COVID-19, Gaza and shameful UK government response
The Gaza Strip has been under siege from Israel since 2007. The impact of this siege, coupled with intermittent bombardments, has had a disastrous impact on the physical and mental health of Palestinians in Gaza, as well as devastating the economy. In recent weeks this disastrous impact has once again been brought into sharp focus as COVID-19 has started to spread quickly through refugee camps and communities.
The people of Gaza have for too long been abandoned by the international community, and those of us in the UK have a unique responsibility to act. Write to your councillors, MSPs and MP, asking them to sign this petition and ask them what else they plan to do in support and solidarity with Palestinians.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/308206
The UK government’s response to the petition, via the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, includes the following:
“Israel is a close friend and the people of Israel deserve to live free from the scourge of terrorism and anti-Semitic incitement, which gravely undermine the prospects for a two-state solution.”
It is amazing that after so many years of flouting international law and scores of grave human rights abuses including war crimes, the UK government is still proud to call Israel “a close friend”. It is Israeli action on illegal settlement building, the construction of the separation wall, the apartheid separation of resource allocation and access, home demolitions, intermittent war, and perpetual occupation and siege who have undermined any prospect of a two-state solution. It is our responsibility to hold our government to account for such brazen propaganda and lies.
The international community, including UK government and neighbouring countries to Palestine in the Middle East, have a moral responsibility towards the people of Palestine and should not leave them alone facing Covid-19 and its challenges. However, the root cause of these problems must be the focus, and that is Israeli occupation and apartheid.