“It is time for Labour to represent the views of its membership, its movement & the nation.”
Mish Rahman, Labour NEC member
By Mish Rahman, Labour NEC member
How many of us have seen something in our social media feeds over the last month that we are never going to forget?
Images of innocent people dying while Sunak and Biden refuse to act and Keir Starmer continues to back them.
This has to change!
We will not forgive them.
History will not forgive them.
We will continue to hold them accountable because they have taken the easiest option of all which is to do nothing and that’s what they are doing – Nothing. And their silence and refusal to do anything is their complicity.
Their complicity and hypocrisy is breathtaking and there for all to see.
Keir Starmer and his shadow cabinet know what a war crime is when it’s committed against Ukraine by Russia and rightly so but when asked about Israeli War Crimes, Starmer and his shadow cabinet members, not content with previously seemingly being fine with collective punishment, a siege, the cutting of power, water and food – now say its not for politicians to provide a commentary and that they aren’t specialists in what denotes a war crime and what doesn’t.
Well I am not a specialist either but I know enough to see that what we are witnessing in real time live is a genocide. More people were killed in the last month in Gaza than were recorded killed in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide or the Jan 1999 massacre in Sierra Leone.
I am not a specialist either but I know what we are seeing is ethnic cleansing, the displacement of millions and settler violence on the West Bank on an industrial scale moving Palestinians out of their homes.
I am not a specialist but I know that what we are seeing are war crimes supported by Britain and the US and uncritical by the Labour leadership including the use of white phosphorus and the bombing of places of worship and hospitals as well as the death of over 4000 children using UK and US arms.
I am not a specialist but I also know that while Palestine is abandoned by governments and mainstream western media, Palestinians are relying on the general public across the world, and the fight for justice has been left to individuals to champion – and those individuals are growing in number.
It has now been over a month since the awful Hamas terrorist attack killing 1400 Israelis but since then over 10,000 people including 4000 children have been killed by Israel. How many more innocents need to die?
It’s heartwarming to see the solidarity from workers abroad such as the three biggest unions in Belgium refusing to move arms and dockworkers in Barcelona who refuse to load or unload ships carrying war materials for Israel. It’s a lesson trade unions in the UK can take where workers can also refuse to be complicit and stop making British weapons that kill and maim innocent children.
So right now we demand for the sake of humanity an end to the killing of all innocent civilians. Every second we delay more innocent lives are lost.
If Rishi Sunak wants us to stop marching then all they have to do is call for a ceasefire and an end to the violence. Not a humanitarian pause, that fills the bellies of people so they can then be bombed on a full stomach, but a complete ceasefire.
What Labour and Keir Starmer need to do is stop following Sunak and instead align with the will of the majority of British people and Labour members – 76% of whom infact demand a Ceasfire Now
Stop the killing of innocent people now.
Call for an immediate ceasefire.
And rest assured until we get a ceasefire, until we get an armistice, until we get peace, we will continue to march and our marches will get bigger and bigger and your authority will become smaller and smaller.
It is time for Labour to represent the views of its membership, its movement and the nation.
We can’t be silent as innocent children die, while our political leaders refuse to act. We need a ceasefire now and we need your voice to join our chorus for peace.
Speak up with me here.
- Join Mish is supporting Labour for a Ceasefire Now here
- Mish Rahman is a members’ representative on Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC). You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter
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