Following the publication by Edinburgh Evening News of their article on Edinburgh Council’s behaviour at Policy Committee on the 30th August, supporters have been writing letters to the editor commenting on the Council’s attitude. [The Eve News article can also be read as a pdf here]
NOTE: The fullest explanation of what took place that day can be found at Edinburgh City Council to explore partner projects with Gaza – Redress Information & Analysis (redressonline.com)
PUBLISHED IN THE EVENING NEWS ON 5TH SEPT 2022
Dear Sir,
Several days before the proposal to twin Edinburgh with Gaza came to the Policy Committee I was one of five people invited to present a deputation for up to ten minutes; the day before the meeting we received a request to cut it to five. At the last minute it was decided not to hear any of us – very poor public relations for the City of Edinburgh and particularly rude to the Mayor of Gaza himself.
Gaza has existed since at least the 15th century BC. Edinburgh has been the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century AD. Two proud seaside cities with populations of rather over half a million. Gaza is known for too many negative things; I hope its future relationship with Edinburgh will help it be famous for its hand-woven carpets, wicker furniture, pottery and fresh seafood. Gaza has a very young population, with 75% under the age of 25; these well-educated English-speaking young people have turned to IT as a way to beat the siege, making Gaza one of the cheapest places in the world to have a professional website built.
Some of your readers may be thinking “Of course we should support Palestine but now isn’t the right time for twinning with Gaza”; now is always the right time to make new friends. Britain keeps talking of a Two State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, but only recognises one of those states. Twinning is a way of beginning to put that right.
Twinning is never between politicians (of any party in either city); it is between two places and their peoples. When we in Derby travel to Hebron, and when we host visitors from our twin city, we do so in solidarity with those whose freedom has been denied by war, occupation and despair; but also in penitence for Britain’s broken promises and historic responsibility for injustice. We in Hebron and Derby commend this initiative.
From the Very Revd Geoffrey Marshall (a former Dean of Brecon Cathedral), Derby & Derbyshire Friends of Hebron (Convenor)
Dear Editor,
I write regarding your article of 30th August on the rejection of the petition to twin Edinburgh with Gaza. The Council’s handling of the petition completely undermines the petition process it put in place in 2012.
Firstly, soon after the petition was lodged three years ago after passing the threshold of 200 signatures necessary for Council consideration, the Council declared, without even acknowledging the petition, that there would be “no new twinning activity.”
Secondly, it removed the petition from its website.
Thirdly, it cancelled two earlier hearings of the petition, on one occasion without even informing the petitioner.
Fourthly, Councillors prevented both deputations and the petitioner from addressing the committee to put their case.
The Council has even been censured by the Scottish Information Commissioner for failing to respond to an FOI on the petition.
The Council may be in fear of claims of antisemitism. However, the petition is against the apartheid and aggressive practices of a political state and is not directed against any religious group. Very many Jews, including the Orthodox Jews within Israel itself, actively oppose the Israeli regime’s aggression against the Palestinian people. As Councillor Alex Staniforth noted in his plea for support for the twinning petition, Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people is “completely unacceptable.” 16 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel this month alone, while very many others also killed in Israel’s program of “mowing the lawn,” the metaphor it uses to describe its regular bombings of Gazan civilians in their homes.
Could the Council be in fear of direct threats by Israel? Edinburgh Councillors had been informed by UK Lawyers for Israel that they could face jail sentences if they even “negatively discussed” the twinning. These direct threats were based on the Israeli claim that to support Gaza entailed support for Hamas and was therefore illegal, but the Council had assurances from both Police Scotland and the renowned human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield that twinning with Gaza was perfectly legal.
Why, then, did Edinburgh Council go to such lengths to block the petition?
Yours sincerely,
Anne McDonald, Twin Gaza Steering Group
Dear Sir,
Edinburgh council’s decision yesterday to apologise for the historic colonial slavery was welcomed. Council leader Cammy Day expressed the, “commitment from the council to be progressive, open and honest about the history of Edinburgh”.
However, at the same council meeting, that sentiment was contradicted by his vote against the proposal to twin Edinburgh with the City of Gaza that is currently suffering from colonial Zionism which was instigated by the Scot, Arthur James Balfour (who lived next door to Edinburgh) in 1917.
Opposition to the colonial exploitation of a people and support for their human rights must be applied universally and not done selectively for political conveniency.
Regards,
John Mitchell, Elderslie, Renfrewshire.
Dear Madam, dear Sir,
On Tuesday we learned about the decision by the Edinburg Council to reject the twinning with Gaza as proposed by Pete Gregson. The Evening News ran the story today.
I am writing to you because I am one of the pro bono teachers providing English classes to young disadvantaged children in Gaza.
This project was initiated by the Edina-Gaza Twinning Association (EGTA). What greater way to build a bridge than to teach the youngest members of Palestinian society the world’s truly lingua franca: English!
On Tuesday the children, together with with “Take My Hand” president Mohammed Almadhoun, were waiting and looking forward to the invitation to address the Council. Alas.
They were so disappointed, and with it they felt a real sense of rejection. “Why does Edinburgh Council reject us?”, they asked. We told them the Council only listens to Israel, not to the Palestinian people. Rejected without having done anything wrong!!
I would like to state clearly and openly that I am amazed as well as horrified at the craven decision of the Council. Obviously, Palestinian human rights are completely irrelevant to the councillors. Edinburgh Councillors are clearly extremely fearful of Israel’s reaction if twinning with Gaza.
The Palestinians in Gaza live in what can only be described as a glorified concentration camp, a term used by Haaretz journalist and daughter of Holocaust survivors, Amira Hass, who lived in Gaza.
The Palestinian people as a whole have been subjected to a genocide, a Palestinicide, at an almost imperceptibly slow rate, in effect a “Slowocaust”.
Concentration camp, genocide, when was the last time these racist tools were used in combination? The survivors proclaimed: “NEVER AGAIN”.
Finally, I would like to say this on behalf of my pupils: thank you so much for kicking them back into that dark pit dug for them by the world’s only official and self-declared Apartheid ethno-supremacist state engaged in a 74-year old genocide.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Buyze, Sydney, Australia
Dear Editor
One wonders what the reaction would have been had the petition sought to twin with a city in a certain central European country. Had it sought to aid and show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, we would have seen not only the petition’s acceptance and the petitioner actually being permitted to speak in its favour, but the Palestinian flag would doubtless be flying proudly above the City Chambers alongside that of Ukraine.
The fact that Palestinians have endured a violation of their territorial integrity and all the horrors that go with it, not for a few months, but for going on seven decades is incidental, Gazans are not white, Christian Europeans and so are not worthy victims.
With the honourable exception of the Greens on the committee, the city’s elected officials have ably demonstrated their calibre and intellectual culture; both exist in the sewer.
Mike Hauxwell, Edinburgh
Dear Editor,
Twinning with Gaza is a brilliant idea. Why is this not happening ?
Israel is an apartheid state and twinning with Gaza with Edinburgh would give it great status. Plus the 2.5 million inhabitants of Gaza would know they are not forgotten!
Yours sincerely
Jean Sullivan, Cheshire
Dear Editor,
I am very sad to read that Edinburgh Councillors have decided against this project. I think they have shown their lack of humanity by refusing even to hear the speeches by the advocates. I had hoped Edinburgh would follow in the enlightened footsteps of Dundee, which established a link with Nablus back in the 1980s. The people of Gaza, trapped and defenceless, have suffered so much from Israeli aggression! The children of Gaza have known nothing all their lives but bombings, raids, killings, destruction, restrictions of water and electricity. It behoves us in the free West to extend a hand of friendship at the very least.
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Morley, Aberystwyth
To the Editor
The recent vote by Edinburgh council on the Twinning of Edinburgh with Gaza City, Palestine, was very disappointing, but completely expected.
Very disappointing as Twinning would have sent a much needed lifeline to the beleaguered people of Gaza, half of which are children, all of which suffer under 15 years of a brutal and inhumane siege. Israel controls all exits out of Gaza. The plight of Gaza is much worse than an open air prison as they are bombed and shot at on an almost daily basis. The twinning may have helped the children of Gaza who are dying every day. You must be commended for printing the words of Green councillor Alex Staniforth who said “This month 16 children died as a result of the siege on Gaza”.
Even the deaths of 16 children did not sway the hardened hearts of the councillors, they were probably afraid of Edinburgh council being dragged through the courts on a long costly legal battle. Lawyers for Israel are notorious for silencing support for Palestine by threats of legal action, a new tactic known widely as “Lawfare”.
Fear of being called anti-Semite probably added to the councillors’worries, another commonly used weapon to silence support for Palestine. Its effectiveness was well noted as the ranks of the Labour party were stripped of Palestine supporters, from the very top with the toppling of Jeremy Corbyn down to the rank and file. Ironically a lot of those expelled as anti-Semites, were themselves Jewish.
This last weapon’s use can be equated by me saying that “You won’t dare print this letter, because I have brown skin, therefore you must be a racist for not printing it!”
Yours sincerely
Mohammed Asif, Edinburgh
Sir,
The Twinning Initiative was not completely rejected – partnerships with Gazan projects will be considered as per the final motion’s wording, if you look at it carefully.
However, it is most regrettable that the main advocates for this initiative were excluded from speaking and participating.
To draw a necessary parallel, Labour Councils Boycotted Apartheid South Africa. Would it have been acceptable to denounce Peter Hain and Bishop Huddleston as anti-white hate-monger for espousing equal rights for black South Africans and lambasting the South African apartheid regime for its crimes against humanity? Would it have been acceptable to refuse to hear them?
Yet, Labour Councils and MPs collaborate with and are apologists for Israeli Apartheid. A veteran anti-Apartheid activist has rightly said, ”There is no grey zone. Apartheid is a crime against humanity – whoever commits it” and Jewish Israelis agree too and increasingly are persecuted as well for saying so. So in refusing to hear them on the basis of smears, who is being antisemitic?? Not forgetting of course that the Palestinians are indigenous semitic people.
Yours faithfully
Sarah, South East London Friends of Palestine
Dear Sir,
As the petitioner behind the call to get Edinburgh to twin with Gaza City I note your Wednesday article on the decision by our Councillors not to twin with Gaza.
Ever since I first lodged the bid 3 years ago, Council mandarins have tried every means possible to prevent it being discussed. For just 4 months after I’d lodged it, our Chief Executive convinced the Councillors to declare “there should be no more twinning”. This was followed by the removal of the petition from the Council website. It was not until the Scottish Information Commissioner censured Edinburgh a few weeks ago for failing to respond to my FOI that the Council reinstated it.
But what galled me most on Tuesday was the harsh decision not to hear from the Gaza Mayor or the young people who were lined up in their best clothes, ready to tell our Councillors how much twinning would mean to them. Cllr Day cited “Legal Advice” but Police Scotland and my QC, Michael Mansfield, had already assured the Council that there was nothing illegal about twinning.
This was capped off by Cllr Mandy Watt calling for the Committee to muzzle me too- was this because she had told me in 2019 that it would be more appropriate to twin with Tel Aviv because, she said, “They were more like us”? She was unimpressed by the fact that Balfour came from Edinburgh and we that had a historic debt to those most damaged by his decision to gift Palestine to the Zionists, back in 1917.
What Council gave on Tuesday, in only asking Edinburgh Partnership to consider “mutually beneficial” projects that its members might work on with Gaza, was a mere scrap of what we could have done. Excluding the Edina-Gaza Twinning Association from future discussions was nasty and counterproductive.
The Policy Committee’s conduct on Tuesday was an embarrassment to our city, a refusal to acknowledge our shameful heritage and an insult to our democratic processes.
Yours sincerely,
Pete Gregson
Edina-Gaza Twinning Petitioner
Dear Editor
I am very disappointed that Edinburgh Council were not brave enough to give serious consideration to the idea of Edinburgh twinning with Gaza at their meeting on Tuesday 30th August and reaching out a hand of friendship to the people of Gaza. Twinning is a non political process which encourages links and exchanges between the people of 2 cities, to the mutual benefit of both. I find it incomprehensible that the Council were not willing to listen to the planned deputations, including the mayor of Gaza who could have told Council members more about what life is like for ordinary people there – with electricity for only 4 – 10 hours a day, major difficulties accessing clean water, let alone the regular bombardments by the Israeli state that people are subjected to. There were also children waiting to speak to the Council about their experiences of living in Gaza. How difficult it must have been to explain to them why they were not given a chance to speak.
I appreciate that people are suffering all over the world, but few people experience the difficulties in getting their voices heard as the people of Palestine! I am so very upset that the Council could not find the common decency to listen to them on Tuesday.
I sincerely hope the Council WILL go on to consider how they might provide humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, as well as asking their partners how they might link into any humanitarian efforts. Any support they get from the Council or elsewhere will help them to know that the world is not deaf or blind to the hardships they face on a daily basis.
Sylvia Crick, Edinburgh
