We are now 10 months into Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, with over 40,000 Palestinians killed. Last month, UN experts noted that Israel’s starvation campaign has “resulted in famine across all of Gaza.” Israel continues its military invasions, assassinations, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians across the illegally occupied West Bank, where over 554 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
In the past few days, Israel has conducted attacks on Lebanon and Iran. These strikes on sovereign territory are in violation of international law, and led to civilian deaths and casualties, including children. Once again, Israel’s contemptuous disregard for international law means we stand at the brink of a wider regional war. Israel has failed to heed previous calls for restraint, with hundreds killed in Israel’s strikes on Lebanon since October, including over 100 civilians.
The UK government has attempted to justify its failure to impose meaningful measures to hold Israel to account by counterposing such actions to negotiations for a ceasefire, claiming these are near a conclusion. Recent events once again reveal the bankruptcy of that approach – granted impunity Israel will continue to ride roughshod over international law and basic norms, risking regional war. Its killing of Ismail Haniyeh who was a key figure in negotiations for a ceasefire makes clear that Israel intends to continue with its genocidal assault on Gaza and will not agree to any ceasefire unless forced to do so.
Its current genocidal assault in Gaza is rooted in decades of imposition of a system of apartheid and occupation which it sustains though lethal violence and brutality. Over the past days, there’s been growing attention drawn to Israel’s torture of thousands of Palestinians held unlawfully in Israeli detention, including sexual violence. The harrowing accounts of former detainees reveal a catalogue of degrading and inhumane treatment. We echo the call of Addameer, Palestinian prisoners’ rights organisation who have meticulously documented Israel’s torture and ill treatment of Palestinian prisoners for decades, for immediate international intervention by the Prosecutor of International Criminal Court to ensure accountability.
Instead of taking concrete steps to hold Israel to account, the UK government has chosen to delay making a decision on whether to suspend arms sales to Israel. This decision is grotesque – how many more Palestinians must be killed before David Lammy decides to stop arming their oppressors?
We march on Saturday to demand the government adheres to its responsibilities under international law and cease aiding and abetting Israel’s grave war crimes by immediately imposing a two-way arms embargo on Israel.
We march to reassert the fundamental truth that there will be no peace in the Middle East without an end to Israel’s genocide, the dismantlement of its regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid, and freedom and return for the Palestinian people.
Stop Arming Israel – End The Genocide – No Middle East War!
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Palestinian Forum in Britain
Friends of Al-Aqsa
Stop the War Coalition
Muslim Association of Britain
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament