Open Letter to Right Hon. Sajid Javid MP

The Right Honourable Sajid Javid
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Email: sajid.javid.mp@parliament.uk

Dear Secretary of State:

The Palestine Expo 2017- Generation Palestine 8 & 9 July 2017

SPEC (Stop Palestine Expo Coalition) is a coalition of organisations and individuals who are concerned about the pending Palestine Expo 2017 – Generation Palestine to be held at the Queen Elisabeth ll Centre, London on 8 & 9 July 2017. We outline below why we believe that this event has no place in a Government Agency venue in the heart of Westminster and ask that the Secretary of State is cognisant of our concerns, particularly following the recent terrorist attacks in London and Manchester.

We write to you of our concern about the above the event booked to take place at the Queen Elizabeth ll Conference Centre in Westminster on 8th and 9th July 2017. This is a PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign) and FOA (Friends of Al Aqsa) event that will utilise 5 floors of the QEll Centre making it as advertised the biggest Palestine expo in Europe. We understand that there are already in excess of 10,000 bookings.

We have written to QEll Centre CEO Mark Taylor, listing our concerns, providing information links to the organisations involved with this expo.

FOA

Link: http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/data/pdf/PDF_11_178_2.pdf

PSC/BDS

Links:

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/10/psc-anti-union-israel-racism

https://bbcwatch.org/tag/palestine-solidarity-campaign/

Why Palexpo must be cancelled:

This event is a security risk London cannot afford to host in Westminster close to the seat of Government particularly given the recent terrorist attacks in London and Manchester
How could QEII Centre possibly do its due diligence without seeing the programme for the event, lists of speakers, workshop leaders and topics?
In accepting this event booking QEll becomes involved in the Israel/Palestine dispute, showing bias against Israel
The organisers of this event have evidential links to support for Hamas whose Izz al- Din al-Qassem Brigades, the Hamas armed wing, is proscribed by the UK
There is a possibility or likelihood that certain attendees will express their antisemitic views (or worse)

Dr Denis MacEoin’s article explains clearly what this event is about and why it should not be taking place.

Link: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10428/palestine-expo-london

Dr Denis MacEoin PhD (Cambridge 1979) is a scholar of Islam and Persia, a former lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies and currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

“‘Friends of Al-Aqsa’ is one of the more extremist Islamist organizations at work in Britain today. It supports the Muslim Brotherhood-linked charity ‘Interpal’ (proscribed by the US Treasury) and advertises it on its website. It collaborates with the Khomenist Iranian-funded faux human rights organization known as the Islamic Human Rights Commission in organizing events such as Al Quds day at which public support is expressed for the Iranian proxy militia Hizbollah.” — UK Media Watch.
Under these definitions, Hamas is exposed as a terrorist organization both by its repeated use of indiscriminate killing and the contents of its two Charters from 1988 and 2017.
“There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except through jihad…” — Hamas Charters of 1988 and 2017, Articles 18 and 21.
Hamas is not the only extremist organization to which Friends of Al-Aqsa has lent its support.

QEll Centre, security and further Due Diligence

Following further due diligence checks Mark Taylor wrote on 18 May to inform that the Palexpo event would be going ahead.

Given that the speaker list had not then been announced and the topics and detail of the workshops are still not programmed, and given the information as outlined by Dr Denis MacEoin, on what basis did QEll Centre carry out this further due diligence?

If due diligence resulted in the QEll Centre late cancellation of a Christian Concern event there in 2012 as a result of a claimed failure to meet the requirements of its diversity policy, surely that same standard needs to apply with this Palexpo event, that not only fails the diversity policy, but contravenes equal opportunity policy by engaging only pro-Palestinian speakers.

Link: http://www.christianconcern.com/our-concerns/religious-freedom/government- christian-concern-and-qeii-conference-centre-reach-settlem

Speakers now announced include, amongst others, several extremists

John Pilger is an Australian journalist and film-maker, one of whose documentaries has been described as “a veritable encyclopedia of every anti-Israel canard in existence today”. He has suggested that terrorist group Hezbollah represented “humanity at its noblest”; approvingly cited the arguments of the above-mentioned anti-Semite and Holocaust denier Gilad Atzmon; has suggested that “influential” Jews around the world are culpable in “Israeli crimes” and has likened Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the Nazi’s treatment of the Jews. According to Pilger , “the Zionist state remains the cause of more regional grievance and sheer terror than all the Muslim states combined.”

Link: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10428/palestine-expo-london

Jon Pilger wrote in the Guardian:

Before our eyes, the Israeli regime (it is never called a regime, of course), armed and bankrolled by the United States, and backed by Britain, is set upon destroying an entire country, deliberately killing civilians, almost half of whom are children; and the crusaders are as quiet as mice or they are busy toiling in the great quarry of obsfucation.

Pilger directly accuses Israel, an ally of the UK, of deliberately killing children and expressly uses the word crusader to describe commentators. Crusader of course is the word Islamists use to describe Christians and its not very complimentary.

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jul/28/theheroesofhizbullah

Radicalised schoolgirl Leanne Mohammed is a speaker in the student section. She was winner of the Peachy school debating competition that was surrounded by great controversy for its political content. Her award was later withdrawn as a result of that political content which is clearly against the rules.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N81GOfonfrM&feature=youtu.be

Malia Bhoutia and Ben White are also speakers with extreme views: “…Then Malia Bouattia,the Black Students’ Officer of the National Union of Students, compared Israel’s apparent oppressive treatment of its Arab citizens to the UK’ “targeting of Muslims and pro-Palestine activists”. She claimed that “UK Muslims find their democratic freedoms are comprehensively stripped”…”

Link: https://ukmediawatch.org/2016/01/31/richard-millett-queries-israeli-arab-mk-at-london-event-through-torrent-of-abuse/

And she seriously thinks that in this country “discussion about Palestine is all but illegitimate” which she blamed on “the Zionist and Neocon lobbies”.

Ben “I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are” White was the final speaker. He referred to Israel as the “so-called Jewish state” before calling for Israel to become a “state of all it citizens, not a Jewish state”.

QEll Centre Political Entanglement

In accepting a booking for this event, the Minister for Communities and Local Government as head of the department that is responsible for the QEll Centre, is displaying an active bias in the Israel/Palestine conflict, possibly the most contentious political issue of our times.

This is the one international conflict about which the UK Government holds an official policy. It supports the Two State Solution. As such it is questionable that a venue that is run by an agency of the Government should be accepting a booking from one party to that Middle East dispute, particularly in view of the links between these organisations and Hamas and Hezbollah.

The PSC/BDS, FOA and their association with Hamas/Hezbollah represent the delegitimisation of Israel best illustrated by the slogan/chants that call for the demise of Israel – From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free – expanding the initial dispute over the 1948 cease fire line known as the Green Line to the Blue Line, the Mediterranean Sea. Furthermore, President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority as well as Hamas are clear that no Jews can live in a future Palestine state. This is therefore a call for the expulsion of Jews entirely from the Middle East, in keeping even with the revised Hamas Charter which is also described by Daoud Abdullah as a set of principles pursuant to the 1988 Hamas Charter.

Jewish Race Hate at Palexpo

Since writing to Mark Taylor, we have found links to the Facebook page of Mohammed Isa Al Quddus Kim Yong Who) who has posted the attached screenshots on his page that clearly show the Jew hatred and threats that we said might occur.

Antisemitism

David Collier’s research shows PSC supporters who believe libels like the USA is controlled by Zionists, Jews are responsible for 9/11, harvest organs etc.

Link: http://david-collier.com/psc-riddled-antisemitism/

Hamas

The Hamas Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, is proscribed by the UK. Yet there are links between FOA and Hamas.

Hamas Chief Khaled Meshaal left & senior leader Ishmail Haniyeh

Ishmael Patel with Ishmail Haniyeh

FOA links to Hamas and Hezbollah

http://hurryupharry.org/2009/02/24/ismail-patel-extremist/

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/06/jeremy-corbyn-campaign-donation- palestine

With this further evidence, it is hoped that the Department of Communities and local government and QEll Centre together will now ensure that this event, an affront to most in the community, will be cancelled and not rebooked in any venue that is government controlled.

If the biggest event of the year in in the UK set to celebrate the Jewish state was canceled, following advice it could be a terror target, surely you must agree that this Palestine event, platforming speakers exampled above and possibly attracting extremists and anti-Semites amongst the 10,000 reported attendees, presents a high security risk in the heart of Westminster and it must not proceed.

Given the imminence of the event we would appreciate your early decision to stop Palestine Expo 2017.

Yours Faithfully,

Sharon Klaff, Ambrosine Shitrit, Shmuel Calderon
for and on behalf of SPEC- Stop Palestine Expo Coalition

Email: stoppalexpo@gmail.com

COALITION SUPPORTERS:

Stop Palestine Expo Coalition
Campaign4Truth
Reservists on Duty
The Palestinian Lie
Eye On Antisemitism
Israel’s Voice
Kay Wilson
Defending Jews & Israel From Propaganda
Never Again UK
Worldwide Jewish Pride
Brian of London https://www.facebook.com/BrianOfLondonPage/