2024 ICAHD UK London Conference, 2 Nov National Demo

Photo: London Conference - photo by Stephen Sizer

ICAHD UK's London Conference

Photo: Panel at London Conference. This photo, and others in this section, by Paul Scott

John Garrett, ICAHD UK executive committee member, prepared this report on our London conference.

The 2024 ICAHD UK Conference was held at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church on Shaftesbury Avenue, London on Saturday 19 October 2024. In spite of inclement weather, there was a healthy attendance, both in-person and online, for this important event at this critical moment for Palestinian survival in both Gaza and the West Bank. The audience was given the opportunity to: Hear an update from Jeff Halper, Director of ICAHD, on the year-long massacre, characterised by the International Court of Justice as ‘plausible genocide’, of the civilian population of Gaza, and the IDF-sanctioned violence of settlers against Palestinians in the illegally-occupied West Bank. Jeff presented an anti-colonial reframing of the struggle to counter how Israel “sells” its wars and oppressive colonial practices. Jeff emphasised how Biden has pushed to “normalize” a two-state solution that will leave the settlements in place and give the Palestinians four disconnected islands in Area A. Learn from Naema Wajeeh Aldaqsha, a Palestinian Postgraduate Teaching Associate and PhD researcher from Gaza at the University of Exeter’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, about the devastating psychological effects of the decades-long policy of ethnic cleansing on individual Palestinians. Experience the personal reflections on the life-changing effect that a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories has had on three former participants on ICAHD study tours, whose eyes and hearts were opened by first-hand experience of the unrelieved humiliation and degradation to which Palestinians are constantly subjected. Focus on what groups such as ICAHD, in conjunction with other civil society groups, might do to further the aim of achieving a peaceful resolution of what the media prefers to call a ‘conflict’, but what is actually the enactment of an enterprise of latter-day colonialism, red in tooth and claw. Contributors to an enlightening debate on this subject came from Reverend Stephen Sizer, Chair of ICAHD UK; Reverend Dr Simon Woodman, Minister of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church; Nick Dearden, Director of Global Justice Now; and Dr Livnat Konopny-Decleve, political anthropologist and researcher into Israeli-Jewish left-wing activists exiled in the West Bank or abroad.

Understand the persecution and depredations suffered by Palestinian farmers clinging to land possessed by their families since long before the Nakba, through extracts from Bruno Sorrentino’s film Sumud – My West Bank Farm, which exposes the tireless resistance offered by the family of Atta and Rudina Jaber, whose hospitality to ICAHD study-tour visitors has been extended over the years, despite the Jabers’ unending struggle against marauding settlers.

This documentary will be shown on Al Jazeera, Witness programme, from 20 November for one week. Respond to the incredible sumud (endurance) shown by the Palestinian people, whose refusal to buckle and surrender to enormous pressure from Israeli Zionists and their American backers. This was a leitmotif of several of the contributions, including a moving eulogy from Clare Short, former MP & Secretary of State for International Development.

Conclude by considering what actions can be undertaken in the way of campaigning and lobbying in furtherance of the goal of achieving justice for Palestine. This issue was addressed at the conference’s conclusion by Jeff Halper and Linda Ramsden, Director of ICAHD UK. Whereas Jeff had emphasised at the 2023 ICAHD annual conference the need to lobby for One Secular Democratic State, in light of the present perilous state of the Palestinian people the priority must be to reframe the misnamed ‘conflict’ as one of aggressive settler-colonialism. To this end, attention should be focused on how ‘Israel’ came to be created at the expense of the Nakba, and on how it was only admitted as a member of the United Nations if it agreed to allow the return of the refugees uprooted by the Nakba. Since Israel has never fulfilled this promise – has in fact done everything in its power to reduce the indigenous population as far as possible, and has contemptuously ignored or defied all relevant UN resolutions – perhaps it’s time to call its continued membership of that illustrious body into question. Recordings of the conferences held in London and Edinburgh will soon be posted to the website so look out for them. In addition, the recording of one of Jeff’s presentations in the regions will also be available.

Jeff Halper will be marching with the ICAHD UK flags within the Jewish bloc. The assembly point will be posted to the website homepage on Thursday, 31^st October so watch for that news. Dates for your Diary Saturday 2 November at 12 noon. National Demonstration for Palestine - Whitehall to the US Embassy. Meeting point for the Jewish Bloc to be announced.

Week beginning 20 November. 'Sumud - My West Bank Farm' being shown on Al Jazeera, Witness programme for one week. Many thanks for your ongong support. If you're not already a member of ICAHD UK, please join usor make a donation to enable our campaign to spread at this critical time in history.

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