WHAT DID HAPPEN – UPDATE 11:45am on Tuesday 30th August
WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN
The Edinburgh-Gaza twinning petition is now formally listed on the agenda for the Policy Committee meeting at 10am of Tuesday 30th August
See the agenda at https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=135&MId=6466&Ver=4
Twinning is on the Agenda at Item 7.2; details are on pages 71 to 74 of the Council Reports Pack at https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/documents/g6466/Public%20reports%20pack%2030th-Aug-2022%2010.00%20Policy%20and%20Sustainability%20Committee.pdf?T=10
Deputations will be taken first- at 10am- from the Mayor of Gaza (Dr Yaya Sarraj); the Director of Gaza Sky Geeks (Alan El-Khadi); the volunteer youth worker with the Take My Hand educational charity for orphans (Mohammed Al-Madhoun) at Jabalya refugee camp, with some of the kids; the Vice- Chair of the Dundee-Nablus Twinning Associa tion (Mike Whitehead) and finally Deacon Geoffrey Marshal of the Derby & Derbyshire Friends of Hebron . There may be Zionist deputations too…
Then probably at about 10:40 am, the Council will deal with the first items on the agenda- so they may not get to item 7.2 – twinning with Gaza- for another 30 minutes.
The meeting is public and webcast so anyone can view it, at https://edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/694434 You can add your email address there and the Council will send you reminders before the meeting that it’s on. A few hours after the meeting has finished the webcast will be archived and continue to be available to the public, you you can watch the video afterwards, when it suits you. It will remain in the archive for five years.
The petitioner, Pete Gregson, will speak at item 7.2 to convince Councillors to adopt the proposed treaty (at www.twingaza.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Proposed-Edina-Gaza-Treaty-1.pdf)
The Council pitch: The Council asked that Pete send them documentation to support twinning which would be given to Policy Committee members in advance of Tuesday’s meeting, which I’ve prepared. He also sent a copy to all Councillors direct. It summarises the twinning case and explains why going out for consultation on the twinning matter (one of the recommended actions) would become a nightmare for all of us. To see it please email info@twingaza.com, explaining who you are and why you need it.
Due to Zionist slandering, Pete has been forced to stand down from being chair of EGTA; Mike Hauxwell has taken his place in the meantime. Pete has set up his defence against these press attacks at Pete Gregson defends himself – Campaign Against BOGUS Antisemitism
A copy of the speech he will be making to Committee can be viewed here.
WHAT DID HAPPEN – UPDATE 11:45am on Tuesday 30th August
The Committee (run by Labour) refused to take the Deputations and refused to allow Pete Gregson to speak as well (see what he would have said here). This has never happened before in the 10 years that the Council petitions process has been running. The Convener indicated this was because they were “following legal advice”.
In the end the SNP and Labour and Lib Dems cobbled together a motion (that was passed) asking for an officer’s report into how the Edinburgh Partnership (a quango involving the police, the health service, the colleges, the voluntary sector and traders’ reps) might consider doing more to partner with other cities, including Gaza. Here is the key phrase : Committee therefore agrees to ask the Edinburgh Partnership to consider whether there are any activities or projects which may be mutually beneficial and its members would wish to work with the people of Gaza on. The full motion can be read here.
The meeting was public and the recording of it can be viewed at https://edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/694434
The Greens gave powerful speeches supporting Gaza and moved an amendment that Gaza be included more specifically in another clause. Green councillor Alex Staniforth wanted a report from officials on how a twinning with Gaza or some similar arrangement might work. He said: “We are looking at a situation in Palestine and Gaza that is completely unacceptable. This month 16 children died as a result of the siege on Gaza. I understand the nervousness about getting involved and that this is a nuanced and difficult situation, but when children are dying what we say matters and what we should say is we will not support a state of apartheid.” His motion was seconded by fellow Green Cllr Alys Mumford. This motion was defeated (there are only 3 Greens on the 17-strong Committee).
The petitioner, Pete Gregson, and the Edina Gaza Twinning Association were specifically excluded from future discussions on the matter.
This just means we at EGTA carry on doing what we do.. and we can tell groups in Gaza to go to the Edinburgh Partnership to try and get support.
So, then the Council has to do something to help.
Pete has submitted an FOI request to find what legal advice the Council leader was given that led to him refusing permission for the Deputations to speak: see Why wasn’t the Gaza Mayor allowed to speak – a Freedom of Information request to City of Edinburgh Council – WhatDoTheyKnow [Update of February 2023: The Council have refused to disclose this information and the Scottish Information Commissioner believes Gregson has a valid case; her staff are investigating the matter with the Council.]
It appears the Council were fearful of Gregson’s involvement, as he has been branded a bad guy by the GMB because he broke union rules and got expelled for criticising Israel. Even though a Rabbi defended him: see the 20-minute film at www.tinyurl.com/gmbihra
It appears that the Councillors simply do not want to consider that such a thing as bogus antisemitism exists. See Pete Gregson defends himself – Campaign Against BOGUS Antisemitism and support from a second Rabbi.
So, the final motion today represents a victory, of sorts.
The Council webcast is now available from the archive, go to https://edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/694434 .
Media:
Edinburgh council rejects bid for Capital to twin with Gaza | Edinburgh News (scotsman.com)
Edinburgh Council rejects proposals to twin with Gaza City | Morning Star (morningstaronline.co.uk)
To see the letters that have been submitted to the Evening News in disgust at the Council’s conduct, go to Letters to the Editor – Twin Edinburgh with Gaza (twingaza.com)
The Zionists view: UK Lawyers for Israel put a spin on it that suggests the whole thing was thrown out- and ignores the instruction to Edinburgh Partnership to consider what it can do with Gaza Edinburgh Council rejects twinning with Gaza – UK LAWYERS FOR ISRAEL (uklfi.com)
Keep calm and carry on
Through our Edina-Gaza Twinning Association (EGTA) we will continue to work with the people of Gaza; We’ll continue to work with our Gazan colleague Mohammed Al-Madhoun who runs the Take My Hand education centre, with whom we do weekly English classes using Zoom (he was due to speak today as one of the deputations and had three kids with him, who were also denied). We will continue to do these sessions (along with our other three one-to-ones with Gazan students)- as well as getting websites built in Gaza- (see www.twingaza.com/your-website-built-in-gaza for which Pete has prepared flyers for distribution around the UK).
There are 44 Palestine friendship and twinning groups in the UK- many are in cities that are not formally twinned; these groups are all members of the Britain Palestine Friendship and Twinning Network and EGTA will continue to work with these.
In three week’s time Pete embarks on a tour of 16 UK cities with 10,000 of the flyers to try and get website business- and to promote the “Rabbi on the Road tour” with Palestinian broadcaster Dr Azzam Tamimi next April (see https://bogusantisemitism.org/rabbi-on-the-road-beyond-israel/ )
It is time to lick our wounds and move on. The Council’s attitude was terrible- it has never occurred before that a petitioner is denied the right to present their petition. Pete has never seen deputations rejected like this either. The Labour Cllr who asked that he be kept out of speaking was Mandy Watt, deputy leader. Pete spoke to Mandy three years ago about twinning with Gaza and she indicated that it would be more appropriate to twin with with Tel Aviv!
Maybe she was frightened he would bring that up. Pete thinks these Councillors were largely motivated by fear of the repercussions, if they gave the Edina-Gaza Twinning Association a right be involved- they can control the Edinburgh Partnership more easily too, as it is almost a wing of the Council.
The fact that Tommy Sheppard MP ditched Pete three weeks ago, because he was also chair of the Campaign Against Bogus Antisemitism group, (see https://bogusantisemitism.org/) meant Sheppard was undermining the role of the Edina-Gaza Twinning Association behind the scenes and so we had no SNP support (even though Pete had resigned as EGTA Chair to mollify them).
But now Pete plans to return as EGTA Chair, assuming our 31 members will let him!
The secretary of the cross-party working group on Palestine, Peter McDade, at the Scottish parliament has been in touch . He agreed the news was not great and will relay the info onto Pauline McNeil MSP, convener.
RALLY
We held a Rally after the decision was announced at the City Chambers quad:
At the rally, we were distributing flyers for our call for British businesses to get their cut-price websites built in Gaza www.twingaza.com/your-website-built-in-gaza/ 10,000 flyers have been printed, with 600 going to each of 16 major cities in the UK.
Here is the video from the rally with Pete reading and explaining the motion:
FACT- DID YOU KNOW?
Balfour came from Edinburgh. We made Israel!
The Israelis had the twinning petition pulled from the agenda in March, having declared this bid (through their UKLFI) to be “an existential threat to their existence” and threatening all Councillors with imprisonment if they proceeded to even discuss it. The Council has now accepted legal Counsel from the petitioner’s QC, Michael Mansfield, who is Jewish, along with evidence from Police Scotland, that there is no danger to twinning.
The following press release was published at Redress Online on 30 August 2022: