War in Israel and Gaza
'Quakers joined others in calling for a ceasefire and return of all hostages.'
The ongoing war in Israel and Gaza dominated the last three months of the year, after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October took hostages and killed over 1,200 Israelis. By December, at least 20,000 Palestinians had been killed, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures, including more than 7,700 children.
Quakers joined others in calling for a ceasefire and return of all hostages, with Britain Yearly Meeting aligning with American Friends Service Committee, Canadian Friends Service Committee, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the Quaker United Nations Office.
Many Friends joined vigils and marches, and, in October, Sharyn Lock, a Quaker midwife, held a five-day fasting vigil outside the Scottish Parliament. ‘I am fasting in solidarity with those going hungry in Gaza, where Oxfam reports only two per cent of normal food supplies have been allowed to arrive since October 9.’
Manchester and Cambridge Meeting had to cancel events booked by the Socialist Workers Party, which called for ‘Victory to the Palestinians’, after backlash on social media, while some Meeting houses offered sanctuary during protests.
Quaker MPs Catherine West, Ruth Cadbury and Thangam Debbonaire caused some controversy when they abstained from the SNP amendment to the king’s speech that called for an immediate ceasefire.
The year ended with BYM joining calls for the UK government to suspend arms sales to Israel due to the ‘clear risk’ that the weapons might be used in violation of international law. ‘Since 2015, the UK has licensed at least £474 million worth of military exports to Israel,’ the letter said.
Meanwhile, with the war in Ukraine still raging, Friends continued to uphold all those affected, including conscientious objectors in Russia and Ukraine.
Comments
In 2014 I marched in Manchester and London against the slaughter that took the lives of 2000 Palestinians. I told one marcher, what they ultimately want is to get rid of Palestine altogether and develop Gaza as a luxury sea resort. He replied, these are conspiracy theories.
Since then, Israel has bombed Gaza every year. They return joking “we just mowed the lawn”.
In March 2019, Netanyahu said “We must continue to support and bolster Hamas. This is our strategy.”
In September 2023, Biden unfroze over $6 billion of Iranian assets. Soon after, Hamas began to rehearse its retaliatory attack by aiming missiles into the Med. Mossad, the most sophisticated security network in the world with everything that AI has to offer at its disposal, claimed not to have noticed.
In October, we all know what happened, and what followed.
It is now also known that with funds from the US,UK and France, Israel plans to supersede Suez with a new, twice as deep canal from the Red Sea and through the middle of Gaza,under Israeli control.
It is to be fervently hoped that the intervention of South Africa can put an end to this long planned project of extermination by torture, disease, injury, burial alive, death and forced displacement. Were it not to succeed, the global legal precedent would be disastrous.
By berwil on 13th January 2024 - 9:48
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