Between 12 and 26 November 2013, a young woman jailed by the government of Israel for refusing to serve in its army of occupation is speaking across the UK, on a tour organised by the socialist organisation Workers' Liberty to make solidarity with the Palestinians and the Israeli left.
Click here for details of tour.
Noam Gur is 19 years old, from Jerusalem. She is a queer and feminist as well as anti-militarist activist. In April 2012 she was jailed for refusing to serve in the Israeli Defence Force as part of compulsory national service.
Noam says:
"I refused to join an army that has, since it was established, been engaged in dominating another nation, in plundering and terrorizing a civilian population that is under its control. The systematic destruction and dispossession that form part of a long-established policy of population-transfer, murder of non-violent demonstrators, the Apartheid wall, the massacre 'operations' that the Israeli army chooses to carry out, and the rest of the daily violations of the human rights of the Palestinians have led, and continue to lead, to a long, indefinite, and preventable cycle of bloodshed.
"For years I have been told that this control is supposed to protect me, but information about the suffering caused due to terrorizing the Palestinian population is omitted from the story. The road to achieving true and just peace is long and hard, but as I see it, these actions by the Israeli army only push it further away. Over this past decade, the Palestinian people have been increasingly choosing the path of non-violent resistance, and I chose to join this path and to turn to a popular, nonviolent struggle in Palestine - this, rather than to serve in the Israeli army and continue the violence."
Today Noam is an activist with organisations including the feminist anti-militarist group New Profile, Anarchists Against the Wall, and Ta'ayush, a joint Jewish-Arab campaign which takes direct action in defence of the Palestinians.
Between 12 and 26 November, Noam will be speaking at trade union, student and other meetings across the UK. More details soon. The schedule will be tight, but if you're interested in hosting a meeting or want to know about one in your area, get in touch: email Heather Shaw at centre_stage_red@yahoo.co.uk or ring Sacha Ismail on 07796 690 874.
We are asking groups that host meetings to organise a collection or make a small donation to help cover the costs of the tour so we can concentrate on fundraising for the organisations Noam is part of.
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Tour dates
More details, contact details and links to Facebook events will appear shortly.
If you'd like to organise a meeting, get in touch and we'll try to squeeze you in: centre_stage_red@yahoo.co.uk
More details will be added asap.
Wednesday 13 November
1pm: University of London Union-called student demonstration - meet outside ULU, Malet Street, WC1E 7HY. Facebook event
Afternoon: Discussions and interview at Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union HQ
7.30pm: Milton Keynes, meeting sponsored by Workers' Liberty - Wolverton Central Working Mens Club, 6 Western Rd, Wolverton, Milton Keynes MK12 5BG. Facebook event
Thursday 14 November
1pm: Kent University - ELT1 University of Kent Campus. Facebook event
7.15pm: Central Line East London Underground RMT branch - social club on Harvey Road, E11 3DB, very close to Leytonstone central line station. Facebook event
Friday 15 November
7pm: Bristol University, sponsored by Bristol University Palestine Society - Bristol University Queens Building, room 1.15. Facebook event
Saturday 16 November
12.30pm: Oxford University, sponsored by Oxford University Palestine Society - Saskatchewan Room, Exeter College, Turl Street Oxford OX1 3DP. Facebook event
Sunday 17 November
6.30pm: Royal Holloway University (Egham, Surrey), sponsored by RHUL Left Forum and RHUL Amnesty Society - Founders Main Lecture Theatre. Facebook event
Monday 18 November
6pm: Liverpool University - McAusland Room, Reilly Building, University Square. Facebook event
Tuesday 19 November
6pm: Manchester - Falafel, 26 Wilmslow Road, M14 5TQ Manchester. Sponsored by Manchester Anti-Capitalist Students. Facebook event
Wednesday 20 November
6pm: Newcastle, sponsored by Northumbria University Friends of Palestine and Newcastle Free Education Network - the History Room, Newcastle University SU. Facebook event
Thursday 21 November
3pm: Glasgow RMT branch meeting, 180 Hope Street Glasgow Lanarkshire G2 2UE
6.30pm: Glasgow University, sponsored by Glasgow University Labour Club. Boyd Orr 407 (Lecture theatre A). Facebook event
Friday 22 November
3pm: University of York - PL005, Physics Building, University of York. Facebook event
7pm: Sheffield, sponsored by Workers' Liberty - Harrisons 1854, 15-29 Regent Terrace, S3 7QA. Facebook event
Saturday 23 November
Evening: Birmingham University (at NCAFC conference)
Monday 25 November
1pm: Sussex University, Building arts a, Room A05, Sponsored by Sussex Left Forum. Facebook event
6.30pm: Goldsmiths University - RHB137, Goldsmiths University, New Cross, London SE14. Facebook event
Tuesday 26 November
3pm: London School of Economics, sponsored by LSE Palestine Society and SOAS Israel Society - Clement House room 3.02.
7pm: University College London, sponsored by UCL Left Forum - Medical Sciences 131 AV Hill Lecture Theatre, UCL. Facebook event
Previous tour, and delegation to Israel-Palestine
We ran a speaker tour with another Israeli military refuser, Tamar Katz, in March 2009. For a report of that tour, see here.
For reports, interviews, pictures etc from our November-December 2010 delegation to Palestine and Israel, see here.