Newcastle Labour council has banned an exhibition commemorating the Nakba of 1948 when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and lands by Zionist terrorist organisations as they violently established the Israeli state. The exhibition was due to run for four weeks from May 2019 but was shutdown after just nine days without any prior notice or concerns being raised with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) which had organised it. Newcastle council joins Labour-run Tower Hamlets council now in banning a Palestine solidarity event.
Newcastle City Library, which is funded and run by the council, had initially agreed to host the PSC exhibition. In response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by a PSC member, the library said it had cancelled the display because it had received a comment that the material was ‘inflammatory and biased’ and that the decision to cancel was because of ‘the one-sided nature of the display.’ The library refused to reveal correspondence between the council and library over the ban, or who had made the final decision, or the exact wording of the comment or how many comments there had been. It now claims it will consider hosting the exhibition again if it is done in a ‘balanced’ way.
Reporting on the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in a ‘balanced’ way serves only one purpose: to cover up the racist nature of Zionism and the Israeli state. Like Tower Hamlets, Newcastle Council has adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism but claimed that the definition would not lead to any ban on events in the city expressing support for Palestine. Labour councillors lied: it is now clear that with the adoption of the definition it takes just one or two adverse ‘comments’ for a pro-Palestine event to be shut down.
What is even more shameful is the wretched response of the PSC which has been to brush this attack on Palestine and democratic rights under the carpet. It has kept it off agendas at its meetings; refused to even issue a public statement and has stated it does not want anything to do with a leaflet challenging the banning of their event. Instead it has adopted what it calls a ‘measured’ approach in ‘negotiating’ with the library. This of course has led to nothing. The reason for this silence is obvious: it would require the PSC to face up to the Labour council when its members and allies are made up of Labour councillors and their supporters. Indeed, in the run up to the council approving the IHRA definition in September 2018, FRFI supporters helped start a campaign to oppose it – only to find the PSC attempting to undermine the initiative. When self-proclaimed Palestine supporter and Labour councillor Ann Schofield attended a PSC meeting and declared she would not oppose the IHRA definition, she said she did not want this to be reported. She was duly defended by leading PSC members who kicked FRFI supporters out of the meeting for fear we would report on Schofield’s treachery. Newcastle PSC is now so abject a defender of Labour that it will allow its own events to be cancelled without protest. Its claim to defend the Palestinian people is just an empty deceit.
Victory to the people of Palestine!
