Brighton Expresses its Support for Demonstration calling for a Council Boycott and Divestment from Israel

Israel’s War Crimes Shows Its Utter Contempt for International Law

On a sunny Sunday lunchtime, some 250-300 people rallied outside Brighton Town Hall to listen to speeches and a march to Hove Town Hall. The occasion was the launch of a campaign to persuade Brighton & Hove Council, the first in the country controlled by a (minority) Green Party administration to institute a boycott of Israel.  Proposed by Cllr. Ben Duncan, who was forced to resign from the Green Party for calling the British Army ‘hired killers’ (what else are they? social workers?) Ben has been one of the few Green Party councillors (now an Independent) to remain committed to direct action. However it is difficult to see the Labour or Tory groups supporting the proposal, which is due to come to the Council in October. Ben was also the second speaker at the march.

The best speech was also the first speech, by Canon Paul Ostreicher, a refugee from Germany in 1938 because of his Jewish heritage. Paul has devoted his life to fighting for peace (a non-sequitur!) being Chair of British Amnesty, expelled from the Church Peace Council for criticisms of the Soviet Union among his other notable achievements. He was ordained as a Deacon in St Paul’s Cathedral in 1959 and retired as canon of Coventry Cathedral in 1998. He now lives in Brighton and made a fiery speech pointing out that the ANC and all liberation movements were called ‘terrorist’ and defending the right of any oppressed people to take up arms.

The march was a local one but despite that was larger than the Zionist one last week which was a national one. At Hove Town Hall we listened to more speeches, including one from the local PSC Secretary Barry, before dispersing. Some people joined PSC members in taking part in an action against the Robert Dyas shop in nearby George Street, Hove which stocks Sodastream products. Barry laid heavy emphasis on our victory in closing the Sodastream shop in Brighton, despite a vigorous Zionist campaign to keep it open.

Just a couple of criticisms or observations. Although the demonstration was a healthy size, it was smaller than past demonstrations on Gaza. Last time, during Operation Cast Lead 1,500 people marched through Brighton. The missing factor was members of the local Arab and Muslim community. This was an omission that needs to be rectified. PSC has always been able to tap into existing networks of Palestinians and Arabs and we need to think carefully about why that didn’t happen this time.

Secondly, despite having a Jewish Chair, Mike W, there was no speaker from a Jewish anti-Zionist or even non-Zionist organisation, again for the first time I can remember. At a time when Israel claims its actions are on behalf of all Jews everywhere this is an important omission and should not be the subject of sectarianism. One of the main features of recent demonstrations nationally have been the presence of a large Jewish bloc and we know from the Sodastream demonstration that the Zionists find it difficult to explain away the existence of Jewish opponents. I’m thinking of groups like Jews 4 a Just Peace for Palestinians, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods and the Jewish anti-Zionist Network. This is at a time when British Jews are showing that they are not interested in rallies supporting Israel’s barbarities. For the first time ever, the Zionist Board of Deputies of British Jews has not even attempted to organise a ‘rally in support of Israel’. Last time just 5,000 answered the call unlike in previous years when up to 25,000 turned out.

End EDO,  Brighton's Arms Factory, speaker

However overall the energy and commitment of those who did turn out for the demonstration was commendable and if Israel’s attacks continue and intensify we need to seriously consider a major demonstration on a Saturday.
Tony Greenstein

Brighton Town Hall

A Triumph for the Campaign to end Sodastream

Mishor Adumum hwere Sodastream is based

Zionist collaborators and Christian Fundamentalists hold  hands

Police have difficulty policing the demonsrations despite their obvious pro-Zionist bias

The campaign against Sodastream in Brighton has stirred up both a national and international campaign against this company.  Based in West Bank near Maaleh Adumim it employs Palestinian slave labour Slave labour because unions are not allowed and the company is based on the very land its workers used to live on.

 

A prettified ad for Sodastream

In Brighton the demonstration started from the Clocktower in the Centre of Brighton at 12.30 and we marched via a shop in Ship Street, then Robert Dyas and Argos to Sodastream itself where the Zionists had based themselves.  Despite attempts by the Police demonstrators swarmed across Western Road and I found myself in the midst of a group of Zionists who tried to surreptitiously attack me (‘Peace being their slogan’)!

One of many national pickets of Sodastream

As usual the no. of Zionist supporter were outnumbered by anti-racists

On of those who wanted a share of the action was EDL supporter Simon Cobbs who is their leader.  It seems that these days having an association with anti-Semites is a positive advantage if you’re a Zionist.  Cobbs who is free with his threats and use of violence pushed me – big mistake as I retaliated and he fell back when realising that bullies needed to be stood up to.





The other main group among them were a group of fundamental Christians whose support for Israel is based on the ‘return of the Jews’ to Palestine in order that the second coming of Christ can be hastened via the fires and battles of Armageddon.  Most Jews of course, who reject Jesus, will perish and the Elect, in what they call Rapture, will ascend to heaven.  Mad?  Yes but these are the creatures who butchered over 100,000 ‘heathen’ Mayan Indians in Guatemala and who have encouraged every war of the United States.
  

The Zionists had nothing to say and spent their time trying to drown us out.  After all it is difficult to defend land theft. They reserved their venom for anti-Zionist Jews whom they termed ‘traitors’ – I’ve never understood this as I’ve never owed Zionism any loyalty but of course this was the charge made by Hitler against anti-fascist Germans.  And then one or two whispered Kapos at us, oblivious of the notorious collaboration of the Zionist movement with the Nazi movement both before and after 1933.  After all they and the Zionists agreed on one thing – the Jews didn’t belong in Germany. 

Boycott is a weapon of the oppressed.  Apart from Capt. Boycott its first use in Britain was the Boycott of Slave Grown Sugar in the Caribbean (the Church of England owned the Codrington plantation in Barbados).  In South Africa the Boycott was crucial in the demise of Apartheid.  Again Israel opposed it as White South Africa was its best friend and it supplied nuclear technology and other weaponry to it..  The Christian Fundamentalists were equally opposed.  After all it was in the Bible Belt of the USA that segregation was based and where the Ku Klux Klan was strongest.  And in 1933 there was a massive boycott of Nazi Germany by Jews and the international labour movement.  It was held that it was likely to cause the overthrow of Hitler, such was its effect.
 

Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods attended the picket

Brighton Clocktower where we met

Goering summoned the leadership of the German Jewish community in March 27 1933 to get them to have the boycott called off.  They claimed it was impossible but the Zionists, who had secured an invitation to the meeting after much effort, spoke out.  They would destroy the Boycott?  The condition being that a Transfer Agreement was signed between German and Jewish Palestine.  It was called Ha'avara (see Edwin Black’s book on Ha’avara for the details).  In order to build up Palestine the Zionist leadership deliberately sacrificed the Jews of Europe because people naturally said that if the Jews were trading with Hitler why shouldn’t they?  It was difficult to point out that the Zionists represented only themselves (& to be fair many Zionists opposed Ha'avara, especially the right-wing Revisionists).
 
By 1939 60% of the investment in Jewish Palestine was from Nazi Germany!  They even spied on the German communist party for them.  In other words the real Jewish traitors and ‘kapos’ were the Zionists.  Which is why in Poland, which was the heart of European Jewry, in 1938 they rejected the Zionist parties overwhelmingly.  In Warsaw out of 20 Jewish seats, 17 went to the anti-Zionist Bund.

Christian Fundie climbs lamppost - Palestinian flag annoys racists

I am posting a video that the Zionists took so bear that in mind.  But we distributed 800 leaflets and obtained even more signatories for a petition to close down Ecostream.  Once again the Police displayed their bias when we were removed across the street but the Zionists ensured that once again Sodastream (neighbouring shops had no customers!).

Israeli Shop Sodastream (Ecostream) Opens in Brighton to Large Picket

Zionists trying to avoid another Ahava-like humiliation

The stall did a roaring trade

 

One of the Bedouin slated for removal from the land

Today, was the beginning of a large picket and stall outside the Israeli shop Sodastream.  A number of our opponents, including two mad Christian Fundamentalists, were on hand, but the vast majority of Brighton people passing by gave us their support and we ran out in 2 hours of over 500 leaflets.  There are a number of pictures of our picket and also a video, whose quality leaves a lot to be desired but gives a flavour of the exchanges. 
So successful though was our first outing that we’ve decided that instead of mounting pickets every 2 weeks, as happened at Ahava, we are going to do weekly pickets of this Apartheid shop.

Its branding in Green Brighton is interesting.  It calls itself ‘Eco’ stream – part of an attempt to greenwash its activities just as the Jewish National Fund calls itself an eco-friendly organisation, building all those forests and parks, even if they are on top of razed Arab villages whose inhabitants have been expelled from the West Bank!  But there is nothing eco friendly about Ecostream’s base and activities.

As the information below shows, Sodastream is based in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone, which is part of the growing number of Jewish only settlements on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Ma’ale Adumim.

Amongst our opponents was a Christian Fundamentalist who claimed to live nearby, but was disturbed by our ‘offensive’ message.  His neigbours described him as a 'w*****' and a mad Black female fundamentalist who seems to think Apartheid was and is ok, and 2 or 3 Zionists who repeated the same hoary lines.  One of them at one point asked me ‘what about the 6 million’!  As if the dead at the hands of the Nazis justify further racism, as I asked what was the logical connection.
This is Sodastream’s first UK outlet and it is rumoured they have a 6 month lease.  It is incumbent upon us to ensure that it is not renewed and Sodastream get the message that stolen goods from stolen land are not welcome here.

Tony Greenstein

Israeli apartheid profiteer Sodastream opens new store in UK

August 22, 2012, Corporate Watch

Sodastream, a carbonated beverage manufacturer, is based in the Mishor Adumim settlement industrial zone. Mishor Adumim is an industrial area  attached to the residential settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, East of  Jerusalem in the Israeli occupied West Bank. Israeli company Soda Club, which owns the Sodastream brandname, has  opened a new store called Ecostream on Western Road in Brighton, UK.

However, Palestinians living in the villages around Mishor Adumim are prevented from building any permanent structure under Israeli military  orders. Their tents and huts, and even a primary school at Khan-al-Ahmar, are subject to demolition by the army

The Israeli army plans to forcibly evict and transfer 20 Palestinian communities, some 2,300 people, from their homes in the area of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc in the occupied West Bank. The plan aims to relocate the communities, a majority of which are Jahalin Bedouin, to a site about 300m away from the Jerusalem municipal garbage dump.  Israeli authorities have not consulted with the communities and the residents oppose the move. Military officials have said that the army will begin implementing the plan in early 2012.  If carried out, this forced transfer would violate Israel’s obligations under international law and uproot some of the poorest communities in the West Bank.

These building restrictions prevent the establishment of any Palestinian businesses, meaning that local Palestinians are forced to work in the settlements. Palestinian agriculture is limited by the settlements monopoly on land and the restrictions placed on the grazing of cattle, often leading to the seizure of cattle by the army.

Palestinians working for Sodastream in Mishor Adumim are working in the context of the occupation. In January 2012 activists from Stop Sodastream Italy made the following statement in response to claims by the company that its workers were well treated: “the fact remains that, as subjects of an occupation regime, these workers do not enjoy civil rights (including the right of workers to organize) and are under constant threat of having their permits to work in the settlement revoked by the company at any moment.”

“Palestinian workers often have no choice but to work in the settlements, with high unemployment rates that are a direct result of the Israeli occupation. The 2011 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report explicitly links the decline in Palestinian agricultural and industrial sectors and the dire humanitarian conditions with Israeli government policies, in particular the confiscation of land and natural resources, restrictions on movement of people and goods, and isolation from international markets. Only a colonial mindset could claim to provide jobs to the very same people whose land and freedom have been stolen.”

Bedouin tent slated for removal

The Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions urges a boycott of all Israeli companies until Israel complies with international humanitarian law, recognizes the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality, the rights of return of refugees and ends the siege of Gaza and the occupation of all lands occupied in 1967.

Sodastream products are sold in the UK at Robert Dyas, John Lewis, Argos, Comet, Lakeland and some Sainsbury and Asda stores.

For more information on Soda Club see here, pages 96-102.

Original link: