Palestine Think Tank

WRITTEN BY IQBAL TAMIMI
During my quest to help my journalist colleagues working in Gaza who are suffering all kinds of pressures, and in an attempt to twin between the media in Gaza and our city of Bristol I have found out few things that I want to share with other colleagues who want to offer their support in any possible way to the journalists of Gaza and who care about bringing an extra human effort to our city of Bristol which has already shown tremendous support and solidarity to Palestinians, especially during and after the Israeli attack on Gaza. Bristolians participated in many ways including sending two aid convoys lead by two Bristolians, Mohammad El-Haddad and Shaker Yeldriem. A group of interested people have come together to investigate the possibility of building links between Bristol and Palestine.

During the first meeting held on Monday 8 May 2009 we had on board Dr Mohammad Odeh from UWE, head of the Arab Forum in Bristol which is going to be launched on the 17th of July in Bristol, this event will host many speakers and traditional Palestinian songs, food, music, and many other activities besides. Dr Odeh talked about the importance of public awareness regarding the history of Palestine, and the urgency to secure scholarships for Palestinian students to further their studies under horrific circumstances.

Another prominent participant in the twinning on behalf of the people working in the medical field was Dr Chris Burns-Cox (Retired NHS Consultant) who went on hunger strike in Egypt because he was banned along with others from entering Gaza to offer their help to the injured people in Gaza in urgent need of medical care. We have also the following personalities working on the twinning initiative:

Jeremy Clarke (Bristol Stop The War Coalition)

Rowland Dye, a teacher and a filmmaker who has done frequent visits to help Palestinians during the seasons of olive harvesting (Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign).

Owain Shearman (Public & Commercial Services Union – HMRC Bristol Taxes Branch)

Jane Collins (Twinning With Palestine)

Mohammad El-Haddad (UK Arabic Society)

Jo Benefield (Bristol Defend Asylum Seekers Campaign)

Artist Cliff Hanley (Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign)

Michelle Wren + 1 (Circus For Palestine) who has just returned from the West Bank where she was on a tour with the Circus and has brought back lots of feedback about Palestinian, children especially those with disabilities.

Lia Young (Bristol Quakers)

Carol Meghi – International Officer, UWE Unison Branch

Lisa Gunton (City Academy)

Paula, a teacher

Anthea Page (Dialect Radio)

Paulette North (City Academy & Bristol National Union of Teachers)

Iqbal Tamimi, an exiled Palestinian journalist and creator of online International Palestinian Mothers Network, member of NUJ branch of Bristol

Ruth Davey (Christian Aid)

Danyul Laskar (Bristol Muslim Cultural Society)

Alistair Oldham (Film Lecturer – UWE)

David Mowat  (Quaker & Musician)

And a number of students from Bristol schools

The following people sent their apologies:

Cllr Barbara Janke – Bristol City Council

Glen Burrowes (Rail Marine & Transport Union – Bristol Rail Branch)

Nella Stokes – City Of Bristol College

John Drake – South West Regional Secretary, Fire Brigades Union

Kevin Beazer – South West Regional Secretary, Communication Workers Union

Sakir Yildirim – participant in Viva Palestina! convoy

The following people were invited and since the meeting have confirmed an interest in the project:

Jon House – Deputy Chief Executive, Bristol City Council

Cllr Helen Holland – Bristol City Council

The next meeting will be on Monday July 6th at 1 pm, again in the Sunshine Room at Easton Community Centre, Kilburn Square, BS5 6AQ. We hope that many more people interested in twinning with Palestine will be present. Please feel free to join and invite anyone else who you think may be interested in the project

Jeremy Clarke introduced and chaired the meeting, stressing that what was being proposed was a project to build grass-roots links between groups and organisations in Bristol and similar groups and organisations in Palestine with the hope that eventually this may develop into some formal link between the city of Bristol and somewhere in Palestine. There followed a discussion among the attendees which demonstrated that there was considerable energy and enthusiasm for this project. There were suggestions that links should be attempted in a number of areas: 

Cultural – radio, film, performance

Education

Sport

Health & Medicine

Trade unions 

It was agreed that each of these would best be pursued through smaller meetings involving organisations and individuals interested in the specific areas. 

It was recognised that it was important to initially identify a place/area in Palestine with which links should be attempted. Suggestions made were Khan Younis (Gaza), Gaza City, Gaza Strip & Al Quds (East Jerusalem). After a hurried discussion towards the end of the meeting a vote was taken between Khan Younis & Al Quds with Gaza strip winning. To ensure an informed and accepted choice it will be necessary to re-visit this discussion at our next meeting. Proposers of each place/area have been asked to prepare a brief description of the place/area covering – location, population, industry/agriculture (if any), cultural organisations, educational organisations, any other relevant info.

It was recognised that after the next meeting it would be useful to set up a facility via the internet enabling those involved in the project to easily communicate with each other.

Those present undertook to report back to their groups/organisations and where possible to invite other interested groups/organisations to the next meeting. David Mowat said he would be reporting back to the Bristol Diocese (Church Of England).

Abdul Malik (Councillor) was thanked for his donation covering the costs of the meeting.

Media wise…and regarding Radio stations in Gaza:

There are 11 local radio stations in the 450 square meters Gaza, all of them are struggling to keep their services running under immensely difficult situation especially with the Israeli continuous siege that they can’t import any equipment or replace broken or consumed parts. In a joint effort they managed to create a Union for Palestinian Broadcasters due to the fact that the Palestinian Syndicate of journalists based in the West Bank is almost dormant with no elections since almost 10 years.

The radio stations are as follows:

1-      Alaqsa, providing news and social programs. The head of Alaqsa radio is Ibrahim Thaher, his e mail is daher_fm@hotmail.com and his mobile number is: 00970599333097 

2-      Alquds, (102.7 fm) providing news and social support, independent. Director is Saleh Suleiman El-Masry who is on the board of the Palestinian Union of Broadcasters. His mobile number is 00972599429810 and his e mail is: pin059@hotmail.com

3-      AlShaab, news (The national front to liberate Palestine).

4-      Almanar, (independent, owned by Talal Abu Rahmeh).

5-      AlEman, (independent) weak signal.

6-      Alburaq, (independent) weak signal.

7-      Gaza FM, (entertainment and songs).

8-      Furasn El-Erada, (aiming for the disabled) weak signal.

9-      Falasteen, (belongs to the government of Ramallah).

Osama Alkahlout 00970599852060 a young film producer proposed creating a training project named (The Centre of Free Media and Society Development), but it seems as though they got permission to go ahead by the Home Office of Ramallah, they could not open a bank account in Gaza to facilitate their charity project since there are orders from the PA not to open any bank accounts for charity establishments in Gaza, hence there is no way to handle the payments for licences. He said that trainees in media need equipment and training. There are media colleagues but the graduates hardly get any practical training, since every university have a maximum of 4 computer sets only and one Montage set for training in each.

Regarding newspapers, only two are printed in Gaza, one belongs to Hamas and another called Alistqlal belongs to Islamic Jihad. The rest of the newspapers like Alayyam, and Alquds are printed in the West Bank and distributed in Gaza.