On the Foreign Secretary’s statement erasing the war on Gaza
In response to a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, posted a statement acknowledging 300 days since October 7th, 2023. His statement made no mention of Palestine or Palestinians. We wrote to the Foreign Secretary about this:
London, 2nd August 2024
Dear Foreign Secretary,
I am writing on behalf of the British Palestinian Committee to convey our alarm at a statement made by you yesterday (1st August) on X, which refers to the past 300 days of Israel’s assault on Gaza without any mention of the more than 40,000 Palestinians killed, at least 90,000 injured, or the devastation wreaked on every facet of social and civic infrastructure, in what the International Court of Justice has deemed a plausible case of genocide.
Your statement effectively serves to erase Palestinians as well as the long history of colonisation and occupation before October 2023, which the International Court of Justice only two weeks ago confirmed as being unlawful. Such a position stands fully at odds with international law and the professed positions of your government. It also sends a message to our community, that our lives, and those of our loved ones, simply do not matter.
We will be following up in more detail in the coming days. In the meantime, we request an urgent meeting in order to discuss the concerns of British Palestinians in relation to current government policy on Palestine and the repercussions of a culture of dehumanisation and erasure for our safety and participation in British public life.
Kind Regards,
Dr. Sara Husseini (Director of the BPC)
Dr. Aimee Shalan (Chair of the BPC)