Below is an important call for a mobilisation and participation in a week of solidarity in Palestine between the 8th and 16th July. If you are interested in travelling from Ireland to be part of this historic mission, then please contact the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign at uk@bienvenuepalestine.com. The IPSC supports this initiative, but due to pressures of time/resources/logistics, we cannot take on coordination of an Irish delegation this time around.

Week of solidarity with Palestine will start in Tel Aviv Airport on July 8th
Appeal to British (and other) citizens to join us

“The Secretary of State…requests and requires all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.”
(Wording in British, Canadian and other passports)

1. We declare openly that we are peaceful travellers who will be going in groups large and small from cities around the world to Tel Aviv Airport on July 8th. Since Israel currently controls all entry and exit points to Palestine, there is no other way to travel there than through Israeli passport control.
2. We expect consular protection from our respective governments, and moral and political support from civil society institutions in our countries, in our peaceful challenge to Israel’s illegal actions in hindering access to the illegally occupied and colonised West Bank.
3. The roar of Israeli bulldozers signals more demolitions of Palestinian homes, the destruction of farms and olive groves. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine is in full swing. For this programme to proceed the Israelis must seal off the Palestinian people from any international links.
4. The Israeli authorities at Tel Aviv Airport routinely turn away peaceful travellers who wish to reach Palestine in the only way possible; through Israeli immigration.
5. Gaza is being subjected to a brutal siege and so is the West Bank; Palestinians in Gaza are shelled and bombed from the air while Palestinians in the West Bank are evicted from their homes, murdered, beaten, humiliated, robbed, kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured by the Israeli military regime there.
6. The flotilla will challenge Israel’s illegal high-handedness by sea, while the July 8th initiative will challenge it by land and air.
7. Hundreds of us have already purchased our seats on flights into Tel Aviv on July 8th ; the Israeli authorities will do what they will do:
   • if they block us in Tel Aviv Airport from peacefully continuing on our journey we will peacefully and patiently explain our rights.
   • if, as they have done so often in the past, they illegally order us onto a flight out of Tel Aviv Airport we will refuse to board and will exercise our rights under international law to peacefully resist being taken aboard the aircraft.

When they concede our right to continue our peaceful journey we will proceed directly to Jerusalem and Bethlehem to enjoy the world-famous hospitality of our Palestinian hosts. On completion of our visit to Palestine we will return to our jobs and lives in our home countries.

Enough of Israel’s cruel siege and silence in the face of cruelty.

No more dissimulation in the face of an arrogant authority that imprisons a whole people and denies us visiting rights. July 8th at Tel Aviv Airport is our moment of dignity and will symbolise the right of all to dignity, including free peaceful movement as enshrined in international law.

Do you want to join the initiative? Email uk@bienvenuepalestine.com with your name, location and telephone number for further information.

Call from Palestine

Dear friends,

Palestinian civil society organizations applaud the Freedom Flotilla that will again, in June, challenge the brutal and illegal siege of the people of Gaza. Decent people around the world will be working in support of this international initiative.

While we rightly focus on Gaza we must not forget that Israeli colonial authorities are implementing their racist apartheid policies throughout historic Palestine. In the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and in the Negev and the Galilee, ethnic cleansing and killing/injuring civilians are just some of the many violations of basic human rights. The aim is always to keep us isolated as well as divided, the better to achieve the goal of dispossessing us.

For this reason, we call on civil society organizations and people of conscience around the world to support and join the other important international challenge this summer to the Israeli siege of the whole of Palestine. The daily indignities heaped on the Palestinian people are reflected in the attitude of officials at Tel Aviv airport to prevent any humanitarian/solidarity trips. Israel’s attempts to prevent entry by peace activists even though the occuupied Palestinian Territories are recognized internationally as illegally occupied by Israel. We must oppose Israel’s arbitrary, unlawful, and abusive behavior (See the Right to Enter Campaign at http://www.righttoenter.ps/)

A week of solidarity: 8 – 16 Jul

Hundreds of men, women and children fly into Tel Aviv airport to visit us in the occupied Palestinian territories The international community must recognize our basic human right to receive visitors from abroad and support the right of their own citizens to travel to Palestine without harassement. We call upon citizens of many countries to visit us on July 8th. Where Israel works to isolate us, we invite you to join with us openly and proudly as the decent human beings you are. We do not accept the attempts to keep us apart or to force you to speak less than with the honesty you are used to.

You will be accommodated locally. You will enjoy Palestinian hospitality and a program of networking, fellowship, and volunteer peace work in Palestinian towns and villages (e.g. land reclamation).