Tuesday 2nd November, 7pm, House of Commons, London, SW1A

Speakers include:

• Jeremy Corbyn MP
• Lord Andrew Phillips
• Andy Slaughter MP
• Kevin Ovenden, Viva Palestina
• Richard Allday, Unite the Union
• Amena Saleem, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
• Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzai, Palestine Regeneration Team

Chair: Sarah Colborne, on the Mavi Marmara and PSC’s Director of Campaigns and Operations

Israel’s attack on the Gaza flotilla – coupled with its war on Gaza and the findings of the Goldstone report – has led to a seismic shift in public opinion in Britain about Israel, with more and more people understanding the daily reality of living under siege and occupation, and wanting to campaign to end injustice and oppression.

This meeting will bring together eye witness accounts from Viva Palestina’s latest convoy, Parliamentary delegations and those involved in building projects in Gaza, together with members of both the House of Commons and Lords, to hear first hand about the situation there and look at what the new government can do.

RSVP essential – please email: info@palestinecampaign.org to register.

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Our opening fringe event at the Lib Dem Conference in Liverpool was organised and sponsored and Chaired by Chris Davies MEP

Ann Farr spoke on behalf of Pax Christi, an international Christian peacemaking movement, from the perspective of Christian Palestinians who support the Kairos Palestine document written in 2009. The original Karios Document was written by South African theologians based predominantly in the black townships of Soweto, South Africa in response to what the authors saw as the vicious policies of the South African Apartheid state.

H.E. Prof. Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, gave a passionate talk and Baroness Tonge rounded off the event.

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Our second fringe event at the 2010 Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool was a joint event with CAABU.

The event was chaired by Alastair Carmichael who is MP for Orkney and Shetland as well as Deputy Chief Whip for the Liberal Democrats.

Sarah Colborne spoke in her capacity as the Campaign and Operations Director for Palestine Solidarity Campaign and gave us moving eyewitness testimony from on board the Mavi Marmara as the Israelis boarded the ship in international waters in May 2010.

Our second speaker was Carla Ferstman who spoke on ‘Accountability for War Crimes’ in which she made reference to Universal Jurisdiction. Carla is the Director of REDRESS, a human rights organisation that helps torture survivors obtain justice and reparation. Carla is also a part-time lecturer in international law at Westminster University and a member of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Expert Panel on Torture.

Contributing from the audience was Andrea, a representative of Medical Aid for Palestinians – an organisation founded by Dr. Swee Ang after she personally witnessed the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. This meant that we had representatives from three leading UK organisations involved in campaigns for the rights and dignity of both refugees and torture victims.

Thank you to everyone who came and supported our event, and for those who could not make it, the video below shows the first part of the event before we had a slightly extended discussion session.

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The Lib Dem Friends of Palestine are holding two fringe events at the Liverpool Conference, both on Saturday 18 September at the Hilton Liverpool hotel. No pass is required.

The first, organised and sponsored by Chris Davies MEP is at 1.00 pm in the Grace Suite, entitled  ’The strangling of Bethlehem: is it time for sanctions?‘ The speakers are H.E. Prof. Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, Ann Farr from Pax Christi and Baroness Tonge. The chair is Chris Davies.

At 8 pm we are holding an event jointly with the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) in Meeting Room 6/7.

Carla Ferstman will talk on ‘Accountability for War Crimes.’ Carla has worked as a criminal defence lawyer in Canada and written and lectured extensively on international criminal law and human rights Director of REDRESS , a human rights organisation that helps torture survivors obtain justice and reparation. REDRESS works with survivors to help restore their dignity and to make torturers accountable .

Sarah Colborne, Campaign and Operations Director for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) will also give an eye witness account of being aboard the Mavi Marmara when the Israelis intercepted the flotilla.

Please join us for debate, and a glass of wine.

We have a stand for the duration of the conference (stand D14), we will have briefing materials, fact sheets and a summary of the Goldstone Report for those who do not wish to read all 575 pages: please visit, to comment, criticise or encourage!

Updated: 08 September 2010

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