Bristol peace activist held in Israeli jail suffers bruises and a black-eye from a beating by Israeli soldiers

Bristol peace activist arrested in Palestine

Friends have spoken by phone to the Bristol peace activist who is being held in an Israeli jail. He is cheerful, but suffering bruises and a black-eye from a beating by Israeli soldiers during his arrest in Palestine last Friday. Tom Woodhead is being held at the Givon immigration detention centre until he is deported to the UK (hopefully in a few days).

{jcomments on} He gives his phone number as (+972) 054-711-3896. He was travelling under the name of Tom Woodnut to disguise his identity but now reveals his true name as Tom Woodhead, who was one of the “Decomissioners” who took direct action against a UK arms factory in Brighton.

Tom (Woodnut) has a facebook page with a pictures on. Friends in Bristol praise Tom for his actions in Palestine. Ed says “I was helping with the olive harvest in the village of Kafr Quddom in 2007. It’s a beautiful town with lovely people. But we saw how the nearby illegal Israeli settlement was growing like a cancer. A massive greenhouse complex was being built on land stolen from the town, the main road to the nearby city had been sealed off, houses on the edge of the town had been demolished, and a massive scar was being torn across the countryside to build the separation wall. I’m not surprised people there are protesting against this injustice and well done to Tom for helping them”

 Bob says “We were very worried when we saw the photos of the Israeli soldiers using a rock to beat people being arrested. We’re relieved to hear Tom’s ok. He’s a real hero.”

Read more about Tom’s arrest in the following links:

http://awmwc.net/news/810-uk-peace-activist-faces-deportation-by-israeli-occupation.html

http://palsolidarity.org/2013/03/international-activist-faces-deportation-after-kufr-qaddoum-demonstration/

Shame on G4S – Bristol Picket

Members of Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign picketed the G4S “Cash Solutions” depot, 165-175 South Liberty Lane, BRISTOL BS3 2TW for two hours on Friday 1st March. This was part of a national action against G4S coinciding with the protest outside the London head office (www.inminds.com) The picket was in memory of Arafat Jaradat, in protest at the abuse of child prisoners, and in solidarity with the Palestinian hunger-strikers. Huge banners were attached to the fence of their depot, Palestinian flags were flying from the corporate hedges, and megaphoned chanting drew faces to their windows.

The local media had obviously tipped off the company who seemed to have panicked. Staff were being bussed in and out, so terrifying was our presence! A police car was already waiting outside when we arrived. And this was even reinforced by a riot van at one point! But when a G4S manager came out to object to us filming, for “security reasons”, the Police admitted there was no law against it! Supporters leafleted the surrounding housing estate and people were generally shocked to hear they had international criminals as neighbours! And our fliers were used to decorate the fences and passing G4S hi-security vans.

All in all a successful action. Our group will be lobbying our local council against contracts with G4S, and this is a campaign which could also be rolled out on our two university campuses and though other institutions. Hopefully we can make G4S “another Veolia”!

Pics and excellent videos on www.facebook.com/bristol.psc

Not ONE but TWO street stall successes on Saturday

Bristol-PSC took its street-stall to central Broadmead shopping centre on Saturday. At first the G4S fliers were a hard message to get across to ordinary shoppers. But after a while our stall and flags began to draw a constant stream of visitors and supporters, and even some generous donations. So good was the support, that a young hooligan who tried a minor act of disruption was caught by some “guardian angels” and marched back to the stall to apologise!

When our eight hundred fliers were gone, three of us walked over to Lidls at Lawrence Hill for an impromptu boycott stall. The Muslim shoppers were very supportive, of course, but sometimes shy about taking action. Then a West-Indian shopper approached us with her shopping bag saying she didn’t want to buy Israeli goods, but how could she know? After a quick lesson on “reading the label” a bag of Sharon fruit were discovered and she determinedly marched back to return them to the manager. On our recommendation maybe a couple more shoppers did the same. In little more than an hour we felt we’d achieved some incredible victories!!!!

Considering the demographic of Lidls (and Aldi) coupled with the small number of Israeli lines they usually sell (one or two) we wondered if they would be easier to convert than bigger chains?

MORE ACTION IN BRISTOL THIS THURSDAY – SEE DIARY BELOW

 Diary

 Thursday 7th March

PROTEST: arms dealers are NOT welcome in our university or our city!

5.30 onwards outside “City Hall”, College Green, BS1 5SH Bristol.

Sir Roger Bone, president of Boeing is giving a talk sponsored by our university at the Bristol Council House

The Boeing empire had revenues from military sales of over 30 million dollars in 2011 nearly 50% of its total sales, which moved it up to the second largest military company in the world. Boeing has a long history of supplying arms to Israel, including F-15 fighter-bombers and Apache attack helicopters as well as all sorts of missiles. The British Army has 67 Boeing Apache helicopters. It was an Apache helicopter that was involved in the infamous collateral murder tapes, that Wikileaks released, showing disturbing evidence of the murder of civilians in Iraq.

We want to send a message to Boeing and UWE management that arms dealers are NOT welcome in our university or our city! Bring a banner, a placard or just come join us on College Green; creative things are planned!

www.facebook.com/events/579740302039099

www.facebook.com/events/248015835313648

Please help us spread the word!

`Organised by the Free Palestine Society UWE and friends

Also the same day in Worcester

Public meeting: Going Further for Fair Trade in Palestine

Speakers: Manal Abdallah, Communication Manager and a documentary film maker from Canaan Fair Trade, and Odeh Qadi, olive farmer from the Palestinian Fair Trade Association.

7 for 7.30pm St. George’s Catholic Church Parish Hall, Sansome Walk, Worcester WR1 1UG 

Part of Fair Trade Fortnight with Zaytoun

Saturday 9th March

Boycott Sainsburys Street Stall

12.00 – 3.00pm outside Clifton Down Shopping Centre, Whiteladies Rd, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2NN

Campaign calling on Sainsbury’s to end trade with Israeli agricultural produce exporters, see: www.boycottisraelnetwork.net/?p=2121

Use this e-tool at http://psc.iparl.com/lobby/94 to contact all supermarkets asking them to drop the companies complicit in the illegal occupation

Organised by Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Saturday 16th March

Arc Nexus

3pm at the Arc 27 Broad Street in Bristol City Centre BS1 2HG

If you’ve not seen the Arc, you should! The Arc is four floor club, café and meeting space in central Bristol which can be developed into an exciting multi-faceted political arts venue. New people with ideas and energy to self-start projects are invited to come to this planning meeting and to get involved with this unique project. Just turn up or FFI contact kieranmelts@googlemail.com

In Worcester on Wednesday 20th March

Film: Two Sided Story 

7.00pm EE G087 Urwin Lecture Worcester University

Free Admission, donations collected for the work of the Parents Circle- Families Forum.

In Frome on Saturday 23rd March

More Than A Jumble. 

Massive sale of quality bric a brac at the Sun Street Chapel, Whittox Lane, from 10.00 to 4.00. If you’ve got stuff you’d like to donate please bring it to the chapel on Friday March 22 (but please not before!)

Organised by Frome Friends of Palestine

Tuesday 26th March

Monthly planning meeting of the Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign 

7.30 – 9.30pm Upstairs at Hamilton House, Stokes Croft (opp Jamaica Street) Bristol BS1 3QY

Help us plan events and actions for Palestinian

Join our email forum at http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/bristol-psc/

Other News 

CIRCUS-2-PALESTINE

Activists from Bristol will be off again shortly to the West Bank transforming bare playgrounds into the most amazing silly and magical Circus giving the kids a break from their oppressed lives allowing them to go wild for awhile, to be kids!!! Please help the Clowns raise funds for this important tour at www.sponsume.com/project/circus-2-palestine#

No to SodaStream

Brighton PSC petition: We the undersigned say NO to Israeli settlement business in Brighton

http://www.brightonpalestinecampaign.org/campaigns-2/petition

Britain’s Legacy

New PSC Factsheet: Palestine – Britain’s Legacy – Order hard copies from the PSC office – please circulate widely

www.palestinecampaign.org/information/factsheets/palestine-britains-legacy/

GET YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN THIS MAILING LIST email Bristol.Nakba60@yahoo.co.uk

SEND YOUR EVENTS FOR PUBLICITY (keep them short and to the format used here)

Join the Bristol PSC email discussion group at http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/bristol-psc   

Join National PSC now atwww.palestinecampaign.org/Index5b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=3&l2_id=16

If you can’t afford to join OR want to find out more first, come to our meetings and get actively involved!

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