Bristol BBC grounds occupied by Palestine Protesters

Author: Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign

NEWS RELEASE – – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE …..Sent Tuesday 23rd July 2014

Bristol BBC grounds occupied by Palestine Protesters

Late this afternoon a campaign group calling itself “Bristol Friends Of Gaza” occupied the front lawn in front of the BBC headquarters on Whiteladies Road in Bristol. They started with rally with about a hundred people around a massive fifty foot long banner in the colours of the Palestine flag. The then set up a tented village and declared they would occupy the area “Until the BBC tells the real truth on Palestine”

The group “Bristol Friends of Gaza” has formed from independent campaigners who base themselves around the Palestine Museum on Broad Street in Bristol. This museum was opened last June by the Lord Mayor of Bristol and the Palestine Ambassador from London. It is possibly the only permanent Palestine museum of its kind in the Western World. It is open three days every week (Thursday, Friday & Saturday 11am-6pm) and welcomes hundreds of visitors every year. It is free and is staffed by volunteers.

Eddy Clarke from the Palestine Museum in Bristol said “We set up this Palestine museum in Bristol just over a year ago. It tells the true history of what’s happening in Palestine. Since 1948 the indigenous population of Palestinians have been driven out of most of their homeland by ethnic-cleansing, the West Bank has been illegally occupied since 1967 and is brutally suppressed, and Gaza has been under total siege for most of the last decade with only the minimum amount of medicine, power, and food to just keep people alive at starvation level. When I know all this, and I can check it all by my own research, how can I accept the outrageous bias of the news reporting from the BBC. That’s why I’m here now standing up for the truth to be told.”

He goes on to say “Bristol has a habit of being first! Our Palestine museum is the first in the UK and possibly anywhere in the Western World! To our knowledge this may be the first occupation for Palestine. We say to everyone, if you live in Bristol come and join us. And if you live anywhere else the follow our example – get out there and OCCUPY!”

Rita Cangialosi from the Palestine Museum in Bristol said “A child has been dying every hour for the last few days in Gaza. The death toll is now over 600 Palestinian men, women and children. When I heard that I cried. It must be so awful for those people there living in terror thinking all the time that this could be their last breath in this world. I asked myself, how can I or any human-being stand by and not do something to help?”

BACKGROUND NOTES: Bristol has a long history of links with Palestine. From peace campaigners to faith groups, from football teams to circus performers to Banksy, many Bristolians have visited Palestine. Following the attacks on Gaza in winter 2008/9 a group Bristol-Gaza-Link was formed, with all party support from the City Council. It organised several aid convoys to Gaza including an ambulance and a giant articulated truck decorated with images of Wallace and Grommit which was waved off from the City Centre. In May 2010, two Bristol citizens were within inches of death on-board the aid ship, Mavi Marmara, when it was attacked by Israeli commandos. Bristol was also the first local council in the country passing a motion condemning these attacks and calling for boycott and divestment of Israel. Following a student occupation in 2009, UWE now has a “Conflict Zone Bursary” which has already funded two students from Gaza. Local campaigners build awareness of Palestine issues through meetings, boycott actions, and cultural events. Bristol also hosts a Palestine Film Festival at the Watershed every year. Bristol also has the only permanent Palestine exhibition in the Western World at the Palestine Museum Centre on Broad Street between the Centre and St Nicholas Market which was opened by the Lord Mayor of Bristol and the Palestine Ambassador in June 2013.

Copyright-free picture on “Bristol Psc” facebook

ENDS