Nureddin Sabir, Editor, Redress Information & Analysis, writes:

On 16 October the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) wrote to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (see PDF file below) concerning “the legal peril his apparent unqualified support to the policy of the Government of Israel placed him and his fellow ministers”. It threatens legal action against politicians in the UK and elsewhere where there is evidence that they have aided, abetted, supported or encouraged the commission of a war crime.

A similar letter has been sent to Labour leader Keir Starmer. 

The person behind ICJP is Crispin Blunt, a Tory MP and former chair of the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. His move could do more than anything else to change the government’s stance, if exploited properly.

We call upon all citizens to write to their MP stressing the immorality of Britain’s support for Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and highlighting the perils of what amounts to complicity in war crimes.

Below, as an example, is one such letter, relating to the ICJP warning, written by Stuart Littlewood, to his local MP, Alister Jack, who is also secretary of state for Scotland and, therefore, one of Sunak’s Cabinet ministers.

Rt Hon Alister Jack, MP for Dumfries & Galloway, Secretary of State for Scotland
[email protected]

Dear Mr Jack,

‘Legal peril’ for ministers supporting or encouraging Israel’s war crimes

You will know about yesterday’s letter from the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) which serves notice on prime minister Rishi Sunak concerning “the legal peril his apparent unqualified support to the policy of the Government of Israel placed him and his fellow ministers”. It says “we intend to bring legal proceedings against politicians in the UK and elsewhere where there is evidence that they have aided, abetted or in any other way supported, encouraged or provided material assistance in the commission of a war crime”.

This is hardly surprising given the large numbers in Britain who are exasperated with the Government’s stance. And the ICJP wants “each Government official that has encouraged war crimes in Gaza to rescind their statements in public”. In case this includes your goodself I hope the following background reminder is of help.

First, here is a Jewish perspective from JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace):

“For the past year, the most racist, fundamentalist, far-right government in Israeli history has ruthlessly escalated its military occupation over Palestinians in the name of Jewish supremacy with violent expulsions and home demolitions, mass killings, military raids on refugee camps, unrelenting siege and daily humiliation. In recent weeks, Israeli forces repeatedly stormed the holiest Muslim sites in Jerusalem.

“For 16 years, the Israeli government has suffocated Palestinians in Gaza under a draconian air, sea and land military blockade, imprisoning and starving two million people and denying them medical aid. The Israeli government routinely massacres Palestinians in Gaza; ten-year-olds who live in Gaza have already been traumatized by seven major bombing campaigns in their short lives.

“For 75 years, the Israeli government has maintained a military occupation over Palestinians, operating an apartheid regime. Palestinian children are dragged from their beds in pre-dawn raids by Israeli soldiers and held without charge in Israeli military prisons. Palestinians homes are torched by mobs of Israeli settlers, or destroyed by the Israeli army. Entire Palestinian villages are forced to flee, abandoning the homes and orchards and land that were in their family for generations.

“The bloodshed of today and the past 75 years traces back directly to U.S. complicity in the oppression and horror caused by Israel’s military occupation. The U.S. government consistently enables Israeli violence and bears blame for this moment. The unchecked military funding, diplomatic cover, and billions of dollars of private money flowing from the U.S. enables and empowers Israel’s apartheid regime.“

You and I know that the problem goes back much further - to 1917 and Balfour’s arrogant Declaration, and to the dark manoeuvrings behind it.

What I would like to know please, from you as my MP, is why the UK continues to collaborate with Israel and reward its countless crimes with favoured-nation privileges.

Equally, I would like to know why the UK proscribed Hamas’s political wing as a terrorist organisation when the violence it has used pales beside the horrific terrorism practised by the apartheid regime against its Muslim and Christian neigbours in occupied Palestine, starting with the massacres and rampages in 1947/8 in pursuit of ‘Plan Dalet’, the Zionists’ blueprint for the bloody takeover of the Holy Land. As far as I’m aware fewer than 10 other countries have branded Hamas as terrorists so there isn’t wide agreement with the UK position.

On this point, you may have noticed that the definition of terrorism used by the US administration fits the US itself and Israel perfectly. Under Section 3 of Executive Order 13224 “Blocking Property and prohibiting Transactions with Persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support Terrorism”, the term “terrorism” means an activity that

• (i) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and
• (ii) appears to be intended
• to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
• to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
• to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking.

This instrument, signed 23 September 2001 by George W Bush, is used to outlaw and crush any person, organization or country the US doesn’t like. What definition of terrorism does the UK administration use, please, or is it a case of follow-my-leader?

And you might think from Israeli propaganda that terror killings are mostly the work of Palestinian ‘militants’ like Hamas. The truth is very different. Just look at the figures supplied by a reliable Israeli source, B’Tselem, covering the last 23 years running from 29 September 2000 (the start of the Second Intifada) to 27 September 2023 (before the present escalation).

• Palestinians killed by Israeli forces 10,555
• Palestinians killed by Israeli civilians 96
• Palestinians Killed by unknowns 16
• Total 10,667

• Israeli forces killed by Palestinians 449
• Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians 881
• Total 1,330

So Israelis are far more proficient at slaughtering fellow humans and have been eliminating Palestinians at the rate of 8:1. Worse still is their butchery of children. The figures show 2,270 Palestinian children killed versus 145 Israeli children, a ratio of nearly 16:1. And when it comes to women it’s 656 Palestinians to 261 Israelis, about 2.5:1.

Let’s not go into the massacres, terror, ethnic cleansing and other horrors on which the state of Israel was founded. 

Israel, which refuses to declare its borders, has been formally recognised by the Palestinians and the Arab League within the internationally recognised ‘Green Line’ border. So it is not “fighting for its existence” as many of its supporters claim. Nor is it seriously threatened by Hamas whose revised 2017 Charter calls for a sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, along the internationally-recognised 1967 borders, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, as per UN resolutions. So nothing controversial there either. Naturally they would much prefer all of Palestine to be restored as would most other Palestinians.

Hamas emphasises that its quarrel is with the Zionist project, not with the Jews because of their religion. It wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Hamas’s methods are shocking, and there’s no excuse if they constitute a war crime, but are far exceeded by Israel’s 7 decades of gratuitous terror and atrocities. Of course, if international law – and in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention – were enforced Israel’s occupation would collapse under the weight of its own illegality and there would at last be a chance for peace.

But as things stand Israel has all but succeeded, with US and UK connivance, in creating enough ‘facts on the ground’ to make its occupation permanent. There is no sign that it is willing to hand back enough land and relinquish enough control for a truly viable Palestinian state to emerge. So what is the much touted two-state solution supposed to look like? Nobody is saying, and ‘peace talks’ (i.e. one-sided ‘negotiations’ with a gun to the Palestinians’ head) which ignore relevant law inevitably lead nowhere.

So, what is the solution to the mess Britain created 106 years ago and helps perpetuate today? The simple fact is, there can never be peace without justice. Therefore, abandon this misguided infatuation with Israel, quit providing that rogue regime with diplomatic cover for its crimes against humanity, stop rewarding its despicable behaviour, and work to end its illegal military occupation of Palestinian lands. If the rule of law means anything at all, push hard for implementing international humanitarian law and UN Resolutions 181 (the Partition Plan) and 194 (concerning, among other things, the status of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees) which Israel was bound to comply with as a condition of its membership but never did. Nothing less will do.

Meanwhile, we hear a lot about Israel’s right to self-defence but that is very restricted under international law and the laws of war and occupation. The Palestinians have a prior right to defend themselves, under international law and UN Resolution 37/43, in their struggle for “liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means including armed struggle”.

Incidentally, I write as someone who has visited Palestine several times, including Gaza. Hamas govern after winning elections monitored by international observers. What surprised me, when I checked their CVs, was that Hamas’s ministers were, if anything, better qualified academically for government than run-of-the-mill ministers here.

Do please recognise the fact that, like it or not, Hamas are the people’s democratic choice (for the timebeing) and the legitimate rulers, although confined to Gaza by the Occupation. If new elections were held they would likely win again. It is a shame the UK Government still fails in its diplomatic duty to know and understand them and learn about the Gaza folks’ awful situation first-hand.

Sincerely,

Stuart Littlewood