A regular Saturday picket of Marks & Spencer in Manchester was attacked last weekend (3rd July) by an organised group of thugs. They assaulted some of the picketers, grabbing leaflets out of their hands, attempted to turn over the campaign stall and destroyed some placards. The attack lasted for over quarter of an hour before police eventually arrived on the scene.
The picket has been a regular presence outside M & S in protest at the relationship between the company and the Israeli state. According to the Jerusalem Report (5 June 2000) Marks & Spencer support Israel to the tune of approximately $233 million in trade every year. The picketers are calling for a boycott of M&S whilst the 'special relationship' continues and Israel maintains its military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
The picket has not been without incident. Only a week earlier two men were detained by police officers outside the store for possessing imitation firearms, in reality toy guns which were being used as props for mock military checkpoints. In March two people were prosecuted for 'affixing placards to council property' and 'depositing a paste table on the highway without lawful authority or excuse’ outside the store. Marks & Spencer are now reported to be planning on bringing anti-social behaviour orders against the picketers.
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link
12.07.2004 12:52
Please follow this link to the debate on indymedia on the issue of the attack and the Picket of Marks and Spencer
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/manchester/2004/07/294706.html
Arab on the Loose
whats going on?
12.07.2004 15:22
anarch
Continue the picket
17.07.2004 05:39
I live in Canada but spent my first 20 years in Manchester...Last Dec. I went to the West Bank with an international group of human rights activists. Our visit was in Palestine & Israel.
What is happening to the Palestinians is a slow genocide---there are definite parellels between their treatment at the hands of the IDF/Govt of Israel and the treatment of the Jews under Hitler.The dehumanization, poverty & violence we saw we truly horrifying. the Palestinians have the impression that the world has forgotten them.
I am a Jew. My own grandmother died in Auschwitz...many members of my family were murdered. When I come to Manchester this autumn, I will join you on the picket-line.
in solidarity.,
Rose Marie
PS Re: the IDF guys in the UK. There's an international campaign on behalf of Israel for young people to help defend the Jewish homeland. When I was in the Middle East, I kept seeing young kids from Cleveland, Ohio, Rome,even Hertfordshire in IDF uniform. They
are there "defending' the homeland, except that they have no vested interest in the area.
It is a most dangerous practice & predictably, attracts the reactionary, violent elements in the Jewish communities--the thugs you speak of.
Rose Marie
Marie!!
20.07.2004 11:33
Izzy Ajioc
Palestine -an essay to change your life.
02.08.2004 16:20
If you want to know more about the Israel/Palestine issue, I recommend an essay by the late and very great Edaward Said, 'Dignity, Solidarity and the Penal Colony'. The essay appears in a collection edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, "The Politics of Anti-Semitism". The collection also includes an essay by Robert Fisk.
Yakoub
e-mail: yakoub@bayyinat.org.uk
Homepage: http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/tasneem.htm
Rose Mary is a Liar
20.02.2005 18:05
You are 1359784736549607-s fake"Jew. who's grandmother died in Auschwitz"".
That's enough liars and fake-jews. on this propaganda site.
Huanita
Huanita, fuck off you fundie slut.
15.03.2005 15:45
You are obviously to retarded to realise that what Israel is doing to palistinians is exactly the same things that the nazis did to jews - and not just to the jews either as you fundie freaks forget.
You fundies, be you jew, christian or muslim, are a theat to yourselves and others and should be commited in a mental home.
If you don't like this site, fuck off. Fundies are not welcome here. EVER.
anti-facist
hahaha
24.04.2005 12:55
sexist fascist 'anti-fascist'
reply to anti-fascist
06.07.2005 23:34
Hence, whoever says the Israelis are like the nazis is just purely anti-semitic.
Someone who actually tolerates others