{"id":50389,"date":"2024-03-11T15:41:37","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T15:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sheflive.co.uk\/?p=50389"},"modified":"2024-03-11T15:41:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T15:41:37","slug":"petition-calls-on-sheffield-city-council-to-stand-with-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/03\/11\/petition-calls-on-sheffield-city-council-to-stand-with-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"Petition calls on Sheffield City Council to &#8216;Stand with Palestine&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 5,300-name petition asking Sheffield City Council to act and stand in solidarity with Palestine in the on-going conflict is to be discussed at a meeting tomorrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The petition supported by various group in the city was initially handed in to the council&#8217;s budget meeting last Wednesday, but was passed on to the <a href=\"https:\/\/democracy.sheffield.gov.uk\/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=641&amp;MId=8787\">Strategy and Resources Policy Committee<\/a>, which will meet tomorrow afternoon at 3pm in the Town Hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Councillors had a intense debate on the <a href=\"https:\/\/actionnetwork.org\/petitions\/sheffield-council-stand-with-palestine\/\">petition<\/a> during Wednesday&#8217;s meeting which was also attended by campaigners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Johnny Feldman, a representative of the petitioners who addressed the council, said: &#8220;Do not betray your humanity, your decency and look the other way.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The petitioners listed three main demands for the council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first called on the council to welcome the International Court of Justice Order, that Israel prevent any further genocide act an any incitement of genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It also stated that the council should accept the Amnesty International description of Israel as a state practising the crime against humanity of apartheid and work towards making Sheffield an Israeli-apartheid free zone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lastly, the petitioners asked the council to issue a statement of unity and solidarity with the Palestine people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Councillor Tom Hunt, the Leader of the Council, claimed &#8220;these are not tasks that we can fully resolve today&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He stressed that the council was constrained by legislation and constitution and therefore proposed a motion to refer the demands of the petition to the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee for &#8220;proper considerations&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the meantime, he reaffirmed that the council continues to recognise the state of Palestine as a &#8220;full independent nation&#8221; and confirmed that the council has no relationship with any of the companies listed in the UN Human Rights Council and has entered a friendship agreement with the city of Nablus in the West Bank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the motion that Coun Hunt proposed raised concerns that this was merely a means to delay decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Coun Alexi Dimond said: &#8220;The public may see any decision to refer to S&amp;R as an attempt to save face.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A statement published by Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign said that: &#8220;Unnecessary delays will exacerbate concerns about what is seen as the council&#8217;s selective morality when it comes to some sorely oppressed people, in contrast to others, like Ukrainians.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Handed in the petition but stymied by procedural porridge. Chaotic scenes like in house of commons &amp; council leaders managed to squirm out of doing anything by delegating to a committee.  We will not be deterred <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FreePalestine?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FreePalestine<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EFMl2sftW4\">pic.twitter.com\/EFMl2sftW4<\/a><\/p>&mdash; SheffieldPSC (@SheffieldPSC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SheffieldPSC\/status\/1765823511275155710?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 7, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Annie O&#8217;Gara, a spokesperson for the Sheffield Palestine Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, said: &#8220;This is urgent. This is the moral test of our generation and of this council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We want you to accept this petition in full today.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Coun Sophie Wilson also supported a vote to accept the demands of the petition on the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She said: &#8220;We are the elected members, as we heard from this petition, this is what those who put us in this position want us to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The meeting had to be adjourned before Coun Colin Ross, the Lord Mayor, had decided to deny voting to accept the petition on the day, after taking legal advice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The council then voted and passed the motion to refer the matter to the  <a href=\"https:\/\/democracy.sheffield.gov.uk\/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=641&amp;MId=8787\">Strategy and Resources Policy Committee<\/a> with 60 votes in favour and 13 votes against.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Coun Hunt assured the audiences that he would try his best as Leader of the Council and Chair of the  <a href=\"https:\/\/democracy.sheffield.gov.uk\/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=641&amp;MId=8787\">Strategy and Resources Policy Committee<\/a> to get a cross-party agreement on the matter as soon as possible before the pre-election period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This is the right way forward and the only way forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 5,300-name petition asking Sheffield City Council to act and stand in solidarity with Palestine in the on-going conflict is to be discussed at a meeting tomorrow. The petition supported by various group in the city was initially handed in to the council&#8217;s budget meeting last Wednesday, but was passed on to the Strategy and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[137,152,5,10,214],"tags":[135,116,367,12,55,368,369],"class_list":["post-50389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-council","category-council-2","category-news","category-politics","category-world-news","tag-sheffieldnews","tag-council","tag-palestine","tag-sheffield","tag-sheffield-city-council","tag-stand-with-palestine","tag-stratefy-and-resources-policy-committee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}