Letter on Gaza
28th January 2009
Clare Short has received a large number of letters and emails about the brutal Israeli attack on Gaza and has sent the following reply to all:
I share your concern at the terrible situation in Gaza and more generally at the injustice and suffering inflicted on the Palestinian people over so many years. I have worked and campaigned on this issue since I visited the Palestinian Occupied Territories in 1988 during the first Intifada. I am afraid however that despite the hopes raised by the Oslo peace process and the return of Yasser Arafat and the PLO leadership to the Occupied Territories, the situation faced by the Palestinians gets ever worse. And the failure of our government and the whole EU to stand up for international law becomes ever more blatant.
I visited the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley most recently in early May 2007. I am enclosing a copy of my speech in the debate I organised in the House of Commons in June 2007 to report on that visit. I am also enclosing a copy of my recent speech of 21 January 2009 on the failure of our government to require Israel to comply with International Law.
I visited Gaza with a group of European parliamentarians in November 2008. We hoped to enter through the Rafa crossing but Egypt would not allow this, so we went on the boat Dignity from Cyprus. The situation was quite dreadful then and worsened after we left with the siege limiting the provision of food, spares to repair sewage systems, hospital equipment, paper for school books, and everything else. After we left, Israel cut off the supplies of EU funded fuel and Gaza was cast into darkness and even greater shortages.
Whilst we were there, we met with Prime Minister Haniyah and the parliamentarians who were elected in 2006 who have not been imprisoned by Israel. During our discussions he made it clear that Hamas had responded positively to all the requests made to it by the international community. Firstly, they had been asked to halt violence.
They had responded by agreeing a truce which lasted five months until November 5th 2008 when Israel attacked Gaza and killed 6 Hamas fighters because it said a tunnel was being built into Israel. Rockets were fired in retaliation and Israel then tightened the siege and attacked Gaza on 27 December. The media have failed to make clear this important point, that there was a negotiated ceasefire when rocket attacks halted and it was Israel that broke it.
The other requirements made to Hamas were that they should recognise Israel and be bound by all previous agreements reached. Prime Minister Haniyah said they had agreed to recognise an Israeli state based on 1967 boundaries if Palestine was to be given its state on the basis of international law and would declare a long term truce. On previous agreements, he said although they thought some of them to be bad agreements, they recognised that the PLO had reached these agreements on behalf of the Palestinian people.
I conclude from this that Hamas were open to a just peace. Israel did not want this peace and wants to destroy Hamas despite the fact that they won power through a democratic election.
In addition, you may not be aware that in the seven years since the launching of the Palestinian rockets into Israel, they killed 13 Israelis and one foreigner. In the same period, Israel killed 2990 Palestinians (634 of them children) in the Gaza strip and a further 1891 in the West Bank, making a total of 4,781, the majority of whom were women and children (source: the Israeli human rights website: www.btselem.org).
The situation is completely monstrous. I spoke in the debate on 15 January and was successful in the ballot for an adjournment debate on 21 January. I have made my views clear to the Foreign Secretary and I spoke at the rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 3 January and at the demonstration in Birmingham on Saturday 17 January.
I will continue to do all I can.
Yours sincerely
Clare Short MP
