On 2 June we wrote to the UK Government – The Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Minister for the Middle East – to demand urgent action to challenge Israel’s activities in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. Please use this as a template for a letter to your own MP.
Dear Sir Keir Starmer, Yvette Cooper and Hamish Falconer
Israel is acting as a pariah state – and must be treated as such
The UK Section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF UK) thanks Hamish Falconer MP for his detailed, albeit delayed reply on behalf of your government to our letters of January and February about the situation for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
WILPF values the government’s recognition of the on-going dire situation for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The efforts outlined by HM government to persuade the Netanyahu government to change its disastrous policy will not ease this humanitarian crisis while arms are being traded to Israel, and the UK government money that you have sourced cannot replace the funding needed by UN humanitarian agencies to treat people suffering from militarised and violent behaviours. In 1915, WILPF recognised that inclusive feminist approaches to resolving conflict can resolve ideological differences.
However, the plain fact is that what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is exactly as the Israeli government has planned, and which the UK government is not taking the action required to halt. There is no ceasefire. Palestinian people continue to be killed all the time. Lorries bringing food, water and aid, including women’s hygiene products, and supplies required for nursing mothers and for the elderly and sick for whom women are expected to care, are drastically restricted. The limited space available to the Palestinian people in Gaza is being eroded all the time.
Additionally, and disastrously, Israel is now invading Lebanon and applying the same appalling policies and strategies of aggressive destruction of people and places there. This must be stopped, and the UK government has a duty to bring this further aggression to an immediate and complete halt.
Now we read that Prime Minister Netanyahu has instructed the Israeli army to seize 70% of the land in the Gaza strip. This is a violation of international law. All housing in the Israel occupied territory is being systematically destroyed. We are aware that women, and those who depend on them, are the first to be impacted by the violence and illegal conduct. The defence minister, Israel Katz, has publicly stated that his government’s aim is “voluntary migration” of Gaza’s people. “Voluntary migration” is a dreadful and deceitful misnomer – this is ethnic cleansing.
Unambiguous condemnation and lack of cooperation with ethnic cleansing is the only strategy and moral position that will show Israel any serious intent of the UK government. Urgent and essential removal of support for the IDF from the UK government, and insistence on UN agencies access to Gaza, is the only humanitarian response. WILPF calls on you to immediately:
- stop all sales of military equipment and parts
- stop all imports of Israeli goods
- stop all military exchanges and support
- stop all cultural and sports exchanges
The complicity of the UK government is allowing Netanyahu and his supporters to act with impunity in illegal acts of war against the Palestinian and Lebanese people. This must stop Immediately.
Yours in peace
