14th October 2023
Thousands protest in London against Israeli atrocities in Gaza
Last weekend’s assault and killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip by Hamas was a response to the pent up anger of many Palestinians, frustrated by the illegal Israeli air, land and sea blockade, imposed in 2007, and the 57 year long illegal occupation by Israeli forces. The tactics deployed by Hamas by no means have the backing of all Palestinians but the events of last weekend were triggered following a week in which Israeli ‘settlers’ ran amok throughout the occupied territories under the auspices of their government, desecrated the Al-Aqsa Mosque and carried out another pogrom in Huwara.
The Communist Party of Israel and Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) have made clear their condemnation of the Israeli government and the ongoing provocations against the Palestinian people expressing,
“…deep concern about the use of recent developments by the Netanyahu government to carry out a vengeful attack on the Gaza Strip and call on the international community and the countries of the region to intervene immediately to silence the drums of war and initiate moves that will lead to the promotion of a political solution.”
Israel’s Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, ordered “a complete siege of the Gaza Strip” last Monday in response to the Hamas action. Gallant went on to say that,
“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.”
The Gaza Strip is home to 2.2 million Palestinians and has regularly been described as the world’s largest open air prison. The collective punishment of the civilian population, as ordered by the Israelis is a war crime under international law. The massive bombing campaign which has been ongoing throughout this week has not only flattened residential areas but has hit a densely populated refugee camp.
Hospitals are reported to have used a month’s worth of supplies in one day and are overwhelmed by the number of casualties.
The Israeli army is the fourth most powerful in the world. As the Community Party of the USA has pointed out,
“The U.S. government is the main contributor to Israel’s military budget to the tune of $3.3 billion this year alone and also bears responsibility for the escalation. Adding to the danger and the region’s instability, the U.S. continues to broker unprincipled alliances and economic agreements between Israel’s reactionary anti-democratic apartheid-like state on one side, and the right-wing Arab monarchies on the other. The repressive political regimes of these two sets of states mirror one another. Their machinations undercut the Palestinian struggle for human rights and political sovereignty while bolstering U.S. political, economic and military supremacy in the region.”
The United States is reported to have moved naval assets into the Mediterranean to support the Israeli military. British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, spoke with Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, earlier in the week while Foreign Secretary, James Cleverley, visited Israel to confirm British government support for the right wing, religious fundamentalist, Israeli regime.
The outcome of the Sunak/Netanyahu call was a pledge from the British government to send a significant military package to the Israeli regime, including RAF surveillance aircraft, two Royal Navy ships to patrol in the Eastern Mediterranean, three Merlin helicopters and a detachment of Royal Marines.
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has pledged an “unwavering focus on halting the attacks by Hamas” while saying nothing about Israel’s ongoing flouting of international law and its declared intention to commit further war crimes. Likewise, the British government has made no comment on the ongoing atrocities committed against the Palestinian people by the Israeli government, its illegal occupation or its ongoing contempt for United Nations resolutions and international law.
Israel’s military on Friday ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, a region that is home to 1.1 million people, about half of the territory’s population, within 24 hours. Many fear that this could signal an impending ground offensive. While the Israeli military has not yet confirmed a decision on this, raids have been undertaken by the Israeli Defence Force within Gaza.
The evacuation order, delivered to the United Nations was regarded by UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric as “impossible” without “devastating humanitarian consequences.” The order for all of the north of Gaza also applies to all UN staff and to the hundreds of thousands of people who have taken shelter in UN schools and other facilities since Israel launched round-the-clock air strikes last Saturday.
The UN is already reporting nearly 3,000 homes destroyed and nearly 1 million people, almost half of the population of the Gaza strip, displaced. These people have nowhere safe to go if Israel continues with its bombardment and launches a ground invasion.
Israel claims to have dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza, an area roughly the size of the Isle of Wight, in the initial six days of its campaign. So far over 2,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza with over 8,700 wounded. That figure includes those fleeing to the south of Gaza following the Israeli announcement to ethnically cleanse the north.
Labour leader, Kier Starmer, has defended the ‘right’ of the Israeli regime to cut off water and electricity supplies to the population under perpetual bombardment in Gaza stating,
“I think that Israel does have that right, it is an ongoing situation, obviously everything should be done within international law but I don’t want to step away from the core principles that Israel has the right to defend herself.”
As a former human rights lawyer Starmer failed to elaborate on how collective punishment methods, such as the withdrawal of water supplies to a large urban area, could be done within international law.
A number of local councils in Britain have taken to flying the flag of Israel over civic buildings in misplaced demonstrations of ‘solidarity’, though none appear to be flying the flag of Palestine, as the right of Israel to defend itself appears not to extend in the same way to the Palestinians.
The mainstream media coverage is overwhelmingly pro-Israeli, with coverage of the Palestinian position reduced to exhortations to condemn Hamas, or the growing humanitarian crisis. There is no attempt to analyse the underlying causes of Israeli occupation and failure to adhere to international law and UN resolutions.
A national demonstration in London on 14th October, organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War amongst others, has attracted thousands in opposition to the immediate violence and the ongoing apartheid practices of the Israeli regime. Responses are being organised across Britian in support of the Palestinian cause and must be supported in order to support the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and condemn the Israeli regime.
The often heard diversion that opposition to the religious fundamentalists running the Israeli government is anti-semitic or a trope for anti-semitism must be rejected. A political solution to the situation in Israel/Palestine is the only way forward and that must see both communities being able to live together without one being occupied or terrorised by another.
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