Speak out and pack the public gallery of Tower Hamlets Council meeting and demand they act on our petition against the racist, Islamophobic Prevent policy!
(London 13.01.2024, National march for Palestine)
Lobby: 6pm
Council Meeting: 6.30pm
Wednesday 8th May 2024
Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 160 Whitechapel Road, E1 1BJ
STOP THE USE OF PREVENT TO HARASS STUDENTS, WORKERS AND THE COMMUNITY
DEFEND FREE SPEECH AND DEMOCRACY – FREE SPEECH ON PALESTINE: We have a right to speak out & support the Palestinians’ fight against ethnic-cleansing & genocide
STOP THE ATTACKS ON THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY AND ALL SUPPORTERS OF THE PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE
Over the last few months hundreds of Tower Hamlets community members have signed the petition opposing the racist, Islamophobic Prevent programme and demanding the Council takes action.
After mobilising our community in Tower Hamlets, petitioning outside colleges, mosques, and markets for months, with hundreds of community members, especially Muslim community members, signing our petitions, Tower Hamlets Council has placed it on their agenda for this month’s meeting. They have agreed for us to formally present our petition and address the Council on Wednesday. We need everyone to join Movement for Justice (MFJ) at the meeting, fill the public gallery, speak out, and make sure that the Council votes for and takes action on the urgent demands of this petition (see text below).
This petition speaks for the whole of our community and beyond.
(Peckham, London 02.05.2024 Successful mass action stopping a forced removal of refugees to the Bibby Stockholm barge)
Last week there were mass actions to support our cross-Channel refugee sisters and brothers fighting against the Tory government’s attempts to displace, detain, and deport them to Rwanda – a policy of death. There is a direct parallel between the support of the Tories and the Labour Party leadership for the Israeli government’s displacement and incarceration of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and the UK government’s attacks on cross-Channel refugees. In a sense the cross-Channel refugees are Britain’s persecuted ‘Palestinians’.
Uniting the movements that are fighting to defeat Tory support for the Israeli government’s genocidal war on the Palestinians, and our own government’s plans to deport cross-Channel refugees to Rwanda would be a victory for both the Palestinian struggle and the struggle of all refugees.
We need to make sure that Tower Hamlets Council sets a national example of how a local authority can defend the right of its community to fight and speak the plain truth about racism, about anti-Muslim bigotry in the UK, and about the struggle of Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank.
Attend the lobby and Council meeting on Wednesday, speak out and make sure our demands are acted on by Tower Hamlets Council.
Below is the text of the petition being discussed and voted on.
Defend Free Speech and Democracy
We the undersigned are petitioning Tower Hamlets’ mayor and council because we have real concerns about the government led Prevent programme as it directly affects the Muslim community in this borough. The experience of Muslims who live, work and study in Tower Hamlets, especially the experience of Muslim young people and their families, demonstrate clearly that Prevent is a racist, Islamophobic policy and a restriction on our right to free speech.
That situation has become more acute because the UK government is giving political and material support to the Israeli government in the conflict that is inflicting death and suffering on the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
The people of Tower Hamlets are showing great resilience at this difficult time. Many have demonstrated their support and sympathy for the Palestinian people, but we are still fearful of the consequences. Many of the borough’s Muslim parents are worried that a child’s innocent comment could lead to them being hauled before Prevent. In some situations Muslim community members and parents have come together to resist the threat of Prevent, as happened recently in our neighbouring borough, Waltham Forest, but in most cases we feel too isolated to do that.
At the same time, we know that many of Tower Hamlets educators, social workers etc feel unhappy and compromised by Prevent, regardless of their religion or ethnic identity.
Therefore, we call on Tower Hamlets’ Mayor Lutfur Rahman and Tower Hamlets’ Council to:
Call a meeting and a series of local meetings in Tower Hamlets for members of the community to speak about our experience with Prevent, and publish the findings of such meetings.