[fse-esf] letter today in the British newspaper The Guardian, letter from European Jews for a Just Peace, and advert from Jews for Justice for Palestinians

[sarah colborne]

End this punishment of the Palestinians 

Wednesday July 12, 2006
The Guardian 


The Israeli government's behaviour at present is to be condemned (Report, July 8). The failure of our government to speak out against Israel's oppression of the Palestinian population is complicit with those actions of the EU, the US and Israel. It is, in effect, a coordinated attempt to collectively punish the Palestinian people for electing a government of which they disapprove. Having lectured the people of the Middle East about democracy for decades, Europe and the US are seeking to trample upon the democratic rights of the Palestinian people. 
The suspension of aid by the EU and the US, the withholding of Palestinian taxes by Israel, and Israel's illegal blockade are crimes against the Palestinian people. They are creating a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the West Bank and have emboldened Israel to sustain an unrelenting bomb and missile barrage, which regularly kills innocent children and other noncombatants in violation of the fourth Geneva convention which protects civilians under occupation. Israel has bombed the only power station in Gaza, destroying electricity and water supplies to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and forcing tens of thousands to flee from their homes. These are crimes against humanity. 

Israel has now kidnapped a quarter of the parliament elected by the Palestinians, and half of its democratically elected government. They join thousands of other Palestinians illegally kidnapped or imprisoned, including over 300 children. We call upon the British government: 1) To immediately work for the restoration of EU aid to the Palestinian Authority; 2) to demand that Israel ends its blockade and pass on taxes; 3) to demand that Israel cease all military action in the occupied territories; 4) to demand the release of all elected Palestinian officials and the instigation of a programme for the release of all prisoners held in violation of international law; 5) to apply pressure through the UN for Israel to respect the UN resolutions requiring its withdrawal from the territories it illegally occupied in 1967; 6) to end Britain's arms trade with Israel until it abides by international law.


Ken Livingstone
John Pilger
Betty Hunter
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Lord Ian Gilmour
Prof Moshe Machover
Prof Avi Shlaim
Daniel Machover
Juliet Stevenson
Bella Freud
Ahdaf Soueif
Peter Kilfoyle MP
Clare Short MP
Derek Wyatt MP
Helen Goodman MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Paul Flynn MP
Frank Cook MP
John Austin MP
Hywel Williams MP
Linda Riordan MP
Peter Soulsby MP
Harry Cohen MP
Mike Hancock MP
Mike Wood MP
Karma Nabulsi
Keith Sonnet
UNISON Deputy General Secretary
Rev. Canon Garth Hewitt
Rev. Stephen Sizer
Majed Al Zeer 
Andrew De La Tour
Tony Benn
Victoria Brittain
Andy Bain
President TSSA (personal capacity)
Baljeet Ghale
NUT Senior Vice-President (personal capacity)
Baroness Jenny Tonge
Bruce Kent
Caryl Churchill
Charles Asprey
Corin Redgrave
Dr. Ghada Karmi
Gargi Bhattacharyya
Vice-President University and College Union (personal capacity)
Prof Anthony Zahlan
Prof Hilary Rose
Prof Steven Rose 
Ruqayyah Collector
NUS National Black Students Officer
Sacha Craddock
Steve Kemp
NUM General Secretary
Susan Wooldridge


........................................................

To: Jose Manuel Barroso 

President of the Commission

Commission Europeene

B -1049 Brussels

Belgium

 

 

Amsterdam, 3 July 2006

 

 

Dear President Barroso,

 

We have noted the statements of 30 January, 9 May 2006 and 19 June 2006, made on behalf of the Quartet (United Nations, United States, European Union and Russian Federation).

 

In these statements the Quartet has endorsed a European Union proposal for a temporary international mechanism, limited in scope and duration, which operates with full transparency and accountability and which will meet certain needs of the Palestinian people, including support for health services, fuel and utilities and basic needs.  It is hoped that additional donors, including Israel, will be found to participate in this mechanism, which will be reviewed after three months.

 

The Palestinian Authority is requested to commit itself to the principles of nonviolence, recognition of Israel and acceptance of previous agreements, including the Road Map.  These demands on the Palestinian Authority are, of course, essential if there is to be a lasting peace.  

 

However, we must put the question to the European Union as to why it, and the other parties of the Quartet, has not made a single demand of the Government of Israel.  This is especially disturbing in the light of the current actions of Israel in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and the West Bank.  It is the Government of Israel which has rejected countless United Nations resolutions and its obligations under the Geneva Convention and international law.  Israel continues its occupation and expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.  It is the Government of Israel which has annexed large parts of the West Bank.  Israel  ignored the decision of the International Court of Justice in July 2004 concerning the construction of the Separation Wall, and has established an apartheid system of roads and many checkpoints in the Occupied West Bank.

 

It should be apparent to the Member States of the European Union that the Government of Israel has not made any concessions which would lead to Israeli-Palestinian peace.  We question whether the Government of Israel has acknowledged the Palestinians’ right to exist and self-determination.  

 

In addition, the extrajudicial executions, arrests and wanton killing by the Israeli army of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including women, children and men, cannot be excused for any reason.   The Government of Israel has stated openly that it intends to continue these actions, despite world criticism, including that of the United Nations Secretary-General.   We ask the officials of the European Union how many innocent people in the Gaza Strip will be killed before Israel is restrained in its murderous policies against a captive population.  While we fully condemn the Qassem rocket attacks on Sderot from Gaza these attacks cannot be compared to the air strikes, sonic booms and constant shelling from land and sea by the Israeli army, which is in possession of the most modern military weapons and planes.  

 

The message which is being given by the European Union is, for this reason, greatly disturbing.  By allowing the Government of Israel to dictate its demands and reject international law, and by the boycott of the European Union of the democratically elected Palestinian Government and, therefore, the Palestinian people, there is a severe imbalance in EU policy.  Because of Israel’s continuing occupation and its destruction of Palestinian society, Palestinians have become increasingly dependent on aid from outside.   It is humiliating for them to be forced to accept charity when, if allowed to finally have their free, viable and independent State, they would in most probability be able to provide for themselves.  

 

We request that the European Union

 

a) begin discussions with the Palestinian Government

b) resume economic aid to the Palestinians

c) disassociate itself  from Israel's use of starvation as a political weapon 

d) demand that Israel deliver the monies that belong to the Palestinians as well as to the  Palestinian Authority 

e) disassociate itself from the unilateral demands placed on the Palestinians while working for  unconditional negotiations with the aim of finding a solution which fulfills the national and humanitarian interests of both parties

f) end the blockade of the EU on the democratically elected Government of Palestine.

 

The European Jews for a Just Peace request that our reservations and concerns with regard to recent decisions taken by the European Union be taken into account.  Only complete objectivity and justice in dealing with the two parties involved will lead to a lasting peace in the region, which is certainly the aspiration and in the best interests of all, Israelis and Palestinians alike.

 

Dror Feiler

Chairman

Executive Committee, EJJP



......................................................................



Advert placed by Jews for Justice for Palestinians: list of signatories available at http://www.jfjfp.org/indexfiles/Gaza%20ad_times.pdf



What is Israel doing? 
A call by Jews in Britain.
We watch with horror the collective punishment of the people of Gaza. Everything reasonable must be done to secure Corporal Gilad Shalit’s safe release but nothing Israel is doing contributes to that aim. Instead, it is using its enormously superior military might to terrorise an entire people.

Destruction of the fragile Gaza infrastructure will not release Shalit. Bombing power stations and cutting off fuel supplies deprives people of electricity, refrigeration, pumped drinking water and sewage disposal services. It holds hostage hospital patients on life support systems, or undergoing dialysis. It brings the threat of epidemics and starvation.

As Gideon Levy wrote in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, this is “not only pointless, but… blatantly illegitimate”. Gilad Shalit has become a pawn in the Israeli government’s ongoing battle to topple the democratically-elected government of the Palestinians.

Presenting this as an isolated hostage-taking incident ignores Israel’s regular snatching of Palestinians from their homes. Thousands are held in ‘administrative detention’ without trial, women and children amongst them. A doctor and his brother – civilians – were kidnapped from their home in Al Shouka, near Rafah, the day before Corporal Shalit was captured. Like him, they need to be returned to their families in the established practice of prisoner exchange. And all elected MPs, punitively imprisoned by Israel in recent days, must be immediately released.

For the US and its allies merely to call for “restraint” is desperately inadequate – and evidently ineffective. This is a situation that requires determined action by the international community.

Support those Israelis protesting against their government’s destructive actions.

Write to your MP to demand that the British Government act to achieve an immediate ceasefire.

Write to the Israeli embassy. Make them understand their actions are wrong, their explanations unconvincing.
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