CONTEXT

A few days after MPACUK issued an action alert, the UK Government Petition, “Introduce sanctions against Israel” surpassed the 100k signature threashold to warrant a debate in Parliament.

The Petitions Committee has now confirmed the debate will be held on Monday 14th June 2021.

Now, we need everyone to lobby their MP to make sure they attend the debate and mention the following demands:

1. Arms embargo on Israel with immediately effect
2. A general trade boycott to apply diplomatic pressure until they fully comply with International Law.
3. UK to recognise the State of Palestine
4. End the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and blockade of Gaza
5. UK to give full support for the International Criminal Court’s opening into war crimes in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories

Israel has been escalating its ethnic cleansing of Palestine since the 27th Night of Ramadan, via a pogrom involving forced removal and arrests of Palestinian residents in Sheikh Jarrah and attacking worshippers & protestors around Masjid Al Aqsa. Israel has provocatively escalated violence further by bombing Gaza night and day, and enabling lynching mobs to kill Arabs in Palestine’s West Bank and across Israel.

With a ceasefire currently in place, Palestinians still face the violence of the settler colonialism, apartheid and occupation.

Israel sees BDS as a key threat. We need to constantly build momentum to normalise and actualise the campaign to weaken Israel’s apartheid state.

We will have that chance on 14th June, when the UK Parliament will debate sanctioning Israel and recognising Palestine’s statehood.

ACT NOW

Step 1: Go to https://www.writetothem.com/
Step 2: Put in your postcode
Step 3: Scroll down and click on your MP’s name
Step 4: Copy the template message below, and paste it into the text box
Step 5: Send us a copy of your MP’s reply to info@MPACUK.org

TEMPLATE EMAIL:

As my Parliamentary representative, I ask you to attend the upcoming debate on 14th June around sanctions on Israel and recognising Palestinian statehood.

Israel has a long history of violating International Law and committing war crimes. The diplomatic cover given to Israel by a number of countries, including the UK, has only allowed the situation to worsen.

The UK government has repeatedly clarified its stance that Israel must halt expansion of its illegal settlements, as recently as 18th January of this year [1], yet Israel has shown no sign of halting. In fact, if the recent thefts of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem are anything to go by, Israel has only become more brazen in breaking International Law.

This ongoing cleansing of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem is supported by Israeli police, soldiers and courts. It is a state-sponsored action which is also a violation of International Law. When Palestinians protested, Israeli police attacked, fired tear gas and shot rubber bullets at worshipers inside Masjid Al Aqsa during Ramadan, a place of great religious significance for Muslims across the globe. This was witnessed with severe shock and disgust by the entire Muslim population in the UK and around the world.

Only then, on 10th May, did Palestinian militias warn Israel to de-escalate their aggression or face resistance – which Palestinians have the legal right to do, under UN General Assembly Resolution 37/43, “reaffirming the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples against foreign occupation”.

Since then, Israel was bombing Gaza day and night. Such was their indiscriminate destruction of civilian infrastructure that Amnesty International has stated that Israel may have committed war crimes [2]; executive director of Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, concurs [3].

In addition, Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israel itself have faced mortal threats at the hands of lynching mobs, empowered & enabled by the state apparatus.

What we have witnessed in the last four weeks is only a snapshot of Israel’s apartheid regime, as concluded by B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch [4].

In 1960 the Conservative Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, bluntly told South Africa that the UK could no longer be “false to our own deep convictions about the political destinies of free men”; in 1985 the Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, finally agreed on sanctions. It is high time the UK takes action against Israeli apartheid, just as we tackled apartheid in South Africa.

I ask you to advocate for an arms embargo to be implemented upon Israel immediately, with a general trade boycott to apply diplomatic pressure until they fully comply with International Law. I also ask you to demand the end the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and blockade of Gaza, as well as for the UK to give support to the ICC investigation into alleged war crimes in Israel-occupied Palestinian territories. Finally, advocate for the UK to finally join the 138 other countries around the world that recognise the State of Palestine, which will enable them to have greater control of their destiny and thus guarantee their own citizens’ safety.

Yours sincerely,

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-statement-on-israeli-settlements-january-2021
[2] https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/israeli-attacks-homes-gaza-must-be-investigated-war-crimes
[3] https://www.democracynow.org/2021/5/17/israeli_human_rights_group_btselem_blasts
[4] https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution