Camden & Islington Momentum Statement on Israel-Palestine

• WE are shocked by the horrifying loss of life in Israel and Palestine in recent weeks.

We deplore all attacks on civilians and the taking of hostages as a breaking of international law.

It is now incumbent on the British government and the Labour leadership to call for an immediate ceasefire in order to prevent yet more bloodshed; and to insist that international law is upheld, bombing is ended, collective punishment is ceased and the civilian hostages are released.

The risk now is that a death toll in Gaza, already reaching 5,000, could spiral devastatingly.

It is deeply alarming to see the Israeli government openly committing the war crime of collective punishment by shutting off supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel to Gaza. Twenty aid trucks are pitifully not enough.

We are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, deliberately engineered by the Israeli government, and every British politician has a responsibility to stand up and try to stop it.

Shamefully we have seen senior British politicians in both government and opposition effectively support war crimes under the aegis of “Israel’s right to defend herself”.

There is no right to commit war crimes. No right to collective punishment. No right to indiscriminate bombing and slaughter of civilians, by anyone, anywhere.

If, as an avowedly internationalist party, Labour believes in the international rule of law, then the leadership must stand up for all parts of it.

Now is the time for all in Labour – and especially the leadership, who are now contradicting its previous statements – to go further and be a voice for peace, and call for an immediate ceasefire, and a just and lasting peace, predicated on an end to occupation and apartheid.

SIMON PEARSON Chair
SHEZAN DIN RENNY Secretary
PAUL RENNY Treasurer
LUKE PEARSON Disabilities Officer
Camden & Islington Momentum Steering Committee