Yasser was unforgettable - one of the most dedicated and longest standing activists in the Brighton Palestine Solidarity Movement
Yasser Samman, 69 died last week in the Martlett’s Hospice in Hove from cancer. He had been ill since the end of last year.
I knew Yasser on and off since the beginning of PSC in 1982. I won’t pretend that Yasser was an easy person to get on with at times, but he was a product of the dispossession and ethnic cleansing that Palestinians have suffered from.
Yasser was a proud Palestinian and had no time for the collaborators and quislings of the Palestinian Authority. He was the product of the racism and cruelty of the Zionist colonisation of Palestine and its apartheid practices. Gruff and dedicated, Yasser would go out of his way to oppose Sussex Friends of Israel when they showed their racist faces.
Yasser had his demons but he was subjected to appalling racist abuse on our successful picket of Sodastream’s shop in Brighton by Fiona Sharpe, of the so-called Labour Against Anti-Semitism. Sharpe gave perjured evidence at an all day trial in April 2015 in which she alleged that Yassir had come over to her and another woman, called them Nazis and wagged his finger in their face.
Unfortunately for Sharpe and her fellow perjurer there was video evidence which showed conclusively that it was Fiona Sharpe who had been guilty of threatening behaviour. The magistrates acquitted Yasser of all charges.
Despite her abuse of Yasser and others, Fiona Sharpe is feted by Labour’s racist Councillor Daniel Yates.
Yasser was no Muslim fundamentalist as Palestinians are often characterised. He smoked dope and drank profusely!
Below is a message from the son of a BHPSC activist who knew Yasser well.
Tony Greenstein
‘I first met Yassir in the Spring of 2006. I was an 18-year-old deracinated Palestinian who, at that time, had very little contact with his Palestinian family. Yassir took an interest in me and was warm and generous - gentle, almost - in his encouragement. My engagements with Yassir thereafter were episodic, often the result of chance encounters in and around Brighton.
An episode I’m particularly fond of has my best friend and I feeling sorry for ourselves after a weekend festival in the late summer of 2007. We chose the Pavilion Gardens to mope in. Yassir spotted us and came over to join, following which the three of us sat in the same spot for several hours, discussing everything from philosophy to love. On the latter, Yassir explained that “those memories will keep you alive through difficult times”, and his eyes left little doubt that he knew whereof he spoke.
Yassir, as I’m sure others will have referenced, wasn’t a straightforward individual, and it would be a rank betrayal of his memory to pretend he was. Throughout the years, we had some fractious exchanges, and he - perhaps more than anyone - was the beneficiary of an uncharacteristic forbearance in me. All the same, Yassir hadn’t led a straightforward life. His was one personification and expression of the Palestinian tragedy. One thing we can all take comfort in is that the demons instilled in him by Israeli occupation and brutality are no more. Beyond that, I, personally, will cherish the fragmented episodes recounted here.
Rest in Power, Yassir.
Rest in Power, Yassir.
Fatih writes:
Condolences to all the group and Yassir's family. It sad news, he will be missed greatly in Brighton. He was an independent minded wherever he went. Many found that hard sometimes. Like many Palestinians their lives has been haunted by Zionist apartheid Israel and it supporters. Yasser was part of the peace movement in Brighton. I met him for the first time at Glastonbury festival walking around with Palestinian flag... rest in peace Yassir.
The Secretary of Brighton PSC writes:
A Palestinian of great principle. Troubled and provocative, to be sure. If and when the history of Palestine Solidarity in Brighton is written, Yasser will undoubtedly occupy a significant place. The distinctive character of our local campaign will be very different without him.
Clearly it will not be possible to have any kind of public funeral and/or memorial event at the present time, but we’ll definitely give some thought to how we might mark Yasser’s passing, and collectively salute his life, when some kind of normality resumes.
(on behalf of the BHPSC Committee)
