In response to the Lebanon/Gaza crisis, Justice Not Vengeance and Hastings Against War held a highly successful vigil/stall in the centre of Hastings yesterday (Friday 21 July).

Hastings is not known as a very radical town, but we had 73 signatures on our 'Stop Israel' petition in an hour. (After feedback, we would probably have done better to write 'Israel: STOP!' which has less ambiguity and no possibility for someone to think we were for the abolition of Israel, which was not what we were petitioning about.)

Petition text:
'Stop Israel's Assault On Lebanon And Gaza
To [insert name of MP]
Please ask Tony Blair to call for an immediate ceasefire by Israel,
whose overreaction to the kidnapping of three of its soldiers has
caused billions of dollars worth of damage, and killed hundreds of
civilians. Please also ask the Prime Minister to ban arms sales to
Israel, which is in an area of conflict and instability, and therefore
not suitable for arms exports according to Government guidelines.'

You can download the pdf of the petition from JNV www.j-n-v.org

After two days' mobilizing (mostly by Rona of Hastings Against War) we had a dozen supporters staffing the stall, handing out leaflets and holding up big signs ('Stop Israel').

On the stall we had leaflets, anti-war briefings about Gaza and Lebanon, the petition and a big sign also saying 'Stop Israel'. The leaflet, briefings and petition can all be downloaded from the JNV site also.

The focus of the materials was two-fold: Britain to stop blocking the call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to British arms sales to Israel.

Personally, I encountered two or three people who actually said they disagreed with us, and dozens of folk who took leaflets, quite clearly knowing what it was about - and therefore supportive. (I was wearing a 'Stop Israel: sign the petition' sign on my chest.)

It felt like there was a real passion in people, a real pressure out there to _do something_ to try to oppose this brutality.

There is a further JNV/HAW protest outside the Israeli-Britain tennis match at Devonshire Park Centre in Eastbourne on Sunday (College Road, Eastbourne, few minutes from train station, 11am-1.30pm)

CONCLUSION
Our short event demonstrated to us that there is an enormous untapped anger about what Israel is doing, and - it appeared to me anyway - a majority opposed to both Israeli aggression and Tony Blair's complicity in it.

The challenge for anti-war organisers is to develop ways to channel that anger into political pressure, and to educate people about Israeli policy.