Local Jewish group takes ceasefire demand to MP and foreign secretary

A group of local Jewish people have taken their feelings of revulsion at the widespread killing and devastation wreaked by Israeli forces in Gaza in their response to the atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October to MP Sally-Ann Hart, who has agreed to forward their call for a ceasefire to foreign secretary David Cameron. Felicity Laurence, who helped organise the initiative, gives an account of their meeting.

HOT has kept a close account of the mounting outrage and horror among Hastings people at the carnage in Gaza,  documenting the events, rallies, vigils, marches, the naming ceremony of the thousands of children killed: the refused HBC council motion to call for a ceasefire: the petitions and the open letter of 23 October sent to our political representatives signed by nineteen  organisations and faith groups on behalf of thousands of constituents.

Soon afterwards, local Amnesty’s open letter to our MP Sally-Ann Hart elicited the response that although she agreed with many of their points, ultimately there can be no ceasefire “until the threat of Hamas and additional murderous attacks is removed.”

But as the destruction by Israel of Gaza and its people continues, now with increased savagery after last week’s brief respite, the howl across the world for “Ceasefire Now” is ever more desperate.

On 7 November a group of Hastings people of Jewish heritage, with many kinds of connections to Israel, wrote to Sally-Ann Hart to express our own anguish at what Israel is doing to Gaza, supported by the vast majority of the Israeli people, as explained in this compelling interview with renowned Israeli journalist Gideon Levy. At the core of our distress is the principle that the killing of civilians by Hamas cannot justify the killing of civilians by Israel.

We asked for a meeting, and that our concerns be escalated directly to the Foreign Secretary. Both were agreed, although the meeting was not possible for Ms Hart until 1 December. In the intervening time, the short truce came and went. The bombing resumed on the morning of our meeting. By that afternoon, more than 100 people had been killed.

Teresa Thornhill, a lawyer who has conducted human rights research in the West Bank and Gaza, and I, as the letter’s two co-authors, attended the meeting. We began by reiterating our condemnation of Hamas’s atrocious attacks, as phrased in our letter’s opening lines:

“We were aghast at the monstrous attack on October 7^th by Hamas against both children and adults, and we grieve at their brutal destruction. We are distraught now at the ongoing carnage in Gaza, where so many thousands have been killed, and injured, maybe burned and alone, trapped under rubble which remains impossible to clear. We feel horrified by the deaths of over 6000 children, which cannot be justified as ‘collateral damage’. Another 34,000 children have been injured, some having to endure surgery without anaesthetic in what remains of Gaza’s hospitals.”

We then addressed the ‘self-defence’ argument made by Israel (and of course endorsed by our political leaders) – legitimate in itself, but under serious question in light of the massive death toll in Gaza, especially among women and children, and also of journalists (over 50), medics (200) and UN workers (110). We spoke of the people now displaced, currently almost 1.9m, and Israel’s suspected use of white phosphorus. We also referred to the historical context, in which we know the Hamas attack must be seen, and the recognised right of occupied people to resist the occupying power.

We drew attention to the clear breaches of Israel’s legal obligations towards Gaza, as described in our letter:

“As the occupying power in Gaza, Israel is also in breach of many of its obligations under the IV Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Civilian Persons in time of War of 1949, including the duty under Article 33 to refrain from subjecting civilians to collective punishment. Article 33 reads: ‘No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed…’

Other duties which Israel is breaching include:

• The duty under Article 55 to provide food and medical supplies to the occupied population;
• the duty under Article 56 to ensure medical and hospital care for the population, public health and hygiene and measures to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics;
• the duty under Article 49, when evacuating a given area (northern Gaza) to ensure that proper accommodation is provided to the evacuees, that removals are made in satisfactory condition of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition and that family members are not separated;
• the duty under Article 27 to protect civilians from ‘all acts of violence or threats thereof…”

However, while we waited for the meeting, evidence of the genocidal nature of Israel’s response to the Hamas attack had been stacking up massively, with the blatancy of proclamations of intent leaving no more room for doubt. Our letter states:

“Having studied what is happening on the ground and looked carefully at the relevant provisions of the Genocide Convention 1948, to which both the UK and Israel are signatories, we have come to the conclusion that Israel is engaged in genocide against the Palestinians. The physical destruction of people and property is clear for all to see. The intent of the Israeli leadership is shockingly clear from the following statements made by various politicians in the weeks since the October 7 attacks”.

It was to these statements that we now directed Ms Hart’s attention: they speak for themselves and cannot be misunderstood. Here are some of them.

“Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari proclaimed that “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy” in the thousands of missiles launched.

“Defence Minister Yoav Gallant stated: “We are imposing a complete siege on [Gaza]… we are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly”. The plan is to “eliminate everything and Gaza won’t return to what it was before”.

“Nissim Vaturi, member of the Knesset for Likud, called for “erasing the Gaza strip from the face of the earth”. And “We are too humane. Burn Gaza now.”

Particularly chilling, given the huge number of children killed, is the President of Israel Isaac Herzog’s statement that “there are no innocent civilians in Gaza”.

Member of the Knesset for Likud, Ariel Kallner, called for another Nakba “Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join!”.

Netanyahu laid it out clearly: describing the conflict as ‘a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness’ he invoked the biblical injunction to destroy Amalek.

“Do not spare them: put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys”.

We pointed out the duty for states to do everything possible to prevent and not condone genocide by other states.

We referred to recent statements by foreign secretary David Cameron, in which he was forthright that Israel must respect international law, and also condemned what is happening in the West Bank. Sally-Ann echoed his comment that the attacks and murders of Palestinians in the West Bank by the illegal settler communities are “completely unacceptable.”

Our letter also refers to a recent article  based upon information from Israeli military and intelligence sources, confirming that there is an explicit strategy of bombing buildings known to be full of civilians and that the increased use of artificial intelligence in generating targets is itself contributing to the ever greater civilian toll; the broadcaster Democracy Now reports this under the headline: “Mass Assassination Factory”.

Our letter concludes:

“Our political leaders in the UK need now to step forward, distancing themselves from other voices of Western power, and do whatever it takes to persuade, even lead,  the international community in stopping the war, forcing a permanent ceasefire, and bringing the warring sides to the  table to negotiate a way forward that allows both populations to live peacefully. In view of the history of Palestine and Israel, the current well-documented inability of most Israeli people to perceive the equal humanity of Palestinian people, and the profound mutual hatred as expressed repeatedly and unambiguously by their respective leaders in their repeated statements of intention to annihilate the other, this will be a mammoth task.

The UK holds considerable historic responsibility for the creation of the state of Israel.  We now owe it in particular to all the children who have been injured or killed already, and to those who have survived so far, to do what we can to stop the bloodshed and bring about peace.”

Jewish people are marching in solidarity with Gazan people week after week. Ms Hart can be in no doubt now that many people of Jewish heritage in her constituency and thousands more beyond are fundamentally opposed to Britain’s unquestioning support and arming of Israel, both in the ongoing occupation and in this war in Gaza. Yesterday, the UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths called the situation in Gaza “apocalyptic”: we join all those  – The International Red Cross, UNICEF, the WHO, the UN, and the 76% of the UK population according to the most recent poll – who are saying to our leaders that they must bring this apocalypse to an end, now.

You can read the full letter here.

 

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