Palestinian Lives Matter - Human Rights Matter
I also hope your electricity isn’t being limited to just four hours a day. I hope you have clean running water, and your power station hasn’t been smashed to pieces by bombs, denying you basic sanitary needs. Hospitals need power. I hope your hospital has all of the power it needs. I hope you have the freedom to wander down to the shop as you wish, and not feel like you are living in the worlds largest open air prison. I hope your homes aren’t being systematically destroyed and then the destroyers give you the bill for the demolition, because you didn’t destroy your home yourself. I hope your children don’t feel like they have anything worth living for. I hope you can send your children to school without wondering if it’s the last time you will see them, every single day. I hope you can express yourself freely, without staring down the barrel of a gun and I hope you can peacefully protest about everything I’ve said in this lengthy paragraph, without being tear-gassed, or worse. I hope you can go to sleep tonight without the sound of warplanes flying above your house, loaded with bombs, looking to target innocent civilians, in the name of national security.
I think you get where I’m coming from.
Already, the haters will be looking for outrage. Seeing if they can find a line that undoubtedly proves I’m something I am not, or never will be.
Call me what you like - my suffering will never compare to the suffering of the Palestinian people, inflicted on them by an illegal occupation, for longer than I have been alive.
I tweet about the Palestinian people most days. One question I get asked a lot - “Why do you always tweet about Palestine and not other Human rights issues”?
Pay attention. I do. China and Saudi Arabia in particular. But modern technology allows us to see more of what is happening in Palestine than it does in other countries.
Have you tried gaining access to a mass flogging of political activists so you can get a bit of footage on your phone? Have you contacted the Chinese government to ask if you can poke your nose into one of their concentration camps? I wouldn’t suggest it.
Palestine is a country, a state, call it what you like, but whatever you call it, Palestine exists.
Anyway, I wanted to let you know about #RecognisePalestineNow on the 13th October.
I, and lots of others, will be changing our social media profile pictures and headers to the flag of Palestine for the day. People will also be tweeting support for the Palestinian people and their right to recognition as a state, throughout the day,
But why the 13th October?
Well, that will be SIX years to the day that British MPs voted to recognise a Palestinian state. Six years.
While the Labour leadership has failed to unequivocally condemn the Israeli forces bombardment of Gaza, or the ethnic cleansing, or the blatant apartheid, we haven’t remained silent.
Our socialism separates us from the lost souls of the centre ground. For them it’s “me me me”, for us it is all about “we”. That is something to be proud of, not ashamed of.
The chief organiser of #RecognisePalestineNow is the former Labour PPC for Stoke South, human rights barrister, and co-founder of Labour Friends Of Palestine and The Middle East, Mark McDonald.
Mark told me:
“The people of Palestine have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967 and with now over 700,000 illegal settlers living on stolen land the future of the country looks bleak. it is clear to many that the Israeli government under Netanyahu is no longer committed to a two-state solution, embolden by Trump’s disastrous plan of annexation. The geo-political divide between Saudi Arabia and Iran has played into the hands of Trump and Netanyahu and has recklessly increased tensions within the region. As the great powers use the innocent people of Palestine as pawns, peace is sadly becoming more distant.”
“But there is one beacon of hope that Palestinians cling to, that is recognition. Formal recognition of a country can only take place with the consent of the UN Security Council but with the USA and the UK holding permanent seats, Palestine has never succeeded in its request. However Palestine has massive support from the international community , and as of July 2019, 138 countries out of 193 recognise the independent State of Palestine.”
“Sadly, the UK has always sat on the fence when it comes to Palestine and often either agrees with the US - or has abstained in crucial votes. However, on 13th October 2014, there was a historic debate in Parliament which led to overwhelming support for unilateral recognition of Palestine by Labour party MPs. This led to a commitment in the last three Labour party manifestos that when Labour gets into government we will join the vast majority of the international community and recognise Palestine as an independent country.”
“The UK Labour party has always been committed to a two state solution and with Trump and Netanyahu ripping apart past peace treaties, the Labour party’s commitment to Recognition ensures that there is still hope for peace.
This October 13th join us in changing your profile pictures on social media and post in recognition and solidarity with Palestine using #RecognisePalestineNow with all of your social media posts.”
Mark wrote this piece for Labour List more than five years ago now, arguing why the 2015 Leadership candidate in line to replace Ed Miliband should stick by Labour’s promise to recognise the state of Palestine.
Jeremy Corbyn won the contest, and honoured his pledge in the following two election manifestos.
Can Keir Starmer commit to this same pledge now, and if he can’t, why the hell not? Labour members and the British left expect no less from the leader of the Labour Party, no ifs, no buts.
Another fierce advocate for the rights of the Palestinian people is former Labour MP, and impressive vegan chef, Chris Williamson. I asked Chris for his comments on the importance of the recognition of an independent Palestinian state.
Here’s what Chris told me.
I remember voting for that parliamentary motion, which resulted in Ed Miliband facing hysterical accusations that he was “pandering to antisemitism”. “But if a week in politics is a long time, six years is an eternity. Since that momentous vote, the pernicious influence of the Israel lobby on foreign policy discourse in general, and its impact on the Labour Party in particular, has grown substantially. It is suffocating pro-Palestinian voices, and useful idiots like Jon Lansman and Owen Jones have facilitated Zionist efforts to politically asphyxiate critics of Israel inside the Labour Party.” “The Labour Party's crass decision to adopt the discredited IHRA code only served to embolden the apartheid apologists in its ranks. These characters have used it as cover to intensify the witch-hunt against anti-racist socialists and drive them out of the Labour Party.” “But the notion of a two-state solution is an illusion. The settler colonialists have utterly atomised the West Bank, making the prospect of a viable Palestinian state all but impossible. In my opinion, all right thinking people should be calling for a secular one-state solution where Palestinians, Jews and all other communities have equal, democratic rights. This must include include the right to return for all Palestinians robbed of their birthright by the Nakba when the state of Israel was created in 1948.” So let's stop promoting an illegitimate fantasy, that's backed by Israeli front organisations like the JLM, and start demanding genuine justice for the Palestinian people.”
That should put some fire in the belly.
Here’s the thing. Palestinian lives matter too.
Palestine, particularly Gaza, is a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions. The poverty, the destitution, hunger and malnutrition, and the permanent fear. Palestinians speak of the constant buzzing of Israeli drones flying over their homes. Palestinian men, women and children are thrown into jails, often facing no charges, and they are tortured and abused by their captors. They call this ‘administrative detention’ - a law that allows Israel to hold suspects for years, without being formally charged with a crime.
Both the occupation and the blockade affect every aspect of life for Palestinians - they dictate where they can live and study, and whom they can marry.
The thirteen-year-long blockade has devastated Gaza’s economy, causing widespread destruction and left most people largely cut off from the outside world. Today, one million Palestinians in Gaza don't have enough food to feed their families, despite receiving food assistance or other forms of support.
How can we just turn a blind eye and say nothing? We can’t, because this is not who or what we are.
Israeli settlers frequently attack the Palestinian people. I have seen scores of video clips of violent illegal settlers, attacking Palestinian farmers, destroying their olive trees, which is a vital source of income for Palestine, and this is often done under the watchful eye of the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Legitimised thuggery. This just isn’t OK.
The intimidation is obvious. They are trying to force Palestinians from their land, and drive them away to the refugee camps. And when the intimidation fails, they just send in the bulldozers to destroy people’s lives.
This my friends, is undoubtedly ethnic cleansing and do not ever be afraid to call it what it is.
We can, and we must. Free Palestine.
Remember, Tuesday 13th October, join in with #RecognisePalestineNow - however you can.
Until next time,
Rachael
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