From the Green Party
As Israel appears to be on the brink of an all out assault on Rafah, despite warnings against such action by the UN, Red Crescent and others, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer is demanding the UK scale up actions against the Israeli government until the killing stops. Greens are calling for an end to all arms sales to Israel, prosecutions of war criminals and targeted sanctions on Israel’s leaders.
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said:
It is clear that the Israeli government is refusing to heed warnings about the catastrophic implications of an all-out attack on Rafah. The UK government must now demand that Israel stop the killing, calling for an immediate ceasefire. Hamas must also agree to this ceasefire of course, and release all hostages.
Decisions made by the UK government - above all its failure, month after month, to call for an immediate ceasefire - have made them complicit in the killing of almost 28,000 people to date, 12,000 of whom are children [1].
Israel relies on certain weapon parts manufactured in the UK, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter whose essential components are made here [2]. A Dutch court has today ordered the state to cease the export of F-35 spare parts to Israel. We call on the UK government to follow suit, and suspend all arms export licences to Israel until the killing stops. The UK must also cease all military collaboration with Israel, including allowing Israeli use of British bases and RAF intelligence flights over Gaza.
Greens would also implement the requirements of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign across the UK economy. This would include excluding Israel from international sporting and music events; withdrawing all public money from funds with investments in Israel; and ending beneficial trade arrangements with Israel [3].
It is clear that only outside pressure will make Israel stop its mass killing. We can increase the pressure on Israeli leaders by introducing targeted sanctions against key individuals. This would include travel bans and asset freezes on Israel's leadership and cabinet members, in particular those calling for new settlements in Gaza and the annexation of the West Bank.
Finally, we would encourage UK authorities including the Metropolitan Police and Director of Public Prosecutions to pursue perpetrators of war crimes committed where UK citizens are the victims or where UK citizens are potential perpetrators.
There are many steps the UK government could take to pressure Israel to stop the killing. Its refusal to do so means that they are implicitly condoning the appalling carnage in Gaza.
Notes
- Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live tracker | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera
- Who Arms Israel? (workersinpalestine.org)
- This is consistent with the Green Party’s non-violent approach to demonstrating its opposition to breaches of human rights and international law. It is parallel to calls we have made for boycotts of a number of different countries in the past including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, China, and Qatar.
1 comment:
With all due respect to Carla Denyer, and her right to express an opinion on the way that the Israeli government continues to defy the relentless call for a ''cease-fire'' is unacceptable while the British government adds its collective voice it (naturally) comes across as somewhat hypocritical and smacks of double standards (on both sides); because as stated in the article: ''suspend all arms export licenses to Israel''(until the killing stops) as if to suggest that the manufacturing and sale of weapons, including the arms export licenses,
are acceptable as long as it under UN standards.
If that is the way democratic nations address serious issues involving mass bloodshed with little or no let-up, while rightly condemning what is unquestionably wrong, it is also breathtakingly hypocritical, because what is taking place in Rafa, is clearly an example of self-determination despite the clear calls for a cease-fire, and when such a thing is played out day after day, where is the basis to found for faith in democracy when it is clearly found wanting at a time when its worthiness should be demonstrated
at a time when world peace seems like a pipe dream rather than something that can be achieved by skillful diplomacy rather than by bombs and bullets.
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