… Palestine sends a tree!

As long-term readers of this blog will know, the University of Manchester Students Union is twinned with An-Najah in the West Bank, and last autumn a rightwing attempt to undermine this historic show of solidarity was thwarted.  A motion was put forward at a general meeting that would have constrained the union of An-Najah to sign a statement “renouncing terror”, to be written by the motion’s sponsors, or have the twinning annulled.  A massive (four figure) turnout rejected the motion, amending it to one that celebrated the twinning and accepted in advance the gift of an olive tree, to symbolise peace and solidarity, from our Palestinian comrades.

Six months later (and sixty years after the naqba that made all this necessary), here it is:

I hope it will survive in these chilly Northern climes and turbulent political climate (my friend who brought it from the airport was recently harrassed by the police for, in the words of their incident report, ”wearing a Palestinian t-shirt”).  Marches like the one today are important, now more than ever, but this little tree will bring me hopw in between times.