Many of us joined the demonstration marking the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) this weekend in London. The demo showed that there is still widespreade support for the Palestinian people amongst the general British populace. However, two things of sad importance should be noted:
Firstly, the march was much smaller than those held just before the Iraq invasion (when Palestine was thrown into the limelight) and the one two years ago during the invasion of Lebanon by Zionist troops.
Secondly, there are no further widespread demos organised in the foreseeable future.

If we are to build (rebuild?) the Palestine solidarity movement and make it effective, we must move beyond having just the yearly stroll from Temple to Trafalgar and hold events on a more perminent basis. Furthermore, such demonstrations must take place against Britain's strong links to Israel, as this is the state that we live in and the one that we can and must hold to account.

For the past 7 years there have been ongoing weekly demonstrations against Britain's biggest retail sponsor of Israel - Marks and Spencer. These have been taking place every week outside the company's flagship store on Oxford St. This Thursday we will be holding a special Street University at the store from 6pm to 8pm to mark the 60th anniversary of the Nakba. The event will include speeches, music, poetry and street theatre. Come along and join us in ongoing action - this Thursday and the same time every week! Details of M&S's links to the Zionists stae are below:

Why boycott M&S? Because M&S …

• is the biggest British retail corporate sponsor of the Israeli state and funds the brutal, racist occupation of Palestine.

• supports Israel with £240 million in trade each year (Jewish Chronicle, 8/12/2000) and sells goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements.

• advocated ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians: “large sections of the Arab population of Palestine should be transplanted to Iraq and other Middle Eastern States” (Israel Sieff, M&S chairman - reported in the Jewish Chronicle 21/09/1941)

• sees “aiding the economic development of Israel as one of its fundamental objectives” (Marcus Sieff, M&S chairman, Management: The M&S Way, 1990)

• “was prominent, even essential from the 1960s to the 1980s… partly because of its strong links to Zionism; and partly for its success in getting Israeli goods to the British market place” (Barry Kosmin, cited in the Jerusalem Report 5/6/2000)

• was a key diplomatic ally for Zionism in the 1920s to 1940s, working closely with Chaim Weizmann of the World Zionist Organisation (Israel’s first President)

• is “as close to Israel today as it has even been” (M&S Spokesperson, Jewish Chronicle, 22/12/ 2000)