For the past several weeks, Israel’s police and paramilitaries, together
with violent settlement groups, have escalated their brutal attacks
against Palestinians in Jerusalem. Specifically targeted are the
residents of Sheikh Jarrah, who face imminent eviction by Israeli
settlers,and Ramadan worshippers at the al-Aqsa Mosque and around the
Old City.
the third holiest
site for Muslims in the world, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) firing rubber bullets, tear gas cannisters, and sound bombs, targeting Palestinians, in which at least 26 people in Gaza, including 9 children were killed that saw in
response retaliatory rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, which resulted in the first Israeli causalities, These localized attacks have further escalated into an all-out
military campaign against Gaza, totally besieged since 2006 but
unwilling to abandon their brethren in Jerusalem. These are not merely “clashes” between “sides” in a symmetrical
“conflict” between two peoples. They are rather actions of conquest,
political repression and dispossession on the part of Jewish Israelis
met with defiant Palestinian reaction. Zionism, a settler colonial
movement of the late 19th century, had a clear and explicit
agenda: in the language of the Zionist movement, to Judaize Palestine,
to turn an Arab land into a Jewish one; in short, to “cleanse” the
country ethnically. At the heart of this project was displacement.
Jewish settlers could only assert their exclusive claims of entitlement
to the country by driving the indigenous population off the land and
taking demographic as well as political control. Ethnic cleansing
remains the single-minded preoccupation of modern Israel. It lies at the
heart of the attacks and resistance protests in Sheikh Jarrah and the
al-Aqsa mosque, as well as in the continued resistance of the people of
West Bank, Gaza and even, it appears, Palestinian citizens of Israel who
still find themselves displaced and without equal rights.
This particular round of low-intensity warfare occurs at Ramadan, in
which thousands of Muslims converge on Jerusalem. There, the Israeli
police violently harass them, demonstrating total Israeli control
through sheer force. Bad enough in itself, this tense period collides
with the triumphalist celebrations of Israel’s Independence Day and
Jerusalem Day, an official “holiday” in which thousands of
religious-nationalist settlers come to assert the “Jewishness” of the
city. A major component of these “celebrations” is humiliating
Jerusalem’s Palestinian inhabitants by marching with large Israeli flags
and drums through their Old City quarters, yelling out patriotic songs.
Friends in Gaza are currently frightened. They have had no sleep for two nights now. There is a high
degree of confusion. People do not know when the next bombing will
happen or where it will be. It has been non-stop for two days. They
are defenceless.
Meanwhile since the Conservative government was elected in May 2015 the UK has
licensed over £400 million worth of arms to Israeli forces So would in this moment in time ask you to .Email your MP:and demand that the UK government stops arming Israel.
It is also worth noting that yesterday, in the Queen’s Speech opening the new Parliamentary session,
Boris Johnson’s government announced a plan to deny UK citizens the
right to protest against Israeli atrocities via BDS (Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions) in what in my opinion can only be seene as wholehearted support
for the murder of Palestinian children:
Despite this I would like to urge people to boycott products/services of, and/or mobilize institutional pressure to
divest from, Israeli and international companies and banks that are
complicit in Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. This
includes all Israeli banks (Leumi, Hapoalim, etc.) and major multinationals such as: Elbit
Systems,https://palestineaction.org//HP, G4S/Allied Universal, AXA, CAF, PUMA, General
Mills/Pillsbury, Caterpillar, Hyundai Heavy Industries, JCB, Volvo,
Barclays Bank, Alstom, Motorola Solutions, and CEMEX.
We know that the worse thing is the feeling that
you are isolated and the people of the world are ignoring what you are
going through. If you believe in
your human right to peace, freedom and justice and solidarity if it does not include the Palestinian people, it's pure hypocrisy. Everyday we must completely and unequivocally support their struggle for liberation.and as the unvarnished face of apartheid is revealed again in its full brutality,our solidarity has never been more urgent.The Israeli government's deadly attacks against Palestinians must be
stopped.
We must stand up against Israel's human rights abuses. On Saturday 15th May 2021, take action in your local community. Stand
together for an end to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian
people, and for the right of return for all exiled Palestinians.
Protests are being organised around the country by Palestine
Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Friends of al-Aqsa,
Palestinian Forum in Britain, and Muslim Association of Britain.
Here is a list of national protests currently planned.;-:
