On the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and warns of the growing concern that the Labour front bench barely speaks out at all on the issue today.

This month marks two international dates of great significance for the Palestinian people and international campaigns for their rights.

Tomorrow sees the United Nations International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and November 20 was World Children’s Day.

On the latter, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs (CDA) published shocking figures that not only show how the illegal Israeli occupation abuses Palestinian children’s human rights, but also starkly illustrate the horrific nature of life for people in the occupied territories, including under-siege Gaza.

The CDA information shows that Israel has detained over 50,000 children in the last 45 years since 1967 when Israel commenced its illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem — and 160 children are currently being detained.

The death of Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli state forces is also a disturbingly regular occurrence, as illustrated by recent press reports concerning the tragic death of 18-year-old Mahmoud al-Saadi, who Palestinians say was killed by the Israeli army on his way to school near the Jenin refugee camp on November 21.

A report in late October showed Israeli occupation forces have killed 29 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem since the start of 2022.

A further report from Save the Children released on November 23 showed that the number of children killed by Israeli security forces and illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank has doubled this year to 34.

The broader picture is that all the fundamental injustices which make international solidarity vital remain — the Palestinian people are being oppressed by an illegal occupation and denied their fundamental rights as outlined by international law.

In terms of 2022 alone, in August, millions of people protested around the world, including many here in Britain, against the Israeli government’s attacks on Gaza which killed 44 Palestinians, including 15 children, and was described by the UN special rapporteur as an act contrary to international law.

This year has also seen the Israeli army’s killing of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the beating of her coffin bearers by Israeli police, alongside the outlawing of seven NGOs, including Addameer, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and Defence for Children International – Palestine.

These developments are clearly in line with the conclusions drawn by leading human rights organisations in recent years — including B’tselem, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International — that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people.

We need to be clear that the situation facing the people of Palestine is desperate, and the reality is that the international community is doing nowhere near enough to help change it.

Gaza has been under siege for 14 years. For 54 years Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been illegally occupied by Israel.

And the decades-long land grab through illegal settlements continues — and this looks set to accelerate in light of hard-right gains in the Israeli elections.

The overwhelming might and firepower of Israel, its military, police and armed citizens, mean that this is not “a conflict” — it is the systematic oppression of the Palestinians. We must stand with the oppressed against the oppressor.

Yet the Labour front bench barely speaks out at all on these injustices, let alone builds support for justice and human rights based on the motions passed overwhelmingly by Labour’s annual conferences in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

Part of the Labour leadership’s attempts to show they are a “safe pair of hands” for government seems to be abandoning securing justice for the Palestinian people as any kind of priority in terms of international policy, which would be a key element of any genuinely ethical foreign policy and is supported by both a majority of Labour members and the voting public.

Those of us who stand in solidarity with Palestine must not stop speaking out against the illegal occupation of Palestine and for the Palestinian people’s rights — and must seek to get Labour Party bodies such as branches and CLPs to join trade unions in regularly speaking up for Palestine.

• Follow Labour and Palestine on Twitter: @LabourPalestine and sign the updated Labour Must Speak up for Palestine statement at https://labourandpalestine.eaction.online/speakupforPalestine.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 12:30 PM, ACC Liverpool, Meeting Room 11B.

Now is the time to speak up for Palestine, – building support in the Labour Party and fighting anti-BDS legislation.

With: Ambassador Husam Zomlot, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK // Kim Johnson MP, Vice Chair, APPG on Palestine // Simon Dubbins, Unite International Director // Mick Whelan, ASLEF General Secretary // Gemma Bolton, Labour NEC // Palestine Solidarity campaign speaker // Hugh Lanning, Labour and Palestine & John McDonnell MP.

Labour & Palestine fringe at Labour Conference 2022, kindly supported by Unite the Union.

• RSVP, share & invite friends here.

As part of the crackdown on our right to resist in the recent Queen Speech, the Government brought forward much anticipated “anti-boycott” legislation, which had already been opposed by 46 civil society groups in anticipation of the announcement.

In particular, the Government is seeking to take away from public bodies the right to decide not to purchase or procure from, or invest in companies involved in human rights abuse, abuse of workers’ rights, destruction of our planet, or any other harmful or illegal acts.

This “anti-boycott” Bill is in line with the Conservative Party’s last manifesto, which outlined an intention to introduce legislation to prohibit public bodies from imposing their own direct or indirect boycott or divestment campaigns against foreign countries when the Government does not agree.

The direct nature of this attack on the international “boycott, divestment and sanctions” (BDS) demands of the movements around the world in solidarity with the Palestinian people is obvious, but of course the nature of the attack stretches far wider than that issue alone, effecting climate activists, all international solidarity campaigns, trade unions and many others.

Furthermore, it is not just a question of supporting BDS being under attack, but whether people even have the right to discuss it and make their own decisions.

For these reasons, Labour & Palestine has drafted a model motion for local Labour parties to discuss defending our right to boycott and urging the Labour front bench to oppose this anti-democratic bill, which is copied in full below. Please take this to your next local meeting for discussion.

It is a moral and human right to conscientiously object to having our money used to buy or sell or invest in goods and arms being used by Israel to wage war on the Palestinian people. That is why Labour must oppose the Government’s proposed bill to outlaw the right to boycott and we hope you will be able to pass the motion. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Best wishes,

Matt and Hugh, Labour & Palestine.

PS: You can get more information on the issues involved – and campaign on the issue – at https://righttoboycott.org.uk/

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Model Motion:

This CLP Notes:

• In the Queen’s Speech in May 2022, the Tory government proposed a law to stop public bodies from having the right to boycott or divest from companies unless this was in line Government foreign policy.
• Many companies who are involved in the abuse of human and workers’ rights, the destruction of our planet, and other illegal and harmful acts in breach of international law are not sanctioned by the Government.
• The Tories have indicated that a major reason for proposing this law is specifically to prevent public bodies from deciding not to invest in companies operating in Israel and occupied Palestine – even if they are complicit in the violation of international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people.
• That a wide range of civil society organisations such as trade unions, charities, NGOs, faith, climate justice, human rights, cultural, campaigning, solidarity organisations and others are opposing this proposed law.

This CLP Believes:

• Public bodies and democratic institutions should have the right to spend, invest and trade ethically in line with international law and human rights.
• That Labour must oppose this. From bus boycotts against racial segregation to divestment from fossil fuel companies to arms embargoes against apartheid, boycott, divestment, and sanctions are non-violent campaigns that have been applied throughout history to put economic, cultural, or political pressure on a regime, institution or company to force it to change abusive, discriminatory, or illegal policies.
• That with regards to Palestine, the recent Amnesty report entitled Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity shows the need for us to support effective and real action in support of Palestinian rights as outlined by Labour Party Conference motions in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

This CLP Resolves:

• To send this motion to the Labour NEC and relevant front bench members
• To support those in civil society mobilising in support of the right to boycott and divest.

By Hugh Lanning, Labour & Palestine

The eviction of 1,000 Palestinian villagers from Masafer Yatta, an area in the hills south of Hebron in the West Bank, has now been given approval to go ahead by Israel’s High Court.

Although involving a large number of Palestinians in one decision, it is but the latest in a continuous process of “legalised theft” that has been depriving the Palestinians of their land and heritage since 1948 and before.

This weekend sees a demonstration marking the Nakba in 1948 when over 720,000 Palestinians were driven off their land and out of their villages and homes by armed Israeli terror gangs with the connivance and support of the British army and government.

As the occupying power following the first world war, it was the British who sanctioned the colonial settlement of Palestine with the Balfour Declaration that promised land for “the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people.”

It was the British withdrawal in 1948 and its army standing idly by that invited and allowed the catastrophe of the Nakba to take place.

What is less recognised is the disingenuous legal framework that Israel put in place subsequently to give a veneer of legality to its systematic theft of Palestinian land.

On the back of Balfour, before the Nakba in 1948, Jewish settlers had managed to acquire just 6.6 per cent (1,734,000 dunums) of Palestinian lands.

This changed dramatically in 1948 after the Nakba, as a consequence of which the Israeli military took possession of more than three-quarters of Palestine — nearly 20,500,000 dunums.

Having terrorised the Palestinians out of their homes, the next step was to eliminate them from the records of the newly UN-created state of Israel.

To this end a census was held in November 1948 for which Palestinians had to not just register but be physically in residence on the day of the census to be eligible for Israeli citizenship.

This had the desired effect of eliminating the majority of the Palestinian indigenous population from the official records: only 63,000 Palestinians were able to comply and become “lawful residents.”

The next step was the creation of two-tier citizenship through the “two law strategy” of the Law of Return (1950) which gave every Jew worldwide the right to automatic citizenship from the moment they landed in Israel.

The second law was the Nationality Law (1952) that defined it was only others, ie Palestinians, who were resident according to the census in November 1948 who could become citizens.

In a single legislative stroke, the Nakba was enforced by eliminating in the region of 700,000 Palestinians from history, creating them as stateless people.

Worse than that, if they sought to return home, a further Act, the Prevention of Infiltration Law (1954) was passed defining any such person as an infiltrator — for which there were severe criminal penalties.

The various citizenship laws had effectively prevented the forcibly excluded Palestinians from “infiltrating” back to live once again in their homes and on the land that was now going to be “redeemed” in their “absence.”

This was done by the Absentees Property Law (1950) that invented the notion that it is reasonable to take someone’s property because you have absented them by driving them away.

A legal framework was established, central to which was the concept that the Palestinian owner was voluntarily absent and had abandoned their property.

It is an interesting concept that the lawfully held and owned land of a person can be confiscated purely by virtue of their absence.

In most Western capitalist societies simply being away in another town, part of the country or even in a neighbouring country would give no acquisition rights to a third party.

The legitimising of the right to do this can be linked back to the same source as citizenship — there is a right or an entitlement to settle over and above that of the indigenous people.

Palestinians were now aliens in their own land, with ownership going from over 90 per cent to less than 10 per cent.

This process, using the same legal frameworks, is continuing now in Masafer Yatta, Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, the Jordan Valley and throughout occupied Palestine and within Israel. A quasi-legal justification put on illegal acts, a catch-22 again and again.

This is being done with the clear objective of the colonialisation of all the land Israel occupies from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.

Despite the obvious and continuous breaches of international law, specifically the Geneva Convention, which states that the invading power should not move its citizens in to settle territories it has occupied, there has been Western compliance with this territorial theft, which the West first encouraged, then legitimised and now ignores its illegality.

Comparisons with Western reaction to other military incursions are all too obvious and odious.

The Nakba is not just a historic event but an ongoing dynamic with the continuous destruction and renaming of villages — attempting to physically eliminate Palestine from history.

Settlements are not houses on the prairie, they are weapons of war used to attack and encircle Palestinians.

Barriers are being built confining Palestinians to less and less space, but also to control and dominate.

The wall in the West Bank provides total surveillance capacity, as do the drones over Gaza and the watchtowers of the settlements.

Israel’s regime is, for the Palestinians, a panopticon prison — constant surveillance, without being able to tell whether or not you are being watched.

The decolonisation declamation of “give us back our land” is an important concept as part of a global decolonising discourse.

It challenges the settlers’ right to deindigenise the indigenous population of their land.

The settler regime that Israel has become is a frontier state out of control, undermining the very structure it is seeking to build by virtue of its racist nature, while still failing in its objectives to either eliminate or dominate the indigenous population — due to the resistance of the Palestinian people and their refusal to acquiesce and leave their land.

Labour and Palestine is supporting the demonstrations this weekend and calling on Labour to speak up for Palestine.

The murderous sniper assassination of Al-Jazeera journalist Sherin Abu Yaqla shows there are no boundaries for Israel in this war.

In recent weeks it has been good that Labour leaders say they will resign if they are found to have broken the law; it is good they call for sanctions if countries break international law through their military actions, but Labour can’t have a “Nelson’s eye” when it comes to Israel’s contempt for legality.

In the Queen’s Speech the government’s Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions Bill is designed to limit and prevent the growing support for there to be consequences for Israel’s continuous breaches of international law.

Labour must oppose this Bill which will be yet another curtailment of the right to campaign, not just on Palestine, but potentially many other issues.

Labour wrongly abstained on a similar amendment to pensions legislation.

The Bill is not an occasion for silence, rather it is an opportunity to highlight and raise the need ethical investment and purchasing policies.

Israel’s brazen armed robbery of land to which it has no entitlement is as good an example one could have of why boycotts, divestment and sanctions are necessary actions for public bodies, the government and individuals to be able to use to bring pressure to bear on those complicit with breaking international law.

• Find out more about the Right to Boycott and show your support at righttoboycott.org.uk.
• Follow Labour and Palestine at www.twitter.com/LabourPalestine and www.facebook.com/LabourandPalestine.

By Matt Willgress, Labour & Palestine

As part of the general crackdown on dissent and our right to resist in this week’s Tory Queen Speech, the Government brought forward much anticipated “anti-boycott” legislation, which had already been opposed by 46 civil society groups in anticipation of the announcement.

In particular, the Government is seeking to take away from public bodies “the right to decide not to purchase or procure from, or invest in companies involved in human rights abuse, abuse of workers’ rights, destruction of our planet, or any other harmful or illegal acts.”

The direct nature of this attack on the international “boycott, divestment and sanctions” demands of the movements around the world in solidarity with the Palestinian people is obvious, but of course the nature of the attack stretches far wider than that issue alone.

The coalition of groups opposing this move have said, the anti-boycott presents “an existential threat to freedom of expression, and the ability of public bodies and democratic institutions to spend, invest and trade ethically in line with international law and human rights.”

Additionally, Hugh Lanning of Labour & Palestine commented: “It is a moral and human right to conscientiously object to having my money used to buy or sell or invest in goods and arms being used by Israel to wage war on the Palestinian people. That is why Labour must oppose the Government’s proposed bill to outlaw the right to boycott.”

And as Palestine Solidarity Campaign Director, Ben Jamas put it, “Any restriction of the right to boycott is a restriction of core democratic rights – and the breadth of the groups launching this statement today reflects that. Palestinian rights may be the immediate target – but there can be no doubt that climate justice, human rights and freedom of expression could easily be targeted, as we have seen happen already in the US. Boycotting is a legitimate, historically recognised tactic that has been the engine of great leaps forward for social and international justice. From the formal end of apartheid in South Africa, the repeal of Jim Crow, the divestment from tobacco companies, the list goes on.”

The anti-boycott Bill is in line with the Conservative Party’s last manifesto, which outlined an intention to introduce legislation to prohibit public bodies from imposing their own direct or indirect boycott or divestment campaigns against foreign countries.

Explaining this on a previous occasion, senior Tory Eric Pickles hinted the move would aim to prevent public bodies from working with those who boycott, divest from or sanction Israel. This approach mirrors legislation passed in 35 state legislatures in the US and can be clearly seen as part of wider international attempts to stop the global rise of pro-Palestinian activism.

These latest attacks follow on from the government attempting in 2016 to prohibit Local Government Pension Schemes from divesting from companies complicit in Israel’s violations of international law. On this, the Government faced defeat, with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign mounting a legal challenge,  which ultimately led to the Supreme Court in 2020 finding against the government.

More recently, this February, Tory MP Robert Jenrick introduced an amendment to the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill which attached “guidance or directions on investments which it is not proper for pension scheme managers to make in light of UK foreign and defence policy.”  Disgracefully, Labour did not whip MPs to oppose this amendment, which makes it all the more important for Labour activists to now up the pressure on the Front Bench to oppose this wider attack on our right to boycott.

Whether it be the Overseas Operations Bill, the Nationality and Borders Bill or the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, the Tories are again and again attacking our rights, and as a movement we need to stand up to them collectively.

On this note it was particularly welcome for Gail Cartmail, Assistant General Secretary of Unite the Union to say in supporting the right to boycott statement that “Unite the Union’s members have voted on many occasions over the past decade to participate in Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns in the cause of international and social justice, particularly in support of Palestinian justice. As a union with members in public bodies across the country, we strongly oppose this Tory Government’s attempts to deny our members the right to support and participate in these campaigns.”

We need to build on this throughout the trade unions, Labour Party at all levels and beyond, alongside continuing to speak up for Palestine. As part of this, on Saturday supporters of Labour & Palestine will be joining the national demonstration for Palestine and defending our right to boycott will be a central part of continuing to build solidarity with the Palestinian people in the months and years ahead.

• Find out more and show your support at https://righttoboycott.org.uk
• Follow Labour & Palestine at www.twitter.com/LabourPalestine and www.facebook.com/LabourandPalestine
• This piece was originally kindly published at https://labourhub.org.uk/2022/05/13/stand-up-for-palestine-and-defend-the-righttoboycott/

Thank you to Labour & Palestine for inviting me to speak today.

As others have been right to recognise – the terrain on the international stage has shifted massively.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked outpourings of solidarity – in action and feeling – for refugees fleeing violence in their homes, for the assault on territorial sovereignty, and in unconditional support of those fighting to defend their communities and their country.

The scenes we have all witnessed in Ukraine over the past days have most certainly been heart breaking, and we must do everything in our power to bring about a diplomatic solution to this dangerous crisis based on peace, security and human rights – including opening our doors to refugees fleeing the war.

While such expressions of solidarity – especially alongside calls for peace – are without a doubt sincere and welcome, and I have added my own voice multiple times in the chamber and elsewhere, those of us who have championed the cause of the Palestinians, the Yemeni’s, the Kashmiri’s, the Kurds and so many others must now take up the struggle to ensure that these principles are applied unanimously, equally and without discrimination.

While White refugees are being prioritised at the borders, Black residents in Ukraine are left stranded, pushed to the bottom of lists and forced to wait in unendurable cold and fear while others are allowed to pass on ahead. While Black refugees and asylum seekers from Asia and Africa are dying in the English Channel, threatened with having their boats pushed back to sea, Ukrainian refugees are being offered free and safe passage underneath them on the Eurostar.

Where language such as ‘heroic resistance,’ ‘illegal occupation,’ ‘upholding sovereignty and international law,’ and welcoming refugees have been thrown around freely by politicians and news pundits in relation to this conflict, these expressions have been sorely missing when referring to the occupation in Palestine, and in solidarity with Palestinians resisting the expansion of illegal settlements, apartheid and oppression.

All refugees have the right to sanctuary and the right to return home. All peoples have the right to resist oppression, and to live in dignity and freedom. Today, we must take the spotlight shone on these principles by the Ukrainian struggle and make sure it shines strongly on the rest of the world.

Making these comparisons is not to engage in “whataboutery,” or to pit refugees already in desperate need against each other. It is in fact the opposite. We must all work to make this terrible moment a turning point, one which forever changes our treatment of resistance movements and refugees.

Palestine is one of the clearest examples where such language and condemnation is too often avoided on the international stage, including here in the UK.

The recent reports by B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty echo what Palestinian civil society has been saying for decades – a system of apartheid is being implemented across the entirety of historic Palestine – from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

These past couple of years have formed a turning point for the Palestinian struggle. After Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ gave the green light for unhindered Israeli expansion of illegal settlements, we have seen an escalation of the systematic expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and the collective punishment of Palestinians living inside the occupied territories.

As vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Palestine, I’ve heard staggering testimonies from Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank, refugee camps and the diaspora.

We’ve heard from human rights groups talking about the distinct two-tier legal systems that push Palestinian children in the West Bank into military court. In the last 20 years, an estimated ten thousand Palestinian children have been held in the Israeli military detention system. That’s about 500 – 700 every single year – these are the only children in the world who are systematically prosecuted in military courts. They consistently lack fair trial rights, particularly by juvenile justice standards.

We know about the annexation of Palestinian lands, the eviction and dispossession of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and Sheikh Jarrah and so many other places – a modern day Nakba unfolding right in front of us. In Liverpool – as in many cities across the country – it was incredible to see a new generation take to the streets spontaneously in solidarity with the residents of Sheikh Jarrah resisting the illegal seizure of their homes, this is what solidarity is all about, people see what’s going on in Palestine and will not stand for it.

As women speaking up for Palestine, and just after celebrating international women’s day, it is important we recognise and pay tribute to the resilience and steadfastness of Palestinian women and the leading role they play in the struggle against Israel’s widespread and systematic human rights violations.

Since the start of the Israeli occupation in 1967, more than 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained in the West Bank alone by the occupation forces. A total of 31 Palestinian women are currently being held in the Israeli prison system, which permits authorities to detain Palestinians with no charge or trial – with no time limit. From resisting the occupation and home demolitions, to organising political activities, to working and supporting their families – Palestinian women lead the struggle for dignity and freedom and resist the challenges of gender-based oppression as well as the Israeli occupation.

So to sum up – I am really proud to be at this event tonight in solidarity and support with the Palestinian people, I’m proud to be on the panel with these great speakers, I’m proud to be a trade unionist with a long history of internationalism,  but more importantly I’m a proud Scouser – proud of our history of solidarity with international freedom struggles. We stood shoulder to shoulder with our South African brothers and sisters fighting the brutal system of racial segregation and white supremacy. We took bold action despite huge pressure – the council boycotted South African goods, dock workers refused to handle imports from South Africa, food workers refused to handle South African goods, Ford Car workers packed anti-Apartheid leaflets into cars shipped to South Africa, university students held sit ins and charities and local coalitions took direct action.

We have so much to learn from this history of solidarity – not least that systems of oppression can and will fall. There is power in solidarity.

These actions taken by trade unions, students and our communities brought down that vicious regime and this is what we all need to do now for Palestine.

• This is the text of a speech given by Kim Johnson MP to the recent Labour Women Speak up for Palestine event hosted by Labour & Palestine.