Lindsay’s film features six spectacularly-clad candidates who are applying for the position of CEO in the world’s largest company. The company is so large that it makes Amazon, Tesla, Microsoft, et al, look like SMEs.

Can the Chair deal with the candidates’ dialogues during the interview? Is the intruder a plant – and what happens during the blackout?

At the age of 80, Lindsay wrote this screenplay because, she says, “I have no idea what people are talking about these days. I know others of my generation, and younger ones too, also feel the same. I hope my film will encourage language to be simpler to understand and become less pretentious.”

Lindsay believes she is the only 80-year old woman in the world to have formed her own film company – Rickshaw Pix – and to have written, produced, directed and featured in her own screenplay. Additionally, two years ago she founded The Daytime Theatre Players group which intends to hold various stage productions on weekday or Saturday mornings.

10.30 a.m., Saturday 25 October. Tickets (£10 – cash only) available at the Seafront Room of the hotel.

I met David Mears at his 90th birthday party held at the White Rock Hotel. The party, in honour of their oldest member, was organised by the Hastings & St Leonards Azur Sea Swimmers – a group that meets at groyne 87 on the beach for a daily sea swim, weather permitting,

It was an opportunity to sit down with David and find out about what made him tick, as well as sample his strawberry & cream birthday cake while singing Happy Birthday around the hotel piano.

David was born on the kitchen table of his parents’ house in Dane Road on Sunday 13 January 1935 – a true Hastings lad. Fortunately, his father was an obstetrician, so he would have been properly supervised from pregnancy to newborn baby.

In his twenties, David became an early adopter of Spanish holidays, booking a trip to Andalucia in 1960. After that, he realised he: “preferred the sun of Spain to the cold and damp of England.”

He set about training as a nurse and began a decade of living and working in private clinics around Europe, mainly Spain, France and Germany. He returned to Hastings in 1970 to look after his ailing mother while continuing to work as a nurse – ending up opening his own care home as a result of his distrust of those already available.

Some years later, he read an article about the mental and physical benefits of cold swimming, particularly in boosting the immune system and warding off dementia. Convinced by what he read, he started a lifelong habit: “It was certainly a shock when I started,” he says, “and it took a month to get in the swing of it!” But he got to enjoy his daily dip and has been going most days for the last 35 years.

He soon joined the Groyne 47 swimmers, and they have become something of a family to him. Moving to the Ridge didn’t deter David from driving to the beach every day, and having given up his licence six months ago he now just hops on the bus instead.

His advice for the would-be older swimmer: “Go for it, but I wouldn’t advise starting after 75.”

David is convinced that swimming has kept him healthy, even warded off the usual coughs and colds. And although a leg problem has stopped him swimming for the past few months, he still comes down to groyne 87 for the company – and hopes to resume swimming soon.

Clearly, for David at least, a cold swim delivered the benefits he read about 25 years ago.

The training will enable attendees to give free energy advice to local people, helping them to save energy and bring down their bills. It will also introduce participants to the broader world of community energy projects, including thermal imaging and community solar. No previous experience is necessary.

Topics covered will include basic ways to stop energy wastage such as draught-proofing and the use of boiler and heating controls, how to read an energy bill, the Priority Services Register (what it is and who it can help) and the various different discounts and schemes available to help people with their bills: for example, fuel vouchers and the Warm Home Discount.

Participants will also receive ongoing training and support from Energise Sussex Coast, empowering them to organise events and local activities around energy-saving and renewable energy. Energy Champions are expected to volunteer for around four hours a month following the training.

Local Energy Champions have recently held advice stalls at apple-pressing events in Crowborough and Hastings and at the Alfriston Fayre, and have been running a month-long series of Eco-Open Homes events across the county.

The training on 17 December will be run by Energise Sussex Coast’s Chris Richards; he started as an Energy Champion himself back in 2012 and has been involved in community energy projects ever since – most recently with the anaerobic bio-digester in Woody Wood in Hastings. He says: “Becoming an Energy Champion is very rewarding as it’s a chance to genuinely help people in a very tangible way.

“Champions not only address the cost-of-living crisis by helping to bring down energy costs, but they also do something about climate change by bringing down carbon emissions.”

The Hastings Energy Champion Training, which will run from 10.00am-4.30pm, is open to anyone living in Hastings and St Leonards. Refreshments and a free vegetarian lunch will be provided. Those wanting to attend should register for free on Eventbrite tinyurl.com/energychamp17dec. Other training sessions are taking place in Eastbourne, Crowborough, Saltdean and Bexhill. Anyone interested in attending those should email chris@energisesussexcoast.co.uk.

Standing Up For Nature (SU4N) Hastings & Rother is holding an event for everyone concerned about losing our precious green spaces to building development. Protect Our Green Spaces will take place on Saturday 5 October at the White Rock Hotel from 10am to 3pm. The event is free, with refreshments and light lunch provided, thanks to a grant from Hastings Voluntary Action’s Making It Happen scheme.

Yee Chuan Mayhew from SU4N said: ‘The Leader of Hastings Council, Julia Hilton, and the Housing portfolio holder, Glenn Haffenden, have both stated their concern about government pressure on councils to build housing, since Hastings has very little land left apart from our few green spaces. Councillor Hilton has emphasised the need to refurbish empty homes instead. 

“Protect Our Green Spaces will examine this different approach to housing, as well as how to survey biodiversity on a site and

successfully oppose a planning application.”

The day will consist of talks and discussion, with speakers sharing their knowledge to upskill participants in each area. Local housing campaigner Grace Lally will cover alternatives to new-build. Ben Benatt, consultant ecologist, will explain how the public can engage with biodiversity surveys. Alice Brown, architect, will spell out the

key factors that determine whether or not a planning application is passed.

Mary Dawson from SU4N said: “We recently attended an event called Wild Wanderings, about protecting the Sandrock Bends area of ancient bluebell woodland from a potential development of 140 houses. We all need to support those working so hard to save these essential green spaces.”

Sarah Ward from the campaign to prevent housing being built on Horntye Sports Fields said: “We know Horntye will be under threat again in the future, so we welcome this opportunity for local people to get together and learn how to stand firm against the developers.”

Spaces at the event are limited. They can be booked on Eventbrite or by email to UNITE4nature@proton.me.

The collection of over 20 original works can be viewed online and will be on display at the White Rock Hotel on Friday 19 July. Raffle tickets available online for £5 each will be drawn on 27 July.

Steph Warren, owner of Stella Dore Gallery, says that all the artists she works with have been affected by the last nine months of genocide in Gaza: official death toll 38,000, mostly women and children. Worse still, The Lancet medical journal revealed this week that the likely death toll, including from disease, starvation and those still buried under the rubble, is likely to be over 186,000, representing 8% of the population.

“Gaza is the biggest injustice of our age,” says Steph. “We all want to do our bit to help alleviate the suffering there. Every artist I spoke to about this wanted to give a piece to the collection to try to make a difference.”

Julia Kotziamani from Hastings Art School also found huge support for the fundraiser amongst local artists. “This feels like one of those moments in history when we need to be able look our grandchildren in the eye and tell them that we did all we could to help.” she says.

The collection includes donations from artists of varying styles and mediums with contributions from Shuby, Giles Duly, Sue Lawes, Mawjood, Dorcas Magbadelo, Tim Sanders, Mew, Laure, Marta Munoz, Hollie Newman, Harriet Macaree and many more.

One stunning work is a portrait of Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, famous worldwide for her honest and courageous reports from Gaza. The work by Yasmin Aishah is titled after the phrase Bisan uses at the start of every report: “This is Bisan from Gaza, and I am still alive.”

The Art Raffle will raise funds for the resilience committee in the coastal enclave of Al Mawasi, currently helping to distribute food and aid to the displaced peoples sheltering there. They have long-established links with Hastings Friends of Al Mawasi, but much more is needed because of the thousands fleeing to the small fishing village seeking safety. 

Weekly messages describe a desperate struggle to find enough food and clean water. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza,” says Grace Lally of Hastings Friends of Al Mawasi. “The area was designated a ‘safe zone’ and yet there have been numerous bombing and sniper attacks. Prices have skyrocketed so the meagre food that does exist is too costly for most people. Every penny we send makes a difference. 

“Our friends have lost their homes, their relatives, their sense of security and their futures. They have suffered beyond human endurance and yet, we are constantly amazed by their strength and compassion for one another.“

To view the collection and buy tickets, go to hastingspalestinecampaign.org/art-raffle-for-al-mawasi.html. For information on the exhibition see Facebook event page facebook.com/events/487934233745847/?rdid=ARsbgUi6Vi7UNskP 

With a splendid reception at the White Rock Hotel last Wednesday week, it was the start of a taxing few days for most of the competitors in the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition. From its modest beginnings, the competition has grown in size and importance and is now internationally significant, attracting some of the finest pianists from forty different countries. The average age range of the competitors is about 25. From almost 250 applicants, 40 have been chosen to compete. They will be playing some of the most challenging piano works, concertos ranging from Mozart through to Scriabin and Prokofiev. 

Mozart’s piano concertos are mostly very well known, of course. But the challenge, as I heard from one of the judges, is to play them perfectly, as any fluffs or holes are instantly recognisable within their stately and open structure. But the complexity and depth of the music of Scriabin, for example, presents a different challenge. Each competitor’s program is different, which clearly makes the judges’ job extremely difficult. 

Steinway & Sons, one of the major sponsors of the competition, delivered two 9-foot Model D grand pianos to the White Rock Theatre in preparation for the competition. Six more grand pianos have been installed in the White Rock Hotel next door, for rehearsals. The competition began on Thursday 22 February and continues until Saturday 2 March, when five finalists will compete for a first prize that has the potential to greatly enhance their career as a concert pianist. All rounds take place at the White Rock Theatre, and will be streamed live for a worldwide audience via the website. 

Tickets for the two finals on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 March are now sold out. The second final will include performances by two of the finalists and by the 2022 winner, Shunta Morimoto, who will perform while the judges are busy choosing their winner. Tickets for Stages One and Two were free, thanks to the generous support of the Isabel Blackman Foundation. 

The Southbank Sinfonia – a chamber orchestra that is formed anew each year by recruiting 33 promising music graduates – will accompany the semi-finalists in the classical concertos they choose, and the full forces of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will play once again for the five finalists. Both rounds will be conducted by Rory Macdonald.

Local pianists who don’t happen to be world-class artists have also participated via the competition’s Music in the Meadow programme. A Bechstein grand piano was situated in the Priory Meadow shopping centre from Thursday 22 February to Sunday 25 February.
Further details: hastingsinternationalpiano.org
Facebook: @hastingsconcertocompetition
Instagram: @hastingspianoconcerto

By Sonya, Care for Carers

Care for the Carers are inviting carers in East Sussex to take part in photography workshops in August and September 2021. Beginner, intermediate and experienced photographers are all welcome. The workshops are for adult carers and young adult carers, aged 18 to 25 years. They will give you a fantastic opportunity to use photography and share your vision of what it means for you to be a carer.

Photographing John Cole

The workshops, being run in collaboration with 18 Hours Events and Education, will run over three weeks. In the first session, you will have the opportunity to talk about your role as a carer and how you can convey caring experiences and the day-to-day life of caring for someone. Further sessions will cover some basic technical skills, such as light, composition and editing. At the end of the workshops, you will collaborate on selecting some of your photos to be exhibited at the Conquest Hospital in 2022.

During the course you will be going out and about to learn how to take photos that honestly record and reflect your role as a carer. You will be working with local photographer, John Cole, a photographer and teacher for over 40 years. 

All you need is a digital camera or a good mobile phone. If you don’t have either, we can supply one for you to use. Most importantly, you should have an enthusiasm to tell your story of being a carer.

The workshops for Adult Carers will be on Wednesday 25th August, 1st September and 8th September from 1.00-4.00pm. Venue to be confirmed. The Young Adult Carers workshops will be on Saturday 4th September, 11th September and 18th September from 1.00-4.00pm at The White Rock Hotel in Hastings.

• To find out more or book a place on the workshops, contact Hannah by email info@cftc.org.uk or phone 01323 738390

• To find out more about the work of John Cole visit www.johncole.co.uk

In February this year Old Town ward councillor Dany Louise resigned from the Hastings Labour party citing failure of its national leadership to deal with anti-semitism within its ranks. In particular she referred to the treatment of Jewish MP Luciana Berger, who was then about to quit the party, as “disgraceful”, and said that “the level of denial by Jeremy Corbyn supporters leaves me in despair”.

Local Conservative politicians Amber Rudd and Cllr Rob Lee (who has been acting in recent weeks as agent for her replacement as constituency candidate, Sally-Ann Hart) were quick to pile in with support for Cllr Louise. Ms Rudd, then still in office as Work & Pensions Secretary said: “Labour has treated its Jewish MPs disgracefully and has allowed hostility towards Jews to fester. And now a Labour councillor in Hastings has rightfully quit the party because of its failure to tackle vile anti-semitism.” Cllr Lee added: “The Labour party has a serious problem with anti-semitism which its leadership is failing to take seriously”.

“Endemic and unchecked” 

At the time of the resignation neither Cllr Louise nor her Tory  backers suggested that she had experienced any anti-Jewish behaviour or sentiment in Hastings, either personally or as council representative. But on 25th November she posted a lengthy WordPress blog which begins: “Although I concentrated on the national picture in my resignation letter, I could have cited antisemitism in Hastings & Rye CLP (Constituency Labour Party). My experience is that it is endemic and unchecked in this organisation.”

The blog chronicles a long series of local incidents which Cllr Louise characterises as anti-semitic, including the instigation of multiple anti-Israel motions at party meetings, and refusal to avoid major religious dates for non-Christians when setting the yearly council calendar – but also, apparently most offensive to her sensibilities, the appointment of another Jewish Labour councillor Leah Levane as chair of the party.

It may be wondered quite how this appointment can be reasonably described as evidence of anti-semitism. But it is clear that, as far as Cllr Louise is concerned, Cllr Levane is not the right kind of Jew: she is co-Chair of Jewish Voice For Labour, “a deeply problematic organisation…. which supports and enables anti-semites in the Labour Party,” according to Cllr Louise.

This may also account for Cllr Louise citing this newspaper, the Hastings Independent Press, as complicit in the racial prejudice she claims to be endemic in the local party. 

HIP Features

In April 2018 (HIP Issue 100) Alan Bolwell, now our Politics editor, wrote a feature article headlined “Anti-Semitism On The Left”, in which he reported a demonstration in Parliament Square called by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council to protest against alleged anti-semitism in the Labour Party. Mr Bolwell described these groups as having “a conservative, right-wing, pro-Israeli institutional identity”, and contrasted them with another Jewish group Jewdas, with whom Mr Corbyn had shared a convivial Passover dinner on the evening after the demo, whose members were (according to the Guardian newspaper) ”political activists who make fun of establishment Judaism”. The article concluded that the problem might not be one of anti-semitic prejudice but of competing political strands within Jewish society.

In her recent blog Cllr Louise states that this article was “full of ignorance and misinformation about the Jewish community, and came close to saying that all Jews were rich conservatives” – a doubly unwarranted comment, since not only was the article at pains to differentiate one group of Jews from another but at no point made any reference to the wealth (or otherwise) of any of them.

Cllr Louise’s peculiar version of anti-semitism then picks up on a further article headlined “The Insider” published by HIP in October this year (Issue138). Writer Ben Bruges was reporting on an appearance by Israeli dissident Miko Peled at what Cllr Louise describes as an “evening of anti-Israel rhetoric at the White Rock Hotel”. She complains that this received “a glowing write-up in the Hastings Independent Press”.

As the heading indicated, Mr Peled has an impeccable family background from within the Israeli political and military establishment: his grandfather was a signatory of Israel’s Declaration of Independence; his father was a general in the Israel Defence Force; and his niece was killed in a Palestinian suicide attack in Jerusalem in 1997. But still the wrong kind of Jew from Cllr Louise’s perspective – one who is highly critical of the politics and social attitudes of modern Israel and who urges an international programme of boycott, divestment and sanctions against it. Does that make him and his supporters anti-semitic? Apparently so.

Electoral Context 

Cllr Louise’s underlying determination to conflate local intra-Jewish infighting with historically monstrous anti-Jewish prejudice might in normal times be dismissed as the confusion of an insignificant zealot. But it is more serious than that. She unleashed her blog at a time designed to have maximum electoral effect in a marginal constituency. On the following day the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Ephraim Mirvis was given top billing on national media when speaking of “a new poison – sanctioned from the very top – [that] has taken root” in the Labour party, and pronouncing “that the overwhelming majority of British Jews are gripped by anxiety” at the prospect of a Labour victory.

It’s not possible from a local perspective to assess the reality of claims of anti-semitism elsewhere in the national body politic. One wonders, however, when reading Cllr Louise’s blog and speculating on her motivations for publishing it, how much of the recent national debate has been based on similarly slanted material. 

Miko is, or was, an insider. He came from an ultra-patriotic, Israeli military background: “So many members of my close family have been heavily involved in the state of Israel and the creation of the Israeli military.” So, what changed? In 1997 his niece, a little girl, was killed in a suicide attack in Jerusalem, an event that would have driven many deeper into the anti-Arab attitudes so prevalent in Israeli. Not Peled: “That is precisely the kind of shock that will force you, if you’re honest enough, to re-examine everything you believe in. Because how could you possibly understand? How is it that three young men can take their own lives, killing a whole bunch of young innocent civilians who they don’t even know?” 

That personal tragedy drove him to start investigating, to question: “What is Palestine, what is Israel, how come there are millions of Palestinians in refugee camps around the world? What is my role in all of this?” And he said: “My journey is a journey of the occupier, the colonizer, the white privileged man entering the sphere of the occupied, the colonized, the oppressed. Typically, that is not a journey that is taken very often.”

He asks us to start by calling it Palestine, its name for centuries, pointing out that the name ‘Israel’ is part of the settler-colonial state’s propaganda, part of its fragile search for legitimacy. “This strip of land, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the border with Lebanon and the Gulf of Aqaba, this country has been called Palestine for over 3500 years, by historians, by rulers over the centuries, by people who lived there. It’s expressed in history, in trade, in culture. And then one day, on the 15th May, 1948, boom, it became Israel.’’ 

Palestinians call that event the Nakba, the catastrophe. “Erasing a country and placing something in its stead is a serious matter. But the way in which this was done, the method, is what makes it worse. Those methods continue to this day and are defined by international law as crimes against humanity: genocide, ethnic cleansing and the establishment of an apartheid regime. These are big words. These are serious accusations, and these are serious crimes. Don’t take my word for it. Check the definitions of those words. Compare that to what has happened in Palestine over the last 70 years. And make your own judgement, make your own decision.” 

He is equally trenchant when it comes up to the question of what we, here in Hastings, can do about it. “Peace talks are not the answer because it’s not a question of war. It’s a question of oppression. Palestinians gave us a gift, they told us what to do, they told us how we can help: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS). These three letters that have become so demonized. In Israel if you say these three letters people freak out. BDS. Palestinians told us what we can do.”

He explains that the BDS campaign has clear, specific demands: “Ending the military occupation in parts of Palestine that still exist. Allowing the refugees to return to their homes and their lands. And equal rights – God forbid – equal rights. In other words, it’s all remedial, these are all sensible, very realistic, very peaceful demands, that clearly are designed to improve the reality in which Palestinians live today as a result of the state of Israel. The refugee issue, the occupation and apartheid.” 

He argues: “It is absolutely the morally right thing to do. It’s a method that has a track record. Everybody that I met in South Africa said the same thing – without BDS we’d still have apartheid. Palestinians have given us the answer. Now all we need to do is to do it. It’s a fight against racism, it’s a fight against oppression and it hurts no one. Make sure that your elected representatives know, demand that they adopt and heed the call for BDS.”

Miko Peled remains positive. In answer to a question from a member of the packed, standing-room-only audience, wanting to know when the change will come, he referred to the ‘De Klerk’ moment: one day Israel will realise there isn’t an option, there isn’t a choice but to end apartheid. No-one believed Nelson Mandela would even be freed; a few years later he’s President. Meetings like the one in Hastings are growing all the time, the campaign for BDS is growing. All it needs is for people to stop being complicit in Israeli apartheid: that is Miko Peled’s challenge to us all. 

• For more see www.facebook.com/HastingsRyePalestine SolidarityCampaign for local campaigns including a picket against Puma’s involvement in the settlements outside Sports Direct on October 26th and see bdsmovement.net for the national and international campaign for BDS. 

• To read the full transcript please click here.

Miko is known as ‘the Israeli Insider’ as he was born to a prominent Zionist family in Jerusalem – his grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence and his father was a General in the Israel Defence Force.

In 1997 Miko’s niece was killed in a suicide attack in Jerusalem and this was the moment that began a process for Miko that he has described as “dismantling a lifetime of racist assumptions.”

Miko has since travelled and worked extensively in Palestine, shaping his views, and today he calls for the removal of Israel’s separation wall and equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.

“As an Israeli that was raised on the Zionist ideal of a Jewish state,” says Miko, “I know how hard it is for many Jews and Palestinians to let go of the dream of having a state that is exclusively ‘our own.’”

During his talk, Miko will be signing copies of his two books: The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine and Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five, available to buy on the day.

Entry to the event, hosted by the Hastings & Rye Palestine Solidarity Campaign (HRPSC), is free and there will also be a selection of free refreshments.

HRPSC Chair Katy Colley said: “We’re thrilled to host Miko. This talk will be hugely enlightening to anyone with an interest in Israel/Palestine. Miko has seen this issue from both sides; he has great insight into the history, the state of the occupation today and of how best to move forward for the sake of both Israelis and Palestinians. 

“He speaks with real humanity and clarity and we welcome this opportunity to talk about these issues at a crucial time, just when the Netanyahu period looks as if it’s coming to an end.”

Did you know what WEA stands for? No? You are not alone. Despite serving the Hastings, St Leonards and Bexhill community for several decades offering Adult Education to all, the significance of this laudable charity remains a well-kept secret.

Following the First World War, the government recognised the need for free education in the community outside the regular educational establishments. Funds were directed away from universities and channeled towards local Adult Education. Amongst the recommendations was provision for lifelong learning and “ample opportunity for adults to study and find self-realization”. It also recognized the vital importance of public libraries and museums. 

PICTURE: WEA

Here we are 100 years later looking at the state of today’s Adult Educational provision. Many classes offered by the local authority never run because the numbers are too low. Fees are high. Libraries have been closed, museums are struggling to encourage greater numbers and to educate and entertain visitors. Those with greater leisure time might not have the spare money, others may be working long hours to hold things together.

The WEA is a government-backed, registered charity, offering a wide range of classes. All of them are subsidised by the government to keep the prices reasonable: these are further reduced for those on a low income and are free for anyone on means-tested benefits. 

All are welcome to go to the WEA Open Day celebrating Adult Education over the last 100 years, held at the White Rock Hotel, Hastings, opposite the Pier, on Friday 12th July. There will be demonstrations from 11.00am in the morning, including a free talk on Social Change and Adult Education by David Alfred, watercolour painting and willow basketry. You will also be able to get a booklet of new courses (also displayed on the website) that are open for enrolment now.

•  For more information contact the WEA through Facebook or visit www.wea.org.uk to see courses available.

PICTURE: Owen Price

The hotel had been subjected to a concerted campaign of abuse and denigration, much of it apparently emanating from Israel and the USA, with the clear object of denying a platform to the Baroness – a former Liberal Democrat MP who is an outspoken critic of the Israeli government’s policies towards Palestinians. Pressure had also been also applied to HARP to cancel. 

But it wasn’t just the sheer volume of calls and messages that stood out in the social media tirade unleashed against the White Rock – over 30 to the hotel’s Facebook page in around 24 hours from late on Christmas Day and through Boxing Day. Of particular concern was the scale of bitter and abusive language of the pro-Israel lobby in which Baroness Tonge was pilloried for bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism and support for terrorism. In the process, the hotel itself became the focus for abuse and adverse reviews, obviously intended to plunge its customer ratings – see the full story click here.

Within hours, hotelier Laurence Bell felt he had no option but to inform HPSC of the barrage of adverse comment and its potential for commercial damage to his hotel business. They swiftly agreed to shift the talk to another venue which was felt to be less vulnerable, and accordingly booked Central Hall with the secretary of HARP. News of this changed venue was kept confidential within HPSC until only a few days before the event. But as soon as it was publicised, further pressure, in the form of a call to the HARP secretary’s ex-directory number – she doesn’t know how this was obtained –  led to this venue also being withdrawn. 

HPSC managed at the last minute to book the Stade Hall and diverted the audience by word of mouth to re-convene there. The talk was eventually delivered to an audience of around 50 people that included Councillor Lear Levane, co-founder of Jewish Voice for Labour.

Baroness Tonge commented: “I don’t think we can silence our critics. I think it’s a good thing they’re getting louder because that means they’re getting scared. They’re afraid that they’re losing the argument.

“I am constantly being accused of anti-Semitism. It doesn’t matter what you say, or how you say it, they accuse you of being anti-Semitic. I am not anti-Semitic. The one thing I am anti is injustice.”

Ethnic Division
Her talk, detailing the ordinary lives of Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, analysed the ways in which the Israeli government “separates, segregates and subjugates” its Arab population along ethnic lines. Daily humiliations accompany unequal access to health, education, jobs, security and basic necessities such as food, water and electricity.

And she added: “The recently passed Nation State Law enshrines in law that only Jews can have self-determination, only Jews can have a say in what goes on in Israel. You can only be of any consequence if you are Jewish.”

Gaza Amputees
She described her visits to the Gaza Strip, which is currently in its eleventh year under siege, and the devastating number of young amputees she saw there.

“One of the things constantly happening is that the Israelis, when they are able to, fire at protestors regardless of whether they are guilty of anything. If it’s a young man, they go for their legs. Always. There have been instances where whole football teams, practising, have had their legs shot at. It’s absolutely soul-destroying when you go into Gaza and you see the number of young amputees. It’s a nation of amputees. These lovely, brave young men just have their legs shot to pieces.”

BDS
Baroness Tonge concluded: “The only effective weapon we’ve got is boycott. BDS, BDS, BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions]. It brought the South African regime down. And the reason they’re getting so nasty, and protesting against us all the time, is because BDS is getting through.”

News from across the Atlantic suggests, however, that US legislators are gearing up in the opposite direction. A current bill promoted by Senate Republicans in Congress entitled The Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act (2019) seeks to encourage state and local governments to divest assets and prohibit their investment in any entity which knowingly engages in any boycott, divestment or sanctions activity ‘intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or otherwise limit commercial relations with Israel’ for political purposes. 

While some Democrats oppose the Act on the basis that it breaches the constitutional right to free speech, it seems that, in modern America, free speech may be trumped by protection of Israeli interests. And in Hastings? 

The Facebook page of the White Rock Hotel has a section for reviews – 328 of them ‘recommending’ the hotel at last count. The vast majority of postings are indeed complimentary, praising its family- and dog-friendly atmosphere, pleasant staff, quiet and spacious rooms, sea views, etc. However, from around 9 pm on Christmas night, 25th December, a barrage of adverse ‘review’ messages came flooding in – more than 30 over the ensuing 24 hours – ranging from the merely hostile to ranting abuse. A survey of the Facebook profiles of these ‘reviewers’ reveals that a large proportion were resident in North America or Israel. It is unlikely that any had ever set foot in the hotel. All were responding, in a clearly orchestrated campaign, to the news that Baroness Tonge was scheduled to talk at a meeting there a month hence. 

Many of the reviewers made explicit that they were complaining about the hotel’s willingness to play host to the Baroness rather than suggesting first-hand customer experience. For instance, Mark Henry Casson, from Israel, posted: “How can you allow this Tonge woman to spread her antisemitic venom in your hotel and expect people to recommend you? Unhelpful concierge.” Ronnie Lachman Pleet of Philadelphia wrote: “Was planning trip to England. Would never vacation in your anti Semitic hotel. Disgraceful!no recommendations!” and received nine ‘likes’ for it. Al Szajman of Vancouver added: “Any hotel that deems it appropriate to host an event with an anti-Semite and terrorism supporter is a dump.  www.facebook.com/hashtag/boycottthewhiterockhotel?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG”#BoycottTheWhiteRockHotel” (also nine ‘likes’). 

However, several other postings took a more insidious line, giving bogus guest reviews of the hotel’s services without revealing their motivation. 

Marc Plumot, based in Belgium, whose own Facebook profile shows a Belgian flag intertwined with Israel’s, commented: “My experience here with my wife was terrible. I have never slept in such uncomfortable beds …We both left very dissatisfied.” 

Sharon Broer, whose profile shows a gun-toting soldier posing in front of the Israeli flag with the strap line ‘I stand with Israel’, wrote: “The hotel was awful. In need of moderation [sic] and up grading. I was extremely uncomfortable and I shall never repeat the experience!!!”

Others, rather savvier, sallied forth to add to the trash count with profiles entirely blanked out. Tina Finn posted “Very disappointed with this hotel. Rooms were tired looking and staff unhelpful. Noisy rooms”. Nathalie Graham wrote: “Unhelpful ignorant staff don’t bother”.

Tony Zamchick, whose own Facebook page carries an endorsement for ‘Together Against Antisemitism’, posted a more competitive message: “I suggest Bannatyne Spa hotel when you next go to Hastings. Great rooms, pool, gym and many deals.”.

There was no formal announcement by the hotel that organisers Hastings Palestine Solidarity Campaign (HPSC) had, in order to spare it from further attack, agreed to shift the talk elsewhere. However, on the morning of 27th December they changed their own Facebook event page details so that the venue section stated ‘Venue to be announced.’ 

This was quickly picked up and relayed across the global network. Jamie Pierce, a New Yorker whose profiled picture has a banner across it, ‘I Stand With Israel FOREVER’, had posted a non-recommendation but then added: “UPDATE: This hotel had the decency to cancel the event hosting Jenny Tonge, a purveyor of racial hatred. Kudos to The White Rock Hotel.” The Facebook page then re-filled with more than a dozen positive endorsements over the following two days. Ali Arellano, based in Israel, was one of many who now ‘recommended’ the hotel: “Well done and thank you for cancelling Tonge! You did the right and decent thing. Nobody needs to hear Jew haters speak.” 

The full gamut of Facebook reviews over the four-day period is still available to be viewed on the hotel’s open page. Asked why he had not taken any steps to seek removal of them by Facebook, on the ground that they are not genuine reviews of the hotel’s services, owner Laurence Bell said he had neither time nor interest. “I’m trying to run a business, I can’t spend all my time trying to correct whatever people say about it.” It was HPSC who had agreed to find another venue when he had reported the attacks to them. And they have posted support for him subsequently on their own web page.

“The proprietor is a highly respected local businessman,” say HSPC, “who has done a lot for the local community. He is a firm believer in freedom of speech. Many local community groups use the White Rock Hotel for meetings: groups such as women’s groups, environmental groups. As the news of this attack is getting out, there has been growing resentment, even anger, directed at the perpetrators. It is being seen as an attack against the local community.”

BY DIANA LOCK 

Hastings LitFest, the south coast’s newest literary festival, is seeking volunteers to help make the event an amazing success story. The festival will run from 31 August to 2 September this year, but we need help before then as well as during the festival. We aim to make this event, which takes place at venues throughout the town, so enjoyable that visitors and participants will want to come back every year.

Two volunteer recruitment sessions  are being held on Saturday 24 February at the White Rock Hotel, Hastings (opposite the Pier) from 10am to midday and from 1pm to 3pm. Anyone interested in finding out more can just drop in during these times to meet the event organisers and to hear about their plans for the LitFest.

Volunteers are unpaid but will get the opportunity to attend activities on the Festival Programme free of charge, from workshops to plays and to meet some fantastic authors. Highlights of the event include a crime writing competition, specialist writing workshops and evening entertainments. Budding writers will be able to book a ‘meet the agent’ session or attend talks by well-known authors.

Volunteers must also be aged 18+ at the time the LitFest takes place. A good knowledge of Hastings and St Leonards would be helpful but not essential.

If you would like to join the LitFest volunteers but are unable to get to the sessions
on 24th February, please go on to our website and fill in the contact form.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent Press. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.