It was an unusual day at the GFI stall today. We normally start off fairly quietly and by lunchtime the stall is really busy but today after the first few people who stopped to chat, it was very quiet, then a couple of visitors and another quiet spell and so it went all day until Eileen appeared with her cakes…. but I’m away ahead of myself, so I’ll start at the beginning with our first visitor, a gentleman who told Tommy “Iran and Hamas are terrorists, this is all part of G-d’s plan and you’re doing a great job here”
And then Billy from Thornliebank who follows us on Facebook, came to chat with us and told us he was a support worker for 15 years at Burnfield, the Jewish care home on the Southside of Glasgow. We had a lovely conversation and he left the stall after giving us a very generous donation, which was definitely a theme today as so many people asked if they could donate to GFI to support our work.
Claire looked at our ‘Anti-Zionism is Racism’ banner and said “I’d like to make a donation. I definitely think that anti-Zionism is racism”
A really friendly man called Miles came with his daughter Angelique and spoke to Sammy. He is very supportive of the Jewish community and his daughter wanted to know why we were on Buchanan Street every week, so Sammy told her what GFI was all about and explained that we advocate for peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people. Miles returned later in the day with Angelique and her brother and sister and they stayed for a chat with the volunteers and had some chocolate biscuits. A really lovely family.
Karen who lives in Mallorca loves to spend time with us at the stall every time she comes back to Glasgow to visit her mum, Rhona. She spent a long time this afternoon chatting with a young woman who does not want us to mention her name for fear of reprisals by pro-Pal bigots.
She was made redundant from her job at Glasgow University, which she discovered is a very hostile environment for people who support Israel. She told Karen that she lost a lot of friends who didn’t agree with her views and that half of her family are also very anti-Israel. Karen found this quite disturbing but it’s a story that we hear time and again.
Karen told us that Pedro Sanchez the Spanish PM who we all know is very anti-Israel, does not have across the board support for his views. She said that although we don’t see this on the BBC news, many people in Spain and Mallorca, including quite a number of young people, don’t agree with the decisions taken by his government.
It was lovely to spend time with Karen and I know she’ll be reading this as she’s a dedicated supporter of GFI and comments and likes many of our Facebook posts. She wanted to know the names of all the volunteers she spoke with today so she could put a face to everyone we talk about.
Kenny was all smiles as he walked up to the stall “I support you. I’ve lived in Glasgow for 70 years and I’m a Celtic supporter” He told us that he used to be a TA paratrooper with the 15th Para Yorkhill, so of course we had to introduce him to our volunteer Thomas who was a member of the airborne forces. Thomas told us that his unit had the same motto as PM Netanyahu’s when he served with the IDF “Who Dares Wins”
Kenny asked if Sammy Stein was at the stall as he’d like to meet him after reading about him online and Sammy was delighted to make his acquaintance.
Daniel is a fearless defender of Israel and declares himself to be “a proud Zionist” And this from a young 17 year old university student is quite something when we hear about the toxic culture at universities these days. Daniel told us that he intends to go to the new Home Bargains store that has just opened in Glasgow to counter protest against the antisemitic Pro-Pal nasties who said they’d be at the store to protest against them stocking Israeli products.
I checked out the new store online and see it’s located at the Crown Street Retail Park, so we’ll be paying the store a visit to stock up on as many Israeli goods that we can find on the shelves and I would like to encourage everyone else to do the same.
I didn’t get the chance to speak to William who came to the stall today but if he’s reading this I do hope that he comes back to see us. He told our volunteer that he’s a historian who started to read up about Israel and Zionism after October 7th and he’d like to join us at the stall.
Laura came to the stall wearing 2 Israeli badges and holding an Israeli flag. She told me that she was wearing her badge one day when she was at a yoga class and a woman asked why she was wearing it. Laura told her that she has it because she supports Israel. The woman said that she also supports Israel but not Zionists so Laura explained that if she supports Israel then a Zionist is exactly what she is.
Laura told me that she de-strings pigeon’s feet. Yup, me too….not a clue, what on earth was she talking about? She said to look up Happy Feet www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c05jpj241plo and I’m so pleased that I did. What a great thing to do, to help a living creature in distress and although some people consider pigeons to be vermin, I certainly do not and I was delighted to meet Laura and I commend her on the work she does. She’s asked to be added to our mailing list so I hope to see her again.
We’ve often spoken about Susan who lives in Florida. She’s our friend Eddie’s sister and although she’s asked me not to talk about her incredible generosity in supplying us with all manner of Israeli goods to give away at the stall, I love to let people know about this amazing lady who along with her husband Charles are ardent Israel supporters and truly wonderful people.
Susan’s brother in law David and his wife Betsy arrived at the stall this afternoon with a large bag that they’d brought home after visiting Susan and Charles in Florida. It was filled with a new supply of wristbands, Free Iran badges, Persian flags, boxes of halva and 2 beautiful coffee table books about Israel. Thank you, thank you, thank you a million times you lovely people and I know that you’re planning on sending us boxes of Israeli wristbands as you know that they disappear very fast from our table every Saturday.
The weather today was in turns sunny, showery and freezing cold, so we were so pleased when Eileen came laden with cakes and a huge flask of lentil soup with chilli flakes at just the right moment when we were all feeling completely chilled. And she’s promised to make cupcakes for next week. Eileen you’re such a star.
We had many people who just stopped briefly to say hello today and leave a donation in our box and as we were shutting up shop for the day, an American couple came along and asked if they could donate online. Sammy showed them how to donate by PayPal on our website and as we packed everything away, the man asked if he could have one of every one of our resources, which we willingly gave to him. He looked at the one about the IHRA definition of antisemitism and said that his cousin managed to get this adopted at Iowa University.
I’m finishing this week’s account of our day at the stall just now, as Sammy has just come in to tell me that David Boyle, a great friend of his and of many people at the GFI stall, died of a heart attack on Thursday. His wife emailed Sammy to give him the awful news and she said how much David used to enjoy his visits to the stall. It’s so very sad and we will all remember David with fondness. ... See MoreSee Less
