On Saturday at London’s South Bank Centre, campaign groups came together to hold a protest during which they handed in an open letter signed by dozens of poets. They are demanding that the South Bank must immediately end the deal with British bulldozer company JCB, and remove company branding from the so-called “singing lift”, which services the Poetry Library on the fifth floor.
JCB equipment has for many years been widely and credibly implicated in the demolition of Palestinian roads, homes and infrastructure in the illegally occupied West Bank. A JCB vehicle is even featured in the film poster for Oscar-winning ‘No Other Land’, whose director was attacked yesterday by illegal settlers and has since been held by Israeli military.
Parents 4 Palestine were among the groups organising the event. They want the South Bank to recognise the crimes of JCB, and to rename the lift in honour of Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer [widely known for his poem ‘If I Must Die’], killed by Israeli forces.
The action began outside the Poetry Library with recitals of poetry from Palestinian, Indian and Kashmiri authors.
JCB, owned by major Conservative Party donor Lord Bamford, is also involved in home and business demolitions in India, even destroying places of Muslim worship in BJP-controlled areas. A recent report by South Asia Solidarity Group (who also supported Saturday’s action) exposes similar abuses in occupied Kashmir.
Rashad Abu Sakhilah was the youngest published poet in Palestine, ordinarily signifying a wonderful creative future, but he was killed last September when Israeli forces bombed the Al-Fakhoora school in Jabalia refugee camp. Campaigners donated his Letters Of The Earth collection to the Poetry Library, asking for it to be given due prominence.
Among other poetry read aloud was a piece by Fatima Zainab, a young woman currently held without trial by the British government as one of the #Filton18 – Palestine Action activists on remand for around 17 months for allegedly causing around a million pounds of damage at the Bristol research facility of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.
Real Media will be releasing a video of the full poem later this week, after the Filton 18 hearing at the Old Bailey on Thursday this week.
During the afternoon, on the second floor of the South Bank Centre, in solidarity with those who have lost their homes to JCB demolitions, children built cardboard homes in front of a huge banner which read “Poetry, Not JCB Genocide”.
One of the organising groups, the Stop JCB Demolitions Campaign is also filing a complaint with the UK National Contact Point, under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct, alleging JCB UK’s failure to take necessary actions to address the adverse human rights impacts resulting from the use of its heavy machinery products in “punitive demolitions” in India.
ALSO
Watch a beautiful reading of a poem written in prison by Fatema Zainab, one of the Filton 18 prisoners on remand.
