Scottish Friends of Palestine

Briefing Paper                                                     

May 2022           

Hamas – Resistance as self-defence  Rod Such  EI 04.01/2022

Decolonizing Palestine: Hamas Between the Anticolonial and the Postcolonial by Somdeep Sen offers some insights into these questions. The book apparently irked Israel apologists so much that some recently tried to force the University of Glasgow to vet a scheduled talk by Sen, who is a professor at Roskilde University in Denmark. Sen ultimately pulled out of the book talk. In his book, Sen allows Hamas spokespersons to explain why they rejected the Oslo accords, revealing that the Hamas critique differs little from that offered by secular Palestinian intellectuals like Edward Said. Read more: What about Hamas? | The Electronic Intifada

What makes Amnesty’s report different?   Maureen Clare Murphy EI  03/02/2022

Credit where credit’s due: Amnesty blasts away Israel’s foundational mythology, acknowledging that it was racist from the beginning – a departure from the typical liberal attitude that Israel strayed from its ideals somewhere along the way. Amnesty even points out that “many elements of Israel’s repressive military system in the OPT [West Bank and Gaza] originate in Israel’s 18-year-long military rule over Palestinian citizens of Israel,” beginning in 1948, “and that the dispossession of Palestinians in Israel continues today.”Amnesty also acknowledges that “in 1948, Jewish individuals and institutions owned around 6.5 percent of Mandate Palestine, while Palestinians owned about 90 percent of the privately owned land there,” referring to all of historic Palestine prior to the establishment of the state of Israel.

Read more: What makes Amnesty's apartheid report different? | The Electronic Intifada

Israel’s never-ending trial   Maureen Clare Murphy EI 11/02/2022

Mohammed El Halabi, a charity worker living in Gaza arrested by Israel in 2016, is on a seemingly unending trial, having been detained for more than half a decade and his case going to court around 170 times.This week, Israel’s highest court extended his detention for the 23rd time, despite the European Union calling for his immediate release.

El Halabi’s plight is an example of how Israel uses its legal system to assassinate the reputations of Palestinians and Palestinian groups who work with and receive funding from third states and international organizations.Israel’s manufactured case against El Halabi would anticipate the “terror group” designations it made against several prominent human rights and social services groups based in the West Bank last year.In both cases, the aim appears to be isolating Palestinians, cutting off humanitarian aid and international funding, and consolidating Israeli control. Read more:

Israel's never-ending trial of a humanitarian hero | The Electronic Intifada

Tensions escalate in Sheikh Jarrah   Rina Bassist  al monitor 14/02/2022

Tensions are high in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Police and the Shin Bet arrested two young Palestinians today suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails Saturday night at the home of a Jewish family . . . radical right-wing Knesset member Itamar Ben Gvir arrived to the neighborhood Sunday morning. He declared he was setting up office there, where he will receive Jewish residents with complaints about their personal safety. Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/02/tensions-escalate-jerusalems-sheikh-jarrah-neighborhood#ixzz7Lekce17L

Israeli Spyware Group on shaky footing   Tamara Nassar  EI 15/02/2022The Pegasus spyware is one of the most sophisticated tools known in the surveillance industry. Upon successfully installing it on a target’s phone, those doing the spying can extract a terrifying amount of data, including pictures, recordings, screenshots, passwords, and email and text messages.Hackers can also turn on the camera and record audio remotely, controlling the device at will. Infection can be difficult or impossible to detect for an average user, and has typically required expert analysis. . . . . . Besides needing “to learn exactly what happened,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett all but endorsed the Israeli police’s use of NSO Group technology to spy on Palestinian citizens of Israel. . . . NSO Group has worked hand-in-glove with Israel’s defense ministry since its founding and requires its license for sales. The firm reportedly lends itself to cement Israel’s interests abroad. Read more: NSO Group on shaky footing worldwide | The Electronic Intifada

Haifa - bulldozers repulsed from cemetery Yoav Haifawi Mondoweiss  16/02/2022

Last week, heavy machinery arrived to carry out excavation work in the Muslim cemetery in Haifa, but activists who were called to the area managed to reach an understanding with the workers and the contractor, and prevent the attempt to damage the cemetery. The event spurred a protest, and on Friday a demonstration was held at the venue, despite intimidation from Israeli security services. The story of this recent threat began on Monday, February 7, when the threat to the Muslim cemetery in Balad a-Sheikh in Haifa suddenly became very tangible: some heavy machinery for earthwork arrived at the edge of the cemetery, and their operators began preparations to dig. Read more: Bulldozers repulsed from the Muslim cemetery in Balad a-Sheikh – Mondoweiss

Two teens – including a child -  shot dead       Tamara Nassar  EI  18/02/2022

Last night, Israeli forces shot and killed 16-year-old Palestinian boy Mohammad Akram Ali Taher Abu Salah in the village of Silat al-Harithiya near the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin. Mohammad sustained a gunshot to the eye and succumbed to his injuries around 1 a.m. . . . . An Israeli sniper shot Abu Saleh while he was running away. The child’s cousin was shot in the hand when he attempted to come to his aid. Read more:

Israel kills two teens in West Bank | The Electronic Intifada

13 year old shot dead  Yumna Patel  Mondoweiss  23/02/2022

Israeli forces killed 13-year-old Mohammad Rezq Salah in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) confirmed. 

According to reports, Salah was killed near the Israeli separation wall that separates al-Khader from Route 60, a major highway used by Palestinians and Israeli settlers. Al-Khader is located near a permanent Israeli military checkpoint connecting the West Bank with occupied East Jerusalem. The Israeli army claimed that its soldiers shot Salah while he was allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at cars on the highway. Salah’s family told Middle East Eye that he was 300 meters away from the wall when he was shot, and “did not pose any significant danger to the army or the settlers” at the time. Read more: Israeli forces shoot, kill 13-year old Palestinian boy – Mondoweiss

Struggle against Israeli settler colonialism Narmin Slamah Mondoweiss 21/02/22

These latest escalations in violence towards Palestinians has brought the Naqab front and center in the struggle against settler colonialism. The Naqab, located in the south, is Palestine’s largest district. Since the Nakba and ethnic cleansing in 1948, it’s surviving residents have faced continuous displacement and land theft. In what many activists call slow displacement, the Israeli regime uses various mechanisms to tighten its grip on the lands of the Naqab and to continue what it started in 1948.` One such method is what Sa’wa has been facing — the demolition of homes in the village. Dozens of them are demolished in the Naqab every year, under the pretext of unlicensed construction. As a policy, however, they are used to limit population expansion and to damage the social fabric of communities. 3,000 homes were demolished in 2021 alone. Read more: The Naqab is now front and center in the struggle against Israeli settler colonialism – Mondoweiss

Important ?- the PLO or the State of Palestine?   Daoud Kuttab almonitor  25/02/22    Qadoumi noted it was the PLO that created the Palestinian National Authority, which is considered an arm of the PLO. "So the PLO is the root and all others are branches; a branch can’t replace a root,” he said. . . . . Farneh believes that the idea of making the PLO a part of the State of Palestine is unacceptable. “Half the Palestinians live in exile and the diaspora and the other half on the ground in Palestine. You can’t eliminate an organization that embodies the right of return and Palestinian nationalism just because the PLO is no longer able to pay the bills,” he said. . . . .  “Both the PLO and the Palestinian Authority are failing miserably in carrying the Palestinian national torch. The PA is doing Israel’s dirty work while the PLO around the world has been hit by the same division in Palestine; thus Palestinians living abroad are unable to act as one. . . . . “As Palestinians, we are imagining things. There is no state on the land and there is no PLO. Both are virtual issues and therefore the idea of discussing the relationship between the Palestinian state and the PLO is nothing more than engaging with further delusion.” Read more https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/02/uproar-draft-decree-places-plo-organ-palestinian-state#ixzz7M7NygctI

Israel kills 3 Palestinian young men in one day  Yumna Patel  Mondoweiss 01/03/22   Israel killed three Palestinians on Tuesday in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed by Israel since the start of this year to 15. Read more: Israel kills 3 Palestinian young men in one day – Mondoweiss

Palestine taboo for a UK art gallery  Kit Klarenberg EI  03/03/2022 A statement from Forensic Architecture was pinned to a wall beside the exhibition. It saluted the Palestinian liberation struggle and argued it was “inseparable from other global struggles against racism, white supremacy, anti-Semitism and settler-colonial violence.”

In response, UKLFI fired off a threatening screed to Manchester University’s administration, arguing the institution breached its public sector equality duties by not considering the “impact of the inflammatory language and representations” in the exhibition. Whitworth duly removed the statement from the exhibition, prompting Forensic Architecture to close it outright in protest and Palestinian solidarity activists to stage demonstrations outside the gallery. Read more: Why should Palestine be taboo for a UK art gallery? | The Electronic Intifada

Gaza’s largest library reopens doors Taghreed Ali  almonitor 06/03/2022

Samir Mansour, 54, owner of the bookstore, recalls the early hours of the bombing of his shop. “I was surprised to watch media reports about the bombing of the Kahil building in the center of Gaza City where the bookstore is located, in addition to other educational and training centers serving thousands of academics, intellectuals, and school and university students,” he told Al-Monitor. . . . . “To date, I still do not know the reason behind the Israeli army’s bombing of my store, as I am not affiliated with any political faction in Gaza. I believe the main motive was to restrict the Palestinian cultural scene and destroy cultural institutions in Gaza,” he added.

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/03/gazas-largest-library-shakes-dust-war-reopens-doors#ixzz7QwNlCnkz

Israel kills three Palestinian youths Tamara Nassar  EI  08/03.2022

Israeli forces killed two Palestinian teens the previous day.

The Israeli army was raiding Abu Dis, a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem, that afternoon when it claimed that two people threw Molotov cocktails at a military post. Soldiers fired at 15-year-old Yamen Nafez Mahmoud Khanafseh, killing him. A second person fled the area. “Israeli forces prevented Palestinian paramedics from treating Yamen, firing tear gas canisters at the ambulance as it approached the scene,” according to a field investigation by Defense for Children International-Palestine. Read more: Israel kills three Palestinian youths in Jerusalem | The Electronic Intifada

The Zionist left provides the 'laundry' for Israeli apartheid 

Philip Weiss  Mondoweiss  08/03/2022    "They are the founding fathers for the settlement project. Who started it? Netanyahu, Begin, Sharon? No no no no no! Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin-- Nobel Peace Prize winners, peacemakers-- they are responsible. They also enable us Israelis to feel so good about ourselves. Because they were always the laundry of any crime. We have this prestigious, world-famous Supreme Court, this castle of liberalism and freedom, part of the Zionist left, and this Supreme Court enabled any crime of war, from the settlements to the tortures, everything went through the Supreme Court and everything was washed there, and it was accepted. If the Supreme Court says there are no torturing or the settlements are legal-- so who are we to say or to think different?" Read more:  The Zionist left provides the ‘laundry’ for Israeli apartheid — Gideon Levy – Mondoweiss

Racist premier travels to Russia to check out whether Putin is stable  Jonathan Ofir  Mondoweiss  09/03/2022

Israel is now walking a tightrope above very unpredictable waters of public opinion in the west. The overwhelming wave of opposition to Russian aggression is justifying boycott, divestment and sanctions as well as resistance as responses to the Russian military occupation, measures for which Palestinians have vainly sought western approval. And meanwhile, Israel is playing footsie with Russia so as to maintain its freedom to conduct missile attacks in Syria against Iranian targets. Read more: An expansionist, aggressive, racist premier travels to Russia to check out whether Putin is stable – Mondoweiss

Israel doubles down on apartheid  Maureen Clare Murphy EI 11/03/2022

Israel is doubling down on its apartheid rule over Palestinians while it and its international accomplices attempt to fend off the label. This week, Israel reinstated a ban on Palestinian family unification as part of its demographic engineering efforts to ensure a Jewish majority in the territory of historic Palestine. Adalah, a group that advocates for the rights of Palestinians in Israel, said that the legislation is “one of the most racist and discriminatory laws in the world, and must immediately be repealed.”

The “Citizenship and Entry into Israel” order prohibits Israel’s interior minister from granting residency or citizenship to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza who marry citizens of Israel. Read more: Israel doubles down on apartheid | The Electronic Intifada

FIFA’s hypocrisy in Palestine and the Ukraine  Ramzy Baroud Mondoweiss 10/03/2022 What took the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa decades to achieve was carried out against Russia in a matter of hours and days-- including FIFA adopting measures to punish Russian teams and athletes. Palestinians are baffled, since they have been informed by FIFA, time and again, that “sports and politics don’t mix”. Not only are Israeli athletes welcomed in all international sports events, the mere attempt by individual athletes to register a moral stance in support of Palestinians, by refusing to compete against Israelis, can be very costly. Read more: FIFA’s hypocrisy in Palestine and the Ukraine – Mondoweiss

UN Special Rapporteur says Israel is committing 'pitiless' apartheid in new report  Yumna Patel  Mondoweiss  24/03/2022

“The political system of entrenched rule in the occupied Palestinian territory which endows one racial-national-ethnic group with substantial rights, benefits and privileges while intentionally subjecting another group to live behind walls, checkpoints and under a permanent military rule…..satisfies the prevailing evidentiary standard for the existence of apartheid,” the report said. Read more: UN Special Rapporteur says Israel is committing ‘pitiless’ apartheid in new report – Mondoweiss

Social media giants repress Palestinian content  Omar Zahzah  EI  29/03/2022 

On 8 March, Instagram – owned by Facebook’s Meta Platforms – deleted the main account of the organization Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a New York City-based Palestinian community organization.  The social media account was removed over a post that highlighted revolutionary Palestinian women in commemoration of International Women’s Day. WOL explained that their account was suspended “after years of online censorship and shadow banning.” Read more: Social media giants repress Palestinian content | The Electronic Intifada

Harvard Law School ‘apartheid’ report  Steve France Mondoweiss 05/04/2022

Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) lately issued a report that finds Israel’s treatment of Palestinians on the West Bank amounts to the crime of apartheid. The study, “Apartheid in the Occupied West Bank: A Legal Analysis of Israel’s Actions” came out on February 28 in the wake of five longer, wider-ranging, apartheid reports published since 2020 Read more: Harvard Law School ‘apartheid’ report leaves Israel’s defenders speechless – Mondoweiss

No rights for Gaza’s workers in Israel Amjad Ayman Yaghi EI 07/04/2022

Abdelwahab was able to obtain a permit to work in Israel, but he was not officially designated a “worker.”Instead, he received a “financial needs” permit, which strips the worker of access to benefits like workers’ compensation, health insurance and other labor rights afforded to workers in Israel.“I am waiting to recover from my injury to return to work,” he said. “The more I stay at home, the more things get worse for me. I have children, three of them are school students, and I have major expenses.”Though Abdelwahab considers matters like health and life insurance important, he said that conditions in Gaza are so dire that any job, even one without benefits, is “like a dream.” Read more: No rights for Gaza's workers in Israel | The Electronic Intifada

Two women, child among 6 Palestinians killed Tamara Nassar  EI 11/04/2022A Palestinian child and two women are among six Palestinians killed in attacks by Israeli forces since Friday.Soldiers shot 16-year-old Muhammad Hussein Muhammad Qassim in the abdomen during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Sunday evening.

“Doctors found multiple bullet fragments in Muhammad’s pelvis and buttocks,” Defense for Children International–Palestine stated on Monday. Muhammad was pronounced dead shortly after 7 am this morning. He is the sixth Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces this year. Read more: Two women, child among 6 Palestinians killed | The Electronic Intifada

17-year-old killed by an exploding bullet  DCI 15/04/2022

“This week, Israeli forces have shot and killed three Palestinian boys in the occupied West Bank,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Systemic impunity has fostered an environment where Palestinian children are targeted by Israeli forces who know no bounds and shoot-to-kill in situations not justified by international law.”  Read more: 17-year-old Palestinian boy succumbs to injuries after Israeli shooting | Defense for Children Palestine (dci-palestine.org)

Worshippers beaten to make way for settlers  Yumna Patel Mondoweiss 17/04/22

Footage showed Israeli forces beating a father in front of his son, and manhandling worshipers as they were praying in a bid to force them out of the compound. . .  also showed people screaming and banging on the caged windows of the prayer hall, after Israeli forces had allegedly locked them inside. . . in order to facilitate groups of Jewish settlers who came to the compound for the Passover holidays. Read more: Israel storms Al-Aqsa, beats Palestinian worshipers to make way for Jewish settlers – Mondoweiss

The Bakr  boys and Israel’s impunity  Jonathan Ofir  Mondoweiss  26/04/2022

The massacre of the four Bakr boys (aged 10-11) who were playing soccer on the beach in Gaza in 2014 is one of the most notorious single events within the 51-day Israeli onslaught on the besieged Gaza enclave. . . . Two days ago, another bomb landed upon their memory: the bomb of impunity, delivered by the Israeli Supreme Court. . . . The court accepted wholly the logic of the Attorney General (AG), who accepted wholly the logic of the Military Advocate General (MAG), that this was just a “tragic” mistake, but not one that demanded further accountability. Read more: The Bakr boys and Israel’s iron dome of impunity – Mondoweiss

UN experts press for action over “terror” designations  Maureen Clare Murphy 28/04/2022  A dozen UN human rights experts are calling on governments to resume and increase funding to prominent Palestinian organizations designated by Israel as “terrorist groups” in October. The experts, who include Michael Lynk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, say that “the information presented by Israel” fails to substantiate its accusations against the groups.The targeted organizations – Addameer, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International-Palestine, Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees – include human rights groups engaged with the International Criminal Court’s Palestine investigation into war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Read more: UN experts press for action over "terror" designations | The Electronic Intifada

Israeli court approves mass forced transfer of Palestinians  Marie Clare Murphy EI  05/05/2022  Israel’s high court approved the forced expulsion of more than 1,000 Palestinians from eight villages in the Masafer Yatta area of the southern West Bank overnight Wednesday.If Israel carries through with the forcible transfer, it will be one of the single largest expulsions of Palestinians since it occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967.

            It will also be a war crime, despite the creative legal analysis put forth by the Israeli judges who signed off on the decision and who may be liable for prosecution by the International Criminal Court. Read more: Israeli court approves mass forced transfer of Palestinians | The Electronic Intifada

“Settling” the remainder of Jerusalem  ARAB 48 Mondoweiss 09/05/2022

The Israeli plan to register East Jerusalem lands, which was formally made into a government decision under the title “Decision 3790 Narrowing Socioeconomic Gaps and Promoting Economic Development in East Jerusalem” threatens the remainder of land in Jerusalem, as Israel plans to register all occupied East Jerusalem land through a committee supervised by the Ministry of Justice. The committee’s work is scheduled to end by the end of 2025. . . . . . , the registration of lands could be, effectively and irreversibly, used to advance Israeli settlement, which would lead to the confiscation of vast land from East Jerusalem, which then would be officially registered as State land. Read more: How Israel aims to ‘settle’ the remainder of Jerusalem – Mondoweiss

Hell of Israeli detention  R Khella & M R Mhawesh EI  11/05/2022

Numan, 50, has now been imprisoned at Israel’s Nafha prison for nine years. He has 11 years remaining on his sentence. The prison, located 40 miles south of Beersheba in the desert, is “considered one of the most harsh and severe of the occupation prisons,” according to Addameer. It is a facility designed to “subject [the prisoners] to gradual death and to isolate them. Read more:  Families, prisoners recount hell of Israeli detention | The Electronic Intifada

Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral attacked  Mondoweiss editors Mondoweiss 13/05/2022

Israeli police forces in occupied East Jerusalem attacked the funeral of Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, on Friday afternoon, beating funeral goers and firing sound grenades into the procession. 

The attack on the procession began as mourners began to move Abu Akleh’s casket from the  St Louis French Hospital in Sheikh Jarrah, to the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Virgin where the funeral and prayer service will be held. Read more: LIVE: Israeli police attack Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral in Jerusalem – Mondoweiss

‘Shot dead in targeted attack’ by Israel, CNN investigation concludes  Philip Weiss Mondoweiss 24/05/22 The CNN investigation reviewed a 16-minute video shot by Salim Awad, a 27-year-old Jenin camp resident.

His video captures the moment that shots were fired at the four journalists — Abu Akleh, Hanaysha, another Palestinian journalist, Mujahid al-Saadi, and Al Jazeera producer Ali al-Samoudi, who was injured in the gunfire — as they walked toward the Israeli vehicles. In the footage, Abu Akleh can be seen turning away from the barrage. The footage shows a direct line of sight towards the Israeli convoy. Read more: Shireen Abu Akleh was ‘shot dead in targeted attack’ by Israel, CNN investigation concludes – Mondoweiss

Imprisoned human rights lawyer submits case to the ICC  Yumna Patel  Mondoweiss  19/05/22  In a new submission to the International Criminal Court, jailed Palestinian human rights lawyer Salah Hammouri called on the court to bring urgency to its investigation of war crimes committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory. In his submission, Hammouri, who was re-imprisoned by Israel in March, details years of harassment and abuse by the Israeli government for his human rights work. Read more:  Jailed Palestinian human rights lawyer submits case to the ICC – Mondoweiss

Israel uses 16 year old girl for human shield  Tamara Nassar EI  21/05/2022

“Bullets were being fired at the military vehicle from all directions,” Ahed told DCIP.

“I was trembling and crying and shouting to the soldiers to remove me because the bullets were passing over my head,” Ahed added. “But one of them ordered me in Arabic through a small window in the military vehicle, ‘stay where you are and don’t move. You’re a terrorist. Stand in your place until you say goodbye to your brother.’” Read more: Jenin fiercely resists Israel's constant attacks | The Electronic Intifada

EU punishes Palestinian cancer patients to please Israel  Ali Abunimah  EI  27/05/2022  The European Union is making Palestinian cancer patients suffer as part of a campaign to appease the Israel lobby in Brussels. It is doing so by withholding some $230 million in funding that was already committed to support Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation. The payment has been delayed since last year “as the European Union continues to condition the release of the money on specific changes to Palestinian school textbooks,” the Norwegian Refugee Council stated on Tuesday.  Read more:  EU punishes Palestinian cancer patients to please Israel | The Electronic Intifada 

Hundreds injured as Palestinians demonstrate against ‘flag march’  Yumna Patel Mondoweiss  29/05/2022  Israel’s flag march, an annual display of right-wing Israeli nationalism and anti-Palestinian racism, took place on Sunday afternoon, stoking tensions in Jerusalem and across the occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli media reported that Sunday’s flag march was the largest in years, with an estimated 70,000 Israelis participating in the parade. Read more   Hundreds injured as Palestinians demonstrate against ‘flag march’ – Mondoweiss

UK Comment

£1 million pursuing “anti-Semitism” leakers  Asa Winstanley EI   11/02/2022

Despite the extraordinary lengths Labour went to suppress the leaked report, a Labour lawyer concedes in the secret document that there was “an overriding public interest” in publishing at least some of it. More than $1.3 million was allocated to specialist lawyers, consultants and forensic investigators, the secret document says. They issued legal threats to publishers of the leaked report and confiscated Labour staffers’ laptops for investigation. The lawyers even wrote to Google, asking the company to delist websites that had “linked to” the leaked report. The Silicon Valley monolith declined to comply.  Read more: Labour blew $1.3 million pursuing "anti-Semitism" leakers | The Electronic Intifada

Gaza pays the price   Maureen Clare Murphy  EI  22/02/2022

A new statistical report on Israel’s most recent assault on Gaza shows the unbearable price paid by Palestinians for the maintenance of a Jewish state in Palestine. . . . .

Al Mezan observes: “The aim has been to create and maintain an Israeli Jewish superiority, consolidating effective control and dominance, with the aim of gradually eradicating the indigenous Palestinian people.”

One missile, one bullet and one destroyed future at a time.

Read more: Gaza pays the price for Jewish state in Palestine | The Electronic Intifada

Forced out after complaints from pro-Israel legal group Michael Arria Mondoweiss  24/02/2022

Whitworth Art Gallery director Alistair Hudson has been asked to step down from his position after being targeted by a pro-Israel legal group, The Guardian reports. The campaign to remove him was sparked by a 2021 art exhibition that contained a statement expressing solidarity with Palestinians. The gallery is run by the University of Manchester. Art Forum reports that Hudson was “ousted.” . . . .  The gallery removed the statement in response to a series of complaints from a Zionist legal organization called UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI), which claimed the note was “incendiary.”. . . . The gallery eventually allowed the statement to stay in the exhibition Read more: Whitworth gallery director forced in response to Palestine statement controversy – Mondoweiss

Smeared by pro-Israel group   Kit Klarenberg  EI 18/03/2022

On 15 March, rapper and campaigner, Lowkey gave a talk via Zoom arranged by the Palestine Solidarity Society at Cambridge University. The talk – titled “The Israel Lobby’s War Against You” – was supposed to take place on campus a week earlier. The night before it was scheduled, however, Lowkey was contacted by the organizers, who informed him the event had been postponed. The postponement followed pressure exerted by the Cambridge University Jewish Society. Read more: Lowkey smeared by pro-Israel group in elite UK college | The Electronic Intifada

Israel lobby demands Lowkey be deleted by Spotify Asa Winstanley EI  24/03/22

“The presence of Lowkey’s music is particularly offensive,” anti-Palestinian newspaper The Jewish News reported in an interview with lobbyist Luke Akehurst this week. Akehurst is the director of a group called We Believe in Israel. The paper reported Wednesday that Akehurst’s group “Will be campaigning for Spotify to remove ‘dozens of instances of problematic material,’ including Lowkey’s [2010 track] Long Live Palestine – Part 2.”  Read more: Israel lobby demands Lowkey be deleted by Spotify | The Electronic Intifada

How Glasgow university smeared its own journal as anti-Semitic

David Miller EI  22/03/22

Instead of sending the complaints to the author of the paper for further peer review, the university asked a staff member “close to the [subject] area” to give an informal view.

University documents released under freedom of information rules show it was agreed that the paper – which discussed the Israel lobby in Britain – should also be sent for external review, but this seems not to have been done.

But even this was only agreed after the university had already decided on its response – to endorse the baseless smears of the complainants.The university is still refusing to reveal who complained about the paper. But extremist anti-Palestinian blogger David Collier has been public about his involvement.The original article by Jane Jackman – published by eSharp, a University of Glasgow journal, in 2017 – examined the propaganda activities of the Israel lobby in the UK. Read more: How Glasgow university smeared its own journal as anti-Semitic | The Electronic Intifada

Starmer denies Israel is an apartheid state  Nureddin Sabir R I & A  10/04/2022

“The heart of Labour’s difficulties with Jews lies in its feelings towards Israel. In February, Amnesty International branded the country an “apartheid state”… Many Labour members, especially on the left, enthusiastically embraced this label.“Did Sir Keir agree with them?

            ’No. I’ve been very clear about that,’ he says, without missing a beat. ’That is not the Labour Party position.’ He presented his stance at the Labour Friends of Israel lunch before Chanukah, he adds, which was strongly and unapologetically pro-Israel.” Read more: UK Labour leader Starmer denies Israel is an apartheid state. Tell him he’s wrong: Do not vote Labour in 5 May 2022 local elections – Redress Information & Analysis (redressonline.com)

UJS admits to faked petition signatures Asa Winstanley  EI  14/04/2022

In an open letter it launched on Tuesday, the Israel lobbyists implied that the NUS’ incoming president Shaima Dallali should be removed and demanded the student union adopt a bogus, pro-Israel definition of anti-Semitism. But on Wednesday, several Jewish writers and activists whose names initially appeared on the petition publicly distanced themselves, saying they had never signed it in the first place. “Someone has added my name to this letter which I categorically do not want to sign,” writer Em Hilton posted on Twitter. Read more: Union of Jewish Students admits to faked petition signatures | The Electronic Intifada

BBC actor and Labour anti-Semitism smear Asa Winstanley EI  27/04/2022

British actor, Tracy-Ann Oberman,  has admitted to falsely accusing a left-wing academic and activist who supports Palestinian rights of anti-Semitism. . . . She admitted that her attack on the academic was “a mistake” and “hurtful” and accepted that “Dr. Proudfoot has at no time had a Jew blocklist.” Read more:  BBC actor eats "humble pie" over Labour anti-Semitism smear | The Electronic Intifada

Union of Jewish Students: the voice of Israel? David Miller EI 06/05/2022

The Union of Jewish Students in Britain claims to represent “all” Jewish students but a close reading of its constitution reveals it is unable to do so. . . . All of these details about the UJS strongly suggests it is formally a Zionist organization which is not open to Jewish students who are non-Zionist or anti-Zionist. . . . According to the UJS constitution only Jewish students “whose aims are in accordance with the objects of the union” are eligible to join the UJS.  Read more: Union of Jewish Students: the voice of Israel? | The Electronic Intifada

Hugh Humphries  

Secretary                                   

Scottish Friends of Palestine     0141 637 8046                    info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org