The Gaza Crisis
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The Bombing of Gaza, December 2008 – January 2009 JfJfP open letter (28 Dec 08)/ JfJfP Times ad (14 Jan 09) |
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What you can do Download the what you can do list prepared by Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (and consult their website for general information). Plus: * Join the protests Details of protests up and down the country * Sign a petition * Write in protest to: – Your MP, the Labour party, the Conservative party, the British Consulate in Jerusalem, the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Prime Minister – contact details below. Emphasize the international law violations in any condemnations of the new war on Gaza. – Circulate our Open Letter to Gordon Brown to MPs, local media, synagogues, members of the Board of Deputies etc * Write in support of – the Palestinian human rights community calls for international action. Send messages of support to media@alhaq.org – the Israeli Coalition against the Siege of Gaza which organised a demonstration against the impending war in Tel Aviv and further protests since. Send messages of support to info@gush-shalom.org * Support the Stop Arming Israel campaign. Download its briefing document here. See also the Campaign Agaisnt the Arms Trade webpage UK Arms and Israeli Aggression. 2. Kettering Town FC Petition Gordon Brown to END THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN PALESTINE 3. In support of the Palestinian human rights community call for international action 4. We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Introduce sanctions against Israel. 5. FFIPP-I Petition: Bombing of University in Gaza 6. Petition calling on the British government to implement an arms embargo against Israel Emphasize the international law violations in any condemnations of the new war on Gaza. 1. You can find your MPs details on this site http://www.writetothem.com/ 2. You can send a message to the Labour Party using this online form http://www.labour.org.uk/contact 3. For the Conservative Party write to David Cameron camerond@parliament.uk 4. British Consulate Jerusalem tel: +972 (02) 541 4100 5. British Embassy Tel Aviv el: +972 2 3510 1167 / +972 3 527 1572 6. Prime Minister – Gordon Brown: Fax PM’s office on +442079250918 Palestinian human rights community calls for international action Urgent Release, 27 December 2008 Palestinian human rights organizations strongly condemn the recent military attacks carried out by the Israeli occupying forces in the Gaza Strip on 27 December 2008. The attacks began at approximately 11:30 am and lasted for approximately three hours. These attacks have destroyed most of the Gaza security offices including police stations, resulting in the deaths of over 200 Palestinians. More than 350 have been injured with over 120 critically. The number of deaths resulting from these attacks indicates a willful targeting of the civilian police forces in these locations and a clear violation of the prohibition against willful killings. Willful killings are a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention under Article 147 and therefore, a War Crime. Both the time and location of these attacks also indicate a malicious intent to inflict as many casualties as possible with many of the police stations located in civilian population centres and the time of the attacks coinciding with the end of the school day resulting in the deaths of numerous children. The ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip has left medical facilities in the Strip incapable of meeting the needs of the hundreds more who have been injured which will likely lead to an increase in the number of deaths. According to Israeli officials, these attacks are only the beginning of an open military campaign in Gaza. It is therefore imperative that the international community not stand in silence while Israel moves forward with impunity. Despite repeated calls from the Palestinian human rights community with regard to Gaza, the international community has failed to act. We are now on the brink of an explosion of violence as result of this failure and are pushed once again to call for action. In light of the above, Palestinian human rights organisations urge: • The UN Security Council to call an emergency session and adopt concrete measures, including the imposition of sanctions, in order to ensure Israel’s fulfilment of its obligations under international humanitarian law. • The High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to fulfil their obligation under common Article 1 to ensure respect for the provisions of the Conventions, taking appropriate measures to compel Israel to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular placing pivotal importance on the respect and protection of civilians from the effects of the hostilities. • The High Contracting Parties to fulfil their legal obligation under Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to prosecute those responsible for grave breaches of the Convention. • EU institutions and member states to make effective use of the European Union Guidelines on promoting compliance with international humanitarian law (2005/C 327/04) to ensure Israel complies with international humanitarian law under paragraph 16 (b), (c) and (d) of these guidelines, including the adoption of immediate restrictive measures and sanctions, as well as cessation of all upgrade dialogue with Israel. Al-Haq Send messages of support to media@alhaq.org Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights letter to David Miliband, 27 December I am writing to you to urge you to immediately call on Israel to cease all its attacks on Gaza. I am horrified to learn that over 200 people have reportedly been killed in Gaza in the last few hours, many of them entirely innocent civilians, a significant number believed to be schoolchildren returning home from morning lessons. I refer to the letter that I wrote to you four days ago (attached), in the wake of news reports that Israel was ‘softening up’ the international community for a full scale assault on Gaza. Those reports were followed, inter alia, by Tzip Livni’s trip to Cairo to meet with President Mubarek, presumably to seek his complicity in today’s terrible events. As Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights and many other observers feared, Israeli rhetoric of avoiding civilian loss of life is not rooted in a proper application of the legal principles of proportionality and distinction. Today’s events are not proportionate acts of self-defence. I do not believe that Israel has made a lawful case for the wholesale targeting of Hamas. I believe from news reports that one target struck today was a graduation ceremony of police officers employed by the Hamas government – what evidence is there of any connection between rockets fired by militants, whether under the direction of Hamas or otherwise, and these trainee police officers? But in any event, striking populated areas with the kind of force used by Israel today, even if some of the targets were in principle legitimate military targets, can never be in compliance with an ordinary understanding of the laws of war. Israel’s acts are therefore war crimes and crimes against humanity and everything possible will be done within the law to bring all those concerned to justice, including any third parties against whom there is evidence that they have aided and abetted these crimes. Many more civilians will be killed if Israel does not cease its attacks immediately. I urge you to immediately contact other foreign ministers to arrange an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution requiring an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and calling on the international community to collect evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The response of the international community in urging Israel to minimise civilian casualties is entirely unacceptable when many innocent civilians, including children, have been killed in the past few hours. Israel must be pushed to immediately cease all its attacks. The international community must accept that it has a moral and arguably a legal imperative to bring an end to the violence unfolding in Gaza. Yours sincerely Daniel Machover The Israeli Coalition against the Siege of Gaza It demands: We sent a message of support: Send messages of support to info@gush-shalom.org |
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