We will not be Silenced. Write to your Councillor today.

Palestine activists gathered yet again outside Sheffield Town Hall on Saturday 25th January.

The Tadhamon Singers performed We Will Not Be Silenced.

Cllr Toby Mallinson spoke for the Green Party and emphasised the importance of writing to Councillors prior to this Wednesday’s Full Council meeting.

Please write urgently to your local councillors, to request that they support the divestment motion which will be proposed by Sheffield Green councillors at the Council meeting on Wed. 5th Feb.
In November 2023 Sheffield Councillors came together to unanimously call for a ceasefire. The first Council to do so. And on November 29th last year, after a lot of pressure from the community, they flew the Palestine flag on the UN’s Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.
They need to come together now to take forward the divestment campaign. We know that boycott and divestment campaigns work. Now, more than ever, we must escalate our campaign in support of freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people.

The motion commits the Council to:

• review its ethical procurement policy to ensure it will no longer sign contracts with companies like Barclays, which support Israel’s war crimes;
• write to South Yorkshire Pensions Authority opposing its investment of Council taxpayers’ money in arms companies and fossil fuel companies profiting from and facilitating Israel’s genocide in Gaza;
• end support for the production of weapons which enable Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.
  Please write today to your councillors to demand that they support the motion on 5th Feb.
  You can find details of your three ward councillors at this link
  https://democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/mgFindMember.aspx

There was also a very moving speech from Lili,a brave young spokesperson from Jews against Israeli Apartheid. She said

“I am honoured to be here speaking to you all today. I want to acknowledge that I know I’m not the most important voice here today by far, so thank you for having me.
I want to speak to you all about what has brought me here, and why I think we all must keep fighting for a free Palestine for all who live between the river and the sea.

I am a Jewish 25-year-old born in the UK. I grew up in a British Zionist Jewish environment. I was taught about Israel from a very young age, but not about Palestine. I have spent much of my adult life learning and unlearning.

I have learnt that no one nation-state can exist if its existence is based on the oppression of another people. I have learnt that no one is free until we are all free. I have learnt about the decades of oppression Palestinians have undergone. Importantly, I have learnt from my Palestinian Comrades to hold my rage and grief and channel it into hope and resistance. So many times in the last 16 months I’ve wanted to look away, turn
my phone off and throw it across the room out of despair and upset. But I am still here, because of lessons in steadfastness and about community from my Palestinian brothers and sisters across the globe. We are still here because whilst we hope that the people of Gaza finally get a chance to breathe and mourn, this is not the time for us to slow down. We are here because whilst there may be a temporary ceasefire, we need to keep all eyes on Gaza, to ensure the ceasefire lasts. We are here because there is still occupation, and we are here because there is still apartheid. We are here today because our British government is still selling weapons to Israel.

Its apt that I speak to you on the weekend of Holocaust Memorial Day. It’s a day that means a lot to me, it’s a chance to remember the 6 million Jewish people and all the people who died in the Holocaust, and in other genocides. Not only that, but it’s also a
reminder to me every year to remember the dead and to fight like hell for the living. It’s a reminder that never again means never again for anyone.

We are here today to remember the importance of keeping up our fight for Palestinians, so that they are allowed to live, breathe, and roam freely in their own land. I’m also here today, perhaps selfishly, for a secondary reason, to fight for the future of Judaism. I am here because as a Jew I want to scream from the rooftops “Not in my name””. There is a state that says it’s acting in my name. There is a state that has stolen my religion and culture and tarred it with death, violence and oppression. There’s a state that says it’s doing so for my safety. But I am here because I know that my safety is intrinsically and inextricably linked to the safety of other minorities around me. Because the more antisemitism is used as a political football to avoid accountability for genocide and war crimes, the less safe we all are. The less attention goes on the current rise of the far
right, such as nazi salutes from the richest man in the world putting us all at risk, and the less likely justice and accountability on the Israeli state are- putting Palestinians at even greater risk.

The Judaism I know recognises the importance of truth, justice and peace. To be Jewish today, to me, is to recognise my Jewish heritage, to recognise our history of dispossession and genocide, and precisely because of that to be here today, standing
alongside Palestinians.”

Free Palestine

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