(THIS ARTICLE WILL BE EXPANDED DAILY UNTIL SATURDAY)
Palestinian Kholoud Ajjarmi from Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem (twinned officially with Glasgow), will speak on her family story, their
violent dispossession and expulsion by Zionist Jewish militias in 1948, and their ongoing struggle against the racist Jewish National Fund UK,, who boast of gifting her land and all the land of Ajjur Village to the 'people of Israel' to become the British Park.
Kholoud and her family have had their land stolen by the Israeli State and passed on to the JNF which currently controls her family's land exclusively for the benefit of Israeli Jewish citizens.
Travelling on UK passports, a Scottish PSC delegation was able to enjoy the beauty of the British Park but Kholoud, her family, all the villagers of Ajjur, most of the Palestinian people can not.
Edinburgh Sunday 7 April 2pm Grassmarket Centre, Candlemaker Row
http://bit.do/StopJNFEdinburgh
Glasgow Monday 8 April 7pm Renfield Centre, 260 Bath Street G2 2JG
http://bit.do/StopJNFGlasgow
Two Hon. Patrons of the JNF UK are Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. That is enough to raise suspicions about the JNF UK in any decent person's mind. In fact the racist JNF is a fundamental pillar of the Israeli apartheid system and a phoney charity in Scotland, the rest of the UK and 50 other countries. Help Kholoud to fight for justice through Scottish courts.
In a fight between a Palestinian family and the organisation sponsored by Blair and Brown that violates their rights - what side are you on?
Stop the JNF Campaign was founded at an international conference in Edinburgh following exploratory discussions in Geneva in May 2009 between Habitat International Coalition, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The result was a public call to set up the Stop the JNF Campaign.
SPSC, IJAN and HIC were joined by the Palestinian BNC, BADIL (Palestinian Refugee Rights Centre) and others from Israel and Europe for a two-day conference one year later in St Georges West, Edinburgh to launch Stop the JNF.
The STUC, Green Party and scores of MPs then endorsed the new organisation.
At SPSC we are proud that we have contributed to the international effort to combat this racist organisation: every public appearance of the JNF in Scotland has been met with a counter-demonstration since 2001 when Bill Clinton spoke at a JNF fund-raiser in Glasgow. This was sustained until 2014, after which the JNF ended pre-publicity for their events. The pro-Israel crowd's last effort before ratcheting up the anti-semitism smears was to have the CST (Community Security Trust) try to fit up an SPSC member for assault after, three months after(!) an 2014 SPSC protest against the JNF.
The fit-up charges for alleged “assault” levelled against pensioner, Mick Napier (then aged 67) were thrown out at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in 2016 after Sheriff Watson viewed some Al Jazeera TV footage. Sheriff Watson ruled that no assault had even taken place during the successful protest against the racist JNF at Cowan’s Law.
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The JNF threatened SPSC through expensive lawyers with legal action but hastily retreated when we invited them to meet in court to debate whether they were a racist organisation and a criminal conspiracy. Back in 2004, This Week in Palestine magazine shared our response to their bullying letter demanding we stop calling them racists. They demanded we cease, apologise and pay damages. Failure to respond "positively" would trigger legal action against us at "12 noon on 25 March 2004...for damages, costs" and a court order forcing us to stop calling the JNF racist. It was an empty threat.
We crafted a response that aggravated our offence such that our only defence in court would have been that we spoke the truth. Full correspondence here.
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Every JNF Scotland public event was contested between 2001 and 2014, after which the JNF ended pre-publicity for their events. Large protests greeted the glitzy Israel fundraisers, Israeli Ambassador and guest speakers at the Glasgow Hilton in 2001 (Bill Clinton),2002 (Shaul Mofaz), 2004 (Ruby Wax), 2006 (Colin Powell), 2008 (Goldie Hawn)
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On Friday - how the racist JNF was driven from Cowans Law and a St Andrews hotel by determined challenges,
On Saturday - the fierce clash over EDM 1677 - being softly pedalled by the pro-Israel crowd
Free palestine.