We were delighted to welcome George Rishmawi from Palestine to Birmingham last week, and organised a gathering in the local Racabessa Restaurant on Soho Road in Handsworth. Local friends in the fight for equality and justice joined those of us who visited Palestine in 2004 when George was our congenial host. He then worked for the Holy Land Trust, but he has recently joined another group working for international understanding, Siraj which is a Christian organisation. As they point out the exitence of the Christians is forgotten about. In a talk which George gave in Toronto he describes his native village as being 80% Christian, 20% Muslim.
Phill Murphy, Mick Rice, Susannah McCorry and I were joined by a number of people active in Birmingham in a solidarity campaign for Palestine. Chris Khamis comes from Nazareth himself and is active in the local movement. Stan Butler and Tari Atwal run stalls in Birmingham City Centre regularly. Raghib Ahsan who recently stood as a Respect candidate having been hounded out of Labour joined us. Maxi Hales and Alton Burnett were among those who gave words of welcome to George who replied with an update of the present situation in Gaza and the West Bank. Fiona Williams, Shah Jehan and Ansar Ali Khan who went on the trip to Palestine couldn’t be with us but sent their greetings.
We presented George with an inscribed tankard decorated with a Celtic pattern. It said “To George Rishmawi from your work for peace in Palestine from your friends in Birmingham”

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