MORE than 100 protesters gathered outside Downing Street yesterday to confront Labour ministers over their failure to sanction Israel and to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.
Dr James Smith, recently returned from treating the victims of the US, UK and Israeli genocide in Gaza, described the living conditions there and the determination of Palestinians to resist and prevail.
Smith said he’d had the misfortune of meeting civil servants inside the building. ‘It is always the case of, “We are trying to do what we can. We are limited by government”, excuses excuses, which continue to this very day.
‘How many times have we protested outside this wretched building. How many times have we pleaded with our elected representatives, demanding that they do the right thing. How many times have we been told that the wheels of government are in motion, that they are listening to us, taking our requests seriously, doing everything they can.
‘The situation in Gaza now is catastrophic. There is absolutely no correlation between what we are being told in the media. The conditions are abysmal, flimsy tarpaulin sheets, 70 per cent of Gazans do not have even minimal standards of drinking water to stop them from dying of thirst.
‘Israel has created, and the British government has colluded in creating, these conditions. Death, destruction and indignity on the Palestinian people every day for three years. No ceasefire, no respite, and no end in sight.’
Describing the weddings, the people on the beach and the gatherings for coffee that continue amid attacks on hospitals and mosques, he said: ‘For the Palestinians, to live is to resist, to care is to resist the genocidal urge of a settler state. None of us should take our foot off the gas. We must continue to fight.’
Raven, a demonstrator at the rally, said: ‘The trade union leaders have failed when it comes to the genocide in occupied Palestine. They have not leveraged their power to strongly condemn what is happening, and not shown their support in practical ways or utilised the big numbers that they have available to them.
‘Strike action would be far more effective than protesting. We have used every moral argument available and the elite ruling classes have shown time and time again that they don’t respond to any moral argument or any entreaty. Only when the ruling classes and corporations are affected financially will they do the right thing.’
George Collecott, a solicitor with the Global Legal Action Network representing Al-Haq in its challenge to the government’s sales of arms to Israel, said a comprehensive ban on settlement goods could be imposed tomorrow, but the government argues it would be ‘too complex to implement’.
‘Settlement goods and businesses only exist because of the war crimes against humanity that underpin Israel’s illegal settlements,’ he said.
‘UK criminal law is clear. If you knowingly sell a settlement good, or make money in the settlements, you are committing the crime under UK law of money laundering.
‘The government has the power to protect the public. It could do it tomorrow with a comprehensive ban on settlement trade. This is the bare minimum.’