
Thousands of British people demanding freedom for
Palestine
"FREE
PALESTINE" RALLY
[UK, London, Saturday 17th May 2003]
©
www.inminds.co.uk 2003
PART I OF
2

"Right Vs Might - Boycott Israel"
One of our downloadable
boycott posters
On Saturday 17th May thousands of British people marked the
55th anniversary of the Nakba, - the expulsion of the Palestinians
when their land was stolen to create Israel, by converging
on Trafalgar Square in London for a rally demanding an end
to zionist occupation and for freedom for Palestine. The huge
crowds reflected the broad base of support for the Palestinian
cause in British society. The rally was organised by the Palestinian
Solidarity Campaign and supported by a host of pro-justice
organisations.
Journalist John Pilger, actors Juliet Stevenson and Corin
Redgrave, and Sophie Hurndall the sister of the British photographer
shot in the head by the Israeli army, were among the distinguished
speakers to address the rally. We have provided all of the
speeches below (around 30 speeches in real audio format) for
you to listen to or download.

Faces in the crowd reflecting the support
for Palestine among the British people.
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Listen
to the sound
of the rally
"free free Palestine,
long live Palestine"

Free Palestine
End the Occupation
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Afif Safieh
Afif
Safieh, Palestinian General Delegate to the
UK:
"A war which
we opposed has occurred, a war we felt was unnecessary,
a war we knew was illegitimate, this was not a war
for democracity, it was a war for docility - regional
docility, European docility, global docility in
front of American hegemony. That was a war that
resulted from the collusion of Israeli and American
agendas that has put America and its war machine
on a collision course with the Arab world.
The last three
years has also reminded us that the nakba is not
a frozen moment in history that has occurred sometime
in 1948 but that unfortunately the nakba catastrophe
is unfortunately an ongoing process from Der Yassin
to Jenin until this day. Friends you are not unaware
that successive Israeli governments continue to
aim at accapurating and acquiring as much of Palestinian
geography as possible with as little of Palestinian
demography as possible. I was just reading the newspaper
on the internet yesterday on opinion poll was published
in Israel that 57% of Israeli public opinion favour
the encouragement of Palestinians to migrate - the
policy of transfer has the support of 57% unfortunately
of Israeli society.
...we pay tribute
to the international solidarity movement - to all
those volunteers who decide willingly, who choose
to go and spend time with the Palestinian people
as human shields those who take the decision at
their own expense and often at their own risk and
peril... in memory of Ian Hook .. a tribute to Rachel
Corrie ... I would like to invite the PSC to start
the process in Oslo to candidating the International
Solidarity Movement for the Nobel prize this year
for I believe there is no individual or institution
more deserving them them."
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Palestinian flag

Josie Sandercock
Josie
Sandercock, International Solidarity Movement
(ISM). Josie went to West Bank in May 2002 and joined
ISM. She eventually arrived back in Britain on July
6, after spending eight days on hunger strike in an
Israeli prison.
"The principle
behind the ISM is simple - if the UN wont do it
we will do it ourselves!
Calls to provide
international protection for the Palestinian people
under occupation have been persistently ignored
or blocked by Israel and the US whilst the UN consistently
fails
to perform even the minimum of its duty towards
a people oppressed by a state which acts in complete
defiance of international law or the norms of human
conduct.
This is not good
enough. We will not stand by and allow the Palestinian
people to be subjected to this inhuman occupations
while our governments are silent. A serving Israeli
soldier wrote recently to the ISM. He described
himself as not a pacifist or worse a left winger
and this is what he had to say
"ISM
keeps Sharon and my fascist IDF and lunatic settlers
from carrying out ethnic cleansing. These ISM kids
are my heroes - they save lives, they are practising
the purest form of what the great rabbis called
tikum olam - repair the world. As a Jew I owe a
terrible debt to the humanity of these volunteers
peace makers for repaying my tab with their blood."
It is not our
intention to pay the tab in this way, but every
ISM volunteer faces that possibility. On March the
16th Rachel Corrie for crushed to death by an Israeli
army D9 bulldozer, shortly afterwards Brian Avery
was shot in the face - the bullet split his tongue
into two and removed most of one cheek - he has
up a year of reconstructive surgery ahead of him.
And then Tom Hurndall - Tom was shot in the back
of the head whilst trying to take three Palestinian
children to safety away from unprovoked Israeli
sniper fire. Tom is still on life support in Biet
Shiva, his brain is irrevocably damaged and he is
not expected to survive.
Rachel and Tom
would be the first to say that their lives are no
more important than that of any Palestinian and
this is true but in one very important sense it
is not - the Palestinians have only the failed corrupt
diplomacy as their protection, we have our governments
and we are waiting, still waiting for the US government
to act on the death of Rachel Corrie still waiting
for the UK government to condemn the shooting of
Tom Hurndall. Ian Hookes family are still waiting
for an investigation in to his killing last November,
and the family of James Miller who was shot dead
whilst waving a white flag and clearly marked as
a journalist - they are just starting the long and
painful process of having his killing recognised
as a crime by a British government which consistently
refused to condemn or investigate the deliberate
targeting of British citizens by the Israeli army
which continues to act with impunity.
ISM are not giving
up. 100s of people of all faiths from all nations
are travelling to Palestine to work with them this
summer. If you would like to join them or if would
like to support their work by donating cash or equipment
especially laptops and video cameras ... look us
up on the Internet"
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"End terror? Yes please!
Get the occupiers out of Palestine and Iraq!"

Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy
Corbyn, MP, Labour MP for Islington South,
actively lobbying inside parliament for Palestinian
rights for many years.
"You will
not achieve peace in Palestine or anywhere else
in the middle east without addressing the fundamental
causes of war, namely the injustice in the way the
people are treated and no one is more unjustly treated
than the Palestinian people at the present time!
On the war on Iraq:
This was a war
for resources and we now see in effect the privatisation
of an entire country to the cronies of George Bush,
Rumsfeld, Cheney and all the rest of them! The Iraqi
people are the first guinea pigs of the Project
for the New American Century (PNAC).
On the roadmap:
I've been told
this road map is a road to peace and the road to
justice. The cynic in me says that when ever the
United States and Britain wants support from middle-eastern
countries they propose a new peace process for the
middle east. Once the war is over they forget that
peace process. It seems to me that this peace process
has an awful lot of Israeli locks on those gates.
There will never be peace in the region until a
number of things are accepted. Firstly that the
plight of the Palestinian people thrown off their
land and out of their homes in 1948 has to be recognised
and it returned, have the ability to return and
to be able to live in peace free from bombardment
free from assassination squads, free from occupation
and free from the settlements. There also has to
be a little less sanctimonious lecturing around
the world about breaches of UN resolutions until
it is accepted around the world that the biggest
breacher of UN resolutions of all time is the state
of Israel! And that the one country we know that
has weapons of mass destruction in the middle east
is the state of Israel. How do we know it? Because
Mordechai
Vanunu has spent 14 years in prison for telling
us the truth about Israel's nuclear weapons programme..."
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* We are very grateful to the sixteen people
who helped us create this feature
by sharing their thoughts on video - thank you!

Young and old united in support of Palestine.
A message from Richard
Burton, MP, was read out on his behalf:
"...This
week, the anniversary of Nakba, it is as important
as ever that we maintain the pressure to secure
peace with justice in the middle-east...
..tightened
restrictions mean it is becoming almost impossible
for aid agencies, journalists and peace activists
to operate in the occupied territories. This is
in the face of increasing poverty and destitution
in Gaza with almost three quarters of Palestinians
now living below the poverty line..."

No Occupation of Iraq
Free Palestine - End the Occupation
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Free Palestine - End Israeli Occupation

Caroline Lucas
Caroline
Lucas, Green Party MEP representing the
South-east of England. Outspoken advocate of human
rights.
"We are
here to demand an end to the Israeli governments
state terrorism against the Palestinian people,
and we are here to demand an end to the illegal
occupation of Palestinian territory.
And
we are here to demand an end to the hypocrisy
of Bush and Blair who tell us they care so much
about some UN resolutions that they are prepared
to go to war over them and yet they cynically
ignore others.
And we are
here to demand an end to the slaughter of innocent
people. Over the last two and a half years over
2000 Palestinians have been murdered. But its
not just the cold killings we are protesting about,
its the daily routine terror of a people being
controlled and subjugated and humiliated - its
the humiliation of an entire people.
And so we are
here because we are angry, we are here because
if the US can invade Iraq on the pretext of saying
its upholding one UN resolution then it can take
firm action against the Israeli government to
uphold some other UN resolutions as well
There is the
resolution of 36 years ago that stated that the
Israeli occupation of Palestine is illegal, there
is the resolution of 55 years ago that demands
the right of return for Palestinian refugees,
there is the resolution of 29 years ago for the
Palestinian right to self-determination. Do you
remember Bush and Blair wouldn't even give the
weapons inspectors 4 months well they have given
the Israeli government over 40 years!
In the General
Assembly there have been over 450 resolutions
calling for justice for the Palestinian people.
No country has been more condemned by the international
community than Israel but no country has been
allowed to get away with its rogue behaviour so
consistently because its backed by its rogue supporter
the United States of America.
So we are here
to demand an end to such hypocrisy and an end
to the military and financial support for Israel.
Last year alone Israel received over two billion
dollars of military aid from the US and in the
first 14 months of the Palestinian uprising our
own government granted 230 licences for military
exports to Israel.
In the European
Parliament the Greens are doing what we can to
get action on these issues, and we've been getting
the Parliament to uphold and support resolutions
that demand the full and immediate implementation
of UN resolutions that call for an arms embargo,
call for the suspension of the EU-Israel Euro-Mediterranean
Agreement and as Greens we are supporting the
Campaign to Boycott Israeli Goods because we want
justice.
How can North
Korea, Iraq and Iran be rogue states but not Israel
and not the United States. Sharon and Bush are
due to meet shortly, but even as they do so Sharon
is still building this wall to separate him from
the Palestinians, this new wall. But we know that
you cant build to peace by building walls, we
know that you cant fight terror with terror, we
know that the only way to get peace is through
justice, and so we are here to demand justice
for the Palestinian people."
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Faces in the crowd

Abe Hayeem
Abe
Hayeem, Just Peace UK, he is a campaigner
for rights of Palestinian people within Jewish society
in Britain. As a spokesperson for the Jewish pro-justice
organisation Just Peace UK he explained their position:
"Sharon
and his neo-fascist government do not speak for
us...
We fully support
a trade and arms embargo against Israel...
[We] contradict
the mainstream Jewish communities bland justifications
for Israel's brutal occupation - being in denial
most follow the line of my country right or wrong.
On this they have strayed far from real Jewish
ethics.
Just Peace
UK aims at making its voice heard in the national
and Jewish press, and on radio. Challenging and
rebuffing the myths and propaganda and misinformation
by the Israeli government and its publicity agents
Viacom and AIPAC. They claim that the occupied
territories are now "disputed" territories
- are just one example of how UN resolutions are
being twisted and distorted. There should be no
let up in exposing Israel's illegal and criminal
activities in the occupied territories...
Israel must
stop trying to silence or censor valid criticism
with accusations of anti-semitism and bias, and
in our case of being self-hating Jews or traitors..."
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Palestinian flags above the crowds

Juliet Stevenson
Juliet
Stevenson, well-known actor in theatre
and television.
"I follow
the news coming out of the occupied territories
with horror and incredulity and having two young
children myself I find particularly unbearable
the fate of Palestinian children.
A whole generation
now is being traumatised, couped up, maimed and
being deprived of an education - that hope of
the future which is every childs birthright and
entitlement is being plundered by what is happening
in their community. 350 Palestinian children are
being currently detained in Israeli prisons. 28
of these prisoners are held in Quetzal, a military
prison in the Negev where conditions are extremely
poor and where medical treatment is withheld from
them.
A local NGO
- the Palestinian section of defence for children
international reports that for those held across
the Israeli prison system nutrition is very poor
and that children are denied education contrary
to Israeli and international law. And many children
are dying. Of the more than 2000 Palestinians
killed in the current intifada a quarter are children.
Many of them are killed by the Israeli army -
mostly shot in the head or upper body. Tank shells
and bombs from f-16s also take their toll as does
falling masonry of houses demolished over the
heads of their inhabitants.
Only last week
two year old Ani Al-Saeda Bashid from Gaza was
shot in the head whilst playing in her back yard.
Unfortunately overlooked by the illegal settlement
of Jadin Such is the hatred of some of these settlers
that killing children may be seen as a grotesque
form of sport. In an earlier case the settler
Shimon Yifra shot a girl dead in a school playground.
He was in fact brought to trail and in his defence
he said that he had only intended to shock her
not to kill her. That defence was accepted and
he was given a seven month suspended sentence.
The absence of punishment by the state for such
killings serves as a positive encouragement for
such acts. Its seems to be part of the policy
of state terrorism to make life so unbearable
for the Palestinians that some will leave if only
to protect their children's lives. In this way
its a very effective form of ethnic cleansing.

"Stop Supporting Child Killers
- Boycott Israel"
One of our downloadable
boycott posters
And then there
are the deaths caused by the closures and curfews
that are so brutally imposed through out the occupied
territories. 4 year old Abdul Fateh Java from
Gaza needed specialised treatment for a heart
condition but the family could not get her out
either to Israel or Egypt and she died. Recently
10 year old Ala Osama Hamdan from a village near
Nabulas got appendicitice. The Israeli soldiers
at the local checkpoint turned the family back
as they tried to make their way to Nabulas hospital.
Her appendix burst and the little girl died. There
are many such stories. Heavily pregnant women
and women in labour attempting to reach hospitals
are often held at checkpoints and obliged to give
birth there. The world health organisation tells
us that in the last 16 months 51 women have given
birth at Israeli checkpoints and 29 of those babies
have died.
So when this
happens to your wife, to your children, where
do you turn? To whom do you appeal? the Israeli
government? the NGOs who can only catalogue these
atrocities? the world press may show a fleeting
interest but Palestinian deaths are so normal
these days - two or three a day on average that
they are hardly news worthy.
So its up to
us, here in Britain to stand up against the normalisation
of these horrors. We CAN put pressure on government
to instruct Israel that the world community does
not acquiesce in these barbaric policies. We can
urge our government to exclude Israel from membership
of all European institutions where it enjoins
privilege status until it withdraws from the occupied
territories. Our government must be brought to
understand that this is an issue that many British
people feel passionately about, we do after all
bear much historical responsibility for the whole
present Palestinian catastrophe. We have a government
that spoke tirelessly about the human rights abuses
in Iraq in order justify its military intervention
there but has remained silent on the subject of
the Palestinians. I would appeal to you to become
active if you are not already, to lobby parliament
and the European parliament to use their best
offices to intervene, to see an end to these human
rights violations and to work in good faith towards
the outcome of peaceful change for the Palestinians
and for all peoples of the middle-east."
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Israeli Occupation - England Today
"Israeli Occupation
- England Today"
Many in Britain are worried by the growing Israeli
influence in the UK,
already they feel that the UK has gone to war for
Israeli interests...
The longest serving Member of the British Parliament
Tam Dalyell has recently been attacked for criticising
Zionist influence in the British government (May 2003)
- specifically the influence of Lord Levy.

Lord Levy, an unashamed Zionist,
he shapes the governments policy on the Middle-East
Lord Levy, an unashamed Zionist, has in return for
fundraisng for the Blair government been allowed to
shape the UKs Middle-East policy as Blairs advisor
and special envoy to the Middle-East (an unelected
position which allows Levy to remain unaccountable
to parliament).
Levy was introduced to Blair by a senior Israeli
diplomat, Gideon Meir, in 1994. He became Blairs tennis
partner and in charge of the 'private trust' which
funded Tony Blair's office before the 1997 election.
After the election he became the chief fund raiser
for the Labout Party, dubbed "Mr.Cashpoint".
In return Levy was given a peerage and made Tony Blairs
special envoy to the Middle-East.

Lord Levy's villa in Tel Aviv, Israel
Lord Levy's second home is Israel where he owns a
villa in Herzliya Pituah, an exclusive suburb of Tel
Aviv.
He was former member of the board of the Jewish Agency,
a body which established the alternative Zionist government
in Palestine via the British mandate, which later
became the State of Israel Levy was also a former
Chair of the Jewish Israel Appeal, now the United
Jewish Israel Appeal, an organisation which raises
large amounts of money, much of which is channelled
to Israel
He has acted as a fundraiser for Ehud Barak, the
Israeli Prime Minister before Sharon, and maintains
a close relationship with him. His son Daniel worked
for the Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, to
whom Levy contributed campaign funds. Both his children
live in Israel
Is it any surprise then that the Blair government
is blind to the plight of the Palestinians? How can
Britain hope to have an objective policy in the Middle-East
when clearly its shaped by a man who's loyalties lie
with Israel?
At a time when the overwhelming majority of the British
people were against war, Tam Dalyell reveals the reason
why Britain still ended up going to war: "I believe
his [Lord Levy] influence has been very important
on the prime minister and has led to what I see as
this awful war..."
The Islamic Human Right Commission has campaigned
for sometime for the dismissal of Lord Levy. Please
add your voice to their campaign
to remove Lord Levy and give Britain a chance to determine
its own Middle-East policy.
Related Links:
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US/UK out of the Middle East
Peace with Justice

Sophie Hurndall
Sophie
Hurndall, sister of Tom Hurndall, an ISM
activist shot in the head by the Israeli army whilst
rescuing Palestinian children.
"I have
been asked to speak at this rally as the sister
of Tom Hurndall. As many of you may know Tom was
shot while trying to save children from Israeli
army fire. While I would emphasise that my family
have no political affiliation, what Tom and we discovered
during our separate visits to Israel and Gaza has
caused us deep concern. I am here today to describe
our experiences. My brother Tom was a keen and talented
photographer - he was also a caring human being.
He travelled to Gaza because he had heard about
human rights abuses taking place in the occupied
territories and wanted see for himself the way in
which Palestinians were living, and to photograph
and document what he saw. Tom is now lying in hospital
in Israel in a deep coma. His brain has suffered
severe damage and the doctors have said he is unlikely
to regain consciousness.
In the days before Tom was wounded
he sent e-mail's home detailing several incidents
he had observed in which civilians had been shot
by Israeli soldiers and also a helicopter attack
in which 46 civilians were wounded, some of whom
later died. Tom had already sent us photographs
including one of a boy of about 7 or 8, who posed
no threat, being shot from an Israeli tank.
Tom was himself shot as he was
trying to help a group of children. Waiting at the
end of a street in Rafa, he saw machine gun fire
being directed at a mound of earth on which about
twenty children were playing. Most of the children
fled but three young children were too scared to
move, two girls and a boy aged between 5 and 8.
Tom walked forward and picked up the little boy,
named Salem Baroum. Having brought Salem back to
safety he returned for the second child. Tom was
shot in the head by a single sniper bullet as he
leant forward to pick up the little girl.
The IDF released reports that
Tom was armed, clothed in army camouflage and firing
at the soldiers. They have also released a report
saying he was involved in crossfire. These reports
have been reflected in media around the world, especially
in Israel These reports are not true. Many of you
will have seen photographs of Tom in his fluorescent
orange activist's vest. We have photographs of Tom
immediately before and after the shooting - from
several independent sources. There were over ten
eye witness reports of Tom's shooting including
the accounts of journalists- all of which support
the fact that Tom was fired at with no justification.
But what is extraordinary is that to this day, not
a single one of these witnesses has been questioned
by the IDF or the Israeli authorities. How can any
credible inquiry be conducted without questioning
them? Indeed some of these witnesses have since
been arrested, detained and unlawfully deported.

Israel calls this Self-defence!
It was clear to all that Tom
did not pose a threat to the Israeli army or to
anyone else. He was with a humanitarian organisation
which was involved in peaceful protest and which
was known by the army to be present in the immediate
area at the time. He acted in a way which every
decent human being should have seen as natural and
necessary in going to the aid of a young helpless
and desperately vulnerable group of children. Many
of us would not have had the courage to do what
Tom did. In return for his courage and selfless
commitment, he is likely to have paid the ultimate
price. Tom is the victim of a direct and deliberate
shot to the head. This will be proved by the upcoming
Dispatches documentary on Channel 4 tomorrow night
at 9.
Our request for an explanation
about the shooting is not unreasonable. My parents,
my two other brothers and myself, have spent much
of the last five weeks at Tom's bedside in Israel,
and also in Gaza trying to find answers. In spite
of numerous repeated requests during that time,
through the British Embassy in Tel Aviv and the
media, we have been bluntly refused an explanation
from, or any communication with, the Israeli forces.
My parents have even been shot at while travelling
with British embassy officials in Gaza They have
now been refused entry unless they sign a waiver
absolving the Israeli army of any responsibility
if the army shoots at them as well.
Is that what freedom and democracy
are in Israel?
My family is campaigning for
an independent, public inquiry into Tom's shooting.
Not only for Tom, but because every day Palestinian
civilians are maimed and killed by the Israeli army.
Tom showed us this through the e-mail's he sent
home. Any act of violence - whether by Palestinian
or by Israeli - should be subject to prosecution
and a fair trial. Yet clearly this is not happening.
It is absolutely unacceptable that innocent people
continue to be killed or wounded - whether they
are journalists, peace activists or other civilians.
Yet an Israeli soldier is very unlikely even to
be reprimanded for such outrageously heavy-handed
tactics.
We cannot stand by silently and
allow people like Tom and Rachel, Brian Avery, Iain
Hook and James Miller to become such tragic victims.
If we don't make a stand to make the Israeli government
accountable for its actions, then there will be
no end to this terrible loss of life in Palestine.
Help us to exert pressure for
proper accountability and an end to this indiscriminate
loss of life. Please contact the foreign secretary,
Jack Straw, to reinforce our demand for an independent
and public inquiry. And please look at our website
- www.TomHurndall.co.uk
Help us to make a difference.
Thank you."
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Waving the Palestinian flag

Andrew Murray
Andrew
Murray, Stop the War Coalition, one of
main sponsors of this rally.
"We have
always said that peace and justice are indivisible
and the government should remember that when 2
million people marched in London on February the
15th it was for two slogans - stop the war AND
freedom for Palestine - that is what the British
people want...
The British
people can see more clearly then ever that they
have been lied to by the government. We were lied
to about the weapons of mass destruction, we were
lied to that this war will be backed by the United
Nations and we were lied to that the invasion
will be welcome by the Iraqi people. And the same
people are now lying when they pretend that they
are going to bring justice to the Palestinian
people. You will get no justice from George Bush
and Tony Blair!"
In solidarity with George Galloway::
"I would
like to make it clear today the solidarity of
the stop the war coalition with George Galloway.
He has been persecuted for speaking the opinions
of millions of British people, not just against
the war but in his life long campaign of solidarity
with the Palestinian people. He has been persecuted
for saying that the emperor in Downing street
has no cloths. And it is not George Galloway that
is bringing the Labour party in to disrepute,
it is Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Geoff Hoon and the
other lying imperialists who are betraying the
values of the British labour movement!"
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Ariel Sharon - Ethnic Cleanser

A box of Ariel washing powder modified
to read
"Ariel Sharon - Ethnic Cleanser"
In 1956, this is what Ariel Sharon told General Ouze
Merham in an interview (*):
"I vow that
I'll burn every Palestinian child born in this area.
The Palestinian woman and child are more dangerous
than the man, because the Palestinian child's existence
infers that generations will go on, but the man causes
limited danger.

Mother
with three children
Sharon's handywork that we dont see
on the BBC.
Photo taken after the massacre of Jenin (April 2002)
shows
the burnt body of a Palestinian mother and her three
children
clinging to her legs, their bodies having melted and
fused together.
"I vow that
if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian
I would burn him and I would make him suffer before
killing him. With one hit, I've killed 750 Palestinians
[in Rafah, 1956]. I wanted to encourage my soldiers
by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian woman is
a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her
and nobody tells us what we shall do, but we tell
others what they shall do."
[Source Palestine Monitor]
So what do you think President Bush and Prime Minister
Blair called Sharon? Perhaps the new Hitler? Or perhaps
a butcher, war criminal... No, instead they called
him a "a man of peace". So next time you
hear them use the word "peace", like in
"a road map to peace", we will understand
what they mean - the peace that is derived from genocide.
|
A message from George
Galloway, MP, was read out on his behalf:
"...I
greet the memory of the martyr Faris Oudeh,
the 14 year old boy shot dead by an Israeli
death squad after famously confronting a tank
with his small stones in his small hands. I
send my greetings to the Palestinian prisoners
and to the families of all the martyrs...Long
live Palestine, Free and Dignified, Victory
to the Intifada!..."
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Israel is a racist
state
End the Terror
End the Occupation

Dr Mustafa Barghouti
Dr
Mustafa Barghouti, Chair of Health, Development
and Information Centre, Ramallah. Dr. Barghouti is
world renowned for speaking out against Israel's blockade
and its disastrous impact on health care in the Occupied
Territories.
He highlighted the importance of the demo:
"Tonight
the people of Jabalia and Beth-Lahia who were
attacked by the Israeli tanks, the people of Jenin
camp, the people of Kalkilia and Nabulus will
see these demonstrations on their TV and will
understand that the solidarity movement with the
Palestinian people is alive, continuos and will
continue till our victory."
And he stressed the unity of the Palestinian
people:
"Today
when we are commemorating the memory of
55 years of the Nakba we remember and we
recognise that at this moment their is no
more any difference between the Palestinians
who were forced to become refugees in 1948,
or those we were forced to leave their homes
in 1967 or our Palestinian people that live
now in the West Bank and Gaza strip - we
are all one people deprived of its freedom,
deprived of its independence. We are all
one people imprisoned either in its camps
or in the 300 clusters of prisons that Israel
has established. But we are more than anytime
before we are now the Palestinians, more
determined than anytime before to be free,
to be free not anywhere but in our home
land Palestine!
If the
US wants to see a solution in the middle
east then the road is very short and easy
- all they need to do is pressure Israel
to abide by United Nations resolutions...
He [Sharon] is bringing 12 pages of changes
and comments for a road map that does not
exceed 5 pages..."
And he mentioned the apartheid wall:
"He
[Sharon] used the war on Iraq to create
a new plan - to make the new Berlin wall
that he is building in the occupied territories.
to make it 700 Km length. The borders by
the way between West Bank, Gaza Strip and
East Jerusalem and Israel do not exceed
200 Km. He is building a wall that is 700Km
in length - this is not for security, this
is for annexation and theft of land and
appropriation of the Palestinian territories."
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Art Against The Occupation

Three dogs urinating on a street light
with the caption:
"They Won't Put Out The Light"
The two rottweiler have name tags "Sharon" and
"Bush",
and of course the poodle sniffing behind "Bush"
is called "Blair",
The light - well the artist leaves that for the viewer
to decide
- the light of truth or perhaps humanity?

Blair, Bush and Sharon sowing mail bags
in prison with the caption:
"Everyone Should Have An Occupation"
The
Biggest Criminal Is Afraid Of Prosecution
The United States said on Tuesday it
was cutting off aid to 35 countries, including Colombia
and six nations seeking NATO membership, because they
back the International Criminal Court and have not exempted
Americans from possible prosecution.
The decision to suspend aid is the latest
attack by the Bush administration on the international
court, set up last year to try war crimes and acts of
genocide.
The United States signed the 1998 treaty
creating the court. But the Bush administration is afraid
the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, backed by most
European countries, might hear prosecutions of US military
and civilian leaders.
The United States had hoped that the
threat to withdraw aid would bring a last-minute rush
to sign Article 98 agreements exempting US personnel from
prosecution in the court.
Altogether 44 governments have publicly
acknowledged signing the agreements and at least seven
others have signed secret agreements, US officials say.
[extract from Reuters
article by Jonathan Wright, Jul 1 2003]
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Face in the crowd

Rev. Dr. Michael Prior
Rev.
Dr. Michael Prior, Christian Priest and academic
from St Marys College, University of Surrey.
"The explosive
issue of Israel Palestine is one of the greatest
international crisis as we know, but its also one
that poses very fundamental questions to religious
people and to the churches here. It raises all sorts
of questions about the values of the Biblical narrative
for example, and the values of the different interpretations
of the Bible.
The Holy Land
is a place that has great affection in the minds
of Christians through out the world but of course
primarily in the minds of the Christians of the
Holy Land themselves. They have never been very
appreciative of the Zionist enterprise. In 1948
about 50,000 [Christian] Palestinians were expelled
along with the other three quarters of a million
who were expelled from what became the territory
of the state of Israel and since that time those
remaining Christians in Israel live as unequal citizens
or else in the West Bank and the occupied territories
they live under occupation. And whether one is living
in a wooden cage or a golden cage, a cage is a cage.
Christians outside
also have considerable interests and they fall in
to a number of categories. I want to talk about
the first category that has the ear of George W
Bush. The most vociferous are those so called fundamentalist
evangelical Zionist Christians. All though they
are not very numerous - they are not nearly as numerous
as the mainstream Christians. The are ideologically
very alert and very committed and they are very
influential, not least in the policy making in the
United States. As far as they are concerned what
happened in 1948 and since are part of Gods intentions
that the children of Israel be gathered to Jerusalem
and the surrounding areas. It will in their estimation
speed up the second coming of Christ.
Now rather than
concentrate on the first coming of Christ and on
his exhortations to feed the hungry, heal the lame,
give sight to the blind, cloth the naked, free the
prisoners, and so on, they are waiting rather for
the second coming and meanwhile they support a regime
that specialises in making the poor poorer, and
making those with perfect sight blind, and making
the walking lame!
That Palestine
was already occupied by Arabs who had to be driven
out to fulfil the ethnic cleansing intentions of
political Zionism is no cause for moral concern
for these people. Why? Because of the way they interpret
particular traditions of the Bible. However their
interpretation is not only naive but is fundamentally
immoral because the God of those particular traditions
is the great ethnic cleanser, a militaristic and
xenophobic genocidist who was not sufficiently moral
even to conform to the requirements of the fourth
Geneva convention or the various human rights protocols
which attempt to set limits to human barbarism.
The grotesque views of these people embracing an
essentially ethnic cleansing enterprise at the fulfilment
of Biblical prophecy and clothing political Zionism
in the garment of piety would not warrant serious
attention were it not for the influence that they
have on the foreign and domestic policy of the United
States.

End Ethnic Cleansing!
However neither
has the performance of the main stream churches
been a model of ethical engagement. It is one of
the anomalies of recent church history that while
Christians have supported oppressed peoples virtually
everywhere else there has been relatively little
protest against the historic injustice perpetrated
on the indigenous people of Palestine by political
Zionism - a movement thoroughly at home in the colonialist
spirit of 19th century Europe.
Many Christians
of course are sympathetic to the ideal of a state
for Jews as compensation for the litany of European
persecution of Jews. That is others who have to
pay the price is all the better. Even when faced
with compelling evidence about the damage done to
the Palestinians these people remain somewhat detached.
They really can't bring themselves to face in the
the dark side of political Zionism, and in any case
taking a state for Palestinian rights is not likely
to help ones promotion prospects either in the church
or in the universities.
Now there are
of course many Christians who approach the question
of Palestine from a human rights perspective. They
acknowledge the fundamental injustice done in 1948
and the atrocities associated with the state of
Israel But such people are not in positions of power
within the churches. Amongst the leaders of the
churches by and large appear able to bring themselves
to it to subscribe to what I call the fallacy of
balance.
The conscience
of the Christian church leadership is virtually
paralysed by guilt, mostly about what was done to
Jews in Europe in the past for which they themselves
are hardly responsible. Such is their guilt also
that they leave unchallenged a Zionist reading of
Jewish history and the recent events in Palestine
There is for example no serious critic of political
Zionism as there has been of Apartheid for example.
And to add to the churches neglect the evidence
is now abundant that the damage done to the indigenous
population of Palestine was neither accidental nor
due to the unique pressures of war but was at the
heart of the Zionist enterprise from the beginning.
Yet the churches
reflect little attitude to pursue these issues of
justice and respect for historical truth. For a
start the leadership of the Christian churches should
be prepared to insist that Israel come clean on
its seminal injustice against the Palestinian Arabs
and apologise for it, undo the damage it has perpetrated
in so far as that is possible, honour its obligations
with respect to the Palestinian right of return,
make appropriate compensation for the damage done
and on the basis of confession and restitution move
towards a less exclusivist arrangement. Such exhortations
would flow effortlessly from principles of Christian
morality and would be in conformity with elementary
justice.
What we get instead
from the Christian leadership is the embrace of
whatever proposal the Oslo accords, the Road Map
however jaded and however lacking in principles
of justice the asymmetric parties to the dispute
contrive as though the Christian church were content
to act on the novel moral principle that the rights
of the perpetrators of injustice and its victims
are finely balanced!"
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Photos of Bush & Sharon, caption below reads:
THE REAL AXIS OF EVIL
C'mon UN stand up to this evil axis & enforce
UN 242 & UN 336 against that illegal fascist state Israel
Corrupt and cowardly leaders
UNable & UNwilling
To take on fascist Israel
To free Palestinian People
Other captions in the montage read:
"F*ck the Bush"
"Blair Must Go"

Anita Halpin
Anita
Halpin, National Union of Journalists.
The NUJ is campaigning for Israel to conduct a full
criminal enquiry into the killing in Gaza of film-maker
James Miller, an NUJ member, on May 2.
"I think
we can all agree that the world this century is
a more and more dangerous place for media workers.
We are now targets whether in Iraq, and now throughout
Palestine
James Miller
was a member of the national Union of Journalists,
a member of our London freelance branch. He is
the first British journalist to be killed in the
occupied. He was not shot in the back by a stray
bullet, forensic evidence makes it quiet clear,
and it was a criminal act. Our call therefore
is that there should be a proper criminal investigation,
that is what we demand, and that is what we have
demanded anytime a journalist, who are under Geneva
Conventions civilians, have died.
... seven
Palestinian journalists have been killed. In 18
months nearly 200 Palestinian have been shot at,
stoned, harassed, intimidated, arrested, jailed.
The very profession of journalism is at stake.
Journalists in Palestine do not get any of the
accreditation from the Israeli government, from
the government press office. They are subject
like all civilians to the curfew, their installations
are bombed and raided and that's particularly
important for media freedom in Palestine There
are 45 independent radio or TV stations. Last
year alone 4 of them in Gaza, Ramallah and two
in Bethlehem were practically totally annihilated.
To end in
the worlds of one Palestinian journalist: "We
have no freedom to work, no freedom to live, no
freedom of expression. A need to be able to tell
the truth. Through truth can come peace."
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Waving The Palestinian Flag

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Paul Mackney
Paul
Mackney, General Secretary of NATFHE
(teachers & college lecturers union), one
of unions affiliated to PSC.
"I
proud to be here as a member of the TUC general
council, we are all part of a world wide movement
in solidarity with The people of Palestine,
calling for justice for Palestinians...
As a teaching
union in particular, we deplore The deaths
of 216 Palestinian students and 17 teachers
in The last academic year...
As a higher
education union we are in solidarity with
The staff and students of The 11 West Bank
and Gaza universities, in particular Beir
Zeit University with whom our union is twined.
We hear weekly from Beir Zeit how staff and
students have been harassed by the Israeli
forces, classes are often suspended, the roads
to the university have been frequently blocked,
they've been dug up, telephone lines and water
pipes have been cut, electricity cut off.
Since the invasion the students and the staff
have been searched, beaten, arrested and stranded
without food or money...
Most of
all we are here to condemn the hypocrisy of
the United States. Compare the supposed reasons
for the war on Iraq with its policy towards
Israel. Israel has had 68 UN resolutions against
it, Israel is occupying its neighbours land,
Israel has refused UN inspection teams at
Jenin, Israel has an advanced programme for
weapons of mass destruction. We say to the
Bush government - We know your game and we
are not convinced that you have the interests
of the Palestinians of Middle-East peace at
heart.
Sharon
with the fifth largest army in the world was
after all only copying the methods of Bush
and Blair who showed in Afghanistan and later
in Iraq that powerful nations can get away
with killing civilians, flouting basic humanitarian
principles and destroying civic buildings
in a country ravaged by decades of war. I
predict that one of the first acts of an American
backed government in Baghdad, which will not
be independent, will be the recognition of
the government of Israel. And the second act
of that government will be to authorise the
opening of an oil pipeline from Iraq to Haifa
- that's what its all been about!"
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Faces in the crowd
The boycott of Israeli products
and companies supporting the Zionist entity
is about ordinary people around the world
using their right to choose what they buy
in order to help bring about an end to oppression
in Palestine. Its a peaceful means of putting
international pressure on the racist state
of Israel and follows in the footsteps of
the successful boycott against South African
racist apartheid...
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The remains of a zionist flag
url:
http://www.inminds.com/palestine-rally-1-17may03.html
[Next Part]
Still
to come:
Speeches:
Michel Abdul Massih (QC, Association of the Palestinian
Community), Azzam Tamimi (Muslim Association of Britain),
Ken Cameron (Trade Union Friends Of Palestine), Sadat
(Freedom and Justice for Samar and Jawad Campaign),
Marwan Bishara (American University of Paris), John
Pilger (Award-winning Journalist), Ismail Patel (Friends
of Al-Aqsa), Neturei Karta, Richard Kuper (Jews for
Justice for Palestinians), Nazla Dowson-Zeidan (Youth
Action for Palestine), Tony Benn, Daoud Abdullah (Palestinian
Return Centre), Corin Redgrave (actor), Hassan Al-Sheik
(General Union of Palestinian Students), Betty Hunter
(Palestine Solidarity Campaign).
Special
Features: Apartheid Wall, Goya's Sharon
Devouring Palestine..
And more photos from the rally
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