SDLP Youth have called for the European Union to pressure Israel to end attacks on Gaza.

SDLP Youth Chair Peter Armstrong today said: “The international community must do a lot more to end the Israeli attacks on Gaza. In a single day the Israeli Army killed 270 people in retaliation for 1 Israeli dying in a mortar attack. Killing and injuring thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza is a completely disproportionate response. There must be another way. A peaceful solution must be sought. A ceasefire needs to be restored.

“World leaders need to put pressure on Israel to immediately end the bombardment. A message must go across from the EU that this is not acceptable, a breach of international law and it cannot continue.”

“SDLP Youth are calling on everyone to sign an emergency petition by Avaaz on their website at http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/ which calls on the European Union to ensure that a ceasefire is restored, to stop the bloodshed and address the humanitarian crisis.”

Fantastic news. Historical significance. A victory for Civil Rights. A ‘Cooler’ America.

Many didn’t have faith in America to elect such an outstanding candidate. We all thought they’d pick the idiot. Of course, Americans shouldn’t blame us for thinking this - as they previously elected Bush & Cheney (in 2000 and 2004!).

Certainly, if the world could vote, 87.3% would have voted for Barack Obama - a majority voting for Obama in every country and terrority (except FYR Macedonia & Albania where people voted for McCain - not sure what’s going on there..).

This is how our politicians summed it up:

The decisiveness of his triumph and the hope which it heralds is in contrast to the divisiveness of previous elections. His election is a sign of positive progress, not just in the United States but in terms of international leadership.
Mark Durkan MP MLA, SDLP Leader

I congratulate President-elect Barack Obama and Vice-President-elect Joe Biden, not only because they have Irish roots, not only because they are pledged to continue to support our own peace process, but because what they have done is historic by any standard. We have reached a turning point in international affairs and I believe we can all be more optimistic this morning.
Dr Alasdair McDonnell MP MLA, SDLP Deputy Leader

Today, I’m sure many Americans wish they had our system, where Obama would win on 4th November and be inaugurated on 5th November. Nevertheless, even if we have to wait until January for Inauguration Day, the next 4 years and hopefully the next 8 years should be a lot brighter than the previous 8 years under Bush. America is in troubled economic times, but it has a lot to look forward to.

President Obama has been left a huge amount of work by his predecessor, but we believe he can make huge changes to the US and the world. He recognises the importance of civil rights in America, he recognises that climate change exists, and he has plans to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Avaaz have set up a “Goodbye Bush, Hello Obama” message board. Well, more a message wall -  if you sign up on their website, they will display your message on a giant wall in Washington DC.

Dear President Obama:

As citizens across the world, we congratulate you on your election, and celebrate your campaign commitments to sign a strong new global treaty on climate change, close Guantanamo prison and end torture, withdraw carefully from Iraq, and double aid to fight poverty. No one country or leader can meet the world’s most pressing challenges alone, but working together as one world in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation, yes we can bring real and lasting change.

Avaaz.org

Please take a few moments to sign their wall.

We also have to recognise the hard work on the Republican side *cough*. They sure kept us entertained.

Via Niall’s blog, two prankster DJ’s from CKY Radio in Montréal phone up Governor Sarah Palin (before the election) who believes that she is talking to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Welcome Address by John Hume

Civil Rights 1968 Commemoration Committee International Conference

Guildhall, Derry

Saturday 4 October 2008

(more…)

Amnesty International will screen their Secret Policeman’s Ball this Saturday night (4th October) in the Errigle Inn, Belfast, broadcast live by satellite from London’s Royal Albert Hall.

It features an all-star line-up of comedy and music talent standing up for human rights – and the Belfast audience will experience it all at the same time as Ball-goers in London. The Belfast Event is to be hosted by Tim McGarry and will be followed by a disco of Northern Soul, Funk and Reggae by Hydroponic.

If you’re available on Saturday night there should be great craic at the Errigle - tickets cost £10 from the Amnesty site.

However, if you happen to miss the event, it will be screened on Channel 4 on Sunday night at 9pm!

The Civil Rights Commemoration Committee is hosting an international conference on Saturday 4th - Sunday 5th October 2008 in the Guildhall in Derry to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Duke Street march.

The conference will reflect on the importance of civil rights, highlight civil rights issues in Ireland and the world today and will consider the impact of the media on civil rights.

President Mary McAleese will give the keynote addresses at the conference.

Speakers include John Hume, Ivan Cooper, Nell McCafferty, Patricia McKeown, ICTU, Monica McWilliams HRC, Maurice Manning IHRC, Mark Durkan MP MLA, Martin McGuinness MP MLA, Gregory Campbell MP MLA and many others.

The full agenda can be downloaded here.

If you wish to attend contact Tim Attwood at civilrights1968@yahoo.co.uk or Tel: 07802 279939

Fantastic news!

Palestinian student Haneen Wishah has been granted a visa by the Israeli government, allowing her to travel from Palestine to Egypt, and she is now in Ireland preparing to start her course at the University of Ulster in Coleraine.

SDLP Youth urged everyone to sign a Trócaire petition to the Israeli ambassador earlier this month so we are delighted to hear that Haneen can now begin her Masters in Business Innovation scholarship.

Here’s what Haneen had to say:

Dear friend,

I want to address you like that because to me you are indeed a friend. You are somebody who helped to bring about something that I thought was impossible - as of almost one week ago I am out of Gaza!

I want to express my heartfelt thanks for all the efforts you made on my behalf - emails, phonecalls, faxes, meetings, letters, media interviews; everything that was done contributed to the decision by the Israeli military to let me out of Gaza to pursue my studies in the University of Ulster.

I am so grateful.

My Dad, who works for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, has always said to me that we are made stronger because of the support of people all around the world.  Now I appreciate how true this really is.  You helped me to keep hope even in the darkest of times.

So I am grateful personally.  But I am also grateful as a Palestinian. All the actions which you took helped to highlight my plight but also the plight of 1.5 million other Palestinians trapped in Gaza.  So, thanks to you, and to Trócaire for arranging this wonderful campaign on my behalf.

Because I am one of the lucky ones.  Even though it took over one year and the efforts of countless numbers of people - I got out.  There are still hundreds of students stuck in Gaza, unable to fulfill their dreams and their potential.  That is not to mention the cancer patients who can’t get access to radiography machines or the farmers who can not export their figs or their strawberries.

Gaza is still under siege.  The work to free it, and the people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, must continue.

Some of you may have heard that Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet, died recently.  One of my favourite poems of his was called ‘Under Siege’.  I always find this verse inspirational:

“Here on the slopes of hills, facing the dusk and the cannon of time
Close to the gardens of broken shadows,
We do what prisoners do,
And what the jobless do:
We cultivate hope.”

This is our job as Palestinians, as people living under 41 years of occupation, 60 years of nakba and refugee status - to ‘cultivate hope’.  I want to thank you again for helping us to do this.

Yours sincerely,

Haneen Wishah

PS. And, who knows, perhaps as I start my studies in Coleraine we may bump into each other on the streets there to talk about how to free the other 1.5 million Gazans living under siege.:)

SDLP Youth have today urged people to sign a petition calling on the Israeli government to allow Palestinian student Haneen Wishah to travel to Ireland to begin a Masters in Business Innovation scholarship at the University of Ulster.

Haneen Wishah is a 23-year old student living in the Gaza Strip, but she is trapped there as the Israeli government will not supply a visa to allow her to cross the border into Egypt and on to Ireland.

Please take a moment to sign the petition

The petition by Trócaire is sent to the relevant Israeli ambassador in Dublin or London with the following message:

I am writing to you to express my serious concern at the situation of Haneen Wishah, a 23 year old Palestinian student living in the Gaza Strip. Haneen is a bright, talented young woman - people like her are the future of peace in the region. Israel is punishing the entire population of Gaza - including Haneen - for rocket attacks into Israel. This is not only unfair it is illegal, in violation of article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Haneen is innocent and should not be punished for something she is not personally responsible for.

This summer Hanneen was offered a scholarship to study a Masters in Business and Innovation in the University of Ulster.

However, Haneen has been unable to get a visa to leave the Gaza Strip via Israel and is prevented from leaving through the Rafah crossing point to Egypt, over which Israel maintains effective control. Haneen is now seeking permission to travel out of Gaza to study at the University of Ulster this September.

If we want to have a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis then international humanitarian law must be respected and people like Haneen must be encouraged. I appeal to you to immediately issue Haneen with a visa so that she can leave Gaza to pursue her studies.

SDLP Youth have today urged people to sign a petition calling for ex-President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe to resign from his autocratic post.

It is four and a half months since Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC won power, but they have been denied their seats by Robert Mugabe who controls the army.

Most of the country is starving, but the media can’t see the real situation while they are banned. Humanitarian agencies are not allowed to distribute food themselves, and must give it to the government to distribute. Inflation has gone up by 40,000,000% and probably more while you read this.

Zanu PF and its army operate torture camps in former primary schools, and 12 opposition MPs are currently in jail on false charges.

Once Mugabe is removed, the EU, US and UK have pledged $1.9 billion in finance to support Zimbabwe’s economy and feed it’s starving citizens.

This weekend in S Africa, Mugabe meets with 15 other African leaders to discuss the progress of talks with the opposition. A massive group of trade unionists will march through Johannesburg calling for Mugabe to resign, supported by 100,000 people who have signed the Avaaz petition. The trade unionists are also threatening to stop handling any Zimbabwean goods, therefore cutting off trade to the country, if the talks do not have a satisfactory result.

Please take a moment to sign these petition:

Call for Red Card for Mugabe - during this weekend’s talks in South Africa

Call for No Guns for Zimbabwe - stop countries like China from supplying weapons.

On the 21st August 1970 the Social Democratic and Labour Party was created. Six MPs and one Senator got together to change the country, to promote civil rights, to represent the people, to stop the IRA war, to campaign for a new Ireland and supporting a principle of consent.

The seven men had worked together since the 1969 elections. They were John Hume MP elected in Foyle, Paddy O’Hanlon MP in South Armagh, Ivan Cooper MP in Mid Londonderry, and Austin Currie MP re-elected in East Tyrone, Paddy Devlin MP in Falls, Gerry Fitt MP in Dock, and Senator Paddy Wilson (who was brutally murdered in 1973 by the UFF).

Please read more on The Belfast Stoop blog. Also, here are the SDLP’s founding principles:

Addressing a meeting in Queens University Students on Civil Rights in the 21st Century SDLP Leader Mark Durkan MP MLA stated:

“Forty years ago a generation of young men and women were inspired by the example set by Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. That violence is not only morally bankrupt, but that it ultimately destroys that which it claims to defend. And that peaceful challenge and non-violent resistance are much more powerful tools for achieving change. And they did achieve change. Because of the terrible events that followed for the next thirty years, many people have lost sight of their achievements. By 1970, all the original demands of the Civil Rights movement had been granted or conceded in principle: voting reform, a points system for housing, unarmed police.

But civil and human rights are not static, even if the human values that underlie them are unchanging. Society changes, new challenges arise and new rights need to be laid down in law.

From the SDLP ‘s roots in the campaign for civil rights to our proud role in the achievement of the Good Friday Agreement or in delivering the new beginning in policing, making this country the best it can be – economically, socially, politically, culturally and environmentally – has always been the our mission.

As the party that brought a divided people to the dawn of a new, agreed Ireland in the last century; our work for the twenty first century is to lead a reconciled people into a truly united, just and prosperous new Ireland.

We will use the current debate on the realignment of politics on the island in an innovative and imaginative way. We will use it to maximise the potential for positive, constructive outreach. Engaging imaginatively with parties, partners and people in the South. Liaising positively with the unionist community and others in the North. Talking ambitiously with all the stakeholders and policy communities in this new Ireland we want to build. Focussing on the future direction of this country, as well the SDLP’s place in it.

We are determined to ensure that the SDLP, all that we stand for and everything that we believe in will be at the heart of the new Ireland in the future. We also know we need to be the heartbeat for progressive, visionary and creative politics right now.

Imagining the prospects for the new Ireland of the future also involves embracing the opportunities of the present, the opportunities that the Agreement provides for us all, North and South, Unionist and Nationalist.

So when we talk of the legacy of Civil Rights we must be aware that the struggle for Civil Rights continues to this day. We now have the power to tackle inequality in our society in our own hands.

We need to stand together for the right to fair play from a system that has delivered too little and needs to give us much more.

We have to stand strong for the rights of young people to be able to go out at night free from the fear of being attacked. And for all older people to sleep sound in their beds at night.

We need to stand determined to uphold the rights of women to earn equal pay with men.

We must stand up for the rights of our children not to be labeled as failures or left behind. As well as for the fundamental rights of children in developing countries to have access to clean water, basic medical services and the better future they continue to be denied.

We have to stand resolute by people with disabilities, whose rights should be equal with all others.

Stand firm by the rights of the people of Ireland, who voted so strongly for the Good Friday Agreement, and now want its institutions to be used to improve the lives of all its people.

Stand strong for the rights of all people to live free from sectarian intimidation, racist abuse or homophobic assault.

Stand up for what we know to be right. For the more inclusive society, the more prosperous economy and the better country we should all want for ourselves and for each other.”