The Palestinian people in Gaza

An informative letter

Photo by mohammed al bardawil on Unsplash

I recently posted some Free Films About Palestine. Connected to that, I thought I’d share the well-researched letter below, as it has lots of useful background information on the political situation regarding Palestine and Israel. There are some things here that I didn’t know.

Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza

We write, on behalf of D&G Palestine Solidarity Campaign, to call on Scottish Labour to do all in its power to influence Keir Starmer’s Labour government to cease its collusion with genocide, uphold international law and work towards ensuring justice for the Palestinian people.

UN experts state: “The decision is stark: remain passive and witness the slaughter of innocents or take part in crafting a just resolution”. [source]

The Scottish Labour party and the Westminster government must:

Tell the truth on Palestine:

Provide the public with an accurate political and historical context.

Israel is a settler-colonial society founded, in 1948, on the premeditated ethnic cleansing of some 750,000 Palestinian people who were terrorised into abandoning their homes. The State of Israel is maintained through a cruel and oppressive military occupation and Apartheid. It has continued its policy of ethnic cleansing over the decades, including through its illegal Israeli settlement policy. [source]

United Nations maps show how less than 11% of historic Palestine remains and the extent of Israeli control over the divided portions of land. [source]

The disparity in the power of the two peoples is described as one of David and Goliath. Israel is bristling with arms, has a highly trained military and the support of the USA, the most powerful military nation. The Palestinians are an occupied people without an army. All attempts the Palestinians make at non violent resistance, including Gaza’s Great March of Return 2018-2019, are brutally crushed, in ways also designed to break the spirit.

It is within this hopeless and oppressive context and abandonment by the international community, that we must understand the horrific and deadly Hamas attacks of October 7th.

Clarify the crucial distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism:

Anti-Semitism is the hatred, scapegoating and targetting of Jewish people because they are Jewish.

Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism are abhorrent and have no place in the Palestine solidarity movement.

Anti-Zionism is opposition to the political, nationalistic ideology of Zionism. Anti-Zionists believe in a future where all people of the region live in freedom, safety and equality. [source]

The British government must acknowledge collective punishment and genocide and act on its obligations as a signatory of The Fourth Geneva Convention 1949 and as a signatory of The Genocide Convention 1948. As a signatory to the Genocide Convention, Britain undertakes “to prevent and punish this heinous crime”:

The highest court in the world, International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its ruling of the 23rd January 2024. issued a series of binding provisional measures to guarantee the Palestinians in Gaza be protected from acts of genocide. Israel has failed to implement the ICJ ruling. [source]

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, states in AI’s genocide report "Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now." [source]

The British government must cease its collusion with genocide and stop arming Israel:

A groundbreaking report has revealed the extraordinary scale of UK arms and ammunition exports to Israel, since the suspension of 30 licenses in September 2024, and finds the government has misled the public. [source]

See also Declassified UK on spy flights: [source]

The British Government must be guided by international law, before this crucial legislation and the humanitarian values it represents are torn up forever:

It must answer the call of Palestinian civil society for “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights” – 9th July 2005. These are described as “non violent punitive measures” inspired by the struggle of South Africans against Apartheid. [source]

It must abide by its obligation as per the Advisory Opinion of the ICJ, 19th July 2024, in ceasing to “render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory”.

It must recognise Palestinian statehood and so give Palestine a place at the table at the United Nations, the ability to pursue its legal rights to its land, waters and airspace, sue for sovereignty over its territory, bring crimes against humanity and war-crime charges to the international courts.

D&G PSC closing observations:

Keir Starmer rightly expresses outrage at Russian war crimes and humanitarian sympathy for the Ukrainian civilian victims of atrocities, but where is his condemnation of Israeli war crimes and sympathy for the tens of thousands of Palestinian people killed, maimed, orphaned, traumatised and displaced, at the hands of Israel. Palestinians are not being accorded equal humanity. Instead we are witnessing, in Britain, the criminalising of those protesting genocide, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants. [source]

Andrew Feinstein (Former ANC member of the South African parliament serving under Nelson Mandela, son of a Holocaust survivor, constituent of Keir Starmer) is damning in his assessment that “Israel and the West have normalised the killing of children”. He states that for Israel to call innocent children “enemies or future enemies” is to participate in the worst form of racist, white supremacy. He also states that people see through the toxic relationship Britain has with Israel and will not forgive or forget. [source]

It has been said that people could claim they did not know about the Holocaust, but when it comes to looking back on the genocide in Gaza, they will only be able to say they did not care.

Yours sincerely

D&G Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which is a local branch of PSC. PSC brings together people from all walks of life, including those from Muslim, Christian and Jewish backgrounds, to campaign for Palestinian rights and freedom. We stand for peace, equality, and justice and against racism, occupation, and colonialism.”

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The letter was written by the Dumfries & Galloway Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and shared with their permission. They had sent it to their local politicians.

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