Tag: ceasefire

Strange elisions and imbalances in Labour ceasefire amendment.

Posted on by urbanramblings19687496

The wording of the Labour curates egg amendment to the SNP ceasefire now motion has all the signs of being written in haste in an attempt to build loopholes into it that would allow wiggle room for the “catastrophic humanitairian consequences” of Israel’s ongoing assault to go ahead. My additional wording to tease out its imbalances are in bold.

That this House believes that an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah risks catastrophic humanitarian consequences and therefore must not take place;

notes the intolerable loss of Palestinian life as a result of the Israeli offensive so far and the prospect of famine if it continues, the majority being women and children;

condemns the terrorism of Hamas who continue to hold hostages and the actions of Israel in holding many more prisoners without charge;

supports Australia, Canada and New Zealand’s calls for Hamas to release and return all hostages and adds that Israel should release Palestinian prisoners and not rearrest them and for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which means an immediate stop to the fighting and a ceasefire that lasts and is observed by all sides, noting that Israel cannot be expected to cease fighting if Hamas continues with violence nor that Palestinians can be expected to cease resisting if Israel continues its attacks and that Israelis have the right to the assurance that the horror of 7th October cannot happen again and that Palestinians have the right to the assurance that there will be no more IDF assaults on Gaza, and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank will end;

therefore supports an immediate ceasfire followed by diplomatic mediation efforts to achieve a lasting ceasefire;

demands that rapid and unimpeded humanitarian relief is provided in Gaza an the UK immediately restores and increases its funding for UNWRA;

demands an end to settlement expansion and violence;

urges Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures and for the UK to withdraw all diplomatic, military or other aid until it does;

calls for the UN Security Council to be meet (?) urgently and pledges that the UK will vote for a ceasefire when it does with no equivocation;

and urges all international partners to work together to establish a diplomatic process to deliver the peace of a two-state solution on the lines of China’s proposed international peace conference, with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state, including working with international partners to recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to rather than outcome of that process, because statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people and not in the gift of any neighbour and further recognising that leadership of that state must be the choice of the Palestinian people themselves not imposed on them.

A small protest with big implications

Posted on by urbanramblings19687496

In just over fifty years of political activity, I have given out a lot of leaflets, in all weathers, in a lot of places, in all sorts of situations and times of day. Hitherto, I have never had anyone take a leaflet, stop, and shake my hand for having given it to them. On Wednesday evening, that happened twice.

Not what a “hate mob” looks like.

This was our local Palestine Solidarity campaign lobby of PPC for Harrow East Primesh Patel’s Xmas fund raising dinner at Lezzet in Kingsbury High Street. At any given point there were 30 people there, but it was one of those fluid events where people come and go, new people come across it, stay for a while and sign up, buy a badge, join a chant.

There was very little overt hostility, one woman who stormed past yelling something inaudible, and one bloke at the bus stop who refused a leaflet with the words “they started it” – showing his limited grasp of history. Some people blanked a leaflet, but as many gave a smile and a nod and two stopped for a hand shake and chat.

A lot of passing cars sounded their horns, as did some buses.

The waiters at the restaurant brought us out trays of tea.

As the local PSC tweeted,

This evening, we gathered outside Lezzet Kitchen in #Kingsbury to urge

@PrimeshPatel +

@HarrowLabour to call for an urgent & permanent #CeasefireForGazaNOW. Thank you Lezzet for your solidarity & for keeping us warm with hot drinks! #Gaza_Genocide

@harrowonline

Even one of the police who turned up to make sure we didn’t obstruct the pavement wished us luck as he walked away.

Big political shift going on.

Reading the appeal by the UN Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator for an immediate Ceasefire.

Questions for Education Ministers. Will you stop your complicity in genocide?

Posted on by urbanramblings19687496

FAO: Gillian Keegan, Nick Gibb, Robert Halfon.

On October 17th you sent a letter to school leaders advising them on how to deal with the war in Israel/Palestine.

The following statement was the basis of your position: “following the barbaric terrorist attacks in Israel, we are writing to provide advice for schools and colleges. The UK unequivocally condemns these terrorist attacks and stands in solidarity with Israel in its hour of need.”

The scale of the attack by Hamas on October 7th, is taken to be reason enough to give Israel a blank cheque in its response. But, if you look at the history, this is revealed to be blatantly one sided on your part.

You must be aware that the IDF invaded and bombed Gaza seven times between 2006 and 2022, and in two of these operations the Palestinian casualties were greater than the 1200 suffered in Israel on Oct 7th.

  • Operation Cast Lead (in 2008) killed 1400.
  • Operation Protective Edge (in 2014) killed 2,100.
  • The current attack has killed over 14,000. Why do none of these amount to an “hour of need” for the Palestinians, in your view?

If you want a lesson in barbarism, consider the punitive Israeli air strike on Gaza in 2008, which took place at 11:20 in the morning, just as the morning and afternoon shifts in schools changed over, ensuring the maximum number of children in the streets when the bombs were dropping.

But, even if you want to start the clock on October 7th, does the impact on children of this current offensive not register with you?

Before the bombing started again on Dec 1st, over six thousand children had been killed according to the UN. This is probably an underestimate. According to the official Israeli death list, thirty three children were killed in the Hamas raid on Oct 7th. If you work it out, that’s one hundred and eighty one Palestinian children killed, so far, for every Israeli child.

Why does this not yet weight heavier with you? We should note that 63 further children have been killed by settlers and the IDF in the West Bank since October 7th, where attacks have been running at an average of five a day, and thousands of olive trees have been uprooted.

To make these statistics more graspable for you. 6,000 dead children is equivalent to

  • fifty two Aberfan disasters,
  • or three hundred and seventy five Dunblane massacres.

How can you not grasp the horrific scale of this?

Seven to eight hundred children, two schools full, have had to have limbs amputated. Some of them multiple limbs. Many of them without anaesthetic. Imagine your child going through that.

61% of the population of Gaza is now displaced, about half of them children, with 46,000 homes totally destroyed and more than 243,000 damaged. Imagine that in your neighbourhood. Some of us can’t help but do so.

No children are going to school. They are too busy trying to survive.

51% of education facilities have been bombed.

Children have been writing their names on their arms or legs in case they are killed.

Doctors have had to write WCNSF (Wounded Child, No Surviving Family) on children’s case notes; where they have been able to treat them at all, as 26 hospitals and 55 health care facilities are out of service from bombing and lack of resources.

Children are being denied water, sanitation, health care. Lice are endemic. There have been more than 30,000 cases of diarrhea in children under five, the historic child killer in the Global South. Cholera, measles, chicken pox, typhus are all looming; and the WHO was warning that more would die from malnutrition and disease in the coming weeks even than in the bombing so far, even if it stopped, without a qualitative increase in aid starting now.

Instead, the bombing has started again, making the aid impossible, guaranteeing a horrific escalation in deaths even from what we’ve seen so far.

This is the consequence of standing with Israel.

So, for you, is this still Israel’s “hour of need”, are these attacks barbaric enough for you to condemn them, will you withdraw your advice to school leaders and stand with humanity and the global majority that is calling for a permanent ceasefire now?