British Palestinians call for an immediate ceasefire and end to British complicity in Israel’s ethnic cleansing
London, October 17, 2023
As British Palestinians, we stand together, united by our shared history, by the spirit of our people, and by a commitment to universal principles of justice. Compelled by the urgency of the unfolding atrocities in our homeland, we write today to affirm our presence once again and reassert our common humanity, in the face of attempts to erase our existence and dehumanise our people as we face an ethnic cleansing on a scale not seen since the 1948 Nakba.
A massive onslaught is underway against our people, with increasing numbers of human rights organisations raising the alarm that what Israel is carrying out is most accurately described as genocidal. The crime of genocide is defined as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. Israel’s Minister of Defence has promised, “Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.”
Palestinians in Gaza, the majority refugees displaced in 1948, are saying they are experiencing a new Nakba. On Thursday 12th October, Israel announced its plan of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. An impossible ultimatum was issued to the 1.2 million people living in the north to evacuate. Those who are able to leave know from experience that if they do, they may be prevented from returning to their homes. Many are determined to stay, preferring to face death over a second expulsion as Israel prepares to raze the civic, economic, social, and cultural heart of Gaza to the ground. Now under complete siege, without access to water, electricity, fuel or food, our people are bombed from air, land, and sea. Complete neighbourhoods are flattened, schools, universities, medical facilities are damaged or destroyed, over 1 million Palestinians have been made homeless and over 2,750 killed. Hundreds of thousands of troops are now amassed ready to invade, mobilised by the conviction that they are coming to deal with “human animals”.
Here in Britain, the chilling echoes of this country’s colonial legacy in Palestine reverberate in the orders to deploy British military support to Israel and statements of leaders who invoke self-defence in order to justify the starvation and ethnic cleansing of an occupied people, endorsing Israeli military doctrines designed to “open the gates of hell” in Gaza. On government orders, public bodies and institutions intended to embody universal principles have been compelled to honour an occupying power that exercises a regime of apartheid over our people. At the same time, the Palestinian flag, and other symbols of our national identity, along with those citizens who stand with us in common humanity, are defamed and intimidated by politicians, and threatened with criminalisation.
At this critical hour, we affirm that:
The inalienable rights of the Palestinian people are enshrined in decades of international law and United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, and the failure to fulfil these rights is the root cause of the conflict.
International humanitarian law prohibits forcible transfer, collective punishment of populations, which includes siege, the harming of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Our equal rights to participate in public life in this country - to raise our voices and to protest - are guaranteed by national human rights legislation.
We therefore call on public representatives to take immediate action to fulfil their duties under international law to ensure the protection of an occupied people, specifically to:
Demand an immediate ceasefire, lifting of the siege to restore electricity, fuel, water, food; and unimpeded humanitarian access in order to protect Palestinian lives, in line with international law.
Suspend UK diplomatic and military support to Israel as it perpetrates war crimes and crimes against humanity and implicates the UK government in these atrocities.
Ensure that public bodies uphold their legal responsibilities to protect equal participation in democratic and civic space, by defending the rights of Palestinians in Britain and those who stand with our people in a spirit of solidarity and common humanity.
Firas Abu Hilal, Editor-in-Chief of Arabi 21 news
Omar Al-Qattan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, AM Qattan Foundation
Dr. Tareq Baconi, Writer
Tamara Ben-Halim, Co-Founder, Makan
Zaher Birawi, Chair, EuroPal Forum
Dr. Selma Dabbagh, COO at International Centre of Justice for Palestinians
Prof. Izzat Darwazeh, ICCS Director, Chair of Communications Engineering, University College London
Khaled Dawas, Consultant Surgeon, NHS, London
Samir Eskanda, Artist and organiser
Dr. Tareq Hammoud, General Director of the Palestine Return Centre
Prof. Adam Hanieh, Professor of Political Economy and Global Development, Exeter University
Prof. Kamel Hawwash, Professor of Engineering, University of Birmingham
Nadia Hijab, Author and human rights advocate
Adnan Humaidan, TV broadcaster and Vice Chair of the Palestinian Forum in Britain
Dr. Rafiq Husseini, Former charity director
Dr. Sara Husseini, Director, British Palestinian Committee
Ben Jamal, Director, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Dr. Ghada Karmi, Former research fellow, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
Samira Kawar, Energy journalist, former M.E. editor at Argus Media
Dr. Ahmad Khalidi, Independent political analyst
Hussein Khalidi, Facilitator, and human rights activist
Prof. Dina Matar, Professor of Political Communication and Chair, Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS
Dr. Mazen Masri, Senior Lecturer in Law, City University
Leanne Mohamad, British Palestinian Committee
Prof. Karma Nabulsi, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford
Dr. Mezna Qato, Historian
Atallah Said (OBE), Honorary Patron and Founder, British Palestinian Committee
Akram Salhab, Organiser and PhD candidate, Queen Mary, University of London
Zac Sammour, Barrister
Dr. Aimee Shalan, Director, Makan and Chair, British Palestinian Committee
Omar Shweiki, Director, Education charity
Dr. Nimer Sultany, Reader in Public Law, SOAS
Dr. Rafeef Ziadeh, Senior Lecturer, King's College London
For more information or media enquiries: info@britpalcommittee.co.uk
The British Palestinian Committee is an independent organisation working to ensure that British Palestinian perspectives are integral to public discourse and policy making on Palestine.