Hi, I'm Sal and in November 2022 I took part in a protest at the Houses of Parliament, alongside a friend of mine.

https://twitter.com/Pal_action/status/1591451801358041089?t=CF0ueQzaFpEdRUzQ-aFY4w&s=19

We took action on the 105th anniversary of the signing of the Balfour Declaration. In 1917, Lord Balfour, who was UK Foreign Secretary and ex-British Prime Minister, signed a Declaration that gave away the Palestinian's homeland so that a Jewish State (now Israel) could be created. The Palestinian people were never part of these 'negotiations' - their homeland was given away without their consent by one colonial power (the UK government) to a new coloniser (Israel).

The British government has made it almost impossible to protest in a meaningful way. We wanted our voices to be heard by our government and by a broad spectrum of society. We wanted to raise awareness of the British governments' ongoing complicity in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their own homeland and question the right of the British government to give someone else's homeland away, without their consent, when it wasn't theirs to give.

After spending many years campaigning for justice for Palestine in more 'conventional' ways, I felt increasing despair that all those ways had achieved nothing for the people of Palestine, who suffer every day under the illegal Israeli occupation. I ended up feeling that I'd exhausted the democratic process and had failed to make any difference to the suffering of the Palestinians.

The 2022 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill changed many of our protest laws in the UK, making it riskier to protest and take Direct Action about things that we see as injustices. After the Colston Statue case resulted in acquittal in Bristol and was appealed by the Attorney General, it has now been deemed a 'serious offence' to damage statues and memorials. Our case is the first legal case to come to trial for damage to a statue since the 2022 PCSC Bill came into law.

It seems that our government is more concerned with protecting statues than facing up to its colonial crimes in Palestine and elsewhere around the world.

The genocide that is now happening in Palestine would never have happened if Britain hadn't signed away the Palestinian's homeland in 1917.

I have an upcoming Crown Court trial in December 2023 at Southwark Crown Court in London. I have been unable to get Legal Aid and cannot manage to cover the legal fees myself, nor do I have family who can help me raise them. 

The funds are required to pay a specialist counsel, who is experienced in this area of law. I am needing to raise £12,000 to pay for this. 

We potentially could be facing up to ten years in prison for squirting some organic tomato ketchup (to symbolise the blood of the Palestinians’) onto the statue of Lord Balfour, and gluing ourselves to the statue's plinth (in order to give ourselves time to speak without being bundled away by security).

I'd really appreciate any donation you can make. It will help me so much. Thank you so much!

In solidarity, Sal.