PEACE EVENTS.

HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL website

************************************
MAY DAY MESSAGES FROM IRAQ'S UNIONS

************************************


May Day 2008 Statement from the Iraqi Labour Movement
To the Workers and All Peace Loving People of the World

On this day of international labour solidarity
we call on our fellow trade unionists and all
those worldwide who have stood against war and
occupation to increase support for our struggle
for freedom from occupation - both the military and economic.

We call upon the governments, corporations and
institutions behind the ongoing occupation of
Iraq to respond to our demands for real democracy,
true sovereignty and self-determination
free of all foreign interference.

Five years of invasion, war and occupation have
brought nothing but death, destruction, misery
and suffering to our people. In the name of our
"liberation," the invaders have destroyed our
nation's infrastructure, bombed our neighbourhoods,
broken into our homes, traumatized our children,
assaulted and arrested many of our family members
and neighbours, permitted the looting of our
national treasures, and turned nearly twenty
percent of our people into refugees.

The invaders helped to foment and then exploit
sectarian divisions and terror attacks where
there had been none. Our union offices have
been raided. Union property has been seized and
destroyed. Our bank accounts have been frozen.
Our leaders have been beaten, arrested, abducted
and assassinated. Our rights as workers have
been routinely violated.

The Ba'athist legislation of 1987, which banned
trade unions in the public sector and public
enterprises (80% of all workers), is still in
effect, enforced by Paul Bremer's post-invasion
Occupation Authority and then by all subsequent
Iraqi administrations. This is an attack on our
rights and basic precepts of a democratic society,
and is a grim reminder of the shadow of
dictatorship still stalking our country.

Despite the horrific conditions in our country,
we continue to organise and protest against the
occupation, against workplaces abuses, and for
better treatment and safer conditions.

Despite the sectarian plots around us, we believe
in unity and solidarity and a common aim of
public service, equality, and freedom to organise
without external intrusions and coercion.

Our legitimacy comes from our members. Our
principles of organisation are based on
transparent and internationally recognised
International Labour Organisation standards.

We call upon our allies and all the world's peace-
loving peoples to help us to end the nightmare of
occupation and restore our sovereignty and
national independence so that we can chart our
own course to the future.

1) We demand an immediate withdrawal of all
foreign troops from our country, and utterly
reject the agreement being negotiated with the
USA for long-term bases and a military presence.
The continued occupation fuels the violence in
Iraq rather than alleviating it. Iraq must be
returned to full sovereignty.

2) We demand the passage of a labour law promised
by our Constitution, which adheres to ILO
principles and on which Iraqi trade unionists
have been fully consulted, to protect the rights
of workers to organize, bargain and strike,
independent of state control and interference.

3) We demand an end to meddling in our sovereign
economic affairs by the International Monetary
Fund, USA and UK. We demand withdrawal of all
economic conditionalities attached to the IMF's
agreements with Iraq, removal of US and UK
economic "advisers" from the corridors of Iraqi
government, and a recognition by those bodies
that no major economic decisions concerning our
services and resources can be made while foreign
troops occupy the country.

4) We demand that the US government and others
immediately cease lobbying for the oil law, which
would fracture the country and hand control over
our oil to multinational companies like Exxon,
BP and Shell. We demand that all oil companies
be prevented from entering into any long-term
agreement concerning oil while Iraq remains
occupied. We demand that the Iraqi government
tear up the current draft of the oil law, and
begin to develop a legitimate oil policy based on
full and genuine consultation with the Iraqi
people. Only after all occupation forces are gone
should a long term plan for the development of
our oil resources be adopted.

We seek your support and solidarity to help us
end the military and economic occupation of our
country. We ask for your solidarity for our
right to organise and strike in defence of our
interests as workers and of our public services
and resources. Our public services are the legacy
of generations before us and the inheritance of
all future generations and must not be privatised.

We thank you for standing by us. We too stand
with you in your own struggles for real democracy
which we know you also struggle for, and against
privatisation, exploitation and daily
disempowerment in your workplaces and lives.

We commend those of you who have organised strikes
and demonstrations to end the occupation in
solidarity with us and we hope these actions will continue.

We look forward to the day when we have a world
based on co-operation and solidarity. We look
forward to a world free from war, sectarianism,
competition and exploitation.

Endorsed by:

Hassan Juma'a Awad, President,
Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU)
Faleh Abood Umara, General Secretary,
Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU)
Falah Alwan, President, Federation of
Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI)
Subhi Albadri, President, General Federation of
Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI)
Nathim Rathi, President, Iraqi Port Workers Trade Union
Samir Almuawi, President, Engineering
Professionals Trade Union
Ghzi Mushatat, President, Mechanic and
Print Shop Trade Union
Waleed Alamiri, President, Electricity Trade Union
Ilham Talabani, President, Banking Services Trade Union
Abdullah Ubaid, President, Railway Trade Union
Ammar Ali, President, Transportation Trade Union
Abdalzahra Abdilhassan, President,
Service Employees Trade Union
Sundus Sabeeh, President,
Barber Shop Workers Trade Union
Kareem Lefta Sindan, President,
Lumber and Construction Trade Union,
General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW)
Sabah Almusawi, President, Wasit Independent Trade Union
Shakir Hameed, President, Lumber And
Construction Trade Union (GFWCUI)
Awad Ahmed, President, Teachers Federation of Salahideen
Alaa Ghazi Mushatat, President,
Agricultural And Food Substance Industries
Adnan Rathi Shakir, President, Water Resources Trade Union
Nahrawan Yas, President, Woman Affairs Bureau
Sabah Alyasiri, President (GFWCUI) Babil
Ali Tahi, President (GFWCUI) Najaf
Ali Abbas, President (GFWCUI) Basra
Muhi Abdalhussien, President (GFWCUI), Wasit
Ali Hashim Abdilhussien, President (GFWCUI) Kerbala
Ali Hussien, President (GFWCUI) Anbar
Mustafa Ameen, Arab Workers Bureau, President (GFWCUI)
Thameer Mzeail, Health Services, Union Committee
Khadija Saeed Abdullah, Teachers Federation, Member
Asmahan, Khudair, Woman Affairs, Textile Trade Unions
Adil Aljabiri, Oil Workers Trade Union Executive Bureau Member
Muhi Abdalhussien, Nadia Flaih, Service Employees Trade Unions
Rawneq Mohammed, Member, Media and Print Shop Trade Union
Abdlakareem Abdalsada, Vice President (GFWCUI)
Saeed Nima, Vice President (GFWCUI)
Sabri Abdalkareem, Member, (GFWCUI) Babil
Amjad Aljawhary, Representative of GFWCUI in North America


May Day Message
from the General Union of Dock Workers in Iraq
to the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union in the United States

Dear Brothers and Sisters of ILWU in California

The courageous decision you made to carry out a
strike on May Day to protest against the war and
occupation of Iraq advances our struggle against
occupation to bring a better future for us and
for the rest of the world as well.

We are certain that a better world will only be
created by the workers and what you are doing is
an example and proof of what we say. The labor
movement is the only element in the society that
is able to change the political equations for
the benefit of mankind. We in Iraq are looking up
to you and support you until the victory over
the US administration's barbarism is achieved.

Over the past five years the sectarian gangs who
are the product of the occupation, have been
trying to transfer their conflicts into our
ranks. Targeting workers, including their
residential and shopping areas, indiscriminately
using all sorts of explosive devices, mortar
shells, and random shooting, were part of a
bigger scheme that was aiming to tear up the
society but they miserably failed to achieve
their hellish goal. We are struggling today to
defeat both the occupation and sectarian militias' agenda.

The pro-occupation government has been attempting
to intervene into the workers affairs by imposing
a single government-certified labor union.
Furthermore it has been promoting privatization
and an oil and gas law to use the occupation
against the interests of the workers.

We the port workers view that our interests are
inseparable from the interests of workers in
Iraq and the world; therefore we are determined
to continue our struggle to improve the living
conditions of the workers and overpower all plots
of the occupation, its economic and political projects.

Let us hold hands for the victory of our struggle.

Long live the port workers in California!

Long live May Day!

Long live International solidarity!

The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq
An Affiliate Union with General Federation of
Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI)

28-4-2008


*******************************
*******************************
*******************************


! ! !


Today, thousands of people are engaged in
nonviolent civil disobedience.

http://www@5yearstoomany.org


WHAT ARE WE IN WALES DOING ?
Just one more march?
Come on Wales !
Contact each other -
there are lots of peace groups !

Non-violent protest
shows REAL EFFECTIVE COMMITTED opposition
to "our" government's disgraceful role.

An excellent contact in Cardiff -
where there was a demo
at the TOTAL Garage
in Cathedral Road,
is Adam Johannes, Cardiff STW.

You can contact him re future events at;
cardiff_troopsout@hotmail.com
07940 108 146

Image: National Demonstration for Palestine

Full Report

To read more about the Gaza Boats, CLICK above
==========================================

Gaza in crisis - Israel turns away UN food convoy at border;
blackouts as power plant shuts down

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?
opr=ShowDetails&ID=33196

==========================================

Israel infuriated by U.K. plan to label West Bank produce

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037263.html

==========================================

Video: A Day in the Life of a Gazan Fisherman

See the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNQBk6lxYZ4

==========================================

Article on Electronic Intifada:

Palestinian workers exploited at West Bank settlement factories

In August, the Business and Human Rights Resource
Centre, the international watchdog organization,
asked three Israeli companies to respond to a report
by an Israeli non-governmental organization that
protested the treatment of Palestinian workers
at West Bank settlement industrial parks.
Kav LaOved, which is concerned with the rights of
migrant and Palestinian workers employed in Israel
and Israel's illegal settlements, reported on the
rising number of claims by Palestinian workers
employed in West Bank settlements following an
October 2007 Israeli high court ruling that the
country's labor laws applied in the settlements.

Full article:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/
article9871.shtml

==========================================

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) welcomes
‘The Middle East Quartet: A Progress Report’
released by a coalition of 21 aid agencies
– including Oxfam, Save the Children, Care,
Cafod and World Vision. The report concludes that
the Quartet – Russia, the US, the EU and the UN –
is failing in its mission and has ‘lost its grip’
on the Middle East peace process which it is meant to foster.

For the whole press release and the report please visit:

http://www.palestinecampaign.org/
index7b.asp?id=1&l1_id=4&l2_id=25&Content_ID=222

==========================================

BDS in England and Wales
by Zoë Mars

Published in Al Majdal Issue 38 – Summer 2008

http://www.badil.org/al-majdal/
2008/summer/majdal38.pdf

This article summarizes the current major effort
by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and
other Palestine solidarity groups in England and Wales
to build a really dynamic and concerted BDS campaign
across eight action areas for the next year.
In the process of describing this, examples will
be given of the range of past campaigning actions
which are now being drawn together and stepped up,
to achieve greater visibility and impact.

Read the full article here: http://bigcampaign.org/
index.php?page=bds-in-england-and-wales

==========================================

Damning UN report on Gaza strike

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
world/middle_east/7623583.stm

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has delivered a scathing
report to the UN Human Rights Commission on
Israel's shelling of Beit Hanoun in Gaza in 2006.

==========================================
* ! * ! * ! * ! *

Alert: Tell the UK government not to rent Tel
Aviv Embassy from settlement-builder Leviev

From: Architects & Planners for Justice in
Palestine, the village of Bil’in, the village of
Jayyous, Palestine Solidarity Campaign,
Palestinian Boycott National Committee, Adalah-
NY, and Jews Against the Occupation

September 10, 2008 - The UK Guardian’s Comment Is Free
posted an article on September 9, The wrong message
to Israel, by Abe Hayeem, a founding member of
Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine,
calling on the UK government to revoke plans to
rent its new embassy in Tel Aviv from Israeli-
settlement mogul Lev Leviev. The UK's plan to
rent space for the embassy from Leviev's company
Africa Israel was reported on July 29 in the
Israeli financial journal Globes. Please contact
the UK’s Embassy in Tel Aviv, UK Consulate in
Jerusalem, the Foreign Secretary and the Minister
of State for the Middle East (contact info below)
and demand that they take a firm stand against
Israeli settlements and not reward Leviev with UK taxpayers’ money.

Abe Hayeem’s article notes:
“When Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown,
visited Ramallah in mid-July, he told the
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas: ‘We want to
see a freeze on settlements. Settlement expansion
has made peace harder to achieve. It erodes trust,
it heightens Palestinian suffering, it makes the
compromises Israel needs to make for peace more difficult.’"

“In that case, the decision by the British
government to rent space for our new embassy in
Tel Aviv from the Africa-Israel Investments
company chaired by businessman Lev Leviev sends
precisely the wrong message.”

“Leviev, a Russian-Israeli real estate and
diamond billionaire who recently became a UK
resident, is also a major settlement builder.
Danya Cebus, a subsidiary of Leviev's Africa-
Israel group, has built homes in three West Bank
settlements - Mattityahu East, Har Homa, and Ma'ale Adumim.”

“Additionally, Leviev is a major donor to the
Land Redemption Fund (LRF), which is affiliated
with the radical fundamentalist Gush Emunim
settler movement. The LRF uses highly questionable
methods to secure Palestinian land for Jewish
settlements in the occupied West Bank, in clear
violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva convention.”

“The settlement of Mattityahu East along with
Israel's wall, which was built mostly inside the
occupied West Bank to grab land for settlements,
seizes 50% of the village of Bil'in's land,
including olive groves that its residents have
relied on for centuries. Leviev's Zufim settlement,
again along with Israel's Wall, seizes as much as
two-thirds of the village of Jayyous' agricultural
land and six wells, effectively annexing one of
the West Bank's most fertile agricultural zones.
Since 2002, residents of Bil'in and Jayyous have
held more than 250 nonviolent protests, with the
support of Israeli and international activists,
in an effort to save their land….”

“Rewarding Leviev with the contract for our new
embassy shows that Her Majesty's government is
not serious about stopping Israeli settlements.
Rather than mouthing admirable but empty platitudes
about freezing settlements, for the sake of all
Israelis and Palestinians, let us apply serious
sanctions to stop Israel expanding illegal settlements
and the Wall, and take our business elsewhere.”

Please write and/or call the representatives of
the UK government below, and demand that the UK
not rent its embassy from Leviev. Oxfam and UNICEF
have already rejected support from Leviev due to
his companies’ settlement construction in violation
of international law. Please send a copy of your
message and/or information on your phone call to
levievembassyalert@adalahny.org
so that we can compile them all.

IN THE UK

The Foreign Secretary
Phone: +44 (0)191 456 8910

msu.correspondence@fco.gov.uk

Minister of State for the Middle East
Phone: +44 (0)20 7270 1500


IN TEL AVIV

UK Ambassador Tom Phillips

Phone: +972 (0)3 725 1222

Fax: +972 (0)3 527 8574

Email: webmaster.telaviv@fco.gov.uk


IN JERUSALEM

Consul-General: Richard Edward Makepeace

Phone: +972-(0)2-541-4100/41

Fax: +972-(0)2-532-2368 / +972-2-541-4157

Email: britain.jerusalem@fco.gov.uk

===============================================

GAZA BOATS

Khaled Mosleh, Saed’s father:
“This is a miracle of God.”

By freely traveling to Gaza, on Saturday, August
23rd, in two, small, wooden boats, the Free Gaza
Movement forced the Israeli government to issue
a fundamental policy change regarding their
military and economic blockade of Gaza. The
Israeli Ministry of Foreign affairs publicly
announced that humanitarian and human rights
missions to Gaza will no longer be stopped or
threatened by Israel. With the end of the
Israeli siege of Gaza, Palestinians should be
free to exercise their rights without fear of
being stopped or killed by the Israeli military.

Yvonne Ridley, a journalist and member for the
Free Gaza Movement, summed up her experience in
Gaza by saying, “I missed the start of the
Berlin Wall coming down by just a few days, but
now I know how people felt when they tore down
those first few bricks. This has been a huge
victory of people over power.”

The Free Gaza Movement will quickly return to Gaza
with another delegation, and they would like to
encourage the United Nations, Arab League and
international community to organize similar
human rights and humanitarian efforts. The Free
Gaza Movement will continue to work to ensure
that safe passage between Gaza and the outside
world will remain free and open.

For More Information, Please Contact:

(Gaza) Paul Larudee: +972 598 765 370

(Gaza) Huwaida Arraf: +972 599 130 426

(Cyprus) Osama Qashoo: +357 97 793 595 /
osamaqashoo@gmail.com

(Jerusalem) Angela Godfrey-Goldstein:
+972 547 366 393 / angela@icahd.org

www.anis-online.de/office/events/
FreeGazaSong.htm
www.flickr.com/photos/29205195@N02/

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aUPA0z2zRHQ

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=C-DGBHPMe5c

For further information and to receive boat updates: www.freegaza.org

******************************************

BOYCOTT !!!!!!!!!

The aim of the campaign is to show Israel that
its continued oppression of the Palestinian
people is not condoned by the British public and
also to show solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The boycott of Israeli goods will continue until
Israel respects Palestinian human rights, abides
by international law and ends the occupation.
Boycott was an effective tool in helping to end
South African apartheid, and it is hoped it will
be as effective against Israeli apartheid. The
boycott was called for and is supported by
Palestinian civil society organisations.

We also encourage activists to contact local
shops and mosques about Israeli medjoul dates
which are being imported in large quantities.

Please find below an outline of some of our actions.

For resources and campaign material
please visit the BIG website:
www.bigcampaign.org

Or contact the PSC office: info@palestinecampaign.org
Tel: 020 7700 6192

Activist Actions:

PSC office sends letters to the headquarters
of all major supermarkets in the UK.
The letters are published on the PSC website.
Responses from the supermarkets are also
posted on the website.

PSC office contacts government ministers
from DEFRA, BERR, FCO and The Treasury.

Branches are encouraged to campaign in their
local Muslim communities to boycott Israeli
Medjool dates. Fliers and sample letters
are still available from the PSC office and
the BIG Campaign website.

Letters sent to supermarket branches and other
local shop managers who sell Israeli goods.
Sample letters made available to branches
and on the BIG Campaign website.

Contacting of local media as well as national media
about actions and reasons for the boycott.
(Local media are always looking for interesting
stories and are more likely to take notice.)

Contacting of local trade organisations, council offices,
trade unions, community and faith groups and
encouragement for them to support the boycott.

Contacting of prominent local individuals (celebrities,
public representatives, faith leaders) and asking them
to endorse the BIG campaign, and speak at meetings.

Speaking to local market traders about the
origins of their products.

Contacting other providers such as delivery veg box schemes.

Joining local branches of the Co-op and having our say.
This is done often through their website.

Organising local public meetings to mobilise for
the BIG campaign. Contact PSC office for suggested
speakers and to advertise meetings on the PSC website.

Setting up of stalls outside supermarkets.
Urging shoppers not to purchase Israeli produce.
This includes produce labeled West Bank as it
is almost definitely from a settlement.
Politely informing shop staff about why we are protesting.
Asking all to contact nearest branch of the PSC to volunteer.

Arranging meetings with individual supermarket managers.

Completing shop feedback forms.

Continuing to contact local media.

Materials for stalls and new flyers
made available from the PSC office.

Keeping the PSC office informed of actions
and sending in action material, reports and photos.
Copies of letters/emails and responses
sent to head office or
info@bigcampaign.org.

Contacts:

Email: info@bigcampaign.org

Send info to:
PSC PO Box BM PSA
London
WC1X 3AA

www.bigcampaign.org

**********************

Free Gaza Boat -

We are calling on all members and supporters to
be alert to continuing press coverage of the
campaign, and to be ready to act in support of
the Free Gaza Movement if they encounter
problems.
We call on activists and supportive MPs to provide
what support they can, and to cascade this information widely.

For further information and to receive boat updates:
www.freegaza.org

TAKE ACTION – WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Keep informed: please keep checking the
www.freegaza.org
website and the PSC website for regular updates.

Alert your local media: contact your local papers,
TV and radio stations and ask them to report on
the Breaking the Siege Campaign - Boat to Gaza initiative.

Contact your MP: write to or call your MP (also
in the constituency offices) and raise the attempt
to break the siege with them.

http://www.parliament.uk/directories/
directories.cfm

==========================================

Dates Campaign 2008

http://bigcampaign.org/
index.php?page=ramadan-dates-campaign-2008

Every year Israeli companies profit from the sale
of medjool dates that have been grown in illegal
settlements in the West Bank, Palestine. This
year we call on you to join the boycott of all
Israeli Goods, especially those sourced from
illegal Israeli settlements, and join the
worldwide movement of civil society in support of
the Palestinian people for national, civil and human rights.

Here are some ideas of what you could do:

Contact your local mosque and talk to them about
the issue. Send them a letter (see sample letter
for mosques) and ask them to distribute leaflets
(see sample leaflet). Remember to ask them to
support the boycott of Israeli goods

Write to or visit local stores (supermarkets or
smaller shops), make the argument against Agrexco
produce and raise awareness of what products and
brandnames to avoid. Send a letter to them about
medjoul dates. If they are labelling their dates
'produce of West Bank' write a letter of complaint.

Hold demonstrations, pickets or street theatre
outside shops selling Agrexco goods

Contact local Trade Union branches and educate
them about Carmel Agrexco products.

Hold shopping trolley actions - load up your
trolley with Agrexco products, bring it to the
checkout and then tell the cashier/management why
you are not buying each of the products.

E mail:
info@bigcampaign.org
to let us know what about your activities.
Also why not send a press release to your local
newspaper, Tv or radio station and post your
reports at www.indymedia.org.uk

For more information and sample letters please visit:

http://bigcampaign.org/
index.php?page=ramadan-dates-campaign-2008


==========================================

Narratives Under Siege: Gaza patients continue
painful wait for urgent medical treatment.

Ahmed Abu Shawish urgently needs an operation to
remove his cancer and repair the internal damage.
‘The [Palestinian] Ministry of Health referred
me to Echelof Hospital in Tel Aviv for specialist
treatment’ he says. “But of course I need a permit
to leave Gaza, and my permit was denied. So I
applied again with the help of human rights organizations.’

Read the full article:

http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/campaigns/english/
gaza_closure/Narratives_18.html

==========================================

PSC Petition - Sign it now!

http://www.palestinecampaign.org/
Index5b_petition.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=3&l2_id=17

Please sign and circulate the petition below,
already signed by among others: Harold Pinter,
John Pilger, Miriam Margolyes, Mike Leigh,
Benjamin Zephaniah, Emma Thompson, Ilan Pappe,
Nigel Kennedy, Juliet Stevenson, Bella Freud,
Mark Thomas, Keith Sonnet, Tony Benn, Michael Rosen and more…

1948 – 2008
60 Years of Palestinian Catastrophe
(Nakba) Must End
End Israeli Occupation

We the undersigned, believing that a just solution
for the Palestinians is the only way to secure peace
for all, call for full realization of the inalienable
rights of the Palestinian people as affirmed in
UN General Assembly resolution 3236:

• the right to self-determination without
external interference;
• the right to national independence and
sovereignty;
• the right of Palestinians to return to the
homes and properties from which they have
been displaced and uprooted.

http://www.palestinecampaign.org/Index5b_petition.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=3&l2_id=17

==========================================

The laureate of all Arabs.

The late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish was
elected as the best Arab poet for 2008
in poetry written in classical Arabic by a panel
of 243 Arab poets, scholars and journalists.

The Arabic Poetry News website also reports that
Darwish won 60 votes out of 243 Arab poets,
scholars and journalists who responded to the poll.

Darwish, the Palestinian national poet, died in
August and was given the equivalent of a state
funeral in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The Syrian poet Adonis won second place with 21 votes.

The third place was taken by an emerging Palestinian poet,
Tamim Al-Barghouthi who got 13 votes.
Syrian poet Shawqi Baghdadi came fourth with 11 votes.
Thirteen of the respondents abstained from
answering the question about who was the best
poet writing in classical Arabic.

"Mahmoud Darwish is dead, but the voice of the
Palestinian resistance will live on in all of us."

Ahdaf Soueif in the Guardian

None of us really thought he'd die. Our loss is
great, we tell each other. In our minds we think
of Edward Said, of Haider Abdel-Shafi, of Faisal
Husseini, and even - yes - of Yasser Arafat.
The "big men" of Palestine. And now, Mahmoud Darwish.

Read more: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/
index7b.asp?_id=1&l1_id=4&l2_id=24&Content_ID=164

==========================================

The Campaign against Settlements' Trade

By Ruth Tenne – London

Through a great part of my life the only food I
have eaten came from an Israeli source for the
simple reason that I was born in Israel and it
was the only choice available. Little was I aware
that a significant part of the produce I consumed
was grown on fields confiscated by the State of
Israel from Palestinian villages which were razed
to the ground in the aftermath of the 1948 Israeli
"war of independence".

Read more:
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/
view_article_details.php?id=14059

==========================================

Palestine Solidarity Campaign calls on the
British Government to Ban Settlement Products
as Israel announces new Settlement Building.

Every week, it seems, the building of a new West
Bank settlement is announced by the Israeli
Military Civil Administration.
In response, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
(PSC) is launching a new campaign calling on the
UK government to ban the import and export of
settlement products from the UK.

http://www.palestinecampaign.org/
index7b.asp?_id=1&l1_id=4&l2_id=25&Content_ID=146

==========================================

UK MPs call for talks with Hamas

A UK parliamentary committee is calling for dialogue
with Hamas, as a UN report says poverty has
reached an unprecedented high in the Gaza Strip.

The House of Commons International Development
Committee says in a report on Gaza that the
current truce between Hamas and Israel, agreed
on 19 June, "offers the international community
an opportunity to begin a dialogue with Hamas".

http://www.palestinecampaign.org/
index7b.asp?_id=1&l1_id=4&l2_id=24&Content_ID=14

**********************************

Illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories
are selling their products in U.K. supermarkets.
The goods are labelled "West Bank", and the stores
refuse to admit fault or review their stance.

Customers are being cheated - and are being led to "assume"
that they are buying goods from Palestinians -
and we all know what happens when we assume...
it makes an ASS out of U and ME...

Customers are being duped into contributing to
the economies of illegal settlements.

EU officials in Jerusalem are now checking whether
loopholes are being exploited by U.K. companies.

Official U.K. policy is clear enough;
"settlements are illegal under international law
and settlement construction is an obstacle to peace".

149 illegal settlements plus 96 "outposts"
have been built this year alone.

Tesco says it sources "a number of products"
from illegal settlements in the occupied territories,
including stonefruit, avocados, herbs, and grapes
from farms in the West Bank and Golan Heights.

Waitrose sells cut herbs, as do Somerfield, and
Sainsburys sells dried dates.

Ruth Tenne, Israeli peace activist and a member
of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, says;

"Ethical consumers of all faiths ought to
boycott Israeli goods, especially those produced
by the Jewish illegal settlements in the West Bank
as well as campaigning for divestment from companies
which profit from Israel's illegal occupation,
and for suspending the EU Association Agreement
which grants Israel a privileged access to the European market."

Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Somerfield are
among the stores who admit to it openly !

Perhaps it's time to at least....

Tell them now what YOU think, by email, phone or letter !