Palestine campaigners accuse Sheffield Council of censorship

Julie Pearn, the chair of Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine, was interrupted by Lord Mayor Coun Sioned-Mair Richards, who was chairing a meeting of the full council (Monday, February 20).

The group had put forward a question to the council about inaction over an invitation from the Mayor of Palestinian city Nablus four years ago for the two cities to have a twinning arrangement. It compared the lack of response with the speed of inviting the mayor of a Ukrainian city to speak at a full council meeting in December when a memorandum of understanding was signed.

Before Ms Pearn could put her question, the Lord Mayor called on David Hollis, the council’s interim director of legal and governance, to “just to give us a note of caution here, Julie”.

Mr Hollis said: “The preamble to the question is probably contrary to the council’s adopted definition of anti-semitism, therefore the presenter is requested to just ask the question without preamble.”

Following protests from people in the public gallery, the Lord Mayor asked them to “be courteous and just listen to Mr Hollis” and not heckle or interrupt, “however annoyed or irritated by the advice that you hear from our head of legal”.

‘Contravention’

Ms Pearn said: “I think I would appreciate some indication on which parts of my very factual preamble to the question might be in any contravention of the IHRA working definition and I would omit those but actually the question makes no sense without a preamble.”

The Lord Mayor asked if she wanted to stop to speak to Mr Hollis but Ms Pearn said: “No, I think Mr Hollis ought to be able to say which parts are in contravention.”

The Lord Mayor replied: “That would be very difficult unless he actually repeats it in public, so if you can ask your question, Julie.”

Ms Pearn responded: “Well, I’m prepared to take that risk, I guess. We’ve spoken today about the twinning with the Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi – which I and the organisation I represent, Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine, absolutely support.

“We are delighted that the city council has shown this stand for international law and shown the degree of empathy and international solidarity to a people who are victims of military aggression, invasion and the awful assaults on children, creation of refugees and so on.

“And basically what we’re saying is that empathy should be shown to other victims of military aggression, invasion, ethnic cleansing and bombing. So what we are saying is, we are pleased that Sheffield City Council is now taking taking steps of twinning in this way.

‘Double standards’

“And we want to remind the council that an invitation to twin was made by the mayor of Nablus in April 2019 and that actually the council has not even acknowledged the invitation. Why is it double standards?

“The West Bank and Gaza Strip have been under occupation and East Jerusalem illegally annexed since 1967. Palestinians have been subjected to ethnic cleansing…”

At that point the Lord Mayor said: “I think, Julie, I am going to stop you there.”

In response to other voices protesting, she said: “This is not about censorship.” Ms Pearn replied: “It is, actually, this is true.”

She was told: “Please sit down and be quiet. When the Lord Mayor stands up, the standing order says that other people sit down and listen and that applies to everybody who is here.”

Coun Richards added: “We have received advice from our head of legal about concerns about breaking our declaration around anti-semitism and therefore as the Lord Mayor I do have to listen to the head of legal when he raises this with me, which I have, and he was raising it again when you were speaking, Julie.

‘Very sad’

“Julie, we really want to hear your proposal and please raise that so that we can then address it, thank you.”

Ms Pearn replied: “Thank you, Lord Mayor, but I must say I am very sad that what I think are simple statements of fact are being suppressed in this way.”

She asked how to get a response from the city to the mayor of Nablus’s invitation and achieve a twinning relationship, “an aim which is supported by individuals and organisations all over Sheffield”.

Council leader Coun Terry Fox replied: “Well, obviously we had a fantastic event the other year with Palfest, celebrating the culture and diversity with that.

“I wasn’t aware of the Nablus offer but when we were going through the Khmelnytskyi twinning what was clear was we had no clear policy on that, and that policy is coming through as we speak.

“And obviously we’ve had a number of offers, certainly in the time I’ve been leader, as has the Lord Mayor, we’ve had a number of offers, which we want to take through on a proper process, so that all members have an opportunity on that.”

‘Welcome offer’

He said the policy was due to go before the council’s strategy and resources policy committee in a couple of months “but in the meantime, just as a matter of common courtesy and decency, we’ll get a reply to the Mayor of Nablus, and I welcome their offer”.

Hilary Smith from Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: “You have just succumbed to censorship.”

The Lord Mayor replied: “No we haven’t, we have kept to the agreement which the whole council has agreed.”

The council adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism in October 2019.

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