Israelis J Halper, S Bashi, A Ascherman endorse Palestinian cause * Register for ICAHD UK’s 11^th November webinar: Resisting Demolitions Outside of Palestine – Part 2 that will equip you for activism here * Listen to the recording of the event with Amal Sumarin, from the family the JNF seeks to evict from East Jerusalem, that reached over 1000 listeners within 24 hours * Don’t miss ICAHD UK’s interview with Sari Bashi, Co-Founder of Gisha, who wants to see the One Democratic State Campaign grow into a movement * Keep up with ICAHD UK campaigns and dates for your diary What Are the Implications of Trump's Deal for the Palestinians? By Jeff Halper Photo: Sirkku Kivistö As an Israeli, I should feel happy and more secure after Trump’s brokered “normalization” between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and now Sudan. But his brand of transactional diplomacy leaves one feeling uncomfortable that such an achievement happened without resolving any of the underlying issues. Between the first webinar and today, there have been noteworthy developments, including progress in the formal complaint lodged by Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights – we will highlight these. Speakers will discuss the JCB dealerships campaign, looking at taking this forward, exploring the next steps in establishing a national campaign, including learning from local groups, and how to progress such campaigning in covid times. The same applies to the campaign to persuade the NSPCC to sever its links with JCB, given that company’s obviously compromised position. Both strands of the campaign offer opportunities for everyone to make a contribution and help to put a stop to JCB’s complicity in demolitions in Palestine which cause so much damage and transgress so many moral and legal boundaries To register for the webinar on Wednesday, 11^th November click here . Within 24 hours of this webinar, over 1000 people had listened to Amal Sumarin tell the story of how the Jewish National Fund (JNF) has spent the last 30 years trying to evict her family from their home situated directly below Jerusalem’s Old City. She was followed by Rabbi Arik Ascherman who described how he is working within the Jewish community to challenge the “dark side” of the JNF, and pleaded for the UK to stop any action taken by the Israeli Supreme Court and the Israeli government to evict this family because if the Sumarin family loose, it will open the door for hundreds of other Palestinians to also be displaced. Dr Yousef Jabareen MK, spoke of the JNF’s racist history in the ethnic cleaning of historic Palestine and called for international law to be respected. Click here to view the webinar, send the link to your MP and request that EDM 529 is signed. ICAHD UK Interview with Sari Bashi, Co-Founder of Gisha, who calls for one democratic state Many of our followers will have heard of Gisha – the Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement, an Israeli human rights organisation promoting the right to freedom of movement for Palestinians, especially those living in the Gaza Strip. However, the story behind its founding isn’t widely known. Can you tell us about your background? I founded Gisha in 2005 together with Kenneth Mann, a human rights lawyer and law professor who founded the public defender system in Israel. I had just completed a clerkship on the Israeli Supreme Court and wanted to do human rights work. Kenneth deeply believed in the value of providing legal aid, and we were drawn to Gaza, where Palestinians need travel permits from the Israeli authorities to reach their studies, reunite with family members, access medical care and get to their jobs. We began providing legal assistance, but it quickly became clear that we needed to try to change policies that prevent Gaza’s residents – now numbering two million people – from traveling and engaging in dignified, productive work. So we started publishing reports, reaching out to journalists, and developing strategies not just to help individuals but also to lift Israeli restrictions on the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza. Can you tell us more about your background and how early experiences in your life led up to Gisha’s founding? I was born in the United States to an American-born mother and an Iraqi-born father who grew up in Israel. Although we weren’t religious, my mother sent us to a Jewish school. I was an adolescent when the First Intifada broke out, and my teachers framed the Palestinian uprising as another event in the long history of persecution of Jews. Looking back, I think that my teachers took the very real and very brutal history of anti-Semitism in Europe and uncritically superimposed it on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. I didn’t think much about it at the time – we didn’t talk about current events or politics much in my house – but later, when I moved to Israel and saw the reality of Israeli oppression of Palestinians, those earlier memories came back to me. The contrast between what I had been taught, and what I saw, was a great lesson for me about the importance of seeing things for myself and drawing my own conclusions. Read more here Keep Up with ICAHD Campaigns here https://icahd.org/2020/05/14/icahd-campaigns/ 7 November 4.00pm – Stop the JNF UK Webinar. “JNF: Environmentalism as Greenwash for Ethnic Cleansing” - Register here . 11 November 5.00pm - ICAHD UK Webinar "Resisting Demolitions Outside of Palestine" - Part 2. Register here . Please note that we are experiencing some difficulties with the ICAHD website. Should you find you are unable to access it, please try again later. We are in the process of moving to a new server.https://icahd.org/2020/05/14/icahd-campaigns/ Many thanks for your ongoing support. If you're not already a member of ICAHD UK, please consider joining us to enable our campaign to spread at this critical time in history. From all at ICAHD UK. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israeli-Committee-Against-House-Demolitions-UK/366423593418140 Facebook https://www.twitter.com/ICAHDUK/ Twitter http://icahduk.org Website mailto:info@icahduk.org Email October 2020 Newsletter * Read Jeff Halper’s new article about Trump’s deals overseeing agreements between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan that don’t resolve the underlying issues Now all diplomacy is transactional, it always involves some kind of a “deal.” But traditional diplomacy is “thick”: that is, the deal represents only a part of the equation. In fact, what the deal even is depends on many different and often contradictory considerations. Take US policy towards the Palestinians. One immediate question is: can the Palestine issue be detached from wider regional and even global politics? Does normalization between Israel and the Arab world mean mutual recognition between governments – in many cases, autocratic governments that repress rather than represent their people – or must genuine people-to-people relations based on resolving the grievances among them be part of the deal? Read more... ICAHD UK Webinar Resisting Israel's Demolitions from Outside Palestine - Part 2 Wednesday 11th November 2020 5-6.15pm (UK time) 7-8.15pm (Jerusalem) Hilary Smith - Sheffield PSC, Stop the Demolitions Tom Anderson - Shoal Collective/Corporate Watch, Stop the Demolitions Annie O’Gara - Sheffield PSC, Protecting Palestinian Families, Stop the JNF Sharen Green – Protecting Palestinian Families, ICAHD UK with Monica Wusteman - ICAHD UK The next ICAHD webinar will build on the previous one, a recording of which can be seen here (https://vimeo.com/462341380/7d84eb9edd) . As was clear in the first ICAHD UK webinar, there are complementary strands to this campaign: work with JCB dealerships and with the NSPCC, a recipient of JCB donations. This webinar looks to give updates and explore practical suggestions for your involvement. Powerful Testimony to Send to Your MP At a time when some party leaders make it harder for MPs to speak out about Israel’s atrocities, this webinar is a valuable resource. MP Richard Burgon who spoke said that, “Amal’s story is one that every MP needs to hear …. And that it’s good to hear about how Israelis and Palestinians are working together on this issue.” Dates for Your Diary 31 October 3.45pm - UK Palestine Mental Health Network Cafe Palestine presents “The Hands Up Zoom Theatre Company young people from Palestine making drama out of a crisis”. - Join the webinar via this link (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85106493838?pwd=dU04Nk8vNXp2VkdYL0NFR2gxWXZ2UT09) . — ICAHD (icahd.org) /newsletter/israelis-j-halper-s-bashi-a-ascherman-endorse-palestinian-cause