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'palestine place' is a newly transformed abandoned building in gray's inn road near chancery lane tube station. it opened to the public yesterday, after seeing off an unlawful eviction attempt from the police the day before.

the new radical space will host a packed programme of events over the next two weeks to support palestine at a time of ever increasing repression and violence from occupying forces. there will be film screenings, lectures, workshops, cultural events, and direct actions.

the mission statement for palestine place calls for solidarity with the three basic demands of palestinian civil society and their call for a boycott of israel known as the 'BDS movement" (boycott, divestment and sanctions) www.bdsmovement.net

i sat in on a short but very informative "introduction to israeli apartheid and BDS" workshop, and this was followed by a live skype link-up with khader adnan who held a 66 day hunger strike against his "administrative detention". he spoke of the israeli system of military detentions which are only parallelled wordwide at guantanamo bay, and are completely unlawful under human rights and international laws. his own actions inspired a mass hunger strike of around 1600 people that began in april. one of those on strike is the footballer, mahmoud sarsak, who is now on his 78th day without food.

more than 50 people took part in the video link-up, and khader was visibly moved by the show of solidarity. he asked if there was a possibility of an action specifically to support mahmoud sarsak, and as a result, there is a call-out for people to come to palestine place for a football themed protest on tuesday at noon, bringing football shirts if possible (follow #letsarsaklive on twitter).

the private security company G4S provides equipment to the israeli prisons that hold palestinian political prisoners and children. meet at the london stock exchange at 12.30 on june 7th to take part in a protest targetting their annual general meeting. there's a planning meeting on tuesday afternoon for this.

the centre is organised by a loose collaboration of individuals and everyone is welcome to come and help, offer ideas, organise events, and participate in workshops and screenings.

for up to date events listings, see the website at www.palestineplace.wordpress.com