October Report

1.  Visit of Miri Weingarten from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel   23^rd Oct.

 Her talk to the Grand Rounds weekly meeting of clinicians at Alder Hey Hospital was cancelled by the hospital with less than 24 hours’ notice as a result of an email blitz on the hospital orchestrated by the Zionist Central Council of Greater Manchester.  They also attempted to force the cancellation of similar meetings at the Fairfield General Hospital, Bury and the Manchester Royal Infirmary.  They were entirely successful only at Alder Hey. An article about this appeared in last week’s Jewish Chronicle together with a survey of readers as to whether Miri’s tour of hospitals should have been allowed to proceed! (She was speaking in each case to a regular internal clinical meeting of hospital staff.) Appropriate action has been and continues to be taken to protest by members of LFOB, PHR-I and other Jewish organisations.  An article will appear in the next newsletter of BRICUP.  Meetings are being sought with hospital staff and hopefully we can invite Miri back to Liverpool at a later date.

She had 2 other meetings:

a) with an enthusiastic group of medical students at the Student Guild and

b) with the health sub-group of LFOB.  This was a very helpful meeting for those attending but it was a very small meeting and it is clear that the sub-group needs to be revived in order to carry out its work.

 2.  Ted Clement- Evans’ Visit to Bil’in    31^st Oct.

 Ted went to the West Bank on 31^st Oct. for one week with a visit organised by the national twinning network and is scheduled to stay 2 days in Bil’in.  The group transferred £400 to him: £200 to be given to the Popular Committee for Justice and Freedom whose annual office expenses LFOP agreed to cover; £200 to buy the women’s craft work for sale here.

We also gave Ted a short list of names and contacts and asked him to check emails so that we can establish some community links with the school, the mosque, the women’s group and the football team. We are informed however that many of the football team are in prison.  Lack of direct contact has been frustrating our work over the past year.

Ted will report back to LFOB at our regular meeting on 11^th November.  Anyone who would like to hear that please contact Gwen at gwen.backwell@hotmail.co.uk as the meeting is in her house.

3.  Some unexpected good news is that Helen received an email from a teacher in Bil’in school who is very keen to get his pupils linked up to the 2 schools in Liverpool who are ready to go.

 4.   Quiz Night

 Please note that our next quiz night has been postponed and will be re-scheduled for the end of January.

 

July Report 
 
The Liverpool Friends of Bil’in meet on the second Wed. of every month.
 
We continue to get weekly reports from Bil’in after their Friday demos.  We continue to be extremely concerned about the increase in night-raids by the IDF on the village and the arrests of minors and of a sick man suffering from a very bad injury on the razor wire at the barrier.  These people have “disappeared” as the village has no news of them as far as we know.  We mounted an urgent action appeal to all LFOP and LFOB members to send letters to the FCO, the Israeli Ambassador, the Israeli Minister of Defence and the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Knesset.  We are waiting to get more local IDF names and contacts from Bil’in.  Some correspondents have received holding letters from the Embassy.  We also know that our Foreign Office is aware of the death of Bassem Abu Rahme in April.
PLEASE WILL PEOPLE CONTINUE TO SEND PROTESTS AS RAIDS AND ARRESTS ARE CONTINUING.
  
Publicity:  John went to London to appear on Press TV.  We now have 1000 copies of our new leaflets about twinning.  Contact Gwen if you want to distribute any among your own contacts.
We also have a lovely new banner to add to the array on the vigil and to use in demos, actions etc. It’s red  lettering on a white background and says: “Liverpool Friends of Bil’in:  A voice for the people of Palestine”. Both were used at our stall at the Peace and Ecology Festival on 25th July.
We made a final profit of £202 from the sale of tickets at the concert at the Phil on 28th June.
 
We are now actively engaged in organising a day’s visit of Dr. Miri Weingarten, Advocacy Officer for the Israeli Physicians for Human Rights in Brussels, on Friday 23rd Oct.  She will meet members of the Bil’in Health sub-group (PHR are active in the village) as well as address a meeting of clinicians at Alder Hey Hospital.  We also hope to arrange for her to meet medical students at her request.
 
Next meeting of the group is on Wed. 12th August at 7.30pm.

June Report

The group was meeting regularly to implement the water project and the erection of a commemorative stone in St Luke’s Church to Bassem Abu Rahmah.

In the last week the group had received emails telling of terrifying night raids on the village, the ransacking of homes and the abduction of at least 7 teenage boys.  As yet we have no news that their parents know of their whereabouts.  Bil’in regularly suffers from these dead-of-night incursions but they are particularly intense now.   Please repeat Gwen’s draft letter in this respect – groups all over the UK are being invited to write to the British and Israeli governments.   

A court case continues in Canada to fight the illegal land grab from Bil’in villagers.  

 On a happier note Gwen advised us that through the sale of 32 tickets to the Crosby Symphony Orchestra. Helen Marks raised £167.50 for Bil’in.

MAY Report (21st May)

Commemoration for Bassem

On 2 May we organised a unique and moving ceremony as part of LFOP monthly vigil, to commemorate the recent murder of Bassem Abu Rahme by the IDF at the weekly demonstration in Bil’in.  He was known to members of our group who visited and he was a much loved man in the village.  There was poetry and music at this event, representatives of the 3 faiths spoke, and 29 black balloons were released (one for each year of his life).

 

This group now meets on the second Wed. of each month.

At the last meeting on 13^th May the main decisions taken were as follows:

The name of the group is now proposed as:  Liverpool Friends of Bil’in.  This will be finalised after a discussion, to be put on the agenda and led by Sam, at the next LFOP meeting in June.  Also to be discussed there will be the relationship between the sub-group and the parent body.   

New leaflets and a banner are being made.

2 of the specialist groups are moving forward:

Schools:

John has made positive contacts in one Liverpool primary and 1 secondary school with both class teachers and head teachers who are positive, and it looks as if direct links with the school in Bil’in can now be made. Each will link with one class in the Bil’in school which is for all ages. A children’s centre and an after-school centre are also on board.

Water Project:

We have decided to try to find substantial sponsorship for a water recycling project in Bil’in which was seen by our reps. on their visit in Dec. At present only a few houses benefit from its installation in their gardens and the aim is to install it in all appropriate gardens in the village and further afield since it increases productivity considerably.  We are in direct contact with the engineer and have all his papers on the scheme that he invented. Dave will head a small team to pursue funds in this country.

 

Publicity:

On 12 May Helen was on a half hour programme on Bil’in broadcast live by Press TV which included a live link between a Palestinian boy in the London studio and a teenager in Bil’in.  The programme was seen in Bil’in.  It was a very good experience and Press TV are keen to have further live contributions from LFOP members on a variety of issues for their regular slots on Palestine.

 

Fund-raising:

a)  Car boot sale on 9 May raised £245 and a second one on 24 May raised £114.60.

     This is recommended as a fund-raising method for LFOP.  Contact Gwen.

b)  We are selling tickets for an annual charity concert at the Phil on 28 June given

      by Crosby Symphony Orchestra.  Half of all ticket money we raise (£5 on

     each ticket) will come to the Bil’in group.  Contact Helen on

     helencmmarks@yahoo.co.uk  to buy tickets.

 

Information from lfopbilinlink@yahoo.com

APRIL Report (29 April)

Liverpool-Bil’in Friendship  Link

It has been a distressing time since the killing of Bassem Abu Rahme at the weekly demonstration in Bil’in on Friday 17th April.  He died almost immediately as a result of being hit in the chest by a new type of tear gas canister as he was simply standing near the Barrier holding a flag and shouting to the IDF soldiers that this was a non-violent demonstration.  He was buried the following day.  A You-Tube video of both events can be viewed on
In memory of Bassem, whom our three representatives met on their visit in December, and in solidarity with the people of Bil’in as they mourn their loss, we are planning a special commemoration event at the monthly LFOP vigil on Saturday, May 2nd which we hope will generate local publicity.  Representatives of the 3 Middle Eastern faiths will take part as well as those who went to Bilin who will share some memories.  There will be poetry and music and the release of black balloons.  We are organising new placards and leaflets. The ceremony will be videoed and sent to Bil’in.

Before this tragedy happened the Bilin group had met on April 3rd  to consider progress since the visit of Najat and Wasfia in March.
Five sub-groups are getting off the ground:  health, education, water, nurseries, and arts;
and we plan to organise women, students and sport.
We also decided:
1.  to rename our group:  Liverpool-Bil’in Friendship Link.  
2.  our aim will be: ‘to promote friendship between the people of Bil’in and the
     people of  Liverpool’.
3.  we will design and make a banner which will include a logo.
4.  we will produce a basic but attractive promotional leaflet.
5.  we will put our meetings on a regular basis, on the second Wed. of each month.
     Next meeting will be on Wed. May 13th.

Our next fund-raising event will be a car boot sale on Sat. 9th May.  All contributions welcome.  Contact Gwen on lfopbilinlink@yahoo.com

 Contact the above email address with any queries or comments.