What a lovely surprise for us to welcome a couple of GFI’s dearest Christian friends to the stall as we were setting up this morning. First of all Janice from Hamilton, a one-woman powerhouse who works tirelessly for Israel through her prayer group ‘Children of the Promise’ and also her work fundraising for Christian Friends of Magen David Adom.
And no sooner than we’d had welcoming hugs with Janice, Reverend David Currie arrived with his friend Michael. David and Janice have both been an important part of our GFI story since we started out 11 years ago and David used to conduct the Christian service of worship at the beginning of all of our annual GFI conferences. It was lovely to have them both with us for the day.
And then Catriona arrived who also spent the whole day with us. Catriona read about us online and drove from Ayrshire just to be with us. She’s back home to visit her family for the school summer holidays before returning to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam where she teaches English and maths and at the start of next year, she’ll also be teaching IT and science.
Catriona told us that her love of Israel started after meeting Israelis while on holiday in Thailand. This started her on her journey of learning about Israel and the truth and she dearly hopes that when her two year Vietnam contract comes to an end, she’ll be able to find a similar placement in Israel. We introduced her to our volunteers and I’ve never seen anyone with a bigger smile on their face for the entire day. When we were packing up for the day and walking to the car, she saw a female wearing a keffiyeh and she told me that was the 3rd one she’d seen today, in fact the 3rd one that she’d ever seen and that no one in Vietnam or Thailand wears this culturally appropriated scarf and there isn’t a Palestinian flag to be seen anywhere and the same is true in India. Catriona has got a few more weeks of her holiday left so we know we’ll be seeing her again. And I hope it’s very soon.
Toby came to say hi to us at the stall and brought along his friends Josh from Cheshire and Ben from London. They’re here to spend some time in Glasgow, then they had planned to go to Edinburgh and basically just stay awake and busy until 2am when they and huge numbers of Scottish football fans will watch Scotland’s opening match against Haiti in the World Cup in Boston.
Ruth came to the stall with her Israeli friend Dana who had been on a walking tour of Scotland with a group of Israeli women and unfortunately the weather had been absolutely horrendous the whole time.
Dana asked if we have people who shout at us at the stall and I told her that we always have one or two clowns who are too cowardly to stop and speak to us, so walk past and shout Free Palestine or some other inane comment but these people are in the minority. And then almost to prove my point, I’d no sooner said this, than a complete stranger came along and said that he supports what we do and put £10 in our Magen David Adom collecting box.
We received a large donation from a lady called Aileen who chatted to our volunteer for a while and told her that she’s a big supporter of Israel after reading extensively and making up her own mind about the truth and a very friendly gentleman told us “I always like to give you a donation when I’m in town. You’ve got guts - pure guts being here”
Sammy spoke to an Israeli couple who are both doctors in Glasgow. They are due to return to Israel in August with their 3 children and have loved their time in Glasgow. I remember talking to an Israeli doctor at Calderwood Primary school when Robi and I had a GFI table at the Yom Ha’atzmaut event and I wondered if this had been the same person. I recall asking him how his children had settled in Glasgow and he told me that it was all very different for them but they settled in very quickly and spoke English far better than he and his wife. He said that when they moved into their new home, one of the children had a look around and seemed concerned that there was no mamad and his father was able to assure him that in Glasgow there was no need for a safe room.
Jake, a photographer who’s in Glasgow filming for a whisky company pointed to our Israeli flag and said “I love that. You won’t see this in London” and Sammy spoke to a German lady called Ursula who stopped at the stall when she saw our banners and could not believe what she was seeing. She said she’d never seen this before and it would never be possible to have this on the streets in Germany, so she took a photograph to show her friends at home.
Joyce is an interesting lady. She calls herself a trans widow and after her awful experience with her ex-husband, is a vocal advocate for women’s rights. She was a speaker at last year’s ‘Let Women Speak’ rally on George Square and she’s passionate as every single person I know, about keeping trans men out of women’s prisons and women’s changing rooms in shops and she told me that she will now never set foot in any Marks and Spencer store as they don’t have separate changing rooms for men and women.
Joyce is also a great advocate for Israel and told me that she was at a farmer’s market in the West End of Glasgow and couldn’t believe that a Mexican stall had hand crafted watermelon badges. What’s that all about? She said “you can follow the herd or you can think” I did like that!
Another interesting lady that we met today is Deedee Cuddihy. I thought I recognised her and when she told me her surname I knew exactly who she was. Deedee moved from New York to Glasgow 60 years ago and was a student at the art school before becoming a freelance journalist, writing for many publications and also a series of humorous books about Scotland. She’s also a great supporter of Israel.
It was good to spend time with David Rubin, an old friend and as it happens, a distant relation of mine. He’s here in Glasgow visiting family for a few days before going back to London where he says that his friends share our Saturday stall posts. So hi to my family in North London and Kingston on Thames and also to all our ex-pat Glasgow friends who we hope will enjoy today’s post.
It’s always great to see Thomas Kerr MSP, deputy leader of the Scottish Reform party at our stall. And we’re not the only ones who like to see Thomas, he’s recognised everywhere these days and people always stop to tell him that he has their support.
Those of you who don’t live in the UK may not know about the trial of 4 violent Palestine Action thugs who broke into the Elbit factory in Bristol in 2024 causing £1.2 million of damage and broke a policewoman’s spine after violently attacking her with a sledgehammer. They were found guilty yesterday and after the judge ruled there was a “terrorist connection” to their offending, he handed down sentences of prison terms ranging from four to nearly eight years and as the judge classified the offenses with a “terrorist connection,” it means they must serve at least two-thirds of their sentences before parole eligibility.
It was a groundbreaking result and justice has been served but obviously not as far as the haters are concerned but we recorded the full 38 minutes of the judgment which you can listen to on our GFI YouTube channel www.youtube.com/@info-glasgowfriendsofisrael and hear for yourself that this was a comprehensive and very fair ruling on a bunch of violent thugs.
Each one of the 4 Palestine Action terrorists said in their evidence that they suffer from mental health issues.
Every single one of them said this in their defence.
Ergo, it appears that to be a member of this criminal, terrorist organisation, one has to be mentally unstable. ... See MoreSee Less
