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<\/picture><\/a><\/div>\nTo Whom It May Concern:<\/p>\n
Rt Hon Alister Jack, MP for Dumfries & Galloway, Secretary of State for Scotland
\nAlister.Jack.MP@parliament.uk<\/p>\n
Dear Mr Jack,<\/p>\n
\u2018Legal peril\u2019 for ministers supporting or encouraging Israel\u2019s war crimes<\/p>\n
You will know about yesterday\u2019s letter from the\u00a0International Centre of Justice for Palestinians<\/em>\u00a0(ICJP) which serves notice on prime minister Rishi Sunak concerning \u201cthe legal peril his apparent unqualified support to the policy of the Government of Israel placed him and his fellow ministers\u201d. It says \u201cWe intend to bring legal proceedings against politicians in the UK and elsewhere where there is evidence that they have aided, abetted or in any other way supported, encouraged or provided material assistance in the commission of a war crime\u201d.<\/p>\n This is hardly surprising given the large numbers in Britain who are exasperated with the Government\u2019s stance. And the ICJP wants \u201ceach Government official that has encouraged war crimes in Gaza to rescind their statements in public\u201d. In case this includes your good self I hope the following background reminder is of help.<\/p>\n First, here is a Jewish perspective from JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace<\/em>):<\/p>\n For the past year, the most racist, fundamentalist, far-right government in Israeli history has ruthlessly escalated its military occupation of Palestinians in the name of Jewish supremacy with violent expulsions and home demolitions, mass killings, military raids on refugee camps, unrelenting siege and daily humiliation. In recent weeks, Israeli forces repeatedly stormed the holiest Muslim sites in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n For 16 years, the Israeli government has suffocated Palestinians in Gaza under a draconian air, sea, and land military blockade, imprisoning and starving two million people and denying them medical aid. The Israeli government routinely massacres Palestinians in Gaza; ten-year-olds who live in Gaza have already been traumatized by seven major bombing campaigns in their short lives.<\/p>\n For 75 years, the Israeli government has maintained a military occupation over Palestinians, operating an apartheid regime. Palestinian children are dragged from their beds in pre-dawn raids by Israeli soldiers and held without charge in Israeli military prisons. Palestinians\u2019 homes are torched by mobs of Israeli settlers, or destroyed by the Israeli army. Entire Palestinian villages are forced to flee, abandoning the homes orchards, and land that were in their family for generations.<\/p>\n The bloodshed of today and the past 75 years traces back directly to U.S. complicity in the oppression and horror caused by Israel\u2019s military occupation. The U.S. government consistently enables Israeli violence and bears blame for this moment. The unchecked military funding, diplomatic cover, and billions of dollars of private money flowing from the U.S. enables and empowers Israel\u2019s apartheid regime.<\/p>\n You and I know that the problem goes back much further \u2013 to 1917 and Balfour\u2019s arrogant Declaration, and to the dark maneuverings behind it.<\/p>\n What I would like to know please, from you as my MP, is why the UK continues to collaborate with Israel and reward its countless crimes with favoured-nation privileges.<\/p>\n Equally, I would like to know why the UK proscribed Hamas\u2019s political wing as a terrorist organization when the violence it has used pales beside the horrific terrorism practiced by the apartheid regime against its Muslim and Christian neighbors in occupied Palestine, starting with the massacres and rampages in 1947\/8 in pursuit of \u2018Plan Dalet\u2019, the Zionists\u2019 blueprint for the bloody takeover of the Holy Land. As far as I\u2019m aware fewer than 10 other countries have branded Hamas as terrorists so there isn\u2019t wide agreement with the UK position.<\/p>\n On this point, you may have noticed that the definition of terrorism used by the US administration fits the US itself and Israel perfectly. Under Section 3 of Executive Order 13224\u00a0\u201cBlocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support Terrorism\u201d<\/em>, the term \u201cterrorism\u201d means an activity that<\/p>\n (i) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and This instrument, signed on 23 September 2001 by George W Bush, is used to outlaw and crush any person, organization, or country the US doesn\u2019t like. What definition of terrorism does the UK administration use, please, or is it a case of follow-my-leader?<\/p>\n And you might think from Israeli propaganda that terror killings are mostly the work of Palestinian \u2018militants\u2019 like Hamas. The truth is very different. Just look at the figures supplied by a reliable Israeli source,\u00a0B\u2019Tselem<\/em>, covering the last 23 years running from 29 September 2000 (the start of the Second Intifada) to 27 September 2023 (before the present escalation).<\/p>\n Palestinians killed by Israeli forces 10,555 Israeli forces killed by Palestinians 449 So Israelis are far more proficient at slaughtering fellow humans and have been eliminating Palestinians at the rate of 8:1.\u00a0Worse still is their butchery of children. The figures show 2,270 Palestinian children killed versus 145 Israeli children, a ratio of nearly 16:1<\/strong>. And when it comes to women it\u2019s 656 Palestinians to 261 Israelis, about 2.5:1.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not go into the massacres, terror, ethnic cleansing, and other horrors on which the state of Israel was founded.<\/p>\n Israel, which refuses to declare its borders, has been formally recognized by the Palestinians and the Arab League within the internationally recognized \u2018Green Line\u2019 border. So it is not \u201cfighting for its existence\u201d as many of its supporters claim. Nor is it seriously threatened by Hamas whose revised 2017\u00a0Charter<\/em>\u00a0calls for a sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, along the internationally-recognized 1967 borders, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, as per UN resolutions. So nothing controversial there either. Naturally, they would much prefer all of Palestine to be restored as would most other Palestinians.<\/p>\n Hamas emphasizes that its quarrel is with the Zionist project, not with the Jews because of their religion. It wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Hamas\u2019s methods are shocking, and there\u2019s no excuse if they constitute a war crime, but are far exceeded by Israel\u2019s 7 decades of gratuitous terror and atrocities. Of course, if international law \u2013 and in particular the\u00a0Fourth Geneva Convention<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 were enforced Israel\u2019s occupation would collapse under the weight of its illegality and there would at last be a chance for peace.<\/p>\n But as things stand Israel has all but succeeded, with US and UK connivance, in creating enough \u2018facts on the ground\u2019 to make its occupation permanent. There is no sign that it is willing to hand back enough land and relinquish enough control for a truly viable Palestinian state to emerge.<\/p>\n What is the much-touted two-state solution supposed to look like? Nobody is saying, and so-called peace talks (i.e. one-sided \u2018negotiations\u2019 with a gun to the Palestinians\u2019 head) which ignore relevant law inevitably lead nowhere.<\/p>\n So, what is the solution to the mess Britain created 106 years ago and helps perpetuate today? The simple fact is, that there can never be peace without justice. Therefore, abandon this misguided infatuation with Israel, quit providing that rogue regime with diplomatic cover for its crimes against humanity, stop rewarding its despicable behavior, and work to end its illegal military occupation of Palestinian lands. If the rule of law means anything at all, push hard to implement international humanitarian law and\u00a0UN Resolutions 181<\/em>\u00a0(the Partition Plan)\u00a0and 194<\/em>\u00a0(concerning, among other things, the status of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees) which Israel was bound to comply with as a condition of its membership but never did. Nothing less will do.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, we hear a lot about Israel\u2019s right to self-defense but that is very restricted under international law and the laws of war and occupation. The Palestinians have a prior right to defend themselves, under international law and\u00a0UN Resolution 37\/43<\/em>,\u00a0in their struggle for \u201cliberation from colonial domination, apartheid, and foreign occupation by all available means including armed struggle\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Incidentally, I write as someone who has visited Palestine several times, including Gaza. Hamas governs after winning elections monitored by international observers. What surprised me, when I checked their CVs, was that Hamas\u2019s ministers were, if anything, better qualified academically for government than run-of-the-mill ministers here.<\/p>\n Please recognize the fact that, like it or not, Hamas is the people\u2019s democratic choice (for the time being) and the legitimate ruler, although confined to Gaza by the Occupation. If new elections were held they would likely win again. It is a shame the UK Government still fails in its diplomatic duty to know and understand them and learn about the Gaza folks\u2019 awful situation first-hand.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Stuart Littlewood<\/p>\n
\n(ii) appears to be intended<\/p>\n\n
\n\u2022 to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
\n\u2022 to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nPalestinians killed by Israeli civilians 96
\nPalestinians Killed by unknowns 16
\nTotal 10,667<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nIsraeli civilians killed by Palestinians 881
\nTotal 1,330<\/strong><\/p>\n