JJP statement on the Israeli-US war on Iran

Jews for Justice for Palestinians condemns the unprovoked attack on Iran jointly launched by Israel and Donald Trump’s United States.  The attack was clearly an Act of Aggression under the The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. If our government joins the offensive operations, the UK would also be committing an act of aggression.  UK military effort should be strictly limited to protecting UK bases, UK citizens and UK allies, none of which were involved in the attack.

Israel has used the war as cover to inflict further blows on Palestinians.  All crossings into Gaza were immediately closed, only one of which has subsequently re-opened, reducing the already inadequate humanitarian aid and curtailing the desperately needed medical evacuations which had briefly been allowed.  The West Bank has been placed under complete military closure, facilitating heightened levels of settler attacks on Palestinian communities. Israel has also used Hezbollah’s small-scale rocket attacks on Northern Israel in support of Iran as a pretext for heavy bombing of Southern Lebanon and Beirut and ground attacks to try to destroy Hezbollah.

The theocratic Iranian government killed thousands of its own citizens in the recent protests, but that didn’t give Israel and the US the right to attack it. Iran’s unprovoked attacks on civilian sites in Gulf states are also an Act of Aggression, but that doesn’t retrospectively justify the Israeli-US attack.

The war has caused immense suffering. More than 1,400 have been killed in Iran, including the 175 young girls at the girls school in Minab. Some 90 people have been killed  in Arab countries, 15 in Israel and eight US soldiers. Israel has already killed nearly 700, most of whom will have been civilians, and displaced more than 500,000 in Lebanon. As with the Israel-US attack in June, this attack should be seen as part of Israel’s attempt to remove any potential opposition to its plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians.

We call upon the UK government to work urgently with allies for all parties to completely cease military activity and end the war.