Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
BRIDES Boycott Israeli Products
An inspiring action from the U.S., it would be good to replicate it here.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Rabbis for Palestine
Rabbis speak out for a One-State solution to the Palestinians and Israelis.
These jewish brothers come to all of the Palestine protests, even on
saturdays they walk 8 miles from Stamford Hill because they can't use
transport on the sabbath. They are so compassionate, so humble, they make
perfect sense and they have a sense of humour as well.
These jewish brothers come to all of the Palestine protests, even on
saturdays they walk 8 miles from Stamford Hill because they can't use
transport on the sabbath. They are so compassionate, so humble, they make
perfect sense and they have a sense of humour as well.
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Swansea Palestine Action on Israeli News
A report by Walla!, Israels largest online news portal reported about the Swansea women getting a hidden camera inside an Israeli prison last month.
Read the report here in Hebrew or a badly translated version here
The Israeli prison service were quoted;
'How a hidden camera was got into the prison is under investigation. Also, regarding the claims raised in the video, it is clear that the intent of the speakers is a defamation of the IPS is a symbol of the State of Israel."
Meanwhile the Swansea women are still waiting a response on why they were locked up for six days in the first place!
The Israeli prison service were quoted;
'How a hidden camera was got into the prison is under investigation. Also, regarding the claims raised in the video, it is clear that the intent of the speakers is a defamation of the IPS is a symbol of the State of Israel."
Meanwhile the Swansea women are still waiting a response on why they were locked up for six days in the first place!
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Swansea Palestine on Al Jazeera
Monday, 1 August 2011
Monday, 25 July 2011
Eve Hearld: Irish Mum held in Israel
AN IRISH mum has gone on hunger strike while being held in an Israeli detention centre.Maire Ni Mhurchu (56), also known as Dee Murphy, travelled to Israel as part of a peaceful protest group.
However, minutes after landing in Tel Aviv with 120 other protesters on Friday, she was taken to one of two detention centres south of Tel Aviv.While half the activists have since been released and deported, Ms Murphy is still being held in Israel.
Ms Murphy, who is originally from Cork but now lives in Wales, travelled with the Swansea Palestine Community Link, one of several European factions that planned to take part in a week-long "flytilla" of protests.
She and another member of the Swansea group said they wanted "to express solidarity with the Palestinians in the West Bank and draw attention to life under Israeli occupation".
Dubliner Paul O'Connor, a film-maker, who is one of the founding members of the Welsh link and works with Ms Murphy, said she had been taken to the Giv'on immigration detention centre in Ramle, along with other women while the men are being held at Eyal.
"I spoke to Dee on Friday. Israeli authorities diverted the plane to a different terminal and they surrounded it by police -- there were about 60 police officers lined up with handcuffs when they arrived," he said.
Overcrowded
"About 30 of the women were then taken to a room, and then the phone died -- I presume it was taken off her -- but I got some news through the Irish ambassador for Israel, Breifne O'Reilly, who said he had visited them over the weekend and they were in high spirits.
Paul (42) said that he understood the mother-of-three was being kept in a room with seven other detainees.
"It's overcrowded and at this time of the year, it would be stifling," he said.
Read more
However, minutes after landing in Tel Aviv with 120 other protesters on Friday, she was taken to one of two detention centres south of Tel Aviv.While half the activists have since been released and deported, Ms Murphy is still being held in Israel.
Ms Murphy, who is originally from Cork but now lives in Wales, travelled with the Swansea Palestine Community Link, one of several European factions that planned to take part in a week-long "flytilla" of protests.
She and another member of the Swansea group said they wanted "to express solidarity with the Palestinians in the West Bank and draw attention to life under Israeli occupation".
Dubliner Paul O'Connor, a film-maker, who is one of the founding members of the Welsh link and works with Ms Murphy, said she had been taken to the Giv'on immigration detention centre in Ramle, along with other women while the men are being held at Eyal.
"I spoke to Dee on Friday. Israeli authorities diverted the plane to a different terminal and they surrounded it by police -- there were about 60 police officers lined up with handcuffs when they arrived," he said.
Overcrowded
"About 30 of the women were then taken to a room, and then the phone died -- I presume it was taken off her -- but I got some news through the Irish ambassador for Israel, Breifne O'Reilly, who said he had visited them over the weekend and they were in high spirits.
Paul (42) said that he understood the mother-of-three was being kept in a room with seven other detainees.
"It's overcrowded and at this time of the year, it would be stifling," he said.
Read more
Monday, 18 July 2011
Evening Post:Imprisoned women film their jail ordeal
South Wales Evening Post
A hidden video camera recorded the daily life of two Swansea women behind bars in an Israeli prison.Council worker Fiona Williams, of Mumbles, who returned to the city on Thursday was one of a group of a dozen UK activists to travel to the country in protest against the blockade of Palestine.
Book-keeper D Murphy, of Mount Pleasant, was also detained on her arrival at Ben Guirion airport in Tel Aviv despite breaking no laws.The women managed to smuggle out the recorded video moments of their six nights locked up in the high security prison in Israel.The video clips shows how Miss Williams was forced to scrub the prison floors in exchange for food.Life inside the hot cells and tense interactions with the Israeli guards were all captured.
The images will form part of a documentary being produced about the attempt by the Swansea women to challenge the Israeli blockade of the West Bank.
Read more
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Pro-Palestine ‘flytilla’ activists vow to return to Middle East
FOUR pro-Palestine activists from Wales who were detained in Israel last night vowed a return to the Middle East after staging hunger strikes and enduring hot and cramped conditions in jail.
The women were the only remaining British detainees from a so-called “flytilla” protest who had been arrested when they arrived at Tel Aviv airport a week ago.
Pippa Bartolotti, 57, the deputy leader of the Wales Green Party; Dee Murphy, 56, from Swansea, a founder member of Swansea Palestine Community Link; Fiona Williams, 46, from Mumbles; and Joyce Giblin from Newport were among 124 people arrested on their way to the West Bank
They were part of a “flytilla” protest in response to flotilla of ships being prevented by Greece from sailing to the Gaza Strip in a bid to break the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory.
Click here to find out more!
After being arrested, the women had resisted deportation from Givon prison in Ramle and Ms Williams and Ms Murphy had briefly gone on hunger strike in solidarity with male detainees who were denied a phone call.
The Welsh women, alongside one other German woman, were the last people to leave the jail.
Now Ms Murphy has spoken about her week in captivity and explained she still doesn’t know what crime the group committed.And she said she was ready to return to Israel – despite running the risk of being arrested again.An hour after arriving at her home in Swansea yesterday, Ms Murphy said: “I’m absolutely determined. I can’t see how but I know I’m going to find a way.
“If we take this lying down those people in the West Bank have lost more friends. They have lost enough.”
She said they were detained as soon as they handed over their passports.
“We were never given a reason,” said Ms Murphy. “We asked again and again what law have we broken, what crime have we committed, why are we in this deportation centre?
“We were never given an answer. We don’t really know now.
“The Israelis said we were in transit and we weren’t actually in Israel which is why we didn’t have normal detainee rights.
“We weren’t allowed phone calls or food to be brought in because we were not in Israel they said.”
Ms Murphy said she believed had the group been less honest about their intentions they would have been successful, something she emphasised with a T-shirt protest in jail.“If you knew the average age of the group... it was about 55 to 60 including a lot of retirees and old people,” she said. “They gave us T-shirts and I wrote on mine: ‘I’m in an Israeli jail because I refuse to lie’.
“If I had said I was on a Christian pilgrimage I would have got through. Of course it is political.”
The flytilla party was heading for the Aida Palestinian refugee camp where a week of activities had been specially organised for them.
Ms Murphy said: “If they had said: ‘Go to Bethlehem [in the Israeli occupied West Bank],’ none of this was going to happen.
“This was a week of cultural activities at the Aida refugee camp.
“They were looking forward to us coming and had organised for us to stay with Palestinian families and put on a hall for overspill. Everything was in place, it was heart-breaking.”
Conditions in the prison were cramped at first with between six and eight people sleeping in the same cell. “I don’t want to dramatise it,” Ms Murphy said. “It was basic. We had a shower in a room. It was warm and we had toilets in the room – it wasn’t very pleasant.”
The prisoners’ road home began when the fellow German female prisoner was put in front of an Israeli judge at her request.
She was told she had been held because she had come to Israel to provoke and was duly deported.
Ms Murphy said the group felt it was “closure” by getting into court and in front of a judge and that paved the way to go home.
“There was kind of a feeling of closure. I spoke to my lawyer. He said: ‘She has been the test case for you. To stay now you will only get the same results.’
“I’m just so glad to get out of there.”
Read More
Friday, 15 July 2011
Legal challenges start against Israel
Both the women from Swansea are now back home safely. D Murphy arrived at lunchtime today, tired but still determined. She stayed behind in the prison to support a woman who was taking a legal action to challenge the deportation.
No reason or charges have been given for detaining 124 people for up to 6 days in prison. Now Israel is claiming that the people didn't actually enter Israel as they were all still classed as 'in transit'. The court case could take months to work it's way through the system but the women are determined to see it through.
Photo: In D's passport is stamped ENTRY DENIED.
No reason or charges have been given for detaining 124 people for up to 6 days in prison. Now Israel is claiming that the people didn't actually enter Israel as they were all still classed as 'in transit'. The court case could take months to work it's way through the system but the women are determined to see it through.
Photo: In D's passport is stamped ENTRY DENIED.
Secret camera captures life of Swansea women in Israeli prison
The secret life of Swansea women behind bars in an Israeli prison. Using a hidden video camera, Swansea women recorded their 6 nights locked up in a high security prison in Israel. Stopped at Tel Aviv airport last Friday the 2 Swansea women alongside 122 other EU nationals were imprisoned despite breaking no laws.
Last year Israeli forces performed a raid on the hospital wing of Ramla prison 25 detainees residing in the hospital wing for treatment of chronic illnesses were searched for mobile phones and other communication devices.One of the patients testified for the ministry, and called the search "barbaric," explaining that most of the belongings of the detainees in the ward were broken.
So getting a hidden camera into the Prison was tough decision but one we felt was worth the risk.
Video footage and video stills are available for broadcast, Please contact paulo@undercurrents.org or 07973 298359
The video clips shows how Fiona Williams, a mum from Wales was forced to scrub the prison floors in exchange for food.
Life inside the hot cells, metal doors slamming and tense interactions with the Israeli guards were all captured. The images will form part of a documentary being produced about the attempt by Welsh women to challenge the Israeli blockade of the West Bank. The documentary will be released later this year.
Last year Israeli forces performed a raid on the hospital wing of Ramla prison 25 detainees residing in the hospital wing for treatment of chronic illnesses were searched for mobile phones and other communication devices.One of the patients testified for the ministry, and called the search "barbaric," explaining that most of the belongings of the detainees in the ward were broken.
So getting a hidden camera into the Prison was tough decision but one we felt was worth the risk.
Video footage and video stills are available for broadcast, Please contact paulo@undercurrents.org or 07973 298359
The video clips shows how Fiona Williams, a mum from Wales was forced to scrub the prison floors in exchange for food.
Life inside the hot cells, metal doors slamming and tense interactions with the Israeli guards were all captured. The images will form part of a documentary being produced about the attempt by Welsh women to challenge the Israeli blockade of the West Bank. The documentary will be released later this year.
Thursday, 14 July 2011
ITV Wales: 'Flytilla' women home
A group of women from Wales are back home tonight after they tried to go to Gaza to highlight the issues between Israel and Palestine but ended up in prison.It took six days for them to be released and they never got the chance to enter the Country. TV report by: Nicola Hendy
Using secretly recorded footage inside the prison on ITV report http://www.itv.com/wales/flytilla-women-home96302/
Using secretly recorded footage inside the prison on ITV report http://www.itv.com/wales/flytilla-women-home96302/
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