Shanshula

A letter to the Sheffield Star and Sheffield Telegraph

Dear Editor

Yesterday I went to see the film Shanshula which Sheffield Palestinian Musheir El-Farra produced, at the Broomhall Centre. The film gives a voice to the fishermen and fisherwomen of Gaza. The film begins before the horrors of October 7th. The fishermen and women describe how Israeli forces destroy their nets, and shoot at their boats,  sometimes killing or seriously injuring them. They are humiliated by forcing them to strip and jump off the boats before shooting at them and spraying their boats with sewage. It documents how the army destroyed many of the stores where they kept their nets and equipment. This was apartheid in action.

The film continues after October 7th. All the boats and stores are bombed by Israel, destroying everything. The fishermen and women flee with their families. It is heartwarming to see the resilience of the people as they adapt to life in refugee camps and school buildings. Food aid is distributed from the money raised from Sheffield (over £250,000 so far) and we see the children enjoying games and activities.

As our Government continues to provide Israel with the weapons to carry out the Genocide in Gaza and now to attack Lebanon, the generous people of Sheffield are stepping up to provide food aid and sanitation. If you can help please visit sheffieldpsc.org.uk.

Graham Wroe

Footnote

This letter was published in the Sheffield Telegraph on 3/10/24 but they edited out ” to carry out the Genocide in Gaza and now to attack Lebanon“. It was printed in full in the Sheffield Star on 2/10/24.

This reply was sent

Dear Editor

Cyril Olsen casts doubt upon the letter concerning the fishermen and women of Gaza. He obviously hasn’t seen the film. The first-hand accounts show those disabled from the Israeli attacks trying to carry on fishing, for example, a gentleman whose hand had to be amputated following a shooting. The perseverance they showed was admirable but then Israel bombed the fishing boats and stores forcing them to leave their homes. 

Mr Olsen continues to support Netanyahu despite the ongoing Genocide in Gaza and the attacks on Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and now even the UN peacekeeping forces. The official death toll of Palestinians is 43000 but in reality, it is many more as bodies remain under the rubble. Denying the population food, water and medical supplies falls into the definition of Genocide that Mr Olsen quotes. 

Horrors took place on October 7th last year, when hundreds of Israelis died at the hands of Hamas, whilst hundreds more died in  IDF indiscriminate mortar attacks. Gaza was already a besieged ghetto before October 7th and an Israeli state dominated by extreme right settler politicians needed nothing more than an excuse to escalate to full-blown genocide.

There is a massive difference between Hamas and the Israeli Government. Both would like to destroy the other, but only Israel has the military might to achieve it and they are using this with the aid of the weapons we send them.  Doctors in Gaza now report that they regularly witness children who have been shot in the head by Israeli forces. Please write to your MP and demand that the Labour Government stops arms sales to Israel now. Show your solidarity with the people of Palestine and Lebanon by joining the march from Endcliffe Park at 12.30 this Saturday, 19th October.

Yours

Graham Wroe

Julie Pearn

Shamsa Mahmood

Shereen Kamil

Racheda Ali

Shanaz Rizwan

Caroline Poland

Hafsa Yusufi

Julian Briottet

Chris Johnson

Jonathan Feldman

Sabrina Archer

N Shafi

Cyril Olsen replied to this on 25th Oct 2024.

My reply

Dear Editor

It is disappointing that Cyril Olsen continues to be convinced by Israeli propaganda. He doubts the veracity of anything that comes from a Palestinian source, but completely swallows what Israel says even though the pictures on our TV screens clearly show what is happening.

The Genocide I refer to is of the population of Gaza. Israel denies them food, water and medical supplies whilst their country is bombed. I am happy to condemn all violence, but we are constantly told in the media that Hamas and Hezbollah are “terrorist organisations”. What we are not told is that Israel is an Apartheid state continually committing war crimes with the help of weapons we manufacture. 

Israel has attacked UN peacekeepers in Lebanon a dozen times. They use white phosphorus – a banned chemical weapon. 131 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon and Israel admit they want to murder the remaining Al Jazeera journalists in northern Gaza to stop them from reporting. 

Blaming Hamas for Palestinian victims when Israel bombs tents, schools, mosques and churches is ridiculous. Where does Mr Olsen expect people to go? There is hardly a building left in Gaza that is not bomb-damaged.

I have immense sympathy for the Israeli hostages and their families. It would be inhumane not to have. But I am outraged by the Israeli imprisonment of Palestinians, who are held without trial, many for trying to defend their homes and land from the Israeli settlers that steal them. In the occupied Palestinian territories, one in every five Palestinians has been arrested and charged at some point. There are 19 prisons in Israel and one inside the occupied West Bank that hold roughly 9500 Palestinian prisoners, many of them children. Israel stopped allowing independent humanitarian organisations to visit prisons a year ago to hide what happens there. 

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