On the evening of Friday 7th July, members of the Warrington group and guests heard Mike Reed give a presentation on the AIUK report published early 2022 titled -  Israel's Apartheid against the Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity.

Mike has been an Amnesty member and activist for 50 years undertaking campaigning actions with local groups in Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. He was a Board member with Amnesty UK in the 1970s. He was an Amnesty Trainer and a member of the Amnesty UK Training Board for over 20 years.  So with that background his talk was informative, engaging and generated some very thought- provoking questions and comments.

In the report Amnesty has concluded that the Israeli authorities are enforcing a system of apartheid against all Palestinians living under their effective control – whether they live in Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) or in other countries as refugees.  The report provides new evidence of the institutionalised nature of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, and of how Israeli laws and policies are designed specifically to deprive Palestinians of their rights.

In his presentation, Mike defined apartheid and described the four pillars of Israel's strategy that amounts to apartheid - Fragmentation, Domination, Dispossession and Deprivation with examples of each.

He briefly described the extensive research carried out by Amnesty International, over a number of years, in order to produce a document that draws significant conclusions.  Some of the examples of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians discussed during the presentation included:

• Severe restrictions of movement in the West Bank.  For example, Palestinians wishing to visit other areas of the OPT have to seek permission of the Israeli military and face road closures and check points when travelling.
• Denial of Palestinian refugees’ internationally protected right to return.  Israel bars displaced Palestinian families from returning to their former villages or homes in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in order to retain control over demographics.
• Restrictions to access to their land to pick olives, denial of planning permission and many other challenges that the Palestinians face due to Israeli policies and actions.

Mike's presentation is based on one created by Amnesty UK with the addition of further explanatory material. The presentation has been given successfully to many audiences. The presentation can be delivered in person (in locations within 1-2 hours journey time of south Manchester), or online using Zoom or Ms Teams.  If you are interested in finding out more about this event or would like a similar presentation, please contact Gill at gill.hardy2610@gmail.com.

The full report can be found at Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians Report - Amnesty's 2022 report.pdf