JJP lobbies the American Embassy again
On 8 December JJP wrote to the American Embassy about the Gaza ceasefire, and also about the ceasefire in Lebanon and the situation in the West Bank. Israel continues trying to sabotage both ceasefires and trying to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Area C of the West Bank by making their lives unliveable.
We said it is essential for President Trump to appreciate that Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank are inseparable parts of the Israeli project to deny the Palestinians’ rights in order create Greater Israel. We said he is the only person with the leverage and the authority to stop Israel.
Our letter is below
Ahmed Shama, Middle East Advisor 8 December 2025
US Embassy, London
Dear Mr. Shama,
We are writing again about the Gaza ceasefire, and also about the ceasefire in Lebanon and the situation in the West Bank. We would like to meet to discuss these matters and the forcefulness for good the President could bring to bear.
Gaza
For the past month, Israel’s attempts to sabotage the Gaza ceasefire have revolved around the Hamas fighters, now thought to be as many as 1,000, stranded in tunnels behind the “Yellow Line”. Israel claims to have killed about 40 of them by collapsing tunnels and shooting at groups that try to escape to the Hamas-controlled part of Gaza.
Ceasefire agreements do not allow one party to kill enemy troops that are stranded on the wrong side of the ceasefire line. Israel’s actions clearly break the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which states, ”All military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment and targeting operations, will be suspended.”1 They are a provocation.
Lebanon
Israel unilaterally continued holding five positions south of the Litani River in breach of the ceasefire agreement of November 2024, and continues to hold them.2 It has launched near-daily aerial strikes, killing more than 300 people and wounding more than 900, claiming they are to counter efforts by Hezbollah to rebuild its military capacity south of the Litani River. More than 4,000 were killed and 16,000 wounded in the war. Tensions are escalating.
It is unrealistic to expect Hezbollah to move all its installations to north of the Litani river, or to decommission, while Israel continues to hold those positions and to mount strikes, and it has apparently done neither. It is probably unrealistic to expect Hezbollah to disarm while Israel continues to oppress the Palestinians and threaten Lebanon, but it is possible to reduce the tensions if Israel actually withdraws from Lebanon and stops its attacks.
The West Bank
Israel’s pressure on the West Bank has continued unceasingly ever since 7 October 2023. It has comprised expelling Palestinians from their homes in three refugee camps in the Northern West Bank, considerable destruction of the camps themselves, attacks on Palestinian groups by the army including use of tanks and helicopter gunships, and settler violence often supported by soldiers.
41,000 refugees have been displaced by the expulsions and 985 buildings have been destroyed, severly damaged or partially damaged. During the past two years in Area C outside the refugee camps: more than 3,000 structures have been demolished and nearly 8,000 people have been displaced; there have been more than 2,600 settler attacks, displacing some 1,900 people, for which no settlers have yet been prosecuted; in all of the West Bank, an average of more than 30 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 300 injured per month. (These figures exclude the much higher level of attacks on West Bank Palestinians during the first three months ofthe war on Gaza, October-December 2023.)
Against all this, an average of two Israelis have been killed and 10 injured per month.
The level of Israeli aggression3 is cause for grave concern. That the carnage in Gaza is incomparably worse does not change that.The Israeli army says its actions are necessary to combat terrorist cells, but that is belied by the wholesale destruction in the refugee camps, the refusal to allow the refugees to return, the severely dsisproportionate nature of the attacks, and the sem-official assistance given to the setters. Rather, it looks like an attempt to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Area C by making their lives unliveable.
Human Rights Watch has concluded that the emptying of the three refugee camps in early 2025 was a war crime and a crime against humanity.4
It is essential for President Trump to exercise his authority with Israel to salvage his peace plan. It is also essential for him to appreciate that Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank are inseparable parts of the Israeli project to deny the Palestinians’ rights in order create Greater Israel. It is abundantly clear that this Israeli government is willing to suppress any opposition, including by committing war crimes and genocide if necessary, to achieve that end. President Trump is the only person with the leverage and the authority to force Israel to accept Palestinians’ rights and give up trying to expand Israel. He would gain universal respect by doing so.
Arthur Goodman,
Parliamentary and Diplomatic Officer
3. attached spreadsheet, “Lobbying, West Bank violence data”