“Condemnatory statements, limited sanctions, and symbolic recognitions will not end the genocide and must not be used to deflect from accountability.” Our letter to Keir Starmer ahead of today’s emergency Cabinet meeting on Gaza.
Read full letter here: britpalcommittee.co.uk/lettertothepm
British Palestinians have called on Sir Keir Starmer to take "immediate, concrete" steps on Gaza instead of "focusing on a symbolic gesture" of recognising it as a state ahead of an emergency cabinet meeting.
news.sky.com/story/pm-urg...
🚨STATEMENT: Following our meeting with the BBC Director-General.
In its coverage of Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza over the last 19 months, the BBC has not only failed in terms of impartiality - it has effectively legitimised an ongoing genocide.
Link: britpalcommittee.co.uk/bbcstatement
Today we wrote to the Foreign Sec asking for urgent clarity - why is the UK Trade Envoy meeting Israeli officials to promote trade following last week’s announcement? Is this contradiction a renege on policy or what? Share below ⬇️
Important new report out today ⬇️
Our briefing today calls for parliamentarians to respond urgently to Israel's chilling plans for escalation - and to uphold Britain's basic legal, historic & moral obligations to the Palestinian people.
Read it here: britpalcommittee.co.uk/nakba77briefing
📄🚨👇🏾BRIEFING: Today, we mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba & its continuation in the form of Israel's genocidal onslaught in Gaza.
This has never been about war - rather, the execution of a settler colonial project in which Britain has a foundational role. britpalcommittee.co.uk/nakba77brief...
"Ongoing Nakba: Palestinian Reflections" will explore the continuing impact of the Nakba on Palestinian lives today through short reflections, testimonies & spoken word poetry.
🗓 Monday 12th May
🕕 6–7pm BST
📍 Online – Streaming on YouTube
📺 @BritishPalestinianCommittee
📅📣Upcoming Online Event: Nakba 77
Join us as we welcome key voices from our community for an online event marking 77 years since the first mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in 1948.
This alarming & unprecedented move underscores the importance of long-overdue action to hold Israel accountable for its crimes. Govt officials have been rightly quick to condemn the move - what substantive action will they now take to put an end to Israeli atrocities?
As Israeli forces continue to slaughter Palestinians with total impunity, its officials are now deporting British policymakers in order to prevent any level of basic scrutiny.
www.reuters.com/world/two-br...
🇵🇸 Take action NOW and email your MP to stop the genocide. Demand an end to Israel’s actions and Britain’s active complicity.
📣 Send an email today using this quick template:
britpalcommittee.eaction.org.uk/stopthegenocide
📢As Israeli air strikes kill at least 70 people in Gaza while Palestinians mark Eid al-Fitr, we must intensify the pressure on MPs to take decisive action. 🚨
Hundreds of you have already contacted 161 MPs about the latest onslaught using our e-action – let’s ensure every single one is reached!
You can read more on initiatives like this, and the dangers of normalisation, in our Policy Briefing from 2023 on the matter: static1.squarespace.com/static/611a6... 12/12
As we enter a moment that looks set to shape the future of Palestine & the region, there is only one path that will lead to a just peace. It must begin with an immediate halt to any plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their lands, & the int’l community holding Israel accountable 11/12
Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice, human rights abuses are proliferating, & brazen threats of further annexation and displacement are becoming even more commonplace, priority for financial & political assistance should be based on clear and articulated needs.10/12
In the aftermath of Israel's most devastating attack on Gaza, while soldiers & settlers continue to attack & displace families across Palestine, & leaders continue with genocidal calls - the resurgence of progs calling for Palestinians to engage in 'peace-building' is particularly distasteful 9/12
Cuts in foreign aid & diversion of support away from essential services to fund P2P projects will have a devastating impact on Palestinians’ access to healthcare, education, & other critical needs. In particular UNRWA, which serves over 5 million refugees, faces an existential funding crisis 8/12
The mainstream of Palestinian civil society remains opposed to all forms of normalisation, including P2P projects that do not recognise the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people & are not premised on opposing the occupation, discrimination & oppression to which Palestinians are subjected 7/12
There is currently no constituency of Palestinian civil society supporting an “international fund for peace” or further P2P projects – a reality that any attempt at a meaningful consultation with Palestinians would show. 6/12
Experts who observed the “International Fund” in the US have raised concerns that it makes way for investments in illegal settlement infrastructure to support “co-existence”. Eg, Israeli factories in the occupied West Bank, employing Palestinians, have presented themselves as “peace projects” 5/12
These programmes are not new and have been shown not to work. A 2021 study commissioned by the UK’s own Department for International Development on the value for money of P2P programmes in Israel/Palestine found insufficient evidence of positive impact. 4/12
In presenting Israel’s occupation & dispossession of the Palestinian people as ‘ethnic conflict’, ignoring asymmetries of power, this & similar programmes divert from & delegitimise in’tl law - while normalising occupation and structural violence against Palestinians at the civil society level. 3/12
P2P programmes perpetuate the myth of false equivalence between occupying power and occupied people. They fail to address the decades long occupation & apartheid in Palestine, thereby normalising the ongoing denial of Palestinian rights 2/12
Today, there is a Westminster Hall debate on the International Fund for Peace, which promotes “People-to-People” (P2P) programmes based on approaches to resolving ethnic conflict. In this thread, we lay out the inadequacy and dangers of such an approach ⬇️⬇️1/12
The full letter is also shareable via this link on our website: britpalcommittee.co.uk/bbc-gaza-doc...
We wrote to register our dismay at the removal of the documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone” from BBC iPlayer.
This decision exacerbated serious concern in the British Palestinian community of editorial bias against us by the BBC, at a time of horrific suffering.
Full letter below ⬇️
@britpalcommitt.bsky.social informing and mobilising Parliament to take action against British military collaboration with Israel - read the report at britpalcommittee.co.uk/uk-israel-mi...
British-Palestinian voices are rarely allowed on TV.
When they are, they face been gaslit by news presenters.
An honour to interview Aimee Shaleen, Chair of @britpalcommitt.bsky.social, who exposes media deceit - and its trashing of context 👇
youtube.com/watch?v=adaH...
Listen to Ghassan Ghaben, member of BPC, talk further about the history of British complicity in Israeli crimes on our podcast here: bit.ly/40wsPZl