The Palestine Coalition shares the relief of the Palestinian people that a ceasefire has now taken effect which could bring an end to the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and allow aid to be brought in to prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from starvation. The fact that this agreement has come at last due to international pressure is a vindication of all those who have marched and campaigned with us and a damning indictment on those who have enabled, supported and defended Israel’s genocide.
But we also share with Palestinians their trepidation, rooted in the knowledge that Israel has violated every previous ceasefire agreement – most recently in March this year. Most crucially, we know that the so-called “Peace Plan” drawn up by Donald Trump will not bring an end to Israel’s system of apartheid and oppression. It will not address Israel’s escalating violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and it does not offer any viable path towards realising the fundamental and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people – to freedom, justice, and self-determination and return. We know too that any joy that this moment brings is accompanied by enormous grief for the many tens of thousands killed by Israel over the past two years.
Now more than ever, our pressure on the British government is needed. The government must stop arming Israel and instead use every possible means to facilitate immediate access to humanitarian aid, without which Israel’s genocide will continue in the form of starvation and deaths due to inadequate medical supplies. Our movement must continue until the Palestinian people win their freedom.
Tomorrow, we will march again in London in huge numbers calling on the British government to take meaningful action to end its complicity in Israel’s ongoing crimes against Palestinians and push this ceasefire into a lasting deal that is framed around principles of justice and rights.
Join us at 12 noon, Victoria Embankment.
End the genocide, stop arming Israel, stop starving Gaza.
Free Palestine.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Palestinian Forum in Britain
Friends of Al-Aqsa
Stop the War Coalition
Muslim Association of Britain
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament