Growing outrage at the killings in Gaza

The Guardian, Friday 16 January 2009

The massacres in Gaza are the latest phase of a war that Israel has been waging against the people of Palestine for more than 60 years. The goal of this war has never changed: to use overwhelming military power to eradicate the Palestinians as a political force, one capable of resisting Israel’s ongoing appropriation of their land and resources. Israel’s war against the Palestinians has turned Gaza and the West Bank into a pair of gigantic political prisons. There is nothing symmetrical about this war in terms of principles, tactics or consequences. Israel is responsible for launching and intensifying it, and for ending the most recent lull in hostilities.

Israel must lose. It is not enough to call for another ceasefire, or more humanitarian assistance. It is not enough to urge the renewal of dialogue and to acknowledge the concerns and suffering of both sides. If we believe in the principle of democratic self-determination, if we affirm the right to resist military aggression and colonial occupation, then we are obliged to take sides… against Israel, and with the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

We must do what we can to stop Israel from winning its war. Israel must accept that its security depends on justice and peaceful coexistence with its neighbours, and not upon the criminal use of force.

We believe Israel should immediately and unconditionally end its assault on Gaza, end the occupation of the West Bank, and abandon all claims to possess or control territory beyond its 1967 borders. We call on the British government and the British people to take all feasible steps to oblige Israel to comply with these demands, starting with a programme of boycott, divestment and sanctions.
Professor Gilbert Achcar, Development Studies, SOAS
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, Politics and International Studies, SOAS
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We regard Israel’s indiscriminate killing in Gaza as a crime against humanity. We protest against Israel’s exterminating tactics and offer our wholehearted support to the people of Gaza.
Stephen Frears – Film Director – UK
Nigel Kennedy – Musician, Poland/UK
Miriam Margolyes – Actress UK
Brian Eno – Musician and producer UK
Robert Wyatt – Musician UK
William Dalrymple – Writer and historian
Dhafer Youssef – Musician France
Dave Robinson – Producer & pioneer of Stiff Records, UK
Razanne Carmey – Playwright UK
Chaz Jankel – Musician UK
Philip Bagenal – Music Producer and mixer UK
Christine Tobin – Singer UK
Jeffrey Blankfort – Photographer USA
Liane Carroll – Musician singer UK
Martin Coogan – Musician UK
Anis Hamadeh – Musician Germany
Radhika Jha – Writer India
Prem Shankar Jha Author & journalist India
Uzma Aslam Khan – Novelist and Essayist Pakistan
Sarah Gillespie – Musician UK
Darrell Lawrence – Music & film producer USA
Shadia Mansour – Singer UK
Moni Ovadia – Actor Italy
Gilad Atzmon – Musician and writer UK
Susheela Raman – Singer UK
Karl Sabbagh – Writer UK
Rich Siegel – Musician USA
Paul Sussman – Author UK
Sunny Singh – Writer India
David Toop- Musician & author UK
John Turnbull – Musician UK

As members of the Jewish Black Asian Forum, we are distressed and outraged at the pointless loss of life and humanitarian disaster in Gaza. The values we share, and the stories of loss and exclusion we bring to our discussions , drive us to speak out together. As members of British communities closely connected to Israel and Palestine, we call on Israel to immediately end its use of military force in Gaza and on Hamas to cease firing rockets into Israel. Our government, together with other governments and international actors, must engage with the authorities in Israel, Palestine and Gaza to help facilitate a lasting peace in the region and an end to the occupation.
Tanaka Loha, Antony Lerman, Geoffrey Bindman, Francesca Klug, June Jacobs, Imam Sajid, Arlington Trotman, Lincoln Crawford, Mumtaz Rahim, Simon Wooley

Jasa Almuli’s claims (Letters, 15 January) that Israel has accepted a Palestinian state and that the obstacle to peace is Hamas’s refusal to recognise the state of Israel are false. Israel’s response to every offer of a viable two-state solution has been to expand the settlements, as during the Oslo “peace” process. On the other hand, the political leadership of Hamas has many times said that it would accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and has offered a long-term truce on that basis. This offer was repeated by the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, on 8 November 2008 to a group of 11 European parliamentarians, including Clare Short. He denied that Hamas was seeking to destroy the state of Israel. “Our conflict is not with the Jews; our problem is with the occupation,” he said. Israel, however, just as it rejected Hamas’s ceasefire offer of 23 December, rejects all negotiation with Hamas’s political leadership and prefers to try to smash its military wing instead. Hamas does not have to accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state before peace can be negotiated any more than Sinn Féin had to accept Northern Ireland as part of the UK before negotiating a peace there.
Leon Rosselson
Wembley Park, Middlesex

At last the west is coming clean. Palestinians are freedom fighters, not terrorists, who have suffered 60 years of injustice inflicted by the real axis of evil, Israel and the US. The murderous attack on Gaza is an insane attempt at ethnic cleansing before Obama takes over.
Eva Figes
London

Iranian military aid to Hamas has been steady and vital to Hamas since its coup of July 2007. The movement has been equipped with dozens of Iranian Fajr-3 missiles – the longest-range ordnance it is thought to possess. The 122mm Grad rockets it has been firing at Israel are in its possession because of the Iranian connection. Like Hezbollah, Hamas is an Iranian proxy. And just as in 2006, Iran was instrumental in inciting the current war. Israel’s fight is a fight for western values of secular democracy and human rights against those that would unleash a medieval theocracy upon us all.
Chris Gale
Chippenham, Wiltshire

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