PSC Update 30 April 09
PSC Weekly Update Thursday 30 April
Actions
- Stop Veolia running the London Cycle Hire scheme!
- Book your place now on coaches to 16 May demonstration Gaza
- 100 run for Gaza!
News
- Gaza depends on tunnels for food, fuel, medicines
- Watch Seven Jewish Children online
- Israel’s secret plan for West Bank expansion
- Israel continues using Palestinians as human shields
- Israel’s imprisons more Palestinian children
- Visiting Daddy in Prison: A Palestinian Ordeal Israel harasses peace activists
Actions
1. Exclude Veolia from the London Cycle Hire Scheme! Transport for London (TfL) is in the process of selecting a contractor to build and operate a public cycle hire scheme similar to the one in Paris. The contractor is anticipated to be selected by June this year and the scheme will start operating in May 2010. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, is Chair of Transport For London.
The French multinational Veolia recently set up a subsidiary called Veloway to run cycle hire schemes and is highly likely to have bid for such a lucrative and prestigious contract.
Whether you live in London or not, please write or email a letter to the Mayor (mayor@london.gov.uk) asking for Veolia and all its subsidiaries, including Veloway, to be excluded from this contract on the grounds of grave misconduct, namely aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes.
Veolia is involved in building and operating a tramway linking Israel with its illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, binding these settlements more firmly to Israel, and so helping to perpetuate war crimes.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/roadusers/cycling/cycle-hire-scheme/ gives a description of the cycle hire scheme.
A suggested letter is on our website: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/index7b-2.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=3&l2_id=51&content_ID=607
London is the capital and we all have an interest in its transport system. This will be a high profile scheme and a great opportunity to put more pressure on Veolia to pull out of the Jerusalem project and show Israel that it can no longer break international law with impunity.
If you live in London, please also write to your Assembly Member, asking them to oppose this and raise their opposition with Boris Johnson. For details of your Assembly Member: http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/lams_facts_cont.jsp
2. Book your place now on coaches to 16 May demonstration Details of coaches are now coming into the PSC office and are available on our website.
More details are being added daily and if there isn’t a coach leaving near you, why not talk to other local supporters, friends and family and organise one yourselves!
The demonstration will be assembling at 12 noon in Malet Street, London WC1 and marching to Trafalgar Square for a rally.
Make sure you are there! On the anniversary of the Nakba, we must send a clear and strong message to the British government, and a message of solidarity to Palestinians: Remember Gaza End the siege now!
Free Palestine End Israeli occupation! End the arms trade! With only two weeks to go, please make sure that everyone you know is coming along for more leaflets, stickers and posters, just contact us on 020 7700 6192 or info@palestinecampaign.org
3. Gaza 100 run for Gaza! Most People Running 100 Metres in a 12 hour Relay Guinness Book of Records Official Title Saturday 23 May and Sunday 24 May 2009 from 12 noon to 12 noon, Mile End Stadium, London. IF, supported by Palestine Solidarity Campaign and many other organisations, is calling for participants to take part in one of two spectacular record breaking attempts on May 23rd 2009 running 100 metre relays.
The aim is to raise as much money as possible for the children of Gaza. All monies generated from this World Record Run will be given as humanitarian aid to Save the Children’s Gaza Appeal.
Celebrities that have already agreed to participate in the run, include Tre Azam, and Ghazal Asif from BBC1’s hit show, the Apprentice, comedian Jeff Mirza, boxer Anthony Small and Baroness Pola Uddin.
For more details and to sign up: http://www.ifcharity.com/gaza100.html
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News
4. Gaza depends on tunnels for food, fuel, medicines:
The tunnels that provide Gaza with food, fuel, medicine and other consumer goods may have become even more crucial as an economic lifeline, the World Food Programme (WFP) says. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46629
5. Watch Seven Jewish Children online Watch Jennie Stoller perform Caryl Churchill’s play, Seven Jewish Children, which was written in response to the situation in Gaza in January this year, thanks to the Guardian who have put it online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/video/2009/apr/25/seven-jewish-children-caryl-churchill
6. Israel continues using Palestinians as human shields The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has released an important update to its July 2008 report on the IOF practise of hiding behind Palestinian human shields.
The use of civilian human shields is customary Israeli practice in gross violation of international law, in which the practice is a war crime and crime against humanity, as well as a violation of Israel’s own High Court ruling of 2005, which itself came after a three-year legal battle. The pretence extends then to the illusion of Israeli rule of its own law.
The Al Mezan report also takes the international community to task for its “continued failure … to fulfil its obligations and its silence on Israeli violations [which] encourages Israel to proceed with its crimes.”
http://pulsemedia.org/2009/04/28/hiding-behind-civilians/
7. Israel’s secret plan for West Bank expansion Israel has taken a step towards expanding the largest settlement in the West Bank, a move Palestinians warn will leave their future state unviable and further isolate its future capital, East Jerusalem’. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israels-secret-plan-for-west-bank-expansion-1674759.html
8. Israel’s imprisons more Palestinian children The Global Movement for the Defence of Children’s Palestine Branch reports that Israeli imprisonment of Palestinian children is up.
Over the past two months Israeli forces have increased campaigns against children. At the end of February 2009 the number of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons was up to 423.
This is the highest number since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2000. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5148
9. Visiting Daddy in Prison: A Palestinian Ordeal Spending time with her dad requires that six-year-old Jinan undertake a bizarre and arduous odyssey.
Usually, she travels alone, but last Monday, the Palestinian girl with the rosebud smile and bouncing energy was accompanied by her younger sisters, Dania, 4, and Noor, 2, on the journey to the Israeli prison that holds her father. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1893620,00.html
10. Israel harasses peace activists On April 26, 2009, a number of Israeli peace activists had their computers confiscated, were called for interrogations, and were only released upon signing agreements not to contact their political friends for 30 days. We are asking you to contact the Israeli Attorney General to demand an immediate stop to this harassment. http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27127
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The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) aims to raise public awareness about the occupation of Palestine and the struggle of the Palestinian people.
PSC seek to bring pressure on both the British and Israeli government to bring their policies in line with international law. PSC is an independent, non-governmental and non-party political organisation with members from communities across the UK.
Join PSC today!
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Box BM PSA
London WC1N 3XX
Tel: 020 7700 6192
Fax: 020 7609 7779
Email: info@palestinecampaign.org