Zarah Sultana – PM should “support South Africa’s application to the ICJ indicting Israel for its ‘genocidal’ assault on Gaza”

South Africa is far from alone in making this charge. The State of Palestine has called on “world leaders” to “take responsibility… to stop the genocide against our people”, while UN experts have warned of a “genocide in the making”, having earlier noted that “Israel’s allies also bear responsibility & must act now to prevent its disastrous course of action”.

Zarah Sultana MP

Zarah Sultana MP penned the following letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling on the UK Government to support South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice over Isreal’s assault on Gaza. Read the letter in full below:

Dear Prime Minister,

I write to urge you to publicly support South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) indicting Israel for its “genocidal” assault on Gaza, contravening the Genocide Convention.

As the 84-page application meticulously details, the Israeli military have killed approximately 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 7,500 children, with a further 4,700 people missing and presumed dead, buried under the rubble. The assault has injured more than 55,000 Palestinians, forcibly displaced 85% of the population and destroyed more than 60% of the enclave’s housing stock. Gaza’s healthcare has been decimated, with 23 of 36 hospitals no longer functioning. Refugee camps, schools, universities, mosques, and churches have all been attacked.

Israel’s “total siege” of Gaza – starving the people of food, water, fuel, and electricity, permitting only a tiny amount of aid – has brought Gaza to the brink of famine, with the majority already starving, leading Oxfam to say that Israel is using starvation as a “weapon of war.” The Director-General of the World Health Organization has warned of “soaring rates of infectious disease outbreaks”, which could kill even more people than Israel’s airstrikes.

Alongside detailing this indiscriminate slaughter, the application also details the genocidal intent articulated by Israeli officials, including by senior government ministers. This includes statements such as “we are fighting human animals”; “we are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba”; “we all have one common goal – erasing the Gaza strip from the face of the earth”; “Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist”; Gaza will be “wiped out”, “erased”, and “crush[ed]”.

The application, therefore, demonstrates that “acts and omissions by Israel… are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of… Palestinians in Gaza.”

South Africa is far from alone in making this charge. The State of Palestine has called on “world leaders” to “take responsibility… to stop the genocide against our people”, while United Nations experts have warned of a “genocide in the making”, having earlier noted that “Israel’s allies also bear responsibility and must act now to prevent its disastrous course of action”.

The British government is shamefully complicit in this genocide. At the UN Security Council last month, the government failed to vote for a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, joining the United States as the lone voices refusing to call on Israel to end its bombardment. This complicity is further compounded by arms sales to Israel, which have exceeded £474 million since 2015, almost certainly including arms that are being used for war crimes in Gaza.

History will condemn political leaders who refused to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to this genocide.

This duty is particularly incumbent on the British government, not only because it is a party to the Genocide Convention, but also through Britain’s historical obligation to the Palestinian people, having been the mandatory power in Palestine during the 1948 Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their lands.

I, therefore, urge you to:

• Publicly support South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice indicting Israel for its genocidal assault on Gaza.
• Demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire and an end to the siege of Gaza.
• Impose sanctions on Israel for its gross and repeated violations of international law, including an arms embargo.
• Call for an immediate end to the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, building towards a just and lasting peace that respects the fundamental rights of all Palestinians and Israelis.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Zarah Sultana, Member of Parliament for Coventry South.

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• Zarah Sultana is the MP for Coventry South, you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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