Preamble
Recent events in Israel and Palestine have been deeply saddening. Each death is a tragedy and we mourn particularly the loss of every civilian life in the recent violence.

We note that, as is customary with each outbreak of violence in Palestine, the conflict is almost always framed by Western governments, including the government of the UK, as taking place between two sides unable to arrive at a meaningful peace, with Palestine almost always positioned as the aggressor, or at least the intransigent party.  Always missing from the way  the conflict is presented by Western media is the historical context in which it takes place. Israel’s supporters internationally are quick to assert the right of Israel to defend itself while denying the same right to Palestine, a position that runs counter to international law. Such double standards can only be sustained through a denial of the historical context and an obfuscation of the present day, lived reality of Palestinians, without which no meaningful progress towards a peaceful resolution can be made.

Israel  and Palestine are not two equal states. The inequality dates back to 1948 and the inception of Israel, when a minority rule was imposed on the majority indigenous people, namely the Palestinians. Almost three quarters of a million people were ethnically cleansed from their land to make way for what is in effect a colonial settlement; that is, intended for people exclusively of the Jewish faith. Since 1967 the remaining Palestinian land has been occupied by the state of Israel. Increasingly inhumane conditions have been imposed on Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories and Gaza. Gaza itself has been under siege for sixteen years and is in effect an open prison in which 2.3 million Palestinans live in a state of virtual captivity. In any talks Palestine always begins from a position of weakness because it has no national status, no standing army, no independent legal system and no democratic rights under Israeli law.

The UK government and the opposition Labour Party routinely deny or obfuscate the connection between this historical context and the violence of the last seventy five years.  In this deceit they are supported by the mainstream media, which foregrounds the ‘right of Israel to defend itself’, ignoring the right under international law of people under occupation to offer resistance. For the UK government and the opposition, the only solution is for Palestinians to acquiesce in their own oppression and submit to the ethnic cleansing that has been taking place since 1948.

Therefore:
1. We call upon the British Government and the Opposition Labour Party to initiate and support all international efforts to bring about an immediate cease fire and a halt to the assault by Israeli forces on the civilian population of Gaza.

2. To support materially and diplomatically all international efforts to avoid a humanitarian disaster in Gaza by providing food, water and other necessities for life in the besieged territory.

3. Further, In order to address the egregious historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people, we call upon the British Government, the Opposition Labour Party and the national media to publically acknowledge in reporting, discussion and policy making on the subject of Israel/Palestine, the following:

a) That the inception of Israel in 1948 imposed an alien government on a majority indigenous people, namely the Palestinians, and resulted in the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 people, from their land by Israeli forces.
b) That since that time displaced Palestinians have been forced into refugee camps, both within Palestine and in adjacent countries. Under Israeli law they have no right of return to their homeland. The UN estimates there are now upward of 6 million Palestinian refugees, displaced internally or externally.

c) That since 1967, when a further 350,00 Palestinians were driven from Palestine, Israel has held  the remaining territory, known as the West Bank and Gaza, under military occupation.

d) That Israel has been in breach of the Oslo Agreement, signed in 1993 with the express purpose of fulfilling “right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.” Israel has shown no willingness to countenance the two state solution the agreement was supposed to bring into existence. Instead the agreement has been exploited by Israel to provide cover for the continued ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

e) That the Israel government, in contravention of international law, has encouraged and facilitated the confiscation of Palestinian land and the destruction of Palestinian homes to make way for the illegal construction of Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories.   It has effectively ghettoised the Occupied Territories by installing a network of barriers and checkpoints to prevent the free movement of Palestinians, making normal life impossible.

f) That for the last 16 years Gaza has been under siege by the Israeli military, which has also placed draconian restrictions on its borders and coastal waters, making Gaza little more than an open prison.

g) That Israel has constructed a system of legal, democratic  and social exclusion of Palestinians characterised as an apartheid state by Amnesty international, Human Rights Watch,  B’Tselem in Israel and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Francesca Albanase, a view echoed in their lifetimes by both Nelson Mandella and Bishop Desmond Tutu.

h) That Palestinian victims of violence massively exceed in their number those of Israelis. UN figures show that between 2008 and September 2023 6,407 Palestinians were killed compared to 308 Israelis. In the first nine months of this year alone around 300 Palestinians were killed, including 60 children. The UN estimates that 95% of all casualties in the ongoing conflict are Palestinian.

Bolton Socialist Club Committee 24th October 2023