Showing posts with label IJAN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IJAN. Show all posts

March 31, 2016

Stop the Jewish National Fund Campaign

Stop the Jewish National Fund Campaign

Stop the JNF
Stop the Jewish National Fund is an international campaign aimed at ending the role of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet LeIsrael/JNF-KKL) in the on-going displacement of indigenous Palestinians from their land, the theft of their property, the funding of historic and present day colonies, and the destruction of the natural environment.

The JNF continues to serve as a global fundraiser for Israeli ethnic cleansing, occupation and apartheid. Despite its historic role in a State institution of Israel (the Israel Land Authority) and in institutionalized racism and apartheid, the JNF and its affiliate organizations enjoy charitable status in over 50 countries and many also enjoy consultative status with the United Nations. In addition to the ongoing struggles against the JNF-KKL in Palestine, the campaign is underway in Canada, France, Britain, South Africa and the United States.

The film Enduring Roots: Over a Century of Resistance to the Jewish National Fund directed by Alex Safron details the history and workings of the Jewish National Fund as well as historic and ongoing Palestinian resistance to the colonization of their land. Click here for more information or to arrange a screening.

Download Stop the Jewish National Fund E-Book: Volume 4:

Plant-a-Tree in Palestine: a joint project of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, Stop the Wall, the Palestinian Farmer’s Union, and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

Visit Fallen Donors Renounce Our Role in the JNF to see powerful testimony from former donors about why they now commit to exposing and confronting the JNF.

Stop The JNF Days of Action 2016

Category: Stop the Jewish National Fund Campaign ,
The Stop the JNF Campaign is calling for activists for Palestinian rights to take action between March 30 (Land Day) and April 18 (Tax Day) to amplify efforts targeting the Jewish National Fund for its role in the ongoing displacement of Palestinians from their land. The JNF enjoys tax-exempt status as a charitable organization in… Read more »

February 19, 2016

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Spring Tour 2016 Schedule



Spring Tour Schedule

Locations across the U.S.

From February through May of 2016, we will be visiting schools and cities across the country to offer presentations as well as support local organizing efforts. This is a great opportunity for people interested in learning more about IJAN’s work, anti-Zionist organizing, and about joining IJAN or forming a new chapter in your location.  Below are dates already booked -- join us if we are in your area!

To schedule a presentation or meeting with one of our organizers, please contact us at info@ijan.org You can also visit our website or check out ourtour announcement for more information on presentations and workshops.
February 18th – UCLA – Business of Backlash
February 19th – UC Irvine – Unlearning Zionism
February 28th – Austin, TX – TBD
March 5th & 6th – Atlanta, GA – Case of Jews Against Zionism/TBD
April 6th – New York, NY – TBD
April 19th – Cornell – Greenwashing the Business of Backlash
April 20th – Cincinnati, OH – Business of Backlash
April 22nd – CSU Long Beach – Israel's Worldwide Role in Repression

More dates and locations to be announced soon! Or get live updates at #IJANTour
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Argentina :: Canada :: England :: Europe :: India :: Israel :: United States
info@ijan.org :: ijan.org
© International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Our mailing address is:
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
P.O. Box 29724
Oakland, California 94604
US

January 01, 2016

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network: Building Power in 2016

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IJAN is committed to grassroots organizing and grassroots fundraising. Your contributions, whether $5, $50, or $500 can really make a difference.

Dear IJAN Supporter,

Thanks to everyone for supporting our work in 2015. We are looking forward to another year of building power in 2016 and organizing in the United States, Canada, Spain, France and Argentina. We have some important projects planned for the year that we hope to get your support in making happen.

In 2016, we plan to release an Anti-Zionist Primer with entries that define and describe key terms from an anti-Zionist perspective. We hope it will provide a tool for internal and external education. The primer will include entries on settler colonialism, genocide, Zionism, anti-semitism, joint struggle and more. Below is an excerpt from the anti-Zionism entry:

            “Radical anti-Zionists oppose the colonial and racist nature of the state
                and its role in maintaining Western control in the region, and work                toward a redistribution of power and resources in Palestine, in the                region, and globally. It emerges from anti-colonial, anti-racist, working                class, and anti-capitalist principles and movements.”
If you can contribute $25, we can print 25 Anti-Zionist Primers

Confront-All-forms-of-Colonialism-600x150

In the spring, we are doing a tour through schools and cities across the U.S. with our report, The Business of Backlash: The Attack on the Palestinian Movement and Other Movements for Social Justice. We will be offering presentations, workshops and strategy sessions on this report as well as on topics such as pinkwashing (Israel’s claim to being a safe haven for Palestinian queers while they are actually subjected to the consequences of Israeli colonization and militarization) and greenwashing (using environmentalism to cover up ecological destruction and ethnic cleansing in Palestine).Please contact us if you are interested in scheduling a speaker to come to your town, school, or organization.
 

We will also continue our strategic defense locally and internationally, specifically around Zionist institutions using false claims of anti-semitism to propagate Islamophobic messaging.


Finally, on March 30, 2016 – Palestinian Land Day, as part of the US Campaign to Stop the Jewish National Fund (JNF) we are filing a complaint to the IRS to investigate the charity status of the JNF. The filing will be supported by Tax Day actions and a taxpayer’s petition across the United States.
 
We appreciate your continued support. Please consider donating to IJAN in your end of year donations.

May 2016 bring us victories in the face of challenges and humanity in the face of brutality,

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

P.S. Help us out by sending this email along to two or three of your friends who might support our work. We do not receive institutional support, we depend on our communities' support.

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Argentina :: Canada :: England :: Europe :: India :: Israel :: United States
ijan@ijsn.net :: ijan.org
© International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

December 03, 2015

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network: Activism 2015


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December 2, 2015


IJAN depends on grassroots fundraising to make our work possible.

Will you support us in sustaining our work?

Dear IJAN supporter:

As 2015 draws to a close, we reflect on important victories in the struggle against Zionism and all forms of racism, colonialism, militarization and repression as we prepare for more important struggles and victories in 2016. From the resistance in Palestine to the building movement for Black lives and power, 2015 has shown the power of people’s resistance to injustice.

B7fCEz9CAAA4nKa 2As we face attempts to frame the consequences of global relations of domination and exploitation as a “clash of civilizations", IJAN will continue to insist that the historic and current violence of the United States, Europe and its allies has created violent opposition. IJAN will continue to participate in and support the antidote to this violence: the many movements for justice that are fighting for a profound shift in the way power is used against the many for the benefit of the few.

Please consider donating whatever is within your means – whether that be $5, $25, $100 or becoming a monthly sustaining member!

Highlights from our work in 2015

IJAN-Business-of-Backlash-Executive-Summary-web1 (dragged)We Released The Business of Backlash....documenting who is funding zionist attacks on individuals and organizations standing up for justice and how can we respond in ways that strengthen our movements.
We Presented on policing and lawfare, campus repression, and anti-zionism....at the National Lawyers Guild confernece, US Social Forum, Left Forum, US Campaign to end the Israeli Occupation, American Muslims for Palestine, several college campuses across the country, as well as community presentations in San Francisco and London.
We Defended those targeted....including Rasmea Odeh, Students for Justice in Palestine at CUNY and UC BerkeleyArab Resource and Organizing Center, and Cheryl at the Berkeley Commission on Human Rights.
We Launched the #JCRCDoesntSpeakForMe Campaign....as part of a coalition with AROC,QUIT, and JVP, we took a leadership role in mobilizing Jews, Queers, local and international community to expose the Jewish Community Relations Council's continued use of economic coercion and Islamaphobia.

Anti-Zionism Isn't Anti-Semitism infographic_8.3.15 copy
We Developed the infographic "Criticism of Israel is not Anti-semitic, it's Anti-Racist"....In supporting AROC's Arabic language pathways this summer, we committed to developing tools to expose the reality that Zionism itself is a racist ideology and a commitment to anti-racism requires an anti-Zionist framework. We developed an infographic to make our case and spread it throughout social media, accumulating over 7,500 views online.
We continued to expose the ethnic cleansing of Palestine as part of the Stop the Jewish National Fund Campaign....On Land Day this year, we launched the IJAN-produced film Enduring Roots: Over a Century of Resistance to the Jewish National Fund to an international audience, with screenings in Europe, South America and several cities across the US. The Stop the JNF Campaign also organized a Land Defense Delegation to Palestine to connect international organizers and activists involved in land-based struggle, indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice work to Palestinians working to defend their land from further colonization from the JNF.
We responsded to the incidents in Beirut, Iraq, Nigeria and Paris....to condemn the attacks as well as the incitement of islamaphobic fury that followed. And to reject any notion that Muslims in general have any particular responsibility.
We disrupted the Zionism 3.0 conference....coordinating with local organizers for a successful disruption of Israel's lead diplomat, deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely during her speech. (see picture below) The conference brought together liberal and right-wing Zionist organizations to analyze the threat of BDS, campus activism, and grassroots Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonization. The symbolic citizens arrest of Hotovely drew attention to her unapologetic support of the settlements and the many liberal Zionist organizations that lent legitimacy to Hotovely by helping to host the conference. 

We launched our website at www.ijan.org...since our launch in March we've had more than 17,000 users, more than 33,000 page views, and people accessing the site from 135+ countries. We also have been able to increase our social media presence bringing an international jewish anti-zionist perspective to a wider audience.
CUdsozEVAAE9fz1If IJAN has been able to contribute to this struggle in significant ways, it could not have happened without the support, political and financial, that you and other members of our political community have given us. As we enter 2016, we hope that you’ll continue to support us in our work. As an activist network of almost entirely volunteer labor, it is through member dues and contributions that we are able to fund our work.


Please help us continue the fight for justice and the self-determination in 2016.

Yours, 
The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)



Check out some of the media coverage links below on IJAN's report: The Business of Backlash


Electronic Intifada: Are Climate Change Deniers Funding Attack on Palestine Activism https://electronicintifada.net/content/are-climate-change-deniers-funding-attack-palestine-activism/14374
Salon: Business of Backlash: GOP Cashes in on Koch/Adelson anti-BDS Donations http://www.salon.com/2015/04/07/business_of_backlash_gop_cashes_in_on_kochadelson_anti_bds_donations/
Institute for Palestine Studies: Palestine Solidarity and “The Business of Backlash”
Mint Press: Pro-Israel Funders Target Surging Israeli Apartheid Week http://www.mintpressnews.com/pro-israel-funders-target-surging-israeli-apartheid-week/203844/

November 08, 2014

Opposing Zionism from the West Bank to the South Bank

Press report from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network:

No Israeli Funding of the Arts
Southbank, London, 5 November 2014.  A lively and colourful 50 person-strong protest outside the BFI (British Film Institute) condemned the BFI for hosting an Israeli-sponsored film festival only weeks after Israel committed mass-murder, killing 2100 people, including over 500 children during its 51-day assault of Gaza.



Called by a new initiative, No Israeli Funding of the Arts (NIFA) [1], protestors from all walks of life, including Muslim, Jewish and Israeli, chanted and spoke out against the UK Jewish Film Festival (UKJFF) because it had insisted on accepting Israeli funding – in the midst of Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of murder, extermination and persecution and incitement to genocide [2] – even when offered alternative funding.
Protestors spoke out against the presence of Secretary of State for Culture, Sajid Javid, at this opening gala of the UKJFF – he had slandered opponents of Israeli funding of the film festival by implying they were guilty of antisemitism.  The tiny Zionist counter-protest used the same slur.
Protests against the film festival at the Tricycle last year called for it to reject Israeli funding, and this summer the Tricycle made its courageous decision to reject the tainted funding. Last night’s protest publicised that over 500 artists and theatre practitioners had publicly defended the Tricycle from the false accusation of antisemitism when it had offered to replace Israeli funding so that the film festival could take place there.
Public protest had already closed down an Israeli-funded theatre company at the Edinburgh Fringe.  Besides the Tricycle, the Bristol Encounters Film Festival and artists from Sao Paulo Art Biennial had all rejected Israeli Embassy funding in this last period.
There will be further protests against the Israeli-funded film festival.


[1] See No Israeli Funding of the Arts letter to all the cinemas hosting the UKJFF here.
[2] Russell Tribunal on Palestine

October 29, 2014

More Saying No to Brand Israel

An email from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network:


NO ISRAELI FUNDING OF THE ARTS
DEMAND “NO” TO ISRAELI SPONSORED FILM FESTIVAL


Protest the Israeli-funded UK Jewish Film Festival (UKJFF) taking place between 6-23 November in cinemas in Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester and Nottingham.

Public protest closed down an Israeli-funded theatre company at the Edinburgh Fringe. The Tricycle, the Bristol Encounters Film Festival, artists from Sao Paulo Art Biennial all rejected Israeli Embassy funding.

IJAN is centrally involved in the No Israeli Funding of the Arts (NIFA) initiative. See NIFA’s letter to all the cinemas here.

Contact your local (or even distant) cinema by phone, email, website, leaflet or street protest, and let them know what you think of them hosting an Israeli-funded event. Call or write to the local press or call-in radio to tell them what you think of their Israeli rebranding. (All cinema contact details are here.)

One of the opening gala nights is at the London BFI on 6 November (see below) we will protest their collaboration with the slaughterers of the Gazan people.


Protest @ BFI Southbank
Thursday, 6 November 6.45-8pm
Belvedere Road, South Bank, London SE1 8XT
Tubes: Waterloo (South Bank exit), Embankment and Charing Cross
bring your banners, placards, megaphones & chants!


The Israeli Embassy is a sponsor of the UK Jewish Film Festival (UKJFF).  Only a few weeks ago the Israeli state again slaughtered the people of Gaza: over 2000 killed, over 500 were children.
Palestinians look up at the remains of an Italian apartment block that was destroyed by an Israeli air strike overnight in Gaza City on August 26, 2014. An Israeli air raid in Gaza killed two Palestinians as Israel pursued its campaign to stop rocket fire by Hamas militants from the enclave, medics said.
Destroyed block of flats, Gaza City
We welcomed that the Tricycle took a stand against the festival’s funding by the Israeli Embassy during Israel’s 51-day assault on Gaza.  Over 500 artists and theatre practitioners publicly defended the Tricycle.
Disgracefully, the BFI Southbank is helping to re-brand Israel – it’s hosting the opening gala night of the festivalSecretary of State for Culture, Sajid Javid – who slandered the Tricycle by implying antisemitism – said he would attend.  The Israeli ambassador is also expected.
Israel’s apologists attacked the Tricycle to try to distract the public from Gaza while children were killed in their homes as they slept, with their parents as they fled, in UN shelters where they were told they would be safe, in hospitals, in mosques, while playing football: by bloodied tanks, F16s, drones, bunker busters, sea-to-land missiles, remote-controlled machine guns . . .
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine (Sept 2014) found that Israel committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of murder, extermination and persecution and incitement to genocide.
Join our protest against collaboration with mass-murderers


October 15, 2014

Saying No to Brand Israel

From the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

NO ISRAELI FUNDING OF THE ARTS


IJAN is centrally involved in the No Israeli Funding of the Arts initiative – we want everyone we are in touch with to know that the Israeli-funded UKJFF (UK Jewish Film Festival) is taking place this year (6-23 November) in cinemas in Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester and Nottingham.
We have written to all the cinemas – see our letter below – and we are asking that you contact your local (or even a distant) cinema by phone, email, website, leaflet or street protest, and let them know what you think of them hosting an Israeli-funded event. (All cinema contact details are at end of this email.) Call or write to the local press or call-in radio to tell them what you think of their not caring for the Jewish films, only for the Israeli rebranding (see below).
Check the UKJFF calendar to find when each cinema is hosting UKJFF films.  The opening gala night is at the London BFI on 6 November – we are planning to protest their collaboration with the slaughterers of the Gazan people.
Note: IJAN workshop, From Gaza to Ferguson @ Anarchist Bookfair, 18 Oct, 3-4pm
NO ISRAELI FUNDING OF THE ARTS
LETTER TO CINEMAS HOSTING THE UK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL


We are writing to you as one of the cinemas hosting the UK Jewish Film Festival (UKJFF) 6-23 November, 2014, to ask that you reconsider.

Who we are
We are a diverse group, including Israeli and other Jewish people, most of us local to, and often in the audience of, the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, northwest London. In 2012 local residents leafleted the cinema to oppose its hosting of the Israeli-sponsored UKJFF; in 2013 we protested outside the Tricycle when it again hosted the UKJFF. (The protests were called by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.)

Tricycle / UKJFF
This year, many including ourselves, welcomed the Tricycle’s stand against the festival’s funding by the Israeli Embassy during Israel’s 50-day slaughter on Gaza.
The Tricycle had offered the organisers of the UKJFF replacement funding so that the film festival could go ahead at the Tricycle.  But the UKJFF refused their offer and to dissociate itself from the Israeli government – the priority was Israeli sponsorship, rather than the film festival.  Is the UKJFF merely a means to a political end, to give Israel a humanist image?

Who attacked the Tricycle
The Government’s Chief Whip, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the Israeli Ambassador, each publicly attacked the Tricycle for having refused Israeli sponsorship.  They slandered the Tricycle by accusing it of antisemitism; as did donors and local councillors who threatened to withdraw funds and involve the Charity Commission.

Who defended the Tricycle
Support came from National Theatre director, Nicholas Hytner, acclaimed director Lenny Abrahamson; over 500 artists, including prominent theatre directors and playwrights, some of whom affirmed “We artists have a right to boycott” (letter to the Stage); and note the artists’ solidarity page: “The Tricycle Theatre is Not Anti-Semitic.

In July, Scottish artists, including National Poet Liz Lochhead, signed an open letter in The Herald protesting an Israeli-funded theatre company at the Edinburgh Fringe. After vociferous public protest, the show closed after one performance.

Following the Tricycle’s refusal of Israeli funding, the Encounters Film Festival in Bristol and artists from the 31st Sao Paulo Art Biennial in Brazil also refused Israeli funding.

What Israel’s apologists did
While crying antisemitism, Israel’s apologists used their attack on the Tricycle to try to distract the public from Gaza: from seeing Israeli politicians, religious authorities, journalists and the public, calling for mass rape, mass murder, even genocide of Palestinians; from the bloodied tanks, F16s, drones, bunker busters, sea-to-land missiles, remote-controlled machine guns, that blasted schools, hospitals, mosques, blocks of flats, children playing football; and from the 2,200 Gazans killed -- over 500 children, and half a million displaced.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine found evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of murder, extermination and persecution and also incitement to genocide.

What happened to the Tricycle
Even while Gaza was being destroyed, the Tricycle was forced to retreat.  But actress Maureen Lipman, advocating for the UKJFF admitted that they knew the depth of the community’s support for the theatre’s stand, announcing that the festival was unlikely to go back to the Tricycle any time soon.

That stand reaffirmed that the arts are social and political.  It was welcomed by anti-racists everywhere. And please note: both the local council and the Arts Council ruled out loss of funding.

What we want you to do
The assistant manager of the Everyman cinema insisted that “refusing to host any arts festival on political grounds will cause more harm than good.” (Email, 10 September 2014.) The Everyman’s is not a principled position – it is complicity and appeasement.  It is the argument of those who refused to boycott South African apartheid.

Who knows better than Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a proponent of cultural boycott, who said, “We in South Africa know about oppression and occupation and know about the power of BDS” (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions)?

We ask that you take direction from the anti-racist, non-violent, Palestinian-led BDS movement.

We ask that you refuse to host the UKJFF – not because it is Jewish, of course, but because it is funded by the Israeli Embassy.  The embassy’s job, especially in London (the boycott “hub”) is to promote what it calls Brand Israel – state-sponsored propaganda, designed to camouflage Israeli brutality within a smokescreen of culture, including film festivals.

We ask that you side with the victims and survivors of the assault on Gaza – not be part of the cover-up of war crimes being committed against them.



CINEMAS HOSTING THE UKJFF
Glasgow
Venue              CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts)
Address           350 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3JD
Email               gen@cca-glasgow.com
Telephone       0141 352 4900

Venue              Glasgow Film Theatre
Address           12 Rose St, Glasgow, Lanarkshire G3 6RB
Email               jaki.mcdougall@glasgowfilm.org (Chief Executive)
Telephone       0141 332 6535 
Leeds
Venue              MAZCC
Address           311 Stonegate Road, Leeds LS17 6AZ
Email:              enquiries@ljwb.co.uk
Telephone       0113 268 4211

Venue              Seven Arts Centre
Address           31(a) Harrogate Road, Chapel Allerton, Leeds, LS7 3PD
Email               info@sevenleeds.co.uk
Telephone       0113 26 26 777

London

Venue              Arthouse Crouch End
Address:          159A Tottenham Lane, N8 9BT
Email               info@arthousecrouchend.co.uk
Telephone       020 8245 3099

Venue              BAFTA British Academy of Film and Television Arts
Address           195 Piccadilly, W1J 9LN
Email               info@bafta.org
Telephone       020 7734 0022

Venue              Barbican
Address           Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS
Email               film@barbican.org.uk
Telephone       020 7638 4141

Venue              BFI Southbank
Address           Belvedere Road, South Bank, SE1 8XT
Email               director@bfi.org.uk
Telephone       020 7255 1444

Venue              Ciné Lumière
Address           17 Queensberry Place, SW7 2DT
Email               box.office@institutfrancais.org.uk   
Telephone       020 7871 3515

Venue              Curzon Mayfair
Address           38 Curzon Street, W1J 7TY
Email               manager.mayfair@curzon.com

Venue              Odeon Muswell Hill
Address           Fortis Green Road, N10 3HP
Telephone       0207 321 6237 (conferencing & events)

Venue              Everyman Maida Vale
Address           215 Sutherland Avenue, W9 1RU
Email               maidavale.manager@everymancinema.com
Telephone       0871 906 9060 

Venue              Everyman Hampstead
Address           5 Holly Bush Vale, NW3 6TX
Email               hampstead.manager@everymancinema.com
Telephone       0871 906 9060 

Venue              JW3
Address           341-351 Finchley Road, London NW3 6ET
Email               info@jw3.org.uk
Telephone       020 7433 8988

Venue              LJCC (London Jewish Cultural Centre)
Address           Ivy House, 94-96 North End Road, NW11 7SX
Email               admin@ljcc.org.uk 
Contact form   http://www.ljcc.org.uk/contact/ 
Telephone       020 8457 5000

Venue              Odeon South Woodford
Address           60/64 High Road, South Woodford, E18 2QL
Telephone       0207 321 6237 (conferencing & events)

Venue              Odeon Swiss Cottage
Address           96 Finchley Rd, NW3 5EL
Telephone       0207 321 6237 (conferencing & events)

Venue              Phoenix Cinema
Address           52 High Road, East Finchley, N2 9PJ
Email               management@phoenixcinema.co.uk 
Telephone       020 8444 6789

Manchester
Venue              Cornerhouse
Address           70 Oxford St, Manchester M1 5NH
Email               info@cornerhouse.org
Telephone       0161 228 7621 

Venue              Cineworld Didsbury
Address           Parrs Wood Entertainment Centre, Wilmslow Rd, Manchester M20 5PG
Contact form   https://www.cineworld.co.uk/contact  (250 words max.)
Telephone       0208 742 4010 

Venue              Menorah
Address           198 Altrincham Rd, Wythenshawe, Manchester M22 4RZ
Email               filmclub@menorah.org.uk
Telephone       0161 428 7746

Nottingham
Venue              Broadway Cinema
Address           14–18 Broad St, Nottingham NG1 3AL
Email               info@broadway.org.uk
Contact form   http://www.broadway.org.uk/contact/steve (Chief Executive)
Telephone       0115 9526 611