A Rap Song for Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions

3-3 Palestine - Wales Match

Wales 3 - Palestine 3

The Inaugural Palestine-Wales Football Match that took place last Friday in Singleton Park resulted in a 3-3 Draw. The pace of the match was fast, furious and good-natured.

After the Match Players and Spectators had a picnic of Palestinian Falafel Sandwhiches and Welsh Cakes. Some of the Welsh players who meet regularly on Sundays for a match invited the Palestinians to join them, result!

The day was such a success that Swansea Palestine Community Link have decided to make it a yearly event. (Photo: Bob Cottrill)

Swansea City Council Ban Future Contracts with VEOLIA

An historic decision was taken by Swansea City Council to bar future contracts with Veolia on the grounds of its illegal activities in the West Bank.


Swansea City Council approved the following resolution on Thursday June 17th 2010:

"The UN not only does not recognise Israel’s annexation and
occupation of East Jerusalem, but has repeatedly stated its view that
the Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank
contravene international law, and it has demanded that Israeli
settlement activities and occupation should not be supported.
The international trading company, Veolia, is a leading partner in a
consortium seeking to build a light railway system linking Israel to
illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, a project that clearly
not only contravenes UN demands but is in contravention of
international law.

This Council therefore calls on the Leader & Chief Executive not to sign
or allow to be signed any new contracts or renewal of any existing
contracts with Veolia or any other company in breach of international
law, so long as to do so would not be in breach of any relevant
legislation."

Veolia currently has contracts with the authority for local bus, park & ride to the tune of £699k per annum and home school to the tune of £238k per annum.

The passing of the resolution was very important in its own right, but we have since dicovered that this is the first resolution of its kind to have been passed by any UK authority, in that it makes explicit its reasons for ruling out any future contracts with Veolia. Other authorities have discontinued contracts with Veolia, but have not specified this reason. Swansea City Council is therefore leading the way with what is now seen as a landmark decision.

The resolution was put to the Council as the result of a campaign, in the course of which, all 72 councillors were mailed with details of Veolia's illegal activities. We were gratified with the level of cross part support for some kind of action to be taken and have since been in regular contact with councillors from nearly all parties who are actively pursuing the issue.

Swansea now leads a growing number of cities ready to take a moral stand against international lawbreakers. The list already includes Dublin, Stockholm and Melbourne and within the UK moves are already being made which would mean that other authorities follow Swansea's example.

Palestine V Wales 9th of July 2010 in Swansea

In order to celebrate the amazing continuing Resistence of not only the Palestinian Footballers but of all the Palestinian people, Swansea Palestine Community Link has organised a friendly match between the Welsh and the Palestinian's living in Swansea.

Help make the game a success by donating to the Palestinian Team's Shirts - just click on the donate button on the left.

Palestine sits modestly at 174th in the FIFA world rankings, held jointly with the Seychelles and Somalia. On October 26, 2008, the Palestinian men's football team played its first home match on national soil. Previous matches where they had officially been at home on the fixture list were played in neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Qatar.

Around 13 months later, in November of 2009, the cycle was completed when the
women's team were also able to play a home game. Both matches were played against
neighbouring Jordan and both finished in draws. 1-1 in the men's game, 2-2 in the
women's.

Palestine was presented with the FIFA Development Award in 2008, "in recognition of
the difficult task that it had accomplished in keeping football alive"

Football in GAZA faces its own particular problems, the captain of the national side, a Gazan, is unable to enter the West Bank, and currently lives and plays in Jordan. During Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009, two footballers, Ayman Alkurd and Wajeh Moshate, were killed, as was Khalil abed Jaber, a member of the Palestinian Olympic Committee. The national stadium and the PFA headquarters were also destroyed.

'What is NOT ALLOWED' (in Gaza)

A Poem by RICHARD TILLINGHAST

No tinned meat is allowed, no tomato paste,
no clothing, no shoes, no notebooks.
These will be stored in our warehouses at Kerem Shalom until further notice.
Bananas, apples, and persimmons are allowed into Gaza, peaches and dates, and now macaroni(after the American Senator’s visit).
These are vital for daily sustenance.

But no apricots, no plums, no grapes, no avocados, no jam. These are luxuries and are not allowed.
Paper for textbooks is not allowed.
The terrorists could use it to print seditious material.
And why do you need textbooks, now that your schools are rubble?
No steel is allowed, no building supplies, no plastic pipe. These the terrorists could use to launch rockets against us.
Pumpkins and carrots you may have, but no delicacies,
no cherries, no pomegranates, no watermelon, no onions, no chocolate.

We have a list of three dozen items that are allowed, but we are not obliged to disclose its contents. This is the decision arrived at by Colonel Levi, Colonel Rosenzweig, and Colonel Segal.

Our motto:
‘No prosperity, no development, no humanitarian crisis.’
You may fish in the Mediterranean, but only as far as three km from shore.
Beyond that and we open fire. It is a great pity the waters are polluted
twenty million gallons of raw sewage dumped into the sea every day is the figure given.

Our rockets struck the sewage treatments plants,
and at this point spare parts to repair them are not allowed.
As long as Hamas threatens us, no cement is allowed, no glass, no medical equipment.
We are watching you from our pilotless drones as you cook your sparse meals over open fires and bed down in the ruins of houses destroyed by tank shells.

And if your children can’t sleep, missing the ones who were killed in our incursion,
or cry out in the night, or wet their beds in your makeshift refugee tents,
or scream, feeling pain in their amputated limbs – that’s the price you pay for harbouring terrorists.

God gave us this land.
A land without a people for a people without a land.

Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range Exclusive: Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/04/gaza-flotilla-activists-autopsy-results

Israelis call for Boycott of Israel

Israelis call for Boycott of Israeli products
http://boycottisrael.info/

The day the world became Gaza By Ali Abunimah

Feelings have run particularly high in Turkey, at least four of whose nationals are believed
to have been killed

Since Israel's invasion and massacre of over 1,400 people in Gaza 18 months ago, dubbed Operation Cast Lead, global civil society movements have stepped up their campaigns for justice and solidarity with Palestinians.

Governments, by contrast, carried on with business as usual, maintaining a complicit silence.

Israel's lethal attack on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza may change that, spurring governments to follow the lead of their people and take unprecedented action to check Israel's growing lawlessness.

You can read the full article on http://bit.ly/8ZgFDQ

Isrealis Protest at their Governments Killing of Peace Activists

`Security cannot be built on the corpses of protesters!`
Social TV/Gush Shalom

More than 2000 people, old and young, gathered opposite the Ministry of Defense in Tel-Aviv, Israel, in a spontaneous demonstration of anger and protest.
Similar protests took place within hours after the bloody assault of the flotilla in
Ashdod, Jerusalem, Haifa and Be`er Sheba.
For the full article go to: http://zope.gush-shalom.org

Billboard Response to Israeli Flotilla Massacre

Early in the morning of May the 31th 2010, the Israeli Navy attacked an Aid Flotilla bound for GAZA and killed 16 people and wounded more than 50. This film is the reaction of some Swansea citizens.

ISRAEL Killed 16 and wound 30 Peace Activists