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Palestinian Tent City to be erected at Free Derry Corner
 international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report
 Wednesday July 08, 2009 13:37 by Shane OCurry - wsm - personal capacity
Derry citizens’ call for Solidarity with Palestine.
Activists from Derry and Donegal have called for people to join in the creation of a “Tent City” at Free Derry Corner, this Monday, 13 July. The family-friendly action is to be in solidarity with Palestinian families whose homes are currently being demolished by the Israeli State. Families and individuals have been asked to come to Free Derry Corner between 11 am and 2pm on Monday, and pitch a tent if they have one. The area is to be cordoned off, in order to create a child-friendly space.
 Free Derry Corner in January 2005. Copyleft Jim Collins. “Monday is “International Day against the Demolitions in Palestine” ” explained Julia Tor Rojo speaking for the group of Derry and Donegal based anti-war, community and human rights activists. “This day was called by the international networks of Palestine solidarity groups in order to highlight the plight of the hundreds of Palestinians whose legally-held homes are continually being illegally and forcefully bulldozed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF)” The demolitions, which are in breach of current peace agreements, as well as International and Israeli law, are being carried-out in order to facilitate the extension of illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories.
“This official policy of ethnic cleansing by the Israeli State” Ms Tor Rojo told Indymedia “ which is an attempt to sabotage the Peace Process and shows Israel’s contempt for the international community, is of course primarily having a devastating effect on the lives of the hundreds of Palestinian children, women and men who have to watch as their homes are destroyed. These families, many of whom are already refugees in their own land, now have to bring up their children in tents and makeshift housing without sanitation or proper facilities. But we, here in Derry, don’t have to be powerless in the face of this humanitarian disaster. This family-oriented event is a peaceful and very effective way to draw international attention to this tragic situation, as well as being a gesture of heartfelt solidarity that will be warmly received by the families in Palestine. Everyone can take part, so please bring yourself down to Fee Derry Corner to take part in a couple of hours of camping with music and fun this Monday morning.”
The event also comes a week after the 5th anniversary of the International Court of Justice's ruling against Israel's Apartheid Wall (see link for Galway event last Saturday). The organisers of the event told Indymedia that they hoped the humanitarian aspect of the issue would over-ride sectarian divisions in Derry and draw-in people from all parts of the community. In the past the Palestinian issue has been sectarianised in the North, with loyalists flying Israeli flags in response to republican/nationalist solidarity with the Palestinians.
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Comments (9 of 9)
Jump To Comment: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Update about Monday mornings Tent City at Free Derry corner, just one of dozens of events globally on International Day against House Demolitions in Palestine
Moroccan 6piece musical masters Gawa Fusion will be leading a BIG JAM from 11 am til 1 on Monday at Free Derry Corner, along with some of the Henry Girls, Declan McLaughlin and a whole host of other local and not so local musicians.
Other similar events are taking place in New York, Washington, Chicago, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, France, Spain, Glasgow, London, Czech Republic and Egypt.
www.gawafusion.com
www.standupforjerusalem.org
Sorry Gordon, we didn't choose the 13th. This is a worldwide call for the 13th because on the 19th of July up to 28 families in Palestine are facing either eviction or imprisonment. We are supporting this call.
If you all who are slavering about sectarianism would have asked first instead of wasting time there would have been an explanation as why we are organising this at the Free Derry Corner. Not only for the reasons mentioned already but because we couldn't find other green spaces in the city center appropriate for tents. Tents are part of the visual aspect of this action. Location was discussed previous to decision, taking into consideration points you've already made. As i said, you just had to ask.
On the other hand, there have been plenty of other actions in the city center in the past months regarding different social/political issues organised by people who are also involved in the 13th's action, and i don't think that neither organisers nor supporters can be leveled as sectarian.
I understand where you are coming from but i think you got it wrong this time regarding this action.
By the way, can you all stop a second and listen to yourselves? the way you are going on in this discussion regarding sectarianism is quite more divisive than constructive criticism and this only helps all those forces, regimes, governments,etc, who are already getting away with murder.
Can we please wise up a bit?
Seamus this is not about this or that person attending a protest. This is about being conscious of the type of society we live in. Sectarianism is a real issue and unfortunately it is growing all the time as we can see by the significant increase in sectarian attacks and incidents. All political activity should be sensitive to these issues. We should aim to organise activities and campaigns that try to unite people.
The protest has been organised in the Bogside on the day of the Twelfth of July Orange marches, (the parades are on the 13th July this year). You could not have picked a worse day for this protest if you tried.
For people who don't live in the Derry area and are not familiar with the geography this would be the same as holding a protest in support of the Palestinians on the Falls Road in Belfast and expecting Protestants to attend.
Actually protestants have attended pro-Palestinian protests, meetings and other events on the Falls Road.
The real pity here is that I'm not at all surprised by the attitude of the SP member(s) on this issue.
... not the usual torrent of critical cant from the armchair socialist trolls, surely?
First off this is not a WSM-organised event, hence the words "personal capacity". The above initiative was a quick response to an international call, by an ad-hoc group of local activists drawn from nearly as many political traditions as there were people there. Part of my input was putting out publicity.
I disagree wholeheartedly that holding the event at Free Derry Corner is tantamount to saying "No Protestants" or words to that effect. It is wrong to suggest that Free Derry Corner is a Nationalist monument. I for one am not a nationalist and would dispute any nationalist claiming it as their own. as Seamus says, Free Derry Corner represents the spirit of popular rebellion against repression and the Civil Rights movement (an explicitly anti-sectarian movement) before people were blasted by Bloody Sunday into their sectarian camps, a process aided by the cowardice of the socialist and trades union movements in their (non-)response to Bloody Sunday .
There is no more fitting place to hold a solidarity event with Palestine than at an internationally recognised symbol of popular resistance to state repression. The desire to find a neutral venue for such an event, while laudable, is naive in the extreme, and betrays a political consciousness which has been dictated-to by the Community Relations Council gobbledygook which pervades all state-run media. What would a "neutral venue" be in Derry? The cenotaph ?(it's regarded as "neutral" but is in fact a monument to imperialism) The famine statues on Waterloo Square ?(too fenian, methinks. The hands-across-the divide statues at Craigavon bridge (nice neutral name that) ? We'd be accused of taunting loyalists on a day when the Orange Order is marching
Don't mind the nameless millie. If they had their way, there would never be any pro-Palestine protests as that would run the risk of alienating Israeli workers, and if Israeli workers are alienated, they will never rise up in struggle and there will never be a magical, mystical federation of Socialist states of the Middle East.
Good action, hope you get a good turn out.
Why are the WSM involved in organising a political protest in support of the Palestinians at Free Derry corner. The WSM have always struck me as being level headed but this is off the wall. You are taking an international issue and turning it into a sectarian issue. By holding this event at Free Derry corner you are making it a "nationalists only" event. This may be far from your intention but it will be the reality. I think that the venue for the event should be changed to somewhere which is neutral, it should not be held in a republican area, you might as well put at the bottom of the poster - Protestants not welcome! For people who don't live in the Derry area and are not familiar with the geography this would be the same as holding a protest in support of the Palestinians on the Falls Road in Belfast and expecting Protestants to attend.
Actually Free Derry corner is the perfect place to hold such an event, given that it is an iconic landmark of the civil rights struggle, near the sites where 14 anti-internment protestors were murdered by the British army, and surrounded by the brilliant Bogside Artist murals, which have been altered on more than one occasion to represent the oppression and the resistance of the Palestinian people.
At the end of this story it says that the organisers hoped the humanitarian aspect of the issue would over-ride sectarian divisions.
The event you are organising will do the opposite. You have chosen to hold this event in a nationalist/republican area and a place which to nationalists symbolises the civil rights movement but at a place which to the majority of Protestants symbolises republicanism and would be linked to the IRA.
If you want to genuinely organise an event at which people from all sides of the community will participate organise it in the city centre not in a nationalist area or for that matter in a loyalist area, people will see this as an event only for catholics. Also many protestants will not attend this event because they will not feel safe going into this part of Derry for fear of being attacked. This is a major own goal by the organisers!