BYM joins call for Palestine recognition
Friends join others in calling for the UK to recognize the state of Palestine
British Yearly Meeting (BYM) has joined the call for the UK to recognise the state of Palestine. Paul Parker, BYM recording clerk, signed the letter published in The Times on 14 September. The signatories include Palestinian, Israeli and UK academics, diplomats, faith representatives, and politicians such as Emily Thornberry MP and Dominic Grieve QC MP.
The letter asks the ‘UK government to uphold international law in deed, including the 4th Geneva Convention Britain drafted and ratified after WW II; give practical effect to UN Security Council Resolution 2334, condemning illegal Israeli settlements; and champion the Arab Peace Initiative, offering regional normality to Israel in return for Palestinian freedom’.
BYM has also joined with fifteen NGOs to urge the government to show leadership on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the rights of Palestinian refugees. The move follows the US announcement that it is to stop funding UNRWA, the UN agency established to support Palestinian refugees.
The statement, released on 7 September, calls upon the UK government to defend their rights and ‘expand its financial support’ for UNRWA.
It says it is ‘deeply concerned’ by the ‘implications’ of the decision by the US and adds: ‘The cuts demonstrate a dangerous politicisation of aid, and are part of an unprecedented attempt to undermine the international legal consensus on the protected status of Palestinian refugees.’
The statement is signed by organisations including CAFOD, CARE international, Christian Aid, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) and War on Want.
Marisa Johnson, executive secretary for Friends World Committee for Consultation Europe and the Middle East Section (FWCC-EMES), agreed that the cuts will severely hit vital services for refugees.
One such project is a play centre for fifty five-year-olds in the refugee camp of al-Am’ari, near Ramallah, for which UNRWA provide free premises. EMES set up the centre in 1974.
Marisa Johnson told the Friend: ‘Obviously we don’t know how the withdrawal of funding by the US will affect things. UNWRA has provided education and health care to Palestinian people living in refugee camps, who are some of the poorest and most dispossessed people in the Middle East.’
She added: ‘Perhaps this is an opportunity for the international community to ensure that Israel pays for the services needed by people living in territories it occupies - illegally, under international law.’
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