middle east

Open Letter to Conservative and Labour parties on the Palestine/Israel conflict

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Agreed at the Lambeth UNISON branch committee 17 October 2023

Lambeth Unison and Lambeth Black Worker’s group are gravely concerns by the current war in Israel and Palestine and the atrocity being committed in Gaza. We urge the UK Government and the opposition Labour Party to STOP blindly supporting and funding the Zionist Israeli regime in bombing the Gazi strip and indiscriminate killing of innocent Palestine civilians’ population.  

Hamas attack may be wrong, but two wrongs does not make it right.   Two million innocent Gaza residents who are trapped and imprisoned cannot be condemned. British people do not support killing of innocent peoples. Not in my Name. Please do not kill innocent people in our name. We do not want to be in the side of the oppressor and be party to the mass genocide of innocent impoverished Palestine people of Gaza and wider Palestinian people.

Arab minority Jews, Christian and majority Muslim were peacefully coexisting in the land of Palestine for many centuries. The seed of the problem in the region was actually started by British colonialist/imperialist in 1917  with the establishment of  Balfour Declaration ( see Balfour Declaration – Wikipedia) and their ongoing support led to the establishment of the Zionist regime , the state of Israel around 1948. 

Since 1948 the Zionist Israeli government has been pursing policy of ethnic cleansing ‘ Naqba’ (see Nakba – Wikipedia) and their ongoing oppression, killing and  seizing  of Palestinian Muslim land and creating illegal Israeli settlement at the expense of Palestinian and  contrary to the UN Resolution.

The UN and the World’s community watched and ignored the Palestinian plights. The Zionist government’s apartheid system been allowed to flourish without consequences, which resulted in the largest open-air prison of refugee, where the Israeli government and its powerful military force in the region with tight land, sea and air blockade of Gaza deny residents their basic Human Rights and Freedom of Movement. It is a very abhorrent state of affair, where the Zionist government do not even recognise the 2 million people of Gaza as human but reduce them to mere “animals”. Furthermore, they continually occupy more and more Palestine land in breach of international law.

The Zionist at their whim stop food, water, electricity, medicine, other necessity and oppressed the people as they wish. This is exactly what they are doing now applying a medieval seized tactic. A war crime, indiscriminately killing innocent civilian population; baby, children, women, elderly, medics, and aid workers by carpet bombing residential buildings in Gaza.

Shamefully the UK governments and many of the western allies are ignoring and supporting the oppression in the region.

Given the history and gravity of situation in the region the British Government has duty of care to ensure peace is established as a matter of urgency.  A lasting political solution needs to be found. This need to be done with fairness, justice, and equity without any bias.  We demand the following from our government:

Our demands

  • UK Government, rather than stoking up the war must immediately persuade Israeli Government to exercise restraint and stop immediately its military actions and seize against Gaza population and allow Humanitarians aids.
  • UK government, EU countries, USA and Arab countries must work together and negotiate ceasefire and find political solution for ever lasting peace. Which is fair and just.  For example, recognising and help establishing Independent Palestinian state with full freedom of an independent state without any interference and occupation. The Palestine state as minimum must be based on pre-1967 borders. This position reflects the international consensus, successive UN resolutions and international law, and provides the most realistic chance of peace.
  • UK government use its special relation to persuade USA to support the establishment of Independent Palestinian based on pre-1967 borders and stop the USA from supporting Israel with arms and monies.
  • UK government and the EU ends all arms trade and military collaboration with Israel. We support a mandatory UN arms embargo on Israel and believe that companies supporting Israel’s military industry should end their complicity.
  • The suspension of the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement and the European Union/Israel association agreement until Israel is in full compliance of its human rights clauses and international law;
  • Support from the UK Government to Palestinians in referring human rights violations to the International Criminal Court;
  • The immediate recognition of an independent Palestinian state by the United Nations and the UK government;
  • Force Israel to return land to Palestinian people that was illegally seized.

Lambeth UNISON supports the Palestinian’s right to exist!

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Motion adopted at our Branch Committee 18 May 2021

This branch deplores the violence currently taking place in the Middle East, including the bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli Defence Force.

The context within which this violence is taking place is that of the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestine. 

We echo the view expressed by Labour Party Conference 2019 that an internationalist Labour Party has a special responsibility to redress the ongoing injustices against the Palestinian people, denied their right to self-determination during the British Mandate, because of the role Britain played as a colonial power during the 1948 Nakba when Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes.

We support the call from Labour Party Conference 2018 for a freeze of UK Government arms sales to Israel; and an immediate unconditional end to the illegal blockade and closure of Gaza.

We endorse the following demands supported by the Trades Union Congress in 2020;

  • respect for all Palestinian rights, including the right to collective self-determination and the right to return
  • an end to the illegal occupation and a halt to further annexation.
  • support for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace that is consistent with international law and based on a two-state solution, which must promote equality and respect for human and labour rights.

We call on the UK government to publicly support the same goals and to recognise the State of Palestine.

‘In addition, we welcome the recognition in the TUC Congress resolution that the Israeli government’s declared intention to annex great swathes of the West Bank would be “another significant step in the creation of a system of apartheid”

In February, Israel’s largest human rights group, B’Tselem, published its report  A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.

Human Rights Watch, one of the two most important global human rights monitoring bodies, released a report at the end of April that unequivocally declares Israel is guilty of the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah are facing imminent forced evictions, which is part of the Israeli’s government’s ongoing plan to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Jerusalem

UK trade policy and business should ensure Palestinian labour and human rights are protected and respected, and support an end to the occupation.

We further support Keir Starmer’s pledge, made in the Labour leadership election last year to put human rights at the heart of foreign policy and to review all UK arms sales and make us a force for international peace and justice.

We resolve;

  1. To support, and encourage our members to attend, local and national protests in support of a just peace in the Middle East;
  2. Reaffirm our branch’s continuing support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and circulate information to members encouraging them to support BDS
  1. To send this motion, appropriately reworded, to the Regional Council;
  2. To refer this motion to UNISON Labour Link.