A call has come from the University Teachers’ Association, the Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel and 31 other Gaza civil organisations, ‘to the citizens of the world to break the siege’.
Datelined ‘Besieged Gaza, Palestine’, it said on Saturday: ‘One-and-a-half years after the Israeli army perpetrated a massacre upon the population of Gaza, Apartheid Israel commits another crime against partisans of Palestine in international waters.
The world is moved at the plight of Palestinians and their supporters. All of the seven crossings between Gaza and Israel, including the Rafah Crossing – the only access Gaza has to the external world – remain hermetically sealed.
‘We request that the citizens of the world oppose this deadly, medieval blockade. We no longer rely on governments.
‘The failure of the United Nations and its numerous organisations to condemn such crimes proves their complicity. Only civil society is able to mobilise to demand the application of international law and put an end to Israel’s impunity.
‘The intervention of civil society was effective in the late 1980s against the apartheid regime of South Africa. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have not only described Israel’s oppressive and violent control of Palestinians as Apartheid, they have also joined this call for the world’s civil society to intervene again.
‘We, therefore, ask people of conscience and civil society organisations to put pressure on their governments until Israel is forced to abide by international law and international humanitarian law.
‘Without the intervention of the international community which was effective against Apartheid in South Africa, Israel will continue its war crimes and crimes against humanity, as articulated by the Goldstone report.
‘We call on civil society organisations worldwide to intensify the anti-Israel sanctions campaign to compel Israel to end its aggression.