“As the former colonial power that issued the Balfour Declaration, & was then responsible for the Mandate leading up to the Nakba of 1948, Britain has a special responsibility to do all it can to ensure a just peace.”
We stand with people all around the world in solidarity with the Palestinian people and in defence of their inalienable rights. For 14 years Gaza has been under siege. For 54 years Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem have been illegally occupied by Israel. The injustice against the Palestinian people is intensifying.
Following attempts at the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Israeli forces storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, attacks on Gaza in recent days have killed at least 139 Palestinians including 39 children with hundreds more injured and 10 Israelis have been killed including two children. Israel is now threatening a ground invasion of Gaza.
A long-lasting peace for both Palestinians and Israelis can only be secured through a just solution that tackles the underlying injustices: Israel’s illegal occupation, its colonial settlements, its denial of the right of Palestinian refugees to return, its violations of human rights and international law and its siege of Gaza.
As the former colonial power that issued the Balfour Declaration, and was then responsible for the Mandate leading up to the Nakba of 1948, Britain has a special responsibility to do all it can to ensure a just peace.
We, therefore, call on the UK government to:
- Demand an end to the siege of Gaza and the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory
- Impose sanctions on Israel for its repeated violations of international law, place an embargo on arms sales and end trade with illegal settlements
- Demonstrate full support for the International Criminal Court’s opening of an investigation into alleged war crimes in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories
- Recognise the state of Palestine
Signed:
- Diane Abbott MP
- Tahir Ali MP
- Apsana Begum MP
- Christine Blower, Member of the House of Lords
- Pauline Bryan, Member of the House of Lords
- Richard Burgon MP
- Dawn Butler MP
- Ian Byrne MP
- Shami Chakrabarti, Member of the House of Lords
- Jeremy Corbyn MP
- Mary Kelly Foy MP
- John Hendy, Member of the House of Lords
- Kim Johnson MP
- Ian Lavery MP
- John McDonnell MP
- Ian Mearns MP
- Grahame Morris MP
- Kate Osborne MP
- Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
- Zarah Sultana MP
- Jon Trickett MP
- Claudia Webbe MP
- Mick Whitley MP
- Beth Winter MP
