“Those in the UK & across the world who have marched to end a genocide & to condemn their leaders for their failure to act will be strengthened by this judgement.”
Ben Jamal, PSC
By the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
In a seismic ruling, today the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has found that there is plausible evidence that Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip constitute genocide – the ‘crime of crimes.’ In a damning statement, the International Court has ordered Israel and its military to stop killing Palestinians, end and punish incitement to genocide, enable emergency assistance and restore basic services to the people of Gaza, and take steps to ensure that possible genocide does not continue.
Ben Jamal, PSC Director, said:
“Whilst Israel and its supporters may cling to the fact that the ICJ has not ordered an immediate suspension of all military operations, it is difficult to see how Israel can abide by the measures ordered by the court without an immediate cessation of a military campaign, which has involved the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, forced displacement of 1.7 million Palestinians and, as made clear in devastating detail by the Court, has destroyed the societal infrastructure of Gaza and created a humanitarian catastrophe.
The judgement also carries immediate implications for the UK as a signatory to the Genocide Convention. It must not aid acts which the court has found to be a plausible case of genocide. The UK government must now call for an immediate ceasefire, for Israel to abide by all of the measures imposed by the Court, and must immediately suspend all arms sales to Israel given the clear likelihood that such arms may be used to aid the commission of genocide.
Those in the UK and across the world who have marched to end a genocide and to condemn their leaders for their failure to act will be strengthened by this judgement. We must now ramp up all levers of pressure on our leaders to act, to abide by their moral and legal responsibilities, to demand that Israel ends the genocide of Gaza and lifts the siege to allow in urgent humanitarian aid. PSC calls upon all people of conscience to join our National Day of Action tomorrow calling on the UK to stop arming Israel, and to come to London on February 3rd for the next National March calling for a ceasefire now!”
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