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Greens call for scaling up actions against Israel, accusing UK government of complicity in killing

Text of a press release issued by the Green Party of England and Wales on 12th February 2024.

As Israel appears to be on the brink of an all out assault on Rafah, despite warnings against such action by the UN, Red Crescent and others, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer is demanding the UK scale up actions against the Israeli government until the killing stops. Greens are calling for an end to all arms sales to Israel, prosecutions of war criminals and targeted sanctions on Israel’s leaders. 

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

“It is clear that the Israeli government is refusing to heed warnings about the catastrophic implications of an all-out attack on Rafah. The UK government must now demand that Israel stop the killing, calling for an immediate ceasefire. Hamas must also agree to this ceasefire of course, and release all hostages.  

“Decisions made by the UK government - above all its failure, month after month, to call for an immediate ceasefire - have made them complicit in the killing of almost 28,000 people to date, 12,000 of whom are children [1]. 

“Israel relies on certain weapon parts manufactured in the UK, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter whose essential components are made here [2]. A Dutch court has today ordered the state to cease the export of F-35 spare parts to Israel. We call on the UK government to follow suit, and suspend all arms export licences to Israel until the killing stops. The UK must also cease all military collaboration with Israel, including allowing Israeli use of British bases and RAF intelligence flights over Gaza.

“Greens would also implement the requirements of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign across the UK economy. This would include excluding Israel from international sporting and music events; withdrawing all public money from funds with investments in Israel; and ending beneficial trade arrangements with Israel [3]. 

“It is clear that only outside pressure will make Israel stop its mass killing. We can increase the pressure on Israeli leaders by introducing targeted sanctions against key individuals. This would include travel bans and asset freezes on Israel's leadership and cabinet members, in particular those calling for new settlements in Gaza and the annexation of the West Bank. 

“Finally, we would encourage UK authorities including the Metropolitan Police and Director of Public Prosecutions to pursue perpetrators of war crimes committed where UK citizens are the victims or where UK citizens are potential perpetrators. 

“There are many steps the UK government could take to pressure Israel to stop the killing. Its refusal to do so means that they are implicitly condoning the appalling carnage in Gaza.” 

Notes

  1. Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live tracker | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera 
  2. Who Arms Israel? (workersinpalestine.org)
  3. This is consistent with the Green Party’s non-violent approach to demonstrating its opposition to breaches of human rights and international law. It is parallel to calls we have made for boycotts of a number of different countries in the past including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, China, and Qatar.

 

The Green Party is the only party who believe that every person, in this and future generations, should be entitled to basic material security as of right.

For people who fall on hard times, we believe the right to rent = people facing difficulties should have the right to rent their home as council housing.  This includes all people!

Green Party Policies on Energy are as much about power and tackling fuel poverty than about climate change. Any new houses built or re-built should be to passivhaus standard, which is significantly better than the so called zero carbon standard that was in the London plan and not kept to and it is the full time job of Green Party Assembly Members, Sian and Caroline, to hold the Mayor of London to account.

Greens in Government would:

  • Provide suitable local homes to unaccompanied children fleeing Syria, Iraq etc. both through the council and through civil society groups.
  • Stronger protections are needed for agricultural land, greenbelt and urban green spaces.  Landowners should be forced to go ahead with planned development on derelict urban sites 
  • Councils should focus on providing affordable housing that meets local needs and they should be required to bring empty properties back into use, stop demolishing existing homes
  • Housing should be built to high environmental standards, including insulation, renewable energy, rainwater recycling and appropriate materials
  • Local services, job opportunities and good public transport links should be required with all new developments.

 

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