Few women were present at the beginning although in early evening more arrived to listen to the Al-Ashqeen Palestinian Music Band. We heard them early rehearsing as they set up their instruments. A film, The Price of Kings: Yasser Arafat was also shown and there was an exhibition of Palestinian embroidery and pictures.

What did I make of the day as an outsider? I enjoyed it. I was happy to share a gathering of Palestinians. It was sad, tragic even. For what did it accomplish? Very little unless for the Palestinians it re-affirmed that whether he or in the occupied territories or Gaza, they remain sumud and will not give ground to the struggle for peace with justice for Palestinians and Israelis.

Sajid Hashmi and Mohammed Mukhaimer who accompanied Angela introduced themselves. Sajid is CEO of Voluntary Action Stoke-on-Trent, and Mohammed is a senior psychotherapist with Rethink. He is a Palestinian and he was unable to return to Gaza following a period of study in Leicester because Israel closed the border. He stayed with Angela when he started work in Stoke and until his family were able to join him.

Introducing the BDS campaign Angela described how last February she joined an international group of volunteers on an olive tree planting programme on the West Bank of Palestine. She stayed with a Palestinian Christian family and helped to plant trees for four Palestinian Muslim farmers.

The first field was chosen because the Separation Wall is planned to extend right across it cutting the farmer off from half his land.

The second farmer’s land was threatened by an illegal by-pass road and he needed to demonstrate that it was being cultivated.

The third planting took place in a village that was wiped out during the Nakba, or Catastrophe, when hundreds of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes and villages after the partition of Palestine in 1948. The rebuilt village is now threatened by the Wall which will split Abu Nidal’s farm in two. His house will be on the Jerusalem side of the Wall and as he does not have a Jerusalem ID he and his family will become illegal residents.

The fourth farmer’s land was in danger of confiscation as plans depict it as an ‘integral part of Israel’ and meanwhile an Israeli by-pass road is slowly isolating it.

Palestinians are prohibited from using most of these roads which connect the illegal Israeli settlements to one to another. These will soon form a ring around East Jerusalem and cut Palestinians off from the Old City while fragmenting what is left of the West Bank into small disconnected enclaves.

It is estimated that some 500,000 Israelis live illegally in 149 settlements. Israel gives itself the right to confiscate
Palestinian land for military use, for security reasons, for watch towers, observation posts, electric offences and, of course, checkpoints and the Separation Wall.

Angela and the volunteers planted 1,600 trees. Every time the group arrived at a field, members of the Israeli Defence Force arrived minutes later to abuse the farmer whilst alleging that planting trees was not permitted. This was demonstrably nonsense and one occasion the soldiers pulled up the newly planted trees before stomping off.

Angela commented that she had immensely enjoyed her stay in the West Bank but on her return she remained very disturbed and distressed by what she had witnessed.” It is one thing to read about a military occupation and another to experience it, albeit at second hand. It is truly dreadful.”

On her return Angela launched a North Staffordshire Olive Tree Campaign. It costs £12.50 to sponsor an olive tree and a couple of weeks ago she was able to despatch £900 representing 70 sponsors. The Islamic Centre has also contributed just over £1000 to support Palestinian farmers. It is hoped that plaques by a field listing donors will deter Israelis from destroying trees and demonstrate support for farmers loosing their land.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign is of special relevance to trade unions.

Despite the illegality of the settlements which the UK government and the European Union have repeatedly condemned, goods produced or sourced from settlements, including fruit and vegetables, processed food, wine and household goods are sold throughout Europe. This trade bolsters settlement economies and contributes to their permanence and undermines efforts to achieve peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.

Many supermarkets follow UK government guidelines about not buying produce from settlements but smaller retailers and shops are not likely to have sophisticated tracking systems designed to distinguish illegal settlement produce from genuine West Bank products. Moreover, settlement produce can be mixed with West Bank produce to make identification of origin more difficult.

The boycott is a non-violent action designed to support efforts to build peace in the region. It is not directed at Israeli products.

A campaign against companies involved in infrastructure projects in Israeli settlements is gathering momentum.
Veolia, a water and waste management company, is a prime target and it has two depots in Stoke, one in Whittle Road and the other Alder Flat Drive. The company has lost contracts worth £10 billion since 2005 as a result of its complicity in work which supports the illegal settlements.

The TUC, Unison and Unite and many other unions support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign and Angela would like to see Stoke unions beginning a discussion about the BDS campaign with Stoke City Council.

Websites

The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign for information about the BDS campaign, Veolia and how to boycott settlement goods.

Google Bin Veolia and find a number of relevant sites. Ahava is another targeted company and a trawl through the internet offers masses of information on boycott actions against this and other companies. Sajid spoke of an effective Rochdale campaign at Ramadan to highlight Medjoul dates grown by illegal settlements in the Jordan Valley. It is hoped that a similar campaign will take place in Stoke this year.

www.zaytoun.org identifies stockists selling Palestinian fair trade Medjoul dates. www.quaker.org.uk is a useful site and there are host of others like ‘Not in Our Name.’

Under the heading Sumud Palestine Angela, Mohammed, Sajid and several others are establishing a charity to promote support for Palestinian farmers and to send experienced and skilled psychotherapists to the West Bank to run training workshops for staff working with traumatised children and families. Without experienced and effective supervision and support staff are vulnerable to compassion fatigue and burnout.

Angela pledged to tell members of the Trades Council when Sumud Palestine’s website is launched. Sumud means ‘steadfast,’ a word with much resonance in Palestine.

Veolia
• Dumps Israeli waste on Palestinian land
• Is building and helping un a tramway which links Jerusalem to the illegal settlements
• Treats waste water from illegal settlements
• Discriminates against Palestinians applying for jobs

Sarah and her kidney donor, Sue, were one of three couples talking about how they had been friends through thick and thin.

Reviewing ‘A week in radio,’ for the Guardian, Elisabeth Mahoney wrote: The week’s funniest, warmest and bleakest moments were people talking about relationships. Friends through Thick and Thin in which three pairs of female friends reminisced, was beautifully produced and instantly recognisable portrait of these key relationships…… between snippets of Judy Garland singing “Friendships”, the women’s anecdotes conveyed the trajectory of a lifelong affection”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b0151xsf

The meeting took place in Conway Hall in London, the same venue which launched the Anti-Apartheid Campaign in 1958. The first person I met was Penny Newell, a fellow olive tree planter and someone whom I had admired for her ‘get up and go’ approach. She is returning to plant more olive trees in a couple of weeks.

I attended the meeting to listen and learn and it fulfilled this objective. Besides being able to collect helpful information sheets about various aspects of the campaign, I was especially pleased to collect a new map showing the steady shrinking of Palestine since 1948. Today it is no more than a number of green dots being strangled by a growing number of settlements and roads which Palestinian cannot use. Soon Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by settlements and will become largely inaccessible to Palestinians.

Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian representative of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign spoke of having reached a ‘South Africa’ moment. Palestinians are calling upon international organisations and people of conscience to:

“Impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era,” until Israel complies with international law.

This means not purchasing settlement produce falsely labelled as Israeli and targeting companies like Veolia, a French company which supports illegal settlements and profits from waste management and other contracts with UK local authorities.

Stoke City Council has contracts with Veolia which has depots in Newstead Industrial Trading Estate and another in Whittle Road in Longton.

This will require further action!