Four great Edinburgh bands have committed to support the campaign to get Edinburgh twinned with Gaza, taking no fee for performing at the second-ever free Gig for Gaza in Prince’s Street Gardens on Jubilee day– Friday, 3rd June, from 7-10pm.
The Edina-Gaza Twinning Association are hosting this “Gig for Gaza” at the Ross Theatre in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens. It will be an open-air event and free to all. Bring a brolly in case it rains (like it did for our last Gig for Gaza in 2019). No tickets needed- just turn up! The event is on Facebook at https://fb.me/e/xjYTKE2KD – let us know there if you’ll be coming.
The GIG FOR GAZA is now available to view at https://youtu.be/21cd0efDXds or www.tinyurl.com/gazagig
The video is introduced by Mohammed Almadhoun of the Take my Hand Educational Centre in Gaza.
The gig kicked off with Frankie Gallacher introducing SUFFRAJITSU (at 5 min), followed by PETE GREGSON (at 24.5 min), TOMMY SHEPPARD MP (at 27 min), then JUNKMAN’S CHOIR (at 30.5 min), then JURGEN WOLF of RESIST (at 53.5 min), then the STONED HOLY ROLLERS (at 56.5 min) and finally the JENNIFER EWAN BAND (at 1hr 23 min).
There was a bucket collection (suggested donation £10) which will help pay for the event, with the first surplus of £300 going to the Edina-Gaza Twinning Association and the remainder going to Medical Aid for Palestine.
Download the flyer for the event by clicking here
Bands booked for the evening are:
The Jennifer Ewan Band – (formerly Jen and the Gents) see what their music is like here
Top of the bill are the Jennifer Ewan Band (formerly Jen and the Gents), renowned for their hit album “Portobello” and two Eps. The Jennifer Ewan Band were reviewed by Janice Forsyth, BBC Radio Scotland, who declared of Jen- “Just brilliant… music of the highest quality… a Scottish rising star”
The Band will perform a stirring mix of Louisiana blues, heart felt original songs and Cajun dance music with a Celtic tint.
The Stoned Holy Rollers – see what their music is like at the 2019 Gig for Gaza here
Playing before Jen are the Stoned Holy Rollers, who Rob Ellen describes as “a good time high energy highly accomplished guitar and Hammond driven Surf Cowpunk band (think Dick Dale meets Hank Williams)” [Rob Ellen).
Junkman’s Choir – see what their music is like here
Junkman’s Choir are a two man band with a global sound; playing a mix of Cajun, country sea shanties, rockin’ reels and spinning some twists and turns on the works of Rabbie Burns.
Suffrajitsu – see what their music is like here
And kicking off the evening are Suffrajitsu, an all-woman punky feminist band from the Girls Rock School Edinburgh, whose seminal “You Don’t Need a Cock to Rock” will surely have our Prince’s St Jubilee-jaywalkers wondering what the world is coming to.
A late addition is Tarot Nakba who hails from Dorset and is travelling to Edinburgh especially to perform his 4-minute song/poem ‘The Daughter of Jerusalem’ about Shireen Abu Akleh, the journalist recently murdered by the Israel Occupation Force.
The event will be promoted to Gaza, where local media stations have been promoting the gig to the two million people trapped and isolated there, kept from the outside world by Israel through military siege for the past 15 years, bombed again just a month ago, for its part in encouraging the Al Aqsa Palestinian uprising in nearby Jerusalem.
Speakers saying a few words to Edinburgh and Gaza will be Tommy Sheppard MP who has supported the Council petition for twinning since it was launched by Pete Gregson in April 2019. (Pete is also Chair of the Edina-Gaza Twinning Association.) He will be joined by a speaker from Gaza, Mohammed Almadhoun who is a volunteer who manages the Take My Hand Educational Charity in Gaza, which he set up. You can read all about it at Help Gazan Orphans to Learn | Chuffed | Non-profit charity and social enterprise fundraising. He will talk about how much people in Gaza value expressions of solidarity and how his children really value the online Zoom English classes they are going to get from the Edina-Gaza Twinning Association volunteers.
Mohammed will be followed by a few words from either Jurgen or Sian from RESIST. The gig will be compered by local stand-up Frankie Gallacher.
Sound by Banana Row – with an 1100 watt PA
There will be a bucket collection and profits will go to Medical Aid for Palestine– see their recent video of Gaza One Year On , following the Israeli bombing on May 2021; the most severe military offensive on Gaza since 2014.
There will be a stall by the Edina Gaza Twinning Association stall for Refreshments ( juice, crisps, snacks, etc) and info on how to join. We must thank Global Foods Edinburgh for sponsoring our food stall (visit their great store at 1A Norton Park Norton Park Unit 1A, Edinburgh EH7 5RS)
RESIST (Movement for a People’s Party), who have supported the twinning campaign throughout, will have a stall too, with Jurgen and Sian giving out information about this new political initiative.
There will be a stall from Hadeel, the Palestinian shop in George Street- they will be selling produce and textiles from Palestine.
To be filmed and livestreamed on Facebook
Photography by Tomáš Vostrejž
More info- contact info@twingaza.com
Volunteer to Help Out at the Gig/ lobby for twinning?
If you want to help us steward the event, it would be really helpful- if you are interested in helping out, please email the organiser Pete Gregson at info@twingaza.com And if you want to help lobby your local Councillor to get twinning, get in touch at the same email address.
Here are the Stoned Holy Rollers playing at the last Gig for Gaza in the Ross Theatre in 2019:
Why we are holding this event
The event is being held to focus minds on the campaign to get Edinburgh twinned with Gaza in Palestine.
A new Council has been elected since the twinning matter was last in focus with our local authority on the 29th March and the petitioner for twinning, Pete Gregson, wants to ensure our 29 new Councillors are aware of his 3-year campaign with the 362 Edinburghers who co-signed the petition. He is hopeful that the new Labour Administration at the Council will be supportive. He calculates 60% of Labour Cllrs would support twinning, 80% of the SNP will; 100% of the Greens will – and the leader of the Lib Dems, Cllr Robert Aldridge, who is also Lord Provost, seems supportive.
He has known Cammy Day, the Labour leader, since 1995- Cammy was a youth worker in Muirhouse when the charity Pete ran, Young People Speak Out (YPSO) were doing video projects there. Pete has asked Cammy to take a look at this article ‘I Dream of Being Free’: Gaza Youth Speak Out (VIDEO) – Palestine Chronicle
Also Pete offered Cammy assistance and support at Labour Party meetings when he was under fire from Labourists three years ago – activists were angry at Cammy for working with the SNP (before Pete left Labour, after being suspended for criticising Israel, after putting in 38 years of activism).
The Key Cllrs for us are now these folk: www.twingaza.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Key-Cllrs-May-2022.pdf – these are the ones who will make or break the twinning- you’ll see all the Labour ones there, plus the few Lib Dems and Conservatives that have been “bribed” with convenorships in order to secure support. We’ve also added Party leaders. If you live in Edinburgh, check if you live in the wards of any of these Cllrs, please write to them at their Council email address. The Who Can I Vote For? site will tell you which ward you are in and who your Councillors are. But don’t use the email addresses you see there; use their new official email addresses as per the Key Cllrs download above. Writing to them just a brief email asking them if they support twinning. If you want to say more, pick bits out of the template letter at What you can do – Twin Edinburgh with Gaza (twingaza.com)
Regarding the SNP, the biggest group at the Council, Pete says “I think the SNP are also coming round to the idea of twinning; I think they are sensitive to the evils of colonisation and, like the Irish, see a parallel between Israel’s colonisation of Palestine and England’s colonial rule of world affairs, not least its role in foisting Israel on Palestine itself. I hasten to point out that Arthur Balfour, creator of Israel in 1917, hailed from Edinburgh – so I consider Edinburgh to be an appropriate choice for beginning to address historical wrongs to the Palestinians.”
The petitioner, Pete Gregson, gave a talk on the twinning project at the Al-Awda Rising to Return conference in New York on 8th May 2022 . View his illustrated presentation “Entrepreneurs, innovators & Techies for Palestinian Sovereignty” at www.tiny.one/paltalk (30 mins)
Twinning will encourage our Council to tell the US consul in Edinburgh that Israel uses US rockets to destroy US Aid Projects in Gaza; the Americans don’t seem to care: more in this Intercept article
Next Policy Committee meeting?
We are hoping that the newly elected Edinburgh City Councillors will agree to discuss the petition to get Edinburgh twinned with Gaza City at a future Council Policy Committee meeting. We hope they will accept the legal advice that they they requested from us, provided by Michael Mansfield QC on the 22nd April as follows:
This information was passed onto Nick Smith, head of Legal at Edinburgh Council. We await a decision as to whether it will be accepted and the Councillors advised that it is safe to add the twinning matter to their agenda. See this post to appreciate why they may be fearful: Edinburgh Council pulls Gaza twinning from agenda after Israeli pressure – Twin Edinburgh with Gaza (twingaza.com)
On 1st June, the Council released this statement:
“The city of Edinburgh Council are still taking legal advice in the petition and on the assumption it can be heard it will be brought back before a future policy and sustainability committee later this year.”
One Good Reason why you should support Palestine
In mid-May, Israeli soldiers murdered a renowned Palestinian journalist. Read about her at Shireen Abu Akleh – Wikipedia
Donate to a Good Cause- help Gazan orphans to learn
The Take my Hand charity needs your cash.. See more at https://chuffed.org/project/help-gazan-orphans-to-learn
Music from Gaza Camp on Facebook