There was an amazing weekend of events at Meersbrook Park this weekend, raising awareness about Palestinian political prisoners. Runners ran right through the night and events culminated with a live link-up to people in Khan Younis in Gaza and a Big Sing including members of many different choirs around Sheffield.
Few things illustrate better how Israel is an Apartheid State than the introduction of the death penalty only for Palestinian people. The death penalty is abhorrent in any circumstances, but singling out one race of people to be subject to it clearly shows Israel is a racist, apartheid state.
Many of the prisoners are not much older than my eldest grandchild. No child should be imprisoned, but resisting when troops or settlers are stealing your land and murdering your parents is surely not a crime.
Many Palestinians want Marwan Barghouti to be their leader, but instead, he is jailed on trumped-up charges. Eighteen years of imprisonment would be equivalent to a life sentence in many countries. We need to keep up the pressure on the Israeli Government to free Marwan Barghouti, just like we campaigned for Nelson Mandela.
At the end of December 2025, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) was holding 9,128 Palestinians in detention or in prison on what it defined as “security” grounds, including 1,477 from the Gaza Strip.
But it is not just in Israel where people of goodwill languish in prison for standing up for the Palestinian cause. Hearing a speaker from the Filton 25 (see video above) reminded us that direct action against those providing the weapons to war criminals can now lead to long “terrorism” charges, and simply holding a banner has led to the arrest of 100s of Defend our Jury supporters.
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