International Solidarity Day with Palestine in Sheffield.

Today is the United Nations International Day of Solidarity with Palestine.

Sheffield Palestine Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid will be marking this day with several events. 

They will have a solidarity rally outside Sheffield Town Hall at 1.00pm, where the City Council has responded to pressure from communities in Sheffield by agreeing to fly the Palestine flag. 

 Musheir Al Farra, from the Sheffield Palestine Coalition, said:

“We welcome Sheffield City Council’s decision to fly the Palestinian flag over the town hall on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. 

“We hope that this is a first step by the Council towards taking a stand, on behalf of the people of Sheffield, against Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinians. 

“This is important, especially in view of the internationally binding arrest warrants which were issued by the International Criminal Court against the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant. 

“We thank the people of Sheffield for their support for raising the flag and for their ongoing support for justice, freedom and return for the Palestinian people.”

In addition they will be popping up in a number of places across the City with Palestine flags and a huge “Stop Arming Israel” banner, starting at sunrise, 8.00am, at the top of Meersbrook Park. They’ll be outside the City Hall at midday and Barclays at 12.30pm before joining the solidarity rally outside the Town Hall.

Sheffield University students and staff will be marking the day with a vigil in the university concourse between midday and 3.00pm, and the big “Stop Arming Israel” flag will join them at 2.30pm.

And then they will be travelling by train, to join Rotherham Friends of Palestine to mark the raising of the Palestine flag on the Rotherham Town Hall at 6.00pm.

Jonny Feldman, a member of Sheffield Jews Against Israeli Apartheid, said of the decisions by South Yorkshire Councils to fly the Palestinian flag:

“This decision is really welcome and overdue.

“This is just a small step from the council. There is more to do to make Sheffield an Israeli Apartheid Free Zone. The most important of these is for the Council to advise all businesses to cease trading with Israeli companies. By doing so, in the wake of the arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant, businesses could be aiding and abetting war crimes”

Background

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is observed by the United Nations and member states across the world on 29 November each year. 

The date of 29 November was chosen because of its meaning and significance to the Palestinian people. On that day in 1947, the General Assembly adopted the Partition Resolution. That resolution provided for the establishment in Palestine of a “Jewish State” and an “Arab State”. Of the two States to be created under this resolution, only one, Israel, has so far come into being.

The Palestinian people, who now number more than eight million, live primarily in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem; in Israel; in neighbouring Arab States; and in refugee camps in the region.

The International Day of Solidarity traditionally provides an opportunity for the international community to focus its attention on the fact that the question of Palestine remains unresolved and that the Palestinian people have yet to attain their inalienable rights as defined by the General Assembly, namely, the right to self-determination without external interference, the right to national independence and sovereignty, and the right to return to their homes and property, from which they have been displaced.

As Antonio Gutteres, Secretary General of the UN says: 

“Every year on this day, the international community stands in solidarity for the dignity, rights, justice and self-determination of the Palestinian people.  This year’s commemoration is especially painful as those fundamental goals are as distant as they have ever been”.