see attached leaflet

Please try and make this protest on Saturday, the initiative has come from Palestinians living in Newcastle, and is being supported so far by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, PSC, Stop the War and many others. Let's make this just the beginning of a renewed wave of resistance on the streets of Britain. In Palestine there has been talk of a third intifada, we have a duty living in a heartland of imperialism to also play our role.

There will also be a picket of Marks and Spencer on Northumberland Street over their support for Israel this Friday at 2pm, where we will be building for the protest on Saturday, and next Tuesday at 7pm (venue to be confirmed soon) we will be holding an open forum where everyone is welcome to come and discuss the situation in Palestine and how we take things forward in Newcastle. Hope to see you there!

Tom
FRFI North East

im planning on comming from the borders with mates should be good

I'll be coming also, time to dust down the old black flag

NO PARASAN - VICTORY TO THE INTIFADA

I'll be attending the protest on Saturday and I agree with a boycott of Israeli goods but I'm concerned about people singling Marks and Sparks out for a protest. Marks and Spencer's claim they have now stopped buying goods from the West Bank, see:
 http://stephensizer.blogspot.com/2008/11/victory-over-israeli-settlements-marks.html

They still buy goods from Israel proper but so does half the high street including Sainsbury's and Waitrose. Does anybody have reasons for continuing to protest outside Marks and Sparks given they appear to be similar to other shops? I know the company has had historical links with pro zionist groups but the links seem to have diminished over time. I had a very quick google search on links between Marks and Sparks and Israel and the links mentioned are around 1999 and 2000 and nothing more recently.

I could be really wrong about this but I am concerned that we could be protesting outside of a store largely because of its history rather than present reality.

As recently as December 2004 M&S Chief Executive Stuart Rose appeared alongside the British and Israeli ambassadors as the guest speaker at the annual dinner of the British-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, suggesting they are still pretty central to Britain's support for Israel. They have been a lot more coy about publicising their links to Israel since they began to be targeted for protests after the start of the Second Intifada (compared for example to an M&S spokesperson's assertion in the Jewish Chroncicle in 2000 that they were 'as close to Israel as we have ever been', or their receipt of Israel's prestigious Jubilee Award in 1998 for the company's services to Israel), but are still an important target as a British company with historical and ongoing support for Israel. The fact that other companies and insitutions in Britain also support Israel in various ways doesn't deligitimise protests against M&S. If you go to one of the pickets I think you'll find that the protests don't talk about the role of M&S in isolation, but as an accessible and concrete focal point for opposing ALL British support for Israel.