The March is this Saturday (17th) gathering outside the new university building (the big white one) at the corner of Hunter Street and Old Hawkhill at 11.30 and marching to a rally in the city square.

Press Release from Tayside for Justice in Palestine

This Saturday, 17th January, the people of Dundee will be marching to show their support for the one and a half million people of Gaza, and their condemnation of Israel’s brutal war and policy of oppression. Even before the military attacks, the Israeli blockade had turned Gaza into an open prison. Now it is at the mercy of one of the world’s most well equipped armies, and its people have nowhere to hide. Over 1,000 Palestinians have died, thousands more are seriously wounded and the psychological damage is immeasurable. At the same time, while any death is too many, the total of 13 Israeli dead has been fewer than those killed on Israeli roads, and cannot even begin to justify what is happening.

This is an opportunity for Dundee to demonstrate the importance of its well-established links with Palestine, and the march follows on from two weeks of vigils and meetings in response to the current crisis.

The march will assemble at the New University Building at the corner of Hunter Street and Old Hawkhill at 11.30 a.m. and terminate in a rally at the City Square.
Speakers to be confirmed.

Poster for Dundee demo

Demonstration in Dundee against the massacre in Gaza.

Assemble 11.30am Saturday 17th January,

New Teaching Block, Old Hawkhill, (Dundee University)

March to City Square

Stop the War Coalition have organised a rally/public meeting in Dundee for next week. We got full details yesterday, so please try to attend if free.

Tuesday 13th January, 7:30PM, Queens Hotel, Dundee

Chair: Mike Arnott (Dundee Trades Council)
Speakers:

• Keir McKenchnie (Chair, Stop the War Scotland)
• Nadia El-Nakla (Tayside Justice for Palestine)
• Louise Whiteside (Student Activist)

This meeting is to organise support for the Palestinians and get people active in the movement against it.

The following week Dundee SSP will be having an open branch meeting on the situation to discuss the politics behind the situation. Supporters and friends of the SSP are welcome to attend, more details will follow once confirmed.

Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim describes the situation in Gaza and the political conclusions it made him draw.

The only way to make sense of Israel’s senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by “an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders”. I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel’s vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration’s complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.

I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.

This article has been circulating around left e-mail lists and discussion boards but really should be read more widely.

There is an excellent article on the situation in Gaza at the http://ssprenfrewshire.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/i-accuse/ defunctSSP Renfrewshire blog

The full story of Israel and Palestine has very little to do with Qassam Rockets fired from Gaza into Sderot as the Cartoon Papers would have us believe. The current crisis, does not have its roots in the election of Hamas in the Municipal Elections of 2005 as some of the so-called Quality Press would have us believe, certainly not in the conflict between Hamas and Fatah. This current crisis is the latest stage in an old conflict, a conflict that reaches way back, passed the Second Intifada and the First Intifada in the eighties, passed the Yom Kippur War in the 70’s, passed the six-day war in 1967 and the infamous United Nations Resolution 242. It reaches passed the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, passed the incompetent and disastrous Post WW1 British Mandate, destructive as it was. The roots of this conflict, this death and this destruction, including the bombing today of a UN run school only today, stretch way back before any of us were even born, right back to an idea that festered in the latter half of a 19th Century Europe plagued by an unspeakable anti-semitism.

Follow the link to read the entire article.

A message from The Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions

Sisters and Brothers:

The PGFTU has been working at all levels in Palestine and in its international relations to mobilize international support for peace in the region. This is the ultimate goal for our working families in Palestine, who labored in every way possible to bring about an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories. This occupation is the longest and worst in the modern history.

Over the years and even at this moment, these efforts have been met only with terrorism against our people by the Israeli army of occupation which has indiscriminately destroyed homes and worksites, slaughtered our people, confiscated our land, established and expanded illegal settlements, and limited the movement of workers who are only trying to feed their families. These measures have affected every member of Palestinian society.

The recent construction of the Apartheid Wall stands as a symbol of the extent of Israel’s brutal aggression against the Palestinian people and denial of their legitimate rights, dignity and human needs.

We call upon all peace-loving people in the world:

You are now witness to the criminal aggression by the Israeli army in its offensive in the Gaza Strip, bringing a new wave of killings and massacres against the Palestinian people by Israel as the occupying state. These are war crimes according to international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.

As our families in Gaza (the poorest in the Middle East) are being slaughtered nonstop for a week now, many of us are reliving what occurred in the summer of 2006 during the Israeli aggression against the people of Lebanon.

We witnessed then as we experience now waves of support and solidarity and similar anger and energy against this brutal injustice. We cannot afford to let this surge of support pass us by without utilizing the moment to build our movement to face future challenges. The most important thing is to be aware and equipped.

We urgently ask you and your sister labor organizations to help us spread the message that

WE ARE ALL GAZA – that this war is against all poor workers and families of the world. These are not just crimes against the people of Palestine. They are crimes against humanity.

• Help us create a strong voice for the working families of Gaza by building coalitions with unions, faith groups, antiwar movements and all social justice organizations.
• We join you in the hope that in the election of Barack Obama, he will fulfill his reputation as a pro-union antiwar candidate, and that he understands that the CHANGE he spoke about during the campaign must include a fundamental change in U.S foreign policy so that FREE GAZA. …FREE PALESTINE becomes more than just a slogan.
• We support and encourage your Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) efforts against Israel around the world, but especially in Europe and most particularly in the United States as a response to the harsh economic conditions, violations of labor and human rights, and other forms of oppression imposed by the illegal and immoral Israeli Apartheid occupation.
• We ask you to stop US aid to Israel. This becomes not only necessary but also a duty of international solidarity among labor unions around the world. It is US government aid that provides Israel with the weapons of oppression and US government support that enables them to use those weapons against our people.
• We ask you to be an active player in raising funds to meet the bare necessities of food, medicine and medical supplies for the people of Gaza.

[See below for information on how to send financial contributions to the PGFTU for Gaza Aid]

With your solidarity with our struggle for human rights and justice, we can transform this moment of crisis into a turning point for an end to the brutal occupation and a step toward the liberation of the people of Palestine.

With the will and determination of all the people, we can say FREE PALESTINE … YES WE CAN.

Manawell Abdel Al, Executive Committee Member
Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)

Al- Rahbat Street
PO Box 1216
Nablus- Palestine

Website: www.pgftu.org, website in English
E-mail: mailto:pgftu@pgftu.org

Gaza Emergency Mobilisation in Perth
 
Thursday, 15th Jan, 7.15 to 9.15 

Chapterhouse, St Ninian’s Cathedral, Perth (entry via courtyard to the North, reached through small lane off Atholl St, near Dunkeld Rd traffic lights)
 
Chair: Bishop Michael Hare Duke
 
Speaker: from Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
 
Aim of Meeting: to create a context for concerned people in Perth to consider ways we can work together to ’raise our game’ in response to this ratcheting tragedy.

Among responses we will be discussing together are:

• self- and other-education
• writing to public officials and organisations
• soliciting humanitarian donations
• encouraging solidarity actions such as consumer boycotts (NB helped change the other Apartheid).

This amazing video shows a Palestinian woman using non violent direct action techniques to prevent an Israeli soldier shooting at kids. A small reminder that he isn’t shooting at targets but human beings.

A Scotland wide demo on Gaza has been called for Saturday 10th in Edinburgh.
We need to have as many comrades on it as possible.

Stop Israel’s crime against humanity

Scotland-wide Demonstration

Edinburgh

Saturday 10 January 2009

Assemble 12:30pm East Market Street (behind Edinburgh Waverley Train Station)

March through the city centre and to the US Consulate.

Bring in-date medicine for Gaza, and spare shoes.

Supported by Stop the War Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Pauline McNeil MSP, Sandra White MSP, Muslim Association of Britain, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign, Lebanese Community Scotland, Scottish Afghan Society, Scottish Islamic Foundation, Scottish Friends of Palestine, and others to be confirmed.

Coaches departing Glasgow, George Square, Saturday 10 January 10:30am. To reserve seats call: 0791 2348 366 or email: glasgowstopwar@gmail.com

For details on transport to Edinburgh from other parts of Scotland, please contact 07840101589.

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In Dundee:

At a meeting today at Brown Street Mosque, a few important decisions were taken:
Activists’ meeting, Wed, 7th Jan, 6.30 p.m. at YY centre (across from the Mosque, Brown St.)
Saturday, 10th Jan, March to Dundee City Square, 12 noon. More info re starting point etc. to follow.
This has been postponed and a vigil is being held in Dundee City Centre on Friday 2:30pm-6pm instead.

Also decided at meeting, to name campaigning organisation: Tayside for Justice in Palestine. Also, 26 people from Tayside travelled on hired bus to demo in Edinburgh on Sat. (Many more made their own way). Excellent response. We’ll keep up the pressure.

The Courier carries a report today on the vigil in the city square.

Edith Constable

We demand an immediate ceasefire, the lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, an increase in the flow of humanitarian aid, the re-opening of negotiations, an end to the expansion of Israeli settlements, the withdrawal by Israel to 1967 borders and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Nadia El-Nakla

The vigil is not intended to debate politics. The aim is to highlight the recent inhumane abuse of power, violence and excessive force along with the humanitarian crisis that faces 1.4 million people in the Gaza Strip.