I AM petitioning Edinburgh council to twin with Gaza City. This is a formal process and as soon as 200 Edinburgh residents have signed, the council must discuss the proposal. Dundee is twinned with Nablus and Glasgow with Bethlehem. It is only appropriate that Edinburgh twins with a city of Palestine. Since Arthur Balfour was key to creating modern Israel, and he hailed from nearby East Lothian, Edinburgh is an appropriate choice for beginning to address historical wrongs to the Palestinians. The council petition details are at www.tinyurl.com/gazatwinregister.
Moyle District Council in Ulster twinned with Gaza in 2012 and helped with tourism, sport, football, health care, women’s issues, library management, parks improvement, sewage processing and education. Due to reorganisation, Moyle Council no longer exists. But if this is what Moyle can do with a population of 17,000, what could Edinburgh offer, with a population of half a million? So, what we need to make this happen is a lot of press and publicity.
To help spread awareness of the petition we are holding a charity event, a “Gig for Gaza”. We hope to collect many signatures at the Princes Street Gardens event, which takes place on July 12. More details at www.tinyurl.com/gigforgaza.
The Gig for Gaza is brought to you through volunteers from Edinburgh and Glasgow in both SNP and Labour and is backed by LAZIR (Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism). [You can join LAZIR at www.tinyurl.com/laziwork – we are now allowing those who are not in Labour to become associate members].
If you want to show support, please come to Edinburgh that weekend and join us. It is a free event, but we’ll be collecting for Medical Aid for Palestine and “Hear for Gaza” charity for deaf children.
The line-up will be: Ayman Jarjour, Syrian guitarist; Violet Leighton performing Woody Guthrie songs; Edinburgh five-piece combo Stoned Holy Rollers; Leith three-piece The Tango Rhums; The Celtic King does Elvis plus other performers. An award- winning film, Three Minute Warning, from Iqbal Mohammed of Dynamiq Films in Huddersfield about “roof-knocking” – what Israeli bombs mean to a Gaza family – will be screened. Compered by Fran Whitton (aka Frankie Gallacher of Stand Comedy Club fame). Also featuring new work for auction by established Scottish painters such as Alasdair Gray, Carole Gibbons and Douglas G McKechnie.
Residents of Gaza are signing their own petition calling upon Edinburgh to twin with them. See it at tinyurl.com/gazatwinningother
It would be helpful for the people of Palestine if your readers could also seek to get their cities twinned with Palestinian ones. It gives Palestinians great succour to know that they have support in the UK and there are many practical advantages in terms of civic support. I also believe this is an effective way to help protect them from incursions and attacks from Israeli settlers.
You can start the process either by using your own council petitioning process or by getting your local CLP or SNP constituency party to pass a motion in support, calling upon their council group to act.
Pete Gregson
Chair, LAZIR
I’VE just read Elizabeth Buchan Hepburn’s letter (June 30). Utter nonsense. I’m married to a Type One diabetic and there is only one thing that causes hypos or hypoglycaemia and that is an overdose of insulin. To say a shortage of insulin would lead anyone to “lurch from hypo to hypo” is just ill-informed rubbish and dreadful scaremongering.
A shortage of insulin could potentially lead to hypers or hyperglycemia, where the blood glucose is high, but if you can’t even get the simple facts right, it’s very hard to believe the rest of the wild speculation!
Heather Mist
via email
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