The Lochaber Supports Palestine group hosted a well-attended discussion on the situation in the war-torn region at Saint Andrew’s Church Hall in Fort William last week.
Well-known retired local surgeon, David Sedgwick, was joined by current Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey MP Drew Hendry and Fort William and Ardnamurchan Highland Councillor Sarah Fanet.
Mr Sedgwick began with some remarks about the current situation in the country. The surgeon has spent a lot of time in Palestine running courses on trauma surgery, in both Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, over a number of years.
He also gave the group a precis of the history of Palestine and Israel, focusing on the period from 1903 onwards as a way of contextualising the current conflict.
Drew Hendry MP, who is a former leader of the Highland Council as well as a sitting Member of Parliament, spoke passionately and fluidly about the role of both the Scottish and UK Parliaments’ response to the crisis, as well as the power of activists on the streets to continue building positive pressure to help stop the killing and the need to hold all sides to account.
Councillor Fanet spoke about her experience of working in the Syrian resettlement programme and the power of recounting and letting the world know what is happening for people unaware in the outside world.
She concluded by recounting the story of how Highland Council accepted and passed her motion calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The three speakers then took questions from the audience, many of which centred around the sense of hopelessness and frustration, and how to genuinely make an impact.
All three pointed out that activism works and that merely the process of speaking out and joining campaigns can make a difference, as does boycotting, diversifying and sanctioning nations, as it did with South Africa during the apartheid years.
Speaking to the Lochaber Times after the event, Drew Hendry MP said: “It was incredibly heart-warming to share a discussion with local folk about how we can all do our bit in our part of the world to show our support to those in Gaza.
“I was inspired by the depth of feeling around the room and by the informative and emotive stories from Councillor Sarah Fanet and David Sedgwick.”
Yes! I would like to be sent emails from West Coast Today
I understand that my personal information will not be shared with any third parties, and will only be used to provide me with useful targeted articles as indicated.
I'm also aware that I can un-subscribe at any point either from each email notification or on My Account screen.