‘Stop UK arms sales to Israel and end Gaza blockade’

0
1174
Delegates at the TUC Congress earlier this month showing their support for Palestine – a resolution at the Labour Party Conference demanded end the siege of Gaza
Delegates at the TUC Congress earlier this month showing their support for Palestine – a resolution at the Labour Party Conference demanded end the siege of Gaza

END the blockade of Gaza! Stop selling arms to Israel! Investigate Israel for war crimes! delegate to the Labour Party conference, Sarah Jane Potter from the TSSA union, demanded in moving a resolution on Palestine.

She said to applause: ‘We all know that Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem was a provocative one to say the least, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the expulsion of 700,000 people during the creation of Israel, when he knew that people would be protesting with the Great March of Return.

‘We already heard about the medics shot, including Razan Al-Najjar a 21-year-old Palestinian medic shot and killed by Israeli snipers as she was treating an injured protester. I am sure many people here will remember the pictures of her mother in the media clinging onto the vest that she was wearing showing the bullet hole, entrance and exit.

‘That vest was her only weapon. According to the Geneva Convention knowingly firing at a medic wearing clear insignia is a war crime. We can easily criticise the US government for their hand in the atrocities that have taken place in Palestine, but we should first look at our own government which is now selling record numbers of arms to Israel.

‘I support a freeze in UK government arms sales to Israel and an international investigation into Israel’s use of force against the Palestinians and an immediate end to the blockade on Gaza.‘I will continue to speak out about the apartheid practice against the Palestinians and I hope in supporting this motion you will too.’