DETAILS:

Palestine Verbatim - A Public Reading

come and listen to:

Palestine Verbatim

The experiences of people who are living through the attack on the Palestinian Territories in their own words.

Eyewitness accounts, first hand stories and testimonies direct from Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and the other communities of the Occupied Territories plus reports from the Israeli peace movement and refuseniks

A PUBLIC READING by actors, writers, poets, film-makers, artists and activists Tuesday 28th May 6pm to 7.30pm Trafalgar Square

"Then, one of the soldiers, whom we think is the officer in charge, asked us to put on our clothes and they made us sit in the living room and started discussing about what they would do with us, while they were drinking all the beer they found in our apartment."

"The soldiers are trying to hide what happened by asking people to bring corpses lying in the streets inside the houses, and are now bulldozing houses and burning them to hide the corpses under the rubble."

"Before they were allowed to go to Jenin women were gathered in one room. A soldier started beating one of them, another soldier started shouting and saying that women should not be beaten."

This event is being organised by Meeting Ground Theatre Company and friends and supported by Artists Against The War Proceeds from the collection will go to Medical Aid for Palestinians

More Info:

chadwick@meetingground.demon.co.uk

www.meetingground.org.uk
www.artistsagainstthe war.org.uk

Palestine Verbatim - Help Out

Information for participants, readers, volunteers and supporters

Palestine Verbatim will be presented on Tuesday 28th May at 6pm in Trafalgar Square We have had a really good response to our request for stories (from Palestine) and readers (from here). We need all the help we can get to make this exciting and original event a success. The event is being presented by Meeting Ground Theatre Company plus friends in collaboration with Artists Against the War

Please read what follows carefully and see how you can take part.

LEAFLET

If you know you can use leaflets, contact us immediately by telephone or email, tell us your postal address and how many you want. We will post them to you. Contact us if you can distribute the leaflet:

• outside the Young Vic for the audience of HOMEBODY/KABUL at 6.30 on Monday 27th May
• outside Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Charing Cross tube stations at 5pm on Tuesday 28th May

If there is anywhere else you can leaflet TELL US and say how many you want. It's an opportunity to reach beyond our friends!!!!!!

PRESS RELEASE

We are producing a Press Release. If you have contacts to whom you think it should go. Contact Emma Schad.

DESIGN

We need a banner with the words PALESTINE VERBATIM on it capable of being displayed on the third of three steps immediately behind first stage of Nelson's Column. This may be a simple calico cloth banner with lettering large enough to be seen from the top of a passing bus.

PLEASE HELP US. Come along at 6pm on Sunday 26th May to 55 Windsor Road N7 (tel 7263 9807) to help do this.

ORGANISATION

STEWARDS NEEDED!!! If you will collect money and distribute a programme to the spectators on the actual day please tell us. You will need to be at Nelson's Column by 5.30pm on Tuesday 28th May the day of the presentation. All proceeds will go to Medical Aid for Palestinians.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ORGANISING THE EVENT:

We've never used a public space like Trafalgar Square for an event before. Find out about the logistics. Also how the Verbatim accounts will be distributed to the readers is an interesting problem. The readers will only get the pieces they are reading on the day!!!!

HELP US!!!

Come along to an organisation meeting at 6.30pm on Thursday 23rd May at 55 Windsor Road N7 6JL. Telephone 7263 9807 before you come.

THE EDITORIAL GROUP will meet to sort out the running order and who will read what at 5.30pm on Sunday 26th May at 55 Windsor Road N7 6JL

READERS

If you have volunteered to read you will need to be at Trafalgar Square at 5pm on the day - Tuesday 28th May - to collect what you are going to read. There will be somebody standing by to help with pronunciation of Arabic words.

About 20 people have volunteered to read and we will be contacting you if you have volunteered. If in any doubt telephone 7263 9807 or e mail chadwick@meetingground.demon.co.uk

Meeting Ground Theatre Company,
Artists Against The War

DETAILS:

Palestine Truth Uncovered - London Conference

Speakers include:Speakers Including:
Azzam Tamimi (MAB): Roots of the conflict
Dr Bashir Nasi (Historian and lecturer):
Palestine and Britain – the historic and moral responsibility
Ibrahim Hewitt (Chairman of Interpal):
Palestine the resistance and manipulation of the media
Lloyd Quinan MSP: Eye Witness Account from Palestine
George Galloway MP
 
Specail Video Showing: Video footage of Jeneen

Occupation101 Video presentation: (only the second UK showing)
Speakers Including:
Noam Chomsky
Richard Falk
Paul Findley
Allegar Pacheco

Further information:

contact: 07958329879 / intifada101@hotmail.com
web: www.islamevents.com

Muslim Assoc of Britain

DETAILS:

Solidarity March with Children in Palestine

Hundreds of children and juveniles have been killed by the Israeli
security forces and many more suffer daily from the terror of the
Israeli occupation.

Schools are closed, parents cannot work to provide even basic needs,
homes and families are destroyed.

The CPR calls especially on supporters with children of their own
to attend this demonstration. There will be a short march from Tothill
St (nr Westminster Tube), beginning at 1.30 to a rally in Trafalgar
Square.

The CPR will have placards bearing the names of many of the children
killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers, since the Intifada began.

Further information:

leaflet: click here
phone 020 7604 5518 - 020 7604 5528
web: www.justiceforpalestine.com

Justice for Palestine Committee (incl:
Muslim Assoc of Britain; Palestine Return Centre; Islamic Human Rights
Commission & others)

Crissy Field
San Francisco,
USA

DETAILS:

SF March&Rally - Take it to the Bridge to Stop the War

The All People's Coalition to Stop US Terror and Occupation is calling
for a peaceful rally at Crissy Field and a march on the Golden Gate
Bridge on Saturday, May 25, 2002

• 11am Rally at Crissy Field in San Francisco
• 1:30am March to the Golden Gate Bridge and across the Eastern walkway
• Return to Crissy Field

The anti-war movement must raise the stakes in challenging the U.S.
government to stop its attacks on the peoples of the world under the
so-called 'war on terrorism.' The Golden Gate Bridge is a symbol of
the US known throughout the world and a massive march of people
across this bridge will send a message to the international
community that people right here are calling for no more business as
usual while the United States carries out its attacks on the peoples of
the planet.

This protest that also calls for US to get out of the Middle East and to
end aid to Israel.

Events:
Friday 5/24: Civil disobedience and nonviolence training, 6-9pm
Banner & sign painting also!

Please Join Us!

Further information:

web: http://www.takeittothebridge.org
Tel: (510) 569-9620 or (408) 885-9785
email: allpeepsco@yahoo.com

Nothing to do with the event, but never the less an interesting tag line on the email we received to advertise the event:

A baby born in Washington DC is twice as likely to die in infancy than one born in Cuba's capitol; nearly three times as likely if the DC baby has the misfortune to be African-American. Cuba delivers far better medical care to its citizens than the US does, despite forty years of the US economic blockade.

All People's Coalition to Stop US Terror and Occupation

DETAILS:

National Rally for Palestine

• Speakers include:
• Afif Safieh,
• Palestinian Delegate to UK,
• George Galloway MP,
• John Austin MP,
• Jeremy Corbyn MP,
• Dr. Ghada Karmi,
• Betty Hunter Secretary PSC.

Organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign

sponsored by Association of Palestinian Communities, Palestine Return Centre, Al-Awda, General Union of Palestinian Students, UCATT, NATFHE, NUJ, CND, Stop the War Coalition

Further information:

PDF poster click here
phone 020 7700 6192
email info@palestinecampaign.org

PSC

DETAILS:

Demonstrate Against Boeing

May 15th marks the 54th anniversary of the Israeli dispossession of the Palestinian people.

This is the day when Israeli military forces began to force almost 1 million Palestinians from their homes in what is now called Israel. Today that illegal dispossession combined with the illegal and racist occupation of Palestinian land is maintained with massive amounts of military aid provided by the US government. With that military aid Israel buys Apache helicopters from Boeing. These Apache helicopters are used by Israel in its brutal efforts to stamp out the Palestinian struggle for freedom. The Apache helicopters have been used to assassinate Palestinian leaders to fire upon Palestinian civilians and their homes, and to destroy the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority.

We cannot let Boeing get away with raking in tens of millions of dollars in military contracts with the Israeli government over the bodies of dead Palestinians. Come to this protest, including street theater, to demand that Boeing stop providing these instruments of death, the Apache helicopters, to Israel.

Further information:

ChicagoPalestineSolidarityNetwork@yahoogroups.com
or 773.317.0027 for more information.

Chicago Palestinian Solidarity Network

DETAILS:

Picket Outside Isreali Embassy

Support the Palestinians in their fight against Israeli terror!

Please Please Please could everyone try to come, u have no excuse for
not coming, even if u stay for half an hour, for those of you who have
exams im sure half an hour will not disturb ur revision. Show your
support for our Palestinian brothers and sisters who are being massacred everyday by the Isreali occupation... Bring your friends and family with u, we want to make this BIG!

Bring out whistles, drums, tablas, stereos. Let's make it a noisy affair!

PSC

DETAILS:

European Day of Boycott Action

The Palestinian people are experiencing their thirty fourth year of military occupation. The siege by the Israeli army and the economic blockade has devastated their daily lives so that 'normal' life is impossible.

European Solidarity Organisations with the support of many individuals and organisations in Europe, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel, has launched a European Day of Boycott Action. There have been calls for a boycott from within Israel itself as well as in the Occupied Territories. Our decision to launch this campaign follows decades of Israel's refusal to abide by UN Resolutions, International Humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention. We will organise supporters to boycott Israeli goods and services, to persuade businesses to stop trading with Israel and to campaign for an end to European Union and national governments trade agreements with Israel.

Statement of Intent:

Stand Up for Palestinian Human Rights - Oppose Israeli Oppression - Boycott Israeli Products

For too long the world has ignored the relentless military oppression of the Palestinian people. Since the 29th of September 2000, over 1,539* Palestinians have been killed and more than 19,195 injured by the Israeli army and settlers. The Government of Israel has intensified collective punishment on the Palestinian civilian population, laying siege to their land, preventing free movement and devastating the Palestinian economy. "Normal" life is impossible as people are unable to work, move around freely, attend school, get to hospitals, or to obtain water. We call for mass consumer action, along the lines of the boycott of South African produce during the anti-apartheid campaign. By joining this boycott individuals and organisations can take concrete steps to stand up against the gross human rights violations by the Israeli State.

We call for an immediate, unconditional lifting of the siege of the occupied territories, an end to the occupation, the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the implementation of UN resolutions and international humanitarian law in relation to the Palestinian people.

We therefore support:

A boycott of Israeli products

A boycott of Israeli leisure tourism
An immediate arms embargo against Israel

An end to European firms' investment in Israel

Suspension of EU Israel Association Agreements and National Governments trade
agreements with Israel

[*Figures are underestimates due to Palestinian Red Crescent Society inability
to access many areas].

Supporting Organisations:

Belgium
CODIP
http://users.skynet.be/bk291253/codip.htm

Denmark
Danish Palestinian Friendship Association
www.danpal.dk
Boykot Israel Kampagnen
www.boykotisrael.dk

Iceland
Iceland Palestine Association
www.palestina.is

Ireland
Ireland Palestine Solidarity Society
www.supportpalestine.org

Italy
Action for Peace - Italian Peace Association
www.assopace.org

Netherlands
Netherlands Palestina Komitte
www.palestina-komitee.nl

Norway
Palestinagruppene i Norge (PGN) www.palestina.no/pgn.html
Palestinakomiteen (The Palestine Committee)
Den Palestinske Forening (The Palestinian Association)

Switzerland
Gesellschaft-Schweiz-Palästina
www.palaestina.ch

Sweden
Palestinagruppern i Sverige (PGS)
www.palestinagrupperna.a.se

United Kingdom
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
www.palestinecampaign.org
BIG Campaign
www.bigcampaign.org.uk

For further information contact your national organisation

PSC

DETAILS:

Speak out against the massacre of Palestinians
End the Israeli occupation

Speakers include:

• Afif Safieh, Palestinian Delegate to UK,
• Ann Clwyd MP, Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group
  
• Michel Abdul Massih QC
  
• Adah Kay, eyewitness from Ramallah
  .

Organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Further information:

phone 020 7700 6192
email info@palestinecampaign.org

PSC

DETAILS:

Lobby Day of Parliament- MASS LOBBY OF PARLIAMENT

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN PALESTINE

Israel has occupied the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1967, in contravention of international law and United Nations Security Council resolutions. After the signing of the Oslo accords by the Palestine Liberation Organization and the government of Israel in 1993, parts of these areas were placed in the hands of a Palestinian Authority. But the Israelis continued to exert overall control. At the end of March this year, the Israeli army began to re-occupy towns, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank.

The principal concern of today's Lobby is the way in which the Israeli re-occupation has been carried out and the resulting crisis for the Palestinian civilian population.

The UN has described it as "a humanitarian crisis without precedent in its destructive impact on the Palestinian people and its institutions". In a statement, the UN Human Rights Commission accuses the Israelis of committing "gross violations of humanitarian law".

By imposing a media blackout and declaring parts of the West Bank, including Ramallah and Bethlehem, "closed military zones", the Israelis have ensured that their activities in these areas have remained cloaked in secrecy. However, eyewitness accounts and physical evidence reveal widespread destruction of property and infrastructure, massive death and injury caused to a civilian population, and the utter obliteration of any sense of security or hope for Palestinians.

Since the beginning of the Israeli military operation, "human rights organizations have received hundreds of reports about widespread damage and severe suffering inflicted on the Palestinian civilian population. The IDF has banned foreign reporters from entering Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps. The ongoing fighting and the curfews imposed in the Occupied Territories severely affect human rights organizations' fieldworkers and limit their ability to gather information" (B'Tselem).

Medical crisis

"In entire cities and towns, ambulances and emergency medical services have ground to a halt. Medical workers and ambulances have been fired upon. The wounded have been denied access to medical treatment. Palestinians have been killed attempting to reach hospitals for routine medical care. Such abuses raise not simply humanitarian issues; they are serious violations of international humanitarian law" (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists, 7 April 2002).

Almost all hospitals in the West Bank have been surrounded by Israeli tanks, thus compromising the free and safe movement of staff, patients and emergency vehicles. Hospital generators, electricity and telephone lines and water supplies have been deliberately damaged by Israeli soldiers.

One innocent victim was Dunia Shtaya, a three-day old baby girl, who was born to her parents following two years of fertility treatments. She died on 18 April because ambulances were not permitted to transport her mother to hospital. The baby, who required medical treatment to save her life, died when Israeli soldiers delayed the ambulance that had been given permission to transport her to the hospital in Nablus, five kilometres away.

Deaths, injuries and damage to infrastructure

Since Israeli troops invaded Palestinian population centres on 29 March 2002, civilians have suffered and come under attack. Scores of people have been killed and injured, including civilians trapped in their own homes by the soldiers. Israeli aggression against towns and villages throughout the West Bank has shown, in the words of an Oxfam report, a blatant "lack of respect for civilian life and welfare",

Throughout the West Bank, thousands of Palestinian civilians have been confined to their homes. There has been wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure. According to the Oxfam report, damage to water lines and pumps has left approximately 400,000 people in Ramallah, Nablus, Qalqilya, Bethlehem and Tulkarm without access to running water.

In the period of the al-Aqsa intifada, which began on 29 September 2000, up to 22 April 2002, 916 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli security forces in the occupied territories, including 203 under the age of 18.

Education under threat

Palestinian education has also been targeted by the Israelis. On 14 April, Israel troops re-entered the Palestinian Ministry of Education to complete the destruction begun on 3 April. Soldiers stayed for three hours, breaking doors, furniture and equipment. Many computers and files were destroyed or stolen. According to Acting Minister of Education, Dr Naim Abu Hommos, "this shows the Israeli army and government's contempt for all symbols of Palestinian civil institutions".

The Israeli invasion of Palestinian cities "has not only turned back the clock on educational development, but raised questions of basic survival for a number of institutions and for critical elements of the educational system itself. In the enterprise of education, it is also not only the institutions and systems that are at risk in armed conflict and violence, but the children and youth who learn in these institutions and who constitute the main resource of Palestinian society for the future" (Emergency briefing on Palestinian education, by Penny Johnson of Birzeit University).

In the words of UNICEF (5 April 2002), as many as 600,000 children are vulnerable in the ongoing violence. Children in areas under curfew and attack have been unable to go to school and have "experienced days or weeks of terror and physical and psychological distress, with long-term consequences" (Penny Johnson).

The spring semester at Birzeit University, which was scheduled to start in January but was postponed until 5 March due to constant closures imposed by the Israeli forces, has again been suspended. Since 29 March 2002, over 5,000 students have already missed 16 days of classes. Scores of students and staff have been arrested.

Terrorization of Jenin camp

On 3 April, Israeli forces, including more than 150 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and artillery, backed by F-16 fighter jets, began a ferocious assault on Jenin refugee camp, home to 15,000 Palestinian refugees, living in one square kilometre. Water and electricity networks have been destroyed. Food and medicine supplies have been prevented from reaching the camp. Dozens of residents have been killed and injured. Many bodies were left under the rubble of demolished shelters and in the streets and alleyways of the camp.

"Consistent eyewitness accounts report of homes being demolished while civilians, including women and children, were still inside. Others reported having seen bodies, including the bodies of women and children, in the rubble of demolished homes. Others have seen bulldozers driving back and forth over bodies in Jenin refugee camp. Several eyewitnesses saw a family trying to flee from their home that was about to be demolished by Israeli bulldozers. When the family, including a woman carrying her child, stepped outside their home in the camp, they were fired upon from an Apache helicopter with heavy machine gunfire, killing a 14-year old boy. There have been consistent testimonies from residents of the refugee camp who have been used by Israeli forces as human shields. There have been consistent testimonies of summary executions of several persons at the same time? All who visited the area speak of mass destruction and persons who lost relatives, without knowing whether they are killed, injured, arrested or missing" (LAW, 18 April 2002). The apparently indiscriminate slaughter is being described by many as a "massacre".

"The world needs to know what really happened in Jenin if only to be better equipped to stop it happening again. Both Israelis and Palestinians need to know, because more disinformation, more denial and lies, and yet more tragic myth-making only feed the hatred and deepen the divide. Most of all perhaps, the children of Jenin need to know. The future of this land, if it still has one, lies with them. To deny them the truth would be yet another crime" (The Guardian, 18 April 2002).

Objectives of Lobby

• We call upon all High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to comply with their obligations under article 146 by searching for, investigating and bringing to trial perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity, under universal jurisdiction and through a War Crimes Tribunal, and call for an end to all acts by member states aiding and abetting the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including by ending supply of all arms used to perpetrate such crimes.

• We support the call made by the International Committee of the Red Cross to the international community to pressure Israel to ensure its respect for its obligations under international humanitarian law, and to enable the ICRC and Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to carry out their duties.

• We call for the imposition of effective measures, including economic sanctions, to ensure Israel's compliance with international humanitarian law, and the immediate deployment of an international protection presence.

Lobbyists are advised to contact their MPs before the Lobby, requesting an appointment, either during the Lobby or at another time. In your communication, you should mention the Lobby and its purpose. But, even without an appointment, you are entitled to take part in the Lobby and can ask to see your MP when you arrive in the Central Lobby.

Stewards, representing the organizers, should be present, at the entrance, in the Central Lobby and in the Grand Committee Room, to assist lobbyists.

On the day of the Lobby, lobbyists should arrive at the St Stephen's Entrance (main public entrance) to the House of Commons, identifying themselves to the police as members of this particular Lobby. Entrance will not be permitted until after 2.30pm. Lobbyists should form an orderly queue; there may be some time to wait before being allowed to enter. Once you are admitted into the building, you will have to pass through security. Once you have cleared security, you may either proceed to Central Lobby (if you are trying to see your MP) or to the Grand Committee Room.

The police allow up to 100 people, which total includes lobbyists and others, to be in Central Lobby at any one time. Lobbyists do not need to have letters of appointment from their MPs, as it is not always possible to guarantee lobbyists holding letters access to Central Lobby at a specific time. Also, MPs may be unable to keep appointments punctually (on account of business that arises in the Chamber).

Once you reach Central Lobby, you should ask for a Green Card at the desk on the left hand side, which is a request to see your own MPs. If the MP is available and comes out to meet you, you should be as brief and precise as possible. A list of points and objectives of the Lobby will be provided and these should be stated to the MP.

The Grand Committee Room has been booked from 3 - 5pm. A series of short meetings will be held here during that period. Please note that lobbyists who have attended meetings in the Grand Committee Room will be directed to leave the building by the North Door, Westminster Hall. You are not allowed to proceed direct from meetings in the Grand Committee Room to the Central Lobby.

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), Pakistan Foundation and Islamic Aid

DETAILS:

Joint the Counter-Demonstration to Pro-Israel Rally

Totallyjewish.com has announced that former Israeli PM and warmonger Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing the pro-Israel rally with many others including Peter Mandelson MP.  It is imperative that we raise our voice in protest against this event which seeks to justify the genocidal policies perpetrated by the Israelis in Jenin and across Palestine.

The official counter-demonstration organised by IHRC will take place between Admiralty Arch (The Mall) and Trafalgar Square to coincide with and oppose the Zionist demonstration commencing at 2.00pm.  Please be prompt.  This counterdemonstration is open to all peoples of conscience regardless of their background to peacefully and loudly oppose the racism, genocide and oppression of Zionism.

contact:

Islamic Human Rights Commission
Tel: +44-20-8902-0888
Fax:+44-20-8902-0889
email:  info@ihrc.org
web:  www.ihrc.org

IHRC

DETAILS:

"Bombs, Bulldozers and Tanks" - eyewitness reports from Palestine

Several students from the Cambridge area have recently returned from Palestine, where they were acting as international observers and escorting ambulances. This talk is a rare opportunity to hear first-hand what they saw and experienced.

PSC

March starts outside Habib Bank on Wilmslow Road, Manchester, heading to town centre.

DETAILS:

March for Palestine - Manchester

March will commence outside Habib Bank on Wilmslow Road and move towards the town centre for a rally.

DETAILS:

"End the Occupation"

- a vigil for the people of Palestine

PSC

DETAILS:

Picket of Israeli Embassy [London]

Support the Palestinians in their fight against Israeli terror!

Bring out whistles, drums, tablas, stereos. Let's make it a noisy affair!

DETAILS:

Report Back from Active Observers - Brighton

A public meeting with the University of Sussex University Palestine Solidarity Society Delegation to Palestine

Read the wonderful article about the event written by a Sussex Student titled Why I'm proud to be a Sussex Uni student

Socialist Labour Party Youth

DETAILS:

Free Palestine March in Sheffield

Join the march in Sheffield

Demonstration - Free Palestine, Hands off Iraq

For further information email: sheffield@palestinecampaign.org

Sheffiield PSC