A JOINT initiative between Palestine campaigners and a women’s co-operative in Gaza is feeding appetites for action in more ways than one.

Halifax Friends of Palestine is affiliated to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and is one of the region’s most active groups.

It is one of several PSC groups in northern England, including Manchester, Sheffield and York, to have forged direct links with people in Gaza and there have been visits to Halifax by people from Palestine, including Gaza, and return visits by PSC members.

The relationships led to a “twinning” arrangement between northern English campaigners for Palestine and a women’s co-operative in Gaza.

The co-operative involves around 20 women in Jameela’s Kitchen. The women make food to sell.

The role of the campaigners in England is to support the co-operative in whatever ways they can and one initiative is the selling of recipe cards based on recipes sent to England by the Palestinian women.

They are called Recipes of Resistance.

Jenny Lynn helped found Halifax Friends of Palestine in June 2006, when 150 people turned up for a formation meeting in Halifax, a town with a significant Muslim population.

Speakers included Bruce Kent, former secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the chair of Sheffield PSC, Palestinian Musheir El-Farra, who last week lost 11 relatives in Israel’s continuing attack on Gaza.

It was El-Farra’s sister, Dr Mona El-Farra in Gaza, who asked the Palestine campaigners to help the women’s co-operative.

Lynn, a Labour councillor on Halifax-based Calderdale District Council, said: “We have tried hard to form links with people in Palestine and have events people could relate to.

“Also a theme is really reaching out to people not already involved with Palestine and food is a good way to do that. Through Mona El-Farra we were able to make contact with the women’s co-operative.

“It involves about 20 women in Gaza. We were able to make a film about their lives.”

The recipe cards, which are illustrated in colour on high-quality card, were printed with the help of funding from two trusts, the Irene Bruegel Fund and the Lipman-Miliband Trust.

Irene Bruegel was a London-based feminist, economist and socialist who in 2002 founded Jews for Justice for Palestinians. The fund was established in her memory after her death at the age of 62 in 2008.

The Lipman-Miliband Trust is named after socialists Michael Lipman and Ralph Miliband.

Lynn said: “We created recipe cards and a booklet about the co-operative’s existence. 

“The book was designed to interest people and tell them about stolen land, the problems with water supply and elements of life in Palestine.

“Recipes came from different Palestinian women that we knew. We started selling them. 

“We had 500 printed originally, then another 500 as well. 

“We also produced booklets of interviews with some of the women involved.

“We promised that any money we made would go to Jameela’s Kitchen. 

“We contacted them via Mona and asked them what they wanted us to do.”

The kitchen — and all Gazans — suffers from lack of supplies due to Israel’s siege and blockade of Gaza, even without the appalling military attacks.

“They said they wanted to buy chickens so they would have their own supply of eggs for the kitchen, and they could also sell them.” said Lynn. 

“Eighty per cent of people in Gaza are dependent on United Nations food aid. 

“But they do home baking and cook food which they sell.”

The women used funds raised from the sale of the recipe cards to buy dozens of chickens.

The pack of recipe cards carries a political message, as well as recipes.

It reads: “Since the Nakba of 1948, women across Palestine have been resisting oppression from Israel in many ways: through political campaigning and activism; by keeping their culture and traditions alive and by asserting Palestinian identity in their writings.

“Jameela’s Kitchen in Gaza is one example of this creative resistance. 

“The women of this co-operative work together to develop new skills, to pass on traditional recipes and make a living against the odds.”

The message also calls for support for BDS — the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.

The current onslaught against Gaza by Israel has broken contacts between the women of the co-operative and their supporters in northern England. 

Jameela’s Kitchen is in Khan Younis, which has suffered from Israel’s attack — and where 11 relatives of Musheir El-Farra were murdered as they slept — including five children, the youngest aged four.

“We haven’t been able to contact them for days,” said Lynn.

If the kitchen, and the women involved in the co-operative, have survived, the support will continue.

nMore information is available from info.recipesofresistance2014@gmail.com