“Recent attacks on the solidarity movement in Britain are a response to the scale of mobilisation and pressure being placed on the government.”
By Labour & Palestine
When one child had both hands amputated recently he asked his parents if they would grow back, a medic returning from Gaza reported.
That was one distressing incident arising the ongoing Israeli destruction of Palestinian lives in Gaza, where one innocent child still tried to see a better future through the carnage.
The account was heard at Labour and Palestine’s Women and Palestine event held in the week of International Women’s Day heard from an all-woman panel of politicians and political activists, all of whom expressed solidarity with the people of Gaza struggling to survive in the face of overwhelming military action by Israel.
Labour Baroness Christine Blower chaired the event, summarising that despite the finding of the International Court of Justice that there was a plausible case that Israel was engaged in genocide in Gaza, the response of the UK Government had been to place hurdles in the way of the Gaza solidarity movement, whilst the Labour leadership had been slow to respond to the strength of opposition to Israeli action amongst the public and party membership.
Opening speaker, Poplar and Limehouse MP Apsana Begum, set out the latest estimate of Palestinian deaths of over 30,000 and warned of the danger of deaths escalating due to the failure of Israel to allow the delivery of aid – despite the ICJ finding – which meant children had now started to die of malnutrition and the risk of famine, particularly in northern Gaza was rising. She made the urgent demand for an immediate ceasefire, strengthened by the end of arms sales to Israel, that would allow the emergency distribution of aid.
Rachel Garnham highlighted the impact on women in Gaza in particular with the Strip’s women’s shelters closed by Israeli action, a new requirement on women to lead households where men had died but at the same time women suffering from undernourishment as they allow children to eat what they have, but their children’s lives still increasingly at risk, whether from airstrikes, famine, or pregnant mothers unable to find enough to eat. Rachel appealed to activists in Britain to continue pressuring women here to show solidarity and for Labour activists to intensify lobbying of the party’s politicians to demand a ceasefire.
Labour executive committee member Jess Barnard warned that over 70 years on from the Nakba during the Palestine Mandate era overseen by Britain, the British Government still had a responsibility for atrocities through its supply of arms to the Israeli state. She reported from a recent visit to the West Bank, where she had seen the spread of illegal settlements and the violence against Palestinians meted out by Israeli settlers and service personnel. She said that protesters in Britain were on the right side of history and should continue to organise as despite the smears against them, they were shifting political opinion.
Another Labour MP, Beth Winter, said the Israeli military action prevented the organisation of women’s rights struggles and the advancement of women in Palestine, as women’s organisations turned their operations to helping women survive in the conflict and ask funding dries up. She talked about the historic role of women in the Palestine liberation movement, including women’s rights and human rights activists and said the demand for an immediate ceasefire was the priority of women’s organisations in Gaza, as set out in a recent report by UN Women. She said it was therefore necessary to continue mobilising in support of women in Gaza and to reject the conflation of elected representatives reasonable security concerns with legimitate lobbying and protests on behalf of the Palestinians.
Hilary Schan, co-chair of Momentum, emphasised the impact of displacement on women, whether on living conditions in temporary accommodation, the reduced access to sanitation and the health impacts of the lack of period products. She regretted the faction fighting in the Labour Party on such a humanitarian issue, including the suspension of councillors from council Labour Groups even when supporting front bench positions, and urged members to discuss campaigning on Gaza in the party at the upcoming Momentum members convention.
Louise Regan, executive member of the National Education Union, was the speaker who recounted the experience of a returning medic who had heard a child ask if their amputated hands would grow back. She said that was one account from the growing numbers of children, estimated at 10 a day, facing amputation without anaesthetic. She said all universities in Gaza had now been destroyed and many schools, many of which provided shelter for displaced families, had been damaged. It was in these circumstances that the British Government had stopped funding for UNRWA – the UN Relief and Works Agency – despite over 1 million people relying on UNRWA support and she said the National Education Union was continuing to lobby politically whilst also fundraising from its membership to deliver aid.
Finally Ryvka Barnard, from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, talked about the difficulty to understand the scale of destruction taking place in Gaza, even compared to recent Israeli military activity in the Strip over the past decade.
She said people had faced displacement destruction, death and that the threat of famine was now widespread. and women were increasingly at the forefront of the struggle, whether aid workers, health workers, journalists, or simply those trying to keep their communities together and families alive.
Barnard also addressed recent attacks on the solidarity movement in Britain, arguing they were a response to the scale of mobilisation and pressure being placed on the government and urged people to continue mobilising, and that it was an important aspect of maintaining morale in the Palestinian population to see people speaking up in London. She urged people to join the next demo – and an all-woman line-up of speakers this Saturday 9th March.
- You can watch or listen back to the online event hosted by Labour & Palestie: Women for Palestine on YouTube here or on the Arise Festival podcast here.
- The next National Demonstration for Palestine takes place in London on Saturday 9th March, assemble at Hyde Park Corner and marching to US Embassy.
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