Open Letter to Mel Giedroyc

Dear Mel,

We have learned of your upcoming role co-hosting the BBC’s ‘You Decide’ show, which will select Britain’s representative for Eurovision 2019, hosted in Israel, and we ask you to please cancel your participation.

We ask you to do so because, as Palestinians and allies concerned with human rights and equality, we know that by lending your name to an event such as this one, you will be part of an attempt by the Israeli government to artwash its ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people. Our values around entertainment and freedom of expression must include everyone, including the Palestinian people.

Eurovision 2019’s slogan is ‘Dare to Dream’, a theme which the official website describes as symbolising the competition’s core values of inclusion, diversity, and unity. These fundamental values should be used to extend freedom, dignity and human rights to all people – not be manipulated to serve the agendas of oppressive governments – in Israel, or anywhere in the world. We believe that no entertainer wants to be used to distract from crimes such as apartheid and military occupation.

For decades, Palestinians have been struggling against colonial policies which are designed to take away their land, and attack their lives and freedoms. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinians – including members of the Palestinian cultural community – who continue to resist Israel’s ongoing discriminatory policies, and ‘dare to dream’ of a reality in which they can enjoy the rights and freedoms which should be available to all people.

Eurovision 2019 is part of the Israel’s government’s ‘Brand Israel’ programme, which it uses to whitewash its ongoing denial of Palestinian rights through culture. Israel held a celebratory concert with 2018 Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai on the evening of the Gaza Great Return March’s deadliest day, when Israeli occupation forces massacred 62 unarmed Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Barzilai ‘the best ambassador of Israel’.

While Israel hosts Eurovision in Tel Aviv, it will continue its policy of deliberately targeting Palestinian culture. On 9th August 2018, a series of Israeli airstrikes deliberately and completely destroyed the al-Meshal Foundation, one of the few cultural spaces left for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – just 40 miles away Tel Aviv where Eurovision 2019 will take place. Israel has shuttered Palestinian cinemas and theatres, banned cultural events (particularly at cultural institutions run by Palestinian citizens of Israel), denied Palestinian artists travel permits, and detained countless others without charge. Whether in the besieged Gaza Strip, occupied West Bank or living in Israel as second-class citizens, Palestinians constantly have their right to express their culture scuppered by Israel’s policies.

British feminist group The Tuts courageously announced they had refused to enter the BBC’s You Decide show. This follows calls from Palestinian cultural organisations, hundreds of prominent artists including one Eurovision winner, and tens of thousands of people to refuse to participate in the contest. We ask you to take a stand against the erasure of the dreams of indigenous people, and cancel your participation in ‘You Decide’, breaking your link with Eurovision 2019. No professional engagement is more important than standing on the right side of history and supporting a struggle for dignity and justice.

Yours faithfully,

London Palestine Action

London queers say NO to Israel’s pinkwashing, YES to BDS!

Last night, while willing cultural ambassador for Israeli apartheid Netta Barzilai played at LGBT club Heaven, we took to the street outside and staged a beautiful, musical, glittery, rainbow-coloured, queer-led BDS action!

We were responding to a call from Palestinian queers to boycott Barzilai’s European tour, which said: “Following her Eurovision win for Israel, Barzilai has willingly taken on the role of cultural ambassador for Israeli apartheid, using pop music to keep Israel’s ongoing denial of Palestinian human rights out of mind.”

“As part of this propaganda effort, Barzilai is supporting the Israeli government’s pinkwashing agenda, the cynical campaign to use LGBT rights to shield itself from criticism of its decades-old oppression of Palestinians.”

After Heaven owner, Jeremy Joseph, ignored our open letter calling on him to “stand on the right side of history” and cancel Netta’s gig, close to 100 of us took part in an exuberant anti-pinkwashing protest outside the club.

Dialing up the camp, we donned neon wigs, feathery boas and glitter, which was handed out by the lovely LPA fairy as part of protest care packages. Our pals from Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, Queer Strike and No to Pinkwashing joined us, bringing beautiful banners, and we waved “Queers for BDS” and “No Pride in Apartheid” rainbow placards, a gift from ProtestStencil.

We belted out karaoke versions of all your fave gay anthems, giving them a BDS twist. “Yes BDS”, our cover of YMCA, was a particular hit! But the absolute highlight of the evening was a dabke performance in the street by the Hawiyya dance troupe – an amazing celebration of Palestinian culture in the face of Israel’s “art-washing”.

Open letter to Heaven nightclub

Dear Jeremy Joseph,

On November 21st, Netta Barzilai, Israel’s 2018 Eurovision winner, will perform at Heaven. We would like to outline the reasons why we – as Palestinians, queers and allies – strongly oppose this appearance, which will be used by the Israeli government to pinkwash its inhumane policies against Palestinians.

Israel regularly uses culture to cover up, justify and distract from its oppressive regime of military occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian people. It also cynically exploits LGBTQ rights to pinkwash its violations of international law, which is why Palestinian queer activists have issued a call for a boycott of Netta’s concerts.

In 2005, the absolute majority of Palestinian civil society issued a call urging the international community to support their nonviolent resistance to settler colonialism, occupation and apartheid. The Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement is strictly institutional, targeting the complicity of Israeli cultural institutions, and does not call for a boycott of individual Israeli artists. However, BDS does call for the activities of those who represent the state of Israel – or are clearly part of Israel’s “Brand Israel” programme – to be boycotted. “Brand Israel” is designed to project the idea that Israel is a bastion of liberalism and democracy, concealing its violations of human rights and international law.

Since her Eurovision win, Netta has become a willing cultural ambassador for Israel, and has embraced her role in whitewashing Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. This is something that she has publicly acknowledged, saying in a July 2018 interview with the Associated Press: “Israel is awesome. There are fantastic people here... [but] we have bad PR in the world.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has referred to Netta as “the best ambassador of Israel.” Israeli government institutions regularly promote Netta’s performances. The Israeli consulate in the US promoted her show in North Carolina and the Israeli embassy in Austria promoted her performance in Vienna.

Whilst acting as a cultural ambassador for Israel, Netta also participates in pinkwashing, the effort to use LGBTQ rights to cover up continuing human rights violations against Palestinians. She has performed at Tel Aviv Pride (also sponsored by the Israeli government) as well as Pride events all over Europe. Her performance at Heaven, a legendary queer nightclub, is a continuation of this pinkwashing. We again draw your attention to the call by Palestinian queers calling for a boycott of Netta’s performances for these reasons.

Netta’s performance in your venue is inherently political. We ask that you cancel Netta’s show, refuse to participate in the pinkwashing of Israel’s apartheid regime, and stand on the right side of history. This is the minimum asked by Palestinians: that you do not undermine the struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

We would be happy to meet with you to discuss it.

Signed

London Palestine Action No to Pinkwashing Queerspace East Palestine Solidarity Campaign Maqfa (Mesopotamian and Anatolian Queers for  Azadî) The Outside Project Friends of the Joiners Arms Haringey Justice for Palestinians Waltham Forest PSC Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants ACT UP London Queer Strike

War on Want’s new report, exposing how UK banks, including HSBC, are a crucial link in the chain of Palestinian oppression.

A run down of the recent #StopArmingIsrael week of action!

This September, London is hosting one of the world's biggest arms fairs, DSEI. We need your help to shut it down before it starts.

Israel has a massive presence at DSEI. They use the mass murder of Palestinians as a selling point, calling weapons “battle tested”. The Palestinian voice is clear: until there are sanctions against Israel, we need to take matters into our own hands.

If they can’t get the weapons in, then they can’t have an arms fair. We are kicking off this “week of action” to block the set-up with a day to Stop Arming Israel! With music, workshops, and bucket-loads of food, we are using our creativity to shut down their destruction.

When: Monday 4th September 2017, 10am-8:30pm Where: near the Excel Centre, in the green space on Royal Albert Way, E16 (opposite the Premier Inn) https://goo.gl/maps/jHU9XdQ6N5P2 Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/250690978765119/

Programme for the day:

We've got a fun, packed programme to keep you engaged throughout the day. We'll have a welcome tent, a kids space and a portaloo - you can come for the whole day or just pop in! We're meeting in a green space near the Excel Centre https://goo.gl/maps/jHU9XdQ6N5P2 

10.00 Arrive! 'Why are we here? An introduction to the issues & groups present.' 11.00 Workshop: Social cleansing and colonialism: Custom House to Palestine 11.30 Workshop: Learn to dabke 12.30 Picnic Lunch *please bring food to share!* 13.30 Workshop: Banner making 15.00 'Why are we here? An introduction to the issues & groups present. 15.30 Sheffield People's Tribunal 16.00 Workshop: BDS 101 17.00 Discussion: Why Cultural Boycott? 18.00 FOOTBALL GAME! [Facebook event for the football] 19.00-20.30 Live music and DJs featuring...Dave Randall (Faithless), Katiba 5, Some F*cking People & Efa Thomas [Facebook event for the gig]

How to get involved:

More information:

For the week of action https://www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk.

HSBC owns millions of pounds of shares in military and tech companies that sell to Israel – including BAE Systems, Caterpillar, and Elbit Systems.

Would you believe their official policy is to not provide financial support to arms companies? Come with us to a London-based HSBC branch to spread the word!

Until Israel stops using military force to steal and occupy Palestinian people's land, we need to #StopArmingIsrael!

Date: Saturday 1st July 2017 Time: 10:00-11:30 (**changed from 12-2**) Where: HSBC, 196 Oxford Street, central London Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/266821507057592/

This action is part of the UK: Stop Arming Israel Week of Action - more info at https://www.stoparmingisrael.org/stop-arming-israel-week-of-action-1st-7th-july-2017/.

Check out this podcast from our Quaker accomplices about the arms fair in London this September!

Our sisters

Just a quick reminder about the other 'Palestine Action's that are out there!

Regular groups: London, Birmingham, Manchester. We've also heard about a group in Denmark!

Occasional groups: Brighton, Glasgow, Cambridge, Melbourne.

Some security advice from a workshop at our February 2017 meeting.

Passwords

If you use the same password everywhere, this is the number one thing you must fix and state surveillance is the least of your problems.

The no. 1 threat is companies holding your data and not securing it properly. Password databases are frequently leaked onto the internet. If the company is good, they've taken some measures to hide your actual password, but that's not always the case.

The last high profile incident happened a fortnight ago with a very security conscious company making a terrible mistake in their systems, which are used by OKCupid, for example. So anyone who uses the same password for OKCupid as they do elsewhere is at risk.

Don't remember your passwords – use a password manager:

Use tools like 1Password or LastPass to save and create passwords for you. You then only have to remember one long password to access your "vault".

2nd Factor Authentication:

Sites like Google, Twitter, Facebook, as well as the password managers above offer you the ability to use a "2nd factor", which is something you have on you as well as your password. This is normally your phone.

Don't completely mistrust corporations, or being a needle in a haystack can be a good thing

Anonymity amongst the big datasets of large corporations can be a useful way to operate. One reason is that it's not in Google's or Amazon's interest to give information to the US government due to EU privacy law. Governments then have to try and tap the entire input and output of those company's systems, and given most of it is cat videos on YouTube with the occasional Alec Baldwin playing Trump impression, well, good luck to them.

More importantly, they have the resources to secure data better than most, and have made big efforts to do so post-Snowdon, mainly due to EU/other international contracts they don't want to lose if it was found they were handing everything over to the US government without a fight.

Communications between Google equipment is secure (post-Snowden), so sending email messages between GMail accounts is much more preferable than emailing from RiseUp and Gmail and back again, as the government is definitely tapping what goes in and out of RiseUp, but is having a harder time doing that within Google's network.

The companies are also running their own campaigns against state surveillance.

However, use ProtonMail:

It's Swiss, open source, and has the thumbs up from security community.

Your computer

Keep it up to date:

Don't still be running Windows 7, and don't run old versions of OS X. These are basically dead in terms of security. Windows 10 Anniversary Update and OS X Yosemite are more secure than Linux. Yup, that's right.

Encrypt it:

Either use FileVault on Mac, or Bitlocker on Windows to encrypt your hard disk. This means if someone steals your laptop, they can't get at the contents without your password. The screen unlock was never secure.

Don't use it for sensitive information:

If you fear a state adversary is trying to get to your information, you should assume your laptop is already hacked. The truth is that laptops and desktops were not designed for security in mind, sooo....

Your phone

Use it:

Modern phone systems are designed much more heavily around security. iPhone remains the best, but even modern Android devices and Windows Phone are OK.

Keep it up to date:

Same rules follow as for normal computers. Your phone should be receiving regular updates every month. If it isn't, you can assume your phone is not secure. This means in practice sticking to Apple, Motorola, LG, OnePlus, FairPhone or Samsung for phones. You can use the cheaper brands as burners, but they quite often can't be trusted.

Use Signal:

Just use it.

Photos:

On an action, you may want to take photos and share them. They usually come with a load of metadata to help professional photographers, but which can also help police identify you.

Twitter and Instagram remove this data, so use these sites to share photos.

I think I've been hacked?

Try the Digital First Aid Kit, and failing that, contact someone at Access Now, or Zeynep Tufecki or Martin Shelton (below), by the securest means at your disposal.

Who to follow for more information

Delete everything

Don't keep messages, documents or plans longer than you need them. If you can use the disappearing messages feature of Signal, do so. (BTW, SnapChat is not an alternative.)

Glossary

OPSEC

Operational Security. The process to identify critical information that has to be protected, and the processes for carrying out that protection.

SIGINT / COMINT

Signals/Communications Intelligence. What most security researchers talk about when talking about online security. Sounds all military and cool, innit.

HUMINT

Human Intelligence. 95% of anyone's problems in activist communities is trust. Technology is comparatively easy. Don't get too hung up on state surveillance when there are more likely vectors for infiltration. To quote The Grugq: 

Double down on HUMINT and scale back SIGINT. SIGINT can be evaded, but HUMINT, essentially exploiting trust relationships, will always bite you in the ass.

Just use Qubes / Blockchain / GPG2 / Homophonic Encryption

Really unhelpful advice that's possibly technically correct, but way to onerous in reality, given by Twitter techbros who want to sound clever but don't have anything useful to offer. Ignore.

Open source

Sounds bad, right? Not really. All our most secure systems are based on shared assumptions about mathematics. Open source means the code for these systems are shared, and everyone understands how secure they are. 

WhatsApp is insecure

Guardian journalists putting lives at risk through misinformation. Ignore.

سيحاكمكم باسل: In Protest at the Murder of Basil Al Araj

On Sunday 12th March 2017, Basil al-Araj was meant to be tried in court. Instead, Basil was assassinated by the Israeli occupation forces in Ramallah – just a few minutes away from the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority security forces.

We gathered outside the Palestine Mission in London to honour Basil, and to demand the end of the security coordination with Israeli occupation forces. We condemn the complicity of the PA security forces in arresting Palestinian activists with no charge and torturing them with impunity.

For more info on protests from around the world including Palestine, see Samidoun’s round-up. See also this Facebook Live from the London gathering.

A really solid list of the threats against BDS online, and what you can do to counter them.

Stay safe <3

:’)

shout-out to this write-up of Black Lives Matter UK – covers a lot of the bases of our support too. also check out these twitter threads about why we need a movement in the UK and why people shut down the M4 from UK BLM.

Building effective solidarity

When: Sunday 24 July, 10.30am - 6pm Where: Kurdish Community Centre: 11 Portland Gardens, London N4 1HU Registration: http://bit.ly/1UTFjPn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/483925105136916/

From Honduras to Syria, from migration to apartheid, people are doing incredible solidarity organising.

Activists from across different struggles are coming together for an inspiring day-long workshop to share tactics, ideas, and to build practical skills. Join us!

Our different groups have worked towards building power in marginalised communities, building stronger links between different social movements and decolonising our movements and our minds. There is so much we can learn from each other.

These are some of the questions we will explore over the day:

Bring yourselves, your friends, and your ideas!

Organised by:

London Palestine Action, Women4Syria, Bahraini Institute for Rights and Democracy, London Latinx, Campaign Against Arms Trade, Wretched of the Earth, Kurdistan National Congress, Jubliee Debt Campaign, Iraqi Transnational Collective, London Mining Network, Palestinian Boycott National Committee, People & Planet

This day is part of The Spark 2016. The Spark is a completely free festival of ideas, discussion, art, performance and more looking at how we can bring about positive change here in the UK and around the world. This year it will take place in venues across London between 25th June to the 7th August. To see the full programme: http://www.thesparkspace.org/

In the words of our pals Jewdas (who just came and did a great workshop with us, watch this space for notes): “The Chakrabati report on antisemitism has been released. It's actually very good. Let's hope it contributes to a depoliticisation of antisemitism and a more careful discourse when discussing Israel-Palestine.”

No mention of BDS, no equivalence between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. As it should be! Our Hilary also wrote a piece for Media Diversified about why we need to keep the spotlight on Zionism.

Another day, another trip to Sabon. But this time they didn’t see us coming.

We read speeches, we chanted, we blocked both the inside and outside of the shop. But most importantly, it was basically shut down the whole time we were there!

Some kind soul also filmed Neil talking about our dearly departed Sherrl, and how she would have loved to be there with us.