and leaders of the Liberal Democrats, the Green party and the churches showed their support by addressing the crowd. We then marched through the city to the applause of many ordinary shoppers who joined then joined us in our demonstration. It was an inspiring sight to, at one point, see supporters of Palestine filling half the length of Coney Street, as they waved their banners and flags. A later Saturday demonstration also attracted 100 people for the speeches, with more joining on the way during the march. Good Press coverage was achieved for these marches.

 

We also took part in protests in Leeds against the BBC for their refusal to broadcast the DEC Gaza appeal as well as participating in a picket outside the Israeli Day of Science event in Manchester, for which we received some welcome publicity. A group from York PSC also picketed the Co-op HQ in Manchester due to their refusal to open an account for Interpal.

 

Pictures of some of these protests are posted throughout this report.

 

Saturday Stall

 

Ever since York PSC was founded 6 years ago, we have held our weekly Stall in Parliament Street on a Saturday afternoon. This is one of the most important activities of the group as it helps to spread the message of Palestine to the public, provides a focus for many discussions and provides a public focus so that those who wish to join or support our campaign in any way can do so.

 

However, during recent discussions in the branch, concern has been expressed that the City Council is increasingly only allowing us to have our Stall for only 3 Saturdays each month. This break in reliability in the frequency of the Stall, could reduce our ability to reach new supporters. We continue to discuss other activities we can do during such Saturdays and alternative ways we can publicise our message.

 

PSC North

 

Following our work with other branches of PSC North in organising the national PSC sponsored walk in June 2008, we have continued to work together and co-ordinate our campaigns. Some of this work has focussed on political lobbying, offering advice and assistance to branches who want to follow us in visiting Brussels to lobby their MEPs. Other work has related to specific campaigns, such as our lobbying of Hilary Benn MP and other Government ministers whose constituencies are in the region.

 

However, our main activity with PSC North has been to start discussions on forming what has been a loose network of branches into a formal region of national PSC. We began our discussions with Manchester PSC and Halifax Friends of Palestine. Since then, several other branches have expressed an interest in this initiative. We hope for formal recognition of PSC North as a region of PSC in the near future and that this will lead to some important, well-resourced campaigns in the coming months.

 

Regarding our work with national PSC, we held the Branch Forum in York in November.

 

Lobbying of ministers, MPs and MEPs and others of influence

 

As mentioned in the previous section, we have continued with our political campaigning. We have taken part in visits to the surgeries of not only our local MPs but also, by working with other branches, other MPs around the region. Members have written lots of letters to MPs, MEPs and other politicians in response to PSC campaigns and ongoing events, calling for, amongst other things, a boycott of Israeli goods, an end to the arms trade with Israel, an end to the EU-Israel Association Agreement and support for Interpal. We have achieved some success, including a decision by the EU during Israel’s attack on Gaza, they would not upgrade the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Some of the reasoning stated for making this decision, was public pressure.

 

We have also been writing to as well as having protests at Supermarkets regarding their instance on stocking Israeli goods. Such Israeli goods include Medjool Dates, marked as coming either from Israel or the West Bank. Nationally, PSC has achieved some success in this, even to the extent to having meetings with the management of Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

 

Further important work has involved the sending of 2 formal petitions to the European Union. One protests at the withdrawal of EU funding from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and calls for it to be reinstated. The other calls for economic pressure by the EU on Israel.

 

We are grateful for the support of our Liberal Democrat MEP Diana Wallis and her team for their support and advice on various campaigns, and for publicising our activities in their literature.

 

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

 

York PSC held the 2^nd BDS national workshop at the Priory Street Centre in November, immediately after the Branch Forum. This attracted around 50 activists during which in a highly structured and extremely productive session, the agenda for the national BDS campaign for the coming months was formulated. One of the specific campaigns to come from this was that against the use of Israeli Medjool Dates. Amongst our aims for this campaign is to persuade members of the Muslim community not to buy these Dates to break their fast a Ramadan, but instead to make them aware of Palestinian Dates available via Zaytoun. Also, as a result of this workshop, the campaign to persuade the Church of England to disinvest from Caterpillar was relaunched only for us to discover that they had indeed disinvested a few months before! Sadly, however, the Church of England insisted this was for financial rather than ethical reasons.

 

Trade Unions and Conferences

 

As usual, we have continued to provide volunteers to staff Trade Union, political and church Conferences in the area. Trade Unions have included the Bakers Union, the spring conference of Unison Health Workers in Harrogate, the FBU (Fire Brigades Union) in Scarborough in May and the USDAW (shop workers) conference in Blackpool. Political Conferences included those of the Liberal Democrats and the Greens. At the autumn Conference of the Liberal Democrats, Diana Wallis MEP twice congratulated York PSC by name for their work and said how pleased she was we were there. At that same conference, we were able to ask the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg MP what his party would do to persuade Israel to obey International law. He said that the EU was the key, and soon afterwards announced his party’s policy of opposing an upgrade to the EU-Israel Association Agreement. At a later Conference, York PSC was invited to speak to a motion on Gaza.

 

We have also been present at church Conferences, most notably the national Methodist Conference in Scarborough in July 2008 when our Stall attracted much support and led to the passing of a Notice of Motion calling for an end to the siege of Gaza.

 

Educational work

 

Members have been working with others within PSC North to finalise an educational pack for taking around the schools, and in fixing up appointments to visit schools to talk about the situation in Palestine. We have been able to respond to requests from organisations like the Amos Trust, when they have become aware of invitations to the Palestine Solidarity community, to speak in schools.

 

Members have once again been notable for their frequent contributions to letters pages in publications such as “The Guardian” and “The Independent”.

 

We have also been able to organise visits to theatre and film productions in places such as the Theatre Royal. We have ourselves organised important film showings which have attracted much support, such as the showing of “The Zionist Story” in May 2009.

   

Work with the Students

 

After a few years without a Palestine solidarity group in the University of York, it is wonderful that this year we have been able to work with some dedicated and passionate advocates for the Palestinian people amongst the student community. The group University of York Palestinian Solidarity Society formed shortly after Israel’s attack on Gaza and has quickly grown in both numbers and influence. In early May, they held a highly successful Palestine week during which we were pleased to offer support in terms of helping with some of the meetings, helping on Stalls and recommending films for the film afternoon. We look forward to a great deal of future collaboration particularly in view of some of their exciting plans for Fresher’s Week in October.

 

Web presence

 

This year, York PSC branched out into Web 2.0 with our very own Facebook page! Created by one of our new members, this has proved to be an invaluable means of reaching out to new people, of advertising our future events and reporting on previous events. So far, 91 people have joined the Facebook group.

 

Visits to Palestine

 

As in previous years, several members have been privileged enough to visit Palestine and offer their support to the Palestinian people. We have also been able to build on our friendships via email and other forms of correspondence. Solidarity visits and the maintenance of such friendships are indeed a privilege for us and we hope an additional way in which we can support the Palestinian people under both Occupation and attack from Israel. We hope that this support was of particular benefit during Israel’s attack on Gaza.

 

And Finally

 

Very many thanks to the many and increasing numbers of people who put in so much of their spare time to ensure that York PSC is as effective as possible in supporting the Palestinian people and spreading the message about their plight.

 

It seems churlish to highlight particular individuals, but our thanks in particular go to Terry Gallogly (Secretary), Mike Gwilliam (Treasurer), Monica Wusteman (PSC National Executive), Carol Pearman for producing our regular newsletter, David Pegg for also producing the newsletter and maintaining our website and email group, Andrew Collingwood for also maintaining the website, Mary Machin for running the Stall and  for the many people who week by week help to run the Stall and for the many members, new and old, who work so hard for Palestine. Many thanks as well to those people who have donated financially to the branch to ensure we can continue with our campaign.

 

Stephen Leah

Branch Chair