STATEMENT
14 May 2021
MCB calls on government to help secure ceasefire in Palestinian territories and suspend arms exports to Israel
We must recognise that the most recent escalation in violence in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel began with the Israeli attack on worshippers at Al Aqsa mosque in Ramadan and the imminent threat of forced dispossession of Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. We now stand on the brink of yet another full-scale war, with reports suggesting an impending ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
This coincides with Nakba Day 2021, marking 73 years since over 700,000 Palestinians were first dispossessed, forced into the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, and rendered refugees. The threat of forced dispossession faced by Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah today is thus part of an ongoing process of ethnic cleansing.
The Muslim Council of Britain calls on the Government to exercise all diplomatic means available to urge Israel to accept the offer of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and curtail settler encroachment on Palestinian land and homes in the West Bank.
Furthermore, given the disproportionate use of force in the ongoing attack on the Gaza Strip, we also call on the government to suspend forthcoming arms exports to Israel, as per the 2014 commitment to do so should hostilities resume, pending the results of the International Criminal Court’s investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories.
The loss of life, continued trauma and inter-generational impact of this occupation is incalculable and exceedingly difficult to bear witness to. It is of paramount importance that the outbreak of yet another full-scale war is prevented and the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank is curtailed. Going forth, work towards securing a just peace, one which sees an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
ENDS