19 Jan 09. PSC Update: Day 22 + 23 Gaza weekend Update and Write to your MP
Reading the front pages and watching the news you’d think that the conflict in Gaza is over. Well Israel may have stopped their onslaught against the Gazan people but their war against them is still ongoing.
Israel’s so called ceasefire simply means that they will have presently agreed to stop bombing United Nations buildings where thousands of innocent people are have been sheltering from the daily bombardment.
It means in the short term that they will stop using illegal weapons like phosphorus and DIME bobs to kill and maim the people of Gaza. And it means their slaughter of 1200 people, the majority of them women and children, will come to a temporary halt.
Yet what Israel’s ceasefire fails to address is the occupation. Israel has invaded Gaza with tens of thousands of regular and reserve troops – Those troops are going to stay, so the day to day lives of the people of Gaza will conditional on the Israeli forces. And we know for the past that the Israeli occupying forces are brutal. In the history of Israel’s aggression and occupation of Palestine, innocent people have been forced to live under barbaric military rule, treated like third class citizens, totally unable to live a free life.
Israel is refusing to open the Gaza boarders – That means after destroying the infrastructure of Gaza including hospitals and UN food and medical supply centres, the much needed supplies to treat and feed the victims of Israel’s illegal war still will not have access to life saving equipment and material.
The fact is that this is not a ceasefire this is Israel simply saying we’ve stopped the massacre for the time being. We will continue to punish you, the people of Gaza until we have destroyed the Government you democratically elected.
According to the Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, he is sorry for the ‘discomfort’ suffered by the people of Gaza. And according to Mark Regev, the Israeli Government Spokesman the children who have been killed and injured in Gaza were shot by Hamas.
That is why PSC and all our supporters must continue to keep the pressure on the UK government and the international community to get Israel’s troops out of Gaza. They must be forced to open the boarders of Gaza to let in urgently needed supplies. We will must also be at the forefront of the campaign to bring justice for the war crimes Israel has committed.
That is why we applaud the Israeli academics who called publicly in a letter to the Guardian on Saturday for a boycott of Israel and urge all our supporters to actively take up the call for a boycott of all Israeli goods in British stores.
National Day of Action
Across the UK PSC groups held days of action in support of the people of Palestine and Gaza; East, west, north and south, small towns and big cities, everywhere there public demonstrations against Israel.
If you have any pictures of the events you organised on Saturday then you can upload them on to our newly created site www.gazaprotest.org
Tuesday Protest – US Embassy
On Tuesday night we will be holding a demonstration at the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square London, to mark the arrival of President Obama. President Obama throughout his campaign gave many speeches where he pledged to make America part of the dialogue of the international community not dictating to the world. We must make him live up to those campaign pledges by starting first with the creation of a free and democratic Palestinian homeland.
PSC AGM
The PSC AGM will take place on Saturday 24th January at the
University of Westminster, Fyvie Hall, 309 Regent Street, London, Nearest tube: Oxford Circus
from 10.00am. Following the AGM we are asking delegates and observers to join a demonstration that will be taking place in central London, starting at the BBC in Portland Place.
Write to Your MP – 93 MPs sign EDM on Gaza
It is critically important that everyone who opposes the war Israel is waging against the people of Gaza writes to their MP given today’s latest casualty figures that show that over 1000 people have been killed.
So please, if you’ve not done so, click on the link below and fill out the letter – it takes just a couple of minutes to complete and it is vital that we keep the pressure on Gordon Brown and the British Government.
If you have already completed it, then please pass the link on to friends and family.
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/Index7b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=6&l2_id=57&Content_ID=346
So far, 93 MPs have signed Richard Burden MP’s Early Day Motion number 408 on Gaza – check whether your MP has signed and if not, urge them to do so: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=37423&SESSION=899
If they have signed EDM 408, they may be prepared to sign further EDMs including:
EDM 400 tabled by Bob Russell on British arms sales to Israel : http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=37415&SESSION=899
EDM 423 on Terror in Gaza , tabled by Mark Durkan: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=37443&SESSION=899
And 72 MPs have signed Martin Linton’s EDM on the launch of the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East : http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=37408&SESSION=899
To find out more about getting involved please visit www.palestinecampaign.org