Twinning with Palestine
Nandita Dowson | 27.10.2005 20:22 | Social Struggles | Birmingham
Ranging from student unions in places like Stirling and Liverpool through church groups in Cheltenham and Godalming and broad-based friendship groups such as Oxford’s or Birmingham’s to councils such as Dundee and Chester, this is becoming a movement with echoes of the twinning campaigns with South Africa in the days of apartheid.
Twinning groups have started from different points – some from established Palestine Solidarity groups, some from the initiative of other individuals, who, having seen at first hand the appalling treatment of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, have returned wanting to stand side by side with people they have met, and tell the world that these are human beings too. Though many activists in twinning are also part of local PSC groups, twinning committees have often organised separately from the PSC in order to include as many different groups and organisations as possible from the local community.
However it starts, a twinning movement needs its dedicated group of activists in the middle – but then the word spreads fast as the chance to link with actual people seizes the imagination of people in groups and organisations as no amount of theory seems to do.
The rewards of a twinning movement are huge. Showing pictures, hearing stories, visitors in both directions lead people on the British side to feel connected to another place, and desperate to make a difference. In Camden, in just 18 months, hundreds of people have signed a friendship statement calling for friendship and twinning links with Abu Dis, next to Jerusalem, and a wide range of people are involved in the active Links groups who were not previously involved in Palestine in any way. Now we have children and teachers writing each other letters, nurses planning exchanges, youth groups aiming to run a Camden-Abu Dis football match. Our Friendship Association organised letter-writing when a lawyer from the human rights group was arrested and is campaigning against the redundancy of teachers being caused by the Apartheid Wall and the military pass system.
But there is only any purpose in this sort of movement if people in Palestine want it too. Some of our friends from Abu Dis came to the conference in London, and they spoke eloquently about their hopes of the twinning. They said that they find hope and encouragement from the interest from outside, and they welcome the practical projects we are devising together. As we in Camden have formed a friendship association at this end, so they have formed a friendship committee at that end, and both ends are working hard to involve people across their communities and across their political divides.
Although some of the twinning movements have been going for years, there has been to date no organisation linking towns, villages or refugee camps wanting partners at both ends, or helping to avoid the situation where two places both aim to twin with the same place in Palestine, leaving others with no partners. And the twinning groups benefit enormously from sharing experiences with each other. A first workshop a year ago at the European Social Forum led to this meeting. And now, following stimulating speeches and practical workshops, this September conference had a result: a plan to link the network of twinning activists, which will now work on a website and help others to join in. The website will be at www.twinningwithpalestine.net
Nandita Dowson
e-mail:
camdenabudis@btinternet.com
Homepage:
http://www.twinningwithpalestine.net
Comments
Hide the following 9 comments
Why did you ignore Rwanda and Dafur in Sudan?
28.10.2005 08:42
Concerned
actually
28.10.2005 10:22
When people took action against the G8 it was in solidarity with African people exploited by the G8.
And I would call Isreals actions terrorism.
s
bullshit
28.10.2005 11:51
Fran
Re: Why did you ignore Rwanda and Sudan?
28.10.2005 11:57
What has now come to be known as the Social Justice Movement (or 'the left' as you call it) generally highlights concerns of human rights and liberty abuses worldwide in reasonably equal measure. To help you fill the gaps in your knowledge I have provided some examples for further reading:-
1.) The Zapatistas in Mexico who are resisting forced eviction from their land by the state.
2.) The G8 movement which aims to reduce poverty predominantly in African countries.
3.) The DSEi demonstration last month which highlighted the genocide in Darfur and Sudan by demonstrating how British arms companies (with the full approval of Jack Straw who hosted the 2003 conference) sold weapons to the Janjaweed (among others) with full knowledge of their genocidal aims. Under British law this such behaviour is known as 'conspiracy to murder'.
4.) Ongoing Human Rights abuses in various Chinese provinces supported predominantly by Amnesty International.
5.) Human rights abuses in Iraq - bombing civilians/children/hospitals (collateral damage) and 10 years of economic sanctions resulting in a million deaths.
6.) The state of Indonesia's attack on West Papuans tribespeople, who wish to sell their land for oil and mineral exploration.
7.) People who are imprisoned Without Trial in Guantanamo Bay (for 4 years in many cases) and other US run prisons across the world, numbers of which are estimated to be in the thousands now.
These are the causes I know about, but my knowledge is not comprehensive so I encourage you to find out more for yourself. Generally, causes take the limelight when there is actually an opportunity for people to voice their disapproval. As there are companies in the UK who supply weapons to Israel (in the form of armoured bulldozers specifically designed for destroying houses, farms, and schools in the face of resistance to the theft of land) there is ample opportunity for protest outside their factories. This cannot be said for the Zapatistas, although people support them by buying their produce.
To address your point about the Palestinians 'provoking their own suffering' you simplistically assume that the entire population of a country some how deserve to be punished for the actions of a single terrorist group that operates within their country. To draw a parallel, this would be like invading Northern Ireland and destroying towns and villages for the actions of the IRA. The state of Israel believes that they have a 'God given right to Palestinian land', despite others having lived on it for over a thousand years. This is like Italy claiming ownership to British land because it was once controlled by the Romans. You will find that most people when asked about this subject will side with the Palestinian people since they have suffered greatly at the hands of the Israeli military. Israeli civilians have suffered too from suicide bombings carried out by Hamas. I do not have the gall to claim that their suffering is 'self-inflicted for thieving land' since many Israelis are in direct opposition to the actions of their government and support the Palestinian people.
Given your new found knowledge you are welcomed to support the Palestinian cause, to campaign for the return of occupied land, and lasting peace in the region through reconciliation between the two peoples.
Mike D
e-mail: TFS
There is NO Palesinian Peace Movement
28.10.2005 16:24
Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a palestinian resistence movement actively resisting the terrorists who cause nothing but war, death and destruction? Either they're offering tacit approval for the actions of a "small" minority, thereby being complicit, or they're just lilylivered wimps who really doln't want peace
Arthur Kennedy
Fran's bullshit
28.10.2005 21:23
Fran will refrain from mentioning that Israel controls and limits the arms available to the PA, and how useful for Israel it would be if Palestine erupted into a civil war.
Fran will also neglect to mention that Israel is still displacing Palestinians and stealing their land.
Because Fran does propaganda and bullshit.
Observer
silly "Observer"
29.10.2005 11:25
Look at the amount of men and arms the PA has, and then look at how much they agreed was necessary in the Oslo agreement. The PA has way more police and arms than were ever agreed. Per inhabitant its police force is also absolutely huge.
Only about a quarter of Palestinians align themselves with Hamas etc. Note, btw, that during the 1948 war Ben Gurion crushed the Irgun, because he felt that only the state should be armed, and one couldn't have paramilitary gangs going around. That could have provoked a civil war, and the right forever hated him for it, but he did it anyway.
Stop making excuses for the PA not stopping the terrorism, which it itself condemns as harmful to the peace process (whereas you lot support Jew-murder as popular liberation).
jo
Jo
30.10.2005 13:06
The issue remains the racist occupation.
Observer
Support the Plight of the Palestinans
21.11.2005 13:13
Ruth Tenne
Ruth Tenne